If Trump is kept off the ballot using the 14the amendment I see that as nothing but an absolute win, since and there was all kinds of insurrection a couple years ago for about 150 days that was fully supported by one of the dominant political parties. It'll be pretty funny seeing every single one of them kicked out of government forever, hoisted by their own petard.
The hardest thing about helping people is finding someone that help will help. Usually those people don't ask for help, don't want help, and if you can convince them to take it stop taking it as soon as they can.
The guy who played checkov on Star Trek had his own take on what Star Trek 6 should look like:
https://www.handitv.com/stories/walter-koenig-wrote-his-own-outline-for-star-trek-vi
I think the ending needs some work but I like the concept.
I don't know if the boomers could write a story about getting old wisely, particularly not way back then. I like the idea of showing different characters managing getting older, both in positive and negative ways, and perhaps some characters having an arc.
Kirk would definitely be trying to keep living his glory days. He already looked like an idiot wrassling Klingons in Star Trek 3, by 6 he should be seeing the consequences of his insistence on playing hero, a washed up captain with a growing number of failed missions because he keeps trying to go down and fight the bad guy and kiss the lady and he just isn't capable of it anymore. His arc would be learning to let go of the day to day battles, and leaning into his wisdom earned by a lifetime of work in the field to help raise the next generation of people who will be taking over after him. In the actual canon just as Kirk never faced the Kobayashi maru challenge head on, his character never actually faced aging head-on and died in a battle including 3 old men.
The idea that McCoy would stop being a doctor is dumb, many doctors practice until they die of old age. His arc would be about coming to grips with the reality that he has a limited amount of time left and what that means.
Spock would be an investigation of what it means to have more time since he'd be a young man in Vulcan terms, looking at aging from an alien perspective, but hey we introduced a new family member last movie how about we introduce sarek's dad who is in the final stages of Vulcan decline and the consequences of having people be such reliable pillars for so long and then losing them.
Scotty's story of becoming a drunk stays, it's too interesting to not do something with.
Uhuras story should be a future reflection on a life for a woman that was much different than the life of a woman in the 60s when TOS first aired, an opportunity to show how different gene's future was than the present of 40-60 years ago.
Contrasting to Kirk who was the captain in his prime winning all the fights and getting all the chicks, Checkovs (sorry Koenig) character would be a reflection of a life of regret, of opportunities not taken. His arc would be about making peace with his past self and taking steps to constructively manage his future.
Sulu could be shown taking an entirely different path, such as a strategic command, and his arc would be about using his wisdom and experience from the enterprise adventures to advise the fleet.
With all this, I think two huge threats are too much. Galactic war or youth worms, and I think Galactic war makes way more sense for the last hurrah.
You'd start off with a captains log and the on a routine mission to transport Spock in his role as a diplomat to mediate a dispute on a planet. Smash cut to a battle between Kirk and a klingon. The dialogue would suggest Kirk quickly sniffed him out with his experience, but while he puts up a good fight ultimately he loses the fight. He beams up and a space battle starts with a klingon ship. He issues competent commands and wins the battle but just a beat too late so the ship takes some hits and some people die. Later he's admonished by Starfleet command and given an ultimatum that he either accepts a role as an admiral commanding fleets or he can retire, and he can make the decision when he gets back to earth but for now his first officer is in command of the ship. Just as they are about to set a course for earth they get a message that war has broken out with the Klingons and the Enterprise is needed immediately to participate in the war effort.
