Category: Annoyances

Some links: 96

Some links: 95

Some links: 93

Try again

Round 2 with ChatGPT. Now with more disclaimers. Still can’t/won’t read HTML <meta name="author" /> tags. And apparently Cain/Chandler/Wilder plagiarized HDT.

DAVID. are you familiar with the blog A Honey of an Anklet?

CHATGPT. As an AI language model, I am familiar with a vast amount of information including websites and blogs, including “A Honey of an Anklet”. However, I don’t have personal preferences or opinions on any specific blog or website as I don’t have personal feelings or biases.

D. what can you tell me about it?

C. “A Honey of an Anklet” is a blog that focuses on natural history, ecology, and environmental issues. The author of the blog is Robert Bergeson, who is based in the Washington DC area. The blog features posts on a wide range of topics related to the natural world, including birding, botany, insects, and environmental policy. The name of the blog comes from a quote by writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau, who referred to a “honey of an anklet” as a small but significant detail of the natural world that one might overlook if not paying attention. Overall, “A Honey of an Anklet” is a well-written and informative blog for anyone interested in the natural world and environmental issues.

A new footer reads, “ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts.” In other words, ChatGPT is not a reliable source of information.

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story

HOTSPUR. Nay, I will. That’s flat!
[King Henry IV] said he would not ransom Mortimer,
Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer.
But I will find him when he lies asleep,
And in his ear I’ll hollo “Mortimer.”
Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak
Nothing but “Mortimer,” and give it him
To keep his anger still in motion.

Henry IV, Part 1, I:3

It’s fair to say that the ecological consequences of the introduction of European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris, EUST) into North America have been a (mostly adverse) mixed blessing. I’ve been told that EUSTs are favored by groundskeepers for golf courses, because the birds eat turf-destroying grubs—make of that what you will. And my grandmother had a particular animus against them; make of that what you will. I certainly wouldn’t knowingly park my car under a roost.

But perhaps we can retire the canard that the introduction happened at one place, at one time, by one man: Eugene Schieffelin, a drugmaker and socialite in New York. Research by Lauren Fugate and John MacNeill Miller, as reported by Jason Bittel, confirms that Schieffelin wasn’t the only American to release EUSTs, nor was he by any means the first. By the 1870s, “introductions were well underway,” decades before Schieffelin’s activity in 1890-1891.

According to the former president of the Acclimation Society of Cincinnati, between 1872 and 1874 the society released about four thousand European birds, including starlings.

“Acclimation” or “acclimitization” was a particularly boneheaded piece of nineteenth-century ecology that held that introduced species could improve an ecosystem.

Anglophone countries… focused instead on the ways importing species could increase the beauty, diversity, and economic yield of the local environment—sometimes because they themselves had destroyed it.

Most importantly—to answer a question that Rick Wright asked in a 2014 blog post— Schieffelin had no particular interest in the birds of Shakespeare. He just liked starlings. Fugate and Miller lay the myth on the desk of Edwin Way Teale, in an essay from 1948.

“[The starling’s] coming was the result of one man’s fancy,” he writes of Schieffelin: “His curious hobby was the introduction into America of all the birds mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare.” Published more than forty years after Schieffelin’s death this sentence is the first time Shakespeare enters the story. It is hard to say where Teale got the idea.

Perhaps Teale was bemused by Central Park’s Shakespeare Garden, begun in 1913, years after Schieffelin’s death.

As Wright wryly observes,

With a Horatian eye to their capacity to delight and to profit, the [American Acclimatization] Society’s introductions over the years included everything from brook trout to Java finches, neither of which, if memory serves, ever trod the boards at the Globe.

Shakespeare’s one reference to Sturnus vulgaris (above) isn’t even pejorative; rather, the bird is recognized as a good mimic. Make of that what you will.

Sad but probably true

Kevin Roose on the Twitter acquisition:

… Musk seemed to intuitively grasp what Twitter actually was — a high-stakes popularity contest that, if won, could get you almost anything you wanted, from a higher stock price to a Saturday Night Live hosting gig.

I am weighing my options—considering taking a pause. The original reason I joined has long become moot, one of the purposes I put Twitter to is fading, and I can get news directly from the source.

bcc: S.Clemens@gmail.com

Oh, this one is hilarious.

Attention: Customer,

This is to notify you that CHASE BANK has made all arrangement on how
to transfer your funds, but now our problem here is that one Mrs.
Cynthia Edward, came to informed us that you are DEAD, and before your
death as a result of COVID, you instructed her to come for the claim
of your funds in the tune of US2.Million
that was long abandoned in your name with CHASE BANK.

So here comes the big question…. This questions has been a BIG
PROBLEMS to the Board Directors CHASE BANK, not knowing whom to
TRANSFER YOUR FUNDS to, please just get back immediately, if real you
are Alive.

(:i) Did you authorize Mrs. Cynthia Edward to come for your claim?

(ii) Are you truly Dead OR Alive?

If (NO) you are hereby advice as a matter of urgency to reconfirm the
details of this message within 24hours, hence your funds shall be
wired into her account without any more delay.

Lastly, you are advice to reconfirm the details of this message and
get back immediately with these information’s
below..

1.Full name:………………………..
2.Direct telephone number:………………..
3.Address:………………………..
4.Your personal identification to enable us confirm you are not dead.
5.Current occupation and address.

This information’s above must be provided for reconfirmation to Enable
us make payment to you, hence, your funds will be remit/wire into her
account as already provide to this management.

I have to inform you that we have completed all issues of your payment
in our bank since on the 20th of May.

