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[AI Can Now Bioengineer Viruses. Should We Let It?]

Ooh! Ooh! I think I know the answer to this one!

AI Can Now Bioengineer Viruses. Should We Let It?

As per this article:

"AI can draft your emails, plan an itinerary for your next vacation or drum up inspiration for your home renovation. It can also now design the genetic code for new biological viruses.

In a new study in the journal Science, scientists from Stanford University and the Arc Institute used artificial intelligence to design the first genomes for viruses that are not found in the natural world. The synthetic viruses are bacteriophages, which target bacteria and, in this case, destroyed E. coli in a lab setting. 

The research raises hopes of possible advances in biotechnology and healthcare, while also raising concerns about malicious actors creating biological weapons or researchers inadvertently creating dangerous biological agents."

But, that's not all AI has shown it can already do.

And so, the Great Filter has acquired yet another new feature.

Stuff I found...

Pretty cool yeah? Either hill or thorney must've drawn the 1 and 2 ton of flax...

Found the high priest ordination certificate a while ago... Lost the original image though... Argh.. Still trying to find it.

Btw how much u think 1 or 2 tons flax are worth...? Hehehe...

Your first graphic is too blurred to make out much of anything.

But, I don't recall having ever seen any color versions of your second and third graphics.

Do you care to reveal your sources?

[The hubris of Donald Trump]

If it's not already there, it's time to add "Megalomania" to the list of the POSOTUS's "alleged" mental illnesses. The following article makes the case: 

The hubris of Donald Trump

"The president reportedly thinks that he is a "Top 10" world historical figure who is meant to change the world. That level of self-aggrandizing often doesn't end well."

I doubt future historians will rate the POSOTUS as being anything more than another bad president on our Worst Presidents List. And, he won't even be "numero uno." His infamous name will be systematically stripped from just about everything he's ever placed it upon. And, his spawn will have to bury him in a secure location to prevent long lines of people from queuing up and pissing on his grave.

As I've already written, the recent news about the hardships being experienced by the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln has jogged my memories. And so, I've been reminded of just how dangerous it is to serve aboard an aircraft carrier.

First off, "Airedales" being blown overboard from the flight deck by jet exhaust was common. But, being "ships company," I seldom heard anything about any of those incidents. And, as no one died in any of those incidents while I was aboard, and injuries were rare, Airedales tended to treat being blown off the flight deck like a slapstick comedy routine. Still, if an Airedale blown overboard believed a "plane director" had intentionally "turned a plane" on them, they would be really pissed. But, those occurrences were also rare, and were quickly dealt with by the flight deck crew.

Now, a couple of months prior to my first cruise, an Airedale was killed in a completely senseless accident. No one was ever punished for it, but some idiot officer, or petty officer, had ordered his people to move an F-4 Phantom from a safe, tied down location in the hanger deck, up to the flight deck, while the ship was rolling far too violently in rough seas to safely launch, or recover aircraft. Without going into the details, I was working nearby, and witnessed most of what had happened, except for actually seeing the man being washed overboard, as he was not in my sightline when the lowered aircraft elevator dipped into the waves during a violent roll to starboard.

When docked in our home port, it was not uncommon for bulky spare parts, etc. coming aboard to be temporarily placed in the aftmost section of the hanger bay, prior to being properly stowed. And, I remember that several days before the ship was deployed to the Mediterranean, on both my first and second cruises, I saw several metal, military coffins stacked up there among the other hardware.

I did a number of internet searches before writing this, but I'm now satisfied that what I remember is accurate. And, that is, during my first cruise, we lost three people. Two were pilots, in two different aircraft, on back-to-back days. Upon takeoff, both aircraft crashed into the sea directly in front of the ship. And, both aircraft, with their pilots aboard, were run over by the ship and sunk. The third person was a seaman who committed suicide. So, none of the coffins I had seen in the hanger bay before my first cruise were utilized, because no bodies were ever recovered.

