10 April 2023

There's even a greater need to pick more complex passwords.  A.I. can crack passwords more quickly than before.  When hackers break into a system, they can download the file where passwords are stored.  This will allow them multiple tries at cracking the password, bypassing the usual limited number of tries before the system locks you out.  Cloud systems often state that your data is encrypted and that they have no access, or that third-parties would not be able to read your data.  But of others (such as employees) have access to the server and can easily decrypt the data, then your privacy is easily invaded.  Multi-factor authentication is more important than ever.

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The coronavirus jab (is it really a vaccine?) is so politicized now that the CDC is partnering with a private social media non-profit to provide surveillance for citizens who oppose it.  They want to turn American into East Germany.  It's 2023 now, and the major Omicron variants are mild.  Why the need to kill dissenting voices?  Even in Oregon, the state death rate is vanishingly low.  The problem is with mismanagement of the whole pandemic - from mask recommendations, to stickers on the floor, plexiglas shields, bribery to get the jab, and claims of benefit made without data to back it up and often proved to be flat out wrong.  One doesn't have to delve into ivermectin and other wacko claims that unfortunately degraded the anti-vaccine stance. 


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Holy crap!


When everyone is at risk, no one is at risk - probably. Essentially, all deposits are insured, else we'd see the mother of all bank runs. But if banks know this, then risky behavior will be encouraged, because Papa Fed will take care of any problems that may arise. Most people are completely unaware of how tenuous things are.

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Another news network documents Portland's decline.  How much more decline before voters decide that enough it enough?

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He probably has another emergency ready to declare.  Biden finally declares and end to the national COVID-19 emergency status.

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9 April 2023

Happy Easter.  An t-Aisírí is an old Irish Easter hymn.  Here it is sung by Nóirín Ní Riain and the monks of Glenstal Abbey.


'S é Íosa an Fíreán, a shaothraigh ár n-anam,
'S é rinnemuid a cheannacht ón ndaorise;
Is d'fhulaing sé páis, agus bás ar an gcroich,
Mar gheall ar na peacaí a dhéan'mid.

Curfá
Agus aililiú leá, is aililiú ló, aililiú ló
Má maslaíthear ár gcolainn
Ní baolach dár n-anam
Ach ná séanaigí m’ainmse choíche.

‘S é Íosa an Fíréan, Dia dílis don Athair
Ó, is é a rinne ár gceannacht ón daoirse;
Nuair a d’fhulaing sé an Pháis agus bás ar an gcroich
Ag tabhairt sásaimh sna peacaí seo a níonns muid.

Tá an t-arán seo déanta i d’fhianaise, a Pheadair,
A Pheadair, caithidh an t-arán seo;
[An] té chaithfeas an t-arán seo, caithfidh sé mise,
Idir fheoil, anam is diachta.

Tá an fíon seo déanta i d’fhianaise, a Pheadair,
A Pheadair, ólaidh an fíon seo;
[An] té ólfas an fíon seo, ólfaidh sé an fhuil
A bhí ag tíocht ‘na braonta as mo thaobhsa.

Siúlaigí amach sa ngairdín, a Pheadair,
Tá uaigneas mór ar mo chroí-se;
‘S é meáchan na bpeacaí is ciontach le m’uaigneas
Is fairigí uair liom an oíche seo.

Éirígí suas a tromluí a gcodladh
Ní fada uaim saighdiúir mo dhaoirse
Rinne sibh faillí fanacht ‘na maidin
‘S ní bhfuair [gur] chaith sibh an oíche seo.

Tá sé ráite i dtairgearacht Mhaitiú
Leis an magadh a fuair Íosa
Gur éirigh an coileach a bhí ag fiuchadh sa bpota,
Chuaigh ar an mbord is lig glao as.

Tháinig na trí Muire ar maidin Dé Domhnaigh
Go leigheasfaidís cneácha Íosa.
Chuartaíodar an tuamba thart timpeall go gasta,
Ní bhfuaireadar amharc ar Íosa.

