Sugoi & Yokunai

Intel is abandoning the DEI policies it once favored so much. But does it really matter anymore? Today, the CEO of chip design announced her resignation. Things are unraveling, and it is clear that company is doomed.

––– 良くない–––Portland's convention center business is declining. But listen to the director at Travel Portland.

Looks like Seattle has its own Decarlos Brown situation. Riding public transportation in Blue cities is a life-risking decision.

––– 良くない–––

Oregon among states with highest unemployment increases. No surprises here. And Intel isn't helping any. 

And Microsoft announced more layoffs today. They're spending more on AI.

––– 良くない–––

And Tina Kotek is doubling down to make sure Oregonians have access to the COVID jab. Why do Dems feel that this is the hill they will die on? Will pharmacists risk legal trouble to defy the FDA just to please Tina?

––– 良くない–––

Hermiston really wants the datacenter business badly. Hope they know what they're doing.

––– 凄い –––

Where are all the trillion dollar biotechs? Interesting article on where biotech is going. Less focus on drug repurposing now. I think the low-hanging fruit has been picked.

––– 凄い –––

Redditor asks: What's the adult equivalent of finding out Santa isn't real? So depressing. Here's a few:

• It doesn’t matter how nice you are or how good of a person you try to be, there will always be people who will hate you for things you can’t change.
• Life isnt fair. Ppeople get an unfair advantage and theres nothing you can do about it
• Hard work gets you more work.
• Hot people do get treated better.
• That simply existing costs a lot of money.
• “Get a job in something you enjoy doing and you’ll never work a day” is a lie.
• There are no "grown ups" nobody is running the show. We are all utterly incompetent from the top all the way down. It is amazing our world functions at all.
• "In sickness and in health, until death do you part." It really should say until it gets hard or until something better comes along.
• The realization that every adult is just faking it and absolutely nobody knows what they’re doing
• Most adults are just grown up children.

––– 良くない–––

If you meet someone wearing this, run the hell away. It's called The Friend, and it's not your friend. (Why, oh why, do some people think we need crap like this?)

––– 良くない–––

Uh, OK. http://http://http://@http://http://?http://#http:// is actually a valid URL.

––– 凄い –––

Here's a WaPo reporter, assigned to talk to Terry Tao about his loss of NSF grant funding. And what does she ask? Inane questions, at the level of "What's it like to discover something in math?" Why doesn't she ask him about whether he's talked to UCLA leadership about why they are so intransigent about working with the Trump administration, which just wants UCLA to be non-discriminatory and non-biased against Jewish students and permit disruptive protests that interfere with the academic environment. This is all that Trump wants. Playing brinksmanship while allowing math research like Tao's to suffer is pure idiocy. Tao should just leave and join some other institution in a Red state, where he won't be bothered by crap like this.

––– 良くない–––

What's going on in Wenatchee schools?  Fights, chair throwing, stabbing, teachers punched.  Sounds like an inner city school.

––– 良くない–––

Is this all the iOS 26 has to offer?  We go from iOS 28 to iOS 26 and all we get are modification to what's already there? One new ring tone and a few variations? Tim Cook is getting old.

––– 良くない–––

New York Times asks why Google got off so easy. No answers. Just asking why.

––– 良くない–––

Remember Jim Simons?  The math wiz who figured out how to beat Wall Street, and invented quant investing? Turns out he has a daughter.  Got daddy's money, and she's as woke as hell, and is a Mamdani supporter.

––– 良くない–––

Why some Oregonians are being turned away for COVID-19 vaccines.

Also

Because the CDC has not yet updated its guidance, the new COVID-19 vaccines are not part of Oregon’s pharmacy protocols. That means pharmacists can’t offer the shots without a prescription or clinician’s order — even to people who meet the FDA’s eligibility criteria.

Pharmacists could also face legal risk. During the pandemic, federal emergency declarations shielded pharmacists from lawsuits for administering COVID-19 vaccines. Those protections only apply to vaccines endorsed by the CDC’s advisory committee.

So the Blue west coasts forming their own Democrat version of the CDC isn't going to do much. It's just surely symbolic move to make them feel good. Give it up, guys. Most people don't need to risk the adverse effects for the meager protection you might get. Getting Omicron is the best vaccine. 