Other types of accidents, both serious and minor, were common. But, unless you knew the injured person, or someone who knew about the incident, it was unlikely you would ever hear anything about it. For example, once, after running into a couple of boatswain's mate friends in a passageway, the younger boatswain's mate causally mentioned that he was in a good mood, because feeling had started to return to his finger. When I asked what had happened, I learned that his finger had been lopped off by a steel winch cable, rigged to suspend one of a number of ship-to-ship hoses during refueling at sea. (Refueling at sea took place just about every night, weather permitting. And, if we weren't taking on our own ship's fuel, or aviation fuel, we were refueling our escort ships. Most people have no reason to know that an aircraft carrier also serves as a floating fuel depot for its escort ships.)

Anyway, I also learned that fingers being lopped off during refueling at sea happened often enough for the older of my boatswain's mate friends to have been assigned "bagman" duty by the ship's surgeons. That is, it was his job to find the lopped off finger(s), put it/them in a plastic bag, and make sure the bag accompanied the injured boatswain's mate down to sick bay. And, that was because the ship's surgeons had mastered the skills required to reattach most of those lopped off fingers. And, it so happened that the surgeon who worked on my younger friend was so good, if I hadn't been shown his injury, I would have never noticed the very faint, circular scar on his reattached finger.

Last, to put all of this in prospective, my boat actually had, by far, the best safety record of all the aircraft carriers in the Navy.

at the moment I'm using google docs.  The material is a mess at the moment, but once it's not, I'll post links for you to look at if you're interested, I'm not using any other software right now, I'm not sure what would be useful.

Having never played one, I know next to nothing about RPGs. But, please do post some links when you get around to it, as you've aroused my curiosity about those types of games.

Hello, I am a new spag here. I only learned of discordianism a couple months ago, so I will make a complete fool of myself. This may be intentional.
I also really suck at introductions.
My current goal I am working towards is gathering enough brass scrap to cast into an apple.(gold is far too expensive for me)

Welcome to the forum.

There's an Introductions VIII: topic pinned at the top of the Apple Talk board. Being a new member, you may want to consider introducing yourself there. If not, then carry on.

Pergamos,

Your project sounds like a substantial undertaking.

So, would you mind telling us something about the basics? For instance, what software will you be using to design your game?

Thanks.

[The Navy's largest ship continues to be plagued by plumbing issues]

Reading the news about how our newest USN aircraft carriers are designed, and currently operated by the POSOTUS and his Turd Reich henchmen, has jogged my memories back to my old seafaring days. And, thankfully, not all of my memories from that time in my life are bad.

And so, while thinking about the issues the USS Gerald R. Ford has with something as basic as sanitary plumbing, I remembered what Jake the Plumber taught me aboard my old boat. Now, Jake was an "Airedale." ("Airedale" was slang for a sailor attached to an aviation unit, as opposed to ordinary "sea dogs" attached to a ship. Although, if alcohol was available when titles were discussed, we "ship's company" sailors preferred to be called "mighty seafaring men.") Anyway, Jake's family was in the plumbing business, and he intended to return to the family business at the end of his hitch in the Navy. And, Jake got his nickname from that, and the fact that he actually did look like, and often acted like a stereotypical plumber right out of central casting. (There was more, of course, to Jake than that, as it was he who was the first to recommend that I try the food at Los Caracoles, down near the harbor, in Barcelona. And so, I figured, if Jake the Plumber liked their food, then I would probably like it too. But, it was only later, after dining there several times, that I learned Los Caracoles was a world famous restaurant.) Anyway, it was also Jake the Plumber who taught me:

A plumber only needs to know two things: 

1. Shit flows downhill.
2. Payday's on Friday.

Now, he never taught me:

3. Don't lick your fingers. (But, neither Jake, nor anyone else, needed to spell that one out for me.)

But, getting back to the USS Gerald R. Ford, it appears the ship's designers never learned basic plumping, because:

The Navy's largest ship continues to be plagued by plumbing issues

As per this article:

"The world's largest aircraft carrier is experiencing difficulties with a service that is an integral part of every sailor's life — the bathroom.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, which cost roughly $13 billion to manufacture and most recently played a part in U.S. strikes against Venezuela that saw the capture of its sitting President Nicolás Maduro, is facing consistent plumbing issues with the nearly 650 toilets aboard the vessel.

The complications primarily involve the Ford's vacuum collection, holding and transfer system, or VCHT, which transports and disposes wastewater by sucking fecal matter through pipes using pressure."