Tháinig an t-aingeal anuas as na Flaithis
Is d’ardaigh an leac ina bhfianaise
Bhí leac ar an tuamba, ní thógfadh céad pearsa í,
Ach thóg an t-aingeal a bhí naofa í.

––– 凄い –––

The pendulum swings.  Seattle is facing a major downturn.  The article seems to blame the pandemic for this.  But remember, as they saying goes, the coronavirus didn't kill the economy.  It was the government response to the coronavirus that killed the economy.

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It's amazing how the Koreans got it just right, using earthenware onggi for making kimchi.  It works better than making it in plastic or glass containers.

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Ghosting.  Young Japanese seem to treat other people as plug-and-play units.  To use as needed until no longer useful, then discard without a thought.  That's not the Japan I remember.

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More than 50% of Americans think 4-year college is not worth the cost.  This was especially true in the younger age groups, and could mean that they don't believe that the money is worthwhile the gain in the quality of education they will receive.  Maybe the educational curriculum has been dumbed-down so much that a college degree doesn't qualify you for a good job.  Requiring the jab is also likely a discouraging factor.  But the skills required for America to advance will necessitate education in math and the sciences.  But getting ahead and learning complex topics requires some mentoring and one of the benefits of a collegiate education was networking with the brilliant people you met along the way.  This will be lost.

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8 April 2023

Why do I blog?  Danny Guo lays out his reasons.  For me, it is to document the salient items of what's interesting to me, and perhaps it might be of interesting to a passing visitor.  It is a journal of sorts.

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Survival of the fittest.  Stability AI, which took the world by storm with the Stable Diffusion AI image generator, now has been beaten by competitors who were lucky, or just ran faster with the ball, especially Midjourney.  Now, they are hard pressed to find investors and may have to wind down.  Harsh is the world of competitive geekdom.  But Midjourney does seem to be better.

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Blame Obamacare.  This is a great article on how government policies greatly changed the face of medicine for the worse.  What resulted from Obamacare was the eradication of the small doctor practice, and the rise of the employed physician.  Insurance companies ruled the land, and so entities were created to help them make profit, like pharmacy benefit managers.  A whole industry came into existence to help healthcare systems deal with insurance billing and other administrative overhead.  Hospitals also became dominant as they received generous largess from Washington D.C.  The glass and steel buildings on the Hill and the waterfront were obtained during Obama's tenure.  Big Medicine didn't help doctors, however.  During that time, doctors sold their practices and became employed physicians, and what care you received was no longer up to the doctor, but what the insurance company would cover.  Most physicians may struggle to pay off their debts now.  Medicine will become more like a government-run operation (which it kind of is), than a place for holistic healthcare. 

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COVID is over, right?  So why does there need to be a special ICD-10 code for COVID-19 jab status?  We have never had a special code for who didn't take a medication, or who didn't undergo a certain surgical procedure.  Although the Z28 codes for not being vaccinated was created in 2016, the code has been fine-tuned specifically for the COVID-19 vax, to document not only that a person did not get the jab, but the basis for this status (e.g. group pressure, refusal etc.)  The government says that it needs this to track vaccine efficacy and disease mortality, but they never were interested in this before with other diseases.  So why now?
Update (9 April 2023):  Here is the reason: it "will help health insurance providers identify emollees [sic] who may benefit from outreach and further education about vaccination.”  
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Red flag law update.  In late December 2022, a New York Supreme Court judge declared their "red flag" gun law unconstitutional.  Then recently, a person was able to use this decision to vacate and dismiss a red flag judgment, affirming the prior decision (R Monaco vs State of New York).  I never understood why it became illegal to defend yourself in the most effective way, in a state with high crime and violence.  

––– 凄い –––

Are you nuts, folks?  Seattlites are all for confiscating guns from law-abiding citizens, but reject an opportunity to address the real issue?

