Passing of a Friend; Life Goes On; Nation Cryptic and Mr. Trump

Cold... 3 inches of snow overnight..  some nice persons shoveled it off of the sidewalks.

Life!

Today I ran the AARP Chapter meeting at the Westminster American Legion Hall.  A local lawyer talked to us about Advance Directives and Wills.  The Italian meal was delicious... lots of garlic, so Elaine would not have been able to eat any of it if she had been able to attend.  Because of the snow she could not... wheelchairs do not go very well in snow.. and besides, Winter is the time when Elaine likes to hibernate.

It was a nice meeting with lots of humor and social activity.  Jim Hamilton was there without his wife, who was not feeling well.  Jim told us lots of his famous stories.

Jim was once a master cake maker.  He created a beautiful cake shaped like my car, and even had cutout pictures of me and Elaine inside, with me steering..  a masterpiece, in my opinion.

 Last year, Jim was written up in a couple of local newspapers because of his amazing ability to grow 11 feet tall tomato plants in clay soil.

Jim and his wife live in a Continuing Care Retirement Community.  Jim told us today that almost everybody who lives there is a widow.

After socializing, Jim prepared a meal and wrapped it to take to his wife.  Jim helped Louise M. into her car.  Said "Goodbye."  Drove off, had a heart attack, swerved over an embankment, hit a tree, and died.

Rest In Peace, old friend.


Life Goes On!

Giovanni Papini:  "Breathing is the greatest pleasure in life."

Marcus Aurelius:  "When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."

Enjoy the Simple Life!

Humphrey Bogart:  "A hot dog at the ball game beats roast beef at the Ritz!"

Cryptic Trump

I love to do the cryptic puzzles in the Nation Magazine.  Usually, the setters put a few current affairs clews into the mix, but not many.  However, the puzzle for January 16/23, 2017, is quite topical.  For instance, many of the puzzle answers are "parts" of the Nation's answer to Mr. Trump, for instance:

Dreamers

Black Lives Matter

Planned Parenthood

Fight for Fifteen

Three Fifty dot org

There are several more clever entries that brought a smile to my lips, especially this one:

"Sounds like extreme anger: His admirers love Trump."  ... the cryptic answer was "fuehrer."

Bravo, Nation!

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Computer Virus and Trojan Stuff; Pension Decrease; Stuff we may have learned in 2016

Getting colder.

Computer Stuff

Quite a last few days!  Because I keep getting "virus alerts" and requests to dial 800 numbers, I figured that these "alerts" were scams, especially since the requests came from"Microsoft" one day, and "Google" another, and also when I read one of the popups that said: "You has a virus."

So, I purchased the old "tried and true" virus protection from McAFEE.  When I tried to install it, I was unable to do so.  I called "support" and after they did some fancy scanning work, they found what looked like thousands of virus and trojan files on my computer.  I gave them permission to fix my PC and get rid of these nuisances.  It took about 5 hours until Max and Sam (actually Indians) got every thing fixed up on my main PC... now I will do the same on my other computers.  It cost me $299, but it is supposed to get me protection "forever."  Actually, it is probably only for one year.  We'll see.

Even though things are supposed to be fixed, I just experienced another "Microsoft Virus Pop Up" when I tried to get to this site using Explorer.  Finally, I just used Chrome instead.  Oy!

Pension Increase?

Wow!  A .003% increase.  (that's not three %).. To offset that small increase, Medicare costs increased over $100 a month... and for January, the pension folks tagged me for almost $900 because I apparently didn't pay enough each month in 2016.  I wonder where the "poor house" is in Carroll County.  ..... But, seriously, what do poor people do?

Brain Expansion?

The New Years edition of the New York Times listed 45 things that you might have learned from them during 2016.  Here are the ones that "grabbed" me:

01.  "One minute of all-out exercise may provide the benefits of 45 minutes of moderate exertion."

(Will this revolutionize the way we keep in shape?)

02,  A new building on Manhattan's Upper West Side pipes a perfume called Ocean Mist through its ductwork.

(Now we have Musak for the nostrils.)

03. "Deep in our solar system's outer reaches, there could be a hidden planet."

(See, I told you so!)

04.   "Death from gun homicide in the U.S. is as common as dying in a car accident.  In Japan, it's as rare as a fatal lightning strike."

(Elaine says that the Government should ration and control ammunition.)

05.  "Meditation can change  your brain."