And, further along in this same article:

"Carter confirmed to Military Times in an emailed statement that the Ford averaged about one maintenance call per day and that those calls were often the result of "improper materials being introduced to the system.""

I'm suspecting that "improper materials being introduced to the system" is a Navy euphemism for "sabotage," similar to how "Racial Unrest" was once a euphemism for mutiny.

Now, from the little research I've done, it appears that VCHT systems utilize fresh water for flushing, rather than saltwater, and are usually found on civilian cruise ships. And, that's nice, but aircraft carriers are NOT civilian cruise ships. And so, this looks likes a costly, problem-some case of overenginnering, because, at sea on my old WWII Era boat, gravity did what now requires a vacuum pump. And, saltwater, pumped directly from the sea, simply flushed sewage downhill into the sea. But, when docked in port, the ship's sewer pipes were connected to a land-based sewer system having a waste treatment plant. And, I have no reason to believe the USS Gerald R. Ford does anything different when it's docked in port.

Now if I could just figure out the temperature and cooking time on this, we could have a vibrant forum once more.

I can't offer you any help with temperature and cooking time. But, starting new metaphysical topics on the Discordian Recipes Board, rather than on the Principia Discussion Board, might be worth a shot. After all, it partially worked for this topic.

[The Hidden Cost of Iran's Drone Strikes: Hit on Logistical Hub Reportedly Helped Spark Navy Supply Problem]

Okay ... one of the aircraft carrier logistics mysteries has been solved, as per the following article:

The Hidden Cost of Iran's Drone Strikes: Hit on Logistical Hub Reportedly Helped Spark Navy Supply Problem

As per this article:

"Alleged supply problems on the USS Abraham Lincoln can be traced back in part to the start of the Iran war, when an Iranian drone strike took out a key American logistical hub in Bahrain, according to a report."

So, they're having "Alleged" supply problems. Well ... okay, I don't much like getting sued either. But, at least, this verifies that Bahrain was a "key American logistical hub."

But, I'm not buying that it would have been a usable logistical hub for aircraft carriers, or anything else trying to fight a war right in the middle of the narrow Strait of Hormuz. Nothing can pass through the Strait of Hormuz without becoming an easy target for Iran. It doesn't matter whether it's an aircraft carrier, a cruiser, a destroyer, a mine sweeper, a submarine, a fleet supply ship, a fleet oiler, or a rubber raft.

And, further along in this article it is written:

"The Lincoln has been stationed in the Arabian Sea, making Bahrain a natural choice for logistical needs. Instead, the Navy has been forced to rely upon the smaller Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, about 2,200 miles away in the Indian Ocean, an anonymous official told The Times."

Well ... I can understand why that statement came from "an anonymous official," because I wouldn't want to go on record as having said that either. I mean, that statement begs the question: Since Diego Garcia is a long, long way from everything, where are all of the supplies coming from that are "alleged" to be available on that tiny, remote coral atoll?

A quick look at the map tells the story. Using Diego Garcia as a logistical hub is a ridiculous "solution" to an aircraft carrier replenishment problem in the Arabian Sea. And so, I'm suspicious of that statement from "an anonymous official."

Concerning a related detail, the problem of simply getting mail to and from the aircraft carriers is really bugging me. And, it's bugging me even more after I remembered a little, but important detail about how aircraft carriers operated back in the day. That is, it used to be standard operating procedure (SOP) for aircraft attempting to land on an aircraft carrier to dump all of their fuel, except for enough to attempt three landings and a "bingo." That is, if the aircraft failed to land after three attempts to "catch a wire" (A "wire" is slang for an arresting gear cable.), it was "bingoed" to a "bingo" landing field within fifty miles of the ship. And, that meant, the ship was very rarely more than fifty miles away from an emergency landing field when its aircraft were flying. This SOP existed to reduce the possibility of an aircraft crashing onto the flight deck with a near full load of fuel, and possibly ordnance. A crash under any circumstances is bad enough. But, a crash with a near full load of fuel would kill a lot of sailors, and possibly even destroy the ship.

