No two ways about it – Mondays SUCK. Especially when you’ve been battling what feels like strep throat for a week, and the medical system in your country of current residency only does GP appointments by phone. (Yes, really. Lazy blighters are STILL pretending Convid is a thing.)
Nonetheless, it IS Monday, so let’s carry on with another edition of the Great Mondaydact Browser Slasher. This week, we tackle the rather creepy issue of artificial intelligence, which has gotten seriously sophisticated of late. We’re talking about fully animated, completely virtual, ALMOST lifelike robotic avatars that look, sound, and act human:
All of this is due to the new so-called “killer app”, ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI. Microsoft, aka Cyberdine Systems, has incorporated ChatGPT straight into its Bing search engine, and this makes Bing substantially more powerful than Goolag is right now:
The problem here is, of course, that AI is not actually intelligent at all. It is merely a very, very powerful set of algorithms, programmed – and curated – by humans. And many of those humans are seriously woke – which is why ChatGPT cannot answer some very basic questions:
I suppose it is a Good Thing that ChatGPT is killing off Google Search:
Certainly, for the past couple of years, I have found Google Search to be basically unusable. I use Brave Search as my primary method now – but, make no mistake, that is not really any better. Yandex Search is optimised for the Russian web. DuckDuckGo is seriously converged and messed up. Bing is… well, never mind.
But I don’t trust ChatGPT either.
You have to sign up for it, and provide it with a bunch of personal information, just to use the damn thing. And if you ask it a question that its creators consider BadThink… well, they know who you are, where you live, what your phone number is, and a bunch of other information about it.
There is no good solution here. Google Search is crap, but ChatGPT does way more than Google ever could – with a commensurately higher cost in privacy terms.
I’m not sure what is next, but the fragmentation of TEH INNARWEBZ into Russian, Chinese, and other subdivisions is undoubtedly going to change things around. Hopefully, whatever comes out of it, will be better than what we have now.
#BasedTucker is Based
Feb 20, 2023
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Dawn of Battle
The Male Brain has plenty of thought-provoking things for us this week. We start with a video from Robert Miles about how intelligence and stupidity work:
Kurzgesagt – in a Nutshell tells you what the most complicated language in the world is, and it’s not Chinese, as it happens:
Because Science breaks down the problems with invisibility:
Cracked gets both dark and funny:
Poli-ticking Off
Mark Dice gets serious for a bit to explain how the Clown News Network has been lying to you for LITERALLY DECADES:
The dynamic duo over at Redacted point out the inescapable, and rather horrible, truth about American biowarfare research labs in Banderastan:
Jackson Hinkle is greatly cheered by the Neo-Tsar’s “State of the Nation” address, in which Putin told the West to rediscover faith and God:
ะะตะด ะกะฒะฐัะปะธะฒัะน ะะพะฒะพัะธั!
Grandpa Grumpuss grumps, grumpily, about the incredible innumeracy and strategic stupidity of the neoclowns:
Itโs All Greek To Us
The good gentlemen of The Duran did an excellent long livestream about current events this past week, covering a wide range of topics:
China Syndrome
China Uncensored notes the ongoing NATO preparations for open war with China – which will go about as well as you might expect:
Matthew Tye aka C-Milk aka laowhy86 thinks China’s time as the world’s manufacturing superpower is over:
I think he’s absolutely full of shit. But that’s me.
Digging to China looks into the ongoing real-estate crash in the country:
I think there is probably some truth to the issues being uncovered in China’s real estate market. But I do not think it will cripple the country – yet.
The Bald Truth
Brian Berletic of The New Atlas analyses the results of one year of war in Banderastan:
Semper Fi!
Maj. Scott Ritter looks at the status of the Special Military Operation, one year on, in a freewheeling discussion with Judge Andrew Napolitano:
Warrior’s Rage
Col. Douglas Macgregor does the same:
Righteous Rantery
PJW cannot help but admire the Neo-Tsar’s forthright and entirely correct take on the LGBTQWTFISTHISSHIT madness in the West:
Neil Oliver, who is about 90% less drunken than you might expect, given he’s from Scotland, has a seriously righteous rant about the manner in which we are all being manipulated to get used to rationing:
The inimitable, irrepressible Katie Hopkins breaks down the Great Vegetable Famine in PommieBastardLande:
There is, in fact, a serious vegetable shortage in Britain. Vegetarians are going absolutely mad, because somehow grass does not count as food for them.
