Gemini Unveiled

Google this morning announced the rollout of Gemini, its largest and most capable large language model to date. Starting today, the company’s Bard chatbot will be powered by a version of Gemini, and will be available in English in more than 170 countries and territories. Developers and enterprise customers will get access to Gemini via API next week, with a more advanced version set to become available next year.

How good is Gemini? Google says the performance of its most capable model “exceeds current state-of-the-art results on 30 of the 32 widely-used academic benchmarks used in LLM research and development.” Gemini also scored 90.0% on a test known as “Massive Multitask Language Understanding,” or MMLU, which assesses capabilities across 57 subjects including math, physics, history and medicine. It is the first LLM to perform better than human experts on the test, Google said.    READ MORE...

Joan Baez

 

Illegal Drugs Are Winning

What do you think about illegal drugs?

Are you in favor of them?

Are you against them?

Do you think the government has the right to prohibit us from taking illegal drugs by making it a crime?

Think about this...

There are several STATES that have made smoking marijuana legal and yet according to the Federal Government, it is still a crime...  Yet, no arrests are made in those states by the Feds.

This type of contradiction by the Federal Government does not put the Federal Government in a positive light.  Either it is legal or it is not legal...

Personally, I think people should be allowed to take whatever drug trips their triggers...  unfortunately, these drug addicts or drug experimenters don't have the money to pay for their drugs so they commit crimes.

We are allowed to kill ourselves by drinking too much alcohol and by eating too much food, but we cannot kill ourselves with illegal drugs...  does not make much sense to me.

Another issue related to these illegal drugs is law enforcement.  I don't think law enforcement really wants to stop the flow of illegal drugs in the USA or its usage because if they did, they would have to layoff a TON OF WORKERS...  and, that would hurt the economy.

Consequently, the use of illegal drugs is tolerated...

Why do I think this way?

Because in 1966, this government was saying the same thing about how harmful illegal drugs were and that they were going to crack down and stop it.

That was over 50 years ago and if anything illegal drugs has gotten worse not better....  GO FIGURE?

Our IDIOT CONGRESS

There are some Democratic members of Congress who believe Israel's claim that Hamas killed women, children, the elderly, and raped women IS A LIE PERPETUATED BY ISRAEL AND THE REPUBLICANS TO JUSTIFY ATTACKING GAZA...

This belief is still prevalent even after HAMAS posted videos of them doing exactly that on the internet as a form of bragging...

This belief is still prevalent even after some of the hostages that were recently released confirmed that they also saw this happening...

These are esteem members of Congress that we elected to pass laws on our behalf who BELIEVE THIS WAY...

Do you think they might be a tad biased?

Do you think they might have a few pre-conceived ideas that are negative towards Israel? 

Do you think they still have the ability to govern us?

I don't really care about Israel nor do I really care about Hamas or any other terrorist organization...

For your information, AMERICAN SOLDIERS killed women, children, the elderly, and raped women in VIETNAM...  and, what did we do to them as a nation?  NOTHING!!!

When you fight WARS, then you must accept that children, women, and the elderly are going to get killed whether it is intentional or not.  And, you might as well expect THAT BOTH SIDES ARE GOING TO RAPE WOMEN.

To think otherwise is foolish, ignorant, and stupid.

Most of you have not been in a war zone and been right beside one of your friends who just had his head blown off because of an RPG...  That anger that builds up inside of soldiers (on both sides) is tremendous and when it is finally allowed to escape, those soldiers are no longer human...  they become animals.

War documentaries do not and will never show that side of war...

Money Talks

Not all millionaires are Democrats...

Not all billionaires are Democrats...

I am not sure how many billionaires or millionaires are DEMOCRATS and I guess it does not really matter...  However, we all know that George SOROS is a billionaire and a Democrat and likes to fund projects and organizations that are not pro-American...he also funds District Attorneys who think that more white people should be in jail because at the present time, there are more blacks incarcerated than whites.  The law be damned...

But, this is not about SOROS and his idiotic beliefs but it is about Americans who may or may not be Democrats but who believe in BEING FAIR...  hard to believe that some people still believe that.

Ever since MIT, UPenn, and Harvard testified in Congress about allowing anti-Jewish sentiments to flourish while claiming to believe in free speech, there has been a mass exodus of money withdrawn from those schools.  Presidents from these three schools straddled the fence when answering questions about Pro-Palestine protests and claims that they were not protecting their Jewish students.

It seems that these prestigious universities had made the assumption that pro Jewish beliefs were only in the ranks of the Republicans...  therefore, they could allow this to happen on their composes and nothing would happen to them.

Looks like these PHDs weren't as smart as their degrees made them appear.  One Board is now talking with one of the Presidents because there are calls for her to resign or get fired.

Tenured faculty cannot help these Presidents because MONEY TRUMPS EVERYTHING...

