18 September 2023

Sorry, this is a BuzzFeed link, but what the hell.  People over 60 share some of the good things about being older.  It's all good if you are still healthy and have taken steps earlier to avoid the avoidable troubles. 

––– 凄い –––

A male loneliness epidemic is a thing.  Guys need to connect, too.  No one has made a big deal of it, but it's still a silent problem.

––– 良くない –––

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.  So doctors are not recommending breast self-exams anymore "because it hasn’t been shown to prevent breast cancer deaths".  Well who's going to do a double-blind controlled trial?  It's free, and it can certainly detect things early, and there is no side-effect from doing it.  Crazy not to do it.  I think this is wrong.

––– 良くない –––

Peak solar activity is coming sooner than expected.  We're going to see higher global temps now, so don't be surprised. 

––– 凄い –––

Why do some people get chronic fatigue syndrome after certain viral infections, but others don't?  Scientists have discovered that this may be due to upregulation of the WASF3 gene, interfering with mitochondrial functioning.  Fascinating how this story played out, thanks to a patient who took the initiative.

––– 凄い –––

Winners of the 2023 IgNobel prize announced.  I notice a preponderance of Asians winning.  I guess Asians like to pursue silly investigations.  Like the guy who won the prize in 2016 with the between legs effect.

––– 凄い –––

Billionaires get to remote-work from their yachts.  We should be so fortunate.  But I've mentioned that younger people still struggle with mental illness, and this seems to get little attention.  I think these two stories are related.  The coronavirus epidemic is blamed, which launched the remote work effort (WFH) and also the spike in mental illness.  Life still looks bleak, and things aren't going to improve until life looks more appealing again. 

––– 凄い –––

Once in a while, even California gets it right.  Residents of the state will soon find it easier to have their names deleted from data-brokers' databases.  This is great.

––– 凄い –––

Here's Elon Musk's Algorithm for improving life.  It's mostly for a work philosophy, but it makes sense when you are a boss or manager or director.  When you are a simple employee, you have little say in implementing these things.  So don't stay an employee long.  Get into a managerial position and look for ways to improve things.

––– 凄い –––

Dimethyl sulfide has been detected on a planet 120 ly away.  Only living organisms can produce this molecule.  So, draw your own conclusions.

––– 凄い –––


17 September 2023

'Dr. Google' meets its match in Dr. ChatGPT'.  Not quite, but a doctor who can use a chat model will be a better diagnostician than one what doesn't.

––– 凄い –––

It’s based solely on what we want in an ideal world and doesn’t appear to address what are the resources we have to accomplish that. I’m very concerned about how Oregon hospitals are going to do this.

It’s not easy. An RN is a highly educated person. It’s not something you can snap your fingers and say, “You’re an RN today.”

Take a regular med-surge floor. Under the bill, there’s a 1:5 ratio. That’s one nurse for every five patients. If you’ve got a med-surge unit of 30 beds, it requires you to have six nurses. If you’ve been doing this long enough, you know that sooner or later one will get sick. Does that mean your 30-bed unit is only a 25-bed unit and what do you tell those patients? The statute is specific in that no nurse can be assigned patients in excess of the ratio, with the exception for critical patients in an ED. That’s not good care management at all. If the patient isn’t critical but you’re one of those five, you’ve got to what, wait in the lobby? Get transferred to a different hospital? You’ve got that kind of real-world issue that isn’t adequately addressed.
––– 良くない –––


16 September 2023

Two more bite the dustJaCiva bakery and The Pied Cow.  They blame the coronavirus epidemic.  No it wasn't the virus, but government policies that caused the decreased foot traffic.  JaCiva used to make the best pumpkin pie in the city.  No more.

––– 良くない –––

Oregonians flock to mind-altering substances.  As you would expect, when you live in a state in decline, I suppose.  There is tachyphylaxis with psilocybin, though, so it may disappoint some. 

––– 良くない –––

Do you want to be cloned?  Delphi will analyze your writings, videos, podcasts, etc, and clone your thought processes for posterity.  "Your Delphi clone doesn't merely represent you; it ensures your wisdom transcends time, impacting generations to come."  What times we live in!

––– 凄い –––

15 September 2023

This should be required reading for all young poliical aspirants:

The mere imagining of a better tomorrow, in its view, is sufficient to reform the longest-standing democracy on Earth. In effect, it is a party that seeks to attract support by standing for nothing other than disruption — call it the Seinfeld Party.

