6 April 2025

Me want! NVIDIA's DGX Spark looks awesome. A machine learning powerhouse about the size of a MacMini. I bet this will be a winner. At $3999, it's not cheap, but it will save on time, and encourage people to create more complex models.

––– 凄い –––

Not everyone is a fan of Google's new AI-powered Overview feature when you search on Google directly. I think if people wanted a good overview, they'd head on over to Perplexity or Faro. Does is worsen search results? YMMV.

––– 良くない–––

What's in the bright red fire retardant?  You don't want to know. But you should, especially if it's sprayed all over your house.

––– 良くない–––

As predicted, companies are fleeing Seattle. I guess they don't like being viewed as the city's piggy bank. And in Oregon, the high estate tax is making the wealthy elderly flee the state, too.

––– 良くない–––

Apple wants to create an AI doctor with Project Mulberry. I think it's going to take jobs away from nurses and nurse practitioners more than doctors. Those are the roles that will go first.
Even Rochelle Walensky (remember her?) sees a problem.

––– 良くない–––

5 April 2025

Oregon House passes bill allowing landlords to evict squatters. Can't believe we didn't have this law before. But it doesn't cover those who overstay their lease.
Update (2025-04-11):
The law is ineffective.  Read why.
––– 良くない–––

More on the PP405 agent that supposedly reverses androgenic hair loss. It's supposed to be "promising" but I haven't seen pictures of before and after. At least it's not debunked.

––– 凄い –––

Saccharin may kill multidrug-resistant bacteria. If I can't get monkfruit sugar or allulose, this would be the next best thing.

––– 凄い –––

Why are so many young adults getting cancer?  And not just cancer, but aggressive, turbo cancer. I don't think it's just obesity or even plastics. It really suggests some toxin or some genetic alteration. I think I might know what it is.

––– 良くない–––

4 April 2025

I've noticed this, too. Sites like Techdirt are so politically left now, that I'm turned off to going there. I want tech, not lefty politics. I thought it was strange that the astronauts said that they were OK with staying stranded in space, and that it was no big deal. Really? Now we know how things were , and why they said that. They didn't know who would win the 2024 election, and being on the wrong side of history could be fatal.

––– 良くない–––

Most think artificial intelligence won't improve their lives. They're probably just thinking of LLMs, but that's not all of AI. In other areas, AI has made things easier and more convenient. But suprahuman intelligence will be a threat, and there is no good way of stopping it.  The main advantage to slowing things down is for the USA to keep its rivals poor and make it so they have to divert their resources to infrastructure and basic needs. So that they don't have money to spend on developing AI. We have a limited time to do so. Or else, we will have to play the Moloch effect game.

––– 良くない–––

Even Spokane is falling into the Doom Loop.

––– 良くない–––

Look at all those new Oregon taxes. And the City of Portland is adding some of their own, too. You get to use less of your city and state, but you have to pay more for the privilege. How fair is that?

––– 良くない–––

The Napavine billboard has been sold. Hope they add new messages. It's been pretty stale lately.

––– 良くない–––

I've never heard of a sun candle before.  Interesting.

––– 凄い –––

Oregon is going to sue to resist making Voter ID a requirement to vote. Are they admitting that they need illegals to vote? Seems like it.

––– 良くない–––

3 April 2025

CAR-T cells were made even more effective by using focused ultrasound to activate heat-shock protein promoter engineered cells integrated with a positive feedback loop from CAR signaling to create these EchoBack CAR-T cells.  These cells were able to suppress glioblastoma cells in a mouse model. 

––– 凄い –––

They say "Never meet your heroes." I hate these exposé writing against famous mathematicians and scientists, always written by women, that seek to take a man down by telling about his "scandalous" treatment of women. Now Roger Penrose is the target. Give the man a break. He's a true genius – don't expect him to think like a normal man. If you want to write about him, just discuss his work. The rest is gossip.

––– 良くない–––

What we're finding out is that so much of Oregon government's ability to function is dependent on federal money. Take it away, and so many things fall apart. Now Oregon Department of Education ends math, literacy programs after federal funding cuts. Well, there go one of Tina Kotek's plans, right? We have the money – it just get misspent.

––– 良くない–––

Here's another money-waster: The City of Portland will now be in the business of renting housing to people who can't afford homes. The city has no shortage of these people, and who gets to have an apartment?  Why do the rest of us have to pay for their rent? This should come out of charity or the lottery, not taxes.

––– 良くない–––

Oregon can't stop wasting taxpayer money. Now school employees get unemployment pay for summer and winter breaks. The rest of us don't get this benefit – we just find seasonal work.

