I used davinci.ai and seedream 5.0 and the "Retro Pop Graphic" style Jokes that make you feel smart if you get them.

I think 33 was the only one I had to reverse figure out from similar jokes.

And for 11, it's funnier if the mathematician finds the extinguished remnants, than relights the stuff, then goes to bed - since he was reduced it to a previously solved problem.

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Lynette sent me for some cabbage, 2.5 lbs...

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FBI head Patel - October before an election, what fine time for a trip to visit Russia. ("Although Republicans on the panel concluded that Russia mounted an influence operation to "undermine the U.S. liberal democratic order," they rejected the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia aspired to help Trump win the 2016 election." -- I guess you only have to worry about election tampering when you worry it goes against your side?)

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... if there is a terror attack between now and November, please bring at least the possibility it was a fake into account. Posting this now... world cup halftime had muppets doing Seven Nation Army (JP HOnk does a swingy version of that) and BTS' Dynamite, which is a song School of Honk does.

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Spain Humiliates Trump After He Refuses to Get Out of Victory Photos what a joke our president is.

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listen to me, this is so so important: you've gotta get used to really giving it your 60% as a default. like don't half-ass it necessarily but try not to go over 70% or so of an ass. you'll feel better and live a happier more fulfilled life, and on the rare occasions where you do need to lock the fuck in you'll be able to pull off bullshit that the sad miserable wretches giving it their 100% can never dream off, because they're busy draining themselves dry and you have energy reserves to spare.

Some AI slop, scenes from the Museum Of Natural History and other parts of NYC, 2 bandshots and the Museum of Science moose.

"Lameth, you must know," continued the chancellor, pontifically, "pwesents a new and most intwesting addition to my pwevious knowledge of the 'Owigin Question."'

"Which question?" asked Hardin.

"The 'Owigin Question.' The place of the owigin of the human species, y'know. Suahly you must know that it is thought that owiginally the human wace occupied only one planetawy system."

"Well, yes, I know that."

"Of cohse, no one knows exactly which system it is – lost in the mists of antiquity. Theah ah theawies, howevah. Siwius, some say. Othahs insist on Alpha Centauwi, oah on Sol, oah on 61 Cygni – all in the Siwius sectah, you see."

"And what does Lameth say?"

"Well, he goes off along a new twail completely. He twies to show that ahchaeological wemains on the thuhd planet of the Ahctuwian System show that humanity existed theah befoah theah wah any indications of space-twavel."

"And that means it was humanity's birth planet?"

"P'haps. I must wead it closely and weigh the evidence befoah I can say foah cuhtain. One must see just how weliable his obsuhvations ah."

Hardin remained silent for a short while. Then he said, "When did Lameth write his book?"

"Oh – I should say about eight hundwed yeahs ago. Of cohse, he has based it lahgely on the pwevious wuhk of Gleen."

"Then why rely on him? Why not go to Arcturus and study the remains for yourself?"

Lord Dorwin raised his eyebrows and took a pinch of snuff hurriedly. "Why, whatevah foah, my deah fellow?"

"To get the information firsthand, of course."

"But wheah's the necessity? It seems an uncommonly woundabout and hopelessly wigmawolish method of getting anywheahs. Look heah, now, I've got the wuhks of all the old mastahs – the gweat ahchaeologists of the past. I wigh them against each othah – balance the disagweements – analyze the conflicting statements – decide which is pwobably cowwect – and come to a conclusion. That is the scientific method. At least" – patronizingly –"as I see it. How insuffewably cwude it would be to go to Ahctuwus, oah to Sol, foah instance, and blundah about, when the old mastahs have covahed the gwound so much moah effectually than we could possibly hope to do."

Hardin murmured politely, "I see."

I have a friend who, in my opinion, is way too slow to present arguments we can debate, and tends to lapse into either into "Appeal to Authority" - citing who believes someone, or even worse "everyone knows" - or Ad Hominem.

I was trying to locate this passage that I was half remembering - thought it might have been George R R Martin's "Tuf Voyaging" (recommended!) but it was Asimov writing in this terrible aristocratic parody form.

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The opposite of "the elephant in the room" is "the centipede in the room": something that's not actually an issue but everyone is freaking out aboutz

Saw Nolan's "The Odyssey" last night... it was - Epic (pun intended but regretted) - catching in a sorta historically respectful way the feelings of being literally lost at sea, encountering weird and gruesome and horrifying things - the movie really got into the visceral nature of things. And then a lot of themes of Odysseus feeling responsible for the deaths of this men but also regret for what happened to Troy (a modern lens interpretation, but still)

I've seen a fair bit of The Odyssey in the past year or so - this movie, Kate Hamill's stage production, and the musical "Penelope" ... also the Orpheus reinterpretation "Eurydice".

I always think of this poem:

Ithaka
By C. P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon--don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon--you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind--
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

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best worse joke pickupline I came up with - "are you on a perilous journey from troy to ithica? 'cause you're the only Odd-I-See 😃 "

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I assure you that joke is not as bad as Lynette thinks.