Meanwhile, omnivores, who thrive on meat and enjoy it, but who like to eat some form of green stuff at the same time, really can’t figure out what the problem is.
Bad Medicine
Dr. John Campbell points out a few home truths about depression meds:
Warriors of Faith
Tha Dizzle is highly amused by Tater-Top-G and his ability to absolutely destroy Izzlam, simply by telling the truth about the Fake Religion of Piss:
Dr. Jay Smith from PfanderFilms and Al-Fadi from CIRA International talk about the major problems with the Meccan Trade Route Theory:
Melissa Doherty from Cross Examined talks about the problems with New Age understanding of science:
Islam Critiqued dismantles the ridiculous Izzlamist argument about resorting to scholars to interpret the Koran:
Manly Men of Manliness
Terrence Popp unpacks the latest round of female craziness, in which, if you DON’T let her spend all of your money, to the point where you literally go bankrupt, that is ABUSE:
Joker from Better Bachelor shows women the severe consequences of hypergamy:
Burn Paedowood to the Ground
Midnight’s Edge takes a fascinating look at the “Streaming Wars”, and explains how and why the Devil Mouse is losing them:
Overlord Dicktor Van Doomcock does his weird QAnon thing about why the Devil Mouse Board YEETED Bob Chapek:
Gary from Nerdrotic watches the latest Ant Man film, so you don’t have to:
Ryan Kinel shows how Mickey wants to double down on stupid:
The Drinker hated the latest Marvel product too:
Reading Too Much Into Things
Your “Science is F***ING WEIRD” moment of the week is about a rather fascinating, and highly controversial, subject – small modular reactors, which supposedly bring most of the benefits of nuclear power without the drawbacks, but are actually only in the theoretical and prototype stages at this point:
SMRs are advanced nuclear reactors with power capacities that range from 50-300 MW(e) per unit, compared to 700+ MW(e) per unit for traditional nuclear power reactors. Their biggest attributes are:
- Modular โ this makes it possible for SMR systems and components to be factory-assembled and transported as a unit to a location for installation.
- Small โ SMRs are physically a fraction of the size of a conventional nuclear power reactor.
Given their smaller footprint, SMRs can be sited on locations not suitable for larger nuclear power plants, such as retired coal plants. Prefabricated SMR units can be manufactured, shipped and then installed on site, making them more affordable to build than large power reactors. Additionally, SMRs offer significant savings in cost and construction time, and can also be deployed incrementally to match increasing power demand. Another key advantage: SMRs have reduced fuel requirements, and can be refueled every 3 to 7 years compared to between 1 and 2 years for conventional nuclear plants. Indeed, some SMRs are designed to operate for up to 30 years without refueling.
Scores of governments, including the U.S. government, have begun incentivizing SMRs by making them more attractive for lenders and utilities.
โYou simply must have some form of reliable, baseload power because you canโt get there with assets that operate (part of) the time. A nuclear power plant is more costly upfront, but it is an asset that operates for 80 years. If you compare that to wind and solar, they generally have 20-year lifetimes and batteries of around eight years. If you compare renewables and batteries to nuclear, nuclear stacks up very, very well,โ Jeff Merrifield, partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and a former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner, said during a recent nuclear energy virtual press conference hosted by the United States Energy Association. Merrifield pointed to West Virginia, Idaho, Wyoming, as some of the states where SMRs would be suitable, noting that they all lack nuclear plants but have enacted legislation that allows small modular reactors to develop.
Back in 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce launched a Small Modular Reactor Working Group that looks to expedite SMR deployment in European markets in a bid to position U.S. companies to succeed in those markets. Meanwhile, Ghana and Kenya are also looking to develop SMRs to expand their power generation capacities.
But the private sector is just as active in the SMR arena.
TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy launched the Natrium project in 2020 to design SMRs that they hope to commercialize by 2030. The partners are currently testing the technology, along with Berkshire Hathawayโs PacifiCorp. The Natrium reactors are intended to act as power backup for wind and solar projects.
NuScale, a subsidiary of American multinational engineering and construction firm Fluor, has lined up plans to start building SMRs in Idaho starting 2026. The companyโs designs will combine 12 modules to generate 924-megawatts, equivalent to the output of a large nuclear plant.
And now the million-dollar question: are SMRs the future of nuclear power?
You will notice that a major SMR wave hit around 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic but well before Russia invaded Ukraine. Itโs therefore possible that the ongoing global energy crisis, climate concerns, and the much smaller footprint by SMRs compared to traditional reactors will persuade the public that this is the way to go.
The Brits are particularly keen on SMR technology. They have commissioned one of their blue-chip engineering firms to make an SMR happen. We shall see if they get it off the ground, because this technology is still unproven and untested – the only ones anywhere who have come even close to functional SMRs, are of course the RUSSIANS.
Your long read of the week is extremely long, and is from Laurent Guyenot about the failures of the European empire:
Letโs start at the beginning. How did medieval European civilization originate? It is generally accepted that it sprouted on the ruins of the Western Roman Empire, whose fall is attributed to the Barbarian Invasions and dated in 476, three centuries before Charlemagne. The Belgian historian Henri Pirenne challenged this received idea in Mohammed and Charlemagne, published in 1937, and his theory still stands, for those who know it.
In reality, the Barbarian Invasions did not destroy the Western Roman Empire, because none of the โBarbarianโ peoples who settled in the territories of the Empire ever sought to destroy it. โNothing animated the Germans against the Empire,โ Pirenne explains, โneither religious motives, nor racial hatred, still less political considerations. Instead of hating it, they admired it. All they wanted was to settle there and benefit from it. And their kings aspired to Roman dignities.โ[16]
Moreover, they never thought that the Roman Empire had fallen, was falling, or would fall. All their eyes were set toward the capital of the Roman Empire, Constantinople. โUntil the eighth century, there is no other positive element in history than the influence of the Empire.โ[17]
The bishop of Rome, naturally, was appointed or approved by the Basileus or his representative in Ravenna (this is referred to as the โByzantine Papacyโ).โOf all the features of that wonderful human structure, the Roman Empire, the most striking, and the most essential, was its Mediterranean character,โ wrote Pirenne. โThe inland sea, in the full sense of the term Mare nostrum, was the vehicle of ideas, and religions, and merchandise.โ[18]
That is why all Barbarian peoples competed for access to the Mediterranean Sea. The southern part of Western Europe remained fully Roman as long as it traded freely with the East.That changed in the middle of the 7th century, with the Arab-Muslim conquest. Unlike the Germanic Barbarians, the Arabs had the project of replacing the Roman-Christian civilization and empire with a new civilization and a new empire. Therefore, their conquest of Syria and North Africa destroyed the unity of the Mediterranean world. Navigation between East and West collapsed. โAt the beginning of the 8th century, its disappearance was complete.โ[19]
Port activity ceased in the West. Europe closed in on itself. The coffers of the Merovingian kings were emptied, and so was their authority.Northern Europe (Austrasia, Saxony and Friesland) was less affected, because its economy was based on the exploitation of large agricultural estates, and not dependent on Mediterranean trade. This explains the ascendancy of the Austrasian Franks, who even benefitted from an intensification of sea and river trade in the North, which partly compensated for the decline of Mediterranean trade. Constantinople started trading through the Scandinavian Russ who settled in Novgorod and Kiev.
Since the political center of gravity shifted to the North, the Roman papacy naturally turned towards it for protection. The popes were not the only ones to woo Pepin the Short and his heirs; in 781, a marriage was arranged between the son of the Byzantine Empress and the daughter of Charlemagne. But the engagement was broken because of religious quarrels, and the coronation of Charlemagne in Rome on Christmas Day of the year 800 marked the first breach between East and West.
