Sugoi & Yokunai

A vote on Texas secession could appear on the ballot next March. It's more like a simple poll than anything substantive. Interesting, the things that happen during a rotten presidency.

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A tax break for veterans. Sounds reasonable to me.

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Mathematics, reading skills in unprecedented decline in teenagers. The world is getting dumber and dumber, just as A.I. is getting better and better. When the bots take over, we have only ourselves to blame. It's not just the USA, it's Canada, too.

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The science is in. Undergoing gender re-assignment surgery does not decrease the suicide risk.

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Edward Dowd continues to sound the alarm about the alarming rise in cancers in the UK, which he suspects is due to the vaccine. It wasn't a problem until 2021, about a year after the mRNA vaxxes became available. Someone should look into that here.

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Embracing change and resetting expectations.  Terry Tao has excellent comments on A.I. and how academics will be incorporating it into their workflow. Expect "embarrassing mistakes, controversies, painful disruptions, heated debates, and hasty decisions". The transition to an A.I. world will not be smooth. 

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Yikes!  Hundreds Of Illegal Chinese-Owned Marijuana Operations Taking Over Maine. I can't imagine an American company set up in China for marijuana production.

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Massachusetts is facing a manpower shortage as boomers retire. Folks have retired all the time. Why is this a problem now? Why aren't there qualified replacements? Hmmm.....

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Another article on Providence's anesthesiologist shortage. The fact that an out-of-state group was selected to replace an in-state medical group probably doesn't sit well. And when surgeons don't make money, they will probably look to leave. And hospital revenue drops, which makes other things more stressful, like paying those nurses who recently got pay raises. Why is this just Providence's problem? The reporter should have asked himself that obvious question.

––– 良くない –––Yes, at least one hospital could use some help. Kotek’s $600M homeless bailout (while police, elections, hospitals get ignored). Dealing with late-stage problems is always more expensive than when it is early, and could have been nipped in the bud. The homeless problem will be Oregon's money sinkhole for a long, long time.

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Why does sleep become more elusive as we age?  Is it really true that older folks need less sleep? I agree with the article that getting quality sleep is more problematic as one ages. For this ronin, I find that getting older, I have more things of concern that percolate through my dreams and cause me to wake up earlier than planned. You accumulate these memories as you get older, and you have to learn how to deal with them. Sleep is essential at clearing accumulated toxins. We have a nightly rinse cycle. Not sleeping well might promote dementia. Can't have that. 

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Meanwhile, China "created a genome-editing system" that reduced the effect of a mutated MEF2C gene in mice, reducing their autistic behavior.  The thought is that it might lead to a treatment for ASD in humans. Maybe. Lots of steps in between, however.

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No global warming? EPA reports that only 19% of weather stations in the U.S. have shown an increase in temperature since 1948. I keep seeing reports of some day being the hottest day ever. But then we have scenes like we have in Bavaria, and somehow that's also due to climate change, and it's going to be worse because there's a gas shortage. Brought on because of climate change activism. Can't win, right?

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Red wave washing into Idaho. People just want sanity and safety. To live in a society where the law applies to everyone, not just non-Democrats. Where there is stability so that you can operate a business and take on some risk. Who can run a business in Portland or Seattle these days? Like the insanity where Portland raises taxes, then offers tax-incentives to prevent businesses from fleeing the city. 

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Alaskan Airlines is buying out Hawaiian Airlines. Hope they won't change the unique ambience of the airline in the name of cost-savings.

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Ron Wyden wants to tax Netflix, and other streaming services. A "digital service tax" "modeled after Europe".

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It boggles the mind that there are still defenders of Measure 110.

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There will be an injectable medication (LOY-001) that will extend the life of large dogs. An FAQ here. Available in 2026.

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Japanese tourists made Hawaii rich in the 1990s. Those were heady times in Hawaii. All those luxury shops and fancy gourmet restaurants opened up. It was unreal. Now, Japanese tourists are steering clear of Hawaii. It's partly due to the weak yenm but also inflation in Hawaii, driving up prices.

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Huh? Graffiti crimes in Washington won't be prosecuted, because a Seattle judge thinks it infringes on the graffiti "artist"'s First and Fourth Amendment rights.

