Posted inScience

Artificial Intelligence explained to City Club by Willamette University professor

Last Friday Calvin Deutschbein, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Willamette University, gave a talk on Artificial Intelligence, otherwise known as AI, to the Salem City Club. Deutschbein is holding a microphone in the photo below. He started off by talking about intelligence in general. It has something to do with (1) representing the world, (2) finding patterns, (3) predicting the future, (4) acting optimally. His example pertained to his cat. I'll adapt it to our dog. Mooka, our Husky mix, clearly is adept at making sense of the world. After all, ever since dogs became domesticated, probably via ancestral…
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Posted inHome life

My fall into a creek shows why doing one thing at a time makes sense

Yesterday I fell off a bridge into running water. Fortunately, it was a tiny bridge and the water wasn't very deep. How it appears to have happened contains a life lesson. Yesterday I was taking our dog, Mooka, on her usual late afternoon walk, which begins on our property in rural south Salem. I had her on a leash, since the area by a creek is favored by raccoons, and we don't want Mooka running off and tangling with one. I'd just crossed a little bridge that crosses the main part of Spring Creek, a short creek that feeds Spring…
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Posted inWeblogs

Typepad told me they aren’t going out of business. Hope that’s true.

I've been blogging with Typepad since 2003, which is when Wikipedia says Typepad launched. So I must have been one of their earliest customers. Now I have three Typepad blogs. So while I've gotten used to fairly frequent Typepad outages as problems with the blogging service have become more common, when I couldn't log in to my account on March 3, I got more concerned than usual. Even though things were back to normal by the next day (which for Typepad is still pretty crappy, especially when it comes to uploading photos, as this person complained about in 2022), I…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Health

Laurel Hines, my wife, supports changes to Oregon’s Death With Dignity law

The Oregon legislature is considering a bill, SB 1003, that would make changes to our state's Death With Dignity law -- which allows people who have six months or less left to live to exercise control over the time and manner of their death by taking physician-prescribed medication. Passed by Oregon voters in 1994, and affirmed in 1997 when it took effect after a legal challenge, the law is a good start, but it needs improving. That's why my wife, Laurel Hines, testified in favor of SB 1003 at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on March 3. Laurel told the…
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Posted inSalem

Ukrainian refugee speaks at Salem City Club on day Trump insults Ukraine

The timing was coincidental. Still, yesterday it was jarring for me to leave for the noon Salem City Club program on "Finding Home in a New Culture and Country" after learning the news about how Trump and Vance had insulted Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, which really was an insult to the entire country, only to find that one of the program speakers was Kseniia Hnatovska, a Ukrainian. Here's how she was described in a City Club email: Kseniia and her family fled Ukraine at the onset of the war and undertook a long and challenging journey that brought them…
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Posted inHealth Salem

Salem Health dumps Regence after each blames the other

When I went in for a teeth cleaning session at my dentist's office this week, I told the front desk person that I had different insurance now, having signed up with Providence MedAdvantage at the end of 2024 because I didn't want to run the risk of my Regence MedAdvantage plan being severely handicapped by Regence and Salem Health failing to renew their contract -- which seemed likely at the time. I was told that many of their dental patients have done the same thing: dumped Regence. A few days ago the wisdom of that move became clear when Salem…
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Posted inSports

2025 Super Bowl made me into a NFL fan

I can't be absolutely sure about this, but after watching the 2025 Super Bowl, for the first time I feel like I'm turning into a NFL fan -- even though I've watched every previous Super Bowl and never had that inclination.  It's hard for me to tell what made the difference this time. Sure, it was an entertaining game, filled with surprises. I expected that the contest between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles would be close. When the score was 24-0 at halftime after Philadelphia held Kansas City scoreless, I realized a blowout was more likely. Yet all…
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Posted inEntertainment

I loved Emilia Pérez, a highly creative genre-bending film

Last night my wife and I finished watching Emilia Pérez on Netflix. We loved the movie, which won four Golden Globe awards this year and likely will be nominated for many Oscars.  We tried to imagine what the pitch would have been to movie studios. "Hey guys, we want to make a film about a man who is a vicious Mexican drug lord, but whose dream is to become a transgender woman. It will be largely in Spanish with English subtitles and feature lots of singing and dancing." Yeah, right, not going to happen seemingly would have been the typical…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Health

In Providence strike, I’m on the side of nurses and doctors

Last Friday Oregon's largest health care strike in history kicked off as about 5,000 nurses, doctors, and midwives walked off their Providence Hospitals jobs. Dissatisfaction with working conditions was a major reason for the strike, according to the Oregon Nurses Association.  One of Oregon’s largest healthcare providers, Providence, is a system in crisis that threatens the health and well-being of all Oregonians.   We are nurses, doctors, physician associates, nurse practitioners, and certified nurse midwives from Providence facilities across Oregon. Some of us have been bargaining with Providence for more than a year and are working without a contract. Providence…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sports

Oregon’s Rose Bowl loss reminded me of Harris’s presidential loss

There I was, all prepared for what I thought was going to be an enjoyable television watching time. I'd been looking forward to this moment for months. I was highly familiar with the contest that finally was going to be decided. I realized that my favorite wasn't guaranteed to win. But there was every indication that this had a good chance of happening. I figured that the worst that could happen was an evenly matched contest where it would take a while for the winner to become obvious. Sadly, what I just said applied equally to two disturbing events spaced…
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Posted inHumor Salem

