26 June 2024

Should we worry about global cooling too, now?  Can we stop worrying about global warming now? I'm confused. Is this a joke?

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Mail-Order Drugs Were Supposed to Keep Costs Down. It’s Doing the Opposite.  It's those pharmacy benefit managers again, marking up costs. Can't they be eliminated, already? If they're saving any money, it's not for the consumer.

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Alzheimer’s-related synapse damage reversed in mice by synthetic protein.  Japanese scientsts inhibited dynamin-microtubule interaction in vitro using a synthetic peptide named PHDP5. Interesting that there is mention of amyloid in this article.

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Scientists can detect the presence of antibiotics in fingerprints. It can be used to monitor compliance.

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A Great Resignation 2.0 is simmering as employees feel overworked and underpaid. Seems like everyone feels overworked and underpaid. What's new? Only the illegal immigrants don't feel that way. What a country this has become.

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States with the highest inflation are Democrat-run states, no surprise.

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Tina Kotek's 90-day drug state of emergency – nothing changed.  And Portland is going to enforce a camping ban starting this Monday. I'm betting nothing will change as well.

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New York Times writes about what happens after Biden's student loan debt reassignment plan was overturned. Things are on hold, and loan holders basically get more forebearance.  They should use this as an opportunity to save up, so they can pay off the loan, but I predict they won't.

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Can I Vote for the Same Person Six Times?  WWeek inadvertently exposes the flaw in ranked-choice voting. Only losers get to vote again and again, when their loser candidates lose.

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That video about Portland graffiti ended up with the arrest of the most prolific tagger. Very nice work.

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25 June 2024

Still not enough. Two courts block part of Biden's disastrous student loan debt transference program.  Much of the damage has already been done. Already $613 million of student loan debt has been transferred to the rest of us. Still, but than just giving up completely.

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Great! Gov. DeSantis signed a law requiring hospitals to ask patients about immigration status and suddenly Medicaid spending on illegal immigrants plummeted.  Weird how that happens, huh?

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This is the best Mandelbrot Set viewer that I've seen. Give it a try.

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Yawn. Ted Wheeler has put out more anti-camping in the streets rules. Nothing will change. The homeless don't listen to him.

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Only in lefty Seattle.  Seattle police violated graffiti protesters’ rights, must pay $680,000. Gee, did they misgender them, too?  Maybe there was microagression? Were the taggers minority? Under-represented? Rack up those oppression points!
This is why Seattle is losing police. Why bother?
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Does college pay off?  It turns out that a third of Pell grant award winners don't return on the "investment". Probably should be scaled back. Colleges are just indoctrination centers, anyway. Waste of taxpayer money.

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Stay in your lane. Scientific American wants the government to regulate home schools.  Why? Home schools turn out a lot of achievers. But the kids avoid getting groomed by mentally ill groomer teachers. Scientific American used to be such a scholarly magazine. Now, it's just another lefty magazine.

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Lefty Groups Launch Ballot Initiative to Enshrine Abortion and Trans Rights in Oregon Constitution.  They already have basic rights. What they want it to make it the law to force everyone to participate in their personal gender delusions. And get tax money to fund their kink. Idaho, on the other hand:

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OHSU Faculty Senate President gives the board an earful.  Her letter is included in this document. Yes, there is lack of trust in the leadership. I would say, lack of confidence. Reading the budget report, I smiled when they blame COVID for an increase in costs, when they should have been blaming Biden's and Kate Brown's policies instead. The virus was far less serious than the swine flu in terms of severity. (And I don't trust the statistics on what was called a COVID-19 death, since many were PCR-based.)

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Jet Li is looking much better these days. That's a relief. No mention of whether he'll be doing any more films, however.

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24 June 2024

The case for criminalizing scientific misconduct.  I think a case can be made for deliberate misrepresentation of something that is supposed to be a scientifically-derived fact. It can lead to a lot of wasted time, money and energy.

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Can a thin fabric make a 16 °F difference in keeping you cool? This is a...
three-layer textile. The top layer is made of polymethylpentene or PMP, a type of plastic commonly used for packaging; the researchers had to figure out how to spin it into a fiber. The second is a sheet of silver nanowires, which acts like a mirror to reflect infrared radiation. Together, these block both the solar radiation and the ambient radiation reflected off of surfaces. The third layer can be any conventional fabric, like wool or cotton.
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The Thousand Brains Project is an AI endeavor that will try to mimic the human neocortex. Not clear if this is the best approach, but the simple expansion of neurons could engender emergent phenomenon. Worth exploring.

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Mergers aren’t the only reason for escalating hospital prices, but they are a persistent one.

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How do you get to artificial general intelligence?  I like François Chollet's definition of the Singularity better than even Kurzweil's.  Chollet is a very smart guy, and listening to him speak, you can tell he's really thought hard about this.