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Main-in voting, so easy to cheat. 140 mail-in ballots were found in a mailbox. Uncounted, of course. This needs to stop. We can vote in person.

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Maui still has no leader for their Emergency Management Agency four months later.

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Gen-Zers are not even trying anymore. They can't get the jobs they want, so they are just "radically resting". Yeah, whatever.

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ChatGPT can leak private details. Kind of like when Spock tricked a computer to computing the last digit of pi. Asking ChatGPT to perform an impossible task can cause it to derail.

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Taxpayers are footing a bill of $1 million/month for Fauci's security detail.  Even though he's "retired". How about we fund his jail cell instead?

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Number of nonbinary-identifying students spikes nearly 57% in Oregon.

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This is what happens when you let a problem get massive. It's a lot more expensive to fix. Kotek plans to seek $600 million more for housing, homelessness in 2024 session.

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Republicans are really fleeing Washington. The Democrats can have their dystopia all to themselves now.

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Well that's not going to make people want to help anymore. No Aloha Spirit anymore. No love for tourists. This is the second phase of the Lahaina debacle. Auwe.

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Progress?  Have you seen any progress?  Pearl District will stop removing graffiti. Funds ran out. I guess the taggers won.

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Tinnitus is linked to hidden auditory nerve damage. I know a couple of folks that have a severe case of tinnitus. Now that they have more insight, treatment may be directed to reversing this. But to me, it looks more serious, and a treatment might be even father away.

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How do you miss that many?  Japan just found 7,000 islands it didn’t know it had. i can see one or two, but 7000? Were they not paying taxes? Did they not receive government services? So many questions.

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This is why PTSD is so strong.  Brain Study Suggests Traumatic Memories Are Processed as Present Experience.  It feels like it just happened.

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In mice, researchers restore lost brain function after stroke. The mice were given a metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR5) inhibitor. Sounds promising.

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And in C elegans, it was found that neural transmissions can occur wirelessly. Yes, it's like they have WiFi neural transmissions. How does that work? Neurons release neuropeptides into the milieu, and this drifts away and stimulates another neuron far away. It's unclear how efficient this is.

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Guess which tiny country is grabbing 15% of NVIDIA's chips? Singapore! They're building datacenters, and plan to be a hub for A.I. research, cryptocurrency, online gaming and business digitalization.

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Who was the worst politician in 2023?  So many contenders. That sicko Eugene teacher is definitely up there.

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What post-COVID recovery? Pioneer Place is an abandoned dystopian shopping mall. Really sad. So many people were expecting a resurgent economic boom as we came out of quarantine. It was going to be glorious, they said. And here's Portland's 10 worst neighborhoods to live in.

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And speaking of medical misconduct, here's a guy who is accused of falsifying stroke research, where it almost became a treatment to give people an agent called 3K3A-APC.  It was supposed to "reduce the brain cell death, bleeding, and inflammation that can follow a stroke" but "the experimental remedy might have actually increased deaths in the first week after treatment". 

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New SARS-CoV2 variant.  Do we care?

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So all that talk about Sam Altman being fired because there was some problem with AI safety and dangerous technology being released – was all smoke.

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Not good. More Americans (2.3%) are taking out 401(k) money to cover expenses. Not good, because things aren't going to get better. This is kicking the can down the road, but the road is going to get steeper, and kicking the can is going to get harder to do.

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Mental health problems.  Nurses describe Seattle Children’s Hospital as a ‘combat zone’ after dozens of alleged attacks.  Pretty soon, there'll be a shortage of pediatric nurses, too. Children's hospitals weren't combat zones before. Why are things so bad now?

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So the Oregon Governor Establishes AI Advisory Council. I wondered if this might be a way to increase A.I. programs in Oregon, to train data scientists and develop deep learning programs and research. But it's going to be staffed by someone from the Department of Administrative Services Cultural Change Officer and someone from the Governor’s Racial Justice Council.

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Easy to see why.  Higher Education Linked to Increased Risk of Depression and Anxiety. 

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This is why taxes have to increase.  City’s Transportation Bureau Paid Contractor $299,000 to Develop App It Won’t Use. Waste, waste, waste.

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Why does the Oregon Food Bank bank need more money? They should be loaded.

