It's staggering to think of so many thousands and thousands of people unaware that they were nonchalantly walking around with remotely triggerable bombs secreted on their persons. This could never have been possible in an earlier age. Feels like a scary scifi thriller from some old pulp fiction.

@tchrist Or a later age. Who uses pagers anymore?

@Robusto Harris’ Embrace of Dick Cheney Was Just One Way She Courted National Security Hawks

> Harris’ embrace of a top architect of the disastrous militarism of George W. Bush’s administration was one of several signals she offered suggesting fans of the neoconservative foreign policy associated with the Cheneys should feel comfortable with her as president.

@alphabet This is unfortunate, but it remains that the unfortunate still "trumps" the disastrous.

Torturers for Harris

> the Cheney types—the crew who brought you the Iraq war, and wholeheartedly support the genocidal war in Gaza—find Trump poses a grave threat to their vision of “national security.” Again, the irony is rich—but perhaps the more important point is that Harris doesn’t pose a fundamental threat to their vision for projecting American power in the world.

The moral of the story is that Internet of Things is evil and wrong and you should not do it.

Skynet awaits.

Or Athena from Charlie Stross's Rule 34.

> Last Thursday, former Bush attorney general and—you guessed it—torture apologist Alberto Gonzales also endorsed Harris, expressing his “faith in her character and judgment"

Lovely.

@tchrist Quite.

@tchrist Imagine if someone asks GPT to do a little supply-chain attack. It can order virus genetically manipulated according to its exact instructions, and spread them around the world.

Stuxnet mad(e) to order.

@M.A.R. - amazing case report: Advanced cardiovascular physiology in an individual with type 1 diabetes after 10-year ketogenic diet

I was sure that the keto diet is contraindicated in patients with type 1 DM

@CowperKettle yes

@CowperKettle Diabetic ketoacidosis.

Today's explosions wreaked even more mayhem than yesterday's. This may not augur the October Surprise that anyone was waiting for, but it may well be the one we get. Or that gets us.

Oh, some new explosions. Thank God I made it a rule to myself to only read 'political' news once a week, on Sundays, and for no longer than 30 min

@tchrist Are you talking about the Lebanese walkie-talkies or the bomb storage in Russia?

@alphabet Sounds like you're looking for reasons to vote Republican.

@Cerberus The former. The latter rings no bells.

washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/18/…

Hadn't finished reading today's news yet.

Just 250 miles from Moscow.

> Ukrainian internal affairs advisor Anton Gerashchenko posted on X that there were reports the explosion was the equivalent of between 1.3 and 1.8 kilotons of TNT, with a blast wave spreading up to 200 miles.

@CowperKettle Don't you have resumes to write?

@Robusto I can't concentrate on that anyway

I'm supposed to be packing for hospital now, I have a surgery there, the removal of a wart from my nostril

But I can hardly focus on that too

I should take some audiobooks.

@CowperKettle Clint Eastwood

@CowperKettle They make audiobooks in pill form now?

I'm sure there's a suppository joke here somewhere.

@Criggie Like those headsets that play music by vibrating against your jawbone.

Bone conduction - yeah I have one of those. Its okay for speech but not exactly a hi-fi music experience

Music playlists on YouTube be like:

Non-stop music for focus

2 hours relaxing music for cancer

10 hours of music for depression

Relaxing music for pointers in C++

"145 BPM music to excersize to"

@Criggie I use them to play audiobooks on long bike rides. Better than earbuds, because your hearing for environmental sounds isn't muted.

@Cerberus ChatGPT has nothing to do with controlling electronic objects. One might create a language interface to commands that control electronic objects and this may make it easier for non specialists to control the objects.

But that interface from GPT to all possible IoT (internet of things) is a nontrivial task.

@Criggie Sure, I suppose, if you stick it in the right place.

First miss in a while.

Yeesh.

@Laurel Wow, first time I see the post merging feature in action (re: this one). Nice to have! I suppose it's only moderators who can do this?

@GratefulDisciple Yeah, it's irreversible so only moderators can do it. I tend not to do it much, but the original question you answered turned out to be spam so I wanted to get rid of it

@Laurel that's a good call. Better than having closed questions that will never be reopened litter around.

Œhh.

Well, I wouldn't have closed it. The other options were either editing the question or deleting everything

@Laurel BTW, I tried to update the link in Massimo's answer to this since for some reason the book is not listed in the penguin.co.uk website anymore, maybe out of print? I don't have enough reputation to edit it. Anyway, do you know whether that book is an update of Hayakawa's Choose the Right Word?

@GratefulDisciple I have no idea

@Cerberus Thank you very much for the help.

fixed the link btw

@Criggie Thank you very much.

@Robusto Thank you very much.

@Laurel Found an archive.org copy from the 1987 edition. It does look like an update (see exonerate). Regardless, another synonym book in my arsenal.

> Our sense of vulnerability about how everyday implements connected to the internet can become deadly weapons may be just beginning.

> “This might well be the first and frightening glimpse of a world in which ultimately no electronic device, from our cellphones to thermostats, can ever be fully trusted,” Glenn Gerstell, the general counsel of the National Security Agency for five critical years as the cyberwars heated up, said on Wednesday.

@tchrist Pffft I trust my HP Laserjet 4