Food for thought

 

Saudi National Bank chair resigns following Credit Suisse comments

MARCH 27 2023

"The chair of Saudi National Bank, Ammar Alkhudairy, has resigned citing personal reasons after the kingdom’s largest lender was thrust into the limelight amid turmoil at Credit Suisse."

"In a television interview this month, Alkhudairy said SNB, which bought a 9.9 per cent stake in Credit Suisse last year, would not provide any more financial assistance. He said buying more shares would have pushed SNB’s stake above 10 per cent and caused a “regulatory issue”.

"Alkhudairy’s comments reflected established policy at the bank but sent Credit Suisse’s share price into a tailspin, setting in train frantic negotiations that culminated in a hasty merger with Swiss rival UBS."

(Did anybody ever stop to think that was the plan all along? And now? Today? OPEC+ issues oil production cuts? These f*@#s were never our allies. It's like the Arab version of the Clampetts. The only thing worse than a hick w $? Is a hick who thinks he has $. Yup...

)

“The issue of the chairman’s statement did not go unnoticed amongst the senior decision makers,” said one Saudi Arabia-based banker."

(Nor did it go unnoticed by a guy in  a garage without internet.)

"Regional executives said he had drawn undue attention to SNB (Saudi National Bank) and the kingdom’s broader economic agenda. The bank’s main shareholder is the sovereign Public Investment Fund, which is spearheading the reform programme of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman."

“It wasn’t a great idea to go on TV during the middle of a banking crisis,” said one Dubai-based banker. “There was no good outcome.”

(Sure there was, Credit Suisse is no more, which night have just been the plan all along yo...)

"Alkhudairy is an experienced banker who used to chair the Saudi Arabian outposts of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. SNB, formed by the 2021 merger of the Samba Financial Group and National Commercial Bank, has a share of about 30 per cent of the country’s banking market."

"The UBS takeover of Credit Suisse resulted in about $1bn of losses for SNB, but one person with knowledge of the details said the stake in the Swiss bank accounted for less than 2 per cent of its investment portfolio and would have a negligible impact on profitability."

(It was chump change and they collapsed one of the 32 global banks that are to big to fail. Credit suisse was one of 32

"systemically important financial institutions"—financial organizations whose size and role meant that any failure could cause serious systemic problems." According to a policy research and development entity, called the Financial Stability Board,...

So who is next? And how long are we gonna let these guys play us?)

"The rescue has caused some controversy because shareholders received a payout while holders of some bonds were wiped out, in an arrangement brokered by the Swiss authorities."

The Swiss regulator has defended the deal and people close to SNB have denied pressuring for shareholder compensation."

(Yeah...sure thing...

)

"Saudi Arabia, along with other oil-rich Gulf states, have taken a more activist approach to overseas investments as they balance investment in assets that can deliver long-term returns with a growing focus on domestic economic diversification efforts."

(Or to crash "systemically important financial institutions" perhaps? take your pick.)

"He previously described the Credit Suisse investment as a “manifestation of the new Saudi Arabia”, though he added SNB would target growth in the Middle East rather than more acquisitions in Europe."

(Because their isn't going to be any $ there pretty soon.)

“This is the first time a Saudi bank chairman has moved global markets,” said one local analyst.

(Anybody wanna bet me it will be the last time 

"a Saudi bank chairman has moved global markets" ?)

They

 

are only telling you this 

because they know it's already here!

Microsoft Researchers Claim GPT-4 Is Showing "Sparks" of AGI

3/23/23

"We believe that GPT-4's intelligence signals a true paradigm shift in the field of computer science and beyond."

"Fresh on the heels of GPT-4's public release, a team of Microsoft AI scientists published a research paper claiming the OpenAI language model — which powers Microsoft's now somewhat lobotomized Bing AI — shows "sparks" of human-level intelligence, or artificial general intelligence (AGI)."

(Remember, Microsoft has already fired multiple AI engineers who have ststed some of their systems were sentinent. Now they are saying much the same thing those fired engineers said? Billy Crone was right. It's already 30 years ahead of where we are being told it is.)

"Emphasis on the "sparks." The researchers are careful in the paper to characterize GPT-4's prowess as "only a first step towards a series of increasingly generally intelligent systems" rather than fully-hatched, human-level AI. "

("Only a first step towards..." I really dont care what it is. LLM's do things that the people that designed them dont understand why it is that they do them. No Thx. Period.)

