Thursday, March 30
Thursday OpEd
According to healthcare statistics, almost 72% of Americans over the age of 20 are overweight... 40% are obese...
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), someone who is overweight has a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 25... someone who is obese has a BMI of 30...
BMI is calculated by taking one's weight and divided that number by the square of one's height...
There is very little difference between a BMI of 25 and a BMI of 30... so, I would say that 72% of Americans over the age of 20 have a weight problem... and yet, most of our advertising revolves around getting people to eat more and more and more...
It is not illegal yet to sell fat creating food therefore there is no reason to stop advertising for people to eat fat creating food. Like all other businesses, fat creating food companies continually want to increase their PROFITS...
The other part of of this issue is that it costs more to buy heathly food than it does to buy fat creating food... so, if you are in a financial crunch, you are going to buy fat creating food.
I had a slim and trim body with a normal BMI until about the age of 60 when I was diagnosed with cancer and took steroids to prevent sickness with my treatments. After 150 treatments, I had gained 50 pounds and it took me a year to lose 30 pounds by concentrating on not eating much each day. Exercise does not take weight off... it simply maintains the weight you have.
So, at 75, I am still 20 pounds overweight which might be considered obese... I just have not looked at it in that detail. My activity level has dropped and my eating level should have dropped as well but it hasn't. Most of my eating is just having something to do, sometimes while I am doing something else and don't really need it.
It bothers me to be overweight but it bothers me even more to see people in their 20s more overweight than I am... as they get older and older it is going to adversely impact their health.
That will cause healthcare costs to increase as more and more overweight people begin to have health problems.
There will be unintended consequences of overweight Americans in the future as the younger population ages... like other issues, we will not be worried about that until those problems arrive... by then, it will be too late for them but maybe help those who have yet to be born.
I have no idea why Americans are on this binge of not caring about being overweight or obese.
The Einstein Tile
A 13-sided tile called “the hat” forms a pattern that covers an infinite plane yet it cannot repeat, making it a long-sought shape known as an “einstein.” A sample of that pattern is shown here.
D. SMITH, J.S. MYERS, C.S. KAPLAN AND C. GOODMAN-STRAUSS (CC BY 4.0)
A 13-sided shape known as “the hat” has mathematicians tipping their caps.
It’s the first true example of an “einstein,” a single shape that forms a special tiling of a plane: Like bathroom floor tile, it can cover an entire surface with no gaps or overlaps but only with a pattern that never repeats.
“Everybody is astonished and is delighted, both,” says mathematician Marjorie Senechal of Smith College in Northampton, Mass., who was not involved with the discovery. Mathematicians had been searching for such a shape for half a century. “It wasn’t even clear that such a thing could exist,” Senechal says.
Although the name “einstein” conjures up the iconic physicist, it comes from the German ein Stein, meaning “one stone,” referring to the single tile. The einstein sits in a weird purgatory between order and disorder. Though the tiles fit neatly together and can cover an infinite plane, they are aperiodic, meaning they can’t form a pattern that repeats.
With a periodic pattern, it’s possible to shift the tiles over and have them match up perfectly with their previous arrangement. An infinite checkerboard, for example, looks just the same if you slide the rows over by two. While it’s possible to arrange other single tiles in patterns that are not periodic, the hat is special because there’s no way it can create a periodic pattern. READ MORE...
Wednesday, March 29
Guaranteed Recession in 2023
From the central bank's latest rate hike to new developments in the ongoing bank crisis, a lot has happened in my absence.
Jerome Powell and co. indicated Wednesday that, financial turmoil or not, more rate hikes could be coming this year.
Markets, on the other hand, expect something else entirely. Futures are pricing in a minimal chance that the Fed's target rate will be the same or higher by 2024, according to CME's FedWatch tool.
This means the Fed and investors are on dramatically different pages (and only one can be correct).
And all the while, Jerome Powell's favorite bond-market indicator is quietly telling us that a recession is all but guaranteed this year.
1. Powell's preferred Treasury indicator is the spread between the yield on three-month Treasury bills and their expected yield in 18 months' time.
On Thursday, the spread inverted by a record 134 basis points. That's steeper than the previous record set in January 2001, two months before a recession struck, Bloomberg reports.
Remember, an inverted yield curve suggests investors see more risk in the near term. It's a classic warning for a downturn.
