Friday, June 30
The End of the Month of June
Thursday, June 29
Catalyst for LIFE
A recent research study may have discovered a missing link that helps explain Earth’s uniquely oxygen-saturated atmosphere and the corresponding evolution of animal life on our planet.
The study, led by a Fellow of the Forrest Research Foundation at The University of Western Australia and recently published in the esteemed journal Nature, may hold the key to understanding why, for almost 90% of Earth’s history, oxygen levels remained too low for animals to breathe.
The first major evolutionary event of animal life occurred during an event dubbed the Shuram Excursion – between 570 and 550 million years ago – which is believed to represent a massive release of carbon dioxide and oxygen into the atmosphere and oceans as a result of increasing ocean phosphorus levels.
To test the theory, researchers used a newly developed tool to track the abundance of phosphorus in the oceans hundreds of millions of years ago, recorded in six locations in Australia, China, Mexico, and the US.
The data and Earth chemistry model revealed increasing ocean phosphorus levels could not have explained the rise of oxygen. The effect was only replicated by the model when large quantities of sulfate rock were weathered, releasing sulfate into the oceans to produce vast amounts of oxygen. READ MORE...
Holding On
In 1987, I got involved with the Total Quality Management program in the USA (it actually started in TN at Tennessee Eastman) and in1990 I relocated to TN to manage the second Center for Quality and Productivity Management in the state. I was involved with that program until 2010 and had collected over 20 file boxes of notebooks and manuals that had been given to me to help prepare my TQM classes or that had been acquired at workshops. In 2015, I threw away all those boxes into the local landfill because the home in which I was living was running out of space.
In 2023, my wife and I decided to downsize from a two level house with stairs to a single level house with no stairs. Our yard size reduced from one acre to just a couple of strips of mowing on all four sides or 3 hours of yard work down to less than an hour. In order to move into our downsized house, we had to throw away all items that we had not used or worn in the last five years. We both threw away half our clothes and filled Habitat for Humanity's Truck almost 3 times.
The point is that no one really needs all the stuff they collect nor do they need all the clothes that they have purchased presumably because of work. It is also apparent that all the photographs and memories that we hang onto are rather pointless as well. From my standpoint, I had never looked back at the photos I kept from my first marriage that ended in 1993. Over 25 years of memories that were never looked at.
We HOLD ONTO stuff for a variety of reasons but in the end, none of those items, none of those memories, none of the money that was saved, can you take with you when you die.
SO WHAT'S THE POINT?
Driven to Extinction Will be our Fault
Sam Altman, chief executive of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Demis Hassabis, chief executive of Google DeepMind and Dario Amodei of Anthropic have all supported the statement.
The Centre for AI Safety website suggests a number of possible disaster scenarios:
AIs could be weaponised - for example, drug-discovery tools could be used to build chemical weapons
Dr Geoffrey Hinton, who issued an earlier warning about risks from super-intelligent AI, has also supported the Centre for AI Safety's call.
Yoshua Bengio, professor of computer science at the university of Montreal, also signed.
Dr Hinton, Prof Bengio and NYU Professor Yann LeCun are often described as the "godfathers of AI" for their groundbreaking work in the field - for which they jointly won the 2018 Turing Award, which recognises outstanding contributions in computer science.
But Prof LeCun, who also works at Meta, has said these apocalyptic warnings are overblown tweeting that "the most common reaction by AI researchers to these prophecies of doom is face palming". READ MORE...
Wednesday, June 28
I Enjoy Cooking - Especially Soups
I had never really cooked anything except pancakes, waffles, and hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill. So, it was a new experience for me that I enjoyed as long as I did not have to follow a recipe and as long as I was willing to eat everything I cooked, no matter how bad.
So far, I have not been able to eat only one dish that I made and cannot remember what they was other than it tasted horrible.
When I cook, I make large amounts so that I will have a meal for 5 days or more. Unless it is really good, 3 days is as long as I want to go with that same meal, so I freeze the last two days to eat later. I am trying to reduce the amount I make to only 2-3 servings.
While I have cooked almost everything, for some reason I really like soups. And not those soups that are watery but soups that are thick like chowders, potato soup and/or split pea soup.
