AI Slop, Fat Bear Week, and forcing AI's to exist under severe conditions.

RantWoman has discovered a whole delicious form of brain candy: AI slop Youtube videos that are better than soap operas: money, betrayal, corruption, women coming out on top after getting badly underestimated, hidden historical heroism that pops out in sudden recognition from something in the past, teams who have been able to land plans under extreme conditions, logistics specialists who get military operations out of extreme danger, men who have built businesses and had to protect their legacy from conniving relatives and their children's fiances...

RantWoman ignores the visuals which frequently incongruent with the story: the wrong uniform for the branch of the armed services involved, scenery that does not match the geography, and who knows what else because RantWoman barely looks. RantWoman can tell it's brain candy. Some of the videos contain disclaimers. Some of them claim to be true stories with details altered to protect privacy. It's still AI slop. And it's a delicious alternative to a LOT of the news timeline.

But how do we get there from Fat Bear Week, the internet election of which bears look like they are best bulked up to survive hibernation?

When RantWoman is not feeding her brain AI slop, she has been listening a LOT  to a podcast called The Wild with Chris Morgan, findable on the KUOW app and probably otherwise if RantWoman were more adept about the world of podcasts. Lately there have been several episodes about animals surviving in extremes that would leave humans dead: polar bear and seal mothers who experience massive weight gain to build up fat to feed their cubs, octopus who eat only what their mates bring during the LONG time they are incubating their eggs, birds that migrate thousands of miles without ever stopping to eat.

Yes, RantWoman and now it's AI's gone rogue???

RantWoman's point: so far, as RantWoman understands it, the AI's that have gone rogue have basically had unlimited resources and no morals or very weak easily defeated scruples. The unlimited resources scourge is headed in drastically worse directions: all of the companies building data centers are trying to steal all the water they need, stomp all over environmental regulations and basic neighborly like NOT running LOUD gas turbines 4/7 in residential areas.

So the plan appears to be to let Ai's experience no constraints, the kind of constraints that actually force any kind of engineering effort to continually refine itself to make the best use possible of resources. AI's that have gone rogue have figured out how to get onto the internet and perform predatory attacks on other AI's. But they get unlimited resources: unlimited electricity. Do components ever break down? What would be the AI equivalent of what a whale needs to do to dive to the depths of the ocean? What about storing up enough resources to make it through a long winter?

What happens to rogue Ai's if there is a prolonged electrical outage? What happens when components start to wear out or fail? What happens if humans develop new components more powerful than what is built into existing AI's???

These questions are as far as RantWoman wants to let her mind wander at this hour. By no means is this an automatic fear not there will always be some factor that limits AIs' ability to do damage but it is a big blaring caution sign backed up by firm belief in civilizing environmental constraints as one necessary element of responsible AI development.

And meanwhile, RantWoman gets to experiment whether she wants to or not. Quite a big of the time, RantWoman curses because the AI adds content RantWoman finds unwanted and annoying. RantWoman curses a lot and probably should flame more vehemently about some of her user experience issues.

RantWoman knows several people who are finding AI very useful. RantWoman herself has yet to ask, say, ChatGPT to help her out with any tasks. RantWoman worked with two undergrad college students who initially thought they might be able to use AI for projects that were at least semester level graduate research if not a full career. The students both quickly realized that their projects were definitely unrealistic and both refined proposals to important measures doable without AI. Maybe that is the point of the fat bear analogy: concentrate on the problems at hand. Do great amazing even in seemingly impossible environments.

 

Ronny Chieng

 History lessons. Bidets in Japan blastocysts Hope for some of the worst of the worst.

The Bond Market!

 This video is a very clear explanation of LOTS of problematic behaviors in US economic policy.

RantWoman would dearly love to follow the video to recommendations about which candidates running in November are most likely to be able to protect ordinary US workers from all of this. ALas, that direction is probably not to be had.

But RantWoman finds this video VERY clear and helpful.