The coronation ceremony manifested the complementarity of pope and emperor: the former crowns the second, has him acclaimed by the people of Rome, and then prostrates himself before him. This imitates the Byzantine pattern, except for one important detail: โIn Byzantium the imperial coronation was never more than an accessory ceremony. When the sovereign was elected by the Senate or the army (whether by tacit or express acceptance, by legitimate or usurped enthronement), he immediately came into possession of all his powers. The coronation liturgy, which sometimes took place a year later, added nothing.โ[20]
There was another major innovation from the Byzantine model: the agreement between Charlemagne and Pope Sylvester I included the confirmation by the former of a donation made by his father Pepin to Pope Stephen II, of the city of Rome and a vast territory around it. This โDonation of Pepinโ itself used as its legal basis the โDonation of Constantineโ, probably the boldest forgery in all human history, and certainly the one with the greatest consequences.
First of all, the Donation of Constantine is the foundation of the papal claim to rule over the emperor, for it shows Constantine the Great giving to โSylvester the universal pontiff and to all his successors until the end of the worldโ all the imperial insignia: diadem, tiara, shoulder band, purple mantle, crimson tunic, scepters, spears, standards, banners, โand all the advantage of our high imperial position, and the glory of our power.โ On the basis of this forgery, the popes would later claim to have been given, by the first Christian emperor himself, the full extent of imperial authority, and the right to confer it to the emperor of their choice, or to take it away from himโand even, in the case of vacancy, to rule as emperors themselves.
But why stop there, thought the forger. Constantine, now in underwear, ceded to the pope โour imperial Lateran palaceโ, as well as โthe city of Rome and all the provinces, districts and cities of Italy or of the western regions.โ And to make sure that the pope really owned the Western world, Constantine decided to move to Byzantium, โfor, where the supremacy of priests and the head of the Christian religion has been established by a heavenly ruler, it is not fitting that there an earthly ruler should have jurisdiction.โ On this basis, popes would later forbid Western emperors to reside in Rome.
As I said, the Donation of Constantine is the basis for the Donation of Pepin and its confirmation by Charlemagne. In truth, doubts hang over the existence of the โDonation of Pepinโ, because no authentic act is known.[21] What is fairly certain is that the papal estate was secured at the end of the 10th century by the โOttonian Privilegeโ (Privilegium Ottonianum), signed by Otto the Great, the original of which is in the Vatican archives. This document, explicitly referring to the Donation of Constantine (and quite possibly a forgery itself), grants the pope a long list of domains, including โthe city of Rome with its duchyโ, โthe entire exarchate of Ravennaโ, as well as Venetia, Corsica, and Sicily (then occupied by the Saracens).
Linkage is good for you:
- Seeing as how last Thursday was Russia’s Defender of the Fatherland Day, Anatoliy Brusnikin explains how Russia’s men have defended the country through the past thousand years;
- Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu explains exactly how and when the SMO will widen – and it all depends on what the West does with continued weapons supplies to Banderastan;
- Alistair Crooke writes about the dawning realisation that America might just be the biggest loser of all from the calamity in Banderastan;
- Larry Johnson argues Putin’s speech to the Federal Assembly was nothing short of a form of a Declaration of Independence from the West;
- Pepe Escobar frames Putin’s speech as an explication of a true clash of civilisations, between a rapacious and flatly insane West, and an East that just wants to be left alone;
- David Sant also looks at Putin’s speech, and reckons it is one of the most important of its kind in recent times;
- Bernhard from Moon of Alabama explains how the West is increasingly desperately seeking an off-ramp and exit from the catastrophe in 404;
- Scientists are “surprised”, for some bizarre reason, to find that savages were, in fact, savage contrary to everything Jean-Jacques Rousseau ever said on the subject;
- I’m half tempted to call bullshit on this story of ISIS women using boys as sex slaves – you’d think it would be the other way around – but RT is not generally known for lying about such things;
