A moment for rejoicing?

Just for kicks, I ran one of my posts through "Grammarly" to see if there was evidence that it was written by AI.  I was heartened to see that 0% of the content was deemed to have been written by a bot.

Now, of course, what precisely that means is, and ought to be, up for debate?  Is it simply because their natural language models are not yet mature enough to figure this out?  Is it because my writing is so far out to lunch that not even a computer would admit having written it?  

I am hoping, to be sure, that it evidences a little bit of creativity in my thoughts that is not easily replicated by a computer.  But I will let you, the gentle reader, be the judge of that. 

Missing a couple of big factors

Senator Bernie Sanders (CCCP-Vermont) has authored a column alleging that there is something unconscionable about why poorer Americans have a lower lifespan than their wealthier neighbors.  Well, yes, but really not for the reasons that Sanders notes.

Some of the known risk factors:

• The rate of smoking among the poor is close to twice that of the prosperous.
• Obesity and sedentary lifestyles are far higher among the poor.
• Drug use problems are higher among the poor.
• Finally, crime, especially murder, is far higher among the poor, especially minority populations in inner cities.

And yes, it is true that many top doctors do not choose to serve in poor communities--you have the danger factor, and quite frankly, you also have the fact that Medicaid compensation ratios don't make it very profitable.  And yes, you also have the difficulty of getting to a clinic, paying for copays, and related expenses.

But that noted, the fact remains that if you're 50 pounds overweight and huffing the cancer sticks, there is only so much medical science can do for you.  Smoking reduces lifespan by 10-15 years, obesity reduces lifespan by 3-10 years, and dying of an overdose or murder deprives that person of many decades of life.  I dare suggest it's long past time for the country to address the real drivers of shorter lifespans among the poor and working classes.

Well, duh

A study from MIT has found that those using AI "authorship" like ChatGPT  showed less brain connectivity--i.e. "thinking"--when asked to write without using help from AI than those who actually learned to write on their own.

As a former college TA (math and engineering), and as a homeschool dad who grades his kids' math, may I say the obvious?

DUH

Let's be blunt here.  Those of us who were blessed with, shall we say, "the ability that made people want to cheat from our papers", were told, if we had a teacher who cared one iota, that if we "helped" our classmates this way, we would end up truncating their ability to do the work on their own.  

In the same way, when someone cheated his way through freshman courses in college, we observed as the  poor guy learned the hard way that those courses are called "prerequisites" for a reason, and that the same person made a great pizza deliveryman, so to speak.  Really, the notion that we can obtain results without work has been disproven so many times, we ought to have finally learned our lessons.  But apparently not.

Maybe this will wake us up

It appears that Russian second-in-command Dmitri Medvedev has claimed that "numerous" countries are willing to supply Iran with nuclear weapons now that (I hope) their own native program has been shut down.

Well, for starters, since the nuclear "club" consists of the U.S.A., Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, India, and probably Israel, I'm pretty sure that it's not "numerous" countries, but rather Russia and China rattling the saber.  Remember; don't believe anything about Russia until the Kremlin officially denies it!

But if indeed Russia and China are willing to supply Iran with nuclear weapons, there are a bunch of questions that come up.  First of all, given that the weapon would almost certainly be used against Israel, we might ask "OK, so Russia is signing up to commit a new Holocaust....why?"

The next thing to be considered, IMO, is "have Russia and China considered how Iran might respond if they start to realize how Moscow and Beijing treat Muslim minorities like the Uyghurs and Chechens?".  There are probably things Moscow and Beijing do to avoid facing their own weapons, but if it's a nuke launched by someone who doesn't terribly worry about death, I don't know that such methods would deter Iranians from diverting a missile intended for Tel Aviv to land in Moscow or Beijing instead.

Really, along these lines, it strikes me more and more that the proper way to respond to madmen like Putin, Medvedev, Pooh, and Khamenei is to use not "diplomatic" language of minced words, but rather with straight talk of "I see what you are doing there, and a thermonuclear Auschwitz is not an acceptable alternative to my country.".

Brilliance from the CIA

Here is a bit on the CIA's assessment of Iran's nuclear program: more or less, they have gone well beyond the 3% concentration of U-235 needed for civilian purposes, but there is something that is lacking.  

Now since the construction of a nuclear weapon really consists of the forming of the fissile material into two sub-critical masses, combined with a housing to hold them, a set of shaped charges to drive them together, and electronics to detonate those shaped charges, what the CIA actually told Tulsi Gabbard is, IMO, that Iran was and is very close to having at worst something of a "dirty bomb" which could make an area uninhabitable for a while.  

To me, this illustrates one of the most infuriating things about the CIA; they seem to at times confuse their role in intelligence gathering with diplomacy, and they're soft-pedaling the reality that if Iran has their electronics and explosives program in a different place, then it can all come together very quickly.  It would be very funny if so much wasn't at stake, but of course, it is.

