29 August 2024

Some progress against pancreatic cancer. Using lipid nanoparticles containing agonists of the STING and TRL4 pathways, along with the MEK inhibitor trametinib and the CDK 4/6 inhibitor palbociclib, they were able to induce an immune response against pancreatic adenocarcinoma in mice. Eight out of nine mice saw tumor necrosis and shrinkage, with two complete responses. Original study here.

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Brain Scientists Finally Discover the Glue that Makes Memories Stick for a Lifetime.  It requires constant interaction between two molecules PKMzeta and KIBRA.
“If you block KIBRA from PKMzeta, you’ll erase a memory that’s a month old.” The specific molecules will have been replaced many times during that month, he adds. But, once established, the interaction maintains memories over the long term as individual molecules are continually replenished.
This might not only help preserve memories in people with memory issues, but might be applied to helping erase memories selectively.

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Fibrin drives thromboinflammation and neuropathology in COVID-19. Some patients with COVID-19 complications are recommended to take aspirin.  There are some studies to support this.  Maybe this finding is associated with this observation.

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LLMs select random numbers much like humans do. This may seem hard to explain though, in terms of how transformers work. Unless in the training corpora, the token sequence of "pick a random number" is most often followed by the token for "7". 

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An insight into medical thinking. In this cardiology substack is a discussion of how performing percutaneous coronary intervention, such as stenting and angioplasty, became the norm even though it has been difficult to show survival benefit. In fact, mortality may be doubled with intervention. Read the insightful comments.

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People are consistently and confidently wrong about those with opposing views. This study examined how people assume that your stance on one topic reliably predicts a stance on another topic. Many people don't group-think, but I think many do. But the association is not that strong enough to bank on all the time. Some of the questions are too simplistic, though. While I agree that all women should have access to legal abortion, I am against general abortion in the third trimester. That's more like infanticide. And asking whether immigrants are beneficial to society is also naïve. It really depends on the immigrant. And in many cases we don't have any process for evaluating an immigrant, especially under this administration's policies.

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SCOTUS once again stops Biden-Harris student loan re-assignment to taxpayers. No wonder they have trouble finding jobs to pay off their loans, when they take classes like this. It's not my fault that the economy is so lousy. University educations used to be an investment. Now they seem to be of questionable value.

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Scientists have discovered a plastic that decomposes more quickly. Hope it doesn't dissolve too soon, though. It could get messy.

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It's possible to use ambient WiFi and Bluetooth signals to power small devices.  Sounds nice, but I wonder if someone's going to take advantage of this and weaken WiFi or Bluetooth signals that are supposed to be there. I could see something like this being used for malicious purposes.

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Portland saw spikes in shoplifting and overdose deaths in 2023. No surprises here. We could see this for ourselves. There won't be any improvement until current leadership is replaced.

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Oregon's top economists have quit. Rats leaving a sinking ship? Don't want to live in a state like Oregon? And hey, don't let the experience of New Jersey be what happens to Oregonians as well.  Holy crap! What harm Dem governors can do!

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Music to help you focus. Apparently backed by science. Haven't tried it yet.

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Three years ago, it seemed like the U.S. had a real shot at hitting Biden’s ambitious target of building 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind. Then came the perfect storm of supply chain bottlenecks, rising inflation, and high interest rates. Since then, offshore wind developers have cancelled more than 7 gigawatts (GW) of planned projects on the East Coast.
Money, energy and time all wasted. Biden-Harris can't do anything right it seems. All the three factors were of their own doing.

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28 August 2024

Almost half of FDA-approved AI medical devices are not trained on real patient data. Well that's not good.

"Although AI device manufacturers boast of the credibility of their technology with FDA authorization, clearance does not mean that the devices have been properly evaluated for clinical effectiveness using real patient data,

One gets the sense that shortcuts are being taken. Meanwhile the American College of Physicians put out a position paper on the use of AI in healthcare. It's basically a broad statement that says that AI should be safe, and avoid harms such as bias, and that there is sufficient oversight. It's an ethics statement, really. I was hoping it would be a guide on how to use AI in the healthcare field.

