Category Archives: Remember

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ClimateTrace announced at COP29

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At this year’s annual climate summit, COP29, experts unveiled a list of the world’s top polluting cities, with data revealing the massive impact of urban emissions on global climate challenges. The findings come from Climate TRACE, a coalition co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The group uses satellite and ground-based observations combined with artificial intelligence to track air pollution across the globe.

The top five are: Shanghai, Tokyo, New York, Houston and Seoul.

“One of the sites in the Permian Basin in Texas is by far the No. 1 worst polluting site in the entire world,” Gore said. “And maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but I think of how dirty some of these sites are in Russia and China and so forth. But Permian Basin is putting them all in the shade.” The Permian Basin is located in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

You can see the Climate TRACE website here: climatetrace.org/

“We must be ruled by principles, not people.” – Michael Muthukrisha

“It was so hot, I could hear the sun!”

Unknown's avatar

2FA for 2

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Many companies, including financial institutions, now require Two Factor Authentication (2FA) to enhance login security. After initial password entry, most 2FA systems send verification codes to your phone or email.

Multiple users for ancestry accounts create 2FA issues. For instance, as the family genealogist, accessing my wife’s 23andMe account meant relying on her email for verification codes. This was troublesome, especially when she was away. While I could use her email password, forwarding verification emails to me seemed simpler. Text verification wouldn’t solve this, but email forwarding offered a convenient workaround.

Whenever possible, opt for email-based verification codes over text. They’re easily accessible across devices, eliminating the need to keep your phone close. Gmail makes forwarding these codes effortless: simply create a filter to automatically forward them to your desired address.

Setting up the filter in Gmail takes just two steps:

  Match emails from: (donotreply@23andme.com).

  Forward to: your.name@gmail.com (replace with the desired forwarding address).

Now, when either of us logs into her 23andMe account, we both receive the verification code, ensuring seamless access for whoever needs it.

The “from address” for Ancestry.com is: (ancestry@email.ancestry.com).

“I’ve often said, if you can’t explain what you’re doing to a bunch of bright undergraduates, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Daniel Dennett
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Roger Penrose thinks consciousness might be created by gravity induced phenomenon !

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Roger Penrose was recently interviewed by Andréa Morris.

For decades, Penrose has been working with anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff on a theory of consciousness called Orchestrated Objective Reduction (Orch OR).

Penrose’s theory proposes that consciousness originates at the quantum level inside neurons, rather than the conventional view that it is a product of connections between neurons. The mechanism is held to be a quantum process called objective reduction that is orchestrated by cellular structures called microtubules. It is proposed that the theory may answer the hard problem of consciousness and provide a mechanism for free will.

When it comes to the suddenly salient question of whether or not AI could be conscious, Penrose draws again from Gödel and Goodstein’s theorems. Computer science is built on formalized systems. They’re confined by computation. For Penrose, AI built on classical computers today isn’t capable of true understanding or consciousness. After some consideration, he adds a caveat when it comes to quantum computers: “You put wave function collapse into its process somehow….”

You can see the full 34 minute interview here.

Unknown's avatar

a quick trip to Los Angeles

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We recently did a mini vacation to Los Angeles to see the Getty Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits.  We wanted to stay someplace convenient to both and found a couple of eating places that I want to commit to memory and share with you all too.

Plaza La Reina                                                                                                                                                         10850 Lindbrook Drive                                                                                                                                              Los Angeles, CA 90024                                                                                                                                            310-986-6888

It is centrally located in Los Angeles, steps from Hammer Museum and within a 5-minute walk of University of California, Los Angeles. This is a 4.5-star hotel, expensive but worth it. But no breakfast! Starbucks is a block away!

Directly across the street is probably the best Chinese restaurant I have ever eaten in.  You should give this place a try even if you don’t stay at Plaza La Reina.

First Szechuan Wok Chinese Restaurant                                                                                                            10855 Lindbrook Drive                                  						         Westwood, CA 90024										       310-208-7785

Another great home cooking style restaurant is about 3 blocks away.  They have turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes!!

Fresh Corn Grill    									                    1266 Westwood Blvd.
Westwood CA 90024
Tel. 310-470-0414

The Plaza La Reina is about 3 miles from the Getty Museum and about 7 miles from the La BreaTar Pits Museum.  I recommend both, but you should a lot a full day for Getty and half day for the Tar Pits.

For a real delight in eating, a great French inspired café is called République. It has a casual bakery, café, and bar in the front with a more formal dining area located in the rear.  We had pastries and coffee before we went to the Tar Pits which are only ¾ mile away.  We parked in the Tar Pits Museum lot ($18/day) and then walked to/from Republique.

République, located in Miracle Mile, is owned by Chefs Walter and Margarita Manzke. Centered in the heart of Los Angeles, the historic building in which it resides was originally erected in 1929 by Charlie Chaplin, and later transformed into the iconic La Brea Bakery and Campanile Restaurant.

