10 August 2023

A metaphor for how Portland manages our resourcesTrees Planted by the City in East Portland Two Years Ago Are Dead Because the City Didn’t Water Them.  Federal infrastructure dollars – wasted.  That's the city, folks.

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When you know just enough to be dangerous.  This guy thinks Hawaii should "take the lead" in regulating A.I.  He says: "I’m working with Hawaii state legislators to create a new Office of AI Safety and Regulation."  "The new office would follow the 'precautionary principle' in placing the burden on AI developers to demonstrate that their products are safe for Hawaii before they are allowed to be used in Hawaii."  Is someone going to tell him that:
1.  A.I. is already in Hawaii.  You may just not realize it.
2.  Bigger thinkers than this guy have already acknowledged that there is no clear path to "regulating" A.I. 
3.  Who's going to be on the board making these decisions?  Hawaii politicians?  Is this going to be the new meme? 
4.  Heavy-handed regulation (because you know they'll have to come up with something) will just put Hawaii further behind in the technology arena.  So Hawaii residents won't be able to purchase the new iPhone because Apple hasn't submitted a paper demonstrating that it's safe for the state?  Is that it?

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This, I believeOver half the world's population will have a mental disorder by age 75.  It's seems like that it should be age 20 if you take all the gender craziness and pedophile grooming into account.  But maybe that's just in the U.S.

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About that devastating fire in Lahaina – I've read reports that it's related to climate change (of course).  No, that's a stretch, and they know it.  What probably caused it, is that power line poles on Maui are old and it is credible that they fell in the unusually strong winds.  But also likely, probably more so, is that a fire in a homeless camp spread due to those same winds, and that the dry grasses caught fire.  This is way more credible.  No way to prove or disprove these theories now, though.

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So Seattle would like to implement a special tax on large corporations that make payroll of ≥ $8.1 million annually, and will tax employees of those companies that make over $174,000.  They call it a "JumpStart Tax" and need the money to plug a budget hole.  So if you were a worker at Amazon, why would you want to work there when you could work elsewhere at your salary and not get taxed that amount?  Are companies like Amazon going to stand for this?

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