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In politics, however, safety be damned. Cheyenne, WY is seriously considering an AI mayor.  This probably started out as a joke, but many are not laughing now.

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What to do if you get lost in the wild. Important for hikers that go in the woods. I got the SABANI portable charger.

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Some Redditors are griping about University of Washington's Medical Center.  Several of them seem to think that it all stems from shortages of doctors due to greedy medical schools and residency programs that don't want to expand slots. While there may be some truth to that, it's gotten worse only in the past few years, especially with COVID-19. A lot of doctors and nurses left medicine, leaving the rest to struggle with short staffing. There's quite a lot of stress with finances being down, doctors not getting pay raises like nurses, because they don't strike. Medicare is lowering reimbursements. Most doctors are employees and are being told how hard to work. It used to be that paying off medical school and college debt was doable, but now, it's not clear that it is. And meanwhile you see other people living their lives with less stress and being able to enjoy wealth and family time. The smart people are in research fields and have less clinical time, or they go into other fields than medicine. Only those with old-time notions of what being a doctor is like tend to go into the field. Be nice to doctors and nurses – they are doing their best, and are struggling, too.

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Another mushroom benefit - it's a source of ergothioneine. It's an antioxidant whose significance was only realized about 9 years ago. I love porcini and shiitake mushrooms.

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Cal Tech is now admitting more women than men.  Was that deliberate? Or is it just the way it happened? It's California, so you never know.

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Is the Capture button on the iPhone 16 a big deal?  The iPhone 15 had an action button and I don't recall that it made a big splash.

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This is the opposite of what I expected. Smarter people have less mental health issues. Those who have lower cognitive ability tend to have more mental disorders. And there are certainly a lot of people with mental disorders lately.
Somewhat related: being politically obnoxious is associated with having the Dark Triad personality profile. That's having narcissistic, psychopathic and Machiavellian traits.

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This is interesting: there's a lot of similarity between Christ and Krishna.

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The Pacific Northwest bee ecosystem is diverse and there are a lot of new species being discovered. Makes you wonder if something's going on.

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27 August 2024

Not so fast. CIDRAP published this report stating that a medical study showed that getting myocarditis from the mRNA vax is less severe than getting it from the virus itself. But let's take a look at the study itself.  The time span of the study is December 2020 to June 2022 so it covered the period of all the strains, from Wuhan ancestral to omicron. But look how they define myocarditis from COVID-19 infection vs from the vax:

Individuals admitted to the hospital for myocarditis within 7 days after receipt of any dose of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine were categorized as having postvaccine myocarditis.  Individuals admitted to the hospital for myocarditis within 30 days of SARS-CoV-2 infection and who did not receive an mRNA vaccination within the preceding 7 days were categorized as having post–COVID-19 myocarditis.

How was 7 days determined as the cutoff? I've always felt that those who have had COVID-19 and later get the vax have it harder, because the immune system attacks spike protein, which the vax places onto the surface of myocardial cells. I bet they didn't even check to see if a vaxxed person had COVID-19 before (natural immunity). This may be why the cohort considered unvaxxed and COVID-19 infected had a higher rate of hospitalization. And I always am suspect of studies that don't take into account all the problems after the first 14 days after the first jab. This is why trust in the medical profession has fallen.

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Sad. A Pittsburgh cardiologist wrote a paper that said this:

“Evolution to strategies that are neutral to race and ethnicity is essential. Ultimately, all who aspire to a profession in medicine and cardiology must be assessed as individuals on the basis of their personal merits, not their race and ethnic identities.”

In response, his colleagues succumbed to ignorant cries of "racism" and he was fired. Uninformed mob mentality prevailed. Well, the good doctor is suing. Good for him!
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China has found a way to get around roadblocks on NVIDIA chips. They just rent them. I disagree with Mish – sanctions work sometimes. Iran suffered under Trump's sanctions. Only after Biden released their money were they able to cause havoc in the Middle East. 