Suspicious Minds

 

In The News

Time magazine names Inter Miami star Lionel Messi as its 2023 Athlete of the Year (More)

Cleveland Guardians win top pick in 2024 MLB Draft; see full draft lottery results (More)

Denny Laine, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame musician who was a founding member of The Moody Blues and Wings, dies at 79 (More)

Multidisciplinary artist Jesse Darling wins 2023 Turner Prize, widely considered most prestigious award for British artists (More)

NCAA proposes new athletics subdivision that would allow certain schools autonomy to directly compensate student-athletes (More)

Numbers

 

Our Lives are Hardly Ever Planned Out

 Life happens when you're making other plans...  John Lennon

Carpenters measure twice or thrice and cut once...  they claim...  and, that makes sense.

Nobody goes on vacation without knowing where they are headed.  although, I suppose some of us just get in the car and drive.

Most successful companies develop rolling STRATEGIC PLANS (1-3 years or in some cases 3-5 years), evaluate their progress quarterly, making adjustments to the plan if and when they are necessary.

NOTE:  most Japanese companies develop strategic plans for 15-20 years...

Different management mindsets...

MOST OF US, but not ALL, live our lives without any planning taking place at all.

1. After high school, we go to college, go to a trade school, get married, or join the military.
2. We take the first job we can find and stay there until we retire, or we change jobs every 3-5 years using our experience to get a better job.
3. We retire without really knowing what we are going to do to keep busy and do whatever until we die.
4. If we do any retirement planning at all, it is during the last 10 years of our careers.

Does this sound familiar?

We do not know in the statement made by John Lennon if his statement making other plans was intended to mean:

• what to do today
• what to do this week
• what to do this year
• what to do this decade
• what to do this lifetime

I doubt very seriously that we think about our retirement when we are:

• 18 years of age
• 25 years of age
• 30 years of age
• 40 years of age
• 50 years of age
• maybe we do at 60 years of age

How many houses do you plan to buy?

How many wives do you plan to have?

How many children do you plan to have?

How many of those children will go to college?

How many cars do you plan to buy?

How many jobs do you plan to have?

How many companies do you plan to work for?

How many states do you plan to live in?

How much money do you plan to save?

How do you plan to become debt free?

How many times do you think you will be laid off?

How many car accidents will you have?

How many speeding tickets will you get?

How often do you think you will become seriously ill?

Somewhat Political

 

US Math Scores Down Again

Math scores for American 15-year-olds dropped to an all-time low between 2018 and 2022, according to the latest results of an international exam, the first large-scale study marking the pandemic's impact on education. The Program for International Student Assessment, representing 620,000 students throughout 81 education systems in 38 countries, compares math, reading, and science academic performance.


The US saw a 13-point drop in its average math score—from 478 (of 1,000) in 2018 to 465 in 2022—with one in three students scoring below the basic level of proficiency. US reading and science scores stayed mostly even. The US ranked sixth in reading, 10th in science, and 26th in math among participating countries, an improvement from 2018 (largely because of declines in other countries). 


Overall, the average math score across participating countries fell by 15 points—the equivalent of three-quarters of a year of learning. International reading scores fell by 11 points, while science scores remained relatively steady.   READ MORE...

White Rabbit

 

Copperhead Road

 

Israel Advances Further into Gaza

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli warplanes heavily bombarded an area around Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Monday as the military ordered mass evacuations from the town in the face of a widening ground offensive that is pushing Palestinians into a progressively shrinking portion of the besieged territory.

The expanded assault posed a deadly choice for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians — either stay in the path of Israeli forces or flee within the confines of southern Gaza with no guarantee of safety. Aid workers warned that the mass movement would worsen the already dire humanitarian catastrophe in the territory.

“Another wave of displacement is underway, and the humanitarian situation worsens by the hour,” the Gaza chief of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Thomas White, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.   READ MORE...

Female Dancers

 

TIPS for Cruising the High Seas

 My wife and I have been on TWELVE (12) ocean cruises of 7 days or longer since 2015.

We have been on the following Cruise Lines:

• Carnival
• Celebrity
• Norwegian
• Royal Caribbean

Our list of cruises:

• East-West-South Caribbean
• Mediterranean Sea
• Alaska
• Hawaiian Islands
• Bermuda

Debarkation Ports:

• Baltimore
• Ft. Lauderdale
• Maimi
• Vancouver, Canada

OUR TIPS:

1. Try to get on board as early as possible
2. Have a day bag in case your luggage arrives late
3. Confirm your restaurant reservations before lunch
4. Familiarize yourself with the ship before ship leaves port

What to bring with you:

