Interesting Facts

Glass takes one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times!





Gold is the only metal that doesn't rust, even if it's buried in the ground for thousands of years.





When a person dies hearing is the last sense to go. The first sense lost is sight.





Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end.





The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself.





If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. When a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.





Zero is the only number that cannot be represented by Roman numerals.


Kites were used in the American Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers.


The song Auld Lang Syne is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year.


Drinking water after eatingreduces the acid in your mouth by 61 percent. Drinking a glass of water before you eat may help digestion and curb appetite.


Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn't smoke unless it's heated above 450F.


The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.


Nine out of every 10 living things live in the ocean.





The banana cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man.





Airports at higher altitudesrequire a longer airstrip due to lower air density.





The University of Alaska spans four time zones.





In ancient Greece,tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage. Catching it meant she accepted.





Warner Communicationspaid 28 million for the copyright to the song Happy Birthday, which was written in 1935!





Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.





A comet's tail always points away from the sun.





Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers, that is why it is found in some medicines.





The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armor raised their visors to reveal their identity.





If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up,you can see stars, even in the middle of the day.





In ancient timesstrangers shook hands to show that they were unarmed.


Strawberries and cashews are the only fruits whose seeds grow on the outside.





Avocadoshave the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams.


The moonmoves about two inches away from the Earth each year.


The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust.





Due to earth's gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 meters.


Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy





Soldiers do not march in step when going across bridges because they could set up a vibration which could be sufficient to knock the bridge down.


Everything weighs one percent less at the equator.


For every extra kilogramcarried on a space flight, 530 kg of excess fuel are needed at lift-off.





The letter J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements.


And last but not least:


This is called 'Money Bags.'So send this on to 5 people and money will arrive in 5 days. Based on Chinese Feng Shui, the one who does not pass this on will have money troubles for the rest of the year.

Pausing Chat GPT

AN open letter signed by hundreds of prominent artificial intelligence experts, tech entrepreneurs, and scientists calls for a pause on the development and testing of AI technologies more powerful than OpenAI’s language model GPT-4 so that the risks it may pose can be properly studied.

It warns that language models like GPT-4 can already compete with humans at a growing range of tasks and could be used to automate jobs and spread misinformation. The letter also raises the distant prospect of AI systems that could replace humans and remake civilization.

“We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 (including the currently-being-trained GPT-5),” states the letter, whose signatories include Yoshua Bengio, a professor at the University of Montreal considered a pioneer of modern AI, historian Yuval Noah Harari, Skype cofounder Jaan Tallinn, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

The letter, which was written by the Future of Life Institute, an organization focused on technological risks to humanity, adds that the pause should be “public and verifiable,” and should involve all those working on advanced AI models like GPT-4. It does not suggest how a halt on development could be verified, but adds that “if such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium,” something that seems unlikely to happen within six months.

Microsoft and Google did not respond to requests for comment on the letter. The signatories seemingly include people from numerous tech companies that are building advanced language models, including Microsoft and Google. Hannah Wong, a spokesperson for OpenAI, says the company spent more than six months working on the safety and alignment of GPT-4 after training the model. She adds that OpenAI is not currently training GPT-5.  READ MORE...

Dangerous AI

 

GPT 4 Explains

 

GPT-5 Could Change the World

GPT-4 may have only just launched, but people are already excited about the next version of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot technology. Now, a new claim has been made that GPT-5 will complete its training this year, and could bring a major AI revolution with it.

The assertion comes from developer Siqi Chen on Twitter, who stated: “I have been told that GPT-5 is scheduled to complete training this December and that OpenAI expects it to achieve AGI.”

AGI is the concept of “artificial general intelligence,” which refers to an AI’s ability to comprehend and learn any task or idea that humans can wrap their heads around. In other words, an AI that has achieved AGI could be indistinguishable from a human in its capabilities.

That makes Chen’s claim pretty explosive, considering all the possibilities AGI might enable. At the positive end of the spectrum, it could massively increase the productivity of various AI-enabled processes, speeding things up for humans and eliminating monotonous drudgery and tedious work.

