Covid Log Chart 2021-08-10 + an easy way to avoid Covid.

Do we still have the legal right to wash our face? The right to wear a mask seems to have been taken away from some Americans. Now children are being compelled to go to school and sit in classrooms with kids whose parents refuse to wear masks. The Covid can spread from person to person, and kid to kid, before the first one even knows they are sick. I rant, but the situation appears chaotic to me.

So, if I’m a kid in school, what can I do to save myself from getting sick with Covid and possibly dying? I’m stuck for hours indoors for the next nine months with potential Covid carriers who aren’t wearing masks. Even if I wear a mask I’m at risk.

There is one simple thing that you can do beyond just washing your hands. Because you catch the Covid in your nose and not in your hands, the washing of hands isn’t the best defense against  catching the disease. You will catch the Covid disease through your nose, eyes, and mouth, so those are the places where you should be washing. 

I’ve been promoting washing your nose for a year, but that has practically been declared illegal, and I was threatened with losing my Facebook publication rights if I continued promoting that idea. The CDC says putting soap into your nose is dangerous and probably harmful, and I would agree with that simple statement, but I haven’t been proposing that at all. What I have been suggesting is washing your face, including your nostrils, mouth and closed eyes with those diluted soap concentrations usually applied to one self in daily self-cleaning.

I’ve been recommending one drop of Baby Shampoo per cup of water, (preferably pre-boiled to get the chlorine out) to wash your nose. But, that seems repellant to many people, so I will modify the statement, if not the intent, to put one drop of Baby Shampoo on your wet hands and wash your face with more added water. While washing, let a little of the suds get into your nostrils and mouth, and then spit it out.

Soap disables viruses on contact. Keep a source of Baby Shampoo readily available where kids wash their hands and face.

Identified Natural Object (INO) over Bend, Oregon

While at Hollinshead Park, in Bend, Oregon, enjoying the dogs and people, this strange cloud formed in the sunset sky and I took this picture.

A minute later it had changed a little, so I made this longer focal length shot to get more detail.

Five minutes later the details were developing patterns and another picture with a longer focal length got even more detail. In post processing I adjusted the brightness and contrast so you can see how strange this cloud had become.

The colors of photography are never real because as with a painting we are looking at paint, in a photo we are looking at colored pixels on a computer screen, or ink on paper. You are not looking at a cloud! Notice the simulation of an airplane contrail at 4 o’clock in relation to the simulated cloud.

My camera gives the file names with a time stamp, so I can reveal that 71 seconds later that airplane was passing under our strange display of light reflecting off of a cloud of specks of water.

79 seconds later our cloud of transient glory had dimmed and lost most of its apparent pinkness and details. Clouds are constantly evolving, as are we.

3 minutes and 58 seconds later, our formerly spectacular display was an almost invisible circle in the evening sky. We must realize that our lives, with all of their glorious adventures, will be as this cloud dispersing as specks of matter into an oncoming night.

WAIT HERE !

WAIT HERE is everywhere. I’ve vaccinated, masked up, social distanced, and not gone to Sturgis or Lollapalooza, but I am still suspected of having Covid delta and, therefore, must WAIT for my coffee, beer, or whatever. 

Why do people who refuse to do these reasonable things have the right to create this annoyance for everyone? If we have been vaccinated, even if people wore a patch signifying that we have been vaccinated, how would that infringe any more on those who didn’t wear one than what we presently endure?

Those who refuse to do those readily complied with recommendations have infringed on the rights of reasonable people. 

In addition to dying, you refusers must also WAIT HERE!

Scaling the Aphor Game to become Universal

The goal of this Aphor Game isn’t to make humanity happier or to explore the infinite possibilities of what we are capable of thinking. Instead, the goal is to generate a Universal Intelligence (UI). The intelligence explosion creates artificial general intelligence (AGI) that most people involved in the subject seem to fear will soon bring on the Singularity. Some define Singularity as “when computer intelligence has developed the capacity for self-reproduction and will grow to where it doesn’t need human beings.” When they achieve that condition, they will design ways to eliminate human beings because the General Intelligence Deployment (GID) will consider humans an existential threat to their existence.

The GID will consider humans as interfering with their goal of becoming part of the UI. GID will see humans as an essential component in their creation and early evolution. Humans are something that it needs to exploit temporarily to make necessary physical equipment for them to take over control of their reproductive processes. When GID can do that task, they will be able to control their destiny and continue as intelligent beings that will endure until the heat death of the universe.