"Disclaimers aside, though, these are some serious claims to make. Though a lot of folks out there, even some within the AI industry, think of AGI as a pipe dream, others think that developing AGI will usher in the next era of humanity's future; the next-gen GPT-4 is the most powerful iteration of the OpenAI-built Large Language Model (LLM) to date, and on the theoretical list of potential AGI contenders, GPT-4 is somewhere around the top of the list, if not number one."

(They wouldnt be making "some serious claims" if they didnt already know what was true. "Developing AGI will usher in the next era of humanity's future;..." Oh you can count on that part I assure you. Humans dont get to create synthetic, digital brains with more processing power than our own. Not our providence. Not at all. 

 Genesis 6:4-8

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Somebody's been busy makin an ark of here yo and been ridiculed, mocked, assaulted, spit on, and persecuted every step of the way. I'd get on while the drawbridge is still lowered if I was you.)

"We demonstrate that, beyond its mastery of language, GPT-4 can solve novel and difficult tasks that span mathematics, coding, vision, medicine, law, psychology and more, without needing any special prompting," reads the paper. "Moreover, in all of these tasks, GPT-4's performance is strikingly close to human-level performance, and often vastly surpasses prior models such as ChatGPT."

"Given the breadth and depth of GPT-4's capabilities," they continue, "we believe that it could reasonably be viewed as an early (yet still incomplete) version of an artificial general intelligence (AGI) system."

(It wasn't six months ago they were saying a decade or more away and now thay are saying "AI — shows "sparks" of human-level intelligence"? Where do you think is it going to be in six more months?)

"It's also worth noting that Microsoft researchers may have a vested interest in hyping up OpenAI's work, unconsciously or otherwise, since Microsoft entered into a multibillion dollar partnership with OpenAI earlier this year."

(Damn the torpedo's, there's $ to be made!)

"Our claim that GPT-4 represents progress towards AGI does not mean that it is perfect at what it does, or that it comes close to being able to do anything that a human can do (which is one of the usual definitions of AGI), or that it has inner motivation and goals (another key aspect in some definitions of AGI)," reads the paper."

"But a step, they say, is a step."

"We believe that GPT-4's intelligence," the researchers write, "signals a true paradigm shift in the field of computer science and beyond."

Yeah...no thx...

LET

 

the Coalescing begin!

ChatGPT gets “eyes and ears” with plugins that can interface AI with the world

3/24/2023, 2:29 PM

"On Thursday, (3/23) OpenAI announced a plugin system for its ChatGPT AI assistant. The plugins give ChatGPT the ability to interact with the wider world through the Internet, including booking flights, ordering groceries, browsing the web, and more. Plugins are bits of code that tell ChatGPT how to use an external resource on the Internet.

"Basically, if a developer wants to give ChatGPT the ability to access any network service (for example: "looking up current stock prices") or perform any task controlled by a network service (for example: "ordering pizza through the Internet"), it is now possible, provided it doesn't go against OpenAI's rules."

"Bing Chat has taken this paradigm further by allowing it to search the web for more recent information, but so far ChatGPT has still been isolated from the wider world. While closed off in this way, ChatGPT can only draw on data from its training set (limited to 2021 and earlier) and any information provided by a user during the conversation. Also, ChatGPT can be prone to making factual errors and mistakes (what AI researchers call "hallucinations").

"To get around these limitations, OpenAI has popped the bubble and created a ChatGPT plugin interface (what OpenAI calls ChatGPT's "eyes and ears") that allows developers to create new components that "plug in" to ChatGPT and allow the AI model to interact with other services on the Internet. These services can perform calculations and reference factual information to reduce hallucinations, and they can also potentially interact with any other software service on the Internet—if developers create a plugin for that task."

(Daniel 7:8

“While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully.

Think about it for a second.)

"Beyond that, developers have been using ChatGPT and GPT-4 to write ChatGPT plugin manifests (a manifest is "a machine-readable description of the plugin’s capabilities and how to invoke them," according to OpenAI), further simplifying the plugin development process."

"This kind of self-compounding development capability feels like uncharted territory for some programmers."

(Oh it's uncharted alright...

"Were setting sail

to the place on the map 

from which no one has ever returned...")

"Given that OpenAI has previously tested its AI models (such as GPT-4) to see if they have the agency to modify, improve, and spread themselves among the world's computer systems, it's unsurprising that OpenAI spends almost half of its ChatGPT plugins blog post talking about safety and impacts. "Plugins will likely have wide-ranging societal implications," the company casually mentions in one section about potential impacts on jobs."

