Posts filed under ‘WALT’S OPINIONS’
THE OLYMPICS AND AI
THE OLYMPICS AND AI
What is the definition of a sport?
I once had a friend who said for an event to be considered a sport there had to be either a score or time involved. I will include two more criteria, distance and accuracy. For distance consider the shotput or similar events. For accuracy consider archery and again similar events.
If only events which involved the above four criteria many Olympic events in both the summer and winter Olympics, true crowd pleasers, would have to be eliminated. Summer Olympics would not see any gymnastics. Winter Olympics would lack figure skating. In such events as these the winners are determined by opinion. But in those events where winners are determined by opinion AI could provide a remedy to make judging more valid.
To determine the merits of judging in the above events opinion could be replaced by concrete criteria if AI is involved. Here is my thinking.
To determine the winners of opinion-oriented events a committee of representatives from prominent countries which are usually present in the competition along with past winners of that competition. In this way there would be no politics involved, which has been a problem in the past.
A method could be developed where each member of the group can produce what they consider to be, in their mind, the perfect performance. All those results could then be fed into a computer to determine the ultimate performance for the event. When the event was to take place a series of cameras could be set up to record the athlete’s performance from various angles and this could be matched up to the ultimate performance determined by the panel.
It seems to me that this would eliminate any prejudice or inexperience of a judge and determine a winner beyond any shadow of a doubt.
What do you think?
This is my speculation on how AI could be used as a method of judging some Olympic events. I am sure a vast improvement can be made on the subject. This is merely an attempt to start the thought process going.
TRUMP’S TRUTH SOCIAL ACCOUNT: WHO CAN POST?
TRUMP’S TRUTH SOCIAL ACCOUNT: WHO CAN POST?
This post is appearing sooner than my next post usually would. I felt it was necessary to make it after what was reported recently concerning the disgusting post made on Truth Social about the Obamas.
Trump says he had nothing to do with the post. That someone working for him made the post without his knowledge.
Whenever there is a post on Truth Social and released as news I always assumed it was made by Trump. Now we are told that there are others with the ability to make posts which can be considered news. Posts where what is said could be considered opinions and action of the president.
To me this gives the ability for some unknown individual to create posts without the president’s knowledge. Posts which could have critical results. Post expressing thoughts on the economy, discussing international concerns and even start a war.
From now on it will be impossible to know for sure that each post on Truth Social, where posts are assumed to be made by Trump, are indeed made by him. From now on these posts deemed to be newsworthy should include the name of the author.
ICE MASKS: WHY DO THEY NEED THEM?
ICE MASKS: WHY DO THEY NEED THEM?
ICE agents protest against the call to remove their masks. They say they need them for their safety. But why do they feel that they are in danger? I think the circumstances are of their own making.
If they weren’t so abusive against American citizens. If they think that they can kick down doors without a warrant and no one would mind. If they weren’t guilty of having no respect for the law and not exhibiting any respect for their fellow Americans. The result of all that they lack in the actions they exhibit is why they need masks.
If they acted as they should while carrying out their mission there would be no need to fear for their safety. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone committed to enforcing the law wear a mask. Maybe if ICE agents began respecting their fellow citizens and the laws of the land they wouldn’t need those masks.
What do you think?
SEASIDE HEIGHTS: MEMORIES WERE NOT RELIVED
I have a habit I have developed over the years when I form a great memory at a location as the years pass I don’t return. For I don’t want my memories dashed if things have changed for the worse. The following is a story that reinforces that habit of mine.
SEASIDE HEIGHTS: MEMORIES WERE NOT RELIVED
In my youth growing up in Newark, New Jersey, a week’s vacation at the shore was rare for our cash-strapped family, but they did occur. When they did take place, it was always at Seaside Heights, located on the New Jersey shore, and always the same bungalow on Sumner Avenue. The event was an extended family affair with my mother’s siblings and always with her oldest sibling, unmarried Auntie Zosia (Polish for Sophie). I have a feeling she contributed a great deal of my family’s share of the cost, she was always helping us out. Perhaps, a future post will be dedicated to Auntie Zosia. She deserves to be remembered.