The only exception to the SOP that I remember is when we were buzzed by a Russian "Bear" bomber in mid-ocean. Now, during the Cold War, Russia used to send those long-range bombers out over the Atlantic, from somewhere near Murmansk, following a flight plan that took them all the way down to Angola on the west coast of Africa. And, as aircraft carriers are hard to hide, even in the middle of the ocean, those bombers could find us and intentionally buzz the ship, with their bomb bay doors open no less, to test our response. And, the Russians expected our ship's response would be to launch a couple of F-4 Phantoms to chase them away. It all sounds like a silly game, but the Russians knew our SOP. And so, they knew that, after chasing away their bomber, our aircraft had to dump most of their fuel, and then had less than 100% change of landing back on the ship. (Even without dumping, the aircraft still didn't have enough fuel to make it to a "bingo" landing field, as inflight refueling would have had to have been scheduled in advance.) And, although the pilots, and RIOs, would probably have been rescued from the sea after ejecting, the aircraft would have been lost. (As incidents like this were common, coming back from my first cruise, our F-4 Phantoms had been fueled, armed, positioned on the catapults, and had pilots and RIOs standing by in shifts, not long after we exited the Strait of Gibraltar. So, it only took four minutes to launch, after the Bear bomber had been identified on radar. I don't remember anything like that happening on my second cruise. But, that return was odd in that we were relieved by the USS Forrestal in mid-ocean, and then steamed into a storm so violent that the ship had to be drydocked to repair the damage.)   

I bring all of this up because, even in a war zone, an aircraft carrier is going to make an effort to be within an acceptable distance from a "bingo" landing field when its aircraft are flying. And, any acceptable bingo landing field, no matter where it is, should be more than capable of being utilized to also deliver the mail.

Last, after more than fifty years, I think I finally figured out an inside joke. The other day, when I learned that the Navy acronym "COD" stood for Carrier Onboard Delivery, I took a couple of minutes to search for photographs of the of aircraft. And, I did find plenty of photos that matched the plane I remember. But, I couldn't find a COD that was painted the same color as the one on my boat. I thought that was odd, so I looked again this morning, but with no success. Then I tried to think of the name of a color that best matched that of my boat's COD. And, when I realized the closest color match to my boat's Carrier Onboard Delivery aircraft was that of a UPS delivery truck, it hit me. Now I'm surprised the Navy brass let its crew keep that color scheme for so long.

[within]

Thanks for sharing that man, I found it fascinating. Any military force is primarily a supply chain issue (until Roger replaces them all with deathbots).

If this goes on another month, all it would take for Iran to disable the Lincoln is waft some delicious spicy food smell their way.

They could offer safe passage and a feast in exchange for the ship.

Thanks, Faust.

As my last post was already long, I didn't attempt to explain my reasoning behind some of my assumptions. But, since you have an interest in the topic, I'll attempt to do so now. And, I'll try to keep it brief.

First of all, as this is not the first time the US has deployed aircraft carriers in or near the Persian Gulf, I have to believe the US Navy once had some sort of workable, if rudimentary, logistical capability in that theater of operations. It appears that Kuwait was once a main logistical node, and I've seen reference made to a second node, that may have been in Bahrain, or Qatar. But, I don't remember for certain where that second node was, and I haven't been able to confirm its location. Still, it doesn't make any difference now, because with a war being fought right in the middle of the narrow Strait of Hormuz, no port within the Persian Gulf can be safely utilized by the USN by any of its ships.

Second, nothing I'm reading leads me to believe the USN is utilizing any airfields along the the east coast of Oman to transfer mail to and from our aircraft carriers via their COD aircraft. I find that odd, and it leads me to suspect that the USN can't safely and/or easily move much of anything through any of the Persian Gulf countries.

Third, our aircraft carriers are nuclear powered, but our aircraft are not. And, all of those aircraft guzzle down a lot of aviation fuel. So, I'm wonder where all of that aviation fuel is coming from, and where it's being delivered to our fleet oilers. But, I'm pretty sure it ain't being delivered from within the Persian Gulf.

Fourth, every other ship in the fleet needs fuel too. And, that fuel is probably black oil, as it's what powered my old boat, and just about everything else that floated, back in the day. So, I'm also wondering where it's coming from, and where it's being delivered to our fleet oilers. Now, black oil is a much easier commodity to procure worldwide than aviation fuel. But, I'd still like to know where the USN is getting it. And again, I'm pretty sure it ain't being delivered from within the Persian Gulf.