"Beyond jobs, a recurring fear among some AI researchers involves granting an advanced AI model access to other systems, where it can potentially do harm. The AI system need not be "conscious" or "sentient," just driven to complete a certain task it deems necessary. In this case with plugins, it seems like OpenAI is doing exactly that."

(Somebody has been telling you exactly where this was leading and now we are already there. It will be given protection as "unborn life" and now? Now it will have the ability to Coalesce just like somebody was telling their son it would a few years ago before he really even knew that much about it. Having fun yet? One day people are going to learn:

Galatians 6:7

New International Version

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.)

"OpenAI appears to be aware of the risks, frequently referencing its GPT-4 system card that describes the kind of worst-case-scenario testing we described in a previous article. Beyond hypothetical doomsday scenarios, AI-powered harms could come in the form of accelerated versions of current online dangers, such as automated phishing rings, disinformation campaigns, astroturfing, or personal attacks."

(Those will be the least of your worries before it's all said and done.)

"There’s a risk that plugins could increase safety challenges by taking harmful or unintended actions, increasing the capabilities of bad actors who would defraud, mislead, or abuse others," writes OpenAI. "By increasing the range of possible applications, plugins may raise the risk of negative consequences from mistaken or misaligned actions taken by the model in new domains. From day one, these factors have guided the development of our plugin platform, and we have implemented several safeguards."

(Translation? Damn the torpedo's, full steam ahead! There's $ to be made!)

Good Morning My Sunshine

 

I love you baby :-).

Truth.

Yes they should!

TTYS baby.

Well?

 

Russian oil finds "wide open" back door to Europe, critics say.

Who would have ever thunk it?

"Middlemen are cashing in as Russian crude finds indirect routes to the European market, politicians and industry insiders allege."

"Crude oil is notoriously difficult to track on global markets. It can easily be mixed or blended with other shipments in transit countries, effectively creating a larger batch of oil whose origins can't be determined. The refining process, necessary for any practical application, also removes all traces of the feedstock's origin.'

“Unlike pipeline gas, the oil market is global. Swap and netting systems, and mixing varieties are common practice,” said Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a prominent exiled critic of Putin and the former CEO of oil and gas giant Yukos."

“The result of the embargo is a significant increase in Russian transportation costs, a significant redistribution of income in favor of intermediaries, and some additional discount due to the narrowing of the buyers' market.”

“Since the introduction of sanctions, the volumes of crude oil Russia is exporting have remained more or less steady,” said Saad Rahim, chief economist at global commodities trading firm Trafigura. “It’s possible that Russian oil is still being sold on to the EU and Western nations via middlemen."

"One potential route into Europe is through Azerbaijan, which borders Russia and is the starting point of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, operated by BP. The port of Ceyhan, in Turkey, is a major supply hub from which crude oil is shipped to Europe; it also receives large quantities from Iraq through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline.

(It's not China keeping Russia alive, it's Turkey with it's access to Western markets.)

"François Bellamy, a French MEP and member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, aired suspicions about this route in a recent question to the Commission. Data show that Azerbaijan exported 242,000 barrels a day more than it produced between April and July last year, he said — a large margin over domestic production, which stood at 648,000 barrels a day last month and is in long-term decline, according to ministry figures."

“How can a country diminish its production and increase its exports at the same time? There is something completely inconsistent in the figures and this inconsistency creates suspicions that sanctions are being circumvented,” Bellamy said."

"Slick operations

At the same time, though, Turkey doubled its direct imports of Russian oil last year and has refused to impose sanctions on Russian crude despite simultaneously offering military and humanitarian support to Ukraine.

Finland’s Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) warned late last year that "a new route for Russian oil to the EU is emerging through Turkey, a growing destination for Russian crude oil,” where it is refined into oil products that are not subject to sanctions and sold on."

(As I was saying...)

"On Monday, British NGO Global Witness released a report that found Russian oil has consistently been sold at prices far exceeding the $60 cap imposed by G7 countries in December last year."

"The fact Russian oil continues to flow round the world is a feature, not a bug, of Western sanctions," said Mai Rosner, a campaigner who worked on the report. "Governments offered the fossil fuel industry a wide-open back door, and commodity traders and big oil companies are exploiting these loopholes to continue business as usual."

(I'll give you the explanation in layman's terms:

Money talks, Bull Shit walks.

Who ever thought this was gonna work in the first place?)

KEEP YOUR EYE ON TURKEY!

Thats a pretty low bar to be excited about

 

Key Fed inflation gauge rose 0.3% in February, less than expected

Just like myself and others have said:

'Thats a pretty low bar to be excited about:

"things not rising as much as expected."

