StringJunky

The operative word is some, like us here, but in my everyday life it is very much the exception, it seems. I think most people don't shift beyond a certain age. I think part of it is due to hubris and boredom in thinking they've "Seen it all" and therefore switch off to new concepts. If you don't look for new things, the world will appear to stay the same.

Never seen these before: ice flowers in Norway.

There is truth in this. When the 20-30 somethings sound like aliens, it's probably time to get out of the way.

Here we say "Northerly, Westerly, Easterly, Southerly". The convention seems to name them where they come from i.e. the source.

The actual subjects are 81 and 77 years old; Biden and Trump.

The oldies are on the warpath. We are talking about octagenarian level here.

I'm 62 in a few days. I'm about 50 in my profile pick... forever young. It should be noted that those protected characteristics cannot affect ones ability to do a job, but advancing age can and does.

Oui. If an OAP expert wants to carry on they can be consultants rather than executives. And it can all go into oblivion with cognitive decline. I've been close to someone's parent not too long ago with Alzheimer's. It means nothing if it's not accessible anymore.

That looks like a conjugation of two oxymorons.

Regardless of the state of Biden, Trump must be avoided. But we can't ignore the impression he's going on Diane Feinstein's trajectory.

There's physical competencies as well. Slow is slow and that could impact on response times if the pres needs to be elsewhere in short order for a critical situation. Stubbornness to ones reality at this level is not desirable. Just spotted this:

Per a comment @iNow made: Rather like not being able to hear a particular musical note. Your brain just joins the ends in the gap of the musical scale together and carries on oblivious. Your brain papers over the sensory gaps.

I would agree that GOP do it more often, but I have read here and there that the Dems aren't averse to it.

All the gerrymandering by both sides over years has created that situation, I think.

If you can't get the ball in the hole, move the hole.

His narcissism has deigned that he will personally deal with it, so the world just has to wait. This is how "critical and dangerous" the border situation is... not much can happen in 9 months until the election... can it?

We don't know how many processes this image has been through to our devices. Some of the effects will probably be artifacts of those processes. JPeging tends to soften images as they are reduced in resolution.

These aberrations are necessary mechanisms for evolution to occur. We wouldn't be where we are today if these aberrations didn't occur. We are born from and exist in a kaleidoscope of change.

My ex-sister-in-law moaned that her car wasn't working properly. I said "I know nothing about cars". She replied "I know, I need a man". For her, 'manliness' is function of what one can do. The insult aside, 'maleness' and its opposite are clearly social constructs. She's on her third marriage, so that tells one quite a bit. She's clearly too thick to realize what what she wants is not what she needs.

Strange, the US is a de-escalating, peace loving nation. <whistles>

I find it bemusing that insanely rich people think they understand the problems of the vast majority and think they can help, all the while, creating the conditions of poverty by draining the country's wealth away in some obscure overseas shell company.

One thing I will agree with the OP is that, presently and for the foreseeable future, so called 'AI devices' are just dumb LLM's and the hype is just that. I would rather just call them LLMs because that's what they are at this time. Analogously, I think we are just at the 'primordial soup' stage.

If the joke doesn't 'work', clarify immediately. It's good manners. Jokes are often used to disguise a weakening argument.

The people engaged mostly with the OP are not contrarian for the sake of being so.

OK. I was being kind.