One more Chuck Norris meme…

Chuck Norris was born on May 6th, 1945.

The Germany surrendered on May 7th, 1945.

Coincidence?

Nah, I didn’t think so either.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, July 08, 2026 - 01:00 pm: Edit

Sign posted behind the counter of a outfitters/gun store in Arkansas.

“Due to the recent price increase of Ammunition, we will no longer be able to provide a warning shot. Thank you for understanding and cooperation.” Management.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Wednesday, July 08, 2026 - 10:26 pm: Edit

Three sheep walk into a bar. The bartender angrily shouts, "What are ewe doing in here?"


Garth L. Getgen

By Randy Green (Hollywood750) on Thursday, July 09, 2026 - 09:34 am: Edit

Terrible Garth, but I sheepishly love it.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Thursday, July 09, 2026 - 09:42 am: Edit

Your booth awaits, Garth.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Thursday, July 09, 2026 - 09:31 pm: Edit

So, in the category of amusing things....

Folks here are likely familiar with the fact that John Sickels, with SVC's blessing, created the Romulan "House Orsini" in one of his splendid Captain's Log fiction pieces.

As many here also know, I'm an Air Force veteran.

Well, an email from the VA popped in today about burial benefits, for which I qualify. So I started poking about at the information.

I quickly discovered that the nearest VA-qualifying cemetery to where I will be retiring is in...

...Romulus, NY.

John and Steve apparently knew the truth all along.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, July 09, 2026 - 09:50 pm: Edit

Took you long enough.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, July 10, 2026 - 01:15 pm: Edit

@Jessica's post: I don't care who you are, that's funny right there!

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, July 10, 2026 - 02:08 pm: Edit

According to Google…

Quote:” Romulan proverbs are famous for being secretly sarcastic, deeply suspicious, and incredibly dramatic.

Unlike the strict logic of their Vulcan cousins, these sayings celebrate the arts of misdirection, emotional flair, and always having a backup plan.

Enjoy these gems of Romulan philosophy:

Master-Level Misdirection

"If knowledge is power, then to be unknown is to be unconquerable."
"Misdirection is the key to survival: never attack what your enemy defends, never behave as your enemy expects, and never reveal your true strength."
"One secret, five explanations."
"All is permissible unless one is caught."

The Romulan Way of Life

"Certain it is and sure:
love burns, ale burns, fire burns, politics burn, but cold were life without them."
"Seize today, for we know nothing of tomorrow."
"Never turn your back on a Breen."

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Friday, July 10, 2026 - 02:49 pm: Edit

I like the second quote under MLM...there is no honor in the 4th.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, July 11, 2026 - 03:03 am: Edit

Misdirection sounds like something Sun Tsu would have said.

Or something Iran believes.

By Kevin Howard (Jarawara) on Saturday, July 11, 2026 - 12:18 pm: Edit

Sun Tsu was a Romulan.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, July 11, 2026 - 07:53 pm: Edit

Well. With the ruse over, at least I can finally get the ears re-pointed.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, July 11, 2026 - 07:54 pm: Edit

"Sun Tsu was a Romulan."

So was Bismarck; he always had a backup plan.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, July 12, 2026 - 11:24 am: Edit

Another Google look at Romulan Philosophy…

Quote:” Romulan philosophy centers on cunning, state loyalty, and passionate pride.

They are a genetic offshoot of Vulcans who chose to reject pure logic and emotional repression in favor of ruthless survival. Their worldview is best summarized by their core strategic doctrines and defining moments.

The Core Philosophies & Quotes

1. The Strategy of Subterfuge and Secrecy"Misdirection is the key to survival, never attack what your enemy defends, never behave as your enemy expects, and never reveal your true strength. If knowledge is power then to be unknown is to be unconquerable."

The Philosophy: The Romulans believe that a direct fight is a failure of strategy. They view the universe as a game of chess. Survival belongs to those who hide their true motives and operate from the shadows.

2. Duty and Honor to the State

"No. No, that is not our way. I regret that we meet in this way. You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend. ... We are creatures of duty, Captain. I have lived my life by it. Just one more duty to perform."(Spoken by a Romulan Commander in TOS: Balance of Terror)

The Philosophy:

Unlike the Federation, which values individual life and exploration, Romulan philosophy demands absolute devotion to the Empire. Duty and national pride outweigh personal survival.

3. The Rejection of Pure Logic

"Our people are warriors. Often savage. But we are also many other pleasant things."(Spoken by a Romulan Commander in TOS: The Enterprise Incident))

The Philosophy:

Thousands of years ago, the ancestors of the Romulans fled Vulcan to escape Surak’s teachings of pure logic. Romulan philosophy embraces emotion, passion, and instinct, viewing them as natural strengths rather than flaws.