As for the story of the war and some of the characters stories... The age of heroes like Kirk in their prime is over, the federation is losing the war. Younger crews weren't properly mentored and so lack the knowledge of the aging heroes and so are not doing well at all, and the older crews dont have the vigor to engage in total war. Meanwhile the Klingons seem to be doing just fine, being both vigorous and wise, hence why they decided to start a war sensing a weak federation. Kirk would slowly over the course of the movie learn that it's not so bad mentoring top people. Bones would struggle after watching the young men come into the sickbay dead realizing in just a few years his final destination would be upon him, and he'd be making mistakes and cracking. Spock would share his struggles with his grandfather dying and would speak logically about death like nimoy did in "I am Spock" and it would help McCoy put death into perspective. Scott would learn he drank because he didn't think he had anything better in his life until he saw the new batch of engineers trying really hard to keep the ship running but lacking know-how and one of the engineers would come to him with personal problems and he'd realize he had more to offer than just work. Spock would do some brilliant work as a seconded science officer and later would use his skills as a diplomat to help end the war with the Klingons once the Enterprise becomes the focal point of a passing of the torch where the old crews realize they need to build up the new ones which makes the Klingons realize their time has passed to attack (with a little prodding). Uhuras work as a communications officer ends up front and center as she is a second diplomat working with Spock near the end of the movie. Checkov would realize that while he isn't happy with his past all he can do is move on to his future. Sulu would have a whole b-plot where he talks at desks about strategy and helps see several ambushes by the Klingons in advance which is part of what helps end the war.
I once heard that Christianity is a young persons religion, full of action and vitality, whereas Buddhism is an old persons religion, helping people to disconnect from the passions and connections to the material world to prepare you to reenter the cycle of life and rebirth. In one sense, successful religions are all true in that the lessons they try to teach are real and have real effects, and the cycle of life and rebirth can be considered as our genetics and our ideology and our wisdom being passed to new generations who have a chance to try the same challenges you did armed with new wisdom if they're willing to listen. Thus as we age we should let go of action and start working to our rebirth in the next generations by passing our wisdom down and nurturing them, and that would be the core theme of a final star trek movie rather than one last action romp...
https://www.handitv.com/stories/walter-koenig-wrote-his-own-outline-for-star-trek-vi
I think the ending needs some work but I like the concept.
I don't know if the boomers could write a story about getting old wisely, particularly not way back then. I like the idea of showing different characters managing getting older, both in positive and negative ways, and perhaps some characters having an arc.
Kirk would definitely be trying to keep living his glory days. He already looked like an idiot wrassling Klingons in Star Trek 3, by 6 he should be seeing the consequences of his insistence on playing hero, a washed up captain with a growing number of failed missions because he keeps trying to go down and fight the bad guy and kiss the lady and he just isn't capable of it anymore. His arc would be learning to let go of the day to day battles, and leaning into his wisdom earned by a lifetime of work in the field to help raise the next generation of people who will be taking over after him. In the actual canon just as Kirk never faced the Kobayashi maru challenge head on, his character never actually faced aging head-on and died in a battle including 3 old men.
The idea that McCoy would stop being a doctor is dumb, many doctors practice until they die of old age. His arc would be about coming to grips with the reality that he has a limited amount of time left and what that means.
Spock would be an investigation of what it means to have more time since he'd be a young man in Vulcan terms, looking at aging from an alien perspective, but hey we introduced a new family member last movie how about we introduce sarek's dad who is in the final stages of Vulcan decline and the consequences of having people be such reliable pillars for so long and then losing them.
Scotty's story of becoming a drunk stays, it's too interesting to not do something with.
Uhuras story should be a future reflection on a life for a woman that was much different than the life of a woman in the 60s when TOS first aired, an opportunity to show how different gene's future was than the present of 40-60 years ago.
Contrasting to Kirk who was the captain in his prime winning all the fights and getting all the chicks, Checkovs (sorry Koenig) character would be a reflection of a life of regret, of opportunities not taken. His arc would be about making peace with his past self and taking steps to constructively manage his future.
Sulu could be shown taking an entirely different path, such as a strategic command, and his arc would be about using his wisdom and experience from the enterprise adventures to advise the fleet.
With all this, I think two huge threats are too much. Galactic war or youth worms, and I think Galactic war makes way more sense for the last hurrah.
