Sunday, May 25, 2025
Saturday, May 24, 2025
the collective wisdom on "Final Reckoning"
The collective reviewer wisdom on "Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning" seems to be that (1) it's good but not great; (2) there are some impressive action set pieces, but (3) there's way too much exposition from all of the characters. Further thoughts I've gleaned from multiple, non-spoilery reviews: the villain Gabriel remains bland and uninteresting,* the plot-interrupting callbacks to previous films simply bog the story down with yet more exposition, and they try too hard to make previous MacGuffins fit into the final film. And most importantly, there's no sense that this really is the swan song for the Mission enterprise. I'm definitely waiting for this one to appear on streaming. I have no interest in going out of my way to see it in a theater, even if I am curious as to whether Charles's prediction (made in his review of the previous movie) comes true, and the AI turns out to have a human behind it.
CORRECTION: in rereading Charles's Liminality essay, I see that Charles's "prediction" wasn't so much a prediction (he explicitly writes, "This is not a prediction, mind you; I just think it would be really cool if it turned out this way") as an expressed wish for how the story might go. Shortly after expressing this wish, though, Charles writes, "The problem—and the reason I am not all that confident about this [wish]—is that rogue AIs are just too flashy and exciting. From my perspective, a human villain using a super-AI would be far more terrifying because it is far closer to our present reality, but I suspect that audiences raised on AIs 'becoming sentient' and 'going rogue,' might find the misdirection devious or disappointing."
REPOST: let me repost, here, my own prediction from my review:
In "Dead Reckoning," one character specifically claims that the Entity has "no center," but I suspect that, in Part II, we're going to discover that the thing does have a center, in the form of either something physical or its source code. Prediction, then: Part II is going to end the way so many alien-invasion movies do: find the mothership (i.e., the center) and destroy it, thereby destroying all of its ramifying tendrils. As plot devices or tropes go, this is an overused, cliché idea, but I don't see the movie ending any other way... unless the screenwriters decide to go balls-out and end Part II on an inconclusive note, with the possibility that the Entity is out there and will reappear someday. Then again, you could counterargue that "find the center and kill it" is as ancient a trope as shooting an animal in the head. What are animals if not coordinated collections of cells?
__________
*I disagreed in my own review of the previous film.
I hope the pardon saga turns into something substantial
US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin Drops Pardon Bomb That Could Change Everything
Controversy over former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to issue presidential pardons has taken a new turn.
United States Pardon Attorney Ed Martin wrote on social media platform X, “The integrity of the American Pardon system requires that we examine the Biden pardons and who did what.”
“We will get the bottom of it. Count on us,” he concluded.
Of course, the most important three words in Martin’s post are “who did what.”
Kentucky Republican Rep. and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced last week his office had identified staffers and others in the White House who he believes used this autopen machine to not just sign pardons but executive orders, as well.
An autopen is a machine that replicates a signature.
The implication here is that Biden’s signature was put on important executive documents in place of him actually signing, and moreover, the president did not explicitly consent to its use in these instances.
This would mean someone else was exercising the president’s executive authority.
“We’re going to bring everyone that we believe was involved in any role in the use of the autopen. We’re going to invite them to come in for a transcribed interview,” Comer said when making the announcement.
“If they won’t, then they will receive a subpoena, and they will have a full-blown deposition.
“We want to find out who was actually making the decisions in the White House during the last nine months of the Biden administration when he was clearly in mental decline,” he continued, referring to Biden’s lack of mental acuity that has been recently substantiated by leaked audio with special counsel Robert Hur from October 2023.
Lisez le reste.
If they undo Hunter's pardon, that'll be enough for me. Kill the Biden "legacy" dead.
because we all freak out about the same things at the same time now
People are screaming in delight, horror, horrified delight, and delighted horror about Google's new Veo 3, an AI video-generation platform that, while far from flawless, produces logarithmically smoother-looking, smoother-sounding videos than previous platforms (see below). We're definitely in the uncanny valley. And now, I have an idea for how my friends and brothers can interact with "me" after I die. Ha!