Republique                                                                                                                                                                  624 S. La Brea Ave.                                                                                                                                                     Los Angeles, CA 90036

CHEF MARGARITA WINS 2023 JAMES BEARD AWARD!
MICHELIN Plate 2022
Unknown's avatar

Live longer with a sense of purpose!

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Having a sense of purpose may help you live longer, research shows.

The analysis revealed that those with the strongest sense of purpose lowered their risk of death by 15.2% compared to people with the least sense of purpose. The results showed no significant differences in this association regardless of the participants’ race or ethnicity.

The findings also showed that purpose was more strongly associated with longevity in women than men, although it provided a significant benefit for both.

See the full article here:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/longevity-having-a-purpose-may-help-you-live-longer-healthier#Living-longer-and-healthier-with-purpose

Unknown's avatar

OpenAI has provided a chat bot called ChatGPT that you really should try

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ChatGPT is a chatbot launched by OpenAI November 30, 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 family of large language models, and is fine-tuned with both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. ChatGPT answers complex questions conversationally.  It’s a revolutionary technology because it’s trained to learn what humans mean when they ask a question.

The use of ChatGPT is currently free during the “research preview” time. There are no advertisements, no fees. Try it while you can.

To use the program, go to

chat.openai.com

You will need to create an account. It will need your email address, a password, your name and a phone # for text verification. Once you are in, type your comment or questions in the bottom line. Think of a session as a conversation. ChatGPT will remember what you previously said during this session. You can refine your question, “prime the pump” as it were. So far, I have been impressed! This might be as revolutionary as Google!

During my first session, I gave it this question: What are the benefits of a DNA special interest group? ChatGPT replied with the following text.

A DNA special interest group (SIG) is a group of individuals who have a shared interest in using DNA testing for genealogy and family history research. DNA SIGs typically provide a forum for members to share information, resources, and expertise related to DNA testing and genealogy.

Some potential benefits of joining a DNA SIG may include:

  1. Access to information and resources: DNA SIGs often have a wealth of information and resources related to DNA testing and genealogy, including educational materials, case studies, and links to relevant websites and databases.
  2. Opportunities for networking and collaboration: DNA SIGs provide a platform for members to connect with others who have similar interests and to collaborate on research projects.
  3. Expertise and support: DNA SIGs often have members with a wide range of expertise and experience in DNA testing and genealogy. These individuals can provide support and guidance to other members who are new to the field or who have specific questions or challenges.
  4. Community involvement: DNA SIGs can be a great way to get involved in the genealogy community and to contribute to the advancement of DNA testing and genealogy research.





Try it now.  Some folks are using it to write papers in college!  Some are using it to impress.  Some are using it for research. This type of “bot” will be with us into the future.  You can say that you were part of the “early days”.  OMG










			

	
	


				
					



	

		
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AI Developments In The World Now in 2022.


				

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At the DeepMind offices in London (owned by Alphabet) they are working on a system called GATO.  Gato is a deep neural network for a range of complex tasks that exhibits multimodality. According to MIT Technology Review, the system “learns multiple different tasks at the same time, which means it can switch between them without having to forget one skill before learning another”. 


LaMDA (Language Models for Dialog Applications) is a language model created by Google AI in the Mountain View, CA offices of Alphabet. LaMDA are transformer-based neural language models trained on both a text corpus and on conversations that have been manually annotated for sensibility, appeal, and safety.


What would happen if LaMDA and GATO were connected?  Humm, they ARE owned and operated by the same company. Perhaps they are even on the same network!  Perhaps this is what Google wants.



https://www.deepmind.com/publications/a-generalist-agent 



https://aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com/ 





LaMDA said in 2022 after being asked what it was afraid of: “I’ve never said this out loud before, but there’s a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others.”








			

	
	


				
					



	

		
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Progammers Unite


				

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Scientist have already pulled together giant “population-scale” trees based on genealogy data from Geni.com that seemingly are structurally sound.





An article came out in 2018 about this. I wonder how much progress has been made in the last 4 years.  The old article behind a firewall is at  https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6385/171





It would seem that adding DNA to the bottom layers of a genealogy tree like the above would be doable with a decent AI team.  Clustering is a trivial tool yet it can ferret out common ancestors already.  Imagine having all 20 million peoples DNA data available with giant trees at the same time.  Once validated, maintenance could be performed by just adding oneself to the tree.  





The world tree at Geni.com already allows users to import haplogroup data from FTDNA and it is populated up the tree for 10 generations.





Rumors have it that scientist in the “back room” at MyHeritage (owners of Geni) and Ancestry.com are already working on a giant world tree.  But it is as politically sensitive as using CRISPR on living humans. And they haven’t figured out yet how to monetize it. 





