Sugoi & Yokunai

Emergent phenomenon. Sometimes when you play around with differing amounts of orders of magnitude change, you see emergent phenomenon. And this is what happened with single-atom layer gold.  It behaves as a semi-conductor.

––– 凄い –––

If you were an engineer looking for a job, would you trust an AI interviewer? Who's looking at that information? Where's it going?

––– 凄い –––

When you touch metals and smell that metallic smell on your fingers, it's your secretions that you're smelling.

––– 凄い –––

There are SO MANY AI startups now. Many want to solve a problem you didn't know you had. But this posting is true – many need to put more thought into what they are doing.  GitHub pilot sounded good in the conception, but the author's right. It just converted time spent coding to time spent reviewing (and debugging).

––– 凄い –––

Well, the woke crowd ruined the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, Victoria's Secret, and beauty pageants. Now there's an AI beauty pageant. I doubt that they can ruin that.

––– 凄い –––

For once, Sen. Ron Wyden is right. A hidden addition to the warrantless FISA extension can compel everyone to being a spy.  But will Wyden be able to successfully oppose his Dem colleagues?

––– 凄い –––

Hollywood is fighting hard to prevent job losses from AI. Admirable, and I support this. But man, the current output from screenwriters is really bad. Just not sure that AI is going to make that better.

––– 凄い –––

The geeks are going hiking. The Hack Club is going to get together to hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. But bring printed circuit boards? Not the best place to work on something like that. Just enjoy the outdoors, and leave that stuff behind. Get some color.

––– 凄い –––

A new FDA-approved device to alleviate tinnitus. Hope this works. I know some folks who could use some relief.

––– 凄い –––

Chen's algorithm could upend quantum computing. But we're not hearing much about it. Too complicated.

––– 凄い –––

Here's a review article linking N1-methyl pseudouridine in the mRNA vax to cancers and decreased immunity. This needs to be more widely read and implications understood.

––– 凄い –––

Reminder: Oregon's minimum wage increases again on May 1.  And prices will increase accordingly. Are you getting an increase in your pay?

––– 凄い –––

Good.  The AI on Apple's iOS 18 will be local and will not be server-side.  It'll probably be a small model, capable of working on smaller phones.

––– 凄い –––

Heh. Looks like OpenAI's web crawler got caught in a robots.txt trap.

––– 凄い –––

Love this AI-generated class photo. Complete with made-up names.

––– 凄い –––

Yes, next question. Is Paxlovid a dud? 

Paxlovid, which now costs $1,400 for a 5-day course, has only shown benefit in a very rare population – that is, unvaccinated people who’ve never encountered the virus and are at high risk of serious Covid-19.

––– 凄い –––

Portland taxes are increasing. Of course, they are. You get less of your city to enjoy. But you pay more for it. And the same idiots keep getting elected. 

I love this title: "Vega Pederson’s Newly Appointed Homelessness Czar Resigns Amid WW Inquiry Into Treatment of Women". Was this truly bullying, Or maybe those women didn't like being told how things should be done. This is probably why truly capable people don't bother running for leadership positions in Portland. You'll get fired for "bullying".

––– 凄い –––

In-N-Out wants to locate in Beaverton. The want to be placed in a bad location that will cause a horrendous traffic jam. There are better places. I'm glad that this location is being denied.

––– 凄い –––

Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center is being sued by hospital staff who had to step down due to the vax requirement. Don't know how far this is going to go, but I hope that they win. This could be bad news for other hospitals, too.

––– 凄い –––

More bad news for Portland. They're going to lose a shipping container port. There will be a direct loss of 696 jobs and 870 indirect losses. 

Real Inflation is up 18.8% since the Biden administration started.

––– 凄い –––

Japan reports an increase in cancers after the mRNA booster SARS-CoV2 shot. There's an increase in cancers involving the pancreas, liver, uterus, skin, oropharyngeal, prostate, leukemia, ovary.  We only seem to see this published in foreign journals. Why is that?

––– 凄い –––

Oh, brother. Now the U.S. and U.K. want to ban Russia from the metals market. This is just going to hurt the west, just like all the other sanction efforts.

––– 凄い –––

The gun manufacturer, Remington, is leaving New York state after 208 years, and is moving to Georgia. That's a loss of jobs and decreased tax base for NY.

––– 凄い –––

Are science journalists resigning en masse? Not sure if this is a trend or just a one-time.

"Our findings provide support for the hypothesis that cat exposure is associated with an increased risk of broadly defined schizophrenia-related disorders." I thought as much. It would explain a lot of things.

––– 凄い –––

Quantum topology. Physicists discover a new quantum state by studying arsenic crystals.

––– 凄い –––

People are waiting to see United Healthcare's earnings report to see how much the Change Healthcare hacking fiasco has affected it. But now, it's reported that there's another ransomware attack underway.  Did they not learn from the first one?

––– 凄い –––

Taking CO2 out of the atmosphere is too expensive to fight climate change. And fighting pollution has removed an important cooling effect.  Well, you could talk to China and India, but good luck with that.