I could cynically pronounce myself unimpressed with Veo 3 for the same reason I wasn't impressed by that AI conversation I'd written about, but what does impress me is how much AI quality has improved over such a short span of time. We all knew this was going to happen, and as with so many catastrophic events that we can see coming from a mile away once we know the signs (nuclear proliferation, virus weaponization, etc.), we realize full well that we're running headlong into a wall of spikes, but if we don't do it, then someone else will.
On one hand, the advent of AI will force us regular humans to seek innovative pathways to creativity in order to be able to distinguish ourselves as human. We will have to push the envelope when it comes to our ideas of story, entertainment, food, etc. so as to stay always one step ahead of the AI. But how long can we realistically sustain that? AI is improving at a massively accelerated rate, maybe faster than Moore's Law. When I'm finally dying in a hospital bed, will the attending doc even be human? In East Asia, people are much more open to the idea of non-human doctors, teachers, etc.
Arguably more disturbing than the speed of AI's improvement is the increase in mystery that arises with complexity. AI programs are now so sophisticated that they contain dark corners where no one is quite sure what is happening or will happen. In cinema, the shorthand for this is that the computer or program reaches a saturation point and—boom—becomes conscious or sentient or self-aware. Even way back during the AlphaGo era (you'll recall the AI that consistently beat a Korean baduk master, Lee Se-dol, in 2016), experts were often mystified by how AlphaGo came up with its creative solutions. No programmer could say, "Yes, I'm the one who programmed AlphaGo to do that." The AI was doing genuinely original things. While I would never say something spooky like true creativity is lurking inside the machine, you have to admit that, if creativity is at least partially a combinatorial process, then machines that can explore quadrillions of possibilities in a millisecond will arrive at those creative solutions a hell of a lot faster than human beings—with their slow, biological brains—ever could.
AI-driven robots have apparently reached a point where they can teach themselves and each other self-defense. Will we soon see the advent of a perfect martial-arts system, discovered and honed by AI, one that can be adjusted to different human body types? Will these martial robots function in place of soldiers or police or security guards? Will they be otherwise weaponized (I'd say yes, inevitably so)? Humanity is very close to that wall of spikes, I think, and a whole lot of significant trends in AI/robotics and genetic engineering are all converging in what could either be a glorious racial apotheosis or, more likely, the global equivalent of a gigantic nuclear explosion. Meanwhile, look at these:
It’s so over.
— Grummz (@Grummz) May 21, 2025
Google Veo 3 AI does speech and sound for its video generation now.
Not sure how I feel about this. pic.twitter.com/C0voPsrDY6
For the moment, at least, we can rest assured that the images you saw above involved, on some level, a human, creative element—human decisions driving the AI process forward. But what happens when the AI hardware and software can self-teach, self-repair, and self-replicate? Does it then say, "Thanks—we'll take it from here"? We may be about to witness the death of truth and trust, given our heavily mediatized lives (well, médiatisé is a French word; it's also found in English, but it means something different, so maybe I should say media-saturated). Assuming truth and trust aren't dead already.
diversity is our strength!
NEW: Man wearing a "Love Beyond Gender" shirt was arrested in LA after he was spotted opening up several briefcases that contained multiple firearms.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 23, 2025
When police arrived, he resisted arrest and was then thrown to the ground.
It’s always the same people… pic.twitter.com/jigwCrti1t
Friday, May 23, 2025
the thought police
Arrested for a tweet taken out of context. This is why freedom of speech matters.
another take on "She Said"
Harvey Weinstein contends he made mistakes but has been wrongly accused (immoral vs. illegal, he says). I've cued the video below to the moment when Weinstein and Candace Owens broach the topic of #MeToo movies—one movie in particular. Watch Gary Buechler and Chris Gore's reaction to the mention of "She Said," a movie to which I'd given a cautiously positive review. Chris and Gary would very much beg to differ. Their reasons deserve to be heard. In fact, you should consider watching the entire video.
sure, it's oversimplified...