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A Harvard physician/computer science reported that he was able to get GPT-4 to diagnose a rare medical condition (congenital adrenal hyperplasia).  Of course, he was the prompt engineer, so his success might not be duplicated by someone else.  The article states:

GPT-4 isn't always reliable, and the book is filled with examples of its blunders. They range from simple clerical errors, like misstating a BMI that the bot had correctly calculated moments earlier, to math mistakes like inaccurately "solving" a Sudoku puzzle, or forgetting to square a term in an equation. The mistakes are often subtle, and the system has a tendency to assert it is right, even when challenged. It's not a stretch to imagine how a misplaced number or miscalculated weight could lead to serious errors in prescribing, or diagnosis. 

Like previous GPTs, GPT-4 can also "hallucinate" — the technical euphemism for when AI makes up answers, or disobeys requests.

So it's not yet time to ditch your physician for an A.I. model.  And see the first item from my 6 April 2023 posting.

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The first time [Priya] received her paycheck, it was the most money she’d ever seen in one place. Uttar Pradesh is infamous for having higher school dropout rate among girls compared to other parts of the country. Its not exactly the safest place for girls either. Her father had invested in her education and kept her in school. And it had paid off. Sending your first salary back home is one of the proudest moments in a young Indian’s life, and that was the case for Priya also.

I think you know where this is headed. The day I got off the GPT4 wait-list I asked it to do what Priya does on a daily basis. It got the answer wrong in the first try, but some chain-of-thought prompting and boom. GPT4 gave the correct answer in 1/10th the time it would take Priya and cost a lot less.

I don’t see a long-term career in software anymore. Any dreams I had of earning decent money as a software engineer are slowly fading. Lex Fridman in his podcast said “if you’re anxious about GPT4 its probably because you’re a shitty programmer”. I mean, I’m not the smartest in the room but I have generated value with the software I’ve made. And was convinced that I’ll make decent money as long as put in the work. I’m just not that sure anymore.

What is the economic impact of LLMs? Idk (openAI has published some lengthy paper about it). What I do know is that some rich bloke in the US will get a few million dollars richer and Priya will lose her job.

––– 良くない –––

So why are we wearing masks?  It's 2023, and only now we're learning that coronavirus present on hands and other surfaces can spread COVID-19.  Everyone touches their masks, and then touches everything else in the grocery store.

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7 April 2023

WOW!  Tennessee legislators expel two Democrats in the House after they led a raucus protest.  Fantastic.  Their expulsion had nothing to do with race, and everything about them acting like unruly jerks.  Good on the Republicans.  If kids can't behave, they shouldn't sit at the grownup's table.

––– 凄い –––

Working in A.I. right now seems like a dystopian dot-com boom.  Except that there's no money or cultural admiration to make people happy.  Only the stress of trying to be the first to develop something first.  With all the stress and burnout.  And back then, we didn't have China to compete with.

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ONE OF THEIR OWN.  Silicon Valley has been pretty silent about the decline of San Francisco.  Many of the workers, who are able to move out of the city, have done so, but the big tech moguls don't seem to express concern from their mansions in Woodside and Hillsborough.  But a tech executive (Bob Lee) was recently knifed.  Will they say something now?

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Fortunately, the increase is more left-sided, which is generally less aggressive than right-sided cancers.  Screening colonoscopy should be done sooner, from age 45 years.

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"The enemy of my enemy is a friend…"  Yes, lefty OPB is dismayed that "far-right extremists are winning seats in mainstream Northwest politics.  The comments below the tweet are wondrous to behold.  A sample:
So how would you label the incumbents who have done nothing but steadily enable drug trafficking and overdose deaths, widespread homelessness, rampant crime, and lawlessness all from the comfort of their publicly funded offices?

Far right, aka anyone 1/8" right of antifa......

Far-left extremists are in control of Northwest politics, so maybe this will balance things out a little. Maybe.