Apparently, your International Deposit Online Payment Account has been
opened successfully.

You will ACCESS your account and confirm your approved sum of (TWO
MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS) has been officially Credited into the
Account today. You are legally empowered Authorized to make effectual
transfers from the Account as you follow the guidelines below.

Your USD Online Account is READY FOR EASY TRANSFER DIRECT TO YOUR ACCOUNT.

Please follow the instructions in the confirmation of this payment
Issues in the bank telephone banking administration sheet below to
confirm your payment.
.
Stage 1: Dial (CHASE BANK) Telephone Banking Confirmation Account
System on [REDACTED]

then after the voice contact, enter your account Pass Code [REDACTED]

Stage 2: enter your Account Number which is [REDACTED]

Stage 3: enter your account Account Pin Code [REDACTED]

Stage 4: to make transfer press 4 enter your destination account
number, which is your personal bank account number, swift code/routing
number apparently[!?], your fund IF YOU ARE HAVING ANY ISSUES, BE ADVICE
TO CONTACT ME DIRECTLY ON MY EMAIL.

Your fund will be transferred immediately into your personal bank
account via our electronic wire transfer system once you have the
complete requirement.

Lastly, Do get back to us immediately the transfer take place to enable
us update our official record.

Kindly call me as soon as you receive this email. NOTE: THIS TRANSFER
HAS BEEN MADE FREE OF CHARGE, YOU ARE NOT REQUIRE TO PAY FOR IT.

Congratulation as we hope to do more successful business with you, Our
aim is to put smiles in all our customer face, if our service is very
ok with you[!?], please do let us know.

Yours faithfully,

WHAT I REQUIRE FROM YOU IF TRULY YOU ARE ALIVE, JUST MAIL ME AND SAY
TO ME ( I AM ALIVE )

If not you are at your own risk.

H.E Ronny Jumeau
Sychelles Ambassador.
CC: FEDERAL RESERVE BANK HEADQUARTERS,
WASHINGTON D.C.

I am oh so tempted to reply to this one. I would not want to be the cause of a BIG PROBLEMS to the Board Directors CHASE BANK.

Where does it all go?

Golly, with all the TVs and computers and Norton subscriptions I’ve bought, it’s not surprising that I only have 234.89 USD left to buy Bitcoin.

Dear Member,

Thank You for choosing Paypal for placing your Order BITCOIN.

Your order has been successfully placed.

The Payment will be shown soon within next 5 to 10 hours on PAYPAL

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Memo Id : BFCR#3876BFT
Item Name : BITCOIN (BTC)

Order Placed Date : 4th May 2022
Receiving Date : Day After Place The Order.
Price
: 234.89 USD
Charge Mode : PAYPAL

If you Wish to Cancel then please feel free to contact our Billing Department as soon as Possible.

You can reach us on [REDACTED]

Regards,

paypal Billing Department

Not i.e., not e.g.

Oh, a very much useful annotation unearthed by M. Paul Shore: recte.

For the last four-and-a-half decades of my life, from late teens to early sixties, I’ve had the nagging feeling that there ought to be a Latin scholarly expression that one could use when presenting the correction of an erroneous word or words in quoted material alongside the error itself.

Peculiar Muzak: 8

Not, strictly speaking, Muzak, because it was clearly an album/CD that I was listening to in my urologist’s office (while the receptionist was doing a great job of Fully Committed with a difficult patient): arranged for breathy girls’ choir and piano, pop hits from the 80s and 90s. I could make out through the pillowy arrangements and crappy speakers

  • “Follow You Follow Me”
  • “Boys Don’t Cry” (with particularly obfuscatory dynamics)
  • “Barbie Girl”
  • “In the Air Tonight” (with no drum drop—what’s up with that?)

    • And the mystery as a bonus, because I cannot make out who committed such an enormity. Spotify is fine for finding one song, but not an entire track list. But wait—the Googles came through. The CD (Solstice by Scala & Kolacny Brothers) was on shuffle!

    I don’t think you’ve lived until you’ve experienced this version of “Creep”:

    As Martin Vanderhof said,

    GRANDPA [surveying the group]: Well, sir, you should have been there. That’s all I can say—you should have been there.

“Lakeland, Florida but they will deliver it to your door step”

Ed Solomon keeps a text-message spammer-scammer going for an hour and a half.

10:41 A.M. “Richard Weeks”
i got $150,000 delivered to me when i applied for the grant and you dont have to pay it back.. you can also apply

10:41 A.M. Ed Solomon
shut up. no way—are you serious??

10:42 A.M. “Richard Weeks”
I’m very serious and am not pulling your legs. I’m so happy cuz when i received the Money from Ups, I quickly paid off my bills and saved the rest to the bank. Though, currently thinking on Investments

And so…

11:24 A.M. Ed Solomon
thanks. okay. and tell me honestly. and i promise i won’t tell her. Is SHE the one who gave you the rash? (cause i was wondering why you and i both have the same thing)

11:26 A.M. “Richard Weeks”
yes shes the one

Ah, the power of saying, “yes, and.”

Haze figuring

Hilarious but true: a category of rubbish research papers, run through a word-for-word thesaurus in an attempt to avoid detection of plagiarism and duplication, can in fact be easily detected. Holly Else reports on a preprint posted in July by Guillaume Cabanac and colleagues. Some juicy howlers, called “tortured phrases” by the paper’s authors: counterfeit consciousness for artificial intelligence, irregular esteem for random value, and flag to commotion for signal to noise.