Google is Spun Up about Something

So, those of you in the know: What does it mean when Google tells me a handful of pages on a blog I haven't posted on in years cannot be "indexed."

Is that bad? Should I care?

Google doesn't explain in their email.

Also, their reasons for not indexing are cryptic to a noob like me:

1. "Alternate page with proper canonical tag" (4 pages)

2. "Blocked by robots.txt" (2 pages)

3. "Crawled - currently not indexed." (1 page)

I mean, I'm not losing sleep over this. But you'd think if this were a concern to Google, which also hosts the blog in question, they'd do a better job explaining why.

They also included this handy graphic to help me visualize the problem:

Which I am unable to upload right now for some reason. I'll have to try later when Google is less concerned about my "indexing."

They did let me upload. Eventually.

The Tells of AI Writing

Universities are working at the speed of, uh, universities, to help teachers counter students submitting work completed by artificial intelligence.

Students, of course -- at least those looking for shortcuts -- are on AI's bleeding edge, using all sorts of AI tricks to make their "work" easier.

But here's the thing: Detecting artificial intelligence writing is pretty easy, even without AI detectors.

I'm not going to reveal my secrets here. First because there are likely developers on the bleeding edge of AI who are already aware of AI's weaknesses, but also because in case they're not, I don't want to aid and abet. But AI writing is obvious on its face, and is mediocre writing at best.

Part of me wants to continue calling out students who use artificial intelligence to write their essays.

A growing part of me, however, is leaning toward just grading the AI writing and giving students the grades they've earned with their "writing."

Not necessarily Fs, of course, because AI isn't that bad. But it's not churning out A level work. Or even B level work. And in many cases, barely C level work. So use AI in my classes, and you're going to get the grade you deserve, whether I "detect" your use of artificial intelligence or not.

Agreed, that's not what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to fail those students, report them to the university and all. But I'm not sure that works to deter the behavior, even if they get expelled from the university. But getting mediocre grades for AI writing -- and consistently mediocre grades, time after time -- might make them think about how good AI is.

And maybe I'm fooling myself. Could be. But it's more entertaining that way.

Standard Frying the Brain Time

November now. That means going back to Standard Time. Which in our neck of the woods means pitch darkness at 6 pm and gradual darkness in the morning until there's no sun left at all and my seasonal depression kicks in.

I spent today mostly on my butt -- feeling ill. Picked up a bug from somwhere. Don't know where. It seems to be fading, but I'm certainly glad I took the day off work. Not that I want to burn through that personal leave, but I felt really blah.

All because some idiot wanted more daylight after work so he could collect bugs.

Long Trip for Two Old Men

It was a long trip, but we did it. All in one day.

Randy has moved back home and is living with Maaike. We did this trip to get the stuff he wasn't able to bring with him the first time.

The jig to the north, avoiding the interstate, was on the way there so I could stop at Pickles Place in Arco to buy some of their spices. That was the first time I'd driven along those roads. They were really quiet and Arco appeared to be the sole metroplois along the way. Lots of pretty hills, and a good view of Craters of the Moon National Monument.

The drive through Oregon was also a new one to me, and it didn't even have an oasis like Arco along the way.

Ontario remains an armpit.

This trip also confirms to me that Boise drivers are the rudest and worst in Idaho, even in the wee hours of the morning.

We did see a little snow, particularly on the way out, but it wasn't all that bad. Still glad we did the trip all in one day rather than fight the snow in the morning when it was frozen and crustier.

OLD MAN YELLS AT CAR

Gaze in wonder at this parking job in a parallel parking spot for handicapped people at the local Walmart.

Then consider I've been to this same Walmart twice this week and both times saw vehicles parked in a similar manner. The first, which I did not photograph, was a big ol' honkin' truck, protruding out much further into the lane of travel than this sedan.

I don't know what's happened -- and I'm not the only one in the family to notice this -- but traffic in town for the month of October has seemingly tripled, and the newcomers all appear to be about as dumb as a box of rocks.

