The Peckish Synapse

Grumpy Bear · January 22, 2022

When man copies nature he credits his invention as an "Intelligent Design".

What do these same men call the SOURCE of the things they copy?

A Theory?

https://www.momtastic.com/webecoist/2011/01/14/brilliant-bio-design-14-animal-inspired-inventions/

What do you call it when one takes credit for another's work?

Plagiarism!

What do you call the idea that higher order systems are the natural selective conclusion of lower order systems?

Bio-Inspired Computer Takes Cues from Cat Brains

(image via: aturkus)

Sure, computer tech has advanced a lot in recent years – but even supercomputers still can’t recognize human faces as well as cats can. The University of Michigan decided to study the feline brain in order to develop an intelligent computer. The idea is that current computers execute code in a linear fashion, as opposed to the mammalian brain, which can process many things at once. Lu is in the process of developing a circuit element that behaves like biological synapses. This ‘memristor’ can remember past voltages that passed through it in a way that is similar to memory and learning in the brain. Why cats? Computer engineer Wei Lu says it was simply a more realistic goal than mimicking the brain of a human.

Grumpy Bear · February 18, 2022

What's Trending?

My granddaughter tells me the styles I choose are not 'trending' and somehow this makes them wrong and....get this...unscientific! I was unaware that fashion was science. I embarrass her.

My wife tells me the color I painted the living room 23 years ago needs to change because it is 'dated'. Well it needed painting and she go her wish but not because the color was dated. Oddly the color she chose that was 'trending' was the color my mother painted the living room in the 1950's.

According to my father, still with us and whose first car was a late 1920's Ford A model that those motors were good for 50 to 80 thousand miles between rebuilds following the manufactures procedures and chemistries of the time. However one could get 150K between rebuilds IF they made upgrades to the air inlet filter and strained the new oil though a medium before putting it in the motor. 150,000 miles on straight mineral oil! Not just straight mineral oil but mineral oils refined with the technology of the turn of the century. In a motor without an oil pump. Without a filter and burning straight run gasolines. Want to hear something funny? . 150,000 miles is the current legal definition of a drivetrains 'lifetime'.

Of course Dad tells me also that many an A never made it past 20K miles when used in farm work at harvest and to busy to change the oil at the recommended 50 mile intervals. Little has changed in 100 years.

Well SA oils are a bit before my time. SB/SC oils is where I cut my teeth. Where I worked in dads shop since I was old enough to climb up to the work bench and I've seen plenty. At that time it was 'normal' to see motors with 100K or less with cylinder ridges deep enough to require up to an eighth of an inch in overbore. And I mean normal. You expected to use a 'ridge ream' to take the thing apart. Curse those SB oils.. But here's the problem. The motors I saw with 500K to a million on the clock with a ridge so shallow it wouldn't catch your fingernail. Same SB oil. Same crap gas. Completely different approach to maintaining those motors.

In 1928 Kendall oil released their 2,000 mile motor oil. 2 years before the adoption by auto makers for a fortified oil. Let's be generous and say someone errored on the year for SB. The Ford A's service manual states 50 mile oil changes and here Kendall is claiming 2,000! Those post 1930's motors that bought into that new "chemistry' claims were the motors in the shop needing 1/8" overbore. And those in the shop with 500 mile OCI's.....lived a very long time and were rebuildable repeatedly. Lot's an lot's of motors went on forever on these SB/SC oils.

Know what has changed since 1920? Nothing! Oh the chemistry has changed. Motors have changed. But the same, 'You never need to change your oil' song and dance is still alive and well. Well and viscosity is still the thing that keeps parts from other parts.

Know what chaps my backside? People telling me I'm not seeing exactly what I'm looking at. The beer in my hand is not a beer cause I don't know what beer chemistry is. That I don't know how many beers it takes to put a fuzz on my lips because I don't understand how a body metabolizes alcohol. That there is no way I can ever find out the alcohol content in that beer because I'm ignorant of the testing used or that a test does not exist and that too due to my ignorance. That 30 plus years brewing beer 20 years retired means everything I knew is now obsolete.

Here's what the evolution in oil has given the consumer. A longer drain interval to reach the same state of damage by any metric you care to measure damage by in more power dense motors.

Power density has increased dramatically in 100 years from the A's SAE 40 hp from 201 cubic inches to 400 hp for that same displacement today. As much as motor oil has had to progress to keep up with that load we are still close to the same spot we were 100 years ago in service life. Fact is there will always more model A's than 1983 Pontiacs still in service. And I can still get part for the Model A.

Tell ya what. If I had a lifetime supply of Phillips Trop Artic 10W30 SC/SD I'd run it in Pepper today without any more issue than a more frequent oil change.

Just because a thing is not trendy, is dated, is beyond your knowing...doesn't make it useless.

KARNUT · February 18, 2022

When I was growing up in NJ the recommended oil change was 3K with every other filter change. I’m under there I changed the filter. What usually killed the car was rust. You could pull an engine out of a rusted out car and still use it. I had a 70 Ford p/u that I ran parts for my father’s business. At 60K miles I got tired of the 240-6yl and pulled a 289 out of a station wagon that was rusted out. I mistakenly used high detergent oil in it. For two winter’s like clock work the sludge would clog the oil pump. That would shear the rod to the distributor. I’d clean everything put back together away I went. I left the truck in NJ when I moved to Texas. The back of the truck got run over by a D-6. My other uncle hit a deer used the front clip. My brother blew the 390 in his 66 ford before moving to Texas. The guy that bought that truck bought the 289. I put 150K miles on the engine using oil out a 55 gallon drum that was used in diesel heavy equipment. Last time I was in NJ vehicles were still rusting out, time Is usually the killer not miles. Two hundred thousand miles should be easy with regular maintenance.

