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It’s definitely been stolen from me as well

A watch dog group believes the current biggest thread to national security is AI. AI can be "trained" to deliver mis-information, and if a person have been trained to believe whatever AI spits out as truth, we are all doomed. I know AI has stolen copyrighted material from me.

I’m think more along the lines of AI taking nearly jobs, the rank and file all receiving universal basic income and living at subsistence level with no prospect for change, while the billionaire class rules the world.

Have you seen any of the Terminator movies,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

There are so many scary ramifications to this. I see it ultimately as a means of controlling society in ways that humanity has never experienced before

Impressively high for what amounts to a 1.2km - ¾ mile - walk! But to borrow a phrase from a dong near to my heart, those heels look made for walking. You should see the towpath here - most unsuited for walking, even in Vibram soled hiking boots. Fortunately I have some very nice knee high boots with sturdy soles and low heels so I can keep up my style for tall boots. And on the cold mornings, such as today - down to freezing with thick ice firming on the boat - I have my heavy suede OTK boots with 8cm heels. Love these!

I didn't wind up wearing my steepest heels to the recital, but I did wear some pretty impressive looking ones. Yes, they are a full 15 cm, but you have to discount for the 3.5 cm platform. Not super impressive, but enough of a workout over 600 m x 2. The brand is Onlymaker, and they are actually pretty decent quality for being an inexpensive shoe.

What it comes down to is that many people don't know what's real and what's not, and maybe they don't care. That's the scary part.

I can understand the appeal. It’s seductive. But ultimately it is going to be very, very harmful and there may be no way back.

I could definitely see myself wearing those.

Nice outfits @mlroseplant. Keep bringing the style to your part of the world. And I agree on the sandals. Harder to find nice ones for sure! That is why they are limited in my collection.

I see both sides of The AI argument @Shyheels. There is definitely negatives when it comes to AI, for sure! But personally, anything that is going to make my life easier, or save me time and money, I'm on bored. I can't imaging how much money and man hours it would have taken me to come up with the same results that I got in a few minutes. And with only 1 picture and a few keystrokes, to boot.

That’s impressive - a 600m walk in week in your challenge height heels. I’d love to go for such a stroll in mine, but I’m really struggling to find a place. We had two inches of rain last night and now the towpath is unpleasant even in heavy Vibram soled hiking books.

I simply boycott it. AI is just wrong on so many levels. Dud you know Amazon now has a limit of three books a day one is allowed to publish through them - three a day! - because of the sheer tonnage of AI rubbish being churned out. And at least two of my titles have been used to train AI - with no benefit to me. And what is so great about endless AI produced royalty free images? I’m a photographer. - there is nothing good about it at all, especially since my work has been pirated and used to train AI. i see nothing good whatsoever to come from or out of AI

As a writer myself I know what you mean, but have found some limited uses for it. I have a fairly big printer (Plotter) so AI does a really nice job of taking a smaller sized photo and then scaling it up without any distortion even in poster sized pictures. It's kind of nice now to be able to take a thumbnail image and print it out at 3 feet by 5 feet and have it look good. The other thing I like is that in the United States anyway, the Supreme Court ruled AI Images are not able to be copyrighted, so I can use AI pictures for book covers and not have to worry about models, model releases, etc, and later being sued. Like @Mr. X but a little different, we just bought another house and wanted to see what the place would look like differently. Since we were swapping rooms, as in the kitchen being the living room and vice versa, it was nice to take pictures of the rooms then just make it a kitchen based on different kitchen styles of architecture. It was just Mr X did, but with rooms, and it was nice to see what we ultimately envisioned.

For me... and just me only, I like the contrast of the white socks, but I would like to see a white top. A kind of "black and white is always right" kind of fashion statement that is a staple of the world. But I admit I like contrast on my fronts. An ex-wife of mine always insisted her socks or hosiery always matched her shirt. I am not saying what she did was right, but that was her fashion rule for herself.