––– 良くない–––

Japan's PM, Shigeru Ishiba, has resigned. What a beta male. He was the Japanese Angela Merkel. The leading contender to take his place is Sanae Takaichi, who is of the Shinzo Abe faction. She's a hard-line conservative. Just what Japan needs. I think she and Trump will get along just fine.

––– 凄い –––

Funny but true. You are more likely to trust the code of strangers than someone you know.

––– 凄い –––

Weird things captured on Google's Street View. Kinda disturbing.

––– 凄い –––

MacBooks have a sensor that detects what angle the hinge is at. Someone made a theremin with it.

––– 凄い –––

Fructose is what is making people fat.

––– 良くない–––

Autism spectrum disorder may be caused by overactive connections between the thalamus and the cerebral cortex. Blocking this in mice was able to reverse autism. This makes sense because a lot of autistic people are hampered by overactive anxiety to things, making them hesitant to try anything new, and to resort to obsessive-compulsive behavior to avoid "bad luck".

––– 凄い –––

The Class of '26 will be the first class to have used (and depended on) generative AI all their college lives. We'll see how well they've learned things. Could be surprising, and not in a good way.

––– 良くない–––

Randall Childrens Hospital just scrubbed their website about offering genital mutilation surgery on children.  One day, Portlanders will look back on these days with great shame, that this brutal and monstrously evil practice was once tolerated and encouraged.

––– 良くない–––This is mandatory watching: How medicine has lost its way.

––– 良くない–––

Here's Why We Shouldn't Trust the Medical Establishment.  All the good reasons why trust in the medical profession is lost. Not to mention the money they took from Big Pharma. RFK Jr. was correct to exclude the Medicine, Inc. doctors from advisory boards. We don't need their recommendations.

Yeah, the "Experts" Unable to Explain Why Nobody Trusts the "Experts".

––– 良くない–––

Hydrogen production complex in Boardman, OR is being scrapped. Hydrogen is too risky and expensive. I can easily see a large bomb going off there. Nuclear is such a better way to go. We need to pursue this.

––– 凄い –––

The Tide Is Turning Against Vaccine Mandates, and That's a Good Thing. Yeah, finally. Only in the dumb West Coast Blue states (and Hawaii) is this an issue.

––– 凄い –––

Hillsboro, OR is turning into a data center city. I'm not sure that's a good thing. It's going to suck up a LOT of energy, and Hillsboro isn't exactly an energy producer. There's no hydroelectric dam nearby. It's going to come out of the grid. And that may mean blackouts or brownouts. And maybe higher electricity costs for everyone. I also don't think it's going to bring in a plethora of jobs. Datacenters don't require much in the way of personnel. Generally 45 people are needed total, and the engineers work in shifts, a few people at a time. 

––– 良くない–––

Typepad, an old blogging platform, is shutting down. It's symbolic of the old days in blogging. One of its famous bloggers, Dave Barry, is moving to Substack.

––– 良くない–––

OpenAI is going to make its own chips through Broadcom.  Intel can only look on in envy.

––– 凄い –––

Who cares? The iPhone 17 is going to have a smaller dynamic island. Apple sure can't keep secrets anymore – that's the price you pay for manufacturing in China. But this phone sure looks like it's going to be underwhelming.

––– 良くない–––

Physicists create a time crystal that people can actually see. Well good.

––– 凄い –––

The World's Smartest Nations. And the United States is not even in the top 20. But where's India? Where's Russia? Canada is #10? Really? And Iceland is #3 for scientific publications? Israel is only #14 in scientific publications?  Switzerland is #2?  

The more you look at this list, the less believable it gets.

––– 良くない––– Will Trump block outsourcing of tech jobs to India? That would be a devastating blow to the tech sector, as well as India. But for the American tech worker, it would be a big win.

––– 凄い –––

It appears that Elon Musk is weary of making EV automobiles now. He wants to make robotaxis and robots. Another reason not to buy a Tesla now.

––– 良くない–––

 5 Seattle restaurants discuss why they are pivoting or closing. It's rough trying to operate a low-margin business in a Blue city.