Donstar · February 19, 2022

100k miles on a used car in the 60's and 70's was met with awe and token resale/salvage prices. This mindset is hard to shake. Today people will say 100k is just broken-in! I've actually got it worse because I was driving for a few years when we switched to the metric system. My truck's odometer is reaching 100k and my trust is dropping even though it's running problem free. The sad thing is my 100k is only 62k miles! I want my truck to be my DD until the half ton equivalent EV's hit the lots. The mileage on a used EV will come with a whole new set of interpretations!

Grumpy Bear · February 21, 2022

Thanks Nadia!

Mrs. Bear and I are watching, taped, the Olympic Pairs Free Skate. One of our favorite Olympic winter sports. Commentary by Johnny Weir and company.

If you visit his site you see a list of achievements that are, shall we say....Ho-hum...middle pack and bottom of that. When you listen to his commentary however what I hear is something a bit more...... what should I say? Elevated? Perfect? Legend in his own mind? Arrogant? Dismissive?

What is that saying? Those that can do. Those that can't teach? Or in this case judge. Happy pack of skaters his judgment counts for less than he thinks. He HAMMERED the team from China that won the gold on a single small fault in an otherwise breath taking performance during that performance that the actual judges deemed gold medal worthy. We liked it. Did I see the fault? Yea. It was small. They judged fairly.

It gave me pause. Exactly how many gold medals have been won with a perfect score? Well I don't know for sure but...I knew where to look!

Nadia Comăneci came instantly to mind. At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Comăneci received seven perfect scores and won the gold medals for the balance beam, the uneven bars, and the all-around individual competition. (from her site)

She never judged nor was she ever a commentator. I wonder what she would have thought about this coverage? This type of coverage. She would be to modest to say I'd guess. I wonder what she would have to have said about the last place team? Kind things I'd hope. I saw the balance beam performance. In my mind? Never will we see it's equal. It was perfect....

Edited February 21, 2022 by Grumpy Bear

Grumpy Bear · March 7, 2022

Inflation

Consumer price index comes out this week and will show blah, blah, blah and the market will blah blah blah. Everyone with a 401K will gasp blah, blah, blah......

I make a $1 an hour. A basket of product cost 10 cents. Fifty years later I'm making $100 an hour and that basket of products cost $10. Kids that is NOT inflation. I can still by ten baskets of product.

However if that basket cost $40 instead of $10? That is inflation. I lost buying power. 40% to be exact. About the loss in buying power since 1972.

This price bubble foolishness is just that. A bubble. People like to buy bubbles for some reason. I avoid them like the plague.

Wages going up slower by fractions of a cent per year goes unnoticed by Joe Public but not by Business or by Government. Oh the publish it. They just don't publish that data in centralized ease to read way BECAUSE????

It's just how they boil a frog.

Grumpy Bear · April 3, 2022

Gone to the Dogs

Mrs. Bear and I make Rex's food. At 33.5 lbs. his weight is maintained well with a fed of 2.75 ounces per day twice per day. As we make his food but twice a month and feed him raw storage is a concern. For some time baggies were the container of choice. But baggies are once and done. Fill up the land fill. End up in oceans and...well...you get the point. We needed a better solution.

Mrs. Bear finds these nifty snap top reusable containers that are small enough to allow 30 meals to fit nicely in the freezer.

2.75 ounces is not a huge amount so some space in each container goes unused but not a great deal and curiosity gets the better of me so while making the latest batch I weigh up a full one to scratch that itch and find they will hold 4 ounces on the button of this particular mix. Cool!

So I'm doing the math while we are packing the latest batch and find I could feed a dog roughly 48 pounds from these containers. What pops out of my mouth is, "48 pounds"!!

"What's 48 pounds"?, she asks. Hearing but one half the conversation I'm having with self.

"The size of dog I can feed from this container" I smile...totally ignorant of what is about to happen.

"Dog that size would starve to death on that much food" she quips.

I have a moments mental numbness and it dawns on me she is thinking I mean the 2.75 ounces we feed Rex and not the 4 ounces the container will hold. Okay I got this I think.

"No dear I mean I could feed a 48 pound dog from what this container will hold". I emphasize, feeling satisfied I've cleared this miscommunication up.

"Are you mad?" She is upset now.... Not sure why the upset part but I see the problem clearly.

She did not 'hear' the words "will hold" or if she did....yea...so I try again

"No dear I mean from the amount food this container will hold"....and she looks like a deer in the headlights. No joy.

"I don't care what size the ******* container is, you can't feed a 48 pound dog only 5-1/2 ounces of food a day (2*2.75) and keep it heathy." Really red faced now......her not I to be clear.

Go back up the page to the first highlighted line. I was perfectly clear but....it made zero difference.

Disagreements can be like this. Your words can be perfect. Your grammar correct. Your not wrong. And yet you are.....