The artificial intelligence chatbot asked the believers in the fully packed St. Paul’s church in the Bavarian town of Fuerth to rise from the pews and praise the Lord. The ChatGPT chatbot, personified by an avatar of a bearded Black man on a huge screen above the altar, then began preaching to the more than 300 people who had shown up on Friday morning for an experimental Lutheran church service almost entirely generated by AI.
The CW is pivoting to Jesus – Under its new ownership, The CW is betting on three-season Christian crowdfunding success story The Chosen
Viewership was slow at first, but then picked up when, during the early days of COVID-19, Jenkins and his team made the show free to watch for the masses.
Having steadily picked up steam since, the show has become a genuine streaming success, and now appears on multiple services, including Netflix and Peacock. (It doesn’t hurt that, by all accounts, The Chosen is pretty well-made by the standards of TV drama—which means it’s exceptionally well made by the usual standards of Christian entertainment, with much praise being pointed toward its acting, production values, and its efforts to spin a compelling drama out of the lives of Christ and his disciples.)
Dallas residents need to make more than $72,060 a year to avoid being “rent burdened,” according to April 2023 data from Zillow’s Observed Rent Index.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development considers someone “rent burdened” if they spend more than 30% of their annual income toward rent. Someone can also be “severely rent burdened” if that spending reaches more than 50%.
I’m guessing that figure is net income as opposed to gross.
Actor Ron Livingston kept a video diary of the time he spent during the Band of Brothers boot camp. I found it pretty interesting.
Driverless cars: Researcher disguises himself as car seat in study
As part of the study, a car was driven around the university’s campus over several days with its driver – research fellow David R. Large – concealed in the driver’s seat.
It bugs me when conservative groups self-define what a family is. A child does not get to choose their parents. Sixty years ago, a mixed-married couple with children wouldn’t be accepted as a family. Today, they are saying a child with parents of the same sex doesn’t qualify as a family.
Posted inPersonal|Comments Off on Bag of Randomness for Monday, June 12, 2023
Last night after dinner, I wanted to eat some Oreos but thought it would be best to space out my meals. I then watched the ninth episode of Band of Brothers. That’s the episode where they liberate a concentration camp. Not only could I no longer stomach any Oreos, but just the thought of having them around made me stop down and become grateful for all I have (and have lost).
When I watch a show series, I always wait to watch the last two together. That’s because, often, the second to last episode will leave you wanting for more.
I watched HBO’s The Pacific when it was first released. I think both it and Band of Brothers are great. But I think your favorite of the two will depend on what you watch first. And, for me, that was The Pacific.
It really was an amazing job British actor Damian Lewis did playing a WWII soldier. He did it with honor and distinction.
Band of Brothers sure did leave me upset with myself for not asking my father, who served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam with more questions. But, that was the thing with that generation, they really didn’t like talking about it. The series also made me wish I did some time in the military. I think I’ll go to my grave feeling my life was left incomplete because of how selfish I was with my own time on Earth.
Dad, as a tail gunner, would have really loved Masters of the Air, an upcoming American war drama miniseries based on the actions of the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Instead of being on HBO, you’ll find this series on Apple+.
When I was an intern at Dyess AFB for my leadership minor, Dad had a lot of stories about bad officers he served under. He told me many times that he had to remember that he was saluting the rank, not the person. You see how that comes true in the last episode of Band of Brothers.
When you grow up in a town like Mineral Wells, that is, one with a closed military base, you found it odd as a kid when all these grownups would come back looking to reunite with old friends. That got me thinking how I wish the Internet as we know it and Facebook was around at least twenty years earlier just so all these old service members could reunite.
I only had a cursory knowledge of Hitler’s vacation place, Eagles Nest. Per the series, I further learned that Nazis had to pay to live in the nearby village, it was a gift to Hitler for his 50th birthday and had a gold-plated (mostly brass)elevator. Curious, I wanted to know what became of it. Per Wikipedia, “Today, it is open seasonally as a restaurant, beer garden, and tourist site.”
Jim-Bob G. – I’ve been thinking of you as of late. Hope all is well.
Recovery from back surgery was going well until a few weeks ago. I’ve had a setback and experiencing pain in the same and in a new area. It’s those sharp shooting pains that go down the hips and hamstrings. It could be a number of factors, which means another MRI is in my future. I’m able to walk, but it ain’t without a limp. At least from sitting down.
An Oregon man who rigged his lost home with an “Indiana Jones”-inspired booby trap of a “round hot tub that was on its side set to roll down the hill” was found guilty of charges stemming from the 2018 incident, in which a federal agent was injured, officials said Tuesday.
Posted inPersonal|Comments Off on Bag of Randomness for Friday, June 9, 2023
A state school board in Oklahoma voted Monday to approve what would be the first publicly funded religious school in the nation, despite a warning from the state’s attorney general that the decision was unconstitutional. The Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted 3-2 to approve the application by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma to establish the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School. The online public charter school would be open to students across the state in kindergarten through grade 12.
Scientists have announced the first ever recorded case of a crocodile “virgin birth” after a female that had been isolated for 16 years was discovered with a clutch of eggs. The discovery provides “tantalizing insights” into the evolutionary origins of the trait, potentially shedding light on the reproductive capabilities of dinosaurs, a new study finds.
Finnish law states that punishments can be handed out in proportion to an offender’s income combined with the seriousness of the crime, according to The Guardian. Wiklöf’s fine was the equivalent of 14 days of his disposable income.
Sonic booms are loud, but I was curious if pilots hear the boom. Here’s the best answer I could find:
As a former Concorde pilot puts it, “You don’t actually hear anything on board. All we see is the pressure wave moving down the aeroplane – it gives an indication on the instruments. And that’s what we see around Mach 1. But we don’t hear the sonic boom or anything like that.
Posted inPersonal|Comments Off on Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, June 7, 2023