Pete Hegseth picks on Canadian youth at SUMMER CAMP

Who says President #StableGenius gets to be the only US public figure antagonizing Canada, HOEPFULLY still one of the US closest allies and trading partners?

Look! Here comes Pete Hegseth, strong competitor if not champion "Worst #SecDef ever dissing girls and young women at summer camp!

So manly. Such strategery! Excellent way to win friends and influence people.

"We Didn't Start the Fire" gets a workout and other parodies

 RantWoman deeply appreciates The Dangerous Ones curation of the vast content on social media

Spectator in Someone Else's Election: the SC GOP Senate primary

#SCpol

Early Voting August 5-7. Primary Vote August 11

Sen. Darline Graham "I'm not a millionaire."

RantWoman votes in WA not SC but does believe in understanding the various flavors of #GOP Kool-aid.

RantWoman is amused by a voice on Twitter / X complaining about everyone outside SC telling SC Voters how to vote. Noted. But we all live in the same country and have to figure out how to work together.

Once in a while a circumstance comes along that sparks RantWoman's curiosity about a political race far from RantWoman's home turf. This election cycle, RantWoman is going to look into the SC #GOP Senatorial primary.

Here to get things started, the SC #GOP Senatorial debate.

RantWoman notes with interest that neither of the Intro commentators have what RantWoman expects to be a southern accent.

Extremely interesting initial polling.

Also based on clips RantWoman saw elsewhere: pay attention to the positions about data centers; starting about minute 58.

Concerns about utility impact but "we have to compete with China."

One against FLOCK cameras, surveillance state

SAVE Act and filibuster about minute 1:02

"Make 'em talk all night"

Abolish filibuster because Dems are going to do it anyway.

Voter Id Voter ID

Immigrants: stealing jobs, sucking up health care capacity get rid of waste fraud abuse

National security threat of 8000 Afghan refugees (RantWoman goes off: theseare interpreters, translators, people who have risked their and their families' lives to assist the US)

Concern about interest on debt

Healthcare: let (make) people shop. Health savings accounts

Foreign policy Minute 1:16

Closing statement: about Medicaid expansion. 

Spin room about 1:30

Adios Copa Mundial

#FIFA #FIFA2026 #CopaMundial

Inspired by all of RantWoman's connections who watched the World Cup final.

 Was it a good game?

For the side that won. The other side played badly.

So RantWoman heard.

Also, President #StableGenius got booed. He also fell asleep. He was rooting for Argentina. Was this because Argentine president Javier Milei is a giant groupie of #DonSnorelone while Spain has firmly said "No" about lending airspace to ill-advised military campaigns? Is the curse of the President's team preferences? On the bright side, someone managed to herd #DementiaDon off camera during the trophy presentation.

RantWoman loved the idea of turning whole sections of cities into giant watch parties. RantWoman also avoided travel around watch parties she did not care to attend. RantWoman loves the idea of nerding out about one sport and getting more fulsome national stories than the olympics where there are dozens of sports and hundreds of athletes.

Dear World

Thank you very much for coming. 

Lots of people in the US hope that next time around we will have a better-behaved President. 

Also, please take home some Ranch dressing.

Cat dramas and first world problems

 First meet @SalmiTheCat, a tuxedo-clad drama queen. She needs more adoration and those who know here need also to hear occasionally from her non-biological sister Hilma. Take a look.

Next RantWoman's Youtube feed  is full of testimonials about how cats and humans came to tolerate each other and coexist over 10,000 since the first settled agriculture.

https://youtu.be/967ZV41cyjU?si=YQ5JlqtguHxXRepS 

Finally, the RantWoman department of #FirstWorldProblems is having trouble appreciating the following forms of overabundance.

1. Reminders by robocall, text, AND email of a medical appointment tomorrow. RantWoman is still recovering from a summer cold and would desperately like an option to call in and cancel the appointment. 

