Saturday, April 12, 2025
Friday, April 11, 2025
Sunday, April 6, 2025
Sunday, March 30, 2025
Storm
I was working on my computer when an alarm went off on my phone, followed by a citywide tornado siren and multiple tornado warning alerts and texts.
The last two warnings, both from this month, were for tornadoes near the edges of the county, far from my location.
I did the only reasonable thing: I stepped outside to check out the weather. I wasn't the only one. Just to the west, some ominous black storm clouds were gathering. It slowly started to rain, so I took shelter inside. The Weather Bug app indicated a fast-moving storm system overhead.
Then, the power went out. The storm sounded intense, so I temporarily hid in a large closet. It passed after a few minutes.
The power company sent a text estimating the outage would last until 2:15 AM.
I wonder whether there was actually a tornado.
Two years ago, a tornado on the far west side of the county caused a massive burst of wind in Columbus, knocking down trees all over the city, including on a property across the street. That storm sounded worse; I genuinely thought my house was about to be hit by a tornado.
--
Best wishes,
John Coffey
http://www.entertainmentjourney.com
The last two warnings, both from this month, were for tornadoes near the edges of the county, far from my location.
I did the only reasonable thing: I stepped outside to check out the weather. I wasn't the only one. Just to the west, some ominous black storm clouds were gathering. It slowly started to rain, so I took shelter inside. The Weather Bug app indicated a fast-moving storm system overhead.
Then, the power went out. The storm sounded intense, so I temporarily hid in a large closet. It passed after a few minutes.
The power company sent a text estimating the outage would last until 2:15 AM.
The power came back on after about 2 hours and 15 minutes.
I wonder whether there was actually a tornado.
Two years ago, a tornado on the far west side of the county caused a massive burst of wind in Columbus, knocking down trees all over the city, including on a property across the street. That storm sounded worse; I genuinely thought my house was about to be hit by a tornado.
--
Best wishes,
John Coffey
http://www.entertainmentjourney.com
16-Year-Old Girl Wakes Up Every Day Thinking It’s June 11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKQV0u2-7OA
I have heard of a condition called anterograde amnesia, where people can't retain new memories.
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Friday, March 28, 2025
DESI Observations Confirm Possible New Physics in Cosmology
Apparently, Dark Energy is getting weaker as the universe expands.
Thursday, March 27, 2025
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Sunday, March 23, 2025
How I Think About Climate Change
0 seconds ago
Neil,
It is possible that climate alarmists are correct and that human CO₂ emissions will lead to disastrous climate change unless we take drastic action. However, I have about a hundred reasons to believe they are not. We will find out in time because we are currently running the experiment. While some changes are occurring, they do not seem significant enough to warrant panic. I believe we have far more time to address this issue than alarmists suggest, as these changes are happening very slowly.
Looking at temperature data, it took approximately 140 years for the average atmospheric temperature to rise by just 1°C—starting from 1880, which was an exceptionally cold decade.
One major reason for resistance to drastic climate policies is that human civilization depends on cheap, reliable energy to thrive. The proposed solutions are often expensive, unreliable, and require draconian government controls. I do not want the government to control the entire energy sector unless there is an overwhelmingly strong existential reason to do so.
I have followed this issue for 37 years and have seen many dire predictions fail to materialize. Around 35 years ago, some claimed that we would face catastrophe within 25 years. Yet, our supposed doom always seems to be 25 years away—much like nuclear fusion. 🙂
As I mentioned earlier, the rate of change is slow, but another key factor is climate sensitivity to CO₂ doubling. Just 15 years ago, some climate scientists estimated climate sensitivity to be between 6 and 12°C. However, these predictions have gradually been revised downward. Around 2010, experts warned that we were on track for a 3°C increase by 2100 and that this would be dangerous, though a 2°C rise would be manageable. Less than a decade later, I saw similar claims, but the numbers had shifted: now a 2°C increase was the catastrophe, and 1.5°C was the new "manageable" threshold. The goalposts keep moving.
We have nearly doubled atmospheric CO₂ since pre-industrial levels—though not quite yet. However, we have not observed a 6–12°C increase. After analyzing temperature and CO₂ data from 1880, I did some calculations and estimated a climate sensitivity of around 2°C.
