Advice From ‘a Six-Year-Old’

AI need not be a super-intelligence, as it is by default. Today I received a reply from a government body, regarding accusations I had deservedly brought against it. But a child, I thought, could see through this! I asked an AI engine to simulate the mind of a 6-year-old child. Once I had my child, I asked it, did it "smell a rat" when presented with the government material? Oh yes, it said. This government body "appeared to be quite dismissive". It looked, too, as though it was "trying to downplay allegations". Thus a 6-year-old-child could see what they were up to. The government body is the Legal Practice Council.

Youth Group

This one's a "file photo", recovered last week from my old hard drive. It is a photo of my Church's Youth group in 2009. In the background is our Canadian Assistant Minister. A Youth leader stands in the middle, and two Helpers on the right. OBSERVATION: I count 20 Youth in this photo. Sometimes this swelled beyond 30. The Church wanted to restructure the Youth after my departure, but they shut it down instead.

African Wedding

I thought that this was forever lost -- the original was badly damaged by the elements. However, here is a copy of E's and my marriage plan -- half a year before the event -- which I found on an old hard drive. Most of it had by now been well discussed. This post is about what made it distinctively African:

• LOBOLA: Of course, lobola. Translated, the bride price -- yet it is far more than that. In my experience, one receives most if not all of the lobola back, through generosity.

• INVITES: We had to accommodate limitless people somehow. This is African tradition.

• RETINUE: We deliberately went "European" here, with a modest retinue. African retinues may be large.

• ORGANIST: We didn't have one. We had traditional African singing (and African dress, for decoration).

• AFTER-CELEBRATION: Much of this was provided as a gift, by African tradition. In fact, half of the "European" reception was a gift.

• HONEYMOON: Originally, my new wife would mourn her parting from the family. However, we ultimately went "European", going on honeymoon soon after the wedding.

• TOTAL COST: This was greatly reduced, compared to the cost of a European wedding, mainly because the African family was deeply involved, and "I am because we are."

Caterpillar

Here's something that I designed many years ago. Without an explanation, one might wonder what on earth it is. It is designed to simulate the motion of a caterpillar -- the front and back sections being M1 (motor 1) and M2. VR1 controls, not the speed of the caterpillar (the speed of the motors does that), but the speed at which the front and back sections alternate. OBSERVATION: Front and back sections are mounted on two trays, which slide in and out of one another. The Chinese should convert this into a solar caterpillar. It would be more interesting than their solar beetles. You saw it first on this blog ...

POSTSCRIPT: With clever design, this would need only one motor.

Early Digital Video

I sought to back up a very old hard drive yesterday -- and mostly succeeded. This is a 2001 silent digital video of son M. Videos then were 120 by 160 pixels, in an array of 16 photographs in .AVI format. That was less than 0.02 million pixels 25 fps, and no sound. Compare with (now) more than 30 million pixels 60 fps, and HQ sound, as many frames as one likes.

CORRECTION: I measured the pixels, and corrected accordingly.

You Read It First ...

You read it first on my blog, nine days ago: "If my method is correct ... there will be a [stock market] crash in 2026". And I wrote, a month ago: "A major stock market crash is certain, about now. " Witness last night's The Economic Times headline: "US stock market crashes today." Or as it appeared on X: "$6 TRILLION ERASED IN 60 MINUTES." Depending how one does the figures, Microsoft is down 12%; Tesla is down 16%; silver is down 10%; and so on. OBSERVATION: I would not wish to be correct. Perhaps this is just a temporary correction. It would seem to show, though, that my predictions are not beyond the possible.

POSTSCRIPT: xAI comments that my predictive "linguistic method, which analyzes increases in public 'chatter' ... appears validated. US markets crashed on January 29-30, 2026." I have called it the Scarborough indicator.