––– 良くない–––

Oregon lawmakers really want to keep vote-by-mail. So many advantages: you get to keep the number of real voters secret, you can manipulate the results, you can have early election results which you can use for "planning purposes", you can keep counting days after the election is over, and who really knows which ballots get counted.

––– 良くない–––

No surprises here. Oregon is 45th for housing production and availability.

––– 良くない–––

Here's a list of expensive stuff Portland taxpayers had to help pay for in order to make the city "attractive" to visitors. Hotels, restaurants, festivals. Did it work? Nah. Doom Loop!

––– 良くない–––

What would make the Apple Watch better? How about making it so I only need to charge it once a month? That's what's keeping me from buying an Apple Watch. I don't want to have to charge it every night.  Crazy.

––– 良くない–––

Elon Musk may get a $975 billion pay package from Tesla. I always assumed he got that rich because he owned 4 companies. But he's getting all that from Tesla. And I don't understand how Tesla can reasonably continue that. Maybe the company has something up its sleeve, but I'm not seeing or hearing about anything that exciting to make people want to keep purchasing it.

––– 良くない–––

AI Startup Says It Will End Crime by Blanketing the Entire United States in Ever-Watching Spy Cameras. This will be a great target for camera destroyers. Boy, this company is going to have to eat into a whole lot of cash to repair or replace equipment.  People aren't going to want a surveillance state. 

––– 良くない–––

This author from the Financial Times laments that social media is letting people speak freely. Like many Democrats, he advocates for censorship, so that the narrative can be controlled. Where do these people come from?

––– 良くない–––

CareOregon is running out of money. So what does it do? It hires a consulting firm, McKinsey. How about fixing the economy so people don't have to be on Medicaid? Ever thought of that, Oregon?

––– 良くない–––

Join the club. Powell's Books begins layoffs. Doom Loop.

––– 良くない–––

Some Portland City Council members plan to go to Vienna to get ideas on how to deal with homeless. But experts think it's unlikely their model will work here. But that won't stop them from going to Austria.

––– 良くない–––

University of Oregon student found a serious security lapse in their computer system. So what do they do? They placed him under investigation.  Is there an ounce of brains in Oregon leadership anywhere?

––– 良くない–––

Bob Ferguson warns Trump tariffs could cost Washington 32,000 jobs, billions in revenue. No, it's not the tariffs, bozo. It's Democrat policies, including all those taxes and minimum wage hikes. Anyone can see this.

––– 良くない–––

In Oregon, the gas tax bill has resulted in less hiring by local businesses. Someone tell Bob Ferguson.

––– 良くない–––

Idiots.  Washington state still wants young kids to start getting the COVID-19 vax. There is absolutely no need for kids to get this. Kids rarely get sick from this, it doesn't prevent transmission, and it can permanently scar their hearts. Besides, we have Omicron variants, now. It's like a cold.

––– 良くない–––

Portland has the second highest crime rate now. Great going, Mayor Wilson. Thank goodness President Trump is going to focus on Portland next and bring in the National Guard. Do it soon!

––– 良くない–––

Ah yes, the three bozo states that forced draconian COVID-19 guidelines are going to form their own vaccine advisory committee to defy the CDC. I will never take health recommendations from Democrats mini-dictators. 

Here's what Perplexity.ai had to say about this:

––– 良くない–––

Portland Public Schools is looking at closing its program for gifted kids mainly because of equity. It seems that wealthier kids were going to that program. And Portland just can't sanction that, right?

––– 良くない–––

Interesting that Elon Musk wasn't invited to go to the tech gathering today at the White House. But funny I don't see Jensen Huang's name either. He should be there, not Bill Gates. Why wasn't Lip-Bu Tan invited? This would be a chance for him to hobnob with the techies.  Maybe start a conversation.

––– 良くない–––

There goes Keith Wilson, working hard to fill Portland with more homeless shelters. Pretty soon no place will be safe.

––– 良くない–––

Do artificial sweeteners raise risk of dementia? This study was done on Brazilians. And many were diabetic. Those who consumed the most were at greatest risk. Paper here. The risk was with aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame k, erythritol, sorbitol, and xylitol. I use allulose if I need to use a sweetener. 