I always start with onions, bell peppers, garlic, celery, and mushrooms that I cook in a couple tablespoons of olive oil. After they have cooked to the point of almost burning, I pour in 1 cup of water or broth. I let that cook for about 10 minutes on a high temperature. To that mixture, I might add diced potatoes, Limas, corn or squash/zucchini.
This will slow cook for 3-4 hours until the soupy consistency is thick.
Sometimes, I will cook a variety of vegetables until they are soft (including potatoes) and then blend them up with a submersible blender. At this point any kind of meat can be added: chicken, hamburger, ground turkey, beef, hot dogs, etc.
Most every soup I make, I will either add rice, noodles, or potatoes. Long grain rice, to me, is the best and I use Basmati.
Tuesday, June 27
Ark Motors Microcar
A London-based EV start-up Ark has launched an electric microcar called the Ark Zero that costs £5995. British media tout it as “the UK’s most affordable electric car.”
The start-up Ark Motors, about which there is virtually no information online, has attracted a lot of attention in the British press with their city get-around, Ark Zero. The microcar designed for cities has a range of just over 50 miles (around 80 kilometres).
The Ark Zero microcar has a top speed of 28 mph (45 km/h), which means the vehicle is not meant for the motorway. With only a 3-horsepower- (2.2-kilowatt) battery, the ArkZero has an energy consumption around the scale of two and three-wheelers. The city vehicle has enough room for “two people and a dog,” as numerous news sites quote from the company—one in front and one behind with the dog.
The tiny electric car measures 98.4 inches (250 cm) in length, 47.3 in (120 cm) in width, and 64 in (1,62 cm) in height, and has a 67.7-inch (172 cm) wheelbase. Among the British media, the consensus seems to be that the light electric vehicle is competition for the Citroen Ami, though smaller, less expensive electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular in energy-strapped Europe. For example, Italian car-sharing provider Enjoy recently announced it is adding 100 electric microcars XEV Yoyo model from the Italian start-up XEV with a range of around 150 kilometres and a speed limited to 80 km/h. Renault’s Mobilize also offers microcars, among others. READ MORE...
I love My Coffee
I remember cutting class to go to the cafe across the street from the campus and have coffee with friends and talk philosophy. Today, it would be politics but back then it was philosophy, existence, our purpose here on earth, and where did we come from?
None of those issues was ever fully resolved but we did consume a lot of coffee. It was always regular. I increase my coffee consumption in the military, especially when we went to sea and I volunteered for the 11pm to 7am shift in the communications shack.
I remember toasting several pieces of bread and putting peanut butter and strawberry jelly on them and taking them up to the communication shack with me, making a new pot of coffee as soon as I got there. I was the only one on duty.
Returning to college and I slowed down on my coffee drinking as it was only in the mornings before class when I would go to Hardees or McDonalds for coffee (and free refills) for 60-90 minutes to write poetry.
After college, coffee was a prerequisite desire in order to be accepted into management. At this point I am still drinking regular. Around the age of 50, I cut back on my coffee drinking because I thought it my help my health and switched to decaf.
At the age of 60, I was turned on to Starbuck's Vanilla Cappuccinos, drinking them as often as I could which was not very often because of their expense. I cannot remember if it was me or my wife that found sugar free cappuccino mix online and from the time of my first order, I was hooked.
Twelve bags last me 12 weeks and I don't really care how expensive they are because I am not stopping. I buy McCafe coffee pods from SAMS in a box of 100 and use 12 ounces of water. Then 3 tablespoons of my cappuccino mix and I am good to go.
My coffee drinking has gone from drinking regular coffee all day to drinking 1-2 cups of decaf coffee in the mornings. Maybe a cup at night but there is no coffee, just 8 ounces of water and about 6 tablespoons of cappuccino mix.
Monday, June 26
Publishing House Replaces Jobs with AI
Bild, the German tabloid owned and operated by major European publishing house Axel Springer, is expected to replace over a hundred human editorial jobs with artificial intelligence, a leaked email first obtained by the German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) has revealed.