Another unusual characteristic of our shore vacation was that every night my dad would be handing out cash to us kids to spend while walking the boardwalk while normally little money was available. I think this was Auntie Zosia in action again behind the scenes. Nothing was ever said about the source of this new-found wealth, but that was the way she usually worked.
The bungalow on Sumner Avenue was only half a block from the boardwalk, and because of its close proximity to the ocean, the house was permeated with constant salt-tinged moisture, not an unpleasant benefit of a life near the ocean.
The week was filled with family bonding and boardwalk adventures. An early morning visit to the beach to claim our piece of sand with an army blanket, in those days everyone had an army blanket, then a patrol exploring the area of the boardwalk under the shooting gallery to harvest the small copper shell casings that would fall through the boards. Why, because we were kids.
The days were spent on the crowded beach with the occasional dip into the frigid ocean jumping the waves. Nights were spent on the boardwalk playing miniature golf and going on the amusement rides. The adults would congregate around the spinning wheels of chance hoping to win towels, candy and yes – cigarettes.
Those were also the days of the penny arcade when a pocket full of pennies could entertain you for hours. Investing pennies in claw machines harvesting tiny sets of plastic false teeth along with other plastic junk you kept forever or until your mother cleaned. One of my favorite ways to spend my pennies was at the card machines. For two cents inserted, out would pop a post-card sized picture of a baseball player or airplane.
Rainy days were not a washout at the shore thanks to the penny arcade. If you wanted to make a slightly larger investment of a nickel, you could play the baseball pinball machine. A steel ball was pitched and the lever you worked was your bat. Depending on your skill, and of course luck, you scored runs. The best part was, as the runs added up, you were rewarded with free games. A nickel sometimes brought you an hour’s worth of entertainment if you were ‘hot’ that day.
You can tell my memories of summers spent on Sumner Avenue in Seaside Heights are fond and cherished. I tried to pass some of that fondness on to my kids – didn’t work.
It was shortly before Easter when I drove my wife and two daughters through the pine barrens of New Jersey to visit Seaside Heights for a weekend to renew my love and establish their love for this beach town. It had been more than twenty years since I last visited the resort. I expected some change, or course, but was not prepared for the amount of change I discovered. I guess Thomas Wolfe was right. Driving down Sumner Avenue I was stunned. Where were all the bungalows, the saltwater toffee store selling that traditional costal confection, the bakery where daily we purchased rolls for lunch – all gone? The eccentric guy who lived on the corner of Sumner Avenue across the street from the boardwalk whose overgrown yard was the source of fantastic stories – gone. All replace by an endless parking lot surrounded by loud bars. My mind’s eye could see what was once there, but nothing could be shared with my family other than what it was now.
But there was still the boardwalk.
Surprisingly, the boardwalk was more or less as I remembered. It was off-season so the only ride open was the indoor merry-go-round. Of course, the penny arcade – gone, replace by mindless video games, no chance to claw-up those precious little false teeth. At least my girls got to play Skee ball and watch their prize tickets accumulate to be redeemed for useless junk precious to me.
Driving home, I know my family wondered what the big deal was, while I sought to regain the memories dashed by our pilgrimage, trying to erase the reality of our visit. Now, only the boardwalk anchored my memories of what it used to be, and that young boy with his pennies and his dreams of the rewards they would win.
Then Sandy came for a visit and the roller-coaster was ocean-bound and the wheel-of-chance booths blown asunder. Some rebuilding slowly accomplished only to be erased by fire.
