13 June 2025

Girls fall behind boys in math during the first year of school. Why does this happen?

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Laptop speakers can leak audio through walls, through inadvertent radio transmission leakage. Probably not something I'll have to worry about. 

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U.S. Senators may ban pharma ads on TV networks. Boy, is their budget gonna suffer. They should ban it from radio, too.

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Sleeping in total darkness turns about to be important. Even a little bit of light can apparently interfere with deep sleep.

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In a parody article, someone wrote that Cape Breton was going to have its own time zone. Google and Meta picked it up as actual news, and started disseminating it. 

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Not good.  Intel is going to start laying off an unknown number of people in Oregon in July. This is going to hurt Oregon even more.

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This is news to me. RFK Jr. is telling people that:
For $75 a month, under this bill, you’ll be able to get a concierge doctor who is available 24 hours a day, every day of the week, every day of the year. You won’t get a bill for it. You won’t have to file insurance claims. It’s just like old-style health care—but it’s for $75 a month.

We’re also going to allow the creation of onsite medical centers by employers—at factories, at workplaces—where workers can get treated for free. Somebody won’t have to leave work for four or five hours to get a medical checkup. They’ll be able to do that onsite.
What? Suddenly medicine is a commodity? So cheap? We're getting even deeper into socialized medicine? Do we have all these doctors now, who will be willing to work for peanuts? Or does he expect AI to step up? Or nurse practitioners? Or FMGs?

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Some folks are looking into a theory that gravity is just a manifestation of entropy.  Yeah, it's a long shot.

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Fastest way to detect a vowel in a string. Nice review of Python coding techniques.

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Sad story of a guy who convinced HP to buy Palm and WebOS, and then see it die.  Oh, what could have been. The stars really misaligned, didn't they.

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More money gets wasted going to the bloated Oregon Edu-cay-shun Department.  Meanwhile, Oregon has nothing to show for all that money. 

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12 June 2025

Using ChatGPT changes your brain – for the worse. All that cognitive off-loading. Quick, somebody let Ohio State University know. Use of ChatGPT will be required come this fall.

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It hasn't happened yet. Someone speculates on what will be AI's first big disaster. So many possibilities.

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Well shoot. Houseplants don't actually purify the air. The original story that said it did was flawed.

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Looks like Khanh Pham's crazy bill to tax Google and Meta has advanced in the legislature. I bet she thinks she's doing Oregon a service.

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Dutch Bros is officially moving their HQ to Arizona. All those jobs. All that tax base. Tsk, tsk.

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Yes, those political TikTok videos really do shape people's minds. And Trump's team makes better ones. Of course, we knew that.

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Here's a map of where inflation is the highest. What do you notice?

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11 June 2025

nVIDIA is going to build the world's first industrial AI cloud datacenter. But it's going to be built in Europe, to help European countries. What, not enough business in the United States?

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Apple introduces a haptic movie experience. OK, Apple, you can do cute small stuff like this, but how about something significant, too. You know, like what Steve Jobs would have done?

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Last year's winning optical illusions. Most of them are stuff we've already seen before. The latest entries are from 2023. The 2024 contest is underway. So late.

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A pancreatic cancer vaccine that "eradicates" disease? Why hasn't this gotten more publicity? Because, it's still early in the development phase. From the description, it seems more like cellular therapy, rather than a vaccine.

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10 June 2025

Semaglutide is linked to neovascular macular degeneration.  It's already linked to muscle and bone mass loss. But on the plus side, it may increase penis length by a several millimeters. So, worth it?

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Great article on what it's like going through a lawsuit. It's not fun, and AI can be a very helpful companion.

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Clark County schools are feeling the money pinch. Schools always seem to need money. Why is that? Wish the students' grades would reflect the investment.

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Here's Biden on sanctuary cities in 2007 when he had a few more brain cells. Obama had a message, too. It's clear. The Democrat party is not the same as it was before. Just because you were a Democrat then, doesn't mean that it makes sense to still be one today. So Trump is not some fascist dictator, just trying to enforce immigration law, unless those two were also. 

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Remember when Portland didn't call in the National Guard, so as not to "escalate" the violence?  Yeah about that.

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8 June 2025

CAR-T cell therapy may cure refractory myeloma in about a third of cases. This is the CARTITUDE-1 trial. Very nice. CAR-T cell therapy has come a long way. Dr. Carl June, still hasn't gotten a Nobel prize for this.

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GenZ is becoming a generation of slackers. That's the old term for NEETs. 
“I’m just focusing on the present because the future is depressing.” Hustling, girlbossing, or “work hard, play harder” just doesn’t quite have the same grip on Gen Z as it did on millennials starting out.  