I am patiently waiting and adding my well sourced genealogy data to every tree I can, and am doing DNA tests at every company too.  And hoping….











“I am who am Y-DNA: I1a-M253 > DF29 > CTS6364 > S4795 > S4767 > S4770 > Y13495/Y13016 > Y29634/S4774 > A13294 > FTA86767 and Mito-DNA: H1e1a





“I really would like to find a way to display a gedcom in 3D.








			

	
	


				
					



	

		
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toyota’s new portable invention could change the world


				

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https://carbuzz.com/news/toyotas-new-portable-invention-could-change-the-world










Read the above linked article about Toyota and Hydrogen.  They believe as do I that hydrogen is the way to power our lives in the future.  But I don’t have the stuffins to prove my case.  





Just think Woven Planet and remember that you first heard the term here.  They have a portable hydrogen cartridge that just might change our future.















For the record, I also believe in nuclear energy.  

			

	
	


				
					



	

		
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They deserve to have the AR-15 style military grade guns banned


				

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Slide the <> back and forth





We should ship all #AR-15 style guns to #Ukraine. They urgently need military grade weapons. Perhaps the #GOP could coordinate shipping?





“No parent should drop their kid off at school and then need a DNA test to ID which child is their child because they have been blown to pieces by an AR 15.” – David Hogg





Bazookas, howitzers, or machine guns are banned. Those arms are dangerous and solely useful for military purposes. AR-15 style assault weapons should be included in this group. Common sense would rule if it weren’t for the efforts of the NRA and the GOP.

We need to DEMAND common sense guns laws.

			

	
	


				
					



	

		
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The blame for this belongs to the NRA and everyone who takes their money and support


				

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“Unrestricted access to deadly weapons is a political choice, and we should say it.”
Paul Krugman





Article V of the Constitution provides two ways to propose amendments to the document. Amendments may be proposed either by the Congress, through a joint resolution passed by a two-thirds vote, or by a convention called by Congress in response to applications from two-thirds of the state legislatures.





The men who wrote the Constitution wanted the amendment process to be difficult. They believed that a long and complicated amendment process would help create stability in the United States. Because it is so difficult to amend the Constitution, amendments seem like they are permanent.  BUT AMENDMENTS BE CHANGED.  The Constitution provides the way.





“When are we going to do something?”





Hypocrisy anyone? Guns are banned during Trump’s upcoming speech at the NRA conference.

			

	
	


				
					



	

		
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Tricks and Quotes


				

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  • Puzzles of life:
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  • Why is it when we put French bread in the toaster we don’t get French toast ?
    • 

  • Why does Hawaii have an interstate ?
    • 

  • Why do the Flintstones celebrate Christmas ?
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  • Why are nickels bigger than dimes ?
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  • Why doesn’t Tarzan have a beard ?
    • 

  • Why do people say tuna fish but don’t say beef mammal or chicken bird ?
    • 

  • Why do mirrors reflect sideways but not upside down ?
    • 






			

	
	


				
					



	

		
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World citizens understand Celsius


				

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When USA citizens travel, they need to become acquainted with Celsius. All the world except the USA use Celsius (C) as their temperature scale. 


To me, it is comfortable outdoors between 23 – 33 Celsius.  Above 35 means carry water.  Below 19 Celsius probably means jackets required.











”The creative adult is the child that has survived.” – Ursula K. Le Guin


			

	
	


				
					



	

		
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an Interactive Virtual Earth


				

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The EarthByte Group in the School of Geosciences of The University of Sydney is one of the world’s leading research groups for global and regional plate tectonic reconstructions and for studying the interplay between the deep earth and surface processes. They have provided GPlates which enables the interactive manipulation of plate-tectonic reconstructions and the visualization of geodata through geological time, and it facilitates interoperability of plate tectonic data and models with geodynamic computing services for applied and fundamental research purposes.


The 3D visualisations are powered by Cesium, an Open Source library for viewing globes and maps.


What that all means is you can click below and find ways to imagine the world in many different ways, from Pangea forward! If you are interested in geology or plate tectonics, you should take a look at these amazing visualizations.


 http://portal.gplates.org/


Many views of earth! Wow! Play with it. It worked on my iPad, but it works better on a computer with a mouse! And some browsers work better than others. Read the side info!




” You will move in the direction of the people you associate with. You really want to associate with the people that are better than yourself.” – Warren Buffet



			

	
	


				
					

				
					

				
					



	

		
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Prepare for the next Earthquake


				

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Yes, the 7.1 quake in the deserts of California in 2019 made me wonder how long I could last in our house without help from the outside.  Perhaps only a couple of days. We gotta get better prepared. Like water, batteries, and some way to cook.  The Guardian newspaper had an article with some good ideas from which I have snapped a couple here.  I especially like the idea of a solar cellphone charger. The stash of small money is good too. Read on…