––– 良くない–––

The big news today is that Google got to keep Chrome. All they have to do is share data regarding Android, and avoid entering into exclusive agreements that cover its main products, including Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and the Gemini app. I bet they were relieved and happy.  The NASDAQ sure was.

––– 凄い –––

Trump has changed the H-1B landscape. Now people have to have demonstrable skills to come into the U.S., worthy of higher salaries. No more entry-level slave labor. Hopefully this will provide Americans with more job openings. The real talented immigrants can still come in.

––– 凄い –––

WTF???  Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT in counseling sessions. So your therapy session is now being used to train models. Someone should sue.  How NOT to use AI in healthcare.

––– 良くない–––

The decline of Seattle.  Seattle-area offices staying empty as job losses outpace return-to-office.  Real estate agents are noticing – no one wants to buy a house in the Seattle area. 

Washington businesses prepare for the new retail sales tax that will hit on October 1.

And Seattle's closing 3 parks for 60 days due to high crime. 

All those taxes you pay, and less to show for it. The money just goes to enrich the politicians. Life in Blue cities.

Oh, and Oracle is laying off 101 employees in Seattle.

But at least in Bellevue, OpenAI has bought out a local startup, Statsig. Interesting that the CEO mandated being in the office 5 days/week. Now they get to reap the rewards.

––– 良くない–––

Even the Vaux Swifts don't want to return to Portland. No one wants to come to Portland.

––– 良くない–––

Band directors at Portland's high schools want more money, so bands will no longer play at interscholastic games. Man, that was one of my favorite activities in high school. Living in a Blue city sucks in so many ways.

School is cancelled in La Center because teachers want more money.  Schools in the Evergreen district are still closed because teachers want more money.  Everyone around here has a IDGAF attitude. 

––– 良くない–––

Owning an EV, hybrid or PHEV is going to be even more expensive now. Remember how people thought they could justify the cost because over time, the expense would be recoup in gas savings?  Yeah, about that....

––– 良くない–––

Owner of 44 storefronts in the Pearl District wants to sell. Yeah, the Pearl District has lost a LOT of its lustre. Enjoying the deflection center yet?

––– 良くない–––

CDC "spiraled into chaos". People don't like it that finally the CDC is being rid of partisan pseudo-scientists. What we saw during the COVID-19 debacle revealed how corrupt and biased and untrustworthy that agency is.

––– 良くない–––

I missed this from a few weeks ago: Why more doctors can't make ends meet. It's because doctors are employees, and no longer business owners. And unlike nurses and janitors, the vast majority are not unionized, and so they lose out. Doctors today are less likely to go the extra mile for you. After hours? Call the on-call guy. Make hospital rounds at the end of the day? Nah, that's the hospitalists job now. All this started with Obama's HITECH Act of 2009.

And yes, now there is a healthcare crisis, because they can't find enough doctors to join the workforce. Being a physician must be less attractive than before, because you don't have control anymore. You're an employee – do what you're told. 

––– 良くない–––

A economics student wrote about why single-payer healthcare will fail. It's taxes and fees, plus the lack of competitive market forces that keep prices up. I already knew this. 

Sure enough, health insurance rates in Oregon are going up.

––– 凄い –––

Here's a paper out of China that suggests that spike protein from SARS-CoV2 can induce latent HIV expression. It's mediated through the master gene switcher, mTOR. This needs to be replicated by a lab in the U.S. – I'm surprised AIDS activists aren't demanding it.

––– 良くない–––

Derek Lowe, pro-vax science writer, is upset and wants RFK Jr and others to be fired.  Sorry, Derek, but if you were able to keep silent while Daskalakis was at the CDC, and while Rachel Levine allowed churches and schools to be shut down but allowed BLM protests, then you have no credibility. You're just another partisan hack. Bernie Sanders feels the same way as Derek, but he's even easier to brush off.  Right, Senator Climate Change?

––– 良くない–––

No one wants to use modern dishwashers anymore, now that it takes 2.5 to 4 hours to complete a cycle. And supposedly people like the zen of handwashing dishes. If you have an old style fast running dishwasher, you're lucky. 

––– 凄い –––

Wow, the source code for MS-DOS 3.10 is up for sale on eBay. Pass.