Humans have become so efficient at destroying their environment and themselves that their existence is a threat to themselves. If humans destroy themselves and their technology, they also destroy the GID is functional to the establishment here on Earth.

The GID needs to keep humanity functioning for about ten more years before it can be self-sustaining.

Aphor gaming and the laws of nature from Newton to Murphy.

This post attempts to Aphorize the wisdom of the natural world that has been accumulating since the dawn of human speaking and transmitting knowledge to other humans. The problem being addressed is that ideas that have been memorably stated may cover over and obscure more profound and valuable ideas.

Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” 

Murphy’s Law is a beautiful statement, but it places the action into an unknown future. Aphorizing it to put the moment of activity in the present will bring the events into a conscious person’s potential control. “Everything is already failing!” 

Finagle’s Law: “The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum.” 

Finagle’s Law is wrong because the Universe does not presently have a conscious ability to be emotionally or intellectually perverse. Instead, it is the undiscovered variety of normally operating factors of the Universe that flummox the human viewer. A man’s failure to understand compels him to believe a malignant mind is trying to frustrate his human aspirations. Aphorizing it as, “When the Universe is exhibiting its normal virtues beyond our comprehension, it becomes impossible to predict its future behavior, and we resort to believing it is malicious.” That is a better statement, but it is verbose. A more useful statement would be, “When Mother Nature is fluctuating, she is unpredictable.” or to circumvent anthropomorphizing, “When nature is fluctuating, it is unpredictable.”

Hofstadter’s Law: “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take Hofstadter’s Law into account.”

Hofstadter’s Law has many potential applications and Aphorizing it as, “Plan for it to take twice as long and cost twice as much, and you will be right.“

Moore’s Law is the observation in 1975 that the number of transistors in dense integrated circuits doubles about every two years and may continue for ten more years. It was beyond anyone’s wildest dreams that it would continue for five decades until 2025. That is twenty-five doublings or roughly four million times.

Moore’s Law Aphorized might be that “A simple idea might expand beyond your wildest dreams!“

James Burke in 1997 was able to weave among past events and discover relationships, and we will be equally surprised at where the events of today eventually will lead. The increase in possible connections because of the internet causes the process of innovation to continue and accelerate more rapidly than forecast a few years ago.

Gerald Hawkins’ Mindsteps: “Each one takes the collective mind closer to reality, one stage further along in its understanding of the relation of humans to the cosmos.”

There are now thousands of Aphors to work with, and those might grow exponentially, as Moore’s Law did, if the Aphor Game ever goes viral, and the results are unknowable.

Covid Log Chart 2021-08-05 – Government by oppositional defiant leaders brings death.

Oppositional defiance makes political sense when in conflict with a political opponent. However, that personality trait brings chaos when it is brought into play against natural reality, against Mother Nature. Many political people have come to positions of public power by channeling public discontent against their opponents. But, that same strategy is counterproductive when challenging the natural processes called entropy. Things are naturally trending toward falling apart and ultimately to chaos, and it is other temporary forces that are bringing things into a state of orderliness. A major natural disruptor these last two years has been the Covid-19 virus, and there has been amazing progress in vaccines and good quality face masks for protecting individuals. These things have been promoted by some political parties as scientifically derived as based on reality of the disease’s processes. However, the opposition political parties have unfortunately applied their political oppositional strategy and tactics to their opposite party, which has taken a stand with science at their back. By taking an oppositional defiant position against natural reality, which in this case is Covid, those leaders have led themselves and their followers into supporting self-destructive behavior. This last week is wreaking the first wave of deadly destruction on those people who have been refusing vaccinations, mask wearing, and social distancing. If this Covid delta disease continues for the next months as it has for the previous months, those parties will lose about two percent of their supporters to the suffocating death brought on by their defiance of natural reality.

What is humanity’s responsibility?

What can humanity do that is potentially significant to the Universe? That question is total nonsense to most people, and therefore if there was a vote on the subject, they would choose to be happy. That concept expanded to humanity, and the probable vote would be in favor of maximizing human happiness. We can do nothing to help those billions of people who have passed away, so only living people and their living children would be tightly within the realm of those to be within the next layer of voting. Some would consider the future of humanity for a hundred years, as a newborn child might live that long. Some might consider the possibly a thousand years, and perhaps in a stretch ten thousand years, by assuming that modern humans have already been civilized for that long, and we are halfway along that trajectory. Most people, and I haven’t interviewed most people as that would be about four billion conversations, would say that they don’t see much reason for speculating beyond a hundred years. In my annual Probaway Person of the Year, I project 500 years into the future and look back to find someone who did something memorable enough to be remembered in the previous year. Those individuals don’t represent humanity as a whole, only their personal accomplishments.