...many Gen Zers are eyeing up easygoing jobs that don’t require regular overtime, antisocial working hours, or substantial responsibilities like managing a large team.
Others are avoiding office jobs: The hottest roles right now among Gen Z grads are in teaching, where low pay is balanced with weeks of vacation. 

At the same time as unemployment among the youth is rising, their mental health is in decline.
Until recently, being the director of an NSAID-funded NGO was a cool job. Or a homeless agency in Portland.

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Portland Mayor Keith Wilson still pledges to end homelessness by this year.  By blanketing the city with crappy tiny homes in "safe villages" all over, no doubt. Portland is clearly in a doom loop. So much white flight going on, taking their wealth with them.
And more workers in Oregon are part-timers now. There just isn't enough money to support full-timers and probably not enough business anyway.

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7 June 2025

I'm interested to see what Apple's WWDC 2025 will reveal. A new look/theme for sure. But I don't expect much in the AI department. I doubt Siri will improve, unfortunately. Unlike most geeks in the Bay Area, I don't want my phone to automatically book reservations at my favorite restaurant and schedule cab service to pick me up. Or make plane reservations and reserve a rental car. I just want Siri to tell me where the nearest location of a place is. As it is, it doesn't do that automatically based on where I am. It makes mistakes.

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College Students Are Using ‘No Contact Orders’ to Block Each Other in Real Life. What a sad world we live in now. We'd rather interact virtually instead of in real life. And some college kids feel that they have to block people from trying to interact in real life.

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Meta is invading your privacy in a new way. Bottom line: Don't use Meta and Yandex apps. Don't use an Android phone. Don't use the Chrome browser. Better yet, just stay off Meta/Facebook period.
Update (10 June 2025): Good explanation of the exploit here.

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Japanese scientists have invented a plastic that dissolves in sea water.  One might cause a lot of mischief with this. Just sayin'.
Update: here's a better article.
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MIT scientists again. With a new kind of magnetism. It's called p-wave magnetism. Unlike Harvard or Columbia, MIT actually does useful stuff.

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Another report touting the life-extending benefits of metformin. This has been shown before, and it's nice to see that the effects have been confirmed.

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There's a way to deliver gene therapy through the airway into the lungs.  The agent is called AAV.CPP.16. It may be a useful way to deliver therapy for interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, among other things.

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Seattle is so crappy that next year's Microsoft Build developer conference will not be held in Seattle.  After this year's attendees complained about urban decay, open-air drug use, and numerous tents lining the streets. Seattlites have become accustomed to all that crap and filth, but that doesn't mean the rest of the country has to put up with it, too.  Now you all know what living in a Blue City is like.

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I've often wondered about this. Remember when schools used Apple computers and software. Then suddenly they switched to Google products. Now our kids are under surveillance. There is a hidden privacy crisis in education technology. But of course, the people in charge of purchasing are not likely tech-savvy, and don't know enough to select the best products. All those Chromebooks using Google Docs. Not good. 

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6 June 2025

Silicon Valley Is Starting to Pick Sides in Musk and Trump’s Breakup. Yesterday's acrimony between Trump and Elon was unfortunate and revealing. Many predicted this would happen some day. I think that the event has made Trump realize that he cannot put all the nation's eggs in the Elon basket. The U.S. needs to revitalize NASA and develop its own satellite Internet system. We cannot be subject to the whims of an unpredictable guy like Elon. This is now a matter of national security.

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A man on a NY subway was caught using ChatGPT as an online girlfriend.  He was foolish to do so in public, and to use a public chat system. But the availability of online companionship is alluring, no doubt. Reading the commentary is revealing.

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What do you do with a kid who loves math? The author says there are three ways: math olympiad training, standard curriculum but faster, or do it your own way. Although the latter is the least stressful, I'm not sure you advance as far that way. There's so much to learn, and most kids won't realize this, and proceed at a slow pace. The ideal way would be to do the standard curriculum but faster, and be able to stop and take a break when you want to. This is like exercise. Math Olympiad training is like martial arts. (Martial Math, I like to say.)

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What Apple is predicted to reveal at the upcoming WWDC.  Not much stuff that I would actually use. We still won't have Tony Stark's phone. Looks like the overall "look" will change. We'll see.

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OHSU has one candidate for the President's position, since the other candidate decided to withdraw.  He's a Harvard man, and worked for Biden, so he's got those going against him 😁. Maybe he'll bring an East Coast work ethic to Oregon. I wonder why a guy like this would want to leave a good position and take on a struggling Oregon hospital. Does he love challenges that much? I also wonder why the other person dropped out. I guess Dr. Elnahal will get the job by default.

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Are you upset at the word "oriental"? I'm not. Who cares?