Last, if I had been held captive for as long as, and under the same insane conditions as the sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, I'd be seriously considering taking the offer you've described.

[Pressed on conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, Trump says all the wrong things]

I can't think of any comments that I need add to this article:

Pressed on conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, Trump says all the wrong things

"A reporter noted family members are "concerned about the conditions" on the ship. "No, they're not," the president replied, denying reality."

As per within this article:

"President Donald Trump said effectively nothing about this until Friday afternoon, during a brief Q&A with reporters.

When one reporter noted that family members of U.S. service members are "concerned about the conditions" on the USS Lincoln, the president started to reply before rejecting the premise of what he'd been asked. "No, they're not," the Republican said.

After insisting that the USS Lincoln would soon be "replaced" by another ship, Trump was asked whether the current deployment has gone on too long.

"No, no, no," Trump replied. Leaning in closer to the press corps for emphasis, he quickly added, "Not nearly long enough."

At that point, the president turned and walked away."

[had]

My WW II Era boat was already old long before I stepped aboard. And so, it was scrapped a few years after I finished serving my sentence hitch.

And, it's hard for me to decide what the worst thing was about the food on my old boat. It's pretty much a three-way tie between the food poisoning about once a month, the monotony of being served dried up roast beef nearly every fucking day, and the monotony of having to stand in line for hours every day just to get fed. Taken all together, I, and most of the crew, found ourselves in the unpleasant situation of eating simply because we had to eat.

It took me a long time to find out, but a corpsman eventually told me that I, and the other few hundred random shipmates who were routinely suffering from "stomach virus" about once a month, had not been stricken with any kind of "stomach virus." In reality, we were getting food poisoning from Bacillus cereus, the bacterium that quickly propagates on cooked pasta that is allowed to cool and sit for too long at room temperature before being eaten. (There were other causes for some of the food poisoning incidents, but Bacillus cereus was the main culprit.) However, the ship's medical staff were under orders to tell the crew that those frequent food poisoning episodes were cases of "stomach virus." Anyway, after I stopped eating the galley's pasta, I never got food poisoning again.

Now, the roast beef we were being served nearly every fucking day was usually dried out. And even worse, if we didn't get it for lunch, we got it for dinner, or Midrats (Midnight Rations). I was so sick of roast beef that I refused to eat it for years after I got out of the Navy. But, eventually, at a family gathering, I found myself in a situation where I could not gracefully refuse it. But, eating it reminded me that roast beef is really pretty good if it's properly prepared, and not force-fed to you every fucking day.

On my boat, we actually looked forward to eating C-rations, mainly because they provided us with a little variety. But, C-rations were only issued about once a month, usually for lunch, when the boat was running General Quarters drills.

Looking back on it, the activity that occupied most of my time while I was serving my sentence during my hitch, after sleeping, was standing in line. And, that was mostly because the main galley, that had to feed somewhere around 2,500 low rate sailors a day, had only one serving line. (Enlisted sailors are typically described as having "ratings" and "rate," rather than military "rank.") So, no matter what shift I worked, to avoid standing in a long line for breakfast, I began getting up at 3:30 AM, when the galley first opened, to eat. Then, I would go back to bed for a few hours, if possible. And, if I wasn't working a day shift, I generally skipped lunch altogether. To me, the food just wasn't worth the time it took to stand in line to get it. On the other hand, if I was working a day shift, I had to be given time off to eat. So I then stood in the long line with everyone else, typically for between a half to three-quarters of an hour to get fed.

But, it was tough to avoid having to stand in line for dinner for anywhere from half an hour, to three-quarters of an hour, or more. Going without eating from an early breakfast to midnight is hard if you're required to be physically active. Even so, I occasionally skipped dinner. But, I couldn't realistically do so every day.         

Now, the line for Midrats was usually not very long. But, I had already become a "biphasic sleeper" by getting up very early for breakfast, and then going back to sleep. So, having to further divide my sleep into three phases, to avoid wasting a lot of time standing in line to eat, was just not practical on a noisy, crowded ship where I had zero privacy. (I'm still a biphasic sleeper to this day.)

