Hattie is small for a Golden Retriever. But she very flexible and can reach anything left on a counter. And does.
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Author Archives: Steve Mays
Clyde Lear
I spend most mornings at the Coffee Zone and once or twice a week, my old friend Clyde Lear stops by to chat. Golden years indeed.
How to save a voicemail
I don’t know that I’ve had to do this (I don’t get a lot of calls and fewer voicemails) but nice to know it’s this easy.
The illusion of free will
“In a study published this week in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers in Australia were able to predict basic choices participants made 11 seconds before they consciously declared their decisions.”
“In the study, 14 participants—each placed in an fMRI machine—were shown two patterns, one of red horizontal stripes and one of green vertical stripes. They were given a maximum of 20 seconds to choose between them. Once they’d made a decision, they pressed a button and had 10 seconds to visualize the pattern as hard as they could. Finally, they were asked “what did you imagine?” and “how vivid was it?” They answered these questions by pressing buttons.”
“Using the fMRI to monitor brain activity and machine learning to analyze the neuroimages, the researchers were able to predict which pattern participants would choose up to 11 seconds before they consciously made the decision. And they were able to predict how vividly the participants would be able to envisage it.”
“Lead author Joel Pearson, cognitive neuroscience professor at the University of South Wales in Australia, said that the study suggests traces of thoughts exist unconsciously before they become conscious.”
Favorite scenes from the movies
One of the reasons I started this blog was to have a place where I could save favorite scenes from the movies. For the first few years I was limited to transcriptions and I relied heavily on Colin’s movie monologue page. It’s still out there but doesn’t appear to have been updated in several years.
“The mass of a body is a measure of its energy content.”
“A kilogram of mass would convert into approximately 25 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. The energy in the mass of one raisin could supply most of New York City’s energy needs for a day.”
—Einstein: His Life and Universe (Walter Isaacson)
65+
When people ask my age, I’ll tell them “65 Plus.” After 65, nobody cares how old you are. Media rating services like Arbitron and Nielson have nice, easy-to-remember categories…that stop at 65. So no more birthdays. I’m 65+. It’s really the last age that matters. (Medicare, Social Security, etc)
I’ve reached the age where contemporaries start dying. God’s mortar shells landing ever closer. John D. MacDonald described it best in Pale Gray for Guilt.
“Picture a very swift torrent, a river rushing down between rocky walls. There is a long, shallow bar of sand and gravel that runs right down the middle of the river. It is under water. You are born and you have to stand on that narrow, submerged bar, where everyone stands. The ones born before you, the ones older than you, are upriver from you. The younger one stand braced on the bar downriver. And the whole long bar is slowly moving down that river of time, washing away at the upstream end and building up downstream.
It’s hard to be part of the 65+ demo and not have a sense of your own mortality. I like Scott Adams’ take.
“…we’re a simulated (programmed) world left behind by advanced humanoids that shed their bodies billions of years ago. Our simulated world is the closest they could come to immortality. They were romantics, much like ourselves, and couldn’t stand the thought of being separated from their loved ones for eternity. So in our programmed little world, when we feel a special connection to another, it’s because we knew that person when we were real, and the program allows us to feel it again as if new. Thus, when you meet your soul mate, it is a reunion of sorts. And it will happen over and over, in each subsequent life the program provides for you.”
But Paul Simon said it best for my money.
My first dog
I can’t recall if it was he or she but someone named it Collie. I love this photo. I literally started life in a field of clover with a good dog and a loving mother.
Silly Con Valley (Steve Cutts)
The Spinner*
“The Spinner* (with the asterisk) is “a service that enables you to subconsciously influence a specific person, by controlling the content on the websites he or she usually visits.” Meaning you can hire The Spinner* to hack another person.”
“You pay The Spinner* $29 (and the company) provides you with an ordinary link you then text to your friend. When that friend clicks on the link, they get a tracking cookie that works as a bulls-eye for The Spinner* to hit with 10 different articles written specifically to influence that friend. He or she “will be strategically bombarded with articles and media tailored to him or her.” Specifically, 180 of these things.”
— Doc Searls