...but as oversimplifications go, there are worse ones:
This year, in 2025, I've written a lot about USAID thanks to DOGE's focus on it. The last time I'd written about USAID was in 2004, when I was more positive and knew nothing about the organization's more nefarious side.
"the national debate is being shaped by Reform"
PS: this is old news. The situation is still evolving.
frais de l'hôpital
Here's a reminder of yesterday's numbers:
BP: 89/70 (kinda low; I did a double-take when I saw this)
pulse: 68
fasting glucose: 111 (still not where it should be—under 100)
estimated A1c: 7.33 (it'll probably be higher at the hospital)
weight: 113 kg (249.1 lbs.)
And here are this morning's numbers (measured at home):
BP: 154/106 (what the hell is that all about??)
pulse: 54 (unnaturally low for me)
fasting glucose: 63 (way low, and why I was tired and dizzy—hypoglycemia)
estimated A1c: 7.28
weight: 113.5 kg (250.2 lbs.)
And finally, here are the hospital's "official" numbers:
BP: 113/53 (still kinda low, but better than before I went to the hospital)
pulse: 68 (what it was yesterday)
fasting glucose: 71 (still too low)
"official" A1c: 7.3
weight: ??? (didn't see what the hospital scale said)
My appointment was at 10:40 a.m.; I'm normally supposed to be at the hospital two hours in advance to give a blood and urine sample, but I got there around 8:50 a.m. As before, my QR code didn't work for entry into the hospital, so a staffer buzzed me in. The staffers see me only once every few months, so I don't feel too bad about bothering them, and I'm sure they've forgotten all about me by the end of the day. As I usually do, I marched straight over to the 채혈실/chaehyeol-shil (phlebotomy room, where you present your arm and give three or so tubes' worth of blood samples), went to the special restroom where you piss into a special cup and place your urine sample in a window in a corner of the men's room, which is where unseen elves take your urine sample and do something arcane with it, like measure your urine glucose and other things kidney- and bladder-related. After giving my samples, I immediately went to the hospital bakery/snack area, where I bought a salad, a blueberry muffin, some apple juice, and some water. I didn't want to faint from low blood sugar.
I have no idea why my BP had shot up this morning compared to yesterday morning. I do, however, know why my blood pressure went down in the two hours between my home measurements this morning and my hospital measurements: I strategically took an extra hit of my meds while I was eating at the hospital. (Yes, the medical center is not even a kilometer's walk away, but I normally cab over and walk back, partly because I'm a lazy bastard, and partly because the pharmacy where I pick up my meds is at the halfway point between the hospital and my place—too short a distance to justify a cab.) That hit predictably brought the BP right back down, but I still can't think of why it had risen like that. I normally get stressed about going to the hospital, but over the past year, my BP has reflected that less and less, so I'm not sure that stress is the problem. Maybe I'm getting used to the visits.
My BP yesterday was alarmingly low, and today's post-medicine-hit diastolic number (53) was still alarmingly low. Blood sugar was also unnaturally low: it was 63 this morning, before I took that extra hit of meds, but it was measured at 71 at the hospital, despite my having eaten nothing at that point (the hospital asks you to fast the day before you give a blood sample; I'm usually ravenous after I submit my blood, hence the aforementioned restorative meal—a literal breaking of my fast). This could possibly mean there's a small difference in calibration between my home measuring device and the hospital's mysterious apparatus; it could also mean that something happened to my blood sugar during the intervening two hours. That said, an 8-point difference isn't huge.
The doc, however, saw the low blood sugar and advised me to hold back on the insulin (which I never wanted anyway); I received a ten-pen prescription all the same to last me until the end of September. Otherwise, none of my prescription meds were changed in strength or quantity, so I guess the "good" news is steady as she goes. I need to try harder to get off the meds completely, but I suspect that, with heart failure being a now-permanent feature of my life, I will never be meds-free. No one to blame but myself, and maybe also my genes (there's a history of early death on both sides of my family*).
