The Waldheim Waltz
14:26 Saturday, 14 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 36.27°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 73% Wind: 6.82mph
Words: 146
Helmut, my Austrian correspondent, sent me a link to the Museum of Vienna. Click on the List button and scroll down to National Socialism in Vienna. I visited all the exhibits and listened to all of the audio descriptions and read the expanded textual descriptions as well.
What really caught my attention was The Waldheim Horse. It references a controversy around Kurt Waldheim's (form UN Secretary General) campaign for president in 1986. So that prompted a deeper dive, and I came upon this video from 2018 about the movie, The Waldheim Waltz.
The themes are contemporary, even though the events of the campaign are roughly halfway between the end of National Socialism, and the Trump administration today, and the rise of Authoritarian International (AI).
History doesn't repeat, but it sure does rhyme.
And it seems to keep the beat as well.
And the beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailAI Apocalypse
11:27 Saturday, 14 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 34.23°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 7mph
Words: 221
I'm not sure how this blog post is supposed to be read. If he's actually quoting the tweet in the text, or if these are Peter Sinclair's words. (The link to the tweet won't load for me.) Anyway, it's a troubling summary of some of the ways all of the models have been "misbehaving."
The post says Kubrick nailed AI horror in 1968 with 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'd say that was on the more "micro" scale. For a "macro" look at AI horror, Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) is the early example. (Supposedly inspired the idea of Skynet for James Cameron as a very young man, who went on to fame and fortune on the back of The Terminator.)
I don't know what's going to happen. I have a fairly good understanding of the climate crisis, the role of climate in virtually every aspect of life on earth, and my anxiety about that feels well-founded. AI could be a catastrophe, or maybe it helps us solve some of these problems. Or maybe it becomes "the voice of World Control."
We watched Colossus in the 4K remaster. Holds up remarkably well, except maybe for the geopolitical details. Looks great in 4K as well.
Anyway, glad we moved to the country. Not sure how much it'll help, but it feels safer.
✍️ Reply by emailTwilight's Last Gleaming
11:18 Saturday, 14 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 34.23°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 7mphWords: 13
Sunset looked promising last night, but didn't quite meet expectations.
Still pretty, though.
✍️ Reply by emailPete and I
09:54 Saturday, 14 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 32.58°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 6.71mphWords: 727
It was a beautiful day yesterday, and I didn't want to spend it inside. Mitzi had an appointment to meet someone to buy some bathroom light fixtures over on the other side of Seneca Lake. We'd recently talked to our friend from Florida who's building a cabin over near Keuka Lake. I suggested we stop by and see the cabin, since we would be on that side of the lake already.
So we called Pete and he said he was free, the only thing he was doing was waiting for some scaffolding to be delivered. So off we went!
We went directly to the new cabin because Pete had learned the scaffolding would be delivered about noon. He's staying at a rental place about five minutes away from his cabin. I brought along the generator since he doesn't have electricity to the cabin yet, and he's been running a very long extension cord from the power pole in the driveway.
We spent some time admiring the cabin and then the truck showed up. The driver wasn't going to back into Pete's long driveway, so he was dropping the load at the road. Fortunately, I'd brought the Maverick, so I took the truck down to the road and we were able to load everything into the bed of the Maverick. It was 600lbs of equipment in five boxes, three big ones and two smaller, much lighter ones. The big boxes were over 100lbs a piece.
The Mav didn't seem to like pulling through the snow, so I turned around and backed up the driveway with no problem, with Pete guiding me. Then we had to get the boxes out of the truck and into the cabin.
We had a session with our personal trainer the night before, and it was "leg day," and I was feeling it. There's some back and shoulders on "leg day" as well. I took off my parka because I'd already started working up a sweat just loading the stuff in the truck. It wasn't especially cold, maybe 28°-30°, and no wind. Comfortable in the sun.
Well, I'm happy to report we got the boxes into the cabin without either of us injuring ourselves of having a heart attack, but it seemed like a definite possibility at the time. Pete's a little older than me, 70-something. I think he may be in a bit better shape than I am, though. I think it was beshert, because we had not made any firm plans to visit Pete on Friday, we'd talked about maybe coming up sometime over the weekend. I hate to think of him trying manhandle all that stuff into the cabin by himself.
Pete's having the usual experience with new construction. Nothing is happening on time, so he's been up here since December, trying to facilitate things and do what he can on his own, but they're still waiting on electricity and water. The weather hasn't helped. His wife and her brother will be coming up next weekend to stay for a few weeks to try to make some more progress. They need the scaffolding to get high enough in the cabin to apply sealant to the wood.
After the fun and games moving the scaffolding, we went to the cabin where he's staying. It's much smaller, built and owned by the came company that assembled his cabin. We got some good ideas about our new place from looking at both cabins.
On the way home we stopped at Oak Hill Bulk Foods, our first time at a noteworthy Finger Lakes retailer. I escaped without buying a "fried pie." A lot of great food in that place, but be careful if you're trying to lose weight. Closer to home, just outside of Watkins Glen, we stopped at Lakewood Vineyards and I bought Mitzi a couple of bottles of wine for Valentine's Day.
It was still a beautiful day when we got home. I'm appreciating those days now, because we'll soon be entering the season of mud. But there were so many beautiful things to see on the way out and back. Lots of folks out ice-fishing on Keuka Lake, which I'd never seen before. The landscape just covered in white. It feels kind of magical and other-worldly.
Anyway, nice day yesterday. A bit sore today, but a good feeling.
✍️ Reply by emailIntellectual "property"
09:29 Saturday, 14 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 32.16°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 4.21mph
Words: 26
I sent Helmut a link to the YouTube video that I mentioned recently.
He can't watch that one either.
It's a "worldwide" web in name only.
✍️ Reply by emailPayPal Update
09:17 Saturday, 14 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 31.87°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 4.21mph
Words: 281
PayPal remains intransigent. Because of undisclosed "suspicious activity," my PayPal account has a "limitation" placed on it, which effectively renders it frozen. The only way to resolve the "issue" is for me to upload a copy of my photo ID. I don't want to provide yet another piece of personally identifiable information to a tech company, so I thought an easy way to resolve the "issue" would be to simply cancel my account.
Nope. Can't do that until I provide them with a copy of my photo ID.
They had one of my credit cards and my debit card on file. Because of the "limitation" I couldn't delete them either.
So I just canceled both cards and got new ones reissued, which was a bit of a pain, but far easier than trying to sever my relationship with PayPal.
I also filed a complaint with the New York State Attorney General. Kind of a lengthy process, but navigable. And so now I'm just going to ignore PayPal.
Who really needs PayPal anymore? I don't. I would use it from time to time, simply because it would appear as a payment method at a web site I was patronizing; and I had two subscriptions tied to it and I switched both of those to credit cards. I'm at least as confident in my banks' fraud monitoring as I am in PayPal's, especially given this experience. I don't need PayPal to "protect" me.
And, so long, PayPal! I guess you can continue to count my useless account as one of your "users" or whatever you call your hostages. But it will be a zombie account. Dead, but not dead.
The beat goes on...
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