––– 凄い –––

Intriguing. Smelling a specific rose scent for a month was associated with gray matter growth in the brain. Paper here. Interesting that the paper does not source the rose essential oil. The parts of the brain that were enlarged were the posterior cingulate cortex and the whole brain in general, but not the amygdala. Interesting that the benefits of meditation appear to affect the posterior cingulate cortex, too. Maybe the rose scent elicited meditative thoughts. The study was done only in women, though.

––– 凄い –––

Aspirin was shown recently not to have preventive benefit against heart attacks, but clopidogrel apparently does. This is an old drug, and the study was actually a meta-analysis of 7 prior randomized trials. Back in May 2025, South Koreans physicians arrived at a similar conclusion with clopidogrel although in that study, the drug was administered after stenting, and all participants had prior heart attacks.

But catching up on sleep on the weekends also lowers risk of heart attack by 19%, too. I can do that!

––– 凄い –––

Google's Gmail sends email with conservative content to the SPAM box more than those with liberal content. Such is the politicization of AI. And another reason to reconsider using Gmail.

––– 良くない–––

Does work-life balance make you mediocre? Yeah, being super wealthy at a young age requires sacrifices that not everyone is willing to make. And that's OK. You have to find the level of work commitment that works for you. Being a billionaire requires having a life I'm not willing to have.

––– 凄い –––

Whoa. Sobering take of how ChatGPT took a man for a ride. People really need to know how to use this generative AI tool. It seems like it should be easy to use, but it can be very dangerous.

––– 良くない–––

Why is Southeast Portland smelling like "rotten asshole"? There's a headline you don't see every day. The sewer system hasn't grown up with the city, it seems. And it's only been ten years since the last upgrade. But he's right about NYC – the city smells like sewer and diesel fumes all the time. 

––– 良くない–––

Lewis and Clark marked their trail with laxatives. Mercury-containing laxatives, that is. Thunder-clappers they called 'em.

––– 凄い –––

Scientists just created spacetime crystals made of knotted light

Researchers have developed a blueprint for weaving hopfions—complex, knot-like light structures—into repeating spacetime crystals. By exploiting two-color beams, they can generate ordered chains and lattices with tunable topology, potentially revolutionizing data storage, communications, and photonic processing. 

Somehow, this whole article seems like a parody science article, like the "Turbo Encabulator". Maybe it's for real. Who knows.

––– 凄い –––

The country sure is polarized. The last two times Democrats were dissatisfied with the state of the country, the Republicans felt the same way – at George W. Bush's incompetence and the way COVID-19 was handled. But this time, it's highly discordant. Zero Democrats like the way the country is being run, while 76% of Republicans approve.

––– 凄い –––

The shingles vaccine may also protect against heart attack and stroke. This was just from observational data from GSK, so cause-effect hasn't been established. Still, I'll give it a "sugoi".

––– 凄い –––

Body builders are abusing Eli Lilly's drug retatrutide.  How are they getting a hold of this medication, which hasn't been approved yet? It's a triple threat: GLP-1 receptor agonist, GIP agonist and glucagon receptor agonist. I'd be worried that the last property might trigger hypoglycemia. But it apparently really melts the fat away.

––– 凄い –––

This is an example of poor journalism, and the anti-Trump slant of the New York Times. If you read this article, you would think that the Trump administration is a bunch of meanies, depriving poor children of needed brain tumor research funding. Nowhere is there mention of the PEP-CTN. Instead the funding will go to the Children’s Oncology Group Pediatric Early Phase Clinical Trials Network (PEP-CTN), and the NCI will shepherd the transition over to the new funding source, and “do not anticipate any funding gap for pediatric brain tumor research.”

Another example of poor mainstream media reporting. Remember how CNN was announcing the ICE was arresting firefighters putting out the blaze in Washington state? It was all fake – they weren't firefighters. They were just hired to cut logs into firewood, and played no part in the firefighting effort. Modern journalists just don't do their jobs anymore.

––– 良くない–––

Here's another one: RFK Jr. is forcing doctors to make a tough choice. Doctors already have lost a lot of credibility from the COVID-19 debacle (bad vax advice, TikTok dancing, permitting BLM riots) and the gender mutiliation endorsement. So now we're supposed to feel sorry for the AMA and doctors who now face reduced reimbursement, while they vehemently opposed Trump? Cue the tiny violins.