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Oregon in the news again. Once again, it's not for anything to be proud of. It's the La Hacienda scandal, which gives housing down-payments to illegal immigrants. Apparently it's attracted so much negative attention and outcry that they're now opening up funds for American citizens, too. Or so they say. But that's not enough, is it? Take their funding away! Give it to veterans!

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Moar vaccinations! After the Dem convention, there was an outbreak of COVID. Well, well, huh?

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Energy demand from data centers growing faster than West can supply. Tech companies are not planning to slow down. What will the Dem governors do? Mandate more windmill and solar panel farms? Maybe they should look into underground nuclear power plants.

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Over 1700 frozen viruses were found in a Tibetan glacier.  What does this mean?

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It's not clear to me what Apple Intelligence will really do to my daily workflow. I really sense that Apple felt pressured to have to do something with AI, because it was the craze. But having personal experience with AI, I don't feel that it has been ready to do more than just limited applications. I don't want AI on my phone, watch, computer, etc. I don't think it's ready yet. I don't think the privacy issues have been worked out.
...even anonymised data can sometimes be linked back to you if it’s specific enough, Woollven warns. “So while Apple isn’t directly storing your conversations in a way that’s linked to you, there’s still a small risk that a very specific query could potentially be connected to you.”
Don't give me another way I might get myself into trouble.

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Being a weekend warrior in terms of physical activity can still be beneficial, if you do it regularly. Being inactive is the worst.

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If you're a female startup CEO, being attractive is advantageous over unattractive competitors. The hard truth is, looks matter in this world.

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Nearly half of OpenAI AGI safety staff as departed the company. So is it a priority anymore?

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26 August 2024

New hidden backdoor in Microsoft Windows 11. So many security flaws in Microsoft products lately, it seems.

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RFID cards made by the Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics Group can be easily cloned.  All it takes is close proximity and a few minutes.

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A drug capable of inducing suspended animation can slow down metabolism and hopefully save live in medical emergencies. This is why people are currently chilled to low temperatures during cardiac arrest.

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A DNA damage response protein C (DdrC) was found in a bacterium called Deinococcus radiodurans. The gene could be delivered to people with DNA damage mutations, and potentially lead to prevention of cancer.

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OHSU has to cut back on rolfing and massage cancer services at the Beaverton Cancer Center to save money. You know, maybe if Danny Jacobs hadn't given away so much money frivolously during his tenure, and gave back some of his generous salary and retirement account money, the institution could meet its mission goals without having to sacrifice so much.

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This guy refuses to use LLMs to help him code. I understand the sentiment as I felt that way once.  But using LLMs is really not much different from consulting with Stack Exchange, and you learn so much from seeing how other attack a problem. Also, not wasting time correcting arcane errors is time better spent.

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25 August 2024

LessWrong put out a primer summarizing the status of longevity research. A topic always of interest to this ronin. The sad truth is that we are nowhere close to a magic medicament that will safely extend lifespan. Although I read that everyone in longevity research takes metformin.  Heck, Silicon Valley techies are taking it, too.

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Doctor quality matters a lot. A Norwegian study found that replacing the lowest 5% of GP doctors would save society around $9 million.  The criterion for what constitutes a "quality doctor" was determined by mortality statistics, but this measurement is flawed because you could avoid having a higher mortality by referring away complicated cases. Doctors who take on complicated cases will see higher mortality. So it's important to compare apples to apples.
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PDX's airport renovations look nice, but man, you have to walk a LOT farther to get to and from your gate than ever before.

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Ho akahele. Hawaii, specifically the Big Island, may be in trouble from a tropical storm Hone, as happened with Lahaina last year.  Strong winds may fan the Kohala coast. Maybe Hawaiian Electric should consider shutting down power or at least be aware of sparks.