4. Suspicion and Practicality

"Romulan society is built on the assumption that all Romulans are corrupt and dishonest. It's entirely possible that Vulcan society is internally more corrupt... because Vulcans naively neglect safeguards."(A widely discussed perspective among fans on Reddit)

The Philosophy:

While Vulcans require strict, idealized honesty, Romulan pragmatism assumes everyone has a hidden agenda. On Romulus, suspicion is a tool of statecraft.”

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Sunday, July 12, 2026 - 07:37 pm: Edit

I am afraid that I must disagree in some of those points above.

Romulans unlike Vulcans did not suppress their emotions and control them by logic. They accepted their emotions and used DUTY and HONOR to control them.

Duty to one's House, the Honor of one's house. Duty and Honor for the empire. There is no honor in subterfuge are sneaky dealings.

The one thing that made the Klingon Romulan alliance work was both races value Duty to the Empire duty to one's house and their own personal honor.

With out the strict code of honor and duty. The Romulans would have teared themselves apart. Just as Vulcans would with out Logic.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, July 12, 2026 - 11:46 pm: Edit

Don’t shoot the messenger!

It is what Google posted, not ADB or any one associated (so far as I know…) with this BBS.

Take it for what it is worth.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 08:09 am: Edit

Jeff, I know that you've best intents, but for the love of the Elements, please lay off the Google AI results; more often than not, their artificial "intelligence" generates results that have large enough factual holes to sail at least an interwar treaty cruiser through, if not a battleship.

If I may make a recommendation: DuckDuckGo has the option to not provide AI results (an option which Google lacks).

If I may make a further Star Trek-specific recommendation: Memory Beta is a dandy source for material on the expanded canon, including material from the many novels and even drawing on material from the Star Fleet Universe.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 03:04 pm: Edit

Jeff, don't use AI stuff any more. The accuracy is just not up to our standards.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 03:13 pm: Edit

Acknowledged.

Will comply.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 03:22 pm: Edit

It should be pointed out that AI information is being passed as legitimate by Mainstream Media Sites.

The very recent “Proof of Life” picture that purportedly shows the Senator of Kentucky alive and well with a recent news paper was actually taken in March of 2023 after a prior health incident, and the image of the newspaper added in using AI (blow up of the news paper revealed that the text in the newspaper was actual giberish, which apparently is a hallmark of AI images.)

I will endeavor to avoid Artificial Intelligence material, but it is getting more difficult as AI improves.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 04:32 pm: Edit

AI isn't improving (geting more accurate), it is just getting harder to tell from the baloney of the legacy media.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 06:10 pm: Edit

AI can be extremely useful to someone who already knows what he/she is doing and is able to reject or accept statements as being right - assuming that person double checks the AI's references. But, yeah, it's worse than useless if you take whatever it says as gospel - particularly because all current language models are trained to say thing that are pleasing to you (e.g., great job! perfect! etc.)

I use AI every single day at work as a patent attorney. I draft a LOT of AI patents. I'm just short of a software engineer in terms of my understanding of their benefits and drawbacks, and how they work.

However, I'm ultra careful in my use. When I ask it to teach me something I insist it draw information only from "reliable" sources (characterizing what reliable means in context) and I insist it give me the references so I can check the model's results.

When I ask it to analyze an examiner's rejection, I criticize it in a conversation. Usually it ends up giving me a good argument, but only after I've gone back and forth with it for a while - using my expertise in the field to know what is good and what is not. In fact, today, I convinced it that its initial argument was wrong and then played devil's advocate again to make sure my argument was still good. But, eventually, it does save me the time of physically putting words to paper (or screen, as the case may be) - but even then I go through the whole thing carefully and edit.

Same process for drafting an application. I have it give me recommendations and produce rough drafts, but I do so through a highly complicated and detailed workflow of prompts that focuses the model one aspect of the application process at a time. Again, I double check it and force it to use only the invention disclosures and my own (already checked) statements of fact as the source of ground truth.

I've about doubled the speed at which I work because of AI. However, I would *NOT* trust myself to use AI to produce real analyses or products in a field I'm not already an expert in.

I've talked to plenty of code jockeys who are my inventors. They tell me the same thing. The bot can help do the coding, or even give you ideas for the architecture of a new project, but you have to design and approve the project and then check whatever code it gives you after you've approved the architecture.

I'm waxing verbose, because this is the AI age and I want everyone to know that AI can be an extremely powerful tool. Just know its limitations and capabilities, and also know how to use it.

And NEVER trust it at face value.

I hope the above helps.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 07:22 pm: Edit

Two weeks ago, Fox business channel had a story about Ford Motor Corp.

They laid off hundreds of workers several months ago, replaced by AI to handle product development. The CEO was quoted saying that quality would be maintained, and the corporation would be more efficient and profitable.

Turned out, The AI made mistakes, and there was no quality control process in place to correct the errors.

350 specialists had to be hired on an emergency basis to fix the AI errors.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 07:56 pm: Edit

I worry more about people putting anything and everything out in the media. just to get a like or any kind of response. They do not care what the put out lies or half-truths. As long as someone goes OH WOW and hits the button. As they will get more money for everyone that does.