––– 良くない–––

2 April 2025

This video, How to stop a robot dog, is one of the best ads for remote computer software.  Well done.

––– 凄い –––

Google hasn't figured out what to do to deal with the use of ChatGPT.  Clearly Google has made changes to its algorithm, and it is really sensitive to detecting non-human access.

––– 凄い –––

Google is now reluctant to share AI research, for fear of helping rivals. This makes sense. The Chinese will capitalize on it faster than anyone else.

––– 良くない–––

There are rumors that Mozilla is going to launch a new email platform called Thundermail. It will have its own email service. I don't know, with their new policy of claiming ownership of whatever data you put in their hands, will we want to trust them with email?

––– 良くない–––

Antidepressant use is linked to sudden cardiac death. I wonder if it's QTc prolongation, which can be a problem with drugs like this, especially interacting with other drugs people take.

––– 良くない–––

ZeroHedge has an article about the decline of Seattle. Of course they blame Trump. Dem stupidity has led to poverty and decreased wealth, and so they look to those who still work and who have some wealth, and they say, "gimme some". Portland is already seeing this, and Oregon has far fewer billionaires than Washington. The Doom Loop continues.

Tina Kotek is still fixated on mental health issues, as well as the homelessness problem and education. As one can easily see, her efforts are indistinguishable from there being no effort made at all. In these areas, Oregon is crap by any measure. And the sinking economy continues to sink.

––– 良くない–––

And then there's Hawaii. They miss that sweet COVID money, even though COVID isn't a threat anymore. It was used for all sorts of stuff unrelated to COVID. Oh well.
And just like the monorail system, Hawaii just can't fix anything without spending gobs more money than planned. This time it's the benefits system.

––– 良くない–––
At this rate, will humans bother to write code? Even AI agents are writing and executing their own code. This is the world we live in now.

––– 良くない–––
What a time to be alive. Mitochondria transplants are now a thing. This is amazing.

––– 凄い –––

Names can shape one's facial appearance. I suspected it was true. Kids that are given good names will grow up to reflect that.

––– 凄い –––

The true villain in this artistic appropriation isn’t necessarily OpenAI (though they’re hardly innocent bystanders). It’s Japan’s bewilderingly creator-hostile copyright framework. In May 2023, the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs issued an interpretation of copyright law that effectively threw creative professionals under the technological bus, declaring that copyrighted works could be used without permission for AI training purposes. (The article specifies that the AI can train on copyright material if its purpose is ‘non-enjoyment’, which roughly translates to – artistic styles can be copied/replicated as long as the AI doesn’t replicate ideas/sentiments/scenes/characters from the training data)

The legal loophole hinges on a distinction that would make even the most pedantic lawyer blush: as long as the AI isn’t “enjoying” the works it’s ingesting (whatever that means for a neural network), it’s perfectly fine to feed it the entire corpus of an artist’s life work without consent or compensation. Article 30-4 of Japan’s Copyright Law provides this exception for “non-enjoyment purposes,” essentially declaring open season on creative content so you could ‘Ghiblify’ your selfie without infringing on Miyazaki’s nuanced material. As long as the AI doesn’t make photos of you standing beside Totoro, or recreating scenes from Spirited Away, it’s all kosher.
Bad law, and very sad for Hayao Miyazaki.

––– 良くない–––

And South Korea is doomed unless they start having kids again. What is it about those Asians that getting married and starting a family is so difficult? Or so off-putting?

––– 良くない–––

1 April 2025

If you are a serious piano player, you must watch this video where Garrick Ohlsson covers Chopin's 16 piano technique innovations. It must be a delight to be a student of his.

––– 凄い –––

AI was able to read a woman's brain waves and translate that into voice so she could speak. As someone commented, you wouldn't want to do that to a man. 😁

––– 凄い –––

Yes, it really is true, and now we have scientific evidence: conservative women are more attractive than liberal women. 

––– 凄い –––

Adobe is closing their downtown Portland office.  Drip, drip, Portland.

––– 良くない–––

Industry advocates at odds over reason for major dip in Portland apartment construction. Yes, this is a real headline. The truth is there are several reasons why no one wants to build in Portland. Doom loop.

––– 良くない–––

31 March 2025

New bill proposes to eliminate vote-by-mail. This needs to go. And voting results the same day, not a week later.

––– 凄い –––

Yes!  Housing first doesn't work. We tried it, and it's time for something else.  We shouldn't leave the decision as to treatment up to the criddlers. They've already shown they have poor judgment.