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24 August 2024

ChatGPT fills in memory holes. I understand this perfectly. An AI-powered search engine is perfect when you want to know things like what movie did two certain actors co-star in, or what municipality starts with "uclue-".  A regular search engine won't do it.

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Doctors in NYC are told they need to shorten visits so they can see more patients. I would be outraged if I were a physician there, but these docs are probably Democrats, who voted for Hochul, and are voting for Harris-Walz, so no sympathies. They probably voted for Obama, whose policy, Obamacare, forced doctors to become employees of hospitals in the first place. Now doctors (largely non-unionized) have to take it in the gonads while nurses and janitors see union-facilitated pay raises, and they get told what to do, like galley slaves. Hospital administrators have to make money, you know. (Red cities don't treat their doctors that way.) So get cracking, doctors. See those patients without getting paid more. Work harder and spend more time on the computer while life passes you by.
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Why don't women use artificial intelligence more in their work?  Well, maybe they don't want to be threatened. (Yeah, it's a Microsoft product. What's going on?)

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OCPP says this extra money could disqualify some folks from receiving federal aid like food stamps, then forcing Oregon’s government to pay the difference.

“Because those programs are income-based if you make above a certain amount, you no longer qualify for them. Measure 118 runs the risk of bumping people off those programs,” Ordóñez said. “The authors of this measure anticipated this problem and wrote in a hold harmless provision that would require Oregon to fill in the gap if the federal government says this rebate counts as income. This means a large amount of money the measure raises will actually go toward filling the gaps it’s created.”

So, there would have to be MORE money to take into account decreases in federal government coverage? The law gets more complicated every time you scrutinize it.  So if we give more money to people to further incentivize them not to work, how does that help Oregon?  How about advocating for lowering the state income tax?  Now THAT would be a win-win. Oregon would get more workers and the rest of us wouldn't see prices rise, and there would be no theft of earned revenue.

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What countries and cities swear the most? I'm more interested in where they swear the least, because those places are where there likely is still civility and nice things. 

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Portland police disband property crimes unit.  This is due to "very tough staffing decisions that must ultimately be made by Chief Day in a time where law enforcement is heavily understaffed".  I thought Portland was proud of defunding the police.

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23 August 2024

Who owns X/Twitter?  Here's the full list.

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Always something new.  Blood tests couldn't detect free mitochondrial DNA in circulating immune cells (lymphocytes), but in the brain, mitochondrial DNA can get incorporated into the somatic DNA of neural cells, especially in the prefrontal cortex.  Why and how does this happen? These events have been linked to "aging, functional decline, and lifespan", at least in lower animals, and seems to be related to stress. Original study here.

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"It'll take weeks before we know the results". This should have disqualified ranked-choice voting from consideration in the first place. The results of Portland's elections will be delayed as a result of ranked-choice voting.  Democrats want us to get used to not having immediate election results. Because that's how you fudge the data, once you know what the correct answer was going to be.

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Hacienda CDC is taking taxpayer money and using it to give illegal immigrants free housing. Why do we have to read about this in ZeroHedge and PostMillennial? Not a single local rag is covering this. Why should we pay taxes when money gets wasted like this? They never even did this to help veterans.

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Google is being forced to destroy $5 billion in user data.  Good. Now do Facebook.

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"No one's ready for this".  The new Google Pixel 9 phone will let you edit your photos immediately right on the phone. So no one will be able to trust images anymore.  Anything could be fake.

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The state Supreme Courts are changing. At last, we may have rule of law, instead of rule by feelings.  At last, sensible judges will overturn rulings by Soros-appointed nutcases. Where people don't have to be afraid because things that would have been laughed at back when common sense was present, now get taking seriously because of DEI ideology.

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Trump is launching a cryptocurrency platform. I suspect Trump knows very little of what crypto is all about, and that he is being pushed by some of his many loyalists who have a stake in it and see an opportunity. Trump opposed CBDC, but crypto is just a step away. Many still think Bitcoin is anonymous, for example. I think this is mission creep, and Trump should stick to core issues.

