1 October 2024

This is not good.  More than ever, Americans are reliant on government aid. We are on the path to communism.
And Oregon continues to lead in the West in the proportion of people dependent on SNAP for food.

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Loneliness has been blamed for several diseases. Now, more recent research suggests it might not be true. That's good I guess.

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New vaccines could prevent tumors before they form. This is for those with Lynch Syndrome, which is not a rare condition. It's known that checkpoint inhibitors work on tumors that arise in these people. So it makes sense to stimulate immunity to key antigens. I still wish they used a different platform than mRNA vaccines, though. Or at least have them developed by companies that have better transparency and quality control standards.

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This is a great idea. So much of critical software depends on open source code.  Why not pay developers of these important components we all depend on?

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30 September 2024

Handheld ultrasound scanner creates detailed photoacoustic images. The resolution is incredible.

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Oh boy... California creates new ways to sue people. Now there is a law against "hate littering".  That'll make us all civil, right? Are there any more ways we can sue people from doing stuff we hate? 

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That's good I suppose. California makes it illegal to admit students who benefit from legacy or donor considerations.  Did the state already cure cancer?  I can't believe how many trivial things the legislature focused their attention on.

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29 September 2024

Oh, so you've noticed. Clinical cancer research in the US is increasingly dominated by pharmaceutical industry sponsors, study finds. Why is this so? I've seen many brilliant scientists get tired of low salaries and having to put up with teaching and administrative crap, and flee for "industry", as they call it, where the pay is higher and there are no teaching responsibilities. Plus, government grants are not a guarantee and at a university, come with indirect costs and fees. You have to hire and pay for your own postdocs and supplies.  At a pharmaceutical company, everything is provided for you and all you need to do is your research.

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And crap happens with academic research, too. I'm glad the Data Colada incident got resolved favorably. But what a smear for Harvard. What's going on with Ivy League schools these days?

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Remember those articles about how caloric restriction would activate genes that would make you live longer? Scientists like Ray Walford were so big on this.  Sirtuin activation, and all that. Well it turns out that it only makes a difference is selected organisms whose lifespans are abnormally shortened.  In organisms with a normal lifespan, caloric restriction makes no difference.  

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Augmented reality goggles may help doctors perform spinal taps better. Kinda interesting, but getting that gear on before the procedure would be cumbersome.  If there's a problem, patients get sent to interventional radiology instead. They do a good job.

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Democrat Ron Wyden wants to pack the Supreme Court and introduce new demands that the Court must follow, like disclosure of income tax. The whole purpose of the tricameral government was to make each branch of government be independent, and not beholden to the other two. If there's a problem with SCOTUS, it should be addressed by the Chief Justice. At this time, John Roberts doesn't seem to have a problem with Charles Thomas, so if you think there's a problem, take it up with him. Congress should have no control over the goings on in the highest Court.  Control your own members first.

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Some people want to really uglify Deschutes County.  Good thing they were prevented from uglifying the southern Oregon coast. Enough already. There is no reason why we shouldn't continue with our current energy sources. This could happen here:

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Here's a pet peeve of mine: people who introduce equations into their paper to make their idea sound "scientific". Like there is some science behind their thinking. The author calls it "mathiness".  Others have other names.

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Hear, hear! Two thirds of Americans are willing to self-censor, afraid to speak their minds, becase they fear someone will get  offended.  When did we start to become so afraid? The crazies among us seem to have no concerns. But I think no one wants to get involved in litigation, having to defend accusations of racism, sexism, transgenderism, what have you. It probably started when idiot judges awarded decisions to snowflakes. So when people saw that the legal system was messed up, they saw it was better to avoid problems. Now of course, only the woke get to be vocal. Common sense voices just get yelled at, with no one coming to their rescue.
But maybe there is good news. Some think that America is getting less woke. The great experiment has failed, and we are dialing back. We shall see.

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It used to be possible to hijack a Kia and get sensitive info about the owner, with a phone app just by scanning a license plate. This is why people tend to avoid the bells and whistles that techies offer. It's not that they're Luddites. They would rather have the status quo over the risk of enjoying unnecessary convenience at the cost of privacy and security.

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Prepare for a massively disruptive dockworker strike.  This reminds of the joke about which part of the body is the most important. Everything is important and needs to function properly, in order to avoid shutting down the whole body.  Even the lowly asshole.

