The Curmudgeon Speaks

I bought a new iMac when I retired. That was eight years ago. It was finally time to retire that machine and invest in something new. I bought a Mac mini and a 30-inch Samsung monitor and now am trying to recreate my collection of tools from scratch. The iMac will reside at our lake place for a while.

I got to the point where a few of the apps I wanted to run required the newest Mac OS. I am also discovering that some of the apps I used to run will not work on the newer machine. I am caught in between and this is the reality of progress. I will have to have to find new options.

I met John this morning at Starbucks. I was surprised to see him at a table with all of his equipment playing during the hour+ I was there. I spent some time talking with him after I asked to take his picture. He spoke a polished English that was not from here. Perhaps England. Interesting fellow. He stood and introduced himself and shook hands before talking with me.

I asked about his decision to play in a coffee shop. He said he can move his equipment in with two trips to the car and the wifi was better than he had at home. I asked about the setting. He said it reminded him of spending time in internet cafes. I had flashbacks to spending time elsewhere and visiting such cafes a few times myself.

I should write something sometime about my coffee shop experiences.

I find it difficult to ignore the issue of climate change. I believe the scientist who claim the climate of the earth hospitable to humans is on a downward trajectory and we are approaching a point at which without some miraculous new technology the future becomes very bleak. 

If you are of such a mind, it is easy to see signs around you. Some regard events such as a cold winter, mighty storms bringing torrential rains as contrary indicators. However, the examples they bring forward are misinterpreted. Everything is not about warming, but rather intensity displayed in extremes that are coming with increasing frequency. We had a record snowfall in Minnesota this winter. Sure, snow melts into water, but the amount does not offset the dry and even drought-level summers we are experiencing. It is the frequency of such records that is concerning. The number of records exceeds what one would expect statistically by a substantial margin.

We are presently in a very dry period. The same thing happened last summer. I gave up on my lawn last summer and focused the watering on my garden. This summer has already been very similar, but starting earlier. Record temps and a dry May and June. I still water the grass trying to salvage an investment in a new seeing required because of grub damage last year. 

I noticed today walking through the park just how dry everything that is not irrigated has become. Sobering signs I cannot ignore.

It is strawberry season in the upper midwest and our go-to location is Lindy’s Berries. We pick our own and also purchase when the farm sells in communities near where we live.

If you pick your own, there is a substantial price break. It is hard and hot work, but the difference between $13 and $22 (Facebook page) is substantial and picking your own is enjoyable. There is no extra charge for sampling as you work.

If you looked at my post from last year, you will notice that the cost has gone up from $20 to $22. A couple of years ago when we first started purchasing these berries the price was $16. You might call this inflation.

Here is the thing about inflation in berry farming. There is a lot of hand labor involved in the process. Hence the difference between pick your own and purchasing picked. BTW – Lindy’s like so many businesses is having trouble finding enough workers and the cost per bucket for pickers has gone up. The Facebook page contains an application if you need summer work. Here is the segment regarding pay.

Pay: How much could I make picking strawberries? Because we hire pickers as young as 12 and all the way up to adults in their 50’s and 60’s the pay varies greatly. If you are dedicated, come to work as many days as possible, and work hard, the pay is great! In 2022, Lindy’s Berries hired over 75 pickers. Several pickers made well over $1,200 in the 22 days we picked, and several made over $2,000. The average total for pickers that worked 75% of the days we picked was about $850. This year we will be paying $4.50 for every bucket you pick. Payment is by check every Monday for buckets picked the prior Sunday-Saturday. We withhold 7.65% for your portion of FICA and Social Security taxes. You will be sent a W2 in January for your earnings and withholding information.

Aside from the cost of production, there are salaries involved in picking and in transportation and labor at the multiple locations selling the berries. The costs for the product take these increasing costs into consideration. So, you can fight inflation by driving to a berry field and picking your own or you can pay a little more, be thankful some poor kids who are out in the fields are making a little more money, and complain about inflation to those willing to take pay cuts to bring down prices.

Bernie makes an important point in opposing the approach to raising the debt ceiling. Folks are pleased the uncertainty of the rising debt ceiling seems to have passed, but unavoidable challenges remain. The climate continues to deteriorate and global consequences increase. Income inequality continues to widen as the wealthy gain greater political advantage and safety net programs are sacrificed. The reasons immigration pressures mount are ignored. Problems grow and kicking the can down the road only contributes to increases in the problems that exist. Nothing here to feel reassured about.