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Had enough of diversity? OHSU doctors are pushing back against the Board chair and the President.  Kotek won't do anything because she'll just find herself as a defendant in a racial discrimination lawsuit.  Sorry doctors, you live and work in a Blue state, so DEI overrides all. Don't look to Kotek for a solution.  She's got DEI issues of her own.

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It's not funny anymore, guys. Cheech and Chong cannabis store is coming to Oregon. Yeah, they were kinda funny in the '70s, but this is 2024 and Oregon doesn't need another way to f*ck up mental health.  At least people knew it was just a joke back then. In today's Oregon, stupid ideas get serious consideration.

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Don't use ChatGPT 4o for coding assistance – it's getting dumber. For me, it's Claude 3.5 Sonnet FTW. 

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22 August 2024

Same principle. The Chinese spider, Araneus ventricosus, uses captured fireflies and makes them emit light patterns that suggest interested females, to lure other male fireflies to come to them and get trapped in the spider web. I immediately thought that this was very much like how dating apps display images of interested females, and unwitting males come visiting and then get trapped in some company's spider web. I guess the same tactics work, no matter how far up the food chain you are.

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See, climate change is not an urgent issue.  Starbuck's new CEO will commute on his private plane, from Newport Beach, California to Seattle, Washington at least 3 times a week and more if necessary. Lowering one's carbon footprint is just for the peasants, don't you know?

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The future of retail. Soon, you will have to get membership to go shopping. Because the current model isn't working. Too many undesirables are shoplifting. That's just how things have become.

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A Ninja's Handbook. One person's suggestions on how to stay safe online in this modern world.

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The original weight loss drug, semaglutide (Ozempic), is associated with suicidal ideation. Liraglutide (Victoza or Saxenda), too, but not as bad.  The odds ratio is 1.45 for semaglutide and 1.04 for liraglutide, which means that you're 45% and 4%, respectively, more likely to have suicidal thoughts with the drug than not taking the drug. That's bad.

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Here's a study that looked at the effects of getting COVID-19 on developing mental illness, and the conclusion was "These findings suggest that vaccination may mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19 on mental health."  Oh really? Let's take a look at the study, which is published here.  The authors state that the time period where they obtained their data was from January 2020 to December 2021 – during the height of COVID hysteria.  Well, guess what – if you were unvaccinated, the government was hell-bent on denying you a life. This had nothing to do with any protective benefit from the vaccine. Geez....
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The politics of depression. What's going on with liberal women?  I'll take conservative women any day.
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What happened at MIT since the Supreme Court abolish affirmative action?  Good news for Asians.
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21 August 2024

Not so fast. A U.S. District judge in Texas has thrown out the FTC's decision to abolish non-compete contract clauses. This sounds to me like a consequence of the Loper Bright decision. Agencies can't just overturn law. I can see how non-compete clauses can help preserve a small business from having employees being scarfed up by larger competitors who can afford to dangle attractive offers just to damage their competitors. The judge was not opposed to overturning harmful non-competes, just a blanket overturn of all non-competes. Seems reasonable.

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Microplastics are everywhere – even in your brain. To me, this is more of an imminent threat than the phantom rumblings about anthropogenic climate change, which is very nebulous and likely beyond human control anyway.

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Owning a hospital is not a good place to be right now. Eight Hawaii hospitals (62%) are at risk of closure, due to financial problems. These are rural hospitals, but for a place like Hawaii, these hospitals are vital.
And then in Oregon, there's Legacy, an urban hospital chain, which has announced that it lost $41.7 million in just the last quarter.  It's looking less and less like an attractive partner to merge with, unless OHSU is looking to buy scrap to pick over for parts. Legacy still has to negotiate prices with United Healthcare, which looks like it will do so from a position of weakness.  But a merger will be looked at to see if it will benefit Oregonians, or at least not harm them. Letting Legacy die will not serve Oregonians, but absorbing a big money-loser without substantial money outflow from OHSU seems like a losing strategy to me.