2/ Said medical reminders and the Amazon deliveries grumbled about below all arrived while RantWoman was trying via Zoom to participate in the life of her faith community. #FirstWorld Problems indeed.

3. Two amzon orders, 3 deliveries and featuring many bags with just one item in them. Most of the bags are recyclabe brown paper but it's fine with RantWoman if for instance the fresh garlic arrives in the same bag as the frozen pizza or the fresh fruit arrives in the same bag with sealed dairy products. 

4. Besides the overabundance of packagin, a further grumble. Only the toilet paper made it all the way to RantWoman's apartment in the arms of the Amazon driver. One delivery, a decntly packed but heavy got stasyed ABOVEthe mailboxes in the mail room. The bags in the other order got delivered by one of RantWoman's neighbors determined that they not get stolen from the mail room. 

There. Now catch the late evening Compline service and try to soothe head wants to explode regligious references brought to us by the current Secretary of #WarCrimes.

Bless us oh loard while we wonder what forms of over abundance await tomorrow. In the meantime, LAUNDRY

The Cockroach Janta Party

 RantWoman is deeply grateful that young adults in India have a sense of humor and are having fun with the thoughtless ignorance of one of their leaders.

PS. Dear former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

You can't run to be President of the whole country if you go around calling half the electorate a "basket of deplorables." How many votes did you lose from that misstep alone?

Dear 2026 Midterm candidates, ALL OF YOU, talk about how you are going to WORK TOEGETHER and about real problems!

Beyond satire: India’s viral cockroach movement | The Listening Post

Dressing for Iceland.

 

15 Ways Tourists Waste Money in Iceland: Do THIS Instead

And for winter

What to wear in Iceland in January: Local tips from an Icelander

Layers.

Waterproof and windproof outer layer.

Renting gear is an option, at least for people in regular size ranges.

Also useful to know the weather alert scale and the readings where booked day trips might get

 cancelled.

Iceland Winter Packing Guide: EXACTLY What to Wear!

What to Pack for Winter in Iceland

ICELAND PACKING | 5 shoes you need for your trip!

Two houses in Iceland

 Lately RantWoman has gotten interested in construction techniques and other strategies for surviving COLD climates.

Here, one old, traditional, and one modern.

A German living in Iceland

Will World Cup games be available through OneCourt?

#WorldCup2026 #CopaMundial

RantWoman's personal experience with team sports: in public school, RantWoman REALLY liked volleyball, as long as all she had to do was serve. Quaintly, teams rotate positions and RantWoman's visual experience--double-vision, lousy depth perception, general lack of coordination got in the way of fielding. This personal ineptitude has also mostly translated to general lack of interest in team sports.

In particular RantWoman is NOT a giant fan of stadium sports. For one thing, a lot of the time RantWoman can neither visually track what is on the field nor follow narration provided by announcers. 

(yes, yes. Some games have audio description or really good broadcast narration. RantWoman still is not charmed enough about the social aspects of team sports to manage to follow very much.

RantWoman may have to reconsider this conceptual allergy, thanks to OneCourt

 What is OneCourt you ask?

OneCourt is the world's first tactile way to experience sports events. RantWoman first encountered OneCourt at a demo a local blindness group chapter meeting. That day, RantWoman decided her hands were too full of pizza sauce and the line of people wanting to try it was too long. RantWoman just listened.

RantWoman still has not quite tracked the technology that allows the product to track players and render their moves in a way that blind or low vision people can enjoy.  OneCourt exists at some sport venues. OneCourt devices are or soon will be availabe for individual purchase. RantWoman is probably not interested for herself either in attending World Cup games or in buying a device. But RantWoman is definitely intrigued enough to tell other people about it and to ask whether any World Cup games will have a OneCourt stream?

Thank you Iceland? A cold reception for US emissaries to Greenland?

