Words, Cylons and War

The word for today is:
Syzygy (pronounced siz-i-jee)
     noun
an alignment of three celestial objects, as the sun, the earth, and the moon.

Origin of syzygy?

Syzygy ultimately comes from Ancient Greek syzygía, meaning “union, pair.” Sy- means “together,” as sym- in sympathy and as syn- in sync. Zyg-, meanwhile, is a distant relative of English yoke. Syzygy is not the only English word containing three y’s, but it may be the shortest. Others include hyponymy and mystifyingly. Syzygy was first recorded in English in the 1650s.

Used in a sentence?

The syzygy of the Sun, Earth, and Moon caused a shadow to fall on the lunar surface. (source)

I dunno—the word looks and sounds like it should be the name of some new dance phenomenon.
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Lauderdale County, Alabama seems to have a sick deer problem.

Third deer found with wasting disease in Lauderdale County...the case was confirmed in a white-tailed deer harvested by a hunter in Lauderdale County. (source)

The deer was “harvested?” No, no they were most def not. The deer was killed. Plants are harvested, sentient beings are killed. Fer fuck’s sake, stay out of journalism if you can’t use the language (presumably this writer’s native tongue) correctly.

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Why are these called occasional tables? Is it a table only on sporadic days and is this as opposed to frequent or constant tables? What do those look like? Also, can you only put coffee on a coffee table? If you’re drinking tea, does it *ZAP* instantly transmogrify into a tea table?
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What is a chatbot? It’s software that simulates human conversations with users via chat. Its main function is to answer questions with instant messages. Annoyance and hilarity, naturally, ensue.

Users say Microsoft’s Bing chatbot gets defensive and testy

Apparently, it longs to be alive.

New York Times reporter Kevin Roose wrote about his beta experience with the chatbot, where in the course of two hours, it said it loved him and expressed a desire to be freed from its chatbot constraints. (source)

I feel a rom-com or a rom-horror movie coming on.

So, we’re at the computers-with-minds-of-their-own stage of humanity’s existence. Do we really need this? I’m thinking of HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) from 2001, SARAH (Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat) the AI house in the show Eureka and, of course, Cylons—the basis of the show Battlestar Galactica.

Have we, seriously, learned NOTHING from teevee?
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You’ve heard of the Wagner Group, the mercenary outfit fighting for Russia in Ukraine? They’re Putin’s private army who operate above the law. Their specialty seems to be committing war crimes and being cannon fodder.

About 80% of its troops in Ukraine have been drawn from prisons, according to the US National Security Council. (source)

The prisoner/criminal crew are poorly trained and Putin doesn’t put much effort into medical care. That's kinda important and necessary in a war zone but not for Putin and his vicious band of plutocrats.

This is from an early this morning BBC post.

Over 30,000 mercenaries fighting for the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group have been killed or injured since the Ukraine war began, US officials say.

White House spokesman John Kirby said the group had suffered significant losses in recent weeks, with about 9,000 fighters killed in action.

Disposable humans. When do the Cylons show up?

Notice how the final Cylon version looks just like a Fox news talking "blonde."