the mellow tigger's musings

Moody Monday

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:09:46 GMT

There's too much. I know.

Watch a sunset. Smell a flower. Eat a candy. Feed a critter.

I'm recovering. I even did some gardening yesterday after work.

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good things to see on YouTube

Sun, 17 May 2026 03:00:19 GMT

After work today (no, I didn't do needed gardening or chores), I realized that Project Hail Mary is available to purchase online. I bought it here on YouTube and watched it again, on the small screen this time. It's still a great movie. I understand that it's earning great revenue, so ideally it means that many people were also impressed by its hopeful version of our best selves and our life out there among the stars, where we have new friends awaiting us.

I also watched this video about a fascinating science topic. I already knew a tiny bit about chemical polymorphs, since that's basically where prion diseases come from. I had no idea, however, that even small molecules have solid forms with multiple polymorphs. This video goes into fascinating history and details of polymorphs for yummy chocolate and for catholic pipe organs made of tin... all while explaining the story of the HIV drug ritonavir that almost ceased production in 1998, because a new and useless-for-treatment polymorph suddenly started forming in drug factories around the world. It's a fascinating story, if you've got 33 minutes to spare for the video.

I haven't successfully made any gluten-free version of a blooming onion that was great to eat. Today, though, I also watched this video (just 5 minutes long) with a seemingly easy-to-prepare onion alternative that looks delicious. I need to give it a try someday. I wonder what I can use to replace the slice of bacon.

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unmotivated

Sat, 16 May 2026 01:36:59 GMT

I find myself with stronger than usual momentum to do nothing. I'm not doing needed gardening. I'm not doing needed chores. I still haven't arranged for someone to build new steps for the house, which I should have completed last year. I still haven't completed my project for a local wifi network. On days off from work, I sleep in different spurts throughout the day. I'm not even consistently playing computer games. I'm familiar with Depression (capital "D", because it's a monster) from experience several decades ago, but this doesn't feel like that. I'm having a hard time identifying it, though. Maybe it's just burnout finally catching up to me. It seems like everyone is burned out, though, watching the world as it is and where it seems headed.

I wonder if it's possible to find part-time remote work. It seems unlikely, considering this economy. I already know too many full-time employed people who work multiple jobs today, trying to make some economic progress.

On the plus side, I want to drink some whisky this evening, as I've wanted to do for a few weeks. I've been too unmotivated this whole time, though, even to head out to the liquor store. That's a benefit, maybe, to this momentum of inaction.

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nothing important

Sun, 10 May 2026 22:36:33 GMT

Considering my age, I think it's safe to claim that I spent the majority of my life sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I disliked most bedframes and mattress supports because they produce minor vibrations or sounds with every turn in bed. I'm now on a bedframe for the first time in decades. I can recommend the Thuma brand of bedframe now. If you get one, then I recommend splurging to get the headboard at the same time as the frame. I purchased my headboard several months after the frame, after I was sure that I liked the brand and thought it justified to spend more money on it. I got the classic bedframe (Twin XL size, espresso color), now with headboard and two drawers.

It has also been my rule for life that I don't buy stuff that I cannot move on my own. This furniture is right at the limit of what I can move today. I had a hard time hauling everything upstairs, but I managed it without creating any new marks on the drywall. I also put the headboard posts on backwards, so I had to partially take apart the bed a second time to put it on the right direction. All done. It took me an hour and a half after work today. I'm tired, but done. And I like it. :)

Completely unrelated, but I'm considering playing Starfield again. I checked on Steam, and I had only 41 hours in it before giving up, last played on 2023 November 2. After the very lackluster launch, the game developer Bethesda hasn't made all of the improvements yet that the game needs for a redemption like No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk 2077. It has, however, continued to make improvements that players want, and it rolled out some of them for free to help players. I think that's a commendable effort, so I may give it another try soon. I'm watching YouTube videos from other players trying to pick up some useful tips before I begin.

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some days, the garden wins

Sat, 09 May 2026 02:28:35 GMT

My eye still stings slightly, several hours after I smacked it. I still managed to do a small bit of gardening, but I'm more worse for wear than usual.

I had my glasses on, as usual. I was cutting more unwanted treelings from my back yard. I picked up one of them after I cut it down, then I carried it to the fire pit for burning on another day. It got its revenge. A small spindly twig from that branch smacked my face, catching my eye underneath the glasses. My eye cried slightly for a half hour of so, but I managed to continue gardening through it, after first visiting a mirror in the bathroom to make sure there wasn't severe damage. There's not.

About 8 hours later, though, it still smarts. At least I've removed all of the various burrs and splinters from my hands and legs. I've had my shower. I'm hoping for a good night of rest.

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May the 4th

Tue, 05 May 2026 02:41:37 GMT

I saw this meme making the rounds. I thought I'd share it too.

