Robotics is getting awfully close to producing a true sci-fi style robot. Now a company has announced a brand new approach to robotics: a synthetic human. Artifical organs, a vascular system and a nervous system. This is called the Clone Alpha. (I think someone needs to read more science fiction.) Read more…
I’m one of those wierd-os who wants to know the actual meaning of words. Black Friday is a very strange phrase we batter around in America, generally to mean the Biggest Shopping Day of the year, and as the kick-off of the Christmas spending season. So where does the term Read more…
I wasn’t going to get into all this much here… but really, how can I not? The Sad Show in Washington DC keeps getting worse. Russ Vought — key architect of Project 2025 — tapped by Trump, to wield a strange and devastating power: impoundment. Trump has said he’s going Read more…
There’s been this “new” word around for a short while and it finally ocurred to me that I don’t know what it means given how it’s being used. Woke. “I woke up just as the sun rose.” “That dissertation really woke him up.” That’s my meaning… But they mean something Read more…
Been getting a strange email every few days, supposedly from “Kathleen Carmel” (in quotes, because it’s literally impossible to tell whom an email is really from any more). Fairly level sounding headlines for the most part, but been ignoring them because I have no idea who this person is or Read more…
Just got … at 6.30 AM ! … an AI phone call claiming that “your business listing is in serious trouble, people will NOT be able to find you. please call back at nnnnnn to fix this. it will only take a minute. Please call back at nnnnnn, it will Read more…
I remember in the 5th grade (I think it was), the teacher rolled in the TV and we watched a small part of the Olympics, because it was “via satellite” for the first time in history. It could be watched in real time. Most of the kids didn’t get what Read more…
Date line: 20 July 2024… (da-da-di-da… <teletype noises in the background>) Yesterday’s dramatic “failure” of the Internet was because of a faulty update. Not because of a terrorist attack, or because of a junior wanna-be hacker… but because of a “legitimate” update. The Super-Duper-Supreme irony here is that it was Read more…
I can’t keep it in… I gotta let it out. The news today is ridiculous. Just stuns me… the Republican National Convention actually did it — nominated an unsentenced convicted felon for president. Not unexpected, but frankly disgraceful all the same. We could conceivably end up with a president serving Read more…
I can’t claim to fully understand the politics in the Middle East. I’m not sure any one can, including the Middle East(1). However… I have to say that — if the reports of civilian hospitals being used for war headquaters are true — the behavior as reported(2) is reprehensible and Read more…
What is it with you people and your d**n robocalls? Do you really believe anyone who picks up the phone and hears “please do not hang up…” is going to do anything but hang up right at that very moment? It’s a serious clue, that rude and stupid opening line. *Maybe* Read more…
Did you ever stop to notice that the Sun is the source of all shadows? Wihtout light there are no shadows. Ah, but we turn on a flashlight? Yes? No: that flashlight is using energy that ultimately came from the sun. So, it’s still the sun. Ok, then, what about Read more…
Wow. The “news” today is startling in several ways.(1) Fox News has agreed to pay $767 million for “false news reporting” charges (47% of the damages requested), against a maker of voting machines for implying that they are crooked. Part of the report reflects back to previous articles that demonstrating Read more…
Strange News in the World today. Most of it, even as honestly reported as can be found, is moderately alarming, moderately disappointing, as Humanity continues with all it’s unconscious behaviors. That said, here are my thoughts on a few selected items from Today’s News — 7 April 2023. MidEast Read more…
Yet another school shooting. Really doesn’t matter which one I’m referring to — or have in my mind as I write this — when ever you are reading this, there unfortunately will be a current one. Do you know — some of you may even remember — that there was Read more…
Just some thoughts as 2022 winds down. All artificial sweeteners have now been implicated in various forms of dementia / senility, not just aspertaime. Why are they still legal? Why is aspertaime legal, when it kills, maimes and debilitates so many people every year? (In fact, in many countries it is Read more…
As a long time software engineer and occasional software user I have to admit that I have just about “had it up to here” with [so-called] “security” on the Internet. The occasional real security is annoying enough but smoke and mirrors stuff is just galling beyond reason. Firstly, in reality Read more…
So I was speaking with a friend a night or eight ago and we were talking about how often legislation backfires on the legislators and especially on Society, how such legislation often causes the very problem(s) it was meant to prevent, and I heard my self say: You can’t legislate Read more…
When I first encountered Robert Heinlein’s attitude toward manners, I thought he was just a little bit over the top. The older I get — and the ruder our culture gets — the more I realize just how right he was. And he saw it that clearly over 60 years Read more…
Disturbing piece of news today, about the Women’s Soccer League and sexual abuse and misconduct. Apparently (and all too believably) women professional soccer players have been systematically abused sexually by coaches, et al. In the past charges were raised and generally dismissed. Dismissed… The news article refers to it as Read more…