What I fear about Trump insiders...

 ...has been brilliantly illustrated by Steve Bannon, who argues that if Senator Lindsay Graham keeps "stirring it up" regarding Russia's war of aggression and war crimes against Ukraine, he "should be arrested."   Bannon is apparently unclear on the concept of the "First Amendment" and "freedom of speech", and I dare suggest that views like Bannon's ought to be rewarded by cordially refusing to allow Bannon and others who think like him to go anywhere near the corridors of power.  Too many American boys (and girls) died for that First Amendment to give it up without a fight.

This is especially the case because Bannon is more or less protesting the destruction of a key means of war crimes for Russia.  One would figure that we would see this as a good thing, meaning that a lot more Ukrainian dity and babi (children and grandmothers) will live to see a new day.

But not, apparently, in the political area where clear signs of Putin's Stalinism go unobserved or unheeded.

Slava Ukraini, Steve! May Putin soon be inhaling sulfur!

The limitations of technology in architecture

A "pencil" style building in New York City appears, in my view, to be a great picture of the limitations of technology in architecture.  How so?

Well, the residents are noticing cracks in the concrete already, indicating that the engineers' work to support the nearly 1400' tall building is insufficient.  What strikes me is that the building is only 100 feet wide, whereas the similar-height Sears Tower (*) in Chicago is over twice that width.  The key issue here, structure-wise, is that the lateral strength/rigidity is proportional to the square of the outer dimensions.  This means that, all else the same, the Sears Tower is four times as robust as 432 Park Avenue, and the stresses on the lateral support beams that much greater on 432 Park Avenue.  It makes a difference.

A side note here is that since this is not an office building, but a residential building, what we have is a building where the inner hallway/atrium around the elevators is going to be up to 35 feet from the windows.  In contrast, at a truly big mansion, Buckingham Palace in London, the windows are only about--except for the great hall--about twenty feet from the inner hallways, I'd guess.

In other words, when you try to go too tall--I'd guess a ratio of height vs. width of 10:1 or greater--you get to a point where a wonderful apartment becomes, due to a lack of proximity to windows, an unlivable closet.  So if we're talking the "Buckingham Palace Rule", we are talking an approximate upper limit of about 500 feet tall or about 40 stories. You could get some additional room for height by using the old World Trade Center's center zone for elevators and utilities--probably up to about 700 feet or fifty stories--but all in all, you're limited if your goal is to provide liveable space.

It is worth noting as well that there are additional economic/engineering and practical reasons not to build too high.  Building 100 stories high costs about five times as much per square foot as building five stories or less, and how many people really want to be looking out from their 50th story window at....someone else's 50th story window?

* Yes, I know it's called the Willis Tower now, but like any Chicagoland native who values the past, my view is that it keeps its original name, no matter what the corporate types say.

A confession by Nike

In mid April, the news came out that Nike was sponsoring studies aiming to analyze the effects of things like puberty blockers on children and teens with gender dysphoria--more or less seeking to answer questions about whether it is fair for "trans women" (i.e. men, XY) to compete as women at various levels in sport.  So far, Nike has not answered questions about the study, and in my mind, what this does is to assure me that yes, Nike did initially sponsor the study, and they're either hoping that the storm blows over, or they're considering truncating or ending the sponsorship.  

(Thankfully, they do not appear to have provided enough money to actually fund the transition procedures, so the subjects of the study victims of the new Dr. Mengele will need to find other sources.  This should at least cut down on sample sizes and statistical power.)

Well, in that light, I encourage my "legion of readers" (ha) to help Nike to see that it is unethical to do experiments on children with permanent side effects.   How so?  Well, if you're buying Nike shoes and apparel--and this would include not just Nike, but also Converse, Cole Haan, Bauer, and Jordan--just stop, and send Nike a nice note explaining why.  Then, you can go further, and stop wearing Nike shoes and apparel.

Yes, if you have a lot of Nike shoes and apparel--I have precisely one pair of Nike shorts in my wardrobe, so it's easier for me--it means a certain amount of adjustment, but the consequence of not doing so is that young people will be hurt, and Nike will continue to think they have carte blanche to do this sort of thing.

A strange decision in Michigan

 Well, at least it's strange if you forget that Democrats have been appointing judges there for a long time.  A Michigan judge has ruled not only that a 24 hour waiting period is unconstitutional, but also that regulations preventing nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and physician's assistants from performing prenatal infanticide is unconstitutional.

Now call me weird, but given that a surgical abortion is, after all, a surgical procedure, maybe it's important that those doing these, for the sake of the mother's safety if not the baby's, be....like....surgeons, or at least have a medical degree that qualifies them to do simple surgeries, like....an "MD" or such?

What we have here, really, is yet another admission by the pro-abortion lobby that in order to keep prenatal infanticide available, they need to either subsidize it, or reduce the cost structure so that the clinics can stay open.  