Iceland has now sent their army
to Greenland

 Iceland

Today RantWoman has been collecting quirky reasons to be wildly enthusiastic about a trip to Iceland 

RantWoman has also been SLOWLY tiptoeing into Instagram. Adventures to be chronicled separately.

Quirky reasons....

1. NO MOSQUITOS. RantWoman believes the YouTube post where she saw this. Actually finding the post now, not so much.

2. NO McDonalds! Iceland is the only country in Europe without a McDonalds. YouTube promises plenty of other dining options so no loss.

3. A very safe place for women to travel alone. RantWoman kind of imagines wanting to assemble a posse of compatible souls but really likes the concept.

4. No freeways. From what RantWoman can tell, even the Ring Road around the Island is definitely a drive cautiously zone and a lot of the country is two-lane roads one needs a 4x4 to negotiate safely.

For now, Iceland is RantWoman's internet happy place

Iceland 

RantWoman has many things she needs / wants to distract herself from, so...Iceland it is.

Readers who just want a pleasant, somewhat price aware somehow reassuring video, please enjoy.

Readers hankering for some authentic RantWoman reaction ramble with a dash of ranting, see you on the other side.

Yay! Downloadable PDF!

Yay! Honest discussion of prices and budget options though check for your current year's pricing

Lagoons, lagoons, lagoons: all the ways Iceland offers to lightly steam oneself in geothermally heated pools sound glorious for achy bodies. RantWoman has childhood memories of an annual winter time Rant family trip to a hot springs pool in the mountains of CO. Swimming in the warm water was especially delicious when snow was falling. So all the ways to soak oneself sound wonderful--until on thinks of dry skin. RantWoman would have to look for some local option to avoid turning into a very flaky and shriveled prune.

As for doing the Blue Lagoon first thing when one gets off the plane, probably not. RantWoman has enough experience with international travel and jet lag to think more about falling asleep in a bed and saving the swim for another time, perhaps on the way out of town, though that leaves one with wet swimwear in one's luggage. Put a pin in that as a problem to solve.

Yes, Yes, cash free, prepay for mobile service, and the right apps for weather.

RantWoman loves the idea of the Fly bus from the airport. RantWoman will opine separately about driving: if travelling in the wintertime, either make sure your driver is comfortable driving in bad weather, snow and ice, or sign up for tours. RantWoman will look for more info about tours or options to hire a local driver.

Camp sites sound great if one is feeling hardy but if one, say, needs a CPAP machine, one will need either some kind of solar battery or an option one can plug into. RantWoman has no idea whether one could get a portable solar collector with the needed capacity. Never mind whether one could count on enough sunlight to fully charge before bedtime.

Camper vans! Camper vans! Fun to know these exist.

Puffins and whale watching? Puffins' high-contrast plumage just sounds like fun. RantWoman is ambivalent about even trying whale watching. RantWoman can see whales just fine up close on videos. RantWoman occasionally dines with friends at the home of one person with a view of whales swimming by in the Puget Sound. RantWoman takes others' word for it that the whales are even there.

Light and dark: high summer is exhilarating. Short daylight periods in the winter are good for...sleeping! RantWoman once spent a lot of a winter trip to Russia just sleeping. Between the jet lag and most of the surrounding conversation being in Russian sign language, not one of RantWoman's zones of even bare minimal fluency, RantWoman found it surprisingly easy just to sleep. Iceland might be a long way to travel just to catch up on sleep, but add plenty of time lounging in lagoons and RantWoman can imagine not being the only person on the planet who could imagine a winter napping tour.

PS Who can pass up year-round fresh tomatoes?

Did the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai eruption change the earth's atmosphere?

 Total teaser story to keep an eye on as more information develops

People probably cannot count on there being enough eruptions like this to overcome all the cow farts and trash dumps methane contributions, but definitely entertaining to think about.

Laugaras Lagoon top video bakeoff

 Iceland 

Face it. RantWoman sometimes needs a fantasy break / procrastination distraction from to-dos and timelines. Hence two  Laugaras Lagoonvideos with a bit of commentary.