(Why do I want to change my brain?  I'm a Mensan, for goodness sakes..)

By the way, remember what fellow Mensan, Isaac Asimov said: "Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to us who do."

06.  Giraffes are four species, not one.

("How can you tell?" asks Paula Poundstone)

07.  "The Greenland shark lives at least 272 years, and it could live as long as 512 years."

What about Loan Sharks?


08.  The Bramble Cay melomys is the first mammal to go extinct because of human-caused climate change."

(Are you listening, Mr. Trump?)

09.  "No one really knows what's buried under the streets of New York until it's time to dig."

(I recently purchased two books about the hidden world under the streets of a couple of big cities.. namely New York and Boston.  The Boston book was wonderful.  It chronicled the Boston Subway.  The New York book was horrible.  It just showed pictures of graffiti painted on the walls of abandoned Subway tunnels.)

Now... are you smarter?
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Happy New Year! and The Brain

Happy New Year 2017!  We watched Times Square last night but did not see the ball drop.  I'm sure it did, because my Sunday New York Times front page says January 1st, 2017.  Boy... 2016 was one hell of a year!  Can we take it back and start over?

...

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Song for New Year's Eve

I hope you were able to listen to Dan Fogelberg's 1980 hit: "Same Old Lang Syne."   The New York Times Magazine speaks of the song:  "The year 1980 brought us the greatest holiday song of all time:  one that finds beauty in the shabbiness of life."  So, if you think you'd like to hear about romance blossoming in the super market checkout line, or six-pack beer drinking in your car, then, by all means, check this out.  I'm told that Dan performs everything on the disk except for a saxophone rendition of the real "Old Lang Syne."  So, don't believe the liner quotes with names of performers such as Donny Trout.. or other cuties, blame it all on Dan.. except that Dan died of prostate cancer a few years ago.

The Future Brain

The New York Times magazine for December 18, 2016 has a book-length article about the "Brain" project of the Google folks.  This is an attempt to make AI ("artificial intelligence") more "real."  In the past, AI has taken an adult approach to learning.  That is, like an adult, the computer brain would have access to encyclopedic databases, from which it would fill its available spaces like someone in school tries to do.

The new, and revolutionary, approach is to treat the computer brain as if it were a one year or younger child.  A bottom-up approach, instead of a top-down approach.

(Of course, this is my reading of the article, and my tired old Mensan mind may have read into the article things that are not there.  So, be careful and read it for yourself.)

Look at this quote from the article:  "An average brain has something on the order of 100-billion neurons.  Each neuron is connected to up to 10,000 other neurons, which means that the number of synapses is between 100 trillion and 1,000 trillion.  For a simple artificial neural network of the sort proposed in the 40's, the attempt to ever try this was unimaginable.  We're still far from the construction of a network of that size, but Google Brain's investment allow(s) for the creation of artificial networks comparable to the brains of mice."

(Many years ago, Datamation magazine published some articles about AI.  I copied some of the code that was printed in the magazine and developed from it a program that learned from input given in response to questions.  But, of course, working with less than 80,000 bytes of program and data storage, I could only go so far.   However, some branches of the code gave me some ideas about how to create a cross-reference file for computer code, something that IBM said at the time that they were not able to do.

I showed the code to George Orange, one of Social Security's hotshot programmers, and he, and later, John Taylor developed it into a useful tool for COBOL programmers, without dropping a little addition from me, because even today, I'm told, if there is a need to somehow utilize old fashioned cross-reference listings, one might find, under the tag "genius"..  the name "Joe Vaughan"...  toot!  toot!   toot!)

More Brain Stuff

The Reader's Digest for December 15, 2016  has an article by Simon Parkin from BBC.Com Future. The title is "Forever Memory."

The article mentions Eternime, which is a Web service that attempts to preserve a prerson's memories after death.  How?  Well, before you die, you grant Eternime access to your Facebook, Twitter, and EMAIL accounts, as well as the other stuff that you have uploaded, like photographs.

To quote the article: "The data are collected and analyzed before being transferred to an artificial intelligence avatar that tries to emulate your looks and personality... with the aim of better reflecting you after you're gone."  (Surely, a boon for genealogists and progeny.)

The article then asks: "What if, rather than picking and choosing what we want to capture in digital form, it were possible to record the contents of a mind in their entirety?"  (Would that we were able to do that.)

Some references mentioned in the article.: 

The BRAIN Initiative.