Here's how Powell described the indicator last year:
"Frankly, there's good research by staff in the Federal Reserve system that really says to look at the short — the first 18 months — of the yield curve. That's really what has 100% of the explanatory power of the yield curve. It makes sense. Because if it's inverted, that means the Fed's going to cut, which means the economy is weak." READ MORE...
Living in a UTOPIA
PERFECT means conforming absolutely to an ideal type.
Based upon those two definitions, a UTOPIA will never exist but we can imagine
My UTOPIA would include the following:
1. Everyone would live disease free wit hthe body of a 60 year old for 150 years
2. Everyone would have all the food, shelter, transportation, clothing and vacations they ever whether they worked or not
3. Since work is optional, there would be no need for education except for the pleasure of pursuing knowledge
4. There would be no wars - no agression or terrorism of anykind
5. What would we do all day?
- fornicate
- eat
- drink
- walk around
- take photographs
- paint pictures
- sail in boats
- spend time at a beach
- write
- play with animals
- grow flowers
- hunt wild animals
- travel around the world
- worship
- exercise
6. Anything that you ever wanted to do or own would be free
7. No taxes would be collected
8. Suicide would be outlawed
9. If you commited a crime, your freedoms and all privileges would be taken away
10. There would be no competition of any sort as no one likes to lose
11. There would be no need for marriage and if children were born, the the government would take care of them, if the couple having children did not want them
12. If you wanted to get a home bigger than your current needs, then you would need to get married and have children or work
13. The need for greed would be satisfied with work
14. The need for power and control would be satisfied with work
15. If one worked, they worked as long as they wanted and then they could leave
16. Work would be considered a form of slavery as someone would always be working for someone else
17. No one could take another person's property
18. All laws could be challenged in court
19. There would be no governments nor would there be any countries
20. You could not disrupt another person's happiness or pursuit of happiness without breaking the law
Hummoid Robots
Humanoid robots are advanced robots that are designed to look and move like humans. They are often equipped with sensors and cameras that allow them to recognize human faces and emotions, respond to voice commands and carry out conversations. Humanoid robots can be programmed to perform a wide range of tasks, such as assisting humans in daily activities, working in manufacturing plants, providing healthcare services, and performing search and rescue operations in hazardous environments.
Compared to conventional robots, humanoid robots provide a number of benefits. One of their main advantages is that they can communicate with people in a more intuitive and natural way. They are, therefore, ideal for fields like education, healthcare and customer service, where human interaction is crucial.
Humanoid robots have a lot of potential, but they are still in the early phases of development and have many obstacles to overcome. One of the biggest issues is their high price, which prevents many businesses and individuals from using them. Furthermore, the creation of humanoid robots demands highly developed engineering abilities as well as expertise in a variety of disciplines, including robotics, artificial intelligence and materials science.
Here are advanced humanoid robots in the world to know.
Atlas
Developed by Boston Dynamics, Atlas is a 1.8-meter-tall humanoid robot designed to perform tasks in rough terrain. It is capable of walking on uneven surfaces and can lift heavy weights. Its advanced capabilities enable it to navigate through difficult terrains and debris to locate and rescue people.
The Atlas robot is appropriate for use in industrial settings since it can move large objects and carry out jobs that are hazardous for people. It is capable of performing precise and accurate assembly lines, welding and painting jobs.
Developed by Boston Dynamics, Atlas is a 1.8-meter-tall humanoid robot designed to perform tasks in rough terrain. It is capable of walking on uneven surfaces and can lift heavy weights. Its advanced capabilities enable it to navigate through difficult terrains and debris to locate and rescue people.
The Atlas robot is appropriate for use in industrial settings since it can move large objects and carry out jobs that are hazardous for people. It is capable of performing precise and accurate assembly lines, welding and painting jobs.
Asimo
Developed by Honda, Asimo is a humanoid robot that is designed to perform tasks like running, walking and climbing stairs. It has advanced sensors that allow it to navigate through complex environments.
Asimo has been used extensively in the fields of research, education and engineering to study human physiology, robotics engineering and human-robot interaction. Researchers now have a better understanding of how to create robots that interact with people in a more intuitive and natural way. READ MORE...
Developed by Honda, Asimo is a humanoid robot that is designed to perform tasks like running, walking and climbing stairs. It has advanced sensors that allow it to navigate through complex environments.
Asimo has been used extensively in the fields of research, education and engineering to study human physiology, robotics engineering and human-robot interaction. Researchers now have a better understanding of how to create robots that interact with people in a more intuitive and natural way. READ MORE...
Tuesday, March 28
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