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Citigroup says AI could replace more than half of jobs in banking. I suspect this is very much like X/Twitter firing the vast majority of the company and finding that it still works just fine.  Getting rid of folks who do stuff like "quiet quitting" is probably for the best.

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I read The Origin of Jupiter's Red Spot, thinking I'd get an answer.  The authors think it developed from a South Tropical Disturbance, but that just evades the explanation. What caused the STrD?

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The first multicellular organism that doesn't require oxygen to survive is discovered. Life finds a way, as Jeff Goldblum says.

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How to prolong lithium battery life.  Yes, it's safe to leave the computer plugged in all the time. Don't let the battery drain to zero. And avoid extreme heat.

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Delivery Drivers Got Higher Wages. Now They’re Getting Fewer Orders. This is what happens when professional politicians tell businesses what to do.

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Tina Kotek has been MIA. I thought she'd get involved in the nurses' strike, but she didn't.  What's she doing?

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Providence nurses' strike was a waste of time.  They put patients' lives at risk, and got nothing out of it.  The hospital survived it pretty well.

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California's revised jobs report showed minimal job growth in 2023, far less than estimates. (Caution, the graph in the article doesn't start at zero.)

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What happened to climate change concerns? The U.S. Olympic team is bringing their own air conditioners to Paris. And no one complains. Hypocrisy at its finest.

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Who wants a used Tesla?  Not many, it seems.  Why would anyone want to buy a car that has less battery life than a new car, and which costs about as much as a new car to replace?

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23 June 2024

Another reason not to buy a Tesla.  Arizona woman gets trapped in her car when the battery dies.  That was in Phoenix, AZ. It also happened in Coburg, OR. And in Scottsdale, AZ, it happened and a baby was trapped inside the car.  Shouldn't Tesla sales get suspended until this problem gets fixed? Do people need to actually die for there to be enough concern?

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Who will buy the Washington Post from Jeff Bezos?  Newspapers aren't exactly hot commodities now, especially when they're staffed with rapid lefties, needing an outlet to spew their lefty viewpoints. One daresn't take that away. So who is willing to take ownership of the adult kindergarten?

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Oregon is going to have government-owned public defenders now, even though that's more expensive to run.  There wasn't a problem until 2022. Gee, what started in 2022 that grew to make this a problem?  Well, Oregon needs public defenders. Let's hope there's money for that, too.

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Oregon Health Authority Fires Longtime Head of Equity and Inclusion. Well, that's great, but you gotta wonder what happened to make it so. It's not like Oregon suddenly became conservative, you know.

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Kudos to Rep. Dan Rayfield for calling out Multnomah County officials, the mayor and police chief, for not doing enough regarding reversing Measure 110.  Think they'll listen?

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"Attending college in Oregon costs 38 percent more now than it did two decades ago" but enrollment is down 10%.  Well, the two may be connected.  It's just as well, however. Colleges today seem to be places to go where kids lose their freaking minds.

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"Blessed is everyone who blesses you, O Israel, and cursed is everyone who curses you." -- Numbers 24:9.
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Here's a list of all the words you can spell on a calculator.

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22 June 2024

Was legalizing mariuana a mistake?  Yeah, I think so. What legislators thought they were legalizing is not what's out there. And the last thing we need is something else that will mess up people's brains and promote psychosis.

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Gimme!  Analog Devices got some CHIPS Act money, and the first thing that the employees think about is how to get some of that. The CHIPS Act money was to:
  • Bolster U.S. leadership in semiconductors with manufacturing incentives, R&D and workforce development, and international information communications technology security and semiconductor supply chain activities.
  • Promote U.S. innovation in wireless supply chains.
  • Advance U.S. global leadership in the technologies of the future.
  • Catalyze regional economic growth and development.
  • Provide STEM opportunities to more of America to participate in good-paying skilled jobs.
Not to give employees pay raises.

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OHSU is projecting a $35 million operating loss for the year. Still boggles my mind how they thought they could pay for President's Awards, and increase Danny Jacob's pay and retirement package.

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Well now they have nothing to do. Providence is apparently handling the strike quite well, and doesn't need to take the nurses back until after Saturday. So the nurses are going to picket some more.  And they claim that they were unlawfully locked out. Huh?

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Cancer-Drug Costs Skyrocket, Leaving Even Insured Patients In Financial Ruin.  Cancer cases are increasing, but there's still a shortage of cancer drugs. So costs go up, naturally. This destroys patients' financial health, too.  I'll bet they sure could have used some of that Ukraine money.

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We can't have nice things.  To no one's surprise, generative AI is being used by scammers to cheat you out of your money. And here's an article about OpenAI's chief technology officer saying: "Some creative jobs maybe will go away, but maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place."
Generative AI is really helping those who know how to use it. For those who aren't able to use it, it's been bad news. So what do you do?