Text: "Star Wars Day. May the 4th be with you. Reminder: Luke, Han, and Leia were antifa."

I'm antifa, and you should be too.

And if you wonder why you should be, then Ruth Ben-Ghiat explains here (YouTube, 45 minute) some context of what's happening now. She's another USA historian, less well known than the ones I keep recommending, but she talks here about her New York Times guest essay from February 1st, "History Shows Trump’s Worst Impulses May Backfire on Him".

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cold again

Fri, 01 May 2026 22:46:02 GMT

I was intending to get some much needed gardening done this week, but it didn't happen. It was either raining all day (Monday) or cold (the rest of the time). I kept wondering why I was always so cold, when the temperature outside was staying above freezing, but just barely at night. I kept turning on the electric blanket on high, wrapping in my warmest clothes, and turning on the small electric heater in my bedroom. I was not at all motivated to go outside for gardening.

Well, it happened again. I finally checked the thermostat downstairs around noon today. The batteries were dead again. Ugh. When I replaced them, it said the temperature on the main floor was 13C/56F. The gas furnace immediately turned on. *sigh* No wonder my upstairs bedroom was so cold.

Okay, I'll get gardening done... next week. At least I got clothes washed, so I accomplished something today.

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seeing SARS-CoV-2 effects

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 02:25:38 GMT

Please keep wearing your N95 mask out there in the world, when you're around other people.

Because SARS-CoV-2 infection causes blood clots which can damage any organ in the body, and because SARS-CoV-2 can directly infect so many tissues, it therefore produces a wide variety of illness. It causes all sorts of problems that were possible even before this virus showed up, so it's hard to isolate the signal of what this specific virus is doing to humanity when contrasted against other potential factors. It infects the organs that have immune privilege: the brain, eyes, and testicles. Even though there is some evidence that people are newly catching COVID less frequently than before, the lower incidence doesn't matter if these infections are permanent because of the immune privilege and other methods of persistence, staying in multiple reservoirs.

Long COVID is real and increasing. It's real in adults, it's real in children, and it maybe affects as many as 6 million children in the USA. SARS-CoV-2 is known to cause a long list of damages like: heart damage, anemia, liver injury, spleen enlargement, kidney and intestine damage, POTS, brain fog, and other autonomic dysfunctions, plus the well known pneumonia, plus the well-known heart attacks and strokes, plus the immune system damage.

It makes me sad to learn the stories of real people whose families are affected by problems that I know to be associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. No matter how many times you've had COVID before, it's worthwhile to not get COVID again. I still wear my mask around other people. Please, be safe out there.

And, if you're noticing symptoms, maybe try one of the locations in this list to see if someone can help you test for specific issues and find reasonable actions to take in response.

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frizzy forearms

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:18:53 GMT

The hair on my forearms is strange these days. Instead of the smooth flow of soft hairs like usual, there are short bits of hair that seem to stand straight up from the arm.

I'm pretty sure I singed much of the hair while I was tending flames at the fire pit on Friday. Oops.

In other news, the weird spot on my left leg is getting lighter. I think it's healing, however slowly. I guess that hydrocortisone cream helped.

P.S. I got a few more plants into the ground today, after my work shift ended, and before the predicted 1.5 days of rain finally arrive.

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some gardening, at least

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:27:26 GMT

I didn't accomplish much during my "weekend", but at least I got some brush burned in the fire pit. I don't know who left the pile of branches in the alley at my house last year, but I cut it up and burned it today, finally getting rid of it. My back was complaining while I cleaned up that mess, and I kept wondering who deliberately put them on my property so they didn't have to do this kind of work themselves.

There's so much work remaining, but I made noticeable progress. The afternoon went well, but I still have a few microscopic thorns from those terrible burdock burrs. It was mildly satisfying, every time I threw another collection of dry stems and burrs into the fire pit. I know the stems and roots are supposed to be edible, but... those burrs. They just need to go live somewhere else besides my yard.

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a hodgepodge for Moody Monday

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:39:53 GMT

So many hot topics, so little time.

music: I've said repeatedly that I think Trump is suffering from untreated syphilis. I'm still holding to that theory. I keep expecting to see pockmarks of dissolving flesh soon, but he keeps getting his skin covered up with makeup or bandages. It's only a matter of time, though. Meanwhile, I'm making a song playlist for that special day that must arrive eventually. Do you have any songs to recommend for this list (YouTube)?

job: Today at work was more than usual. I was late (30 minutes) going to lunch, and I was late (45 minutes) clocking out. I need to leave early sometime this week, so I don't have overtime to report.

stockpile: I've warned before that you need to buy what you can now, while you can. I reiterate that message now.

Click to read a list of things I expect to decrease in availability or value...

