Kirk Israel's commonplace and blog. Quotes and links daily since 2001.
2026.04.02
Bootsy Collins Explains the Concept of The One:
2,400 year-old skeleton mosaic discovered in Turkey with the caption: "Be cheerful, enjoy your life"
via
2026.04.01

Open Photo Gallery

2026.03.31

One final robot birthday cake for me... a deck of cards to celebrate 52...
2026.03.30
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2026.03.29
Yesterdays No Kings Events, Waltham and Boston (including view from the stage)

Open Photo Gallery

2026.03.28
I choose my friends for their looks, my enemies for their intelligence.
Alfredo in "Cinema Paradiso"

2026.03.27
Man and machines share in the stimulating exchange of...aaargh.
Eddie (Heart of Gold's Shipboard Computer), Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts (Douglas Adams)
Once again, Douglas Adams was SO far ahead of his time. This one definitely captures some of the vibes of life with LLM.

Why? Because for all their warfighter posturing, ICE agents get a certain kind of power from seeming like a ragtag layman's militia. They envision themselves as members of Donald Trump's personal security force, exempt from the legal and regulatory strictures that--to varying extents--keep other law enforcement units in line. More ideologically driven than the military, more openly hostile than a police department (and with about one-third of the training), ICE is cultivating an image of unpredictable brutality.
It's weird thinking about that compared to Hegseth's "anti-beardos" emphasis on looking so orderly in the regular military.