Steve Mays @smays@mastodon.technology

"The problem with the idea that God has a human-like personality is that human personalities are nothing but weaknesses and defects that we romanticize. For example, I might be kind to others because I want them to be nice to me, or perhaps I simply feel guilty when I’m not nice. [...] Logically, God couldn’t have a personality in the sense that humans do because our personalities are expressions of our defects and our DNA and our neediness."

-- Scott Adams

https://www.scottadamssays.com/2013/10/09/does-god-have-a-personality/

"The 1790s will never come again. Childhood was big.

People would take walks to the very tops of hills
and write down what they saw in their journals without speaking.

Our collars were high and our hats were extremely soft.

We would surprise each other with alphabets made of twigs.

It was a wonderful time to be alive, or even dead."

More at...

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46703/nostalgia-56d226ac3a1dd

In January, 2009, Ohio 5th District Congressman Bob Latta made news by "Twittering" (on his Blackberry) from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Can it only be ten years? And when was the last time you saw "Blackberry" in print?

Will we ever look back on "Facebook" in the same way?

I wrote my first blog post on Twitter ("microblogging") in March of 2007. I posted on the topic 95 times before I bailed a few years ago.

Looking back, I'm convinced all such technologies show us who and what we really are. Not pretty.

https://www.smays.com/tag/twitter/

Last night we ended up on the couch
trying to remember
all of the friends who had died so far,

and this morning I wrote them down
in alphabetical order
on the flip side of a shopping list
you had left on the kitchen table.
--------
You can read the full poem -- and listen to the author read it -- here.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/18/downpour

"Cell phones will be the new radios and televisions. This will start to happen in a big way the minute Apple opens its iPhones to independent developers of native applications (rather than just ones that run in a browser)."

-- A prediction from Doc Searls on a panel (Public Media 2008) titled Technology and Trends: What’s Around the Bend?

“Nothing gives you the upper hand like knowing the other guy is wearing somebody else’s hair.”

— Lawrence Block’s The Burglar on the Prowl.

“The average American consumes 17 teaspoons of added sugar each day, according to researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. That’s compared with the American Heart Association’s recommended daily maximum of six teaspoons for women, and nine for men.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/07/the-average-american-eats-17-teaspoons-of-added-sugar-daily-its-killing-us

But if nearly half of Americans are morons, a danger to the planet...

I'm a big fan of earbuds and loud music in the dentist chair. Wife getting a root canal today and found this little display in the waiting room of the dentist. For folks who have their phone but forgot earbuds.

"The odd collection of molecules that make a human being will stay in that arrangement for less time than it takes the universe to blink."

-- God's Debris (pg 35) by Scott Adams

“The truck also comes packed with technology, including electronics that can communicate with fighter jets, drones and other military assets around the globe. In place of a sun visor mounted above the thick blast-resistant windshield, the JLTV has a fold-down night-vision driving system.[…] The JLTV also has a combat override switch that the driver can use to take all control away from the computer.”

https://www.smays.com/2019/11/jltv-humvee-replacement/

How do you know when you have too much money?

"The Edema Guard Monitor—a stand-alone device—measures lung impedance, or resistance to electrical current, Shochat said. Healthy, air-filled lungs are highly resistant to electrical current, whereas lungs swollen by fluid are less resistant. In pulmonary congestion, the lungs gradually become more and more swollen by fluid. Existing techniques for monitoring worsening pulmonary congestion, such as periodic chest X-rays or computed tomography (CT) scans of the lungs, are costly or not highly effective."

More medical tech...

This might not be new but I just heard of it.

A sensor that can be implanted in the lungs for early detection of fluid build-up. Uses some sort of telemetry to alert patient/docs for early detection of pneumonia.

Following my semi-annual dental check-up yesterday my dentist showed me some amazing technology. Not so long ago getting a crown meant taking an impression; a temporary crown; and a long wait for a lab to make the permanent crown. No longer. Meet the Sirona Cerec MC XL Dental Milling Machine. Sort of a 3D printer in reverse. (video)

https://www.smays.com/2019/10/high-tech-dentistry/

I wonder that from time to time. Only mild curiosity, no shame or pride. From a New Yorker article:

“more people on the planet are over sixty-five than under five”

“Many older men have to pee right after they pee, and many older women pee whenever they sneeze.”

I’ll be 72 in March.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/04/why-we-cant-tell-the-truth-about-aging

"All of the things you’ve ever seen or experienced in your life — objects, plants, animals, people — are made of a small number of particles, interacting with one another through a small number of forces."

-- The Big Picture (Sean Carroll)

https://www.smays.com/2016/06/the-big-picture/

Moment of Zen

“The Dick List began 7 years ago at the Pasadena house. It was a very girly house for a long time. It was also a very listy house. So in honor of both of those characteristics, we developed an oft-revised, publicly posted Dick List in our kitchen. It had a two-fold purpose: 1) promoting girly solidarity through bile-spewing; and 2) reminding us that certain guys were real dicks.”

- Nikol Lohr (2002)

Be a long fuckin' list today

I so love this photo drug dogs who sniffed out 400+ pounds of weed. They's so obviously posed and so obviously thinking, "What?"