“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
I found this pop music from Papua New Guinea, to be strangely enjoyable.
And yes. Last week’s word of the week – “wame” – led me to it!
Not ready to move there. Lows in the 70’s. Record lows in the 50’s.
THE STUFF
The title of the following video is a bit of an overstatement to make you fear AI, and thus to draw you in. What becomes apparent in the end, however, is how well AI works as a tool, much like older computers did, to help solve thorny math and science problems.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Yeah, good luck with that. Just read from here down to the TL;DR if you need to get out of here fast.
There are two main ways that people try to infiltrate this site.
One is by hacking into existing accounts by attempted logins using guesswork on credentials. We have a nice solution to that problem which I will not get into.
The second is by making comments, as either new commenters, or spoofed existing commenters, which comments have to be approved. This second form of infiltration, by comments seeking approval, is what we will discuss today.
So what is happening there?
TL;DR
Somebody just stepped up the level of phony commenting, by using AI to generate a “spam” comment which is substantially more convincing than our normal phony poster spam. It’s probably Ukrainians backed by the CIA, but we’ll never know for sure. The bottom line is that the latest AI allows non-English speakers to generate much better phony messaging, as you will see. I expect that intelligent, targeted, AI comments and “solutions” to the problem will be part of the other side’s big attack before the election.
Background
Since my recent whistle-blow about Boeing, we’ve had some obvious CIA probes, which I have mentioned obliquely in my own comments, and this incoming AI comment may actually be part of that campaign.
For those who are unfamiliar with “spam comments on blogs and websites”, I am presenting some background which others can skip over. Either way, the following sections present some history on my having to deal with spam comments. This provides context to what I just noticed.
Spam and Anti-Spam as a Pincer Move
Comments on this site are one of the primary vectors used by people trying to get into here to undermine things. By far the biggest portion of these comments are spam – people simply trying to post ads, links, and junk.
But things get worse. Beyond spam as a problem, there are fake solutions to the spam problem, and those are also very insidious. The combination of “spam and anti-spam” can be used to censor and control.
I strongly suspect that anti-AI-spam software, with a strong, designed, and desired side-effect of censorship, will be part of future problems, too.
It’s a lot like control by virus and vaccine, if you know what I mean!
Anyway, let’s dig into spam-vs-anti-spam, because it explains a lot about spam comments.
Anti-Spam as a Trojan Horse for Censorship
We have a very nice spam filter, which actually WORKS, because it’s not the phony spam filter called Akismet, which is supplied for “free” by WordPressDotCom. WordPress.com pretends that Akismet is a different company, but it’s just a dodge. Akismet is WordPress.
I spent years dealing with “bugs” in the Akismet and JetPack plug-ins, before I realized that those bugs are actually features for the other side. Akismet, for example, doesn’t like certain wonderful ladies and gentlemen on this site, such as Duchess01, scott467, GA/FL, Linda, and other commenters, both past and present. Akismet would basically hide these people’s comments as “spam”, trying to annoy them and get them to leave the site.
Imagine if Duchess wasn’t here. We would be half-naked, spiritually. And that’s not any way to be, in the middle of a spiritual war. Armor up, baby! I am SO GLAD that I fought the good fight against Akismet, and managed to keep Duchess on the site. Listening to the Lord with my heart is ALWAYS one of the smartest things I can do.
Fake anti-spam software is an amazing form of censorship. WordPressDotCom has some other ways of doing that, too, through “defects” in the JetPack plugin’s features. Those “defects” prevent people from posting. I was very fortunate that Linda’s husband knew which feature to turn off to get out of one of these “bugs”, and that was the beginning of my road to freedom from WordPressDotCom shenanigans.
Hiding weaponized software as carefully fed and watered “bugs” was a sharp gig, but it was too obvious to a developer, coder, builder, tester and debugger like me. Once I figured out that it was THEM and not us, I pressured Akismet in various ways to “fix things” for the particular people who were being locked out, despite the fact that Akismet makes this hard as hell. They slow-walked me through various processes, but each time I would up the ante of public disclosure quickly and exponentially, until they would very rapidly BTFO.
All of this was later solved by getting off WordPressDotCom and having our own, pure, WordPress DOT ORG site.
Here are three prior posts where I called out Automattic – the company behind WP.com. I got INSTANT BTFO on their censorship with these posts.