A 2015 graph comparing climate model predictions with actual temperature changes showed that nearly all models ran too hot. Only the Russian model was close to reality.
We now live in a political climate where truth is often defined by narrative rather than data. It is a post-truth society. There have been numerous reports of scientists struggling to secure funding or publication unless they align with the official narrative.
The IPCC is not an unbiased organization. They have refused to hire anyone who does not already subscribe to the belief in catastrophic man-made warming. This is not how science should be conducted—starting with a conclusion and working backward. Given that the IPCC is funded by governments, it should remain neutral and let data guide its conclusions. Instead, it behaves more like a political entity. The IPCC has also attempted to prevent skeptical papers from being published and has hired individuals affiliated with environmental lobbying groups—an obvious conflict of interest.
Some scientists have resigned from the IPCC, citing excessive bias. One former member stated that the real goal of the organization was to dismantle free-market capitalism.
Antonio Guterres, the socialist from Portugal who has led the UN since 2017, routinely makes exaggerated claims about climate change—such as his statement that oceans are "starting to boil."
Unfortunately, I do not trust the political system or academia to provide an honest assessment. I wish I could, but too many individuals and institutions appear to be pushing their agendas.
Best wishes,
John Coffey
Saturday, March 22, 2025
The Path to AGI is Coming Into View
0 seconds ago
It seems like the wrong approach. LLMs excel at language but are not well-suited for other tasks. The top chess programs, for example, are exponentially stronger than the best human players. A general-purpose AI would likely need to be a collection of specialized tools, each designed for a specific task. By developing enough of these tools, you could create a highly intelligent system.
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Saturday, March 15, 2025
Michael Mann Lawsuit Against Mark Steyn
Michael Mann is a climate scientist and a prominent figure in climate activism. He created the controversial "Hockey Stick" graph, which has been widely criticized for its methodology and accuracy.
Journalist and public speaker Mark Steyn referred to Mann as "a fraud." Mann, who has a history of suing critics, filed a lawsuit against Steyn. After a decade of litigation, Mann won a million-dollar judgment. However, an appeals court has largely overturned the ruling for misrepresentation by Mann and his lawyer.
https://www.youtube.com/live/2UcBaVeSMz8?t=986s
The next part of the video discusses the alleged fraud in government funding of climate activism.
https://www.youtube.com/live/2UcBaVeSMz8?t=1673s
Journalist and public speaker Mark Steyn referred to Mann as "a fraud." Mann, who has a history of suing critics, filed a lawsuit against Steyn. After a decade of litigation, Mann won a million-dollar judgment. However, an appeals court has largely overturned the ruling for misrepresentation by Mann and his lawyer.
https://www.youtube.com/live/2UcBaVeSMz8?t=986s
The next part of the video discusses the alleged fraud in government funding of climate activism.
https://www.youtube.com/live/2UcBaVeSMz8?t=1673s
Friday, March 14, 2025
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Disease Preparedness, and Supply Chains
Disease Preparedness, and Supply Chains:
This is an interesting discussion from five years ago just as COVID-19 was taking off in the United States.
Monday, March 10, 2025
Sunday, March 9, 2025
Why Do Americans Call This a Biscuit?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Hl5drxqF09k
Bake something until it is completely dry and it can last for years. Sometimes decades. Some soldiers ate hardtack left over from previous wars.
Sea biscuits or hardtack led to the modern cracker.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Sunday, March 2, 2025
Saturday, March 1, 2025
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Most common words in English
According to The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists, the first 25 words in the OEC make up about one-third of all printed material in English, and the first 100 words make up about half of all written English.[3] According to a study cited by Robert McCrum in The Story of English, all of the first hundred of the most common words in English are of Old English origin,[4] except for "people", ultimately from Latin "populus", and "because", in part from Latin "causa".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_common_words_in_English
Monday, February 24, 2025
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Re: CO2 removal and farming
If I had a choice to spend money and resources to take CO2 out of the air, or not, I would prefer to leave the CO2 in the air. It is a valuable resource. It is plant food. It is part of the food chain. Nature has ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere.