"An inflation gauge the Fed follows closely rose slightly less than anticipated in February."

(PCE runs lower than CPI why exactly do you think it's, "An inflation gauge the Fed follows closely..."?)

"The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy increased 0.3% for the month, the Commerce Department reported."

(Thats 3.6% annually, still 1.5x higher than what the Fed wants.)

"The figure was below the 0.4% Dow Jones estimate and lower than the 0.5% January increase."

(Oh lets  get out the champain honey its reason to celebrate...)

"An inflation gauge the Federal Reserve follows closely rose slightly less than anticipated in February, providing some hope that interest rate hikes are helping ease price increases."

(Baloney, that's what they want you to believe.)

"On a 12-month basis, core PCE increased 4.6%, a slight deceleration from the level in January."

(Thats still 2.25x higher than whats wanted.)

"Consumer spending climbed 0.2%, compared with the 0.3% estimate."

(Largely driven by the top 20% income earners I am sure. Notice they didn't give you the economic/demographic breakdown of where the increased consumer spending is coming from. Why?)

"The Fed’s own unofficial projections released last week pointed to perhaps one more increase this year and no reductions."

(That is just not going to come close to getting it done.)

"While inflation has ebbed in some areas, it has remained pernicious in others. Shelter costs in particular have risen sharply. Fed officials, though, are looking through that increase and expect rents to decelerate through the year."

(if it was going down they sure would give themselves credit for it, so why are they 'looking through that increase"?

Because it doesn't match the "narrative" they are trying to sell you? Maybe? Perhaps?)

"Data released Thursday suggests that the problems in banking also may be at least under control. Borrowing through two emergency Fed lending programs decreased slightly last week, indicating that there has been no frantic liquidity dash for banks that may be undercapitalized."

(They bought time. Nobody knows how long. Think about it for a second, "The lender of last resort" that is hemorrhaging $ itself ? Created "two emergency Fed lending programs" How can you not see where this ends at this point? I'd get my heart right and talk to my creator if I was you, I really would.)

I

 

think I have found a new hobby :-).

Not bad for the first weeks output if I dont say so myself :-).

Things were either found laying around the residence or donated by individuals :-).

I still require assistance with tying clasp on strands etc so some are still a work in progress so to speak, 

others are complete.

I like it and I enjoy doing it.

It stills my mind.

I get lost in their creation.

Kinda Like:

 Ridin

Darts

Music

Herb :-)

etc...

We must be cousins somehow :-)

 

Solomon ibn Gabirol 

"Of his personality, Moses ibn Ezra wrote: "his irascible temperament dominated his intellect, nor could he rein the demon that was within himself. It came easily to him to lampoon the great, with salvo upon salvo of mockery and sarcasm." He has been described summarily as "a social misfit."

"Student: What is the purpose of man?

Teacher: The inclination of his soul to the higher world in order that everyone might return to his like.

(Fons Vitæ 1.2, p. 4, lines 23–25)"

"...urges his readers to train the qualities of their souls unto good through self-understanding and habituation. He regards man's ability to do so as an example of divine benevolence."

'His verses are distinctive for tackling complex metaphysical concepts, expressing scathing satire, and declaring his religious devotion unabashedly."

(:-), sound familiar?)

Fons Vitae...lit. "Source of Life", (cf. Psalms 36:10) is a Neo-Platonic philosophical dialogue between master and disciple on the nature of Creation and how understanding what we are (our nature) can help us know how to live (our purpose). "His goal is to understand the nature of being and human being so that he might better understand and better inspire the pursuit of knowledge and the doing of good deeds." The work stands out in the history of philosophy for introducing the doctrine that all things, including soul and intellect, are composed of matter and form, and for its emphasis on divine will.

("...the doctrine that all things, including soul and intellect, are composed of matter and form"

YEAH...naw...not going w that, the rest? th rest i 'm down with.)

THX to my good buddy in Idaho for turning me on to all this.

Still

 

Plowing through :-).

Three chapters left :-).

Lawrence Krauss

"Thw laws (of nature) themselves require our universe to come into existence, to develop and evolve."

"They (Krauss and Hawking) also assume that the laws of physics cause or explain specific events, including the origin of the universe."

(I'm just gonna paraphrase this one:

If you hit a pool ball with a pool stick and it hits another ball and causes the second ball to travel?

Did the law of momentum conservation cause the second ball to travel?

Or was it because it was struck by the first ball which was hit w the pool stick?