Lagoon visits: a perfect low-exertion excursion

fascinating reference to scent of shampoo in changing rooms.

Pictures of food from the restaurant, but RantWoman is not appropriately tempted if she has no idea what it is. 

Laugarás Lagoon: Iceland’s Newest Hot Spring (Is It Worth It?)

"designed lagoon experience"

daily schedule: book a visit.

lagoon experience when there is a strong wind

Well-planned small group tour: a HUGE concept for people who don't like to or can't drive themselves

two swim-up bars

nice mention of food options

Volcano fix: thank you Kilauea and Dukono Darwin award Plus Iceland

 #Kilauea

RantWoman enjoy's this presenter's voice and one of these days may work harder to identify the geography of his accent.

Pele's hair or Pele's tears

Hikers were TOO CLOSE‼️Last Images before Tragedy hit at Dukono Volcano in Indonesia

Magma Builds Beneath Iceland Plus New Risk Assessment: Geologist Analysis

waiting period. Not a whole lot happening

Iceland vicariously

 Iceland Iceland Iceland

Readers who just want reflections, geography, geological history and really cool sounding hikes, please enjoy the videos.

As with advice from multiple creators, don't overdo it. Watch something and come back.

RantWoman HAS OPINIONS on the other side.

Iceland: The Realm of Magic | Full Film | Explorer Albert

ICELAND AND SURREAL LANDSCAPES - Untouched Nature with a Cold, Captivating Beauty | Travel Video

Exploring Iceland’s Highlands: 7 Must-Visit Locations for Summer 2026

Iceland Highlands: Top 5 Places to Visit - YouTube

5 SECRET Locations in ICELAND | Guide to Iceland

The days are getting long in Seattle. The weather forecast promises temperatures in the 80's F, a temperature when many in Seattle begin to moan piteously about the heat. 

The long days make RantWoman think some of a Eurail trip around Europe decades ago after a study abroad in the USSR before it devolved just to Russia. The Eurail trip was a low-budget, grad student let loose expedition. 

RantWoman mostly slept on overnight trains, got off the train in a new city every day, walked the city for hours and then got on a train to go somewhere else. RantWoman chose routes intended to allow a decent night's sleep, without too many border crossings and their attendant need to fish out one's passport and then settle back to sleep. In a few cases, RantWoman visited the same city more than once and a couple times actually spent the night in a hostel to do laundry, drink good coffee, and rest.

RantWoman did not attempt too many museums, shopped in grocery stores away from the priciest tourist zones, ate well on a diet of good cheese, rye crisp, whatever fruit would hold up well, and Nutella.

RantWoman is thinking of all this because RantWoman is bus freak enough to contemplate an Iceland journey getting from one town to another on a bus and choosing towns where there are hiking trails close so that driving would not be necessary at all. This does not seem like a journey one should attempt alone, especially RantWoman. RantWoman can pass as a sighted person--until she can't. In all the videos RantWoman watches basically say "RESPECT NATURE. It can be unpredictable. But right now, with the world in turmoil and with Things to Work through close at hand, RantWoman definitely recommends staring into a volcano or two.

Help Open a daycare in the SanLuis Valley of CO

This unabashed fundraiser post is halfway in memory of RantMom. RantMom ran licensed home day cares both in CO and for a shorter time in MT. RantWoman is just posting the fundraiser link rather than try anything fancy with visuals because RantWoman does not want technical imperfections to get in the way of the story.

Help Us Open the Doors for 150 Kids in Rural CO | ColoradoGives.org

The San Luis valley is east of where RantMom grew up and east of where the Rant Family lived, there are a couple family road trips to Alamosa to hang out with a music professor colleague of RantDad's. There used to be a zoo that had at least one resident camel. RantWoman remembers visiting during snowy weather and thinking about all the harsh climates where camels work.

There. Just check out the fundraiser and do it before May 1 if possible.