On our new site – this one – I was able to ditch Akismet for a far better spam solution, which I will not name. The spam filter isn’t perfect, but it’s close. VERY little spam gets past it.
Amazing what one can do, when one HONESTLY tries to stop spam.
But HERE is the kicker.
What spam does get past, is always VERY interesting.
Sometimes, it’s not actually spam, but something even more insidious – a targeted attempt to get a registered commenter on the site.
Let’s talk about that.
Site Infiltration Through Fake Spam
There is a level of website comment spam that is just straightforward and obvious links to websites, companies, crazy people, and malware. Stuff like VIAGRA, ONLINE GAMBLING, and CHURCH OF BABYLON FIVE REVELATION. Let’s call that “level zero“.
We’re not talking about that. Almost any anti-spam software eliminates that stuff immediately, or lets just a wee bit of it through for approval or rejection on lighter settings, to let the administrator know that the software is “on the job”.
At levels of spam intelligence beyond that, comment spam is designed to look – barely – like a legitimate NEW poster, hoping to get on the site. Most caught spam that I see (level one) looks like that. It’s often obsequious, cringeworthy, and eye-rolling. The most likely purpose is simply to get a stupid link on a website, by getting a comment approved. The main targets are self-deluded blog owners who either want comments on their site, no matter how degrading, or “want to believe” the fawning praise or mild constructive criticism offered by the phony commenters.
Here is some “normal” level one spam.
Keep up the amazing work! Can’t wait to see what you have in store for us next.
This is really interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger. I’ve joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your magnificent post. Also, I’ve shared your site in my social networks!
Every time I read one of your posts, I come away with something new and interesting to think about. Thanks for consistently putting out such great content!
The “skilled blogger” stuff just makes me laugh out loud.
OH, NOES, DON’T FLATTER ME SOES!!!
That’s the normal spam. There is typically a web link to some sketchy client business that goes with it. Real rubes may fall for it, but most will not. If a moderator approves it, some stupid link gets posted on the internet, some spammer gets paid, and that’s that.
Sometimes we get dozens of spam comments that are absolutely identical, except for the link. Doesn’t matter – our filter finds them all and stops them.
However, it’s the spam comments that are not really spam comments that are more interesting. These are comments that – if you look a bit more closely – seem with some certainty to be the product of a real human intelligence posting. Those are “level two” and above.
These comments may even seem to be responding to individual commenters on our site – but are worded carefully, so that they are still likely to be dismissed as spam. Targeted infiltration does not want to stir up new, active, and knowing defenses on the target site.
We periodically get these out of Pakistan, but they’re probably coming from somebody else, because false attribution and spoofing are so common. Some of the phony comments are pretty ingenious, because they try to spoof (pretend to be) actual commenters on our site, like scott467 or DePat. Clearly those attackers have STUDIED this site. Thankfully, there are other “tells” that can be used to dismiss such comments.
The people behind these attacks are especially active when people are fighting and arguing here, because that is when it’s more likely that the moderator (ME!) will make a rash decision to approve a post, for various reasons. The psychology behind some of their moves seems quite intelligent.
Then there is “level three” infiltration, which has to be solved by Wolf’s Extreme Vetting. You may remember that term, which was more of a thing when there were lots of people clamoring to get on the site. We’ve had actual FBI agents and known CIA assets try to get on the site. NOPE. Ain’t gonna happen.
But let’s drop back to level two.
AI-Assisted Fake Spam
Yesterday, we got something quite interesting. We had a piece of “uncaught spam” in the “level two” bin, which had the following characteristics:
probable origin – Eastern Ukraine – Nazi area not too far from the front lines
spam alibi – shilling for an online casino gambling site out of India
AI tactic – made its pitch by discussing the site tagline from Oppenheimer
Check out the spam pitch.
This is a great quote from Oppenheimer that highlights the importance of transparency and critical thinking. Freedom of inquiry and open criticism are indeed necessary to prevent errors and move towards truth. How can I help you further?[LINK TO SPAM SITE]
I hate to say this, but that sounds much more like a real person to me, than all this other crap I’m getting. It was certainly a WAY better grade of level two spam than we normally get, and it got right past our excellent spam filters. Based on my own reaction, it was also way more effective than most infiltration attempts, which tend to get more and more instant side-eye. This spam actually based its pitch on the site itself – not just the “skilled blogger” bullshit.