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In reality, no one really knows. I think the reason that the media wants the presidential election to appear close is that so when Harris is reported to have won, people won't automatically assume election fraud.  Because it was close, right?

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28 September 2024

We dodged a bullet. Fed cancels offshore wind farm auction. Lack of interest, apparently.

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How temptation works.  This is why work always fills the time allotted to it.

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Something doesn't make sense. Check out these two news items from today:
This is the very definition of "spek-u-la-tive".

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The Creounity Time Machine. Developed for coin collectors, but of interest to anyone who wants to learn about ancient calendrical systems.

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Liberals like to wonder why we are hesitant to spend money or give away things for free when we are "the richest country in the world". It's easy to be rich when you don't have to pay back debts, but only the interest on the debt. The National Debt has now increased to $35.3 trillion.

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27 September 2024

I remember GRC SpinRite when I was a WIndows user. It's been updated after 20 years. We Mac users have OnyX from Titanium Software.

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This is crazy. Sam Altman wants 5 gigawatt datacenter for his projects. This is presumably to create AGI? The human brain doesn't require that much power, and it makes one appreciate nature. How about we build an underground computer facility, make it nuclear-proof. Call it Colussus. 

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Speaking of brains, some additional insights into the brain structure of those with autism spectrum disorder. My question is that with all these anatomic differences, how did these arise so often, such that we have so many autistic kids?

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Hospitals are evaluated on various metrics, especially their mortality rate. This metric shows how many people die after treatment at a facility. It is aimed at measuring the quality of care. But it created bad incentives.

Consider a scenario where a critically ill patient is admitted to a hospital. If the staff thinks the patient will likely die, they may take drastic measures to protect their mortality rate. This could mean refusing further treatment. Or, it could mean forcing the patient's family to transfer them to another facility. This decision often comes after the hospital has made the most money from its services.

By pushing out patients on the brink of death, these hospitals gain two benefits. They maximize their profit and lower their mortality rate. From a management perspective, this appears to be a win-win situation. The hospital maintains a prestigious status with an apparently low mortality rate. This also boosts its financial performance.
Hospitals (and medical clinics) need to be evaluated differently. How well do they do prospectively, on index cases that you can compare from hospital to hospital, clinic to clinic, not on bulk statistics.

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Steve Jobs 10 minute rule.  I'll try it next time, although I think for me, it's a 15 minute rule. I give it a bit longer before I get an walk away.

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Well now. Key Dems don't like Measure 118.  But will Oregon voters override their concerns? That's the thing. You never know with Oregon voters.

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Is Oregon one of the hardest-working states in the America?  Doesn't look like it.

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26 September 2024

OpenAI is going through some interesting times.  One writer says "The Mask is coming off" but what's under the mask is still not clear. Just that Sam Altman wants to consolidate power in OpenAI. Then there's this article that Altman has undergone a psychological change since starting regular doses of psychedelics. No longer anxious, he's "very calm" now, whatever that is. He takes a microdose every other week, probably because of tachyphylaxis. So one of the more powerful tech companies is run by a regular druggie. Fifty years ago, people like this would have been laughed out of the system, but like other outrageous things we are exposed to today, we brush it off. Almost accept it as normal. And people still throw money at this company. When I was a kid, I read about the dangers of unbridled AI, but never thought it would happen this way. I always imagined that sane and clear-headed people would recognize the dangers and stop AI in its tracks.

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Whaat??? The European Patent Office is siding with some German company saying that Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier don't have a patent on CRISPR-Cas9 after all because "a European technical appeals board, which ruled that the duo’s earliest patent filing didn’t explain CRISPR well enough for other scientists to use it and doesn’t count as a proper invention". WTF? Not well enough? It hasn't stopped MIT Broad Institute from understanding it, and filing a patent of their own.  I suspect that patent office has been bribed. No one doubts that the two scientists were the true discoverers of that system.

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Can't make this stuff up. A high-profile paper about ways to improve the rigor of research papers has been retracted after critics attacked its own rigor.  Don't seek to lecture others, etc. etc.

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If your AI does the crime, you'll do the time, warns DoJ.  I'm sure they'll use this rule selectively to go after certain companies that just happen to be, uh, out of compliance. Sure. This will discourage a lot of innovation in the AI world. Not sure if Sam Altman would care, though.

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Starbucks closes another downtown store. Of course, the union is upset. But what can you say...?