Apple, Amazon, and several other companies that make heavy use of tech have requested that their employees not use services such as ChatGPT and Bard. It is not that these companies are concerned about the use of AI in general, but that the content added in using AI may end up being shared with others.

As a fairly heavy user of these AI tools, I wonder how realistic it is that specific code or concepts are shared per se. OpenAI (ChatGPT) does not continually update its knowledge base and the present build of content ended in 2021. Bard works a little differently. However, there is an interesting issue here. These models are built by scraping web content and collecting ongoing material from users (to be incorporated later in some cases). All of this content is integrated. I do wonder whether there is an issue with material created by a specific user or company, but the general issue of scraping content is clear. Is this different from search engines, which advertise against search returns? Not exactly, the content in search is still sent from the original source to users and the creators can associate this content with ads. The collection of this same content that contributes to the development of an AI knowledge base does not offer any such benefit. What the big companies have noticed is very similar to what any content creator is experiencing.

We finally made use of our Twins tickets yesterday. It was a perfect day for baseball and we were treated to a come from behind Twins win.

I thought I would use Google Bard to see what the AI service would have to say about the park. It does not have a retractable roof which is an example of the type of thing AI can get wrong, but it is well written. Some photos I took follow.

Target Field is a baseball park in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the home of the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball. The park opened in 2010 and replaced the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome as the Twins’ home ballpark.

Target Field is a modern ballpark with a classic feel. The park is built with native Minnesota limestone and features a retractable roof. The seating bowl is intimate and close to the action, and the views of the Minneapolis skyline are stunning.

Target Field is a great place to catch a baseball game. The atmosphere is electric, the food is delicious, and the fans are passionate. Whether you’re a Twins fan or not, Target Field is a must-see for any baseball fan.

Here are some of the things that make Target Field a great ballpark:

• The intimate seating bowl: Target Field has a seating capacity of just over 40,000, which makes it one of the smallest ballparks in Major League Baseball. This means that fans are always close to the action, and they can really feel the excitement of the game.
• The retractable roof: Target Field has a retractable roof, which means that games can be played rain or shine. This is a huge advantage for fans, who no longer have to worry about the weather ruining their day at the ballpark.
• The views: Target Field is located in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, and the views of the city skyline from the ballpark are simply stunning. Fans can enjoy a game of baseball while also taking in the sights and sounds of one of America’s great cities.
• The food: Target Field has a wide variety of food options available, from traditional ballpark fare to more upscale options. Fans can find something to eat to satisfy their appetite, no matter what they’re in the mood for.
• The fans: Target Field has some of the most passionate fans in baseball. The fans are always loud and supportive, and they create a great atmosphere at the ballpark.

If you’re looking for a great place to catch a baseball game, Target Field is the perfect destination. The ballpark has it all: great views, delicious food, and passionate fans. You won’t be disappointed.

iPhone has an amazing camera. This is a shot from hundreds of feet away. You can see the fly ball leaving the bat.

Another interesting feature of the phone. There is a maze of parking garages around the park and it is easy to lose your way walking through the skyways. The phone saves the location of your parked car.

President Trump has pledged to fire the radical Left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.

He will impose real standards on American colleges and universities, to include defending the American tradition and Western civilization, protecting free speech, eliminating wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs, removing all DEI bureaucrats, offering options for accelerated and low-cost degrees, providing meaningful job placement and career services, and implementing college entrance and exit exams to prove that students are getting their money’s worth.

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/videos/agenda47-protecting-students-from-the-radical-left-and-marxist-maniacs

Most of my higher ed experience was limited to the time I spent at the University of North Dakota. I understand what working as an academic in a Republican state means. However, aside from the rate at which the State supported the University budget, I don’t remember politicians meddling in the curriculum. I left before the Trump years so I don’t know if this has changed in North Dakota, but it clearly has in many locations.

A few basic facts. Higher ed, even state institutions, are in a different situation than K12 public schools. We are only partially funded by your state taxes. The government proportion of the budget is about a third or so. Added to this reality, the state politicians can also limit tuition levels. You can get this sensation of feeling squeezed from multiple directions. In North Dakota, about 35% of the student body comes from the home state. It is important to be able to be competitive in order to attract other students and their tuition dollars. North Dakota institutions would do little to expose locals to the diversity of people and ideas that exist without these students.