2024 Silvertongue Apple-Peal pokes satirical fun at Silverton

The Silvertongue Apple-Peal not coincidentally has a name similar to Silverton's recently deceased serious newspaper, the Appeal Tribune, which met its end in 2022 when the nearby Salem Statesman Journal stopped publishing it on the command of its corporate master, Gannett.  Thankfully, the Silvertongue Apple-Peal lives on since 2012, thanks to local gadfly Gus Frederick, who has come out with a new edition on the pleasingly languid schedule of every two years to mark a general or midterm election.  Our Town described Gus Frederick's effort in a story about the closing of the Appeal Tribune after 142 years.  Frederick said…
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Posted inFood and drink Health Home life

My wife made the healthiest main dish in the history of Christmas Eve dinners

Part of me says, "You shouldn't be bragging on Christmas Day." Another part says, "Dude, go ahead and brag -- you aren't bragging about yourself, but about your wife, Laurel." I'm listening to that part. For while the title of this blog post might seem to be an exaggeration, it accurately reflects the prevailing opinion among me, Laurel, and five friends we invited for a Christmas Eve dinner at our house last night  Well, in the history of Christmas Eve dinners is an embellishment that I added for dramatic effect. But it's true that all seven of us agreed that…
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Posted inSalem

Looks like Macy’s store in downtown Salem is closing soon

I've heard from two people that the Macy's store in downtown Salem is closing after the first of the year. I don't know if that means January 1 or a later date. But reportedly this news comes from Macy's employees, so it seems to be true -- though I don't believe there has been any official announcement.  Adding credence to this rumor is a Reddit post from two months ago.  So, idk if it’s public knowledge yet, but Macys in downtown mall is closing. I’m a former employee and they told us in June/July-ish? They’re declining in service, they’re treating…
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Posted inGrowing older Retirement community

Us seniors are getting screwed by the lack of Medicare long-term care

My wife and I are in our mid-70s. We're old, but not super old. Currently we're doing just fine living at our home on ten non-easy-care acres in rural south Salem, Oregon.  Yet it's becoming increasingly obvious that with increasing age comes a diminished ability to do the things that need doing. That's why we're having more yard work done by hourly workers, use a handyman to do some routine chores we used to do ourself, and have made changes such as putting screens on our gutters and railings along our outside walkway. Such is absolutely normal. Every old person,…
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Posted inHome life Writing/Weblogs

Our 2024 Christmas letter is partly about saber-toothed tigers

Another year, another Christmas Letter. Or as we call it, our Holiday Greetings. Per usual, I wrote it. The key to doing that this time was an image that popped into my mind of animals going extinct. Which pretty much sums up how I look upon Christmas letters: a dying breed. Nonetheless, I'm still alive. And I enjoy writing the Holiday Greetings. Plus, because I've written a Christmas letter since 1995, as documented in my regularly updated Collected Christmas Letters post, I didn't feel like breaking that string this year. Here's the 2024 letter, in PDF and JPEG formats.Download 2024…
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Posted inFood and drink Health

Here’s what’s scientifically true about good nutrition

When it comes to what sorts of food are best for us, opinions abound. There's a never-ending avalanche of nutritional advice from many different sources: social media, news sites, television ads, books, and such. Often this advice isn't based on scientific facts. That's why I was thrilled to see the special issue of New Scientist that arrived in the mail recently. The cover headline: How to Eat Better: The Seven Chewiest Questions About Nutrition and Your Health. Here's the questions and a brief summary of the answers. (New Scientist is a British publication, so some spellings are different from American…
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Posted inSports

Oregon Ducks win Big Ten championship! We’re #1!

Wow. What a game. And what a season. The University of Oregon football team went 13-0, capping it off with a nail biter of a Big Ten championship game against Penn State that the Ducks won 45-37 tonight. It was a highly entertaining game. Somehow I remained calm through most of it. Probably that had a lot to do with my memories of the preceding twelve games, some of which -- like Boise State and Ohio State -- were won extremely narrowly. But somehow Oregon found a way to win. That's the mark of a great team with great coaching.…
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Posted inGrowing older

It’s tough to grow old. Government should be doing more for the elderly.

I don't want to burst any young person's aging bubble, but the plain truth is that the so-called Golden Years are anything but -- if "golden" is viewed as a blissful retired condition filled with travel, golf, and other pleasant activities that supposedly dominate life of the elderly. Speaking as a 76 year old who has friends in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, I can confidently say that while growing old has its positive side (such as more free time), doctor visits, aches and pains, chronic medical conditions, and an increasing inability to do activities that used to be much…
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Posted inHome life Starlink Web/Tech

Broadband is coming to Oregon’s unserved areas, but slowly

A few days ago I decided to see whether there was anything new being reported by the Oregon Broadband Office, a state agency charged with overseeing projects to bring decently fast broadband to people in this state who lack it. That includes my neighborhood in rural south Salem. Though we're only six miles or so from the Salem city limits, Oregon's capital, the only wired/fixed broadband (as contrasted with cellular broadband) available out here is crappy CenturyLink DSL that comes over ancient copper phone lines at the sluggish speed of 6-7 Mbps down and 1-2 Mbps up. This is a…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Web/Tech

I’m enjoying Bluesky after my disillusionment with Elon Musk’s X

A few days ago I took the social media plunge into the pleasant waters of Bluesky, having become increasingly disillusioned with X (formerly known as Twitter).  After Elon Musk bought Twitter and almost instantly renamed it X, because that's his favorite letter, I found this irritating, but not enough to make me leave X. The positives seemed to outweigh the negatives. I use Twitter, X, and now Bluesky for the enjoyment I get from following quality observers of our local, state, and national political scenery. They're up to date on what's going on. I learn a lot from the links…
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