When he heard my rant, our youngest son sent me this:

I have to confess he's not wrong.

Applesauce from Our Own Apples

Last night we made fourteen quarts of applesauce, from the tiniest apples we've ever worked with.

What made it worthwhile is they're apples from our own tree. That's kinda cool.

Artificial Intelligence Grandma

Albert uploaded this photo of our Grandma Speirs (Mom's mom) to Facebook today, along with this story of her roping a hawk in her backyard.

Facebook's AI wanted a chance to comment on the upload, so I had it produce the following photos:

First, of her ranching skills. Note the square cows.

Next, its version of her roping skills:

No hawk to bee seen. And AI, bless its heart, cannot do hands to save its life.

Invisible, Imperishable Good Stuff

My wife came into the study to drop off a book she'd just finished reading. I glanced at it and the first thing that caught my eye was the illustration of a sweater:

As soon as I saw that sweater, I thought "Huh, must be a book about Mr. Rogers."

I was close: "The World According to Mr. Rogers, Important things to Remember," is a collection of thoughts collected from his life.

I feel like I need Mr. Rogers in my life now much more than I did as a kid.

I need someone to remind me that if I want to accomplish my dreams, I have to do the work.

I need someone to remind me I have dreams.

We're heading into winter here, and the seasonal depression it brings with it. I might have to pull this book out every day and reread a few passages from it, just to help me get along.

I recommend this book. Read it all at once or a few pages at a time, but more importantly apply what he says. Work on your dreams. Be kind. And remember the shining moments:

In the eternal scheme of things, Shining moments are as brief as the twinkling of an eye, yet such twinklings are what eternity is made of -- moments when we human beings can say "I love you," "I'm proud of you," "I forgive you," "I'm grateful for you." That's what eternity is made of: invisible, imperishable good stuff.

I'll quote one more, which ties in with the first:

Beside my chair is a saying in French. It inspires me every day. It's a sentence from Saint-Exupery's "The Little Prince," and it reads, "L'essential est invisible pour les yeux." (What is esential is invisible to the eyes.) The closer we get to know the truth of that sentence, the closer I feel we get to wisdom.

That which has real value in life in any millennium is very simple. Vewry dep and very simple! It happens inside of us -- in the "essential invisible" part of us, and that is what allows everyone to be a potential neighbor.

Nogoodniks

When I opened Facebook Monday Morning, first thing I was was an anti-Kamala Harris screed posted on the official Pickles comic Facebook page.

Unlike the commenters on the post - aghast the comic's author would inject politics onto a page usually reserved for gentle comedy - I knew the page had been compromised and taken over by a political propagandist.

Brian Crane, former owner of the compromised Facebook page, apologized to his readers and expressed frustration that it appears he won't be able to regain control of an online community built over years. He uses the phrase "nogoodniks," which brings to mind Russian propagandists, but who knows what's going on.

If this is the kind of thing you have to stoop to to get your message out, your message, to me, is worthless. This propagandist found a way to take over a Facebook page with a big reach. The people doing this obviously have an agenda, and it's not one that favors good faith political discourse, but is propaganda pure and simple. They're bad actors, whether you agree with the "message" or not.

If you condone this type of action to spread a message you agree with, you are part of the problem. We should not nod in unison with a message we agree with when the message is put out on social media in a deceitful manner.

Which, of course, makes Facebook part of the problem. They may not condone it, but appear either powerless to stop it or, as I suspect, no longer have humans at the tiller.

I engage very little with the political end of social media, particularly with that posted by people or organizations I don't know, because my cynical nature leads me to believe the vast majority of political content on social media is propaganda put out by bad actors.

Then crap like this shows up: People trying to profit off of his creative work.

Probably Don't Include Me in Doctrinal Conversations

Our scripture reading last night brought us to the Three Nephites and their desire to not taste death before the second coming of Christ.

Part of the discussion led to me pondering their appearance as the Three Stooges as being a funny but confusing part of their timeline, and that is where my wife pulled the plug on the conversation.