A good proportion of the research conducted at universities requires external funds and faculty members are under constant pressure to secure grants to generate the research that plays a significant role in their tenure and salary increases. While a good proportion of the faculty may not be successful in obtaining such funds, the pressure to engage in scholarship is part of the pressure to keep academics current in their fields and to provide support for students’ hands-on experiences in their fields of study.

I get the feeling, mostly based on comments from some of my relatives, that citizens are fairly naive regarding both finances and the curriculum. Citizens seem more acutely aware of the performance of the sports teams and seem to conflate the salaries of the coaches of winning athletic programs and the dean of the medical school with the salaries that the rest of us made. Many equate becoming educated regarding issues of equity or some scientific principles with indoctrination and they ignore the fact-oriented, competitive debate that goes on in scholarly communities.

The word indoctrination has an interesting spin when used by many politicians. Rather than expecting citizens to be exposed to the many ideas that compete and deserve debate, they seem to have a specific dogma in mind that may not stand up to careful and fact-based analysis.

Higher ed is not above criticism. There are plenty of internal mechanisms that assure some degree of scrutiny, but we also welcome external analysis as long as it comes with an understanding of how institutions are actually funded and what processes ensure that students encounter all kinds of ideas to promote the development of critical thinking and challenge naive beliefs.

Develop, but don’t deploy. No, it is not about keeping up with China.

I encourage you to listen to this podcast from “Your divided attention“. While acknowledging the transformative power of AI, the presentation paints a very dark picture and urges action to limit deployment before it is too late.

The logic of the pessimism is based in the speed-oriented motive of the tech giants to gain market share and the lack of understanding of AI developers of how their tools work or where the use of these tools make eventually take us. The program makes a comparison to social media, another implementation with great promise and still far less powerful than ai, and suggests that the competitive zeal of the tech companies either failed to consider or didn’t care about the negative consequences of their social media services. We should have learned a lesson.

The argument continues to note that the magnitude of the resources that are required to make AI work prevents university researchers who are less interested in financial success and competition from conducting research on what may go wrong and how users may be harmed. There are just no incentives or requirements that the tech industry think and act in a similar way.

What about China? While it is true that China is a significant competitor when it comes to AI development, China is resistant to deploy AI applications for citizen use. They fear what their citizens may learn or do with the tool and since citizen use cannot be predicted tech companies are careful to control use.

It has been a weird couple of days. Several ads ago I for some reason tried to recall the name of the town in which we lived and could not. I tried concentrating harder. Still nothing. Then, I tried remembering the town nearest to our lake place. Nothing. Forgetting things does seem to become more common with age, but this was unusual. One would think you could remember where you live even if you haven’t been there in a couple of months. I tried related things. I could remember my street address. I could remember the town next down the road from the up North town I was trying to remember. It has my favorite coffee shop so maybe that makes a difference.

This issue came and went during the day. I tried practicing – Richfield and Danbury. It did not seem to matter. I finally told Cindy. During a call with our oldest daughter, Cindy happened to mention that I could not remember where I lived and this daughter suggested I call my doctor to ask about the situation. This would not have been an action I would have taken on my own. I made the call knowing that the best I could do was talk with my physician’s nurse. She asked about other symptoms – headaches, unsteadiness, numbness, etc. Everything else was fine. She suggested I go to urgent care or the emergency room. This is not easy to do on Kauai, but we did make the drive to the hospital emergency room.

Same story, same questions, blood pressure, heart rate, blood tests, etc.  The doc said I should have an MRI. The MRI is that small tube with loud magnets that rotate around and activate the cells of your brain in a way that can be detected to produce an image of your brain. It is not for you if you struggle with tight places. It is loud so they let you wear earphones and select the music you want. I decided I should listen to Hawaiian. Nothing – my brain at least looks normal. I guess the goal is to identify a stroke and no stroke could be found. I suppose this was the reason for the immediate visit to a doc.

I was released and told to do a telehealth consult with a neurologist. The nearest one is on Oahu, but for two days they have been unable to get his attention to set up an appointment. I am going to assume I am fine. My memory seems to be working again and I know where I live. Emergency room docs are not particularly talkative because they are trying to deal with many patients as quickly as possible. I do forget weird things from time to time. I am guessing not remembering your phone number or something like that is less important. How often do you phone yourself? Not being able to remember where you live does seem a little more significant and you are asked for this bit of information more frequently. I suppose I could do some online research, but that would likely give me too much to think about and make me anxious. Your memory works better when you are relaxed.