More or Less

My nearest electronics store has the strange policy of selling one anything that is vaguely like the components they do not have. Then they seal them in plastic, before one pays for them at the till. So they have sold me, for example, 10μF capacitors instead of 100μF, 1W Zeners instead of 5W, 072 IC's instead of 071's, or one-core wire instead of two-core. For anyone with a basic knowledge of electronics, such are major differences. Their most recent swap was a classic: they gave me 4016 IC's instead of 40106's. As usual, they sealed them in plastic before payment. I went back and asked them for 40106 IC's. They would have to order them, they said. And so they ordered 4584's. There are no returns on semiconductors, mind you. That is policy. OBSERVATION: While I haven't ever tried 4584's, they should do what I want. But for someone like me, who is into experimental electronics, slight differences can be critical, such as input impedances or reverse voltages.

Prognoses

Doctors, these days, are very reluctant to give patients a prognosis -- far too reluctant, I would say. From one point of view, this is understandable, as the time of death is uncertain, and one can easily make a mistake. It is also an emotionally explosive issue. So people not seldom turn to the minister. I think of one woman in particular. She asked me how long she had left. I said she really couldn't rely on anything I said, and I told her why -- but "It could be six weeks, maybe three." She said: "That's a bit depressing." Then she told me she was getting better. She died four weeks later. OBSERVATION: I saw her a few times more before she died, and she thanked me again and again for my prognosis. It can make a big difference in people's lives, for good. I do not think it is good to withhold an opinion where one has some idea, and a patient wants to know.

Another Channel Down

Here's the primary communication channel in the Western Cape, of another instrument of state (you may click on the image to enlarge). This channel isn't working because the server is "unavailable or busy". Why is it unavailable or busy? Because there are "insufficient system resources" -- specifically Drive E: UsedDiskSpace. OBSERVATION: See elsewhere on this blog for this organisation's defunct Self Service Portal. This is fairly typical here.

Old West Coast Road

Here's another photo of Cape Town's old West Coast Road -- being eroded by the sea. One sees the strata of the old road on the left, topped with drfiftsand -- and Table Mountain on the right. You may click on the photo to enlarge.

AI Marketing

These days, aspiring social media marketers do not merely send one a simple e-mail proposal. They send (see the image) hugely attentive, insightful, spirited surveys of one's work -- then offer their services. This e-mail is nearly 600 words, or about the length of the Genesis creation account. It's AI, of course.

‘Dangerous Request’

This is a classic. This morning I sought to lodge a complaint with our Public Protector through their Self Service Portal. I filled in three pages, 600 words, then clicked on Submit. Poof! Gone! The Public Protector displayed a notice that I had submitted "a potentially dangerous request" (see the image).

Graduation Photo

This one's just a pretty picture -- of wife E graduating with a BTh back in May 2019. It was a very special achievement. She spent most of her childhood on a farm, then obtained only a nominal matric pass, due to riots at the time. She started her degree studies at a real disadvantage.

‘Chatter’ and Stock Market Crashes

I took to thinking whether linguistic analysis could predict the stock market. I now did a far more careful analysis of "chatter" before stock market crashes. I found that chatter reliably predicts a crash or major downturn -- two years in advance. A 10% increase in chatter in one year is enough. OBSERVATION: In 2023, there was no increase in chatter. In 2024, increase in chatter was about 27.5%. In 2025, it was about 25%. Some stock market crashes, like Black Monday, had more than 100% increase in chatter before it happened.

POSTSCRIPT: I mistyped the years 2023-2025, which I have corrected. If my method is correct -- and it correctly predicts more than 20 past crashes -- there will be a crash in 2026.

A Long Time

It's been a long time. I think I submitted my last theological paper about 2010. I now submitted one today. It is titled: A Philosophical-Theological Reflection on the Political Engagement of the Church: No Fixed Ideal. For what it is worth, DeepSeek AI considers: 

"Rev. Scarborough's paper presents a bold, necessary, and philosophically grounded argument that challenges entrenched positions. Its main value lies in reframing the debate."

OBSERVATION: That is, it seeks to overturn everything that went before! It reckons with both Christian nationalism and progressive Christian politics, advocating for faithful political engagement as a reaction to God's prior initiative and providence, rather than action towards a human-designed ideal.