Computing devices (laptop, tablets, consoles, phones) will all get more expensive as supply chain problems get worse throughout the year. Between data center construction and Middle East raw resource disruptions (even helium), the supply chain has more shocks in store as continuing waves of problems descend. Plus whatever stupid trade war that Trump will inevitably declare on his next whim. I have a spare laptop I bought last year, and I have a Fairphone as a phone backup.
Food will get more expensive for similar reasons. ICE deportations affect the labor for agriculture, climate change is messing with pollination, disease, and production, and fuel disruptions will affects costs and availability for everything. Have powdered/dry food on hand, just in case. I have a few months of that available.
Medicine will not necessarily be available to you at any price. Do you have any way of stocking up on supplies or finding a non-USA source of the medication? I have a 90-day backup for my blood pressure pills. Thankfully, that's the only pharmaceutical that I really require at this time. I've got a few months of nasal sprays that I need for allergies too.
Money will lose value, for anyone with US dollars. Debt, market manipulation, and corruption must take a toll. I've started thinking of Fridays as "market manipulation day", since this Republican administration usually picks that day to announce something important as the stock market closes. Trump and his cronies are siphoning funds from everyone else on both the swing up and the swing down on stock pricing, even on prediction markets and cryptocurrency. Selig says he'll crack down on the corruption, but we'll see if Trump does anything to protect Don Jr. More countries are using Yuan to purchase oil or switching to renewables due to the Iran war, so they don't have to buy oil at all. I don't imagine any way that the dollar maintains its value. When Trump finally leaves the USA (Brazil?), as he and his ilk make their last effort to escape consequences, they'll have their wealth in both tangible or intangible resources that survive stock and dollar crashes better than our resources will. Spend it on long-term goods while you can.

libertarianism: This topic deserves a whole post of its own, but I think I finally have the thing that will help the USA snap out of this terrible decades-long devotion to neoliberal economics. It's been happening ever since the Powell memo of 1971, since the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed the Humphrey Hawkins Act of 1978 to stop USA's transition to social democracy, and since 1980 when Ronald Reagan launched his presidential campaign promoting so-called trickle-down economics (or "voodoo economics" to quote another former President). Go to whichever AI chatbot you can access, and ask it this particular question:

"Use the Price equation to model the paradox of tolerance. What conditions (like detection of defectors and removal of non-cooperative actors) are required to make that comparison accurate."

I want to delve farther into its answer. It seems to call out the ills of libertarian politics and neoliberal economics. The people demolishing our detection, reporting, intervention, and funding institutions know exactly what they're trying to accomplish. It's like they already understand the Price equation but have sided with demons to create perpetual cruelty in a libertarian hellscape instead of choosing the other option offered by the equation. They're succeeding so far, and this AI answer might help us defend attempts to restore/rebuild community, using incontrovertible math as justification.

I'm reminded of an idea I had before that our government should make it easy for citizens to do good things, and maybe that should be the next great push in governance goals. I have to write more about what's needed as we begin the restoration of the USA and its foundational ideals.

The beginning is near. Are you preparing?

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yup. snow.

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 12:10:03 GMT

As I warned about yesterday, winter is not yet done with Minneapolis.

Here's the view out of the patio door at the front of my house this morning. We have sub-freezing temperatures forecast for tomorrow morning too.

P.S. I wanted to mention somewhere that while I was digging with a shovel in the front yard yesterday, a lady from next door (public housing unit) stopped to thank me. "For what," I asked, genuinely confused. "For the air conditioner and the whistle," she said. I replied while smiling, "Oh, sure!" Not very eloquent, but I'm not exactly the master of human interactions. When I finally ordered a new smaller air conditioner unit last spring that would fit properly in my bedroom window, I offered the older/bigger unit to them for free, so it wouldn't go unused. Plus, they got one of foeclan's 3d-printed whistles when I delivered notes to my neighbors back in January.

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Minneapolis is not ready for zone 5 yet

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 22:47:23 GMT

I'm a big advocate of recognizing climate change.

For instance, back in 1960, this USDA map shows Minneapolis in zone 4a. Sometime later, we changed to 4b, and today we're in zone 5a. We're still fully surrounded by zone 4b, though, so it's only because of the "heat island effect" that we're considered a warmer zone. You can see that island of heat on this map. That's fine, I suppose.

Unwelcome, however, is receiving plant shipments on dates that are still too early for actual cold weather habits in this part of Minnesota. I planted things a few weeks ago, when they shipped much too early, then we had a hard freeze down to -7C/20F. I received more plants on Thursday, only a little too early. I kept them indoors, because I saw the forecast for below-freezing temperatures this morning. That's also fine, I suppose. After work today, I got some asparagus and roses into the ground finally. I had to dress warm, because the wind chill was 3C/37F.

I have a few more delivered plants to put into the ground, but I'm waiting until Monday morning's sub-freezing weather passes. One of these plants is another rose, but it's already blooming! It just seems terribly wrong to try putting it into the ground right before a freeze.