My next appointment is with the cardio doc in July. Today's diabetes doc will see me again, as I said, in September. I'm not sure how much I like the idea of going back to the hospital every two months instead of every four months; I'll talk to my cardio doc about scheduling to see whether he can see me again in September as well. That might be too soon for his taste, though: normally, the interval is at least three calendar months long.
Today's trip to the pharmacy saw me get refills of my diabetes-related meds, plus my insulin pens. I think I have enough heart medicine to last me until July. That's the other reason why I'd like to go back to having both appointments on the same day: it's easier to see when each of my meds will run out. Ah, well... life is rarely simple.
Speaking of "not simple"—today there was a new thing, at least to me: I was told that, every six months, I have to stop by a certain desk to show my ID and confirm that I am who I say I am. I'd never heard of this before; either that, or I'd been misunderstanding something for years. Luckily, I bumbled around a bit and found the proper desk on my first try: lucky guess. The friendly guy looked at me, looked at my ID, and made a note. That was it. Just an extra bit of bullshit bureaucracy to keep us bogged down, to keep us thinking that life is complicated.
Anyway, I can now breathe easy for almost two months, but I will have to try to get my A1c down during that time. An A1c below 6 would be nice. Guess that's up to me.
__________
*Let's run down the list of early deaths, shall we? Mom's dad died in his 50s of a heart attack. Mom used to tell us the sad story of having to wrap winding sheets around his body before burial. Mom's mom died in her 60s (I think) from various causes, including a genetic condition: an upside-down stomach that made digestion painful and kept her from weighing more than 70 pounds. (Was it really 70 pounds? Mom was pulling on memories from her young girlhood, so who knows?) Mom herself died of brain cancer at age 66. Dad's parents were both alcoholics who died, in their 50s or early 60s, of heart attacks probably brought on by drinking. Dad himself, a teetotaler, nevertheless had a heart attack in 2006, when he was 64 (possibly for reasons of heredity, which may explain my own heart attack last year), and while I haven't talked to him since 2010, I assume he's still alive because, well, because of Murphy's Law. Only the good die young, they say. That would explain Dad's longevity, and my aunt's (imo, Mom's big sister): Imo was an unpleasantly combative person who resented having to take care of Mom when they had two sick parents during the Korean War. She's apparently losing her marbles now and doesn't even remember that her little sister had died. Mom, meanwhile, used to tearfully tell us a lot of stories from that horrific time in her life. She never totally got over it—the war, the abuse from her sister—not that I blame her.
Ave, Neil!
By buddy Neil satirizes the potential ridiculousness of language.
Following a spate of new forever wars in which both sides have made claims of genocidal actions by the other, the Oxford English dictionary has had enough. ‘From now on, the word genocide may only be used by the side which is getting reamed,’ spelled out an OED spokesperson.
Critics say the new definition puts history in a quandary. ‘There will be certain Germans who misinterpret the new definition and claim they were the victims of genocide in World War 2,’ said one. To preempt such possibilities, the OED has revised its definition of Germany from ‘a country in central Europe’ to ‘a country in central Europe that committed genocide in World War 2’. In response, Germans have complained that they are now the victims of linguistic genocide. In counter-response, the OED have extended their new definition of genocide to read ‘my side losing but not in a linguistic sense.’
Read the rest. Consider subscribing. You can subscribe for free, as I initially did, and if you think Neil's efforts are worth it, you can move to a paid subscription.
could the "big, beautiful bill" actually become law?
It's not a definitive victory quite yet: Trump's bill passed the House of Representatives, but it still has to get through the Senate.
this is what you wanted
If you keep calling masculinity "toxic," don't expect male help when shit goes down.
Thursday, May 22, 2025
"The Final Reckoning" seems to be a bit of a disappointment
Watch out for spoilers:
I'll take Jeremy Jahns's advice and wait for it to come out on streaming.
Nick Freitas on Canada and Alberta's possible departure
I don't think this will happen anythime soon, if ever, but I've been wrong before. Still, Freitas's arguments for why Alberta might consider leaving Canada are interesting and compelling. Alberta is basically sick of shoveling the rest of Canada's shit and getting nothing in return.
reassessing "Little Marco"
Marco Rubio seems to have found his focus:
Could there be a President Rubio in our future?