It actually had me going for a fraction of a second!
And – in my opinion – the analysis of the site goes beyond just the tagline.
Who does the commenter sound like?
Quite frankly, to me, that wording sounds a lot like either Wolf Moon, or TheseTruths.
Of course, AI has no trouble “sounding like” specific, actual people. It can read this entire site in seconds.
Now THAT is targeting! By somebody who QUICKLY knew how to sound to get the “moderator” to approve the post.
This is what a slick bullshitter does. He tries to appeal to the mark by sounding like either the mark or a trusted person. If you’ve ever known criminals, they come on very quickly in that way.
The last little bit, which is much more stupid (“How can I help you further?”) throws it back into the spam category, and IMO that tag-on sentence is very intentional, so that if I the recipient’s spidey senses are being triggered, those suspicions will be relieved by the thought that “it’s just spam.” The recipient will flush it, rather than doing what I’m doing now, which is to take note, to realize what is actually going on, and to dig in, looking at future risks.
But imagine how deceptive that comment could have been, if the authors had not added the “spam” dodge at the end!
The comment is designed for me to not read it too closely. They were hoping that I would either just approve it, or dismiss it as spam.
The thing is, to me, this comment is CLEARLY the result of AI.
It sounds VERY much like many of the AIs I’ve dealt with.
And if it were me programming it, I would have done exactly what I think they did, which is to have it read the site and construct a comment to try to get an account on the site, but not raise any awareness of the attack, so that they could “try again” if it failed.
My theory?
Somebody, somewhere, such as Langley, is helping the Ukrainians use AI in cyberwar, and giving them lists of people to target. Very likely the CIA and their “friends”. You know – the people who are assassinating, or attempting to assassinate, honest politicians like Abe, Fico, Bolsonaro, and others.
I suspect that the evil powers will milk this form of attack for a while, letting it get more and more sophisticated and pernicious, until the “problem” is pumped up by the media, and is ripe to be “solved”. Probably using woke AI that the BLOB controls.
SO – we get screwed – both as the problem builds – AND when they offer solutions at the expense of truth and freedom.
Yeah. Anyway, I now expect an increasing load of hard-to-handle AI comments to hit before the election. Along with calls by the commies to “do something” – that being something that harms freedom.
Get ready. This is your distant early warning, patriots. Trouble is coming, as winter approaches, and it stinks of government-abused AI.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Our various sister sites, listed in the Blogroll in the sidebar
Our beloved country is under Occupation by hostile forces.
Daily outrage and epic phuckery abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Joe Biden didn’t win.
And we will keep saying Joe Biden didn’t win until we get His Fraudulency out of our White House.
Wolfie’s Wheatie’s Word of the Week:
doxology
noun
a short hymn of praises to God in various forms of Christian worship, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns. The tradition derives from a similar practice in the Jewish synagogue, where some version of the Kaddish serves to terminate each section of the service.
Demonstrated in a video
MUSIC!
Had to get more Phil Wickham! But this one is a little different.
WOW.
THE STUFF
The previous week’s gospel song led me to this segment via YouTube’s algorithms. Sometimes YouTube does some very good things.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Our various sister sites, listed in the Blogroll in the sidebar
Our beloved country is under Occupation by hostile forces.
Daily outrage and epic phuckery abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Joe Biden didn’t win.
And we will keep saying Joe Biden didn’t win until we get His Fraudulency out of our White House.
Wolfie’s Wheatie’s Word of the Week:
thereon
adverb
synonym of thereupon
On or upon this, that, or it.
Following that immediately; thereupon.
On that or this.
Used in a sentence
Wolf typed in the URL, and was treated thereon to the most uproarious meme.
MUSIC!
“Thereon” is not to be confused with the occult band “Therion”, which is not shown here. Instead, we’ll do some gospel!
Great stuff! And speaking of stuff…..
THE STUFF
First, a quick note of thanks to everybody who helped keep the site going during my recent absence. You are all greatly appreciated, and when I say God Bless You, I mean it!
I am pleased to report that my health is continuing to improve, and that the things I need to get done, are getting done. God is good! ALL THE TIME!
Again, thank you for your prayers, your well-wishes, and your continued presence here!