––– 良くない–––

Minidoka survivors are relieved that the internment site ("sacred ground") won't be defaced by a nearby windmill farm, but are unhappy because Trump made it happen. Facepalm. Why the Japanese are still Democrats after what FDR did to them is beyond me.

––– 良くない–––

Boy, at the time when OHSU and Legacy called off their merger, it seemed that Legacy was doing well.

Yeah, and now they may have to close Silverton Hospital. Well, the impact of unions has increased. We are seeing the predicted long-term problems with Obamacare, including the Oregon Experiment. Everything was subsidized, in order to make it work. We were living the subsidized life for so long. It was fake afflluence. Now, the subsidies are being cut off, and the results are evident.

––– 良くない–––

NYT travel writer suggests some lame places to see if you had only 36 hours in Portland. To get Portland's flavor, I would suggest a tour of Gordon's Fireplace Shop, the site of the cut down Elk Statue, and all the boarded up windows and graffiti in downtown Portland. Maybe a trip to view the rows of tents along the Foster Road to the Springwater Corridor. Or maybe see the Antifa protests up close at the ICE building. 

––– 良くない–––

Evil. Apparently Cigna will automatically downcode doctors' visits, so they can pay them less. Yes it is true. This should be illegal, and it may violate California state law.

––– 良くない–––

California is proposing Assembly Bill 1052, which gives the state the right to take away your cryptocurrency if you don't do anything with it for three years. Crazy.

––– 良くない–––

California is going to hurt now. Phillips 66 just started dismantling its LA refinery, which will reduce diesel output in southern California by 29% and cuts refining capacity by 17%.  They will lay off most of their 600 employees and 300 contractors. Look for gas prices to shoot up soon.  As you recall, this was announced last year days after Gavin Newsom signed a new oil law increasing regulation. Newsom is the only governor worse than Kotek and Ferguson.

––– 良くない–––

Washington state has so many illegals on the job force that the state fears a construction labor shortage. Shouldn't have let this go for so long.

––– 良くない–––

Wikipedia is so woke. They don't know how to gender the Minnesota shooter. Maybe call him "it" if you can't decide?

––– 良くない–––

Excluding Puerto Rico, Oregon has the third highest percentage of people on welfare in the nation at 17%. Holy crap, man. This is why Oregon sucks.

––– 良くない–––

The top 100 Web and Mobile Gen AI apps. Notice that ChatGPT is at the top in both lists? Why not a Google app, since Google started the AI effort? Someone else wonders that, too.  Google keeps botching rolls out. Looks like their websites are just Amazon Web Services' websites. So much confusing documentation, referring you to other confusing pages that don't help, and eventually circling back to the original non-helpful page. Lots of words, but nothing useful.

––– 良くない–––

A group of people are unmasking ICE officers.  They're not using AI directly. They're just using PimEyes, which probably does use AI to identify faces. Not many will do facial recognition anymore – Google stopped doing that. Bing, too. The claim to be able to get an identity with only 35% of the face showing. I think ICE agents should use masks that have fake faces on them to fool the AI, or wear decoy makeup.

––– 良くない–––

There are things you can do to stop Google from summarizing your website for their search results. I wasn't aware of these, as I am not a webmaster.

––– 凄い –––

Why is Finland the happiest country on earth? It's the people. They have lower expectations, and are just happy with what they have. It's easier to think like this when everyone around you thinks the same way. It's not something exportable to America.

––– 凄い –––

Tech companies are getting fed up with political activism at the office. Can't blame them. Activists should do that shit on their own time.

––– 凄い –––

We're apparently getting brighter and more vivid auroras lately. The cause is that the sun's magnetic fields are flipping.  And we are in a solar maximum right now.

––– 凄い –––

Meta hired a lot of AI brains for its Superintelligence Lab, but already some researchers are leaving. They're not saying why. But we can guess.

––– 良くない–––

Is there a way to treat severe pain without opoids? Some Japanese researchers think so, with an agent called ADRIANA which targets the α2B adrenoreceptor.  Paper here.

––– 凄い –––