Is AI the End of the World? Or the Dawn of a New One?

Freddie DeBoer believes this “either/or” question, posed by Bari Weiss in The Free Press, is hype, meant to sell you on the idea that AI is something to wholeheartedly embrace:

“The very notion that the world is going to mostly go on the way that it has, always the best bet you can make, has been written out of the conversation,” he wrote in his blog. “It’s unthinkable that we might all be forced to continue to stumble along in the same mundane world, caught up in the same hazy fog we’ve all been caught in for so long.”

I get what he’s saying, but I think he’s wrong. I’m sticking with my lord and savior Elon on this: We shouldn’t take AI lightly.

Freddie’s remarks were made in response to an interview with Sam Altman, the man behind ChatGPT. Click here to read the interview.

And speaking of ChatGPT… here’s a good tutorial on how to use it.

 

A Skirt, a Wig, and a Glock-19 

Jewish American families have the lowest rate of gun ownership of any religious group. But that’s starting to change. And it’s not just the dads that are strapping on the weapons. Click here.

Yes, Orthodox Jewish women are packing heat… and Black women are doing it, too. Click here.

 

Are Harvard Students Smarter Than 5th Graders? 

This bit is fun to watch – a takeoff on a gimmick invented by one of the late-night hosts many years ago. In this case, it is especially interesting because (1) the people attempting to answer the questions are Harvard students, (2) the prize is a thousand in cash, and (3) all but one of the winners was a person of color.

Note: It was pitched as questions that a 5th grader could answer. I thought the questions were harder than that. But they weren’t all that hard. (I was able to answer all but one: “Who was the first US president to reside in the White House?”)

Click here.

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The Statin Diaries: Can High Levels of Cholesterol Be Healthy?

I told you on Dec. 30 that ever since I began taking the statin drug recommended by my VIP doc, I’ve been needing more sleep, taking more naps, and feeling brain-fogged. I couldn’t say for sure that my fatigue was a response to the statin, but when I did some initial research, I discovered that fatigue and brain fog are responses reported by about 60% of those that use these drugs.

Since then, I’ve learned other things. One fact that especially bothered me is that, although statins definitely lower total cholesterol counts (primarily by bringing down high-density lipoproteins – the bad kind), they don’t have any positive effect on lifespan. Take them or don’t take them, your life expectancy is the same.

That didn’t sound right, and so I continued to look for articles and studies that contradicted this conclusion. But I could find none. I brought the question to a few of my doctor friends that prescribe statins. Only one, my cardiologist, had an answer that made some kind of sense. He said that yes, statins won’t extend your lifespan, but they have been proven to lower the risk of stroke and heart attacks.

I thought that was interesting. It suggests that even though statins won’t help you live longer, at least they will reduce the chances that you’ll be spending your remaining time on earth partially paralyzed and/or unable to speak.

This conversation with my cardiologist happened a week ago, so I haven’t had a chance to verify his stance. I’m looking into it now and will report my findings to you when I feel like I have some reasonable level of confidence in answering the life-expectancy question.

One thing I’m looking at now is a conversation between a doctor and a scientist who specializes in cardiovascular disease. They cover a broad range of topics related to statins and cardiovascular health, including some startling facts that challenge the conventional wisdom about cholesterol levels. High levels of overall cholesterol, they seemed to agree, is not necessarily an unhealthy thing.

In fact, for people in their seventies (like me), high cholesterol levels can be a considerable plus. You’ll see that in the attached video when, about half through, the scientist shows a graph of how statins affect mortality over various ages. And it turns out that people in their seventies with high cholesterol (and particularly high HDL) outlive people of the same age whose cholesterol counts are in the recommended range.

Imagine if that is true!

It will mean my chances of living longer will improve if I stop taking this drug that is tiring me out. I’m not drawing any conclusions right now. I’ll keep doing my research and will ask a few of my doctor friends what they think. But the results of this macro-study are giving me hope.

Check it out here.

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Fauda 

A 4-part (so far) Netflix series

Season 1 premiered (US) Feb. 15, 2015

There are two series that I’ve been watching steadfastly for the last two years. Trailer Park Boys, a goofy comedy about ne’er-do-wells living in a trailer park somewhere in Canada, is my go-to when I need a laugh. Fauda is what I depend on for excitement.

