More informative than a 404 message

I’m playing with ChatGPT and actually using it for some technical writing. I guess I’m not alone – I just got this error message. Pretty clever.

Write an acrostic poem about the status of ChatGPT.

C: ChatGPT is currently down

H: Huge demand has caused the site to crash

A: All users will have to wait

T: Time is needed for the servers to catch up

G: Go grab a coffee and check back soon

P: Patience is key in this situation

T: Trust that the team is working hard to fix it up

90 seconds to midnight

The Dogs of War are barking pretty loud lately. In the Russia-Ukraine war, US and allies have gone from sending “undefined support” (money, food, ammo, small arms), then to sending HIMARS rockets, then to sending all sorts of modern tanks, and now the US is talking about sending F-16s. We all knew this was a proxy war, but F-16s? We might as well send the full might of our Army and AF and push Russia back hard, somewhere deep into their original borders. Great idea, but…nukes. They get their butts kicked, you just know they’re going to trot out a nuke or two and show the west that they’re still a Player. It’s no wonder that the Doomsday Clock shows very little time left.

Another dog barking at a different threat – a four-star USAF General has gone on record saying that he thinks we will be in a shooting war with China by 2025. That’s helpful. And stupid. I admit that his opinion is probably better-informed than most, but it’s still just an opinion.

“I hope I am wrong,” General Mike Minihan, who heads the Air Mobility Command, wrote to the leadership of its roughly 110,000 members. “My gut tells me will fight in 2025.”

His gut tells him, huh? Sounds a little Dr. Strangelove to me.

He should keep his gut-driven fears to himself. The Pentagon should fire him, unless he’s being used to send a message. If that’s true, it’s even closer to midnight than we thought.