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The U.S. birthrate hit a new low. But you can get free abortions and vasectomies at the DNC, though. That's the world they'd like to promote.

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Television sets are just in-home billboards now. In the ronin's home, we have not watched TV in many years. There is no need. Even cable offerings are garbage now.

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Yeah, whatever.  The Multnomah County sheriff is now willing to jail homeless camp rule violators. We'll see what happens. Mike Schmidt is still in office.

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Crazies. California proposes to offer zero-down no payment home loans.  It's not really a loan because they don't have to pay it back unless they sell or refinance. This bill was authored by Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, who says "social and economic benefits of home ownership should be available to everyone".  Legislating wealth, in other words. Diversity sure is California's strength. Why do people want to live in that state?

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In Seattle, even the Hammering Man is no longer working.  Figures. He's probably on disability or getting unemployment now, like just about everyone else.

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This is why the roads are full of crazies.  In Oregon, the percent of those 12 or older with substance abuse disorder is 21.8%. And the percent of those with alcohol use disorder is 12.2%. That's a lot of people.  Of course, not everyone in that demographic is driving, but the numbers are way higher than they ought to be. This probably explains the road rage incidents as well.

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This is why it's hard to get AI into clinical medicine. Firstly, hat's off to Dr. Singh that he was able to take his interest in AI tech to enhance clinical care.  You couldn't do this at a place like OHSU, where there is a dedicated department that "handles" all matters of computer and tech nature, and there is so much administrative burden that nothing would happen. But then he encounters this obstacle:
What’s markedly different about this technology is that it removes the clinician from the loop, making the child — or their parent or carer — the end user.

“What this tool is going to do is take emergency triage data, make a prediction and have a parent directly approve — yes or no — if the child can be tested,” Singh says. This alleviates the burden on the clinician and accelerates the whole process. But it also creates many unprecedented issues. If something goes wrong with the patient, who is responsible? And if unnecessary tests are done, who will pay for them? “We need to, in an automated way, obtain informed consent from the family,” Singh says. And the consent has to be reliable and authentic. “It can’t be like when you sign up for social media and there are 20 pages of small print and you just hit accept,” Singh says.
In short, you still need the clinician. We're not quite ready for fully automated medicine.

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Your weren't dreaming – or economy really sucks. New data shows US job growth has been far weaker than initially reported. Why would anyone want four more years of an administration that is so opposed to ideas that would work, because of ideology, that they are willing to let the economy suffer further?
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Soon to come to Oregon. Mushroom edibles are killing people.  So many people are willing to take things to f*ck themselves up. Such is our world.

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20 August 2024

Investing in solar power can be risky.  I wouldn't do it. Not at this time, when so many companies are going out of business.

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Aging isn't smooth and gradual. There are, apparently two periods when people age quickly: around 44 years and around 60 years. Original study here. The study states that it is longitudinal, but in reality, the longest follow-up period was 6.8 years (for most, the follow-up was around 1000 days), so it is just assumed that individual observations at each age would be the pattern everyone would follow. This may not necessarily be true, as factors that affected one's life in one part of one's life may not be the same as that experienced by another population cohort of the same age. The population was mainly whites (65.7%) followed by Asians (20.4%), and genetics likely plays a major role. The scientists followed markers for cardiovascular health, ability to metabolize lipids, alcohol, caffeine, and skin and muscle-related markers. The raw data looks like a scattergram to me. it's hard for me to see the basis for the two age peaks.

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Committee voted for Portland's latest graffiti canvas. Can't wait.

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The tech layoff stats are brutal.  California got hit especially hard. Tesla's numbers may be in part due to their move to Texas. Layoffs at Dell alone probably account for over half of Texas' losses.  But the U.S. bears the brunt of it all.
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