The Beginning of the End for Big Corporate Medicine. Will this ever happen? If it is, it will have to be in this administration. No other one will have the guts to take it on. Medical care used to be between doctors and patients, but now it's between doctors and insurance companies, and insurance companies and patients. Obamacare was when it really got out of control. Insurance companies were rolling in the dough. That was when Moda paid for naming rights to the Rose Garden Arena (2013), and Providence put their name on Jeld-Wen Field (2014). You can't sum it better than Portland's own Dr. Glaucomfleck.
High-Deductible health plans worsen mortality among cancer survivors. Most people aren't trained actuaries, and have a hard time estimating risk. What sounded reasonable at one point in your life can be a big mistake later. For cancer patients, especially, being able to access your doctor shouldn't be something you have to think twice or thrice about.
––– 良くない–––
There is apparently a gut bacterium that is difficult to culture and its presence is known only by its genetic signature. It's called CAG-170, and it's found in unusually high levels in healthy people – those without chronic illness. Someday, I'm sure it'll be identified, and we'll figure out whether it's a helper, or an opportunist. Paper here.
––– 凄い –––
The FDA won't review Moderna's mRNA vax for influenza, and some people are upset. For a control, Moderna elected to use the vaccine that is for non-seniors. the same type that Pfizer used in their study which showed that their vax was no better in the 65+ age group, the one that needs the protection. That was approved when Biden's FDA was in charge. Prasad is correct – Moderna needs to compare it with the higher-dose vaccine meant for seniors. It's a higher bar, and Moderna was probably hoping they wouldn't have to do it. The whole influenza vaccine development process is kinda ridiculous. Hopefully the anti-CD388 drug from Cidara (which Merck now owns) will make this whole thing obsolete.
––– 凄い –––
It's truly amazing that the Ukraine-Russia war can be affected so much by the whims of Elon Musk. That's crazy power. And it was all started so he could have a way to send updates to his Tesla cars.
––– 良くない–––
Some useless climate change regulations got scrapped. It's so funny to see that Greta Thunberg is out there protesting the oil embargo against Cuba. She'll protest anything that she's programmed to protest.
Meanwhile in Oregon, anti-energy "climate" policies are still alive and well.
I’m now a whole full Professor of Computer Science at a top university, with all kinds of fancy metrics and titles to point to.
The question is: how the hell can I be a successful AI researcher without knowing math? The implication is that I’m lying, or at least grossly exaggerating, because we all know that machine learning is very mathematical.
I write for those who have been thinking of learning computer science, but are afraid to try because they don’t like math or are bad at it. You can certainly do it. You can become a very good computer scientist despite sucking at math. If anyone tells you that you can’t learn, say, machine learning because you don’t have the “mathematical fundamentals” tell them to go to Helsinki. In the winter.
This is true to some degree, but being good at math gives you that extra insight that can help you.
––– 凄い –––
What's going on at xAI? Workers in top are leaving in droves. Including two co-founders. Don't they realize they'll probably be able to get stock in SpaceX, too?
Then there's Mrinank Sharma at Anthropic, who announced that he's quitting because the "world is in peril". I kid you not, he used those terms. Then he said he said the time had come to "move on" and pursue work more aligned with his personal values and sense of integrity. Whuut? Is this guy worried about world peril? Or is he just burnt out? Maybe the latter and he's being a drama queen.
––– 良くない–––
Richard Feynman had an extensive FBI file. The question is: who smeared him? This guy has a theory, and it would certainly make sense. This is so true, guys:
––– 良くない–––
Unintended consequences. Video in investigation into Nancy Guthrie's abduction raises questions about surveillance technology. I wondered about this. It seems that even though Nancy Guthrie didn't pay her subscription for video recording service, Google made recordings anyway, and kept these in its files for the police to access later. It's just Google being Google. Can't help it.
––– 良くない–––
Yikes! Why Smart Lawyers Are Building AI Tools Instead of Buying Them. It's not that easy guys, trust me. It just seems that way. Hope you know what you're doing.
––– 良くない–––
AI no better than other methods for patients seeking medical advice. No surprises here at all. In fact it may be worse, because it can give you bad advice with utmost confidence.
––– 凄い –––
Oh this is so funny!
For Sam Darnold of the Seahawks all players in the Super Bowl will individually earn the same amount. Winning players will be paid $178,000Welcome to California, land of Democrats. You got money? Gimme, gimme!
Darnold’s bill to the Golden State will be $249,000. The outlet stated the sizable check is due to California’s “jock taxes,” which force pro athletes who don’t live in the state to fork over percentages of their yearly income based on the number of days they work in California.
And here's Oregon. Lawmakers want to lower the cost of building affordable housing. Sounds good, right? But there's this prevailing wage law, which mandates that contractors pay union wage rates to workers on publicly subsidized projects. SB 1566 wants to change that, as union wages add 10% to 20% to project costs. So will they piss of labor unions, or give up trying to do the right thing?
Update (16 February 2026): Legislators ended up caving to the unions. Housing costs will remain high. Democrats.
What's the second most valuable company in Oregon after Nike? It's Lattice Semiconductor. Yeah, I'm surprised, too. AI is what brought it back.
––– 凄い –––