I also had a demanding week, but may break out my highest presentable heels today. I am to attend a music recital this afternoon, which will involve about a 600 m walk each way. The key for me is warming up a little bit first. Once I get to that height, I can't just put on my shoes and go. There has to be preflight.

The younger one says he doesn't care at all, and I believe him to an extent, but I KNOW for a fact that he enjoys his reputation as the kid who shows up to school in greasy jeans and beat up work boots who can also write and speak well and play the heck out of a saxophone. It's a subtle statement saying, "I am one of the few kids who knows how to drive a manual transmission, and I am the ONLY kid in my school who knows how to rebuild a carburetor." He might also be the only kid in his school who knows how to spell carburetor, and that there are two possible ways to spell it, depending upon which side of the pond you're on.

I’ve been lured away into mid-heels. Very heavy rains and temperatures down to 4°C have prompted me to dig out my heavy suede OTK boots with chunky 8cm heels. They are lovely and warm and very appealing on nippy mornings in the boat. We’re at that tricky transitional point in the year when it’s nippy enough in the mornings to want warm boots but not quite nippy enough for me to want to start the coal fire - yet. The daytime temperatures are a pleasant 15°C or so. i can change into my stilettos in the afternoon

I suspect I’ll find it challenging to find the “right” pair of sandals as I too am very picky about appearance, comfort and quality. Boots I know and understand. I’ve always worn boots, going back to a childhood in the mountains where hiking boots came to be a kind of personal trademark - something that distinguished me from the other kids in my class, with their natty town shoes. I’ve had this bias ever since and been fortunate that my choice of career allowed me to avoid wearing both neckties and brogues!

You and both of my kids. I have no idea how I managed to raise two boys who never wear shorts and always wear work boots. They arrived at this fashion/function/comfort decision independently. I threw "fashion" in there because there certainly IS that element in the mix, particularly with the older boy. Sandals are very tricky. In my experience anyway, it's much harder to find a "good" pair of sandals than it is fully enclosed shoes or boots. Then again, I'm probably pickier than most people, both about appearance and comfort.

You make shorts presentable, although I just don’t wear them myself - other than for cycling or to the gym. It’s always jeans for me and I usually manage to find a reason to extend boot season to year round, something that’s not really too hard to do in the north of England. I will say though, that you do make sandals look appealing - enough so that I am contemplating investing in a pair if I can find something nice in my size

As many of you know, I do like to wear shorts. Now is the time when it will soon be time to say goodbye until next year. These are perhaps my favorite jean shorts from l.e.i. I like the fact that they are pretty short, but not super tight in the legs, making them a little less racy than would otherwise be the case. They are size 5, which means they are juniors and not misses (which is the U.S. term for "women's"). One would think that juniors would fit my nonexistent hips better, and they probably do, but the downfall of that slimmer cut is that they are much better when standing up than when sitting down. Were it not for the fact that I have certain plumbing installed that was not really designed into these shorts, I would have no complaints. In other words, they are a bit tight in the crotch when the legs are not parallel with the torso. I have actually had compliments from strangers on these shorts in the past, with one gal even asking what brand they were. To be sure, I was in a standing position at the time. Paired with the shorts (and my 175th anniversary of our local church t-shirt) are my Bruno Magli Kira suede mules. Suede and summer might seem an odd combination, but somehow with these sandals, it works. They could probably use a good cleaning, though. For something casual and comfortable, they fit right in. One of the things I like about them is that they are a very narrow wedge, so they are not clompy at all, as many wedges can be. It is almost like walking in stilettos without the worry of putting your heel down a crack. *** A technical note: These sandals are size 38 1/2. I do not care what many size conversion charts say. 38 1/2 ≠ 8 1/2 U.S. Women's. I made them work, but they are just *this* close to being too small. I could have probably used a 39 or 39 1/2.

Exactly. I agree, I do think there is community out there who would happily join and contribute if they knew about us, and understood that we simply wear heels as a point of fashion.

It certainly is! I’m back on my boat, unpacked and practicing!