1. 2-3 pairs of shoes (flip flops for pool, sandals for dinner, tennis shoes for visiting ports
2. Sunglasses and hat
3. bug spray 
4. suntan lotion & ChapStick
5. sea sickness pills
6. bring your passport and driver's license for ID.
7. buy lanyard to carry your sea pass card.
8. wash your hands often.
9. bring large empty water bottle for port visits and fill up in cafeteria.
10. most places will take any credit card but there are transaction fees and exchange rates
11. bring packages of handwipes for port visits
12. use your phone as an alarm clock if you have an inside cabin without a porthole.
13. wear flip flops in shower
14. keep valuables in safe
15. bring zip lock bag for your phones.
16. your medications (we use an AM/PM pill case and put it inside a sock to keep it from opening)
17. Dress pants/knit shirt or slacks/blouse for dinner
18. One bathing suit - difficult for most ladies
19. underwear for each day
20. 2 pairs of shorts only along with 3 tops for each pair
21. magnetic hangers
22. phone charger - can use your phone in ports but not on ship - make sure your provided knows where you are going and take out text messages to contact home if you need to - cheaper than making phone calls.
23. use phones as camera and leave camera at home, heavy and bulky
24. bring light weight back pack or tote for excursions
25. at each port you are allowed to come back on ship with 1 liter soft drink per person
26. bring cash and a fanny pouch to carry it in to prevent theft
27. bring small power strips.  we found a square one that had 4 plug ins and brought two
28. we did not bring dress clothes for dinner as they ships never enforced the rule...  they are claiming that they are going to
29. bring small umbrella and plastic poncho
30. bring two containers, one for coffee and one for juices...  beverages in cafeteria are free all day long
31. bring clamps to hold towels to chair on sea day...  get up early to get chair you want but you cannot save for very long...  this may require you eating meals one at a time while the other one saves the chairs.
32. Beverage packages are expensive so the choice is yours
33. Rooms are small so you don't want to bring large suitcases with all sorts of clothes and have them take up space
34. we always got inside rooms on lower levels so we could spend more money on excursions...  but when passengers were on ships that were locked down due to covid, they were forced to stay in those inside rooms...  something to think about.
35. oftentimes, you can arrange your own excursion with taxis that are half price of what the excursion charges but you need to be well prepared with what you want to see.
36. we always went to the early dinner so we could see whatever entertainment there was after dinner.
37. attend the free sessions that tell you about what to see at each port.
38. be prepared to gain 5-10 pounds or follow the three to four bite rule.  Just take 3-4 bites of everything you want to eat.
39. we would put fruit and cereal boxes in the backpack for snacks when we visited the ports.
40. Set a gambling limit each day and walk away.  We used $20.

Somewhat Political

 

More Than 1,000 Qubits

One of IBM’s latest quantum processor has improved the reliability of its qubits. Credit: Ryan Lavine for IBM



IBM has unveiled the first quantum computer with more than 1,000 qubits — the equivalent of the digital bits in an ordinary computer. But the company says it will now shift gears and focus on making its machines more error-resistant rather than larger.

For years, IBM has been following a quantum-computing road map that roughly doubled the number of qubits every year. The chip unveiled on 4 December, called Condor, has 1,121 superconducting qubits arranged in a honeycomb pattern. It follows on from its other record-setting, bird-named machines, including a 127-qubit chip in 2021 and a 433-qubit one last year.

Quantum computers promise to perform certain computations that are beyond the reach of classical computers. They will do so by exploiting uniquely quantum phenomena such as entanglement and superposition, which allow multiple qubits to exist in multiple collective states at once.  READ MORE...

St. Jude Hospital for Children

 

The Wealthy

 Ask yourself...

• Are you wealthy?
• Do you know any wealthy people?
• Do you socialize with the wealthy?
• Do you want to be like the wealthy?

Only 5% of the population are wealthy and only 2% of population are really wealthy and only 1% of the population are super wealthy.

The odds are you will never be in that group if you ain't there already.

Is there something wrong with you if you are not wealthy?

Not really...  but, the wealthy people think there is something wrong with you and look down their noses at you...  tolerating you when they absolutely have to...  most of the time, ignoring your existence altogether.

• For the wealthy, they think or perceive it is a badge of honor to live in a 15,000 square foot home.
• They think it is normal to own a $100,000 vehicle.
• They think it is AMERICAN to hide their money in off shore bank accounts to avoid taxes.
• They see themselves as special and elite for owning multiple homes and spending money on items they will hardly use.
• They boast about their success not through their comments but through their purchases.
• They have no empathy for anyone who is not them.

The wealthy are really no different...

1. they have to eat
2. they have to sleep
3. they have to defecate
4. they have to get sick
5. they have to die

The wealthy are a necessary evil for our society just like mothers-in-laws...  leaving behind their money, buildings with their names on them, and other legacies that are soon forgotten by the new generation who will ignore they even existed...

• The wealthy don't fight wars
• The wealthy pay others to work
• The wealthy use lawyers to fight their battles
• The wealthy use proxies when it is time to vote
• The wealthy pay very little in taxes
• The wealthy give nothing back to society but their arrogance
• The wealthy only give to charity because they need a tax deduction

DAMN DON'T YOU WISH YOU COULD BE LIKE THEM???