When today's far right was 20 years ago's liberal.

Let me help OPB: Just so we’re all on the same page… a red hat that says “Make America Great Again” is violent extremism… but the growing trend in shirts that reads “trans rights or else” with silhouettes of guns on it is nothing you need worry about.
OPB just thinks they have a handle on the majority opinion.

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Google's reCAPTCHA may not be GDPR-compliant.  Good.  I hate it anyway.  Let's scrap it.

––– 凄い –––

HOW ABOUT JUST HAVING POLICE?  The Oregonian suggests that we undergo bystander training to deal with downtown crime issues.  Have they been inhaling too much of that newsprint ink?

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There's so much city fire crap lately.  Burning under bridges just can't be good for structural integrity, you know? 


No wonder Portland is dead bottom on this graph:


6 April 2023

ChatGPT is not ready to replace a human doctor:  I’m an ER doctor: Here’s what I found when I asked ChatGPT to diagnose my patients. 

My fear is that countless people are already using ChatGPT to medically diagnose themselves rather than see a physician. If my patient in this case had done that, ChatGPT’s response could have killed her.

This is likely why ChatGPT “passed” the case vignettes in the Medical Licensing Exam. Not because it’s “smart,” but because the classic cases in the exam have a deterministic answer that already exists in its database.

My experiment illustrated how the vast majority of any medical encounter is figuring out the correct patient narrative.
––– 凄い –––

THEY KNOW WHERE TO GO.  Oregon, Washington among states with largest increases in homelessness in U.S.  Even the Oregonian reports it.  Governor Kotek wants to build more affordable housing.  But housing is not the entire problem.  Once you get the house, you gotta pay for upkeep, property taxes, utilities, etc.  It's like being gifted with an expensive car.  Where are the homeless going to find funds for maintenance and upkeep?   Even Ted Wheeler's ugly vision for Portland requires upkeep money.

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POOR USE OF FUNDS.  With major Oregon hospitals hurting and not being able to find staffing, why does Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley want to draw $2.5 million in federal money to create a new small clinic in Cottage Grove?  If The Dalles can't find enough nurses for their maternity clinic, what are the chances that this new clinic will find them?  A waste of money. 

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HYPOCRISY.  Amazon's move to kill an emissions bill in Oregon shows that their Climate Change pledge is just talk.  It's all just to score points with the Left.

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THEY HAVEN"T FIGURE OUT THE FUNDING GAME.  Oregon's higher education institutions charge are dependent on their high tuitions since they receive the lowest levels of state funding in the nation.  Well, more success universities crank out successful people who become wealthy, and they donate back to the school and fund many important programs.  Rather than overcharging current students (and parents), a more sustainable strategy is to target alums.  Each year you get new alums.  If they all donate generously, one will do well.  It's probably because few Oregon university alums become successful in the world.  They should ask themselves, why is that?

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LOW-HANGING FRUIT.  One of the first professions to be eliminated from A.I. will be voice actors.  With A.I. you have a lot more flexibility with the voices anyway.  Sorry, actors.

––– 凄い –––

Society is forcing us to believe things we know aren't true.  And how easily some people allow it.

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Things that are subsidized by the government vs things that are manufactured in China.

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Arthur C. Clarke was ahead of his time.

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This will be cool, especially when someone exploits a vulnerability and figures a way to bypass your consent to download something. 


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5 April 2023

The question that needs to be asked if we are going to trust AI to write our news articles and other documents:  What happens when robots lie?  The same issue applies to generative AI.   Because someone, for sure, will code them to skew their responses a certain way.

And what if AI is caught lying? 

"Our study's results indicate that after three violations and repairs, trust cannot be fully restored, thus supporting the adage 'three strikes and you're out.' … In doing so, it presents a possible limit that may exist regarding when trust can be fully restored."

"Even when a robot can do better after making a mistake and adapting after that mistake, it may not be given the opportunity to do better.  Thus, the benefits of robots are lost."