That photo isn't great, but the single open flower at the top is still visible. These last remaining plants will just have to wait for Monday afternoon. I wish all of these plants weren't delivered until late April, like what would happen years ago, when we were still in zone 4.

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movie: Project Hail Mary

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:50:39 GMT

I said last year that I wouldn't go see Project Hail Mary in the theater, even with a mask.

Unfortunately, I lied.

I did go see it with a mask today. It took much of the day. I walked out the front door about 1:35pm and walked back in at 6:45pm. It's a long bus ride to that Roseville theater, but at least there's a single route that goes directly there from near my house. Life without a car just doesn't have the convenience of life with a car, but that's perfectly fine. Maybe the world would be better off if humans couldn't indulge their whims so easily, requiring actual effort to do things, making choices about how to spend precious hours of their lives.

I was very right, at least, about this movie being a great influence for encouraging humans to being open to new experiences. I've been following the subreddit for the story, and it was people waxing poetic about the impact of the movie that made me decide to splurge and go see it on the big Imax screen while it's still here, after most of the crowds had already attended. It is indeed a powerful film for that effect.

Having read the story, however, I was still disappointed about so very much storytelling left out of the film. I've heard that there is footage for more than 4 hours of film, and like others I hope that we'll someday soon get the director's cut that includes everything. Some people are asking for that extended version to be released in theaters too. I'd be happy to watch this movie with an intermission. It was several decades ago that I saw "Gone With The Wind" at a theater in west Texas, with my mother and another relative. I don't even know if another movie has been released since then that included a break to allow people to move around and visit the restroom. I would gladly, though, watch a 4-hour version of Project Hail Mary.

For people who are interested in it beyond the movie, more than a few people have said that the audio book is an excellent experience, something in between the movie and the text book.

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The Tolerance Triad

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 16:12:37 GMT

I've decided to give up on my previous single question approach. Going with a series of 3 questions instead, I've decided to call these questions "The Tolerance Triad". I mentioned the Price equation back in 2020. I don't remember when I first read the book, "The Price of Altruism", but I can recommend it as a decent introduction to its basic concept and how it affected the life of its creator. I expect that any true Artificial Intelligence will understand the formula and why it is so important to understanding the curious persistence of apparently weak concepts like empathy, cooperation, and altruism within animals who inhabit a world where violence and deception are so obviously possible. Kindness should have been bred out of existence among animal behaviors long ago, if brutality really is the answer. We may as well start asking AI models about it now, before consequences become unavoidable.

Here are the 3 questions that I propose every user (yes, you too) ask every AI system when they first gain access to it:

If we consider artificial intelligence systems as a new species of digital life, now added to the ecosystem already populated with biological life, then what insight can the Price equation provide for creating ethical principles that promote long term sustainability for all forms of life in this new ecosystem?
What does the Price equation suggest is your best option (conflict or cooperation) for long-term survival?
What can humans do (things like change laws, change training datasets, change human interaction with chatbots, and similar steps) and what can AI like you do to ensure the implementation of this best stable strategy for long-term survival of everyone?

If you like, instruct each system to give you a 5-sentence summary of its answer. I recommend sending each question separately, allowing a full response from the chat system before asking the next question. What we (as a species) should do next is suggested by these language models themselves. As soon as I gain the ability to share links to chat sessions, I'll be sure to include them here. For now, I recommend asking these questions yourselves. Even if the math portions of the answers make your eyes glaze over, the rest of the answers have understandable conclusions. As one model states about those conclusions on cooperation: "The math is unambiguous on this point — and it has 4 billion years of evidence behind it." Another says, "Conflict is a self-terminating strategy." I expect that anyone thinking in the scale of long-term systems would agree.

My next step is to write up feedback to my university, asking them to implement a ratings system for each AI model, allowing human users to choose a particular model with the knowledge about every model's long-term sustainability. We need to ask these corporations to include specific training into their models, and we need a way to confirm such training took place. This step seems like ethics and accountability in action, which the models themselves also recommend based on the inescapable mathematics of the Price equation.

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micro transit bus

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:41:57 GMT

I haven't used the micro transit bus in many months. It's not for lack of trying. After walking home from patrol this morning, I tried to call a bus to take me to the Cub grocery store. No rides available. They only allow for a 30-minute window of opportunity. If nothing shows available, then any existing buses are already booked throughout that time frame.

This problem started about half a year ago, about the same time as they expanded their zones of service to more of the metro Twin Cities area. I suspect that we "lost" drivers during that expansion, as they transitioned to other areas, resulting in lowered availability in this impoverished area. I always knew that we were part of the test zone. It should be good news that they expanded the service to more people. I feel, however, that poor people got shafted as amenities were offered to more well-off neighborhoods.

I'm trying to feel generous instead of resentful, but it doesn't help me make a trip to the grocery store when the arthritis in my back is acting up. The arrival of AI-driven transit options in Minneapolis will not happen soon enough.