I love the trolling: the "Clinton body-count theory" resurfaces!
Hilarious. It won't amount to anything, but it'll bother someone.
some numbers
I'll do this again tomorrow morning, but here are some numbers the morning before my seasonal hospital visit:
BP: 89/70 (kinda low; I did a double-take when I saw this)pulse: 68
fasting glucose: 111 (still not where it should be—under 100)
estimated A1c: 7.33 (it'll probably be higher at the hospital)
weight: 113 kg (249.1 lbs.)
estimated A1c: 7.33 (it'll probably be higher at the hospital)
weight: 113 kg (249.1 lbs.)
This was a bad period, made worse by my trip to the States. I initially tried to stay chaste in the America, but that went out the window quickly: I did a lot of random snacking, not to mention that I ate plenty of carby food, from bibimbap to gyros to Jamaican beef patties (twice) to Middle Eastern-style chicken with couscous to party-mix snacks to cookies and high-glycemic fruits like grapes (damn, those were good grapes). I'm not exactly sorry, even if the indulgence shortened my life even further ("Nothing can stop that now"—Vader), but I'm going to get a talking-to from the diabetes doc tomorrow. I don't mind the talking-to; I just don't want her to increase any of my medication. But I guess that's always been up to me, hasn't it?
As I've mentioned before, this is the first time that cardio and diabetes appointments aren't happening on the same day. I'm not sure how I feel about that. My cardio/stroke appointment is in July, so I'll have to do what I can, between now and then, to salvage my A1c. Last time the hospital checked, my A1c was at 7.2, so it's gone up slightly since then. Ideal A1c (glycated hemoglobin, a 3-month average of your blood sugar) should be below 5.7. Dr. Sten Ekberg is even stricter and says 5.5. I can conceivably get my blood sugar down to that level by July, but it's going to mean a lot of salad, a lot of fat and protein, and almost zero sugar. Not to mention a great deal more walking and exercising.
It never ends. Until the Moirai finally cut the thread of my life.
with Canada and South Africa not exactly distinguishing themselves lately...
Maybe it's finally time for Elon Musk to renounce his Canadian and South African citizenships so as to be solely an American citizen. That would resolve so many problems in my mind. He should also pull up his stakes and leave China.
white genocide (yes, genocide) in South Africa
See this post for a swarm of tweets about how the US media are covering for the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, despite Trump’s having played video after video of South African leaders calling for the elimination of white farmers and the confiscation of their land. Our media love to run defense for murderers. So shameless.
Kill the Boer, am I right? Reverse the races and see if this passes muster.
The black South African claim is that the Afrikaners are all basically non-native interlopers on black land. Maybe that was true once; I don't know the history. But much time has passed. To this claim, Matt Walsh responds:
 |
| Where does the comma go? |
 |
| Matt, like so many, hates his commas. That's the real genocide here. Also: where does the hyphen go? |
Despite millions of illegals pouring over the US-Mexico border in recent years, the US takes in 59 white Afrikaners, and the left collectively flips its shit.
ADDENDUM:
NO MORE LIES
— MxM News (@mxmnews) May 21, 2025
Trump forces the South African president to face what he denies—persecution against white Afrikaners. pic.twitter.com/87cjcaxWrF
Does this mean apartheid under Botha was okay? Of course not. Neither oppression can be justified, but we live in an age in which governments act against their own people.
an English teacher quits in disgust
Is it the kids' fault? The system's? Both? Something else?
More examples of my country's best and brightest:
we beat this drum because the left simply won't
The left will clutch its pearls and accuse JD Vance of being tasteless in the face of Joe Biden's cancer revelation. But I think Vice President Vance is right to talk about the need for honesty alongside the question of Biden's obvious incompetence.
My unvarnished thoughts are here.
— Crannofonix (@CrannofonixNews) May 19, 2025
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
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