You'd start off with a captains log and the on a routine mission to transport Spock in his role as a diplomat to mediate a dispute on a planet. Smash cut to a battle between Kirk and a klingon. The dialogue would suggest Kirk quickly sniffed him out with his experience, but while he puts up a good fight ultimately he loses the fight. He beams up and a space battle starts with a klingon ship. He issues competent commands and wins the battle but just a beat too late so the ship takes some hits and some people die. Later he's admonished by Starfleet command and given an ultimatum that he either accepts a role as an admiral commanding fleets or he can retire, and he can make the decision when he gets back to earth but for now his first officer is in command of the ship. Just as they are about to set a course for earth they get a message that war has broken out with the Klingons and the Enterprise is needed immediately to participate in the war effort.
As for the story of the war and some of the characters stories... The age of heroes like Kirk in their prime is over, the federation is losing the war. Younger crews weren't properly mentored and so lack the knowledge of the aging heroes and so are not doing well at all, and the older crews dont have the vigor to engage in total war. Meanwhile the Klingons seem to be doing just fine, being both vigorous and wise, hence why they decided to start a war sensing a weak federation. Kirk would slowly over the course of the movie learn that it's not so bad mentoring top people. Bones would struggle after watching the young men come into the sickbay dead realizing in just a few years his final destination would be upon him, and he'd be making mistakes and cracking. Spock would share his struggles with his grandfather dying and would speak logically about death like nimoy did in "I am Spock" and it would help McCoy put death into perspective. Scott would learn he drank because he didn't think he had anything better in his life until he saw the new batch of engineers trying really hard to keep the ship running but lacking know-how and one of the engineers would come to him with personal problems and he'd realize he had more to offer than just work. Spock would do some brilliant work as a seconded science officer and later would use his skills as a diplomat to help end the war with the Klingons once the Enterprise becomes the focal point of a passing of the torch where the old crews realize they need to build up the new ones which makes the Klingons realize their time has passed to attack (with a little prodding). Uhuras work as a communications officer ends up front and center as she is a second diplomat working with Spock near the end of the movie. Checkov would realize that while he isn't happy with his past all he can do is move on to his future. Sulu would have a whole b-plot where he talks at desks about strategy and helps see several ambushes by the Klingons in advance which is part of what helps end the war.
I once heard that Christianity is a young persons religion, full of action and vitality, whereas Buddhism is an old persons religion, helping people to disconnect from the passions and connections to the material world to prepare you to reenter the cycle of life and rebirth. In one sense, successful religions are all true in that the lessons they try to teach are real and have real effects, and the cycle of life and rebirth can be considered as our genetics and our ideology and our wisdom being passed to new generations who have a chance to try the same challenges you did armed with new wisdom if they're willing to listen. Thus as we age we should let go of action and start working to our rebirth in the next generations by passing our wisdom down and nurturing them, and that would be the core theme of a final star trek movie rather than one last action romp...
Because you see all the people who are wildly successful and it seems like it's so easy, it becomes easy to think "If you build it, they will come" but in reality that's pure survivorship bias. If you build it, they might come, or the might not. Or twitter might find you and may God have mercy on your soul.
Just made it through I Parry Everything Volume 4.
The actual story moved forward about 15-20 minutes (Spoilers: The guy parried everything), but it was fantastic nonetheless. The story ended up actually ended up being about inscrutable eldritch horror, and layered stories upon stories, fractal tragedies folded in on themselves.
This volume sort of reminds me of Overlord in that sense. And I love Overlord.
The actual story moved forward about 15-20 minutes (Spoilers: The guy parried everything), but it was fantastic nonetheless. The story ended up actually ended up being about inscrutable eldritch horror, and layered stories upon stories, fractal tragedies folded in on themselves.
This volume sort of reminds me of Overlord in that sense. And I love Overlord.
I just read an article that only 15% of people have kept up to date on those particular vaccines.
Probably because it made them sick as fuck and they got friggin covid anyway.
Probably because it made them sick as fuck and they got friggin covid anyway.
Imagine if Trump goes full Millei. Probably won't happen but it might change everything for America.
Yes, except he's not president right now so they need more because reporting on what a guy with no political office who is banned from most of the Internet just doesn't hit that hard.