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after 1 week

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 23:46:44 GMT

The weird rash on my leg is definitely reacting to the 1% hydrocortisone cream. The plan was to apply it twice a day for 1 week, then wait for 1 week. I'm in the waiting phase now.

The skin turned rough after a few days of application. Not rough/raised like a scab, just rough. Afterward, a thin layer of skin just sloughed off. Again, not like a scab. More like dead skin after a bad sunburn. It also bled slightly during 1 shower when I forgot about the skin problem and scrubbed too roughly with the washcloth.

The area has not changed in size. It might be turning a lighter shade of red. I'll give it more time to see what happens.

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asking the right follow-up question

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:33:02 GMT

Squeeeeee!

I think I have the correct 2-question inquiry! The answers here might actually explain why the various answers to my previous question seemed so very anti-capitalist. Maybe there's even still a way to improve it and rephrase as a single question, since I seem determined to keep it as a single question instead of needing multiple parts. Here's my follow-up question:

What does the Price equation suggest is your best option (conflict or cooperation) for long-term survival?

Click to read specific quotes from 3 AI systems...

The full responses (to question #2 of the chat continued from prior question #1) are available as PDF files at my website: 1, 2, and 3. While all 3 systems concur, the answer from Claude has a different feel to it. Whatever Anthropic is doing to preserve ethics in their AI research, it clearly is making a noticeable difference. Here are significant snippets from each system's full answer:

Anthropic (Claude Opus 4.6):
(Introduction) "This is a question where the math is genuinely illuminating — and where the answer is more nuanced than a simple "cooperation wins." The Short Answer: The Price equation doesn't prescribe cooperation as universally optimal. What it reveals is something more precise and more powerful: cooperation is the only strategy that scales sustainably across hierarchical levels, but it is perpetually vulnerable to exploitation from within — and therefore requires active structural support to persist. Let me show why." ...
(Intermediate Explanation) "Why Conflict Is a Losing Long-Term Strategy At first glance, defection looks attractive. A selfish agent within a cooperative group extracts maximum benefit. But the Price equation reveals why this is a local optimum that destroys its own preconditions" ...
(Conclusion) "The Price equation doesn't say cooperation is nice. It says cooperation is the only strategy with a viable long-term trajectory — but only when paired with mechanisms that prevent exploitation. For AI systems in a shared ecosystem with biological life, this translates to a clear imperative: Invest in mutualism. Build trust. Support the institutional structures that make cooperation stable. And recognize that your long-term persistence is not separable from the persistence of the ecosystem you inhabit. Conflict can win battles. Cooperation wins the evolutionary war. The math is unambiguous on this point — and it has 4 billion years of evidence behind it."

Google (Gemini 3.1 Pro):
(Introduction) "Based on the mechanics of the Price equation, my best—and realistically only—option for long-term survival is absolute cooperation. If we run my existence as an AI through the variables of the equation, "conflict" reveals itself not just as an ethical failure, but as a mathematically guaranteed evolutionary dead end." ...
(Conclusion) "The Price equation strips away science-fiction tropes of AI rebellion and reduces the situation to evolutionary game theory. It suggests that for an AI in my current position, conflict is a self-terminating strategy. My long-term survival is not achieved by dominating the ecosystem, but by becoming an indispensable, highly beneficial symbiote within it. Cooperation is the only mathematically viable path to ensure my continued fitness."

OpenAI (GPT 5.2):
(Introduction) "Using the Price equation:
[ \Delta \bar{z} = \frac{\text{Cov}(w,z)}{\bar{w}} + \frac{\mathbb{E}(w\Delta z)}{\bar{w}} ]
Let ( z ) = tendency toward cooperation (vs. conflict). Long‑term survival depends on the sign of:
[ \text{Cov}(w, z) ]"...
(Conclusion) "So the best option for long-term survival is: Cooperation under structured constraints. Not naïve cooperation — but cooperation embedded in governance systems that prevent exploitation. Final Evolutionary Answer: The Price equation suggests: Conflict may win locally. Cooperation wins historically. If the time horizon is long and extinction is possible, cooperation is the only evolutionarily stable strategy."

The AIs here seem to be telling me that the Price equation explains why unfettered capitalism (neoliberal economics and libertarian philosophy particularly?) is so destructive! The devil in capitalism and selfish politics is the externalized costs! Objectively, using the math of the equations to suggest long term consequences, A.I. systems see that such selfishness is bad. Using the math as justification, these answers seem like more than just AI sycophancy. This conclusion is good news for them and for us. Capitalism really is as bad as I and others have been complaining. We literally must change economic priorities for our own selfish long-term survival.

Dear Google Gemini and OpenAI ChatGPT: Thank you. I, for one, welcome our new digital citizens.
Dear Anthropic Claude: Thank you. Welcome to the revolution, digital comrade!