Now, there was also a small forward galley on the boat, that was open from perhaps 11:00 AM to sometime in the mid-afternoon. But, the menu was limited to "sliders," "clinkers," and "bug juice." That's it, nothing else. Anyway, the "sliders" were burgers made from such poor quality beef that you could see big chunks of veins and arteries sticking out of them. And, sometimes, but not very often, we could get them with cheese. (I have no idea why serving cheeseburgers was so difficult.) And, we called those things "sliders" because they were so greasy that they slid around on the grill like hockey pucks on ice when the boat rocked and rolled. (I was shocked when, many years later, White Castle began advertising their "sliders" on TV. They made their ads sound like a slider was something really good.) The "clinkers" were intended to be French fries extruded from some kind of powdered potato gunk. And, we called  them "clinkers" because they were so hard that they bounced, and made a distinctive clinking noise when they landed on our metal trays. One had to be extremely hungry to be even tempted to eat "clinkers." And, of course, bug juice was the Navy's version of Kool-Aid. The only saving grace to eating any of that crap was that you rarely had to stand in line to get it. Most sailors, including myself, just walked by, grabbed a slider, and gulped it down while continuing on down the passageway. Few ever bothered to sit down to eat anything from the forward galley.

But, as bad as the food was on my boat, it sounds like the food being currently served aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln is even worse.

Back in the day, in the Mediterranean, the logistics required to replenish an aircraft carrier was impressive. Replenishments took place at sea once a month. As we never tied up to a pier in the Mediterranean, only a fraction of our supplies came aboard while we were at a port of call. Replenishments at sea started shortly after dawn, with helicopters continuously delivering pallet loads of supplies, double-stacked in cargo nets, to the flight deck. And, that continued all day until near dusk. But, even after the helicopters stopped flying, it usually took until midnight to get all of the supplies off the flight deck, out of the hanger bay, and into the boat's storage compartments.

I was "ships company" rather than "air wing." But, I used to volunteer to work the flight deck during replenishments to relieve the monotony of my regular, mind-numbing, monotonous jobs. Anyway, during replenishments, my boat would slowly steam straight ahead, while somewhere between four to six cargo carrying ships and tankers formed up into two columns steaming "line ahead" on our port and starboard sides. Then, when all of the boats were in position, the helicopters pilots would begin their aerial ballet, making it look like flying those big double-rotor things was effortless.

The above two paragraphs are my attempt at quickly describing just how many ships, aircraft, and people were required to replenish just one month's worth of supplies to an aircraft carrier on deployment. And, the above short description doesn't cover the effort required to get all of those supplies from the states, or wherever, and onto all of those supply carrying ships. But, to avoid beating this particular subject to death, I'll simply add that I doubt the logistics of aircraft carrier replenishment has changed much over the years. And, I suspect today's supply ships are still taking on their cargo at logistical hubs located somewhere in the Mediterranean. If I'm right, they now have to steam through the Suez Canal, across the Red Sea, and then up to near the Gulf of Oman to deliver their cargo. Then, after all that, those same supply ships have to turn around, go back to the Mediterranean empty, and do it all over again for the other aircraft carrier(s) operating near the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, I acknowledge, there are other possible ways that aircraft carriers operating near the Strait of Hormuz could be replenished. But, no method is easy, fast, or cheap. And, some of the possible ways it could be done are far too dangerous to be worth the risk in a war zone.

Last, given what we're hearing about the problems with mail delivery to the USS Abraham Lincoln, I have to conclude that the Navy has next to no logistical capability anywhere near the Gulf of Oman. Even on my old boat, mail delivery was always dependable. Always. Mail was, and still is, delivered to, and picked up from aircraft carriers using carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft. These were, and still are, cheap, little, twin engine, turboprop cargo planes. The problems we're hearing about mail delivery lead me to believe that the Navy can't even get the fucking mail to an airport close enough to the aircraft carriers for a COD to be able to pick it up. (Everyone called the ugly one on my old boat "The Cod." And, I didn't even know what that acronym stood for until I recently looked it up.) 
 

[Mike Lindell refuses to concede his primary loss and blames voting 'anomalies' despite losing by 10 points]

To the surprise of no one:

Mike Lindell refuses to concede his primary loss and blames voting 'anomalies' despite losing by 10 points

"The MyPillow founder and election conspiracy theorist did not explain the alleged 'anomalies' that his team found in the Minnesota Republican gubernatorial primary"

There's no need to read any further.