The Human Brain Project in Europe

The Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University

Anders Sandberg's Oxford paper published in 2008, titled "Whole Brain Emulation, A Roadmap", in which he says:  "Memories are not neatly stored like files on a computer to create a searchable index. Memory consists of networks of associations that are activated when we remember.  A brain emulation would require a copy of them all."

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I predict.. within the next 20 years, cancer will be cured and brain "uploads" will become commonplace. 

If I'm wrong, sue me.

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Even More Brain Stuff

Brain Box: the caboose of a freight train.

Brain Child:  a product of one's intellect, a plan

Brain Picker:  somebody who profits from stealing  your ideas

Brain Wave: Brain Storm:  a brilliant idea

Brain Tablet:  a cigarette

Brainwash:  to change one's opinions and thoughts

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das ist genug!

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Mensa; Marvin Grosswirth; Computer Talk; Coriolanus Hip-Hop Rewrite

Coolish, Winter day.

Is This English?

Famous Mensan, Marvin Grosswirth wrote an article for Datamation Magazine  in April 1973, in which he gave his opinion about some of the data processing terms then coming into existence, such as:

SYSOUT - "sounds like scatological baby talk for an excretory function."

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE -  "... the fact that giant corporations and highly paid, well-educated people are devoting themselves to the creation and dissemination of artificial intelligence fills me with despair.  Is no one to be trusted."

BYTE - ",,, the 'y' gives the word a rather charming medieval flavor."

Marvin made up a little story using some words he recently encountered:

"Nand Roundoff moves from her half duplex to a dump located in a one-level address so that she can be near her lover, Al Gol.  Al's employment limits his time-sharing with Nand.  She is willing to accept his random access, however, because when they are together, his sexadecimal technique makes her heart do flip-flops.""

Certain terms caused Marvin some grief because they seemed to have  a pornographic sound:

'stroke counts; direct insert subroutine; downtime; entry point, etc. '

Yes, I know... many of these terms are now old-fashioned, but they had currency in 1973.  You know that I was writing computer programs around that time -- in fact, I've been told, but I don't quite believe it.. that one of my programs is still running at the Social Security Administration building in Woodlawn, Maryland.
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Alt-Right Hip Hop?

I find this hard to believe also, but a writer for the December 18, 2016  New York Times, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, says it's true.  Now Mr. Pollack-Pelzner is a professor of English and gender studies at Linfield College, and who are we do doubt his words? 

The author says that Stephen K. Bannon was a co-author with Julia Jones on a hip-hop version of Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus.  The revision takes place during the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. It is called: "The Thing I Am"..  Shakespeare adapted Plutarch's account of the Roman general's victory over the Volscians at Corioles, hence his name Coriolanus.  The Romans eventually turned against him and he teamed up with the Volscians in a plan to sack Rome.  However, his mother talked him out of it, making the Volscians mad enough to murder him.

There are two ways that people have viewed this play over the years.  First, the Roman General was hailed as the heroic strongman that his country needed. (Trumpian?)  Second, the Roman people (mob) was hailed as a necessary check on the strongman's ambitions.

The author implies that Mr. Breitbart  thinks of Mr. Trump as a national savior.  His "Coriolanus" script posits a violent conflict to purge corrupt leaders and make way for a new strongman to "pop up."

He lists some dialogue from the new play. 

"All yield to him -- the press, whitey, the color aristo-cracks of his own set.  Only the trash is weak, and I think he'll view them as birds do fish and take them as his due.  He served the hood, but lost it."

Now, doesn't Mr. Bannon scare you?  Isn't he going to "run interference" at the White (Trump) House?  Who is he going to let his strongman hero have access to? Peace loving folks?  The meek?  The old?  The infirm? The disabled?  Women?  Hold your breath!

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Spelling Changes Suggested for the English Language, as spoken by our British Neighbors

Cool and sunny.. yesterday it was almost 70 degrees... today, it was almost 50 degrees.

Suggested Spelling Changes for the English Language

Way back in September of 1976, fellow Mensan, M.G. Shaw of Orpington, Kent, England wrote an article for the International Mensa Journal about how to make (British) English easier for people to spell.  The title was:  A Spell of English.. or A Spel of Englix.)    Let me extract some of his suggested changes to get you thinking about what might also be done for (American) English.

Rule 01:   Eliminate the 'same double-letter' combination.  (What use is it anyway?) 