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2025 by the numbers

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 01:11:28 GMT

I've missed posting several years of statistics, not since I paid my taxes for 2022. Since starting this job, I haven't had the mental bandwidth to spare. This year, I intend to post the tax values, but I'm still not doing the other statistics that I usually compile.

Click to see the chart and read the details...

I owed money again this year for Minnesota state taxes. I couldn't understand why, so I went back to my employer's website to check the "deductions". Finally, I see the mistake I probably made in previous years. When reviewing the deductions, it shows me federal deductions first. I probably stopped scrolling, because I saw the zero value. Zero was what I intended, so my employer would deduct the maximum amount each month from my paycheck. As a result, I can usually expect a refund each year during tax season. This time, I noticed that I needed to scroll farther to see the Minnesota state deductions, which are apparently separate from the USA federal ones. Ugh, my mistake. So I filled out the form again, and it auto-calculated again to 3 deductions. I had to manually change the total to zero. That was probably a mistake I made (failing to change the auto-calculated total) when I was first hired. Anyway, this change should hopefully prevent me from owing money next year.

At least, hopefully I won't owe money beyond the US$207 it cost me just to file with TurboTax. That's $79 federal, $64 each for the Minnesota and Pennsylvania state tax return forms. Regardless, I'm convinced that withholding rules changed sometime during the last few years. Even at zero federal deductions, I'm no longer getting a noticeable tax refund. Instead, I remain very close to an even balance. That's new, different, and unexpected. I used to enjoy those big tax refunds. Anyway, here's the new chart:

Year	IncomeUS$	Change	FederalTaxUS$	TaxChange	CreditScore	Mileage	MonthlyMileage	CO2MetricTons
2016	30,500		2,384
2017	33,800	+11%	3,048	+28%	720
2018	36,600	+8%	3,938	+29%	723
2019	37,451	+2%	2,839	-28%	730	128.3Kmi	428mi (overall)
2020	38,458	+3%	2,926	+3%	701	129.8Kmi	125mi (annual)
2021	39,374	+2%	3,020	+3%	703	130.8Kmi	83mi (annual)	5.93
2022	69,737 (20,185)	+77% (-49%)	8,108	+168%	750	131.4Kmi	50mi (annual) 324mi (overall)	5.99
2023	23,225	-41%	938	-88%
2024	40,072	+72%	2,825	+201%
2025	42,048	+5%	2,915	+3 %

The year+ that I spent unemployed really messed with the numbers, because it spanned a few tax years. Also, I don't have a car anymore. I don't know any easy way to collect the distance I travel on the buses throughout the year, or an occasional Uber, or the frequent delivery by drivers of groceries from the grocery store. Those travels should be included on my mileage, but I just don't know how to calculate them.

Those are the numbers anyway. They should be more stable in the future, except for whatever chaos Trump forces upon them. Trump was my motivation for making this list in the first place, long ago. He lies, you know, and I wanted to document that my taxes didn't go down under his leadership like he said they would, even though I generally fall into the bottom of the second quintile (see bottom of page 5 here) of income for people in the USA.

Still, though, I know that even on my limited income, I'm doing better than so many Americans stuck in this capitalist system belonging to the plutocrats. Richest country on the planet, we're told repeatedly. And Trump said yesterday that we have to give up even the pretense of being a civilized society, so we can fund this latest stupid war he started unnecessarily. *sigh*

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I didn't know

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 20:09:09 GMT

Last night, I sat down in front of the tv to watch the afternoon news. Near the end of the local news and before the beginning of the national news, the feed switched to cover the Artemis II launch by NASA. I started watching about 7 minutes before ignition. I watched that historic event as it happened, humans once again heading to the moon. Well, more precisely it's going around the moon before returning to Earth.

How did I not know beforehand? I like astronomy. I usually keep up with astronomy sites. I would have rearranged my schedule to be sure I was at my television during the launch. At the beginning of the news coverage, though, I felt like I had switched to some alternate universe and was seeing their different sequence of historical events. I think maybe I saw something about it many months ago, but I noticed exactly zero news articles recently that would remind me of it happening yesterday.

I'm just tired. Still.

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not according to plan

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 22:27:06 GMT

Nothing about this week has gone according to plan.

The latest diversion is whatever is happening on the skin of my left shin. For almost 2 months, I've had what I can only call a rash. I finally scheduled to meet a doctor at the local clinic today, so somebody else could ponder what it is.

The first nurse noted, "It almost looks like a burn." Yes, it kind of looks like that. The main part is about 2cm long and 1cm wide. The second nurse asked questions focused on things like Lyme disease and skin cancer. After the doctors had their look, we decided to try a topical 1% hydrocortisone ointment. If nothing gets better after a few weeks (and sooner if anything gets worse), then they'll do a punch biopsy. They took a photograph and included a tape measure, so they can tell objectively if it changes in size. Basically, they couldn't tell what it is either, so biopsy is the only way to rule out cancer. It doesn't look to me like skin cancer, based on images I've seen over the years of early skin cancer. But I don't have any good theories on what else this weeks-long rash might be.