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Make power-hungry data centers pay for their own power. Sounds reasonable to me. Why shouldn't they?

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Parking in downtown Portland is going to increase from $2.20 to $3.60. More fees and taxes, despite getting less for your money.
Portland Metro told the City Council that they can't just raise taxes without voter approval. And Steve Novick just laughs. "Voter approval?? We don't need no steenkin' voter approval."  Or something like that.

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How's' Obamacare working out for you?  More Oregonians are skipping medical care because of costs.  
Someone wisely said that for healthcare, there is affordability, quality and availability.  But you can only pick two.  I agree. 
The ACA prioritized availability and thought affordability and that quality would remain the same. Alas, over time, quality deteriorated.
Before the ACA, insurance companies were seeing the high costs, which they didn't like. But with Obamacare, they are happier because less people are using the system, because it's no longer affordable. And they can deny care, because they are now the gatekeepers, not the doctors or the hospitals.

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5 June 2025

A potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease?  This agent, 15-PGDH, was discovered from studies looking at the blood-brain barrier, and is not dependent on amyloid abnormalities. It seems to be safe in mouse models. Existing approved treatments for Alzheimer's disease shrink the brain, which is not a desirable outcome, especially for dementia. Hopefully this one won't.
Another paper found that abnormalities in amyloid-β 42 peptide (Aβ42) and tau protein may affect systemic processes, affecting sensory neurons in general, and promoting accelerated aging. 

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MIT researchers have developed a membrane that can separate different species of crude oil components, potentially making distillation obsolete.

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Portland is the laughingstock of the country.  The City Council spent money on consultants to function as a council. Like why did you run for office in the first place if you don't have a clue.  I knew this would be a problem. Portland's governance is so large that nobody does anything effectively and no one takes ownership of a problem. So nothing gets done.
And now we are seeing women giving birth on the streets. A city in decline. People live like wild animals in the city now.
Also, the Rose Festival might finally end. We can't have nice things anymore. But taxes will still increase. Because Dems still need money. 
Khanh Pham and Lisa Reynolds are not done doing damage. Now they want to scrap private insurance and mandate universal healthcare. Very bad move, initiated by the "healthcare is a right" faction. Which it is not.

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Really?  In Hawaii, political memes and satire are illegal. Hawaii is becoming like the UK. 

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4 June 2025

Korean researchers were able to construct a device that allowed non-invasive mechanical stimulation of cerebral lymphatics that drain the CSF in mice to accelerated clearance of CSF waste. This was felt to be beneficial in aged mice in whom this process was decreased. Paper here.

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Human-generated memes are still funnier.

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Review of the different kinds of plastics. Watch out this summer when you leave your car out in the sun. PAH plasticizers leech out into the air, which you breathe when you step inside.

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What makes brains age? 
This study demonstrates that brain aging follows a specific progression, with the first stage occurring in middle age and coinciding with increased insulin resistance. Moreover, we show that brain areas that age fastest are also those most vulnerable to neuronal insulin resistance. Importantly, we find that administering ketones, which can fuel neurons while bypassing insulin resistance, reverses brain aging effects. However, this intervention is only effective when provided early enough for neurons to remain viable. 
Yes, but what kinds of ketones?
Ketones, whether produced endogenously through fasting or low-carbohydrate/high-fat diets or administered exogenously as a supplement, have been shown to improve age-related cognitive decline and to restore insulin-resistance-induced deficits in axonal conduction velocity. Moreover, ketones may improve neural functioning even at baseline, strengthening signaling for neurons without being compromised by insulin resistance and across the brain for younger individuals in their 20s and 30s. This increased metabolic efficiency under ketosis is consistent with effects reported for other organs, such as the heart.
So acetone, acetoacetate and β hydroxybutyrate, then? Or eat just enough to experience occasional mild ketosis.

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This guy is done with the Firefox browser for many reasons, such as their management, their vision, or lack thereof, and that they might not have a future. But then he switces to Opera, which I don't think is robust enough for me. The support for plug-ins is far less than for Firefox. I use LibreWolf, and find it suitable, and the best of the Firefox spin-offs. I've tried others but always drift back to Gecko-based browsers.

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How to fall behind in the age of AI. Keeping up takes effort.

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Using answer engines instead of search engines. Which ones are best, and best practices.

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Sadly this is true. Having a High IQ Makes You an Outsider, Not a Genius. A genius brain works differently, and many people can't process information normally. The only ones who were geniuses, yet normal, were Albert Einstein, the Hungarian "martians" and Richard Feynman.

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Kipling's The Buddha at Kamakura poem has he same poetic rhythm as Cassilda's Song, doesn't it?

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