Examples: "hal" or "wal" or "wil"

Rule 02:  Eliminate the 'different double-letter combination. 

Examples: For "ph" use "f";  "gh" at the end of a word, drop it entirely.

Rule 03:  Drop the "parasitical C"

Examples: For "ceiling" use "seiling"; For for "cake" use "kake"; For "attic" use "attic"
                  For "luck" use "luk"

Rule 04:  Use "c" for the "ch" sound; 

Examples: For "chuck" use "cuk"; For "chicken" use "ciken"

Rule 05:  Dump the "QU" combination and use  "kw"

Example:  For "quickly" use "kwikly"

Rule 06:  Exchange "ks" for "x"

Example: For "exactly" use "eksaktly"

Rule 07:  Use "x" for the "sh" sound

Examples: For "shame" use "xame";  For "nation" use "naxn"

Rule 08:  Use 'z" for the "th" sound

Example:  For "then" use "zen";

Rule 09:  Use "ss" for "z"  (smal violaxn for rule 01.. use double-leters when zey canje ze sound of zeir single leter kounterparts)

Example:  For "crazy" use "krassy"

Rule 10:  Change the "ou" combination to just "o"

Example:  For "cough" use "kof"


Mr. Shaw didn't expect these changes to be made overnight. (I hope he wasn't holding his breath.) Let me end all this with Mr. Shaw's own words:

"Al ze books wil hav to be re-printed, for a start.  But onse ze edukaznal program begins, it won't take long for anyone to katc on.  Why, I'll bet you'r a beter speller alreay - beter zan you ever zought possible!...I rekon we wil al be able to kik ze habit of zuming zru ze dikxnary just to find out how to spel a word..."

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Somewhere in my blog entries I have written about other attempts to change the spelling for American words.  These are somewhat similar to those above.  I think the changes put forward by Melville Dewey (you know, the library man) are very  similar.  Those suggestions did not get acted upon either, as far as I know.

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Christmas Stuff; Women Doctors; Raindeer; Jingle; Barbie; Airline Fixes; Direction Signs; Social Security; Coffee Drink; IKEA Parties; KFC Innovation; Garlic on your Feet; 911 Call

Cool and overcast.  Typical Baltimore area weather in the Winter.

Christmas Stuff

On Christmas Eve, Elaine and I  treated her family to supper at our Bistro, after which we exchanged gifts.  The kids seemed to be happy with their gifts.  They couldn't wait to get home and leave some carrots for Santa's reindeer. These two kids are half Christian and half Jewish, and they celebrate both cultures, and this year Hanukah begins on the same day as Christmas. 

On Christmas day, my daughter, Diane and her husband John, hosted family Christmas at their house (which used to be my house).  A great time was had by all.  Unfortunately, Elaine had a migraine type headache and couldn't attend.  She did send cookies and sauerkraut... you know, Baltimore people love sauerkraut at occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas... and the kraut went fast.  Even I had some... it was very tasty, not vinegar like.

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me

The Christmas edition of this show gave me thoughts to think about, such as this Daffy Dozen:

01.  Women make better doctors, nurses, and healthcare providers.  (Yes, Elaine has said that for years, however, I don't think I would enjoy a prostate exam given by a female.  Guess I'm old fashioned like that.

02.  New Item for the Holidays.  Raindeer Boobs.  (You can look that one up. Check out Rudolph's bright red nose.))

03.  New Item for the Holidays.  Jingle Balls.  (I'm not going there.)

04.  New Item for the Holidays in the Trump Environment.   Nuclear Survivor Barbie.

05.  One of the airlines has begun to have a separated place for people who die during long flights. (Apparently, now, if you "kick off" while in flight, the attendants just prop you up in an empty seat for the duration of the flight.  This might not be that pleasant for a seat mate.)

06.   Innovative Direction Signs.  (In Sherpa country, if you die while climbing a high mountain, sometimes it's impossible to carry you to the flat areas, so, instead, they prop you up and use you as a direction sign. )  Remember, when husbands die during a long Alaskan cold spell, their spouses bury them out back in the snow.  Why?  Well, because that is "proof of death" for the Social Security Field Reps, who may not make it to the house to take a death claim for some time. .

07.  New Drink by Starbucks:  Fruitcake frappocino.  (Why does everybody hate fruitcake?  I really like it, but Elaine does not... so at Christmas time, instead of fruitcake, we eat German Stollen. )

08.  IKEA Slumber Parties.  (In some European countries, young people are hiding in closets until the stores close, when they pop out and have their version of Slumber Parties.  Clever kids.)