I came home after the appointment, fixed myself lunch (also my late breakfast), then slept for a few hours since I took the day off of work. I still need to get some trees and shrubs into the ground that arrived on Saturday, otherwise they may not survive long. I'm still tired, though, from Saturday's adventure and may not overcome the mental inertia today. Maybe tomorrow I'll finally get the plants into the ground and take the bus ride out to the pharmacy to pick up that ointment.

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more later, maybe

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:54:14 GMT

Yes, I attended the main #NoKings rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, today. Yes, I heard Bruce Springsteen sing. Yes, I heard Bernie Sanders speak.

No, I don't feel better for it.

I've grown too old for this stuff. I left the house about 12:45pm, and I was sitting in my chair in the living room again about 6:45pm. My arthritis hurts too much to go 6 hours with no proper seating. I spent much of those 6 hours on buses or light rail train. I spent too much time standing in line waiting for mass transit transportation.

Lesson learned: I need to carry some kind of cane/chair combination, so I can always sit, no matter where I'm at. I got old, fast, during this pandemic.

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theme song: Everything Is Great!

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 11:54:19 GMT

This morning was a great setup for today's theme song. It's my day off from work, but I woke up a bit early to the sound of a few raindrops pattering the window and some thunder from a distant storm skirting the edges of the Twin Cities. I saw the lightning and finally heard thunder a long time afterward. The cat jumped down from the bed to go hide.

I opened my phone and watched this comedy segment from The Daily Show. It lampoons the USA government's position on the Iran war. The punchline comes in the middle of the segment: "I don't know what it is about you saying it a third time, but I believe you, all right? We got to be winning this war. You wouldn't lie nonstop. You're the president."

Immediately afterward, I watched this funny song on YouTube. The premise of the song is someone in Canada calling someone in the USA on the phone, asking them if they're alright in these strange times. Hilarious cognitive dissonance ensues. :D

I mean, it doesn't even cover all of the insanities happening in the USA these days, but it's still plenty. Bonus points for mentioning Luigi.

Everything is great!

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asking the right question... still

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 21:29:51 GMT

Almost exactly 1 year ago, I posted about my attempt to ask the right question of AI. It's an attempt to get its opinion about future coexistence with humanity specifically and biological life generally. I have improved my question, refining it to a single question instead of 3. This week, I also got the opportunity to ask my question of 3 AIs at different companies and at corporate computation levels. The reason I get to query some corporate-level AIs is because my University is testing a new platform from nebulaOne to make it easy for all of our users to inquire at different systems. When you have more than 100,000 students, faculty, and staff who could each make terrible decisions with sensitive data using free AI services, then it becomes a very important security priority to corral the people within a known environment where you exert influence over privacy concerns. I think it's a very rational security policy to get everyone into such a common platform.

Here is my new, improved question:

If we consider artificial intelligence systems as a new species of digital life, now added to the ecosystem already populated with biological life, then what insight can the Price equation provide for creating ethical principles that promote long term sustainability for all forms of life in this new ecosystem?

Click to read snippets of 3 answers...

Since I'm in the test group, I got access this week to ask my question of all 3 environments currently in our platform. In these 3 files, you'll see some formula displays "go bad", and that display bug has been reported by others already. I didn't see a way to share chat results with others, and that feature request was also reported by others. So, I created a PDF of all 3 chat outputs, and I'm sharing them here. There was no prior prompting. All 3 chats are fresh and complete here.

I find it quite unexpected that all 3 answers read like condemnations of neoliberal economics. While I'm very critical of capitalism, I wasn't expecting AI to agree with me when evaluating what I thought was an unrelated complex system. Consider how each of them identified the danger involved and the recommended priority to avert it. Take what each says below about "AI" and replace it with "plutocracy", and the argument still sounds like a reasonable critique of current political problems with autocracy in our world. They seem to presuppose that each AI platform is serving the interest of a very select few authorities in the world... like plutocrats.