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Big change for Oregon and Washington real estate agents.  A settlement, reached in a lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors this spring, prohibits including sale commissions on real estate listings.  Who wants to be a real estate agent now?

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What caused the Easter Islanders to die out?  Turns out it wasn't ecocide due to irresponsible destruction of natural resources. It was European invasion. Yes, this is what happens when borders are open, and your country is invaded. It's easier to see on a smaller scale.

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Texas AG Bill Paxton tells Texan schools not to comply with Title IX revisions allowing transgender youth to invade into boys and girls activities. This is a response to Biden's DOE regulations. This is the start of the resistance.
Speaking of the Department of Education:

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21 June 2024

Lancet is finally agreeable to publishing a very shocking study that links the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines to a 74% death rate. That seems rather high. Obviously there's a component of data selection, but I agree that there ought to be an investigation. And this was last year. So far there has been nothing.

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A study from Cornell finds that plants can exhibit behavior that qualifies as intelligence.

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Article on Dave Sanders' new startup, Cody.MD.

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Nurses' union wants to extend strike two more days, because Providence seems to be handling it better than expected.

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Gilead may have a drug (lencapavir) that prevents HIV infection. Experiment was done on African women in South Africa and Uganda, to prevent them from getting infection.

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SCOTUS will release their opinion on the Chevron deference principle soon. Hopefully it will be in the interest of the American people.

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Freddie Mac wants to take over second mortgages. Which they will then proceed to forgive to certain classes of people to buy votes. Nah.

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The federal budget deficit will increase by $400 billion, mainly because of studen loan debt forgiveness. That was the biggest contributor.  Also shoring up ailing banks (because of high interest rates), and higher than expected Medicaid spending.

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Living in downtown Seattle has lost much of its lustre. Portland as well.  No surprises here. I'll bet many homes are now underwater.

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20 June 2024

Woke Emerson College is laying off people due to decreasing enrollment, due to campus protests.  Hopefully this will happen to a lot of pocket elite colleges.

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The news always focuses on record-setting hottest days. But record-setting coldest days are happening, too.  So is it really "global warming"?

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Is the Perplexity search engine a "bullshit machine"?
The magic trick that’s made Perplexity worth 10 figures, in other words, appears to be that it’s both doing what it says it isn’t and not doing what it says it is.
If you're a user of Perplexity, this article is worth your read. It seems that the Perplexity bot scrapes websites, even when told not to, and conducts searches on search engines for you, just like a human would.

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Claude 3.5 Sonnet just came out. Faster and better than Claude 3 Opus.

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Someone used unsupervised machine learning techniques to see how the Supreme Court justices vote, namely, are there clusters of agreement amongst them. The answer is yes, there three clusters of justices that seem to vote in agreement with each other.

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Ilya Sutskever has formed his own company, Safe Superintelligence.  The article doesn't list any other big names. Jan Leike has already joined Anthropic, so he isn't a partner there.  Good luck, Ilya.

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Driving in Seattle is becoming more dangerous, actually in King County as a whole. What's going on?

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19 June 2024

This is probably the most hard science psychiatry has ever been. Functional MRI scanning reveals 6 different types of depression. This would explain why antidepressants often don't work, or work in some but not others. Treatment is likely to require being tailored to address the appropriate pathophysiology. 

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Holy crap. Oregon judge uses second-graders as special jury. More here.

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China is out to kill us. First with fentanyl. Also with pesticide-laden marijuana.

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Speaking of marijuana, THC-infused drinks will be sold at Portland Pickles events. Now the drivers might be stoned and drunk.

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$531 million was spent on the homeless in fiscal year 2023. And nothing has improved. We still have homelessness, with all the crime, graffiti, litter, and closing businesses.  Here's how they handle street drug use if you get caught – just get rid of the evidence in city-provided drop-off spots. Then you're on your way to get a fresh supply. No arrest, no problem. Even other commissioners object to it.

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Oregon hospitals are still financially struggling.  I thought Obamacare was supposed to be a good thing. Yep, money ran out.

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Wow, even Google is leaving their primo Spear Tower San Francisco office. Tax-base go boom!

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18 June 2024

An Alarming Thing Happens Whenever Magic Mushrooms Are Decriminalized. Guess what? People take too much and overdose. I haven't seen mention of this in the news, but then again, the local news agencies aren't going to report one case, because such matters are not told to the news media, and unless you're a public figure, it's not felt to be newsworthy. It would have to come from some intrepid reporter, doing journalistic work. So unless WWeek gets interested, we won't hear about it.