At the same time, bestowing an AI with that much power could have unintended consequences — ones that we simply haven’t thought of yet. It doesn’t mean the robot apocalypse is imminent, but it certainly raises a lot of questions about what the negative effects of AGI could be.

It should be noted that other forecasters predict that AGI will not be achieved until 2032.  READ MORE...

Our System

 

Loving KIndness

 

Reptilian

 

Presidential Election 2024

This election is about 30/31 months away that will quickly pass and be upon us in no time at all...  There will be media frenzy as this election will be a turning point for the USA...

When I say turning point, here's what I mean:

1. Will illegal immigration continue or end?
2. Will inflation decrease or stay the same?
3. Will fossil fuels die or flourish?
4. Will EV productions slow down?
5. Will the USA stand up to Putin?
6. Will the USA stand up to China?
7. Will the USA gain it's global respect back?
8. Will the US economy grow?
9. Will our military be updated?
10. Will CRT continue to be a dividing factor?

IF you are a Democrat, you don't want any changes to that list above...  but, if you are a Republican, you want all those items to change...

CONSEQUENTLY...  if the Democrats win, we will have more of the same but if the Republicans win, then all of these will change...

THIS IS THE TURNING POINT and depending upon which way the American people vote will determine what kind of country the USA will become.

NOTE:  one tiem that has not been discussed very much and that is China's push to change the international currency of trade from the US DOLLAR to the CHINESE YUAN...  China is quietly negotiating with other countries one-on-one to engage in trading deals without using the US DOLLAR.  If China is able to convince numerous countries to do this, then they will have the upper hand when they approach the International Monetary Fund that currently has the US DOLLAR as the international currency of trade.

Many experts believe this will never happen but if it ever does, it will hurt our partners more than it will hurt us...  that hurt could alter relationships and alliances...  in the long run, this could possibly hurt us and benefit countries like China.

Right now, the 2024 election will determine the following concerns:

1. Building a strong economy while eliminating fossil fuels
2. Maintain a strong military while cutting military budgets
3. Forever censoring the conservative so that the political advantages always goes to the Liberals
4. Destruction of the Middle Class
5. Perpetuating Racism while Hispanic and Asian populations increase
6. Watering down education so we no longer have an intellectual/competitive advantage
7. Increase of crime and violence in our big cities

 

The Old Days

 

Memories

 

Truth

 

Quantum Memory Stores Information

Researchers at University of Oxford have recently created a quantum memory within a trapped-ion quantum network node. Their unique memory design, introduced in a paper in Physical Review Letters, has been found to be extremely robust, meaning that it could store information for long periods of time despite ongoing network activity.

"We are building a network of quantum computers, which use trapped ions to store and process quantum information," Peter Drmota, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. "To connect quantum processing devices, we use single photons emitted from a single atomic ion and utilize quantum entanglement between this ion and the photons."

Trapped ions, charged atomic particles that are confined in space using electromagnetic fields, are a commonly used platform for realizing quantum computations. Photons (i.e., the particles of light), on the other hand, are generally used to transmit quantum information between distant nodes. Drmota and his colleagues have been exploring the possibility of combining trapped ions with photons, to create more powerful quantum technologies.

"Until now, we have implemented a reliable way of interfacing strontium ions and photons, and used this to generate high-quality remote entanglement between two distant network nodes," Drmota said. "On the other hand, high-fidelity quantum logic and long-lasting memories have been developed for calcium ions. In this experiment, we combine these capabilities for the first time, and show that it is possible to create high-quality entanglement between a strontium ion and a photon and thereafter store this entanglement in a nearby calcium ion."

Integrating a quantum memory into a network node is a challenging task, as the criteria that need to be fulfilled for such a system to work are higher than those required for the creation of a standalone quantum processor. Most notably, the developed memory would need to be robust against concurrent network activity.   READ MORE...

SpaceX

 

AI Dangers

 

Not A Chef

 For several years my wife and I watched just about every cooking show that was on the Food Network from Iron Chef to Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives to Beat Bobby Flay to 30-Minute Meals...  

In 2015 when my wife and I retired, she said that she did not want to cook anymore, except for maybe Thanksgiving and/or Christmas...    and, I understood and supported her right to want to do that...  so, I started cooking.

