11 May 2023

Oregon finally drops the requirements that healthcare workers be vaccinated against SARS-CoV2.  A little late, eh?

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The Oregon legislature wants to increase their pay.  It's been said that the founding fathers probably never envisioned that people would actually make politics a career.  Selecting for people of means to serve in the legislature will probably select for those that are already accomplished and know what it takes to succeed in society.  This will screen out those who think that they can magically legislate wealth or some other wishful thinking, to the detriment of others who live in the real world.  I would support a salary increase if it came with term limits.

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What?  Oregon is one of five states that allows for unlimited campaign contributions?  Boy, I'd bet if the Republicans were in control, the Dems would make changing this a top priority. 

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Poor Portland residentsTaxes are already up 32% from 2019, and yet they are facing a new capital gains tax.  With all the crime and visual blight, why would anyone want to live there?

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Not all brains age the sameThere's something about the Tsimane.
When compared to similar data taken from the US and Europe, the Tsimane fare much better, especially in old age. Tsimane brains lose about 2.3 percent of their volume per decade, compared with around 2.8 percent for the Moseten and about 3.5 percent for industrialized populations. For septuagenarians and older, the difference nearly doubled.

Superaging studies also suggest that being social, happy, and exercising your mind all play a role in keeping the brain healthy.
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More gems from the James Webb Telescope.  It turns out that Fomalhaut is not really a star, but is more like a bright galaxy. 
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Been wondering about that tooHow do you get a LLM model to untrain itself on something?  On OpenAI, there is a form you can fill out to remove personal data from their trained model.  Some say that this really can't be done.  Doing this is apparently an area of active research. 

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Can't get a job because you enjoy smoking doobies?  Fear not, Gov. Jay Inslee's got you covered.

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Truly amazing.  If you understand the basics of coding but don't have enough knowledge to code websites or mobile apps, fear not - A.I. will give you that power
With the support of GPT-4, I feel unstoppable. The overnight surge in productivity is intoxicating, not for making money or starting a business, but for the sheer joy of continuously creating ideas from my mind, which feels like happiness.
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WTF?  The FDA is considering releasing birth control pills for over-the-counter access.  So first they conducted a test.  Whoever oversaw this test didn't do a good job:

Several participants in a study designed to simulate over-the-counter use of Perrigo's drug reported taking dozens or even hundreds more pills than they were dispensed to take

"This finding of improbable dosing in this study is really quite extraordinary. This is not something we see in a typical actual use study. And the results have to be incredibly extreme to show up in this kind of a study," the FDA's Theresa Michelle told the panel.

Almost a third of study participants reported taking far more tablets than they were supposed to receive, a result that the FDA worried cast doubt over the validity of all of the results from the study by Perrigo's contractor.

Are these people still alive?

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Gene therapy for hearing loss.  Scientists Regenerate Hair Cells that Enable Hearing.  Cool.

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