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Clearly a nuisance prosecution  Alvin Bragg doesn't have a case against Donald Trump.  Even anti-Trump David Frum agrees.  The strategy is just to keep Trump busy while he tries to campaign for the presidency again.  The precedent has been set to a new level for weaponizing the law against a political opponent.  And here's what Biden thinks about it.

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Could this explain all the "unconventional behavior" we're seeing in schools?  The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder in U.S. children is now 1 in 36.  No one knows precisely why.  There is no sign of leveling off.  What will happen to society when, say, 10% of kids are "on the spectrum"?

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Hospitals are hurting financially, and are not out of the woods, due to a combination of personnel shortage and payor mix (more folks on Medicaid - which doesn't pay as well - or who simply don't have insurance).  The first factor is sort-of self-inflicted.  But the second one is likely to get worse.  More people are on disability or don't want to work, and Medicaid support is going to decrease soon, as Oregon faces resumption of pre-pandemic income-verification rules.  The chickens are coming home to roost.

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The latest vulnerability.  Using near-ultrasonic frequencies, one can hack Siri and Cortana to hijack a smartphone.  Another reason not to leave Siri on.

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"If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?"  MIT revisits this query.  This analysis puts too much emphasis on luck.  There is indeed an element of that, but no amount of luck is going to enrich the average Joe/Jane except for the lottery.  Clearly hard work (Bezos) and skill in managing business risk (Jobs and Musk) play a large role. 

––– 凄い –––

Toyota and Lexus vehicle owners, your car is at risk of being stolen due to CAN injection.  It's slick and it's fast.  (Actually, other models are vulnerable as well.)

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Two articles:

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4 April 2023

Third year Stanford Law student writes that the loudest voices are a minority, but they are the ones listened to by the faculty and administration.  Isn't that always the case?  Instead of getting shut down, their often radical and ill-considered viewpoints are given a platform, and weak leaders, unable to muster courage to put them down, acquiesce to them.

––– 凄い –––

Dr. Cliff Mass, of the popular weather blog, speaks out against DEI statement requirements demanded by University of Washington.

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Gone With the Wind now has a trigger warning.  We're being treated like children.

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NPR is facing backlash as they have to let people go.  Not enough people cared to consume their new woke programming.  Who knew?  (Can't believe they let Sylvia Poggioli go. Sad.)  They're learning that DEI is like a snake's mouth.  You don't try it, and later decided to back out.  Nope, the teeth point only one way - towards the throat.  You only go deeper.  Trying to back out tears flesh and leaves wounds and scars.  Best to avoid it completely.  Southern Wesleyan University is having none of it.

––– 凄い –––

Seeing how glorious life was during the dotcom boom, it's really sad to see how life is now under the administration of Biden and the Left Coast Democrats.  Portland is getting more dystopian, with companies closing and festivals we used to enjoy no longer able to be there for us.  Wealthy people fleeing, while vagrants migrate in.  It doesn't have to be this way.  But it is.

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Steve Blank recognizes technology disruption.  "One of the problems about disruptive technology is that disruption doesn’t come with a memo."  The Financial Times recognizes that something needs to be done, in terms of regulation, but admits that current paradigms don't seem to work, and a different conversation is needed.  It's a start.  Here's a nice summary of a Stanford whitepaper on AI.

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Rare natural phenomenon captured recently.  An ELVE.

––– 凄い –––

Another myth blown:  Recent meta-analysis showed that there is really no benefit to low-level alcohol consumption.  Even red wine.  The previous studies that suggested it didn't correct for confounding factors.  Those who just drank low-level amounts of wine tended to be wealthier and took better care of themselves.  Subtract those health factors, and the contribution from wine consumption is basically nil.  (This is probably why it's been hard to demonstrate overall benefit from resveratrol.)

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3 April 2023

Portland - "You can run, but you can't hide."