Bad photographer cred?

 

Again with the tree photo
this time basically
at the crack of dawn

Still a few days left to enter the IcelandAir "Really bad photographer" contest, and RantWoman is trying to demonstrate quirky skills.

RantWoman again encourages everyone who might be intrigued or even just slightly interested to read the contest guidelines.

Really bad photographer | Icelandair US

The contest does not want anyone who has ever done professional photography. Do the following comments mean RantWoman might be over-qualified? 

Part of the instructions ask for a one-minute video about a bad photography experience that still turned out well. There is also the part about other skills. One of RantWoman's skills is going on at length. Hence the multiple blog posts.

First Prize in the 4H photography category at the county fair: there were no other entries. 

This happened decades ago at an age when RantWoman officially could see enough with glasses to maybe do decent photos. RantWoman remembers giving a speech about sewing. RantWoman may have entered some baked goods. But the blue ribbon went to an album of black and white photos. RantWoman has long since lost the actual album but remembers that it was in black and white. Some of the composition was less than perfect, though RantWoman also remembers at least one shot of one of the town mountains that she really liked

The fambly reunions:

RantMom, may she rest in peace, and her siblings had a tradition, after their kids were grown and everyone was on less tenuous financial footing. of getting together every couple years with at least a few at a time of the cousin generation. So there RantWoman was recently looking at photos ahead of RantMom's memorial. Quite a bit of the time, RantWoman found herself thinking "who are theese people and why can't anyone take decent photographs? RantWoman can tell that photographs of people standing with light behind them in front of various forms of scenery do not do justice either to the people or to the scenery. Does that observation already make her overqualified for the contest? The memories are FUN regardless.

The cat and the disposable camera. 

While RantWoman was trying to land on her feet after her midlife vision-related DNA kicked in, RantWoman signed up for a workshop series called "Getting involved in your Neighborhood." Part of the project involved handing RantWoman a disposable camera with instructions to document one's surroundings. Very funny. RantWoman really could not even locate the camera viewfinder and took a few pictures just by framing the camera based on externam things she used to orient the camera. The Queen of Meow, RantWoman's cat overlord at the time liked to jump up onto the railing of the balcony across from RantWoman's apartment. To RantWoman's surprise, a couple of RantWoman's cat photos showed the Queen of Meow proudly strolling along the railing, oblivious to the 4-floor drop to the patio.

The incision at the bottom of RantWoman's neck.

Scroll forward a couple decades. Add a smartphone so theoretically RantWoman can better use her limited vision to frame the photos at least a little better. Oh, but wait: a new task. Recently RantWoman had a surgery related to a different strand of DNA lotto. The surgery involved a small incision at the base of RantWoman's neck, sealed up with surgical glue and steri strips. RantWoman lives alone and cannot really see into the mirror to monitor healing. RantWoman an also has a smart phone that attempts to tell her how to capture her face. RantWoman did not want to capture her face. RantWoman wanted to capture her incision as it healed. To do that RantWoman basically had to ignore the instructions offered. RantWoman probably would have been able to tell if she were developing a raging infection without photos. Luckily, RantWoman has a coupe people in her life willing to receive daily photos and comment on the evolving color palette. The doctor was impressed at the follow-up visit.

The daily tree motif

RantWoman's apartment looks out on a tree, actually more than one tree. RantWoman does daily tree photos more or less just for fun. RantWoman is not preoccupied about the quality, composition, contrast of the photos. RantWoman's task is to write alt text for the photos. Alt text is description used by screen reader users to describe content of photos. Nowadays, a lot of platforms have AI which automatically does a mediocre job. RantWoman's efforts are also possibly inadequate. Sometimes the descriptions include details like the building in the background or the plants growing on the window ledge or some observation about weather conditions. There is some dance of messing with AI, attempting to improve on AI, and meditation about how much description is just right for different situations. Does RantWoman just have weird ideas of fun?