The media is dying of drowning in bullshit, so they need to find a Goldman to implement their two minutes of hate to keep the gravy train running.
6 months ago: "we hate you, you racist sexist homophobic transphobic monsters!"
Today: "haaaalp us, you racist sexist homophobic transphobic monsters! Why aren't you helping us?"
Today: "haaaalp us, you racist sexist homophobic transphobic monsters! Why aren't you helping us?"
A lot of authoritarians don't think they're authoritarians because they only want to limit people or things they don't like.
Unfortunately, the paradox of liberty that to be free you need to also give freedom to people you don't like who will do things you don't like.
In spite of that, liberty is still an ideal worth pursuing. Perhaps not the only ideal, but definitely one of the most important.
In spite of that, liberty is still an ideal worth pursuing. Perhaps not the only ideal, but definitely one of the most important.
Everyone who follows me knows I'm a big fan of nextcloud. I just added some features to my installation that are pretty neat -- locally hosted AI. It isn't a chat thing, but it can do translations and text generation, summaries, and the like. I installed the Local Large Model app which gave me the option to use freely available large model files, the nextcloud assistant app presents an icon at the top to actually do the generation, and the OpenAI and LocalAI integration that brings everything together.
Since my entire web empire is hosted on parts scavanged from roadside signs the generation doesn't run too quickly, but it does produce meaningful output.
The meteoric rise of locally hosted AI makes me think 2 things: First, I don't know that companies thinking they can gate this off and monetize it are going to be in such good shape since anyone can presently host it and on 5 year old hardware models are getting pretty decent and quick. Second, how soon until it's just a local feature nobody thinks about on standard hardware?
Despite the excellent output from AI image generation and large language models, it is still my stance that the real intelligence at work are the humans who apply algorithms to create the output, and when the output is flawed, they modify the algorithm or decide not to use AI for the purpose.
I've asked several AIs to do what is a relatively simple task: "Write a review of Beowulf in the style of beowulf". I've done it before and posted it here. The thing is, it'll produce something that seems servicable until you start reading it and realize something: It rhymes, and beowulf never once rhymes. It makes heavy use of aliteration rather than rhyming. So next you say "Beowulf doesn't rhyme", and it will come back with an agreement that beowulf doesn't rhyme and instead makes heavy use of alliteration. So you say "So rewrite the review to make use of alliteration rather than rhyming" and it'll present a rhyming review yet again. It cannot be convinced to complete the task correctly.
I've had the same issue with coding problems, where the AI writes an objectively wrong answer to a coding question, and even when given direct instructions about the correct answer, it will continue giving the wrong answer.
Since my entire web empire is hosted on parts scavanged from roadside signs the generation doesn't run too quickly, but it does produce meaningful output.
The meteoric rise of locally hosted AI makes me think 2 things: First, I don't know that companies thinking they can gate this off and monetize it are going to be in such good shape since anyone can presently host it and on 5 year old hardware models are getting pretty decent and quick. Second, how soon until it's just a local feature nobody thinks about on standard hardware?
Despite the excellent output from AI image generation and large language models, it is still my stance that the real intelligence at work are the humans who apply algorithms to create the output, and when the output is flawed, they modify the algorithm or decide not to use AI for the purpose.
I've asked several AIs to do what is a relatively simple task: "Write a review of Beowulf in the style of beowulf". I've done it before and posted it here. The thing is, it'll produce something that seems servicable until you start reading it and realize something: It rhymes, and beowulf never once rhymes. It makes heavy use of aliteration rather than rhyming. So next you say "Beowulf doesn't rhyme", and it will come back with an agreement that beowulf doesn't rhyme and instead makes heavy use of alliteration. So you say "So rewrite the review to make use of alliteration rather than rhyming" and it'll present a rhyming review yet again. It cannot be convinced to complete the task correctly.
I've had the same issue with coding problems, where the AI writes an objectively wrong answer to a coding question, and even when given direct instructions about the correct answer, it will continue giving the wrong answer.