First, all my memories finding no renewal other than that beloved boardwalk, and then the double dose of destruction visited upon the memorial of my youth. I cannot revisit Seaside Heights. That little boy haunting the boards did not survive fire and flood
THE UKRANIAN COLD IS HERE
THE UKRANIAN COLD IS HERE
The massive storm has come and gone leaving its mark on many of our lives as a vast number of us huddle in the cold waiting for the restoration of power. Some will have no refuge from the cold isolated by snow and ice in their homes. This may sound cruel, but I hope many of our elected officials, those who have the ability to help Ukraine and are determined not to, are suffering some from this lack of power and the bitter cold. The members of congress who deny Ukraine, a nation fighting for their freedom and for democracy the assistance they need.
We all had notice in advance for days of this advancing storm. Days to prepare. While in Ukraine it isn’t a storm which brings the cold, but the Russians. There is no warning, no time to prepare. The cold comes without warning.
Our government is reluctant to aid Ukraine in their quest in maintaining their freedom. Our president has done what Putin desires in this war and is reluctant to take a firm stand for the people of Ukraine.
It is time for our government to come out of its moral cold and consider what must be done.
THE SHAPE OF MOVIE ALIENS REVEALED
THE SHAPE OF MOVIE ALIENS REVEALED
In a post on January 12, I dealt with the shape of aliens and how I have heard complaints that they usually, in some way, resemble us. The Blob, Nope and Solaris were movies where the aliens definitely did not look like us.
SPOILER ALERT. If you have not seen these movies and want to save the identity of aliens until after you see the movies. STOP READING NOW.
In The Blob it is hard for me to believe that it is an intelligent life form capable of supporting a society. I think of the blob as a being which an advanced society sent to see what is ‘out there’ and has some means of reporting back. Really, it is nothing more than an eating machine. I also, in past posts, mention that I wrote a novella, Elmo’s Sojourn, where a retired scientist transported an alien species through wormholes into his cellar and decides to return to its home planet only to discover that it is actually someone’s pet. I get the same sort of distraction with The Blob.
Now to Nope and Solaris which, I feel, demonstrates fantastic departure from the usual alien shape
In Nope an alien ship hovers in Earth’s skies. There is one point in the movie when there is a rapid extension from the craft in the sky. I thought that this was the alien showing itself.
However, the alien is, in fact, the entire spacecraft. I think this is a fantastic piece of science fiction imagination. This started me trying to picture its society and how it multiplies. Probably as an ameba does. It reaches a point where it splits.
Years ago, I belonged to a very small science fiction writers’ group. In the group was a woman who wrote a story which had an interesting twist. She had a spacecraft which could transport passengers and the entire spacecraft was an alien. Her imagination was ahead of its time.
Now to Solaris where the alien is the ocean covering the planet. The ocean can produce solid objects. It also controls the thought of the human inhabitants in the spacecraft orbiting the planet. To show the extent of the mind control the ocean has over humans, one of them is visited by his wife who has been dead for ten years.
At the end of the movie the man visited by his dead wife returns to Earth or thinks he has returned to Earth. The movie shows he is in the same setting where he was before he left. The scene pulls back and you see an island in the ocean. That is where he actually is. One thing you notice when he is back on ‘Earth’ is that the ocean made a mistake. It is raining inside of the house.
So much for aliens who usually resemble us.
IDS AND ICE AGENTS
IDS AND ICE AGENTS
I’m going to postpone my planned post for something I just saw on the news which upset me, and if you saw it, I hope upsets you too.
And ICE AGENT was shown repeatedly asking a woman to show him her ID. I find this unusual in this country. This reminds me of scenes in movies in communist or fascist countries where people are constantly required to show their papers. But considering the current state of things, the comparison is frightening.
I’ve got a question, Shouldn’t ICE Agents, usually masked, be required to show their IDs when confronting a person. Our president recently posted that that area is full of dangerous criminals, rapists, escapees from insane asylums and worse. When someone confronts you wearing a mask, and with all these extremely dangerous people walking around, shouldn’t they be required to identify themselves?
What do you think?
THE SHAPE OF ALIENS
THE SHAPE OF ALIENS
Some time ago I heard of a complaint about the shape of aliens in movies. Being a science fiction writer, this caught my attention.