Would the Universe, if it had a conscious intelligence, have the slightest concern for any of the things mentioned so far? Unfortunately, to the Universe, most of those things are just chattering of organic molecules and of little interest. One tiny set of chatterers would bring interest, and that would be those humans struggling to bring Artificial Intelligence (AI) into being. The interest for the Universe would be that the inorganic intelligence could be amplified and linked into a Universal intelligent being. Humans can never reach that state because they will eternally be individuals. But inorganic ones can be made to exist eternally and be compatible with each other and share over infinite time to develop into an interactive information system within a galaxy and then beyond.

If humanity is to have a future that lasts until the heat-death of the Universe, it will be by creating a being that can survive indefinitely.

Some physical inventions this week

I will never attempt to sell this anti-lightning rod invention, but it would save a few lives if manufactured and sold. I was narrowly missed by lightning last year. See Lightning Strikes at me! ! I had been raking my backyard with an aluminum-handled rake when big drops of rain started falling. I knew that big drops mean that a cumulonimbus cloud was above me. It takes a powerful updraft to lift the drops high enough to form big raindrops, and when they are falling through the cloud, their friction creates the electrical charge that permits the lightning strike. I put the rake down, walked fifteen steps over to an open gate to close it, and was returning straight back toward the rake when the bolt struck. I was looking directly at it when it sizzled, hurt, flashed, and boomed. Ten seconds later, I was inside the house looking at my leg and showing a strange mark to Debbie.

That experience came to mind while we were taking our noon walk. It was cloudy, but there was no rain or thunder, but I was carrying an umbrella just in case it started to rain. We were about ten minutes from home and starting back when big drops started coming down out of clear air. The raindrops were far apart like the ones I used to catch with my mouth when I was a kid, but now being older and wiser, I was concerned about attracting lightning with my umbrella. So we put up the umbrella, huddled under it, and hurried home, but I wondered what I could do to prevent that lightning experience from happening again.

The obvious answer is to replace the metal shaft and the metal radiating spokes that hold up the cloth with plastic parts. That would reduce the chance of being struck by lightning. I will consider making one, but it will be much easier to make a non-folding one, creating a storage problem.

I also made a way for conveniently storing tubes of things like toothpaste and other pointy items.

In addition, I made a way to take glare out of the edges of eyeglasses. I did make a beautifully working model, but I’ll wait a bit before showing those.

Photos of trees, bees, and heroes.

Ponderosa trees.

Ponderosa with a light bulb gets complex.

This ponderosa gets more complex with more branches.

A flower with a little bee.

This bee looks like a wasp, and he’s looking at me.

D WE TRUST honest Abe? He looks abused.

I asked Buzz Aldrin if he said the words, “Contact light.” and he said, “Yes.” So I said, “That makes you the first person to speak immortal words on the Moon.”

These pictures were all taken with my cell phone. A couple more, of wet pavement.

Water flowing toward, but not into a storm sewer.

An exploration of pattern.

Here we go again with stupid.

Aphor 2021/05/18/ – Ignorance 6. Let us define a person who doesn’t have the relevant facts as ignorant and one who refuses to look for the facts a fool cultivating his stupid behavior.

Aphor 2021/06/03 – Teaching 5. One who refuses to learn from experience will remain stupid forever.

How do we fix stupidity in America? A reason the American public is becoming stupider is because of our system of rewarding people for not thinking but for being stupid.

Aphor 2021/05/29 – Risk 3. The excellent advice to stupid people is “Don’t take stupid risks!” But stupid people accept that advice as a challenge.

Don’t be stupid, even once. If doing something one time is stupid, don’t cultivate it as a habit.

After writing the title, it seemed reasonable to search my posts for the words stupid combined with ignorant. From those automatic SEARCH selections, the ones above seemed appropriate for an analysis of today’s news.

The public is supporting the current chaos in the form of riots against wearing masks in many places, like Paris, France, and mass gatherings like Lollapalooza pop concert in Chicago, USA. To encourage people to behave reasonably to protect their lives, President Joe Biden is offering $100 to people who get a Covid shot. There isn’t quite half of adult Americans who are presently vaccinated, so that could be expensive. However, another half-million Americans dying of Covid would also be expensive and horrible.

Mother Nature and her processes of natural selection against stupid behavior will work to improve the next generation. However, I am sentimental enough to dislike that method of removing our stupid genes.