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Social Security projections indicate that the shortfall will occur a year sooner than previously calculated.  Well, that's because the Biden administration is doing nothing about it except claming that "they stand ready".   Watch:

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Came across this article from a medical website claiming that Stand Your Ground Laws are a greater health threat than mass shootings.  The article states: "Stand-your-ground laws worsen racial disparities in gun violence" and "Stand-your-ground laws place Black Americans at increased risk of violence, death, and criminality due to firearms."  Well, maybe if one didn't commit a crime there wouldn't be the gun violence?  Why is race injected into this discussion about home invasion crime?  Sorry, doctor — you're just wrong.

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How's that Diversity paying off?  The Oregon legislature has a BIPOC coalition, and now they want to extend SNAP food assistance to illegal immigrants.  And if you are an "internationally educated" physician, you never have to take the medical licensing exam - because there's no deadline to complete it!  The Oregon Medical Board will be prohibited from imposing the deadline.  All because of the workforce "emergency".

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This is true.  AI won't steal your job.  People leveraging AI will.  The world isn't standing still.

––– 凄い –––

Comment of the day: seen on Reddit Seattle recently:


––– 凄い –––

Two Los Angeles lawmakers proposed a measure to drastically reduce punishment for serious crimes – a philosophy they called "decarceration".  Fortunately, there was enough of an outcry that this measure was shelved.  What were they thinking, though?
––– 良くない –––


2 April 2023

Just learned that Ryuichi Sakamoto died on 28 March 2023, of metastatic rectal cancer.  A great loss.  In memoriam, I post this piece, Bibo no Aozora (beautiful blue sky).  Full of sehnsucht and saudade.  Enjoy.



––– 良くない –––

It's come to this.  Scientific journals are taking political sides now, as Nature declares support for Biden.  What next?  The rainbow, transgender and Ukraine flags on your twitter feed?  Partisan science is indeed bad for society.

––– 良くない –––

Could these two people represent the King and Queen of the underworld?

Prepare to take a deep dive into Grant Wood.

––– 凄い –––

Poor healthcare workers.  Just when you thought you could ditch the masks on 3 April 2023 as Oregon lifts the mandate on healthcare workers.  Nope.  Hospitals will require you to still wear them.  They don't specify KN-95 masks.  Not even the ASTM Level-3 masks.  They just want something over your face, whether it really blocks the virus or not.  You can still touch your mask with your hands, and touch everything else in the hospital.  And throw used masks in the regular wastebasket.  Follow the science, they say.

––– 良くない –––

Chinese universities are offering students and faculty a week to take time to fall in love.  They'll even offer make-out make-up sessions so you don't fall behind.

––– 凄い –––

A rubicon has been crossed.  Where in the world is there fairness in rule of law?  The United States took a dive in 2021 and 2022 world rankings, not surprisingly.  Democrats openly prosecute political opponents now.  And the mainstream media think it's a good thing.

––– 良くない –––

And the drugs and crime, too.  High taxes could be driving people out of Portland. 

––– 凄い –––

What a knee-slapper: "…and to help keep the communities in the states clean".  Walmart in Washington and Oregon will no longer offer bags in the stores.  Gotta bring your own.  Or, like many shoppers in Portland now, stuff the goods in your pants or purse, and run!

––– 良くない –––

King County, Washington is still seeing population growth, despite the exodus of tax-paying citizens.  Taking its place is what they call "international immigration". 

––– 良くない –––


1 April 2023

It's April 1, but every day is fakery now. 

