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Handing Over The Reins

Control Freaks, Corporate Fuckery, Science!

Read this story and see if you don’t get a slow burn, or even an RCOB:

An Australian small business owner says she lost about $50,000 after Instagram suspended her accounts over what she describes as an innocent photo of three dogs.

Rochelle Marinato, managing director at Pilates World Australia, recently received an email from Instagram’s parent company Meta stating her accounts had been suspended because the image breached community guidelines relating to ‘child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity’.

The photo had been mistakenly flagged by an AI moderator which confused the image of the dogs with those of children.

She appealed the decision and sent 22 emails to Meta, but received no assistance from the global tech giant, which owns Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Messenger and WhatsApp.

Ms Marinato claimed her story was just one of many and that the problem was widespread.

She also said it was impossible to talk to a human at Meta to explain her situation.

‘I couldn’t get a human to look at it. Clearly any human that looks at this photo is going to know it’s completely innocent,’ she said. 

‘You can’t contact a human at Meta. There’s no phone number, there’s no email, there’s nothing and you’re literally left in the dark.’ 

To paraphrase Insty:  And Skynet smirks.

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Righteous Shootings

Oh lookee, a twofer:

One from King County WA (Seattle area!) and another in Phoenix AZ:

An alleged intruder in King County, Washington, died after a woman opened fire on around 2 a.m. Monday morning.  The woman called the King County Sheriff’s Office and told them she shot a man was allegedly trying to enter her home.

Deputies arrived to find an unconscious man lying in the driveway. The wounded suspect died later in a hospital.

Then:

A Phoenix, Arizona, homeowner shot and killed an alleged burglar Sunday morning shortly before 8 a.m. The homeowner shot the alleged burglar while on a 911 call with police.

I love the smell of dead goblin in the morning.  It smells like… justice.

Interesting Thought

Drive Time, Old Fartism

Couple nights back I had dinner with Tech Support II, who was in town for some geek convention or other, and in the course of our (long) evening together, I asked him what car he was currently driving, and was not really surprised when he said “Tesla SUV”.

Of course he would drive a Tesla (because he’s a techie), and of course an SUV (because he has a family).

But along the way something really interesting came up.  He’d recently driven the Tesla (with the family) from Florida to Houston (because he’s also a space geek, duh).  The interesting part is that by his estimation, he didn’t drive about 90-95% of the 1,600-mile drive at all;  he simply left it to the Tesla’s auto-drive program.

When I asked why, he said simply, “Because the Tesla is a better driver than I am.”

The thing about the Tesla self-drive function is that every trip made by every Tesla is recorded and uploaded to their system at headquarters (or wherever they store it).  What that means is that Tesla can not only combine all that data into a global “behavioral” database, but they can also create subsets of that to, say, a “Florida-Houston” drive, with all the characteristics of said trip — choke points, places where accidents frequently occur, speed data and so on — all combined to make the next Florida-Houston drive trip all the safer for any Tesla driver because those characteristics are then folded into the Tesla self-drive computer in the car.

All very interesting, especially for an old retired data geek like myself.

But what TS said next is what stopped me in my tracks.  When I asked him why he’d elected for the self-drive, he admitted quite simply, “Because the Tesla is a better driver than I am.”

He’s not a bad driver, just so you know;  in fact, he’s an excellent driver.

I myself have admitted on these very pages that at age 70, I’m no longer as good a driver as I once was when I was, say, 30 or even when I was 50.

And it makes me think:  would I not be better off by delegating the driving to someone (or something) else?

Of course, this isn’t limited to owning a Tesla (because #Duracell car), and in any event in my case this is purely a hypothetical “If I won the lottery dream” because I could afford neither a driver nor a Tesla.

Nevertheless, it’s a different and quite disturbing thought for me, because it goes against a whole bunch of personal philosophies, viz.  distrust of electric cars, not being in control of my driving, losing my independence of action, being spied on as I drive — to name but some.

And make no mistake:  this would not be an action born of conveeenience, but of safety concerns.

As I said, it’s an interesting thought, even if nothing ever comes of it.

Random Totty

Gratuitous Chick Pics

Last week we looked at sports channel DAZN’s Eleonora Incardona, and mighty glad I am that we did.

However, DAZN also features our own Murkin example of gorgeous womanhood, one-time model Emily Austin (our Glock-toting Tribette) who deserves closer inspection, I think.

She’s not perfect, of course, in that she prefers to carry one of these:

…instead of something more ladylike, e.g.

…but if she prefers practical over pretty, that’s absolutely her right.

News Roundup

Bad News

And in more alarming news:


…

Time out for an equipment check:


...looks like those SIG 320 wunderwaffen aren’t as good as people say they are.  But Glocks?  Ugh.
#NewExpression #UncommandedDischarge

And speaking of the Great Remigration Program…

…in


...Somalis?  Muslims?  I’ll take “Somali Muslims” for $400, Alex.


...I have a better idea:  let’s drop “sanctuary laws” and increase the “mass raids”.

TRUMP DIRECTS DHS, ICE AGENTS TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM ASSAULTS AFTER ‘THUGS’ THROW ROCKS AT THEM 
...I’m not saying the “thugs” have been asking for it… but they have.  Related:

In Crime News:


...I’ll start celebrating when the orange jumpsuits appear, and not before.


…


...in which we play the “Guess The Race” of the mob.


...and then they tried to sell the movie to TMZ?
#Strylia

From the pages of Wokista Journal:


...only to find that the “idyllic liberal paradise” is boring and Socialist.
#New Zealand

In the Global JewHate Chronicles:


...maybe because that’s exactly what it means, you terrorsymp tart.

Time for some Darwin News:


...and finds out that the nickname is accurate.

And now some unlinked 

 

And as we hurtle down  at breakneck speed:

Dita Von Teese, 52, admits she WANTS to feel ‘objectified and sexualised’
...well, never let it be said that I refused a lady’s request: 


…#GenuinePic

And having revealed all, we leave the news.

But Wait! There’s Less!

Eco-Crap

In a development which should surprise absolutely nobody (with a brain and possessing the magic power of Logic), we have this shocking crisis:

The Netherlands is rationing electricity as its overloaded power grid buckles under the pressure of rapid electrification and ambitious climate goals.

More than 11,900 businesses are stuck in a queue for access to the network, alongside public buildings including hospitals, schools and fire stations. 

After shutting down production at the massive Groningen gas field last year, the Dutch government has pushed a fast transition to electric heating, solar power and battery storage. 

But the national grid has failed to keep pace, creating widespread bottlenecks and driving up costs.

…in trying to escape the much-prophesized “catastrophe” of Global Warming Climate Cooling Change©.

My favorite part of the report:

Thousands of new homes are also waiting to be connected, with some areas warned they may have to wait until the 2030s.

 Imagine buying a new house and being told that you’ll be living in medieval style for the next five or six years.  (The throngs of Muslim “refugees” from the Middle East and Africa might be able to cope, that situation being little different from back home;  the sophisticated Dutch, much less so.)

What amazes me is that the practical and hard-headed Dutch fell for the climate change hoax in the first place.  But perhaps it’s not so surprising given that the Dutch have always been supporters of the European Union;  and we all know what fuckheads those Brussels-based bureaucrats are.