The CO2 level has been declining for a hundred million years, reaching dangerously low levels before we got involved.
There is a much bigger problem to worry about. We have been in the Pleistocene ice age for the last 2.6 million years. We should be in the cool-down portion of the Malankovich Cycles, which will lead to the next period of mass glaciation. It is thousands of years away, but it is a bigger issue than short-term warming that will last just a century or so.
I like a joke I heard: How far are we from Nuclear Fusion? About 93 million miles. Maybe we are looking for it in the wrong place, and just need better ways to collect solar energy.
On Sun, Feb 23, 2025 at 1:05 PM Larry wrote:
This whole article was an Interesting read....
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Friday, February 21, 2025
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
elo score AI meaning
https://www.google.com/search?q=elo+score+AI+meaning&rlz=1C1ONGR_enUS1066US1066&oq=elo+score+AI+meaning&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigAdIBCDgzNjdqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
An "Elo score" in the context of AI refers to a numerical rating used to measure the relative performance of an artificial intelligence model, typically based on a system borrowed from chess where models are compared head-to-head, with the winner gaining points and the loser losing points, allowing for a dynamic ranking based on their performance against other models; essentially, a higher Elo score indicates a better performing AI model compared to others in the same benchmark.
Key points about Elo scores in AI:
- The Elo rating system was originally developed by Arpad Elo to rank chess players, but has been adapted to evaluate AI models due to its ability to compare performance through pairwise comparisons.
- Head-to-head competition: Two AI models are pitted against each other on the same task, and a human evaluator or automated system judges which model produced the better output.
- Rating adjustment: Based on the outcome, the winning model gains Elo points, while the losing model loses points.
- Relative ranking: This system creates a relative ranking, meaning a model's Elo score indicates how well it performs compared to other models in the benchmark.
- Head-to-head competition: Two AI models are pitted against each other on the same task, and a human evaluator or automated system judges which model produced the better output.
- Elo scores are commonly used to compare the performance of large language models (LLMs) where different models can be evaluated against each other on tasks like text generation, question answering, or translation.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Monday, February 17, 2025
Why Honey Badgers Don't Fear God or Lions
This might be a repeat. I really liked it. As a rule, don't screw with nature.
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Discovery of the Most Exciting Habitable Planet Near the Solar System
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VTzVAbfPmg
I gather from this video that Earth-like planets in a habitable zone around their stars are rare.
Friday, February 7, 2025
10 DEADLIEST Decisions in Human History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5zh8wssRY8
Some things would have been inevitable. Minus Columbus, Europe would have discovered the Americas eventually. The Vikings had a colony in Newfoundland in 1021 AD.
People can't be blamed for epidemics when the germ theory of disease was unknown.
Thursday, February 6, 2025
The Story of Chunk the Groundhog. Narrated by Gardener Jeff.
Been watching this guy occasionally on YouTube for years. There are only so many videos of groundhogs I can find entertaining, but it is cute.
https://youtu.be/3nS6OqHT7aU?si=0FS3JbHHy_hsJsAS
The guy fortified his garden but started putting out vegetables for the groundhogs so that he could record them for his YouTube channel.
A long time ago my father advised to never feed wild animals. You make them dependent. Animals know how to find food. However, I'm more worried about rabies, which is a deadly disease and especially common among raccoons. I've saw a video of a kind old lady feeding a bunch of raccoons. This can be dangerous.
https://youtu.be/3nS6OqHT7aU?si=0FS3JbHHy_hsJsAS
The guy fortified his garden but started putting out vegetables for the groundhogs so that he could record them for his YouTube channel.
A long time ago my father advised to never feed wild animals. You make them dependent. Animals know how to find food. However, I'm more worried about rabies, which is a deadly disease and especially common among raccoons. I've saw a video of a kind old lady feeding a bunch of raccoons. This can be dangerous.
VP Vance on Air Traffic Lawsuit
"We have a massive shortage of air traffic controllers. And, in fact, there have been a number of lawsuits from people who would like to become air traffic controllers against the Obama and Biden administration who are -- basically said, we were told not even to apply because of the color of our skin, because they were white people who wanted to be air traffic controllers, and under the DEI regime of the Biden administration, they weren't welcome...