This is an extraordinarily dangerous approach in a democracy, where stability and slow, methodical and deliberative decision-making is a virtue. Altering democracy should not be approached like building an app where the primary focus is getting clicks and eyeballs and then figuring out how to monetize it later. This is not Uber upending the cab industry, or Airbnb trying to engineer the way we live and travel. This is our republic.

Trump made it look easy.  It's not.

––– 凄い –––

How I stay reasonably anonymous online.  To this I would add - don't surf the Web on your phone. Despite all your safeguards, you are identifiable by your cell tower triangulation.  Your surfing history on the phone can be tied to your identity.  What do you expect from a device that pings cell towers when you turn the phone on and when you move about.  Also, I would still avoid using Chrome as well as staying away from directly accessing Google or Meta products.  These companies are built on the business model of tracking you and preventing you from being anonymous. 

––– 良くない –––

Dunning-Kruger just got an updateIntermediate levels of scientific knowledge are associated with overconfidence and negative attitudes towards science.  This explains the climate change and pro-vaccine crowd perfectly.

––– 凄い –––

This explains a lot of our problems.  Cannabis Use Disorder and Subsequent Risk of Psychotic and Nonpsychotic Unipolar Depression and Bipolar Disorder
"CUD was associated with an increased risk of psychotic and nonpsychotic bipolar disorder and unipolar depression."
It's bad news when your state legalizes it.  That's the start of the decline.

––– 良くない –––

The Seattle Freeze is real, especially for techies trying to make friends, especially as many are introverts to begin with. 

––– 良くない –––

Giant cracks are appearing in the southwestern US.  Drought, they say. 

––– 良くない –––

Providence changed its mind.  Guess it was afraid of losing more personnel. 

“The health and safety of our patients, caregivers, and community are our highest priority. As such, we ask that all employees receive an updated COVID-19 vaccine or booster,” said Michael Connors, Providence Public Relations.

However, Providence was quick to point out that this is not a mandate. According to Connors, Providence’s policy diverges from the strict vaccine mandates enforced by state law and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) during the peak of the pandemic.

“This is not the same as the vaccine mandates that we were required to implement by state law and CMS during the pandemic. Caregivers can choose to decline the vaccine. Those who do not wish to receive it simply need to submit a declination form by Nov. 30. They no longer need to request approval for a medical or religious exemption as many of our states and CMS required at the height of COVID,” said Connors.

All declinations will be automatically accepted. They do not need to be approved. This process is not the same as the medical or religious exemptions that many states and federal regulators required us to review and approve during the pandemic,” he added.


––– 凄い –––


14 September 2023

Hawaii needs healthcare professionals badly.  It's just like those cities that voted to defund the police, and now there's crime, and they want the police back.

––– 良くない –––

How long can Maui lose $11 million every day?  Boy, they sure could use some of that Ukraine money.  Zelensky has hinted that Ukrainians might start to "misbehave" if the money flow stops.  May the folks in Hawaii need to do something similar to get Biden's attention.

––– 良くない –––

Multnomah County has $100 million that they haven't spent yet to help the homeless?  Why did Bybee Lakes only get $1.5 million?  What are they hesitating for?  Do something! 

––– 良くない –––

Providence is restarting the masking and vaccine requirement.  Absolutely mind-boggling.  Have they not learned?
––– 良くない –––

The energy density of space as predicted by general relativity and by the Standard Model differs by 10^120.  You'd think we'd know which one was correct and which one was wrong, but apparently it's not that easy.

––– 良くない –––


13 September 2023

Sanity prevailsFederal judge blocks Gov Luhan's unconstitutional gun ban

––– 凄い –––

Sheesh, the New York Times doesn't even try to be accurate anymore.  Thankfully for them, their readership is too uninformed themselves to notice.

––– 凄い –––

Academia's missing men.  Someone else has noticed this, too.  Take a look at MIT's 35 Innovators list.  Einstein, Feynman, Dirac, Oppenheimer – they wouldn't have stood a chance.

––– 良くない –––

Why it takes forever to get a doctor's appointment.  Patients need to read this.

––– 凄い –––

This could explain a lot of things:
––– 良くない –––


12 September 2023

Google vs US government trial is underway.  This will be interesting.  Wonder what took them so long?

Related:  Tracking is now baked into Google Chrome browser.  Why do people continue to use this browser? 
Also, Google wants to create a digital watermark to secretly tag images in art.  Many questions about this technology.