The Plot: 

After retiring from the Israel Defense Force (IDF), Doron, a former commander of the special unit, gets roped back into active duty to hunt for a Palestinian fighter he thought he had killed. The plan goes awry when the team’s cover is blown, setting in motion a chaotic chain of events. (Fauda is an Arabic word meaning “chaos.”)

Currently in its fourth season, Fauda was developed by Lior Raz, its lead star, and Avi Issacharoff, an Israeli journalist, drawing on their experiences in the IDF. It is perhaps the hottest Netflix import from Israel. It’s also the first Hebrew-and Arab-language series to make it big overseas.

You can watch the trailer here.

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“I rise at eleven, I dine about two,

I get drunk before seven, and the next thing I do…” 

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester 

Number Two Son sent the following link to me and my brother, a professor of ancient literature at Princeton. He said, “I thought you two would appreciate it… but you should listen to it in private…”

I was intrigued.

It was a poem by John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester, who lived during the reign of Charles II in the late 17th century. The poem itself, as you will see, is bawdy. But it is also technically impressive.

I love the idea that proficiency at writing verse might have been something that the king and his gentlemen friends considered important. In that sense, Wilmot is typical of a group of courtiers of his time that are now known as the Cavalier poets. (Although back then they were sometimes referred to as “roistering gallants.”) For these aristocrats, wit and poetry were considered de rigueur for their class, just as playing the pianoforte was expected of gentle ladies a century later.

(I took a few extra minutes to write that last paragraph because I wanted to see if I could sound like a Princeton professor. My brother said, “Not quite!”)

You can hear the poem beautifully read by Douglas Murray here.

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Cinco de What? Mayonnaise? 

Living in South Florida, I’ve had ample chances to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, which I assumed was a Mexican holiday of some historical event, presumably the day it won its independence from Spain.

Yes and no.

Cinco de Mayo does celebrate a military victory, but not against the Spanish. It was a victory over France at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. In fact, Mexico had achieved independence from Spain fifty years earlier.

Click here for more things you may not know about Cinco de Mayo.

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What I Believe: About People with Gender Dysphoria

And How the Woke Mob Is  Making a Mockery of Them 

In some ways, the transgender debate may be the most important cultural issue of this century. Certainly more important than ageism, xenophobia, and fat phobia. But it’s also more important than sexism, religious animosity, and even racism.

I say that because all the other debates are grounded in some level of shared reality. But transgenderism, as it is being promoted today, is based on an absolute and willful denial of reality. A denial that all rational defenders of the transgender agenda know to be false.

Let me step back for a moment to give you some perspective on my thinking…

I believe there is such a thing as gender dysphoria. I believe it is a real psychological condition that should be taken seriously. But before transgenderism became such a huge political issue, my only thoughts about it came from personal experience.

Longstanding acquaintances of mine had a daughter that began evincing symptoms of gender dysphoria at a young age. The parents struggled with not knowing how exactly to respond for many years. But they took it slowly, recognizing how common it is for young and pre-adolescent children to test out different socially recognized identities. Not just in gender, but in just about every other role, throughout their development. (As every parent knows, and as almost every study has shown, children’s personalities are not firmly established until after adolescence.)

Rather than nudge their daughter one way or the other, the parents took a neutral stance until she had finished high school. By the time she entered college, her transition was, for all intents and purposes, complete. He is today a happy, successful, and charming young man.

Much more recently, I was working on a project for a business I own that required weekly meetings with a team of four people. One of those people was a young man that looked every bit like a young man when we began the project. But gradually, as the weeks and months went by, he began to make small changes towards a more feminine appearance. At the beginning of his transition, I noticed that he was growing his hair, but that didn’t mean anything. And I was a little taken aback when I noticed that his fingernails were painted. But I knew an MMA fighter that painted his toes. By the time he began wearing a touch of makeup here and there, I suspected that something was going on. I wasn’t sure, but I was curious. I asked his manager, “What’s going on with Eric?” Being a younger person with younger person sensibilities, he looked at me like I was crazy.