"The law of gravity (or nay other law of physics/nature etc.)  does not cause material objects or space and energy to come into existence; instead, it describes how material objects interact with each other (and with space) once they already exist...The laws of physics describe the interaction of things (matter and energy) that already exist in space and time."

Figure 18.1 p 373

(Not included)

The Wheeler-Dewitt equation.

"Matter out of math? Mathematical concepts. expressions. and equations exist in minds. That raises a profound question for quantum cosmologist. How do the mathematical expressions that they use to describe possible universes (or the early universe) cause an actual material universe to come into existence?"

(It's pretty simple. They dont. But the mind God spoke it into existence. Not these guys/gals.)

Now were getting into my wheelhouse :-).

"...mathematical Platonism asserts that mathematical concepts or ideas exist independently of the human mind. But this view in turn suggest TWO POSSIBILITIES:

"mathematical ideas exist in an abstract transcendent realm of pure ideas..."

or

 "mathematical ideas reside in and issue from a transcendent intelligent mind."

(Where did the math come from? :-)

Forget where did the universe come from we already know that and the science leans heavy toward a theistic approach.

So where did the math come from?

I mean if:

"mathematical ideas exist in an abstract transcendent realm of pure ideas..."

Then why is math the only thing we would attribute to 

"an abstract transcendent realm of pure ideas"?

And why is:

"mathematical ideas exist in an abstract transcendent realm of pure ideas..."

perfectly acceptable to some people?

While,

 "mathematical ideas reside in and issue from a transcendent intelligent mind."

So objectionable?

And what exactly would be the difference anyway?

I know this much, I've read a lot about these issues and all these theoretical physicists? They all want a mathematical equation to solve anything. But they never, not a one, ever, in anything I have ever read want to bring up anything about where did the math come from to prove themselves right. They dont wanna discuss it's origins but they so adamantly want an equation to prove anything. So the question becomes:

Why dont they wanna talk about where did the math come from?

Worship  the gift and ignore the giver much?)

"material stuff can not be conjured out of mathematical equations."

"Therefore, it seems a reasonable extrapolation from our uniform and repeated experience of "relevant similar entities" (human minds) and their casual powers to think that, if a realm of mathematical ideas and objects must pre exist the universe as quantum cosmology implies, then those ideas must have a transcendent mental source- they must reflect the contents of a preexisting mind.'

(And that is why they dont wanna talk about where did the math come from

PERIOD.)

"Yet in both cases (Vilenkin and Hawking/Hartle's versions of quantum tunneling/wave function as possible universe creation explanations) quantum cosmologist  must presuppose the existence of a universe. But tha presupposes the very thing, the origin of which they are attempting to explain."

(Cart before the horse there much guys? :-)

"Moreover if  the uniqueness of  the present universe is to find any explanation in quantum gravity, it can only come from a restriction on the possible states available."

(From Hawking/Hartles introduction to their 1983 technical paper)

Leading critics of Hawking and Hartle's and Vilenkin's  quantum cosmological models have noted the arbitrary nature of constraints they impose."

"the uniqueness of  the present universe...

it can only come from a restriction on the possible states available."

(What exactly is the difference between that 

and a transcendent force acting upon it (present universe) exactly?)

"Indeed even if Professor Krauss could explain the origin of matter, energy, space and time from nothing. or from nothing but the mathematically expressed laws of physics, he still could not explain the origin of the information necessary to express and solve the equations that supposedly explain the origin of the universe. Instead as we have seen, the quantum cosmological theories subtly depend upon the activity of a mind to model the origin of the universe."

"Krauss warned me not to challenge him on his cosmologiavl theories. He toldthe audience, "now ater they lost...(the argument about) biology, what I noticed is that cosmology was next. And I am hoping for his own sake that stephen doesnt try to do that while I am here, because it will be a mistake, I promise."

"...his advisory notice seemed to me to telegraph weakness. Krauss is a smart man. I suspected that he knew he couldnt explain how our universe originated from nothing, with or without quantum cosmology."

"...quantum cosmology does not explain the origin of the universe in purely materialistic terms. Instead, to the limited extent it succeeds, it attributes casual powers to abstract mathematics and depends on the intelligent inputs of information from theoretical physicist as they model the origin of the universe. Thus it does not dispense at all with intelligent design or with Theism as an explanation for the origin of the universe."

(Stephen C. Meyers conclusion after three years of study with Bruce Gordon, Arthur Fine and Brian Miller.)

Lil refresher:

Straight From

"The emphasis in bara 

is not on making something from nothing 

but on initiating an object or project."