09.  Finger Condoms.  Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has come out with roll-on finger protectors for when you eat their greasy fried chicken. 

10.  The Butterball Hotline.  (Everyone laughed when this was mentioned.  I did not get it.  Does it have something to do with KFC....well, maybe I get it.)

11.  Garlic Breakthrough.  A study has now determined that one can taste garlic with your feet.  They say that it takes one hour, but within that time, the  taste travels from  your feet to your brain.  (Now, why the hell would I want to know that?)

12. Car Window Breakthrough.  Some people noticed that a slumped over older woman in a locked car was not responding to their knocks on the car window, so they called 911.  The responders broke the window and opened the door and prepared to revive the poor lady.... who turned out to be a CPR dummy.

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Christmas Music Puzzle; Bloomberg Offerings; Delta; Fiat; Kellogg; Breitbart; Funny Times Offerings;Beer; Wine; Children Quotes;

Sunny and 40 degrees.  A pretty day even though cool.

Christmas Music

Yesterday, at my "Train Your Brain" session, one of the puzzles worked on was related to songs of the season.  The chore was to decipher the following sentences to come up with the names of some of these songs.  I'm not going to give you the answers.

Advance hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief.

Nocturnal hours whose stillness is unbroken.

An emotion excited by the acquisition of the expectation of good bequeathed to the terrestrial sphere.

The Christmas preceding all others.

I observed the Bishop of Myra osculating with my maternal parent.

Spatially and temporally removed in a feed box.

A juvenile dance based on the hollow metallic vessel that resonates with a fine sharp continued clinking.

Hollow cuplike metal objects of a lustrous grayish white hue.

Minute juvenile of the male sex carrying a percussion instrument.

(Did you get them all?  I missed one.)

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Bloomberg Views

Bloomberg, thinking I am rich, sent me a nice new copy of the "New Money" issue of their magazine.  The subscription cost is a bit much for something I would probably seldom read. 

Meanwhile, I did read this issue, and was surprised to find that they do not think much of our newly elected President.  However, I do remember that he bashed Bloomberg during his campaign.

Bloomberg Up:

Delta Air Lines banned for life a passenger who yelled and swore at his fellow plane passengers.  He let them know, in no uncertain terms,  that he was a Trump supporter.

Bloomberg Down:

Lapo Elkann is a Fiat heir and a fashion designer (never heard of him).  Lapo was arrested for allegedly faking his own kidnapping and demanding a ransom of (only) $10,000.  I guess he didn't think much of himself to ask for such a piddling sum.

Bloomberg Media:

In an article, the magazine discussed the problems between Kellogg and Breitbart.  May I quote:

"Brands that advertise on Breitbart have drawn flak in recent weeks, with activists saying the website espouses racist, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic views.  That's spurred some companies to abandon the site.  The latest to pull its ads is Kellogg..."  In retaliation, "...the site has called for a boycott of Kellogg."

No comment.

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Funny Times Views (January 2017 Issue)

Funny Times Up:

Bruges, Belgium has built a 2 mile pipeline to funnel beer from brewery to bottling plant. (Harper's)

Abruzzo, Italy has opened the first free and flowing "wine fountain."  (Shepherd)

A golf club in England has issued a special rule allowing for patrons losing their balls to Merlin the cat, who "snatches" six balls a day from the 14th fairway. (Shepherd)

Funny Times Down:

It is legal to text while driving in four states. (Harper's)

The United States bombed six countries over a three-day period in September 2016. (Harper's)

The estimated value of religious institutions in the United States is $1,200,000,000,000! (Harper's)
Is that "quadrillion?"  Just think if those places could be taxed.

The High Frequency Active Aural Research Facility, run by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks is being looked at closely by a couple of guys from Georgia who would like to attack the facility and release peoples' souls that are trapped there.  (Shepherd)

Funny Times Quotes about Children:(Jon Winokur)

W.C. Fields:  "There's no such thing as a tough child.  If you parboil them first for seven hours, they always come out tender."

Phyllis Diller:  "I want my children to have all the things I couldn't afford.  Then I want to move in with them."

Rita Rudner:  "We've begun to long for the pitter-patter of little feet, so we bought a dog.  Well, it's cheaper , and  you get more feet.

Gore Vidal:  "Never have children, only grandchildren.

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