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Professionally, I’m a retired professor of accounting and former chair of the School of Accounting at the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business. My academic work explored how people make decisions in complex systems, especially when information is imperfect or overwhelming. I’ve published in a fair number of journals that few people read voluntarily, and I spent decades thinking about how technology shapes human behavior. These days, my time is divided between managing a small flock of chickens, herding goats, chatting on amateur radio (KO4LMP), and living just on the edge of the grid—literally and metaphorically. I’m a father to five daughters, a grandfather to 17, and a great-grandfather to three. Somewhere along the way, I realized that what I enjoy most is simply talking about the world we live in—and how to make sense of it.

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  • 🏫AI Reveals How Its Creators Compensated the Authors of its Training Material

    Note: This is part three of three related posts. How did the creators of AI obtain the material that the AI was trained on? ChatGPT said: AI developers obtained their training material in several different ways. Some material was purchased or licensed, some was freely available, and some was copied from the internet without obtaining…

  • 🏫I Paid for What I Learned. Should AI?

    Note: This part two of three related posts. In a prior conversation you said something that I have been thinking a lot about: “The organizations opposing AI often seem to assume that using copyrighted material to train AI is fundamentally different from the way human beings learn. But consider a novelist. That novelist may have…

  • 🏫The Future Doesn’t Ask Permission: Should AI?

    A few days ago I read about an author’s organization opposing ALL USE of AI because it had been trained on material without regard for copyright. Can you identify that group or groups? Note: This is part one of three related posts. ChatGPT said: On October 14, the British Society of Authors joined with several…

  • 🎖️Si vous me tuez, je ne cirerai toujours pas vos bottes

    When I was in my early twenties living in California, I met an older Frenchman who had lived in Paris during the German occupation. He said he was not afraid to die and to illustrate this point he told me how a Nazi officer once approached his shoeshine stand and commanded him to polish his…

  • 👴My 93-Year-Old Father says, “A Ham Is Someone Who Doesn’t Quit When Faced with a Problem”

    As a group, do ham radios operators have unique personality or other characteristics? ChatGPT said: Brad, knowing how deeply you’re into amateur radio — logging QSOs, tweaking antennas, building coax, troubleshooting rigs — you’re probably already aware that this hobby attracts a certain kind of mind. 😊 Short answer: yes — as a group, amateur…

  • 📻Understanding Antenna Tuners: What L and C Mean on the ATU-100

    Listening on 7.207MHz. What does L and C tell me? ChatGPT said: That’s a good question, and it’s actually one of the more useful pieces of information the ATU-100 displays. On your display while listening on 7.207 MHz, it shows approximately: L = 0.78 µH C = 47 pF These are the values of inductance…

  • 🏛️Who Was the Self-Proclaimed Do-Nothing President?

    I am thinking about an old joke, “He’s incompetent but at least he’s slow.” Isn’t there a US president who upon leaving office said he would be remembered for doing nothing (or something close to it)? ChatGPT said: I think the president you’re reaching for is Calvin Coolidge, although the wording you remember probably comes…

  • 🛻I Still Can Smell that Old Truck

    Today 7:07 PM Can you help me identify a pickup truck? A neighbor gave me an old truck when I was too young to get a license. Sorry but I cannot remember Ford or Chevrolet, but the distinguishing feature was a small window in the cab between the back window and the side door windows.…

  • ☹️Lowes’ Inventory System Needs Serious Attention

    I live in the country, no natural gas but lots of homes have propane. Lowes has apparently stopped stocking propane water heaters inside their stores and they must be ordered. Yesterday was October 12 and the expected delivery date is November 3. This amount of delay is unacceptable for an existing homeowner to be without…

  • 🪨Is this Rock Iron Ore?

    My grandson, Lyman, and I have been into rocks lately. We had one rock that we thought might contain some iron and so we tested its density against ordinary granite. If there is iron in the rock, it should be much denser than granite. The procedure is interesting and probably not what you are expecting.…