I am sure that watching those cooking shows, I learned some ideas but my cooking follows no recipes although I look over recipes to see what all is involved...  I still use the portion sizes that makes sense to me...  if it calls for a tablespoon, I might use 2-3 tablespoons...  if it calls for 1/4, I will use a handful.

All of my cooking, I have eaten except for 2-3 things that I made that were not very good and rather than force myself to eat it, just decided to throw it out.  About half of my cooking has been marginal when it comes to taste but about 1/4 has been delicious but duplicating the dish is problematic.

I have cooked homemade pizza, bread, baguettes, spaghetti, lasanga, caseroles, pies, cakes, omelettes, soups, fish, and lots of various rice/beans dishes.

What I use in my cooking are typically:  onions, garlic, celery, bell peppers, mushrooms, green onions, leeks, all sorts of beans, basmati rice, salmon, cod, chicken, turkey, cheese, eggs, pastas, all sorts of vegatables including potatoes and sweet potatoes.

When I cook and package for later use, I always count my calories.  If my cooking creates 5 meals than I freeze 2 and eat three.  More than 3 days of something and I lose interest.  My calorie range is 1,500 to 1,800  with the understanding that I do not want to exceed 2,000/day.

I avoid fried foods, sugars, and sweets although I have used a little honey, butter (1 tablespoon at a time), light brown sugar, and chocolate.  I use an air fryer to substitute for frying...  the only time I fry is when I want to cook a fried egg or maybe fry up come yellow squash, zucchini, and onions.

So, for the last 7 years, I have been cooking my own food and in so doing I have learned a lot of stuff concerning what works and what does not work...  what I like to cook and what I don't like to cook...  do I dice or make big cuts as one if fater and just as good.

I am not a chef and don't pretend to be a chef and don't want to invite anyone over to eat my cooking...  It is just for me...  sometimes, my wife will eat my eat my soups but doesn't like all the stuff I combine together...  but, that is the heart and soul of my cooking, combining stuff that you don't think should be combined.

Bon Appetit...

Traveling at Light Speed

David Burns produced an engine concept that, he says, could theoretically accelerate to 99 percent 

of the speed of light - all without using propellant. (CREDIT: Creative Commons)

When it comes to space, there's a problem with our human drive to go all the places and see all the things. A big problem. It's, well, space. It's way too big. Even travelling at the maximum speed the Universe allows, it would take us years to reach our nearest neighbouring star.


But another human drive is finding solutions to big problems. And that's what NASA engineer David Burns has been doing in his spare time. He's produced an engine concept that, he says, could theoretically accelerate to 99 percent of the speed of light - all without using propellant.


He's posted it to the NASA Technical Reports Server under the heading "Helical Engine", and, on paper, it works by exploiting the way mass can change at relativistic speeds - those close to the speed of light in a vacuum. It has not yet been reviewed by an expert.


Understandably this paper has caused buzz approaching levels seen in the early days of the EM Drive. And yes, even some headlines claiming the engine could 'violate the laws of physics'.


But while this concept is fascinating, it's definitely not going to break physics anytime soon.  READ MORE...

Classic Sunday Morning Newspaper Cartoons

 

Five Level Lower Back Fusion - 9 Months Later

 It has been 9 months since I had 5 lower back disks fused together...  While I have never experienced any pain, my right leg does not have the strength to walk up steps which may or may not be a byproduct of the surgery.  However, while I can walk, I cannot walk fast nor does my walking seem to be done without effort, like it was before...  

I also have difficulty putting on socks so all of my shoe wearing, including tennis shoes, is done without socks.

My sleeping positions on both sides or on my back.  I don't remember sleeping on my stomach but I don't even try as that would bend my back the wrong way, I think.

I have a little trouble stepping over the sides of the hot tub but it has not detered me from soaking in the hot water or using the therapeutic jets.

Bending over is a little bit of a problem but bening my knees or holding onto something compensates so the stuggle is minimal.

All in all, my choices were do nothing 9 months ago which was not really an option, take shots that would temporarily mask the pain and help the movement, or fuse the disks via surgery.  I saw no reason to postpone the inevitable.