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TDK, that old cassette tape making company, has developed a battery that has high energy density  1000 Watt-hours/L. The beginning of the article sounds really exciting, but as you read on, it talks about barriers to production and other obstacles, competitors doing something similar, and by the end, your ready to close the tab and move on.

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Recycling Plastic Is a Dangerous Waste of Time.  Apparently it just generates microplastics and washes them into the water supply.  Only 6% of U.S. plastics get recycled anyway.  Maybe we need to cultivate this fungus.

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Tokyo government to launch dating app in bid to boost birth rate.  Government-sponsored dating app? Uh, no thanks.

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What???  This article was supposed to be a positive one, supporting mRNA vaccine research against cancer. But in the middle of the abstract, the authors make this statement:
Evidence is provided that adding 100 % of N1-methyl-pseudouridine (m1Ψ) to the mRNA vaccine in a melanoma model stimulated cancer growth and metastasis, while non-modified mRNA vaccines induced opposite results, thus suggesting that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines could aid cancer development.
Shouldn't the COVID-19 mRNA vax then be taken off the market?  Why is the FDA recommending that we continue to get mRNA shots?

And those German politicians don't want to be reminded of their COVID-era insanity and heavy-handedness.

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More Oregon insanity.  Proposed ballot measure to raise corporate taxes, give every Oregonian $750 a year likely to make November ballot. This is a great way to get large corporations to leave Oregon, and people not want to start a successful business here.  Nice going.

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This is what downtown Portland looks like now.  I think that someone mistook this for happiness when they said that Portland, Oregon was one of the happiest cities in the world.  Look at those people, dancing in the streets!  How happy they must be.

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Great!  Nanoclay can turn a desert into farmland.

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Australia has a new position: Ministry In Charge Of 'Changing Men's Behavior'. I kid you not.

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17 June 2024

The folks at Wielded.com benchmarked the performance of the major LLMs. GPT-4o came out on top, with Claude-3 Opus a close second, and Gemini 1.5 Pro a close third. I like Claude-3 the best anyway, in my experience.

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Mozilla acquired Anonym, an advertising company, but one supposedly dedicated to privacy, whatever that means. I don't like Mozilla's interest in advertising. If I wanted to be marketed, I'd stop using adblock software.

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Why student loan forgiveness sparks anger. Is it really that hard to understand? Democrats think that having people go to college is an investment by society. Maybe that was true in the past, when students actually took courses that taught meaningful and helpful skills and knowledge. That's certainly not true anymore. Besides, it makes inflation worse.

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It's called Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback. Some people that lost their jobs are getting work helping to train AI models sound more human.  It started with InstructGPT and helped ChatGPT be the success that it is.

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High-far diets may fuel anxiety? How do they know? Maybe when you're anxious, you seek out high-fat diets for their comfort-food properties.

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How to do the jhanas.

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Doesn't it feel that AI is insinuating itself into healthcare and doctors are just watching it happen? Techies are pushing their idea of how medical care should be delivered, based on their experience in the tech world. And executives like it, and foist it on the doctors. Take Color Health's Cancer Copilot. It "helps doctors create cancer screening plans, as well as pretreatment plans for people who have been diagnosed with cancer". Sure, by following some template, designed by a small group of individuals. It's supposed to work by "eliminating some administrative work that leads to burnout".  I would prefer to have human assistants deal with administrative work instead of leaving up to an algorithm that is tied to OpenAI. Physicians had better get organized or their profession will be transformed from under their feet before the realize it.

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A new treatment for glioblastoma involves having a "skull-implantable ultrasound device...enhance the penetration of the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin and immune checkpoint blockade antibodies—a novel immunotherapy treatment combination—into the human brain".  Innovative treatment for a very tough malignancy.

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Does Miami have the solution to homelessness? Maybe. "Miami has managed to avoid large-scale chronic homelessness."  That's worth taking notice. How do they do it? The article is long-winded and doesn't just give you the answer right away. But it does say this:

The Cicero Institute was founded by Joe Lonsdale, an ex–San Francisco venture capitalist and co-founder of Palantir Technologies. Since 2021, the institute—now based in Austin, Texas—has been drafting model legislation for statehouses. The goal is to break the current model restricting how homeless grant funding is used across the country and expand the boundaries of how municipal governments can police homelessness. So far it has seen versions of its model bills passed in Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Georgia, and Florida.

The think tank opposes what it calls the "homeless-industrial complex" and specifically the "Housing First" approach that currently dominates federal and state responses to the problem

One of the bill's most controversial provisions also requires local governments to construct encampments with adequate sanitation and security to place homeless people if shelters are over capacity.
Yes! Get the homeless off the streets, and eliminate all those agencies that don't want to solve the problem, lest their usefulness be eliminated. We need new solutions. The existing ones aren't working.

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Beware of urgent care clinics. You may still get billed as if you went to a hospital.  It could be an expensive mistake. 

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