––– 凄い –––

Seattle Public Libraries will close (temporarily) starting April 14. Staffing issues, they say. No one wants to work. More nice things being taken away. But will they decrease taxes accordingly, since they're decreasing services? Yeah, right. 

––– 凄い –––

Amazon's got a giant warehouse in Woodburn. But's it's just going to provide work for robots. Not for you.

––– 凄い –––

I've not heard of the Ballmer Peak before. Maybe there's some science behind that?

––– 凄い –––

This is crazy. Some would like to see hospitals in British Columbia have designated illicit drug use sections that addicts can use. How's that for harm reduction, eh? Give 'em some hospital space.

––– 凄い –––

So, turbo cancer after vax boosters is real.  These studies always have to come out of some foreign country, because it'll never get published in the U.S.

––– 凄い –––

There are lipid profile changes that occur with age. But light exercise can get them back to younger profiles.

––– 凄い –––

How much of it was all fake? I used to watch Ken Anderson give talks, and would wonder in awe how he was able to get such amazing data. Well, imagine my surprise. And these were just the ones that were recently caught. How many more are still undetected? The guy needs to step down. He's besmirched the reputation of Dana Farber Cancer Center.

––– 凄い –––

Holy crap!  96% of US hospital websites share visitor info with Meta, Google, data brokers. What the hell, man? This is crazy! Why don't hospitals do something about this?

––– 凄い –––

Biden just forgave 277,000 more student loans. Guess how much that's going to cost taxpayers now. Go on, take a guess. This is loan transfer folks. From those college students to you.

––– 凄い –––

It's costing way more to own a home now. Robert Kiyosaki said that a home is not an asset but a liabilty. It seemed counter-intuitive at first, but it's true. Especially now.

––– 凄い –––

Physicists find a surprise with gluons. It looks like the strong force reaches a plateau at larger distances. Well, that's unexpected.

––– 凄い –––

This is what's going all around – Oregon Health Authority finds no link between the vax and sudden death.  If you look at the original study, you find that the researchers only searched the death certificates for certain terms: “sudden death,” “arrhythmia,” “dysrhythmia,” “asystole,” “cardiac arrest,” “myocarditis,” “congestive heart failure,” “unknown,” “undetermined,” or “pending”. They did not search for "pericarditis, myopericarditis, ventricular fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, or pulmonary embolism. So they relied on physicians writing specific terms on the death certificate, didn't find anything, and concluded that there is no connection.  What about people who may have had cardiac arrest but were resuscitated soon enough and did not die? They would not be recorded in this study. Others followed vaccinated people prospectively and found an increase in myocarditis. Others have used ICD-10 codes to see if there an increase in cardiac injury. Some have looked for all-cause mortality and found an uptick in cardiac mortality in males by subgroup analysis. I therefore don't consider the OHA study to be definitive. The limitations of the study need to be understood.

––– 凄い –––

Here's an interesting music idea. RSSBlue lets fans subscribe to your musical RSS feed. This way they can directly access your music, and a payment system assures that payments go to you.

––– 凄い –––

So who's right? Will AI be a boon to the world, or will it destroy the world. Here's what experts think.  Spoiler alert: there are opinions on both sides.

––– 凄い –––

China's youth are saying "Screw it. We're not going to save for retirement." They expect the state to take care of them. OK. I think American youth are soon going to come to this conclusion, too. Then what? Do we let these people die or go hungry? Eventually, you run out of other people's money. Then what?

––– 凄い –––

I've heard that it was good to give Ukraine our current military equipment, because it would mean that we would build new equipment that would be more modern. Well, that's not what's happening. The article makes it sound like using old planes taken out of storage is a good thing, but the Chinese will have more modern weapons, and we have this. I think we're screwed.

––– 凄い –––

Heh. This made me smile. Teenagers learn about the tax system. And they aren't happy. More conservatives, maybe?

––– 凄い –––

Welcome to Oregon.

––– 凄い –––

DuckDuckGo is going to offer a Privacy Pro package, with VPN service, data removal service and ID theft assistance. Meanwhile, Google One is shutting down their VPN service after a year – because of lack of customers! Ha! Who in their right mind would purchase VPN from Google? It's like purchasing VPN service from the CIA.

––– 凄い –––

Apple is slowly making the move to Florida, too. 'Bout time.

––– 凄い –––

Andrew Ng is going to join Amazon's Board of Directors. They're getting serious about AI. Andrew could have helped Google again, so that tells you something about Google's culture.

––– 凄い –––

PSU is planning a major performing arts complex downtown to replace Keller Auditorium.  Hmmm. I don't think this is a good time to build something nice in downtown Portland. Look at all that glass that will need to be replaced after Trump wins the election.

––– 凄い –––

Speaking of election, you know what surprises me about the news that Biden may not appear on two states' ballots? That the Democrats aren't the least bit worried about this. Because they know that the election process won't matter. No matter how the vote goes, they'll somehow make Biden win. At 3 am. With suitcases of ballots that will be counted and double-counted, if need be. With electronic voting machines hooked up to the Internet.