Well, part of the reason why we have a shortage at air traffic control is because we were telling our air traffic controllers not to hire people because of the color of their skin."
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Monday, February 3, 2025
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Saturday, February 1, 2025
Friday, January 31, 2025
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Sunday, January 26, 2025
Saturday, January 25, 2025
Dianna stands for the first time in 2 years!
I used to watch science videos by "Physics Girl." She has been debilitated by Long COVID for 2.5 years.
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Sunday, January 19, 2025
The Top 10 Inconvenient Facts About Climate Change
This supports the things I have been saying.
The biggest threat to life is the next period of mass glaciation. It could take thousands of years, but we should already be in the cooling-down cycle. Even if we have a hundred years of warming, we have bigger environmental problems long term.
The Earth is halfway between its maximum tilt and its minimal tilt. We are 11,000 years away from the minimal tilt. All of human civilization arose during the last 11,000-year warm period.
The maximum tilt melts the glaciers because the summers are warmer. However, as the glaciers advance, a positive feedback cycle happens because the glaciers reflect more sunlight into space, rapidly cooling the planet.
It is possible that our effect on the climate could create a new normal. However, I don't see how we counter 90,000 years of cold before the next interglacial warm period.
Friday, January 17, 2025
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Sunday, January 12, 2025
Virus outbreak in China sparks pandemic concerns: What to know about HMPV
Videos have appeared on social media showing overwhelmed hospitals in China, sparking concerns of a potential pandemic.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has attributed the spike to a regular seasonal surge, saying in a statement on Friday, "Respiratory infections tend to peak during the winter season … the diseases appear to be less severe and spread on a smaller scale compared to the previous year."
The CDC has said it is monitoring the virus through its National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS).
"CDC is aware of reported increases in HMPV in China and is in regular contact with international partners and monitoring reports of increased disease," a CDC spokesperson said in a statement sent to Fox News Digital.
"These reports are not currently a cause for concern in the U.S., though some transmission of HMPV can be expected throughout the year, especially during the winter respiratory virus season."
The CDC has said it is monitoring the virus through its National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS).
"CDC is aware of reported increases in HMPV in China and is in regular contact with international partners and monitoring reports of increased disease," a CDC spokesperson said in a statement sent to Fox News Digital.
"These reports are not currently a cause for concern in the U.S., though some transmission of HMPV can be expected throughout the year, especially during the winter respiratory virus season."
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Most Powerful Explosion Humanity Has Ever Seen Hints at Dark Matter Particles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvtnKtmyULk
A TeV is a unit of energy used in particle physics. 1 TeV is about the energy of motion of a flying mosquito.
It would be extraordinary for a photon, a single particle of light, to have 18 to 250 times this energy. If one hit you then I suspect you might feel it.
Planets closer to the Super Nova would have been fried. This is a danger that we have always lived with. A nearby gamma-ray burst would sterilize the planet. It has been theorized that distant gamma-ray bursts were responsible for some past mass extinctions.
Friday, January 10, 2025
Thursday, January 9, 2025
Monday, January 6, 2025
Genetic Experts Reveal Shocking Neanderthal Secrets!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_VybJT_LFk&t=902s
There is reportedly some debate about whether Neanderthals were a separate species. Google search results say that they were. However, Neanderthals were close enough to us that I like the idea that they were a sub-species.
It is common for people of European ancestry to have a little bit of Neanderthal DNA. Someone I know did a genetic test that showed a higher-than-average percentage of Neanderthal DNA.
Genetic diversity is a good thing regardless of the species. It can help a group survive environmental changes. Under harsh conditions, some individuals die off and some survive. (Mother Nature is a bitch. 🙂)
Sunday, January 5, 2025
Warning issued after killer whales attack and sink another boat in Strait of Gibraltar | The Nightly
Many people on YouTube tend to think wild animals are like pets, especially bears. The problem is that everything looks like food to a bear, and other predators are no different.
Hydrogen Hype is Dying, And That's a Good Thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awN2w3sGj1w
A little common sense might have been in order before governments spent tens of billions of dollars on hydrogen energy.
Saturday, January 4, 2025
Thursday, January 2, 2025
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
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