––– 良くない –––

Twitter didn't really publish their source code (as I was told).  It just published the schema for their recommender algorithm.  Nothing surprising.  Twitter was more than a microblogging platform — it was an entertainment system, designed to lure you back over and over again, like an addicting drug.  Like other social media.  Twitter seems to be in its sunset phase.  People still use it, but it doesn't sound like a company that aspiring techies want to work for anymore.  It's not quite the free speech platform that it looked like it was going to be.  People still have tweets censored and accounts get suspended, just not quite as much as before.  An insiders says that no one is maintaining their API anymore.  Is this what Elon wanted?  Is there another entity that he's working on? 
––– 凄い –––

The Economist asks where the fired techies are going.  The short answer is – no particular place.  Some are pursuing startups, but they're not going to one particular company.  There is no one particular giant today, as there was in the days of Microsoft, Google and Apple.  Some are working at "unsexy" industrial companies.  But the rise of remote work has created "digital nomads" who work wherever they choose.  And one consequence of this has been an increase in rents in some desirable places.  The start of gentrification.

––– 凄い –––

Vicuna, a LLaMA-based chat-AI, is open for trying out, if you're game.  They claim to be better than ChatGPT. A LLaMA-based approach may be downwardly-scalable to where it can be cheaper and able to run on your laptop, perhaps in the browser.

––– 凄い –––

Scott Aaronson has comments regarding the open-letter regarding a proposal to pause AI for six months.  Why six months, he asks?  What's the reason for the pause?  What will be done during the pause? I always enjoy reading the thoughts of smart people, and the comments section is also informative.  And here's Eliezer Yudkowsky, calling for a total ban on AI research.  This guy had been working to advance AI for about 20 years, and just when it's really taking off, he wants everyone to stop work.  I don't think that his advice will be heeded.

The main concern I have regarding AI is the mischief that will come from unbridled access to the technology, and whether society is prepared to deal with what it might bring.  There are elements in government, for example, that get hyperscared from COVID-19 that they want to keep emergency status ongoing.  Or want to ban guns from law-abiding citizens and add more laws to the books, when the existing ones aren't being enforced and criminals wouldn't deterred by them.  But back to AI, what will the response be when something unprecedented happens?  Some are already envisioning how AI will kill us.  But unforeseen disasters often result in clamor for more government control and draconian laws to repress personal liberty.  AI may or may not kill us.  But the people behind evil AI will.  Just like with guns.  But you won't be able to take away AI now. 

And here's Bloomberg, with their new BloombergGPT.  Getting on the AI bandwagon!

––– 凄い –––

You wouldn't believe what it was that bankrupted Mark Twain.  The tech may be great, but if the execution is crappy...

––– 凄い –––

But why worry about AI when we have more dire things to worry about.  FT has some sobering data on how far the U.S. has dropped in terms of life expectancy, especially compared with the U.K.


COVID-19 was a factor, yes, but what's killing us are deaths from drug overdoses, violence and suicide.  More informative data at the link.

It's odd to see this bad news contrast with an article that suggest that based on mathematical models (assuming that human population growth follows Gompertzian kinetics), that we have not achieved maximum lifespan at all, and have the potential to live much longer. That is, if we don't get shot by someone, or overdose on opioids, commit suicide or get involved in a fatal accident.

––– 良くない –––

Scientists have created E coli bacteria that is resistant to "all viruses".  And they have put into place firewalls to make sure this organism doesn't escape the lab.  I hope they've achieved this - life often manages to find a way.

––– 凄い –––

Two insights in the psychology of loneliness and depression.  Scientists at UF Scripps found that a variant glycine receptor, GPR158, which sent an inhibitory signal upon glycine binding instead of a stimulatory one, was associated with stress-induced depression.  Mice lacking this variant receptor exhibited resilience to chronic stress.  And German and Israeli scientists found that chronic loneliness is a self-reinforcing problem, as reward centers for social interaction gradually atrophy.  You can't just introduce friends to lonely people.  So when prisoners are put in solitary confinement, are we making them more sociopathic?

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Biden thinks that the shooting deaths of six people at a Nashville Christian school is a joking matter.  America has never been lower than during this administration.  I hope the state of the nation will survive his leadership. 

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Gee, ya think? San Francisco could be on the verge of collapse.  But they have all that diversity.  How could it be?

––– 良くない –––