The complaint was that the shape of aliens in movies usually resemble us or look vaguely like us. They will have a torso and a head or something that resembles a head and some sort of sensory organs. Along with appendages be they arms legs or tentacles.
The reason for this post is to present three movies which break this mole.
The first movie is the old classic The Blob which I discussed in a recent previous post. Many know what the Blob looks like. However, younger science fiction enthusiasts may not. You can view The Blob on YouTube to see what the alien does looks like.
The next movie is Solaris. A Russian version of the movie is also available on You Tube. There was also an American version starring George Clooney. In this movie you may not realize who the alien is until the end of the movie. You might even have to read about it on Google to confirm your suspicions.
The final movie is Nope, one of the best science fiction movies I have seen in quite a while. You will have to search for this one. I saw this movie once along with someone having their second viewing. They had to explain a few points in the movie I did not catch. But they still missed who the alien was. If you can’t identify the alien, or make sure you are correct, you again can Google for an explanation identifying the alien and explaining the fine points of the movie.
I will wait until January 18 to post an explanation of the identity of the alien in each movie. This should give you plenty of time to, if you are interested, view all or some of these movies. Whether or not if you watch them you can visit my blog on January 18 for an explanation of the alien’s identity.
THE BLOB: A CLASSIC WITH FLAWS
THE BLOB: A CLASSIC WITH FLAWS
I just finished watching, perhaps, the worst science fiction/horror movie I ever saw. And I have seen quite a few science fiction movies because they are my favorite genres. Yet this movie is one of the most famous movies of this type made during the 1950’s.
The movie was The Blob made in 1958. I must have seen it as a kid. Now I wanted to see the movie again because I live in the middle of Blob country., West Chester, PA. Mentioned in the movie is the town of Downingtown, which is just down the road. But the hub of Blob country is the nearby town of Phoenixville home of the Colonial Theater. The town holds a Blob fest every summer. And if you want to be part of the main event during the fest and redo the most famous scene from the movie you can be part of the crowd running out of the Colonial Theater.
The inspiration for this post was the ending seem in many monster movies of this era, The End ?.
In the movie Steve McQueen is the only name which survived the test of time. I can’t really say he acted in the movie; no one really acted in the movie, they just talked. And I would say the plot was weak at best. The blob comes down as a meteor and forms a crater. In the crater is a small sphere which opens when an old man discovers the crater and when the sphere opens, there is the blob which attaches to the man and the ‘action’ begins. Later in the movie Steve McQueen’s character, along with some of his friends, discovers the crater and a hot rock which they theorize as the origin of the blob. This is never corrected so the origin of the blob goes from being a sphere to a rock.
McQueen’s character and his friends spend the majority of their time trying to convince the town sheriff that there is a monster rolling around town eating people. Soon the sheriff goes from disbelief to accepting the fact that people are being eaten and puts the number at 50 for no apparent reason while trying to disperse the growing crowd. Little to nothing is explained in the movie as to the origin of the Blob. Things just happen. What inspired this piece is how the Blob is defeated.
It turns out that the Blob cannot stand cold. After cooling it down using fire extinguishers they somehow load it onto a transport, I assume the plane is refrigerated, there is a lot that needs to be assumed in this movie. The blob is transported on a pallet which is attached to a parachute and dropped into the arctic.
The end of this movie should, especially if you are a science fiction writer, start your mind churning. Visit my blog on January 21 and your imagination will receive some direction.
VENEZUELA VS THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
VENEZUELA VS THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
Could someone explain to me why there is not enough money to help millions of Americans to keep their medical benefits through The Affordable Care Act yet there is enough money to send 105 aircraft, carrying highly sophisticated weapons, to attack Venezuela and at the same time maintain a massive naval force off the country’s coast?
And now there is another list of countries who may deserve America’s attention.
I don’t understand anything anymore.
Where are the Adults?