- The story told by Justice Brett Kavanaugh‘s second “rape accuser”, on the other hand, was PURE bullshit, of the worst kind;
- Speaking of women doing horrid things to men, the female boss of prison reform in PommieBastardLande turns out to be an incredibly vile abuser of her own husband;
- A woman who came out of an emotionally abusive relationship challenges the view that even being in a bad relationship, is better for your health than being single;
- For the foodies among us, if you’ve never tried French-style scrambled eggs, they might be an interesting alternative;
And some more from Dawn Pine:
- The political situation in Israel is so complicated, it will make your head spin – but, from one point of view, the latest Netanyahu government is trying its best to rein in an unelected and out-of-control judiciary;
- Just when we all got used to the silly talk about “quiet quitting”, we have another newfangled term to deal with – “rage applying”;
- I knew the Royal Mail was shite at delivering letters on time, but I didn’t think they would take LITERALLY A CENTURY to deliver a letter of apology in PommieBastardLande;
- Speaking of the United Kingdom of Great Bollocks, one of their people thinks the Limeys are going completely in the wrong direction with their electrical vehicle strategy, and proposes battery-swapping instead;
- Right, chaps, who had “runaway black hole the size of 20 million suns trailing stars like mines behind it” for the Doomsday Apocalypse Bingo Sweepstakes in Feb 2023?;
- A rather enterprising woman shares her secret for vacationing in really nice places rent-free – as long as you’re willing to let strangers live in YOUR home;
- If you like the idea of being a house-husband waited on hand and foot by three women… well, a big Black guy has a template for you to follow, I suppose;
- Your “shit happens” moment of the week – someone managed to dig up a 2,400-year-old toilet in China, though no word yet as to what the last meal eaten by its previous owner happened to be;
- Say what you will about the Chinks – NO ONE can argue they lack inspiration after learning about a maths teacher who hosts classes on… um… y’know what, just read the story;
- An Asiatic Russian woman (with massive fake tits and lips) who claims to be a KGB-trained seductress (and I call BS on that too) wants to share her secrets, but don’t take them too seriously, she’s been married FIVE TIMES;
- An intriguing argument for the continuation of the Pax Americana, based on birth and death rates – what the author forgot is that American birth rates are as high as they are ONLY because of non-White immigration;
MUH RUSHIAN KAHLOOOOOZHUN!!!
The Neo-Tsar‘s full State of the Nation speech this year was something to behold:
Those Who Fail To Learn From History…
History lessons of the week:
HALO Nation
The Act Man takes a brave pill and revisits the absolute WORST HALO campaign of all time – and I am in 100% agreement with him here:
And now let’s watch slayergod Remy aka Mint Blitz do his thing while talking up HALO Infinite season 3:
Learning at the Master’s Feet
Nerd of the Rings talks about Narvi:
Bring on the Grimdark
Eldon_Tyrell brings 80s aesthetics to the Grimdark universe, and it’s AWESOME:
And let’s do a crossover between HALO and WH40K, thanks to PancreasNoWork, just because:
That’s Not Gone Well…
Wazzocks gonna wazzock:
Kitchen Nightmares with the Angry Scot:
Comedy hour:
Meme Warfare
We start with some great memes from our good friend Dawn Pine:
Onward:
This next one is going to scar you for life:
Animal Planet
Your aminules are adorkable moment of the week:
And also your animals are absolute DICKS moment of the week, to balance things out:
And finally, your “Meanwhile, in Russia” moment of the week:
The Lords of Steel
Gym beast props this week go to Daniel Bell:
Ass-Kicking of the Eight Limbs
They See Me Rollin’…
Palate Cleansers
Shuffle Off
Jump-Starts
Gingervitis Injections
Livin’ in the Land of the Metal Gods
Rock Out With Your Glock Out
Hot Totty
And finally, after much toil and no little trouble, here is your Instathot to get the week started. This is Valeriya Bogachyova (ะะฐะปะตัะธั ะะพะณะฐััะฒะฐ), age 21 from Krasnodar in Russia’s southwest – not that far away from Crimea and the Black Sea coast, actually – who also qualified as Russia’s Miss Maxim 2021.
That last should tell you a lot about this young lady, really. Thot Quotient of HARD 10, do not pass go, do not collect $200 – because you’ll probably end up paying it out instead.
OK, gents, that’s all, show’s over, back to work.
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