Yet another example

 ....of where Putin is trying to take Russia; his forces have put up a monument to Stalin in Melitopol, Ukraine.  His sycophants are laying flowers, but I think Hezekiah had a better idea what to do with such shrines.  I'd be glad to help venerate it that way, preferably during colonoscopy prep.

Update: and another statue of Stalin erected in a Moscow metro station.  Again, if I were Russian, I'd be very, very nervous.  For that matter, Putin's promotion of Stalin makes me very nervous as an American.  I've read enough Solzhenitsyn to know what Stalinism was about--and is, under Putin.

Also in the "how much are you consuming" category

People are looking carefully into the flavenol profile of red wine to determine why, in some cases, red wine leads to debilitating headaches.  Perhaps we might do well to look to Proverbs 23 and ask "Just how much of the stuff did you drink before you got those headaches?".  I've been enjoying red wine for many years, and in the "dosage" I favor--a glass or two at the most--I've never had a problem.  

Maybe time to rephrase RFK Jr.'s phrase again; "Make America Less Gluttonous". Even apart from questions like flavenols, alcohol, and the like, the "wine-bibber" is going to have a serious problem with the number of calories taken in--or if he's smart enough to restrict other eating, he'll have some nutritional deficiencies.

OK, this is wild

    Apparently Tyson Foods is eliminating synthetic dyes from its meat and poultry products.   Writing as an avid cook, this is weird to me, because the most appealing colors inherent in meat and poultry products are the same ones that God gave them.  Can one improve on the golden brown exterior and creamy white interior of a properly crafted Wiener Backhendl or Chicken Kyiv, or even basic chicken nuggets?  I think not!

So what's being said here, really, is that they've been using synthetic dyes to cover up for either a lack of skill, or a compromise on ingredients, that would impair the wonderful Maillard reaction in frying.  We can have huge arguments over whether synthetic dyes are a problem--my response is a firm "maybe a little one"--but it strikes me that the big problem we've got is that many food manufacturers are using them to cover up for a lack of quality ingredients and skill making the product.

I might rephrase RFK Jr.'s slogan as "make America cook again".  When you know how to cook, and know the difference the right ingredients and techniques make, your health will follow.

On those dangerous food dyes?

Apparently the studies that "linked" red dye #3 to some cancers were done at a dosage of about 200 times tha maximum likely dosage of .25mg/kG of body weight.  OK, let's parse this out.  At my body weight of close to 100kG, we are talking about a maximum dose of 25mG.  In terms of what they were feeding the lab rats, we're talking about 5 grams per day, suggesting a scene of Democrats chugging bottles of food dyes because Trump wanted to ban them.  

It really suggests that we need a revival of instruction about hormesis, the tendency of many chemicals to be harmless or even slightly beneficial at low doses, despite being poisons in high doses.  I am again no fan of foods with a lot of red dye, but the comparison here is basically getting all of one's nutrition from foods with this dye, and then ignoring the fact that what's really dangerous is all the sugar in them.

Make incarceration great again?

Regarding President Trump's proposal to re-open Alcatraz as a supermax prison, supplanting the current supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, the question that comes to mind is "Why?".  Yes, "why?", and that's because Alcatraz is built in an earthquake zone with intensive exposure to salt air--which means that it's far more expensive to keep buildings operational there than it is elsewhere.  At the time it was closed in 1963, it was over three times as expensive to operate as similar prisons, and proximity to San Francisco makes it especially problematic if people escape.  In contrast, Florence is about 40 miles from the nearest good sized city, Colorado Springs.

I get that "The Rock" holds an outsized image in our country due to the former residency of Al Capone and other gangsters, but re-opening it would open a large gash in budgets that is simply not necessary.   

An inadvertent confession from Putin

He would presumably like us to forget that his job in East Germany--a job that got him rapid-fire promotions at a young age--was to support the Stasi, a secret police essentially the same as the Gestapo, but with a hammer and sickle instead of a swastika.  He would like us to forget that he characterized the re-unification of Germany as "colonization", and that he's been having his Russian Red Army fly the hammer and sickle, and that he installed statues of Lenin in some cities in Ukraine.

Now, for their victory day celebrations, he's having the airport in Volgograd carry its former name: Stalingrad.   In related news, Putin is claiming that he's fighting Naziism and anti-semitism while....Russia has concluded a defense treaty with Iran.  Iran, of course, is aiming to destroy Israel and the United States, and is a major publisher of Farsi and Arabic translations of a book called Mein Kampf, as well as versions of Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

If you doubt that Putin is 100% in favor of Communism and anti-semitism, and that his government is in great need of de-Nazification and de-Communization, read the above again.  Do not listen to what he says; watch what he does.  It should be no more acceptable to honor Stalin than it is to honor Hitler, and Putin has crossed that line, and many others.