I thought this was a nice science history video – not primarily for the science, but for the human story. Steve talked about this guy, too, so it’s not totally unfamiliar.
What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?
Speaker Johnson Pinging you on January 6 Tapes
Just a friendly reminder Speaker Johnson. You’re doing some good things–or at least trying in the case of the budget–but this is the most important thing out there still hanging. One initial block released with the promise of more…and?
We have American patriots being held without bail and without trial, and the tapes almost certainly contain exculpatory evidence. (And if they don’t, and we’re all just yelling in an echo chamber over here, we need to know that too. And there’s only one way to know.)
Either we have a weaponized, corrupt government or we have a lot of internet charlatans. Let’s expose whatever it is. (I’m betting it’s the corrupt weaponized government, but if I am wrong, I’d like to see proof.)
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Small Government?
Many times conservatives (real and fake) speak of “small government” being the goal.
This sounds good, and mostly is good, but it misses the essential point. The important thing here isn’t the size, but rather the purpose, of government. We could have a cheap, small tyranny. After all our government spends most of its revenue on payments to individuals and foreign aid, neither of which is part of the tyrannical apparatus trying to keep us locked down and censored. What parts of the government would be necessary for a tyranny? It’d be a lot smaller than what we have now. We could shrink the government and nevertheless find it more tyrannical than it is today.
No, what we want is a limited government, limited not in size, but rather in scope. Limited, that is, in what it’s allowed to do. Under current circumstances, such a government would also be much smaller, but that’s a side effect. If we were in a World War II sort of war, an existential fight against nasty dictatorships on the brink of world conquest, that would be very expensive and would require a gargantuan government, but that would be what the government should be doing. That would be a large, but still limited government, since it’d be working to protect our rights.
World War II would have been the wrong time to squawk about “small government,” but it wasn’t (and never is) a bad time to demand limited government. Today would be a better time to ask for a small government–at least the job it should be doing is small today–but it misses the essential point; we want government to not do certain things. Many of those things we don’t want it doing are expensive but many of them are quite eminently doable by a smaller government than the one we have today. Small, but still exceeding proper limits.
So be careful what you ask for. You might get it and find you asked for the wrong thing.
Political Science In Summation
It’s really just a matter of people who can’t be happy unless they control others…versus those who want to be left alone. The oldest conflict within mankind. Government is necessary, but government attracts the assholes (a highly technical term for the control freaks).
His Truth?
Again we saw an instance of “It might be true for Billy, but it’s not true for Bob” logic this week.
I hear this often, and it’s usually harmless. As when it’s describing differing circumstances, not different facts. “Housing is unaffordable” can be true for one person, but not for another who makes ten times as much.
But sometimes the speaker means it literally. Something like 2+2=4 is asserted to be true for Billy but not for Bob. (And when it’s literal, it’s usually Bob saying it.) And in that sense, it’s nonsense, dangerous nonsense. There is ONE reality, and it exists independent of our desires and our perceptions. It would go on existing if we weren’t here. We exist in it. It does not exist in our heads. It’s not a personal construct, and it isn’t a social construct. If there were no society, reality would continue to be what it is, it wouldn’t vanish…which it would have to do, if it were a social construct.
Now what can change from person to person is the perception of reality. We see that all the time. And people will, of course, act on those perceptions. They will vote for Trump (or try to) if their perception is close to mine, and vote against Trump (and certainly succeed at doing so) if their perception is distant from mine (and therefore, if I do say so, wrong). I have heard people say “perception is reality” and usually, that’s what they’re trying to say–your perception of reality is, as far as you know, an accurate representation of reality, or you’d change it.
But I really wish they’d say it differently. And sometimes, to get back to Billy and Bob, the person who says they have different truths is really saying they have different perceptions of reality–different worldviews. I can’t argue with the latter. But I sure wish they’d say it better. That way I’d know that someone who blabbers about two different truths is delusional and not worth my time, at least not until he passes kindergarten-level metaphysics on his umpteenth attempt.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
Gold took another beating…but not as bad as last week. It did actually drop through the 2300 mark a couple of times on Friday but at least partially recovered.
On the plus side platinum is doing very well right now; you will note it has almost closed the gap with palladium (and I can remember when palladium was 1/5th the price of platinum).
Science Series
Although I appreciate the kind words from last Saturday, my heart just isn’t in it at the moment.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