––– 凄い –––

Suddenly, daycare is too expensive, and is now in short supply. Guess it's time to raise wages again, huh? And also another tax to pay for free daycare. Yup, that's the solution.

––– 凄い –––

Problems at Portland's largest outdoor housing. Just providing housing is not the answer as you can see.

Too easy.  This site (udio.com) makes it too easy to create musical fast food. I suppose if you want quick and dirty music this could be useful. But, man...

––– 凄い –––

I can't believe that the FISA renewal was killed. But Speaker Johnson isn't going to let that stop him. And FBI's Chris Wray isn't happy either. Stay tuned.

––– 凄い –––

Legacy doctors file NLRB complaints regarding reduced shifts.

Camas and Eugene were voted two of the best places to live in the U.S. I can't vouch for Eugene, but Camas (apart from the eyesore paper mill) is certainly nice. But I would place Bend higher on the list, though. And in Washington, the San Juan Islands. Or Bainbridge Island. Or Port Townsend. Or Sequim.

––– 凄い –––

Lake Oswego may have to grant public access to the lake. That will result in a lot of homes losing value. We'll see litter and graffiti along the lakeshore, and maybe more theft. In today's world, with less respect for property, this is not the time to grant public access to anything.

––– 凄い –––

––– 凄い –––

Why have so many doctors been unquestioning believers in the mRNA vax? Why do they not see with their own eyes?

––– 凄い –––

It's true. Pregnancy is linked to faster epigenetic aging in young women. Moms sacrifice a part of their lifespan for their children. Show them some love and gratitude.

––– 凄い –––

Elon Musk predicts that the Singularity will be next year. Maybe it'll just spit out facts more accurately than humans, but smarter is something else. I think we're close, but not next year.

––– 凄い –––

After AI beat them, professional Go players got better and more creative. Love it!

––– 凄い –––

Acetaminophen May Be Less Heart-safe than Previously Thought. Even 500 mg dose equivalent daily produced cardiac changes. These were in mice, though, so it's possible that we wouldn't see this in humans, but you never know.

––– 凄い –––

So why are adolescents so mentally ill? Why not all these reasons? But yeah, they sure are mentally ill, and the problem is, many of them aren't aware that they are ill.

––– 凄い –––

And here's Sweden, trying to purge themselves of Big Tech and keep their data local. I admire the sentiment, but that's going to take time and a lot of money and hard work (and smarts).

––– 凄い –––

This is evil. AI colonialism. Cash-strapped Argentines queue for eyeball scans. Selling their privacy for cash.

––– 凄い –––

We'll see. Google Translate now doesn't need human input anymore.  Hokay.

––– 凄い –––

So procrastination is genetic? Well then.

––– 凄い –––

How Google lost ground in AI. Sundar was like Bill Gates, who initially didn't understand what the Internet was all about and didn't push Microsoft to get into it initially. Boy was that painful. Sundar Pichai had AI in his hands, and he let it slip away. And here we are.

––– 凄い –––

Scientists looked at brain scans, and found that you can accurate predict age, sex, and body weight. But that's it, at least for now. But clearly gender is not something you can make up. Of course, we knew that. I'm surprised about the weight. I guess fat gets into your brain.

––– 凄い –––

A couple of scientists from Japan predicts AI will destroy the social order. Maybe, maybe not. I don't think we can say.

––– 凄い –––

Apple launches AppClips. Looks like widgets to me.

––– 凄い –––

Unhappy Firefox user. Firefox is better than it used to be, but sometimes if I want to buy things online, I have to use Safari, as transactions won't complete with Firefox, and sometimes whole modules from a page won't load. I suspect that this is due to privacy add-ons I have installed. So many sites want to infringe on your privacy before you can interact with them.

––– 凄い –––

Today is Eclipse day, but it's overcast in much of the Pacific Northwest. Oh well.

––– 凄い –––

Another one bites the dust. Buffalo Wild Wings closes downtown store. Too much crime. Not enough foot traffic. Great move, Portland – shut down the parking garage instead of cleaning up the crime.  And you want Portland to recover?

––– 凄い –––

I knew it. Paxlovid doesn't work. I suspect people fell for the placebo effect.

––– 凄い –––

Most people won't be able to retire in their 60s. I think most people won't be able to retire at all. It'll be welfare for just about everyone eventually.

––– 凄い –––

The era of seamless deepfakes is approaching. If not already here. It's one more thing teens are having to deal with. As if there wasn't enough already.

––– 凄い –––

The Polar Vortex has reversed. Here's what it means.

––– 凄い –––

Avram Piltch is unhappy that the main image generative AI models depict Jews like caricatures, heavy on stereotypes. Hey, try typing in "Asian man". Many times, you'll get an image of a man with a conical hat.

––– 凄い –––

The EU has a talent shortage that's gotten worse since 2018. Nobody's got skills anymore. I'd bet the same is going on in the U.S.

––– 凄い –––

One more chart showing which states saw out-migration and in-migration.

––– 凄い –––