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You get what you pay for.  All you need is a swipe of your phone, a few taps, and voila, you're diagnosing your ailments with AI.  All of this magic happens under the watchful eyes of a remote doctor (yes, they're still there in the mix), who writes up your prescription post-instant diagnosis. The best part? All you pay is a $99 monthly subscription fee.  Might be a way for a hungry doc to make side money.

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AI faces look more real than actual human face. For white faces, especially. And it's not just the face. The whole body, too, and advances in video simulation make it more realistic. These AI influencers are apparently making good money.

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More Bay Area craziness. Ghost kitchens are a thing.  Uber creator Travis Kalanick has created sites where you can pick up the Uber eats food you ordered.  But it's causing traffic jams and hazards, as the locales are not suitable for high traffic.  Neighbors are rankled, as suddenly the area becomes congested with cars. How did this get past the regulators?

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Is wisdom tooth extraction a racket? This paper says that only 12% of the time are wisdom teeth problematic.

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Fingerprint readers are not secure on Windows. The problem is that some computers don't utilize Microsoft's Secure Device Connection Protocol, so it's possible to bypass security and enroll a new fingerprint. 

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As I've said before, the Internet is not for kids.  How Your Child’s Online Mistake Can Ruin Your Digital Life. Oh yeah. This isn't 1999, Dorothy.

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The planned iPhone 16 is so boring. New metal battery casings. 60Hz displays.  Still a 48 megapixel camera. New kinds of buttons.  Yawn.

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Portland is no longer the cool city.  Yeah, we knew. It doesn't help that that progressives are taking over and ruining Christmas for everyone else.

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Vaccinated People More Likely to Suffer Blood Disorders, Ear Disease.  I have never regretted not getting the mRNA product.  Never. And now Dr. Robert Kedlac is spilling the beans about the origins of SARS-CoV2. 

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But now commercial air travel has been opened up to everyone, and now we have this.  Say what you will, but I'll take life back in the old days, when we could have nice things.

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As if people didn't already need more financial stress. Thousands are told that they owe thousands to Oregon due to overpayment of COVID unemployment money.

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Yikes! Portland’s Burnside Bridge to close for 5 years during seismic rebuild, starting in 2027. Disruptions galore.

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Multnomah County is NOT the place to be.

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What?!?  County’s Downtown Homeless Resource Center Faces $3.3 Million Funding Gap Next Year.  That makes no sense.  They spent less than half their budgeted money. They also got a $25 million tax windfall. How can they be out of money? 

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Yes, it's time to switch to Firefox.  This ronin swears by it.

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Elon Musk is convinced that something was discovered, significant enough to alarm Ilya Sutskever.

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This keeps coming up.  Dunning-Kruger is just autocorrelation. I don't think so, as I see this over and over in daily life. Someone tried to debunk this claim with more statistical arguments.  But what Dunning and Kruger observed was not just a statistical construct. Just because of the way they portrayed their ideas in a graph doesn't mean that it's all statistical hand-waving. Dumb people really do overestimate their abilities and smart people really do second-guess themselves to their detriment.

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Well now Darth Vader is really more machine than human. James Earl Jones agreed to have his voice used by A.I. to be the voice of Darth Vader forever. Fitting, I guess.

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Will there be a crisis next March?  Banks have taken loans from the BTFP to stay afloat. This is why we haven't seen another Silicon Valley Bank catastrophe.  But the loans come due in March 2024. What will happen if they can't pay? Jerome Powell admits that he hasn't thought that far ahead. Yikes! Well, I'm sure he'll extend the due date, or something like that. Construction on the house of cards continues.

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North Koreans are going bald. Kim Jong Un's latest problem. What could be the cause? Can't be nutrition – that's been present for years. Could it be ambient radioactivity?

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No surprise. Richest 1% account for more carbon emissions than poorest 66%, report says. Yeah, but they say that they just purchase carbon credits, so all's good. Of course, who knows if they do or not. And they get to set the price on those credits. Are you awake, yet?

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Another reason to think twice about buyinv a Tesla. Unless your commute is limited and you live in an area set up for EVs, I can't see that buying an expensive EV makes any sense.

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Everyone needs to read this. Reddit has a post on surprise financial hits that can ruin you.  Gotta be prepared, but hardly anyone is.

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