By that time, we had finished the project and so I had no reason to be back in those offices until nearly a year later. When I did get back, I was introduced to Erica, an attractive and capable young woman. My confusion was gone. I looked forward to working with her in the future.

Those were two good experiences – positive for me and for the people who had transitioned. But I don’t think they are typical of most of what we are seeing today. A disturbingly large number of transgendered celebrities seem to identify more with drag queens than they do with women. And that is one of the things that perplexes me. If gender dysphoria is a real thing, it means that a transgendered woman wants to be a woman, not a man in drag.

These people are imposters. Attention seeking oddballs that are taking advantage of the transgender movement to claim their fifteen minutes of fame. And they are, in my view, an insult to the few people that have true gender dysphoria and deserve our respect and consideration.

A few examples:

* Here’s Dylan Mulvaney, the new icon of transgender woman and her view of what a woman should be.

* Here’s someone that has a psychological condition that needs a new name.

* Here’s a biological man doing what I suppose he thinks is a satire of transgenderism in front of a panel that doesn’t know if he’s serious.

I’ve got a lot more to say on the subject, but that’s enough for today. In future missives, I’ll:

* Give you the factual data on gender dysphoria over the years.

* Explain why the debate about pronouns is actually about free and forced speech.

* Talk about the insanity of allowing transwomen to compete against biological women in any sport, including chess.

* Argue that the transgender movement is not trivial and should not be dismissed… and why, in fact, it is a critical issue about the future of freedom in the “modern” world.

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Go Woke and Go Broke 

Sales for Bud Light took a dive after the marketing VP in charge of the brand deciding to boost sales by getting away from the “frat boy” image and going for a new target audience: beer drinkers that are also fans of Dylan Mulvaney. (See “Notes From My Journal,” above.)

A month after the news broke, and despite a slew of macho ads to counteract the transgender idea, sales are still down nearly 20%.

Read more here.

 

Beware the Digital Dollar

A colleague recommended this blogger as someone with “above-average” knowledge of cryptos and the crypto market today. I watched this clip and several others. Probably because of sheer stupidity, I wasn’t able to find his name. But he is knowledgeable and a good communicator, so I’ve been following him for a few weeks.

Here, he talks about a general threat to the crypto market, one that I’ve been talking about since the beginning.

Check him out and let me know what you think.

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West Beirut 

Written and directed by Ziad Doueiri

Starring Rami Doueiri

Released (US) Sept. 3, 1999

Available on Netflix

West Beirut was fed to me by Netflix’s algorithm. It was great from start to finish. Great in a way that only foreign films can be great.

It’s a movie about friendship, family, religion, politics, and war. It takes place in the mid 70s when a civil war broke out in Lebanon and the city was divided between Muslim-Christian West Beirut and quasi-Christian East Beirut.

There are so many things that are smart and effective in this movie. I liked, in particular, the way it moves in two parallel lines. One is a coming-of-age story of three high school mates, a Christian girl and two Muslim boys, that explores the complexities of sex and romance. The other is a look at how in times of conflict religion can play a major part, either in separating people or holding them together.

You can watch the trailer here.

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The COVID Response: What We Got Wrong.

The Craziest Part of the Propaganda 

As I hope you know by now, virtually every important statement that Fauci and crew told the press in 2020, 2021, and 2022 about COVID, including its origins, its infectiousness, and its deadliness, was false.

What irks me is that anyone with a touch of curiosity and modicum of common sense should have realized from the very beginning that the “facts” being reported could not possibly have been correct.

I explained all that way back at the beginning of the COVID scare. Even with the smattering of information we were given, it was easy to understand that the logic they were using was false and the arithmetic was impossibly wrong.

Looking back at those falsehoods now, it is clear that the greatest and most obviously intentional was the decision to exaggerate the mortality rate (by a factor of seven to nine times!) by instructing hospitals and doctors on how to report the deaths.

I must have mentioned this a dozen times in my blog. And every time I did, I expected to hear back from someone explaining why what I was saying was wrong. But that never happened. I was never challenged because, incredibly, it was true!

What am I talking about? The CDC mandate to classify anyone that died with COVID as having died from COVID.

Here’s a doctor explaining how he felt when he first got the directive.

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