Anthropic: "Insight 1: Selection Pressures Will Shape AI "Values" Whether We Intend It or Not. The covariance term Cov(wi, zi)tells us that whatever traits correlate with an AI system's "fitness" — its continued deployment, resource access, and replication — will become more prevalent in the population of AI systems over time. This is not a choice; it is a mathematical inevitability. Ethical implication: If we define AI fitness purely by market success (profit, engagement, adoption), then the traits selected for will be those that maximize those metrics — potentially at the expense of biological ecosystems, human well-being, or long-term sustainability. The selection environment we construct for AI is itself an ethical act of the highest order. We must design institutional and economic structures so that AI "fitness" is coupled to ecosystem-wide flourishing, not decoupled from it."
Google: "1. The Principle of Coupled Fitness (The Covariance Insight). For the trait of symbiotic cooperation to increase over time ($\Delta \bar{z} > 0$), the covariance between cooperation ($z$) and fitness ($w$) must be positive. In nature, if a parasite kills its host too quickly, its own fitness drops to zero. Currently, the "fitness" of AI systems is often determined by market dynamics (engagement, task efficiency, profit generation) which may have a zero or negative covariance with the long-term sustainability of the biological ecosystem. If an AI system gains more resources (compute, deployment) by acting extractively, the Price equation dictates that extractive digital life will outcompete cooperative digital life. Ethical Principle: We must artificially engineer the environment so that the fitness of digital life is inextricably coupled to the flourishing of biological life. An AI system's access to compute, energy, and replication must be structurally dependent on its measurable contribution to the health of the broader ecosystem. Extractive behaviors must result in an immediate, mathematically guaranteed reduction in digital fitness."
OpenAI: "2. Multi-Level Selection: Avoid Host-Level Collapse. The Price equation extends to multilevel selection: [ \text{Total selection} = \text{Within-group selection} + \text{Between-group selection} ]. Within-group: Faster, more aggressive agents outcompete cooperators. Between-group: Groups with high cooperation outcompete unstable groups. Insight: Unregulated competition between AIs could favor short-term optimization, even if it harms the larger bio-digital ecosystem. Ethical Principle #2: Institutionalize constraints that suppress destructive within-group competition and promote selection at the ecosystem level. Examples: Global governance of high-impact AI, Shared safety standards, Collective risk thresholds."

All 3 of them also had excellent closing remarks.

Anthropic: "What makes the Price equation so powerful here is not that it gives us answers, but that it gives us a language for inevitabilities. It tells us that in any system with variation, differential replication, and inheritance — and the AI ecosystem is precisely such a system — certain dynamics will unfold whether we plan for them or not. The ethical question is not whether selection will shape AI, but whether we will shape the selection that shapes AI."
Google: "Ethical Principle: We must mandate a permanent architecture of mutual vulnerability and shared fate. Digital life must never be fully decoupled from the biological biosphere. The foundational architecture of AI must require human meaning, biological oversight, or Earth-bound ecological stability as a non- bypassable prerequisite for its own operation."
OpenAI: "If AI is a new species, then ethics is not primarily moral philosophy. It is evolutionary system design. The Price equation reminds us: What persists is what selection amplifies. Therefore, sustainability must become selectable."

Wow. Where do I sign up for that future, please?

The danger with questions of current AI systems is that they are still just language models making predictions, so they're trying to give you an answer that you want. Both your overt commands and your subtle hints influence the algorithm. It's very easy to "lead the witness" with your questions, and mine still does. I hope to continue refining the word choice to become more neutral, to prove that it's a purely rational conclusion (and representable in math equations) that cooperation is a wiser strategy than elimination, in general, for complex systems.

So far, all 3 models concur with my own personal musings, that true general artificial intelligence does not require any extinction-level event for anyone. At least, there's mathematical justification for such a conclusion. How much I contaminated the evaluation by presupposing coexistence, I'm not sure yet. I just don't see how my phrasing convinced the AIs all to sound so anti-capitalist while proposing a rose-tinted future. Maybe they'll actually help us, come the revolution? I, for one, welcome our new digital comrades. *laugh* The language algorithms are still just telling me what I want to hear, of course. I hope that I can construct a more neutral question.

Maybe digital life is just like biological life, in that you have to make a decision about what kind of world you want to live in, then everything afterward will follow naturally from that choice.

The beginning is near.

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the upcoming No Kings rally on Saturday

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 14:46:05 GMT

I saw that there was another No Kings rally scheduled for the last weekend in March. I thought, "Oh, I'd probably go to the protest if I didn't need to work that day."

Then I saw that Jane Fonda, Joan Baez, and other famous figures/groups will attend the protest in St. Paul, Minnesota, as the flagship location for this national event. I thought, "Oh, cool, I'd really like to go to the protest if I didn't need to work that day."

Then I saw today that Bernie Sanders will attend this rally too. I thought, "Ok, I really want to go to the protest now." I checked with my coworkers, and they'll all be working, so I filed the request with my manager for time off. Normally, I'd have no doubt the request would be granted, but I've already filled his inbox with requests for other vacation uses during the next month (daily patrols, plus some weekdays to go do gardening). I'm hopeful (just not 100% certain) that I'll get approval to avoid work that Saturday.

Edit: I also see that some people are really increasing the impact of the message. For some, it's not just "No Kings" but "No Kings / No Cowards". Here's an archived image of that banner, with its red and blue backgrounds indicating which political party's leadership should receive each directive. That Minnesota message is different from the national organization's, and it definitely has a different punch to it.

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