We're off to the Netherlands on Thursday.

You are not the only one. I have seen an uptick of Canadians lately in NL, Amsterdam. Or actually: I have _heard_ an uptick in Canadians lately.

Every time I hear someone in Amsterdam speak English with a North-American accent, but with civilised manners, they always turn out to come from Canada. They do not shout, they do not interrupt you and are generally calm and seem genuinely friendly.

And they all smile I ask them if they are from Canada, in light of the above. As if they are happy to not be mistaken for US-ians.

If Trump states there are aliens from another planet, then be prepared for discussions on whether or not they have souls and if so, whether or not Yaweh/Jehova had his son (/ himself) Jesus brutally tortured and killed to save these alien souls as well.

True. I think the false notion of 'LLM's know facts like humans' stems from the observation that there are lots of humans that are less coherent in their communication than LLM's.

There are loads of humans who cannot handle facts properly. LLM's also cannot handle facts, but they are in lots of cases outperforming lots of humans.

So humans know facts and LMM's don't know facts, but what lots of humans produce with those facts can be worse than what LLM's produce without knowing facts.

Indeed. Plus, he would have used that water anyway. We humans have our needs, whether we code or not.

Obvious link. How To Get Rid Of Citizens United: https://robertreich.substack.c...

I know little of US law, but what this former secretary of labour writes seems logical.

Then you are part of a fortunate minority.

The pardons given are not limited to cryptocrime. Other white collar crooks are set free as well.

Him being in prison does improve your life. Just imagine how your life would be if there was no deterrent whatsoever for committing financial crimes. You and your loved ones would be targeted by lots more con men.

I can state unequivocally that cancer screening has added at least 20 years to my life. In 2005 I had a routine colonoscopy that revealed a stage 3 adenocarcinoma tumor in the ascending colon. My oncologist estimated I had maybe a year without prompt treatment, depending on when the tumor caused the colon be blocked or burst. For most people the tumor has usually metastasized by that point.

But thanks to a prompt hemicolectomy, six months of chemo and some luck I'm still here and able to live a normal life. For me, the money spent on routine screening worked out very well indeed.

As you might tell from my ID, I'm old. My wife and I both paid for torso scans from Prenuvo a year ago. Mine was essentially clear with nothing that requires immediate action. My wife had a 6.5 mm pulmonary nodule - a 6 mm or greater nodule is a possible cancer. Our doctor recommended having an another MRI (paid by insurance) a year later.

So my wife had the second MRI a month ago and the nodule has grown to 9 mm. A follow-up PET scan showed a "hot" image. Surgical removal is in two weeks.

My wife has no symptoms. We would never have known about this problem but for that first scan. It may save her life, or the nodule might be benign and all the anxiety, the follow-up tests and the pain of the surgery might be for nothing. We will know soon.

This might not be such a good idea as Vegas was begging Canada to come back. Their tourism isnâ(TM)t what it used to be and talk of 51st state has turned off Canadian tourism.

Since Tripel Karmeliet is a favourite of mine, this comes as no surprise. When you pour the contents of a bottle of Karmeliet into a glass, you have to do so _very_ carefully, or you will end up with mostly foam.

Without the government subsidies Trump took away Tesla is not profitable.

I very much doubt that. In the past I have spent quite some time going over the financials of Tesla. My memory is bad, but I recall that the subsidies were way, way less than the actual net profit.

That's a really good example about the dogs, and a useful phrase to know, as well. Thanks!

I would expect as much. Can anyone even make a good case for the existence of "Journals" -- as companies that get to sell access to research they didn't fund? I don't believe any scientists are getting rich off royalties from them, right?

They seem to me to be like a worse version of the record label racket. It seems like peer review itself should provide enough signal (drawing on the reputations of who decided to review it) to distinguish a Serious Paper that Really Matters from some slop fabricated by a conspiracy theorist in their basement. And surely the bandwidth costs etc. are so low as to be borne by the universities themselves, either by each of them self-hosting, or by funding a cooperative to host them all in one place. Or whatever Arxive is, of course.