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Who woulda thought it?  Medford, OR has the highest proportion of divorced people in the nation. Wonder why?

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25 September 2024

Interleukin-11 is a key player in age-related decline. It's probably not that simple, but it is important to identify key factors along the way.

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Who decides what geographic places get named? The Board on Geographic Names, of course.

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When someone shows you a flaw in your system, don't dismiss it without checking it through. Johann Rehberger tried to tell OpenAI that there was a way to permanently poison the memory of ChatGPT. They dismissed him. So he put that vulnerability into action. Now ChatGPT informs you when memories are updated, and you have to check it periodically to make sure it hasn't been poisoned.
LLM users who want to prevent this form of attack should pay close attention during sessions for output that indicates a new memory has been added. They should also regularly review stored memories for anything that may have been planted by untrusted sources. OpenAI provides guidance here for managing the memory tool and specific memories stored in it. Company representatives didn’t respond to an email asking about its efforts to prevent other hacks that plant false memories.
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If you have a digital book and a print book, reading comprehension is better if you read the print book.

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Firefox tracks you until you unless turn you off their "privacy-preserving" feature. But even if you turn it off in the Settings page, it's still on.  You must go into the about:config page and turn these to false:

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24 September 2024

Always something new. Hundreds of Mysterious Nazca Glyphs Have Just Been Revealed. Wow, these guys made it look easy. It's conceivable that people were recruited to do this a few times, but hundreds of them? What was the purpose?

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Oh man. I just discovered that two great jazz legends passed away: Bennie Golson and Shaun Martin. Shaun passed away last month but I just found out.  My mind always enters a peaceful place when I listen to Park Avenue Petite.  And check out Martin's happy Yellow Jacket and his improv skills. I get vibes of Josef Zawinul, Warren Bernhardt, Greg Phillinganes...  Such a loss.

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23 September 2024

The amount of money that generative AI startups are asking in Silicon Valley is staggering.  It's an order of magnitude higher than what the typical ask was back in the dotcom era. So why aren't we feeling rich? Probably because the money hasn't been spent yet, and the number of geeks who could stand to see the money is a lot smaller. This isn't just building websites.
But then the cost of artificial intelligence is declining rapidly. So why are the major players asking for so much money? Because they want people to buy the dream, the promise.

Remember DevinAI? That was the generative AI app that was going to code all your projects? Turned out to be a dud. It was all hype, and overpromises like that will make everyone skittish about spending multiple billions.

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This is an important video and shows how easily our phones can be hacked.


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Here's an opinion about PhDs and academia. I never viewed it this way but it kinda is true in a way.
A degree, especially a PhD, is like a badge, a shiny sticker that says, “I’m educated.” But here’s the kicker – this badge might not make you more productive or happier. In fact, less time in school and more time in the real world could be the real recipe for success.

Imagine if we recruited professors not just for their academic credentials but for their real-world achievements. People who’ve actually built things that work, could revolutionize how we teach software engineering or entrepreneurship. But we’re not there yet. We’re still caught in a system that values form over function, prestige over practicality.

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22 September 2024

Happy Autumnal Equinox.  This is the middle of autumn, not the start.

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Remember in the movie Elysium there's a machine that scans you and immediately determines what wrong? Well, the guy that founded Spotify (Daniel Ek) is trying to create something similar. It's called the Neko Body Scan.  You still need blood tests and a grip strength test, and the results go to a human to interpret, but it's a start, I suppose.

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Joe Hisaishi isn't concerned that AI-generated music will replace him. I agree. All it will do is sample bit and pieces of his music, and try to stitch it together. Listeners will probably be more confused and amazed.

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Good! The FTC is suing pharmacy benefit managers for making insulin expensive. They are the scourge of healthcare, and should be eliminated.

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Nice article on ScaleAI, which creates the sweat shops of the AI world. We all need labeled data, and companies are willing to pay for it. So ScaleAI takes advantage of the poor in third-world countries to sit and label data all day for low wages. It can be viewed as exploitation, but no one seems to be complaining.  Someone's gotta do it.  Those data aren't going to label themselves, you know.

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The pager/walkie-talkie attacks have changed the world. There goes globalism.  But even domestically manufactured electronics could be sabotaged, although it's probably easier to do in a third-world country. 

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The Internet has a dictionary server, a remnant of the old days. Like the author, I'm surprised it still works.

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