––– 凄い –––

"As Oregon ages, tax revenue may shrink." I guess that means the young people in Oregon aren't the source of tax revenue that we've come to expect?  There are other reasons for the shrinking tax revenue, and it isn't necessary aging. Oregon leaders can't seem to understand why revenue is declining.

––– 良くない–––

30 March 2025

Even Democrats surprise themselves.  In Hawaii, the cost for a flood management project for the Ala Wai canal was $354 million a few years before 2023. Then in 2023 it soared to $1 billion. The Federal government was supposed to pay 2/3 of the cost. It never got completed. Now recent estimates for the cost are put at $11 billion!  Can Democrat governments ever get anything done? The project was started in 1999, if you can believe it. Nothing ever seems to get done in Hawaii.

––– 良くない–––

Oregon schools are still implementing DEI policies.

––– 良くない–––

Apple is planning to create an AI-doctor. Sounds more like an AI-nurse practitioner. It'll just make recommendations based on parameters it collects on your Apple watch. Hired doctors will make videos. Yawn. I don't trust Silicon Valley with health matters any more than I trust 23andMe, which fortunately I didn't buy into.

––– 良くない–––

29 March 2025

Boy I think this is misleading. Here's the title: Cancer’s “Master Switch” Blocked for Good in Landmark Study.  They go on to say:

Using this approach, they have successfully blocked a key cancer-driving transcription factor known as cJun, marking a significant step forward in targeting previously untreatable cancer mechanisms.

I studied c-Jun as a researcher, and this gene is linked to hematopoietic cytokines. Blocking it is one thing, but in doing so, a lot of very important cell functions in non-cancerous cells would be affected. They only killed cells, but did not test this in living organisms. I'd wait a bit before getting too excited. I'll give it a "sugoi" though.

––– 凄い –––

UPS will eliminate 244 jobs in Portland. This is even more bad news for the city. Seems like every week, we read reports of more jobs lost, along with budget shortfalls and plans to raise taxes. Doom loop.

––– 良くない–––

Tina Kotek should stay out of this and not be swayed by activists who want to shut down the OHSU Primate Center. Sometimes there is no substitute for primate research. Plus:
Barr-Gillepsie added that the research center’s closure would likely cost OHSU more than $100 million and eliminate more than 500 jobs.
OHSU can't afford this, on top of everything else.

––– 良くない–––

Canary in the coal mine. Valley Medical Center in Renton is letting go 101 staffers as a result of Medicaid cuts. Hospitals should not be so dependent on Medicaid. Medicaid should ideally be used infrequently, for a minority of people who are disabled or cannot otherwise get medical insurance. Now we have situations where 25% to 30% of people are on Medicaid. This is sign of a broken society, where increasingly more people are dependent on the socialist solution of using government to be their insurance company. The government was never intended to serve this function, and it shouldn't. I suspect other hospitals are feeling the pinch, too, and more will have to implement similar measures.

––– 良くない–––

BuyOnceSoftware.  Useful software you pay for once and own forever. Instead of paying for a subscription. I like this.

––– 凄い –––

WSJ publishes the story of what happened last year when Sam Altman was fired. This happens in a lot of businesses, and you just don't hear about it.

––– 良くない–––

Now Elon Musk and Taylor Swift can hide their private plane flight paths. In the world we live in today, this makes sense.

––– 凄い –––

28 March 2025

Tucker Carlson interviewed Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong recently. Dr. S-S was not afraid to state that he thinks the vax caused the increase in cancer incidence.  Some of what he says needs corroboration, but he is not someone to dismiss lightly.
But then take a look at these two articles:
First this: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39981972/
then this: https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1038/s44320-025-00093-6

So it seems that two jabs causes epigenetic modification of H3K27ac which impacts tumorigenesis and causes a pro-inflammatory state with long-term changes in the immune system. And changes to the H3K27ac histone may play a role in the development of certain cancers (breast, lung, colon, prostate).

––– 良くない–––

Porttland City Council members want the city to buy housing and rent it cheaply to people who can't (or don't want to) pay market rent rates. They say that data obtained from the Democrat Socialist Party said it was a good thing. Fortunately, the city is too broke to waste on a money-loser like this. That's probably the only thing keeping Portland from doing something stupid like this.

––– 良くない–––

The OHSU and UnitedHealthcare deal is still being worked on. They threw a lot of crap at each other. I'm amazed they're still talking to each other.
Update: A deal has been signed. No details, though, on what was agreed on.

––– 良くない–––

Poor baby. When you're a billionaire, SAm Altman thinks everyone hates you for everything. That's only if you're a businessman with a public profile, who has to make business decisions to maintain your wealth. 

––– 凄い –––