––– 凄い –––

It's begun.  Authors are suing OpenAI for copyright infringement, claiming that the A.I. model is copying and training on their output.  This will be interesting, too.  Copyright is going to be hard to defend in the era of A.I.

––– 凄い –––

27 most dangerous college campuses.  University of Washington is #26.  Odd that none of the Ivy League schools are on the list, but Stanford is. 

––– 良くない –––

Phenylephrine is now acknowledged by the FDA to be worthless

––– 凄い –––


11 September 2023

Genetically endowed to breath-hold for 13 minutes.  Some residents of the Bajau islands can stay underwater for as long as 13 minutes.  Not sure if it's because of the enlarged spleen, or if having a larger spleen is a byproduct of the mutation.

––– 凄い –––

Remember HMOs?  What happened to them?  This was Hillary Clinton's baby, when Bill was in office.  Physicians managed to untangle themselves from that, but then got involved in Obamacare.  The result was that the independent doctor became an endangered species, and hospitals became powerful conglomerates - at least until the money ran out.  But doctors are not trained to be actuaries, and never should have taken on the responsibility. 

––– 良くない –––

Google and Alexa will sell your conversation to advertisers.  Thankfully not Siri, at least not yet.  Why people use Google products baffle me.  If you like your browser habits to be tracked so you can be served ads, then by all means.  I use Firefox.

––– 良くない –––

Chinese scientists discover another gene-editing tool that doesn't involve CRISPR technology.  Cool.

––– 凄い –––

Seattle Times fans the flames of climate hysteria.  People are going nuts over this.  And "climate science" as in any other science, is always being revised.  Not as firm as Biden would have you believe.  But the sunspot cycle will peak in 2025, so temperatures will be warm for a while.

––– 良くない –––

The Economist put out a networking guide for introverts.  "The real secret is to save your energy for the people who are most likely to be interesting to you."  This works in regular life, too.

––– 凄い –––

10 September 2023

Yet another study showing that suggests that the bivalent booster is less effective than being unvaxxed.  This is a retrospective study, with all the due cautions, but still, it agrees with other studies.  Being boosted is a liability than a benefit.

––– 良くない –––

If you are a parent with small children, and living in California, it is really time to move.  Don't wait for heartache, anger and grief.

––– 良くない –––

Oregon is going to get $40 million as part of an opiod settlement against Kroger.  But they have no problem with fentanyl.  Pretty hypocritical, huh?

––– 良くない –––

Ted Wheeler is hiring ex-cons, some with murder convictions, to police Portland

––– 良くない –––

Maybe this is why urban centers are such heat islands.  Maybe it's not the CO2 output.  It's air conditioning.  The article says: "Air conditioner use is set to triple worldwide by 2050."  There's our climate change.

––– 凄い –––

Israeli and Singapore scientists discover that a natural substance, 3,3′-diindolylmethane, greatly reduces Strep mutans growth, and decreased plaque build-up and cavities.  This can be added to toothpaste.

––– 凄い –––


9 September 2023

The evidence piles up.  People who got the booster are more likely to get COVID-19 again than the unvaccinated.  And it's amusing to see how the authors still claim that the vax does some good.  When is the public ever going to wake up?

Related: Kheriaty, Kuldorff, Hoft (Gateway Pundit) and Bhattacharya win against Biden and Fauci in First Amendment violation case. Great news!

––– 凄い –––

Mission creep
.  Dems think that the solution to everything is just to throw more money at a problem.  Rather than solve the underlying problem.  So now Oregon is taking Medicaid money to use for housing the homeless

––– 良くない –––

Business group now comes to realize that NE Portland can't have nice things.  Yup, when you can't control your criminals and let sh#t get out of hand, don't expect other folks to put up with that.  It was a generous gesture, Nike, trying to elevate that neighborhood.  Guess it goes back to being Portland's ghetto.  Too bad, Nike – you tried.

––– 良くない –––

Another merger.  Legacy trying to merge with OHSU.  Umpqua Bank bought Columbia Bank.  US Bank bought Union Bank.  Now Kroger is merging with Albertsons (which owns Safeway) and 104 Washington stores and 49+ Oregon stores will close.  More jobs lost, although corporate says that they will try to honor union agreements.  Some QFC stores will leave the Kroger family and could be independent. 

––– 良くない –––

Japanese scientists have discovered a biomarker for schizophrenia.  I would not have guessed what it is - hydrogen sulfide content in hair.  There, saved you a click.

––– 凄い –––