The tabloid will "unfortunately be parting ways with colleagues who have tasks that in the digital world are performed by AI and/or automated processes," the email reads, as reported by FAZ and translated by The Guardian.
According to the report, the email detailed that those who will be replaced by AI include "editors, print production staff, subeditors, proofreaders and photo editors," and that these time-honored human careers "will no longer exist as they do today."
The decision appears to be part of broader cost-cutting efforts across Axel Springer brands, including Insider, which also cut a large chunk of employees amid its own AI pivot earlier this year.
Though several publications across the media industry have experimented with incorporating AI into their workflows, the choice to fully automate hundreds of essential editorial roles with AI feels like a significant escalation. Bild might be a messy, politicized tabloid, but Axel Springer is the biggest publisher in Europe and others could be following suit soon. READ MORE...
On Being Wealthy
One of those fantasies would involve me inheriting not just a fortune of wealth, but private jets, a luxury yacht, and homes in various locations throughout Europe.
Another one of these fantasies would involve me selling the novels I am writing or have written and not necessarily going on book tours and becoming well known, but just receiving more money than I really need.
None of my dream like fantasies ever are completed as I fall asleep before that happens. Sometimes, I dwell on too many details as to how something will unfold and falling asleep is delayed.
When I awake in the morning and think about these fantasies, I remind myself that none of them will ever come true and that they are just tools to get me to fall asleep.
While these fantasies are fun to imagine, I do not see myself as the kind of person who should become wealthy. That may seem like an odd statement but wealthy people start out being greedy. They then sacrifice everything around them in order to achieve their wealth goals.
Wealthy people need an understanding spouse and they need to have a personality that has little to no compassion for one's fellow man, as those kinds of weaknesses would only stand in the way of what they want to achieve.
I do not have that kind of personality.
Another drawback of mine is that I do not necessarily enjoy the wealthy lifestyle. I don't have to fly first class. What I try to do is get a seat at an exit which has plenty of legroom. I don't drink alcohol, so first class seating only offers me coffee or a soft drink.
I don't like living in a big house with numerous room that are never visited unless there are guest... And while it is nice to have a cook, I would rather cook myself. However, the cleaning done by someone else would be acceptable.
I enjoy yard work as it keeps me from being lazy and I don't like playing golf or tennis for my exercise.
An expensive car that can go like a bat out of hell is a waste because you cannot really drive like that without getting a speeding ticket. After numerous tickets, one loses one's license.
The only thing I would enjoy doing is giving my money away to a variety of charities.
Robots Learn By Watching Videos
Are you among those who often dream of a day when a robot will do all the everyday household chores for you? A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has figured out how to turn your dream into reality.
In their latest study, they proposed a model that allowed them to train robots to do household tasks by showing them videos of people doing ordinary activities in their homes, like picking up the phone, opening a drawer, etc.
So far, scientists have been training robots by physically showing them how a task is done or training them for weeks in a simulated environment. Both these methods take a lot of time and resources and often fail.
The CMU team claims that their proposed model, Visual-Robotics Bridge (VRB), how can make a robot learn a task in just 25 minutes, and that too without involving any humans or simulated environment.
This work could drastically improve the way robots are trained and “could enable robots to learn from the vast amount of internet and YouTube videos available," said Shikhar Bahl, one of the study authors and a Ph.D. student at CMU’s School of Computer Science.
VRB is an advanced version of WHIRL (In-the-Wild Human Imitating Robot Learning), a model that researchers used previously to train robots. READ MORE...
Sunday, June 25
American Status: A Corruption of Integrity and Values
- Wealthy people believe they are above the law
- Wealthy people believe the rules do not apply to them
- Wealthy people look down their noses at everyone else
- Wealthy people believe they are smarter than everyone else
- Wealthy people believe they are better than everyone else
- Wealthy people believe they should control everything
- Wealthy people believe they are never wrong
- Wealthy people believe everyone should cater to them
- Wealthy people have no values, integrity, or morals
- Wealthy people want everyone to fear them and their power
- Wealthy people have compassion only for themselves
- Wealthy people only care about leaving legacies behind
Universe Expansion Could be a Mirage
The expansion of the universe could be a mirage, a potentially controversial new study suggests. This rethinking of the cosmos also suggests solutions for the puzzles of dark energy and dark matter, which scientists believe account for around 95% of the universe's total energy and matter but remain shrouded in mystery.
The novel new approach is detailed in a paper published June 2 in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, by University of Geneva professor of theoretical physics Lucas Lombriser.
Scientists know the universe is expanding because of redshift, the stretching of light's wavelength towards the redder end of the spectrum as the object emitting it moves away from us.
More recently, scientists have found evidence that the universe's expansion isn't fixed, but is actually accelerating faster and faster. This accelerating expansion is captured by a term known as the cosmological constant, or lambda.
The cosmological constant has been a headache for cosmologists because predictions of its value made by particle physics differ from actual observations by 120 orders of magnitude. The cosmological constant has therefore been described as "the worst prediction in the history of physics."
Cosmologists often try to resolve the discrepancy between the different values of lambda by proposing new particles or physical forces but Lombriser tackles it by reconceptualizing what's already there. READ MORE...
Saturday, June 24
American Corruption
A Look Inside ALICE
In 2022 the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory detected a flash of extremely high gamma ray radiation coming from the disk of the sun. To generate that kind of radiation required a particle with TeV energies slamming into another particle.
Friday, June 23
Earth's Water Came From Space
Earth may have formed much more rapidly than previously believed after born as tiny millimeter-sized pebbles that accumulated over a period of just a few million years.
The new theory also implies that rather than water being delivered to Earth by icy comets, this vital ingredient for life is present on our planet due to our young planet thirstily sucking up water from its space environment.
The new theory put forward by the team suggests that around 4.5 billion years ago when the sun was an infant star surrounded by a disk of gas and dust, known as a proto-planetary disk, tiny particles of dust would be quickly sucked up by forming planets once they reached a certain size.
Greed - Power - Control
What's In It For Me...
I have worked in all sorts of business environments both as a worker, in management, and as a consultant and the negative aspects of management as just as prevalent in a CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATION as they are in a manufacturing organization, a government organization, a service organization, or a military organization.
Most of the current leaders in business and industry have backgrounds in the military which explains a lot... and, this military influence will soon die out as less and less people are entering the military to establish their first 20-year career.
RHIP - Rank Has Its Privileges
RHIP is present big time in all types of commerce and is primarily based upon Greed, Power, and Control. The higher up in an organization the more greedy one becomes, the more power one receives, and the more control over other people one has.
We are taught at an early age to be GREEDY... children watch their parents spend money and get into debt. They listen to their parent's conversations after their parents think they are in bed asleep.
Parents push children into college for the sole purpose of earning more money in their lifetimes.
Drug dealers don't sell drugs because they are addicted typically, they sell drugs because of other's addiction and the more they sell, the faster they will rise up in the organization... they are motivated by Greed, Power, and Control. Drug dealers don't last long if they are addicted to the drugs they sell.
Athletes who have a talent know that their talent is going to make them wealthy. The greater the talent the greater the wealth and the greater the power and control becomes because of that unique talent.
Actors/Actresses are the same way. Some got it while others don't. The same holds true for musicians and singers.
Why do you think that athletes, actors, ctresses, and musicians keep working as long as they can. It has very little to do with their profession but with the amount of money they can generate because of their skill.
THEY ALWAYS WANT MORE...
Jupiterian Lightening
Scientists have recorded lightning on Jupiter in radio observations. Recently, however, a historic event occurred when the Juno space probe took the first-ever photograph of a Jupiterian lightning bolt.
A NASA freelancer accidentally discovered the lightning photo in the raw data collected by the spacecraft. The image was taken on December 30, 2020, when the probe flew close to the gas giant's north pole for the 31st time.
The lucky recipient of the photo is Kevin M. Gill. In 2022, he completed processing the data from the JunoCam. It is known that the picture was taken from an altitude of about 32,000 km.
In the near future, scientists will be able to get more photos of Jupiterian thunderstorms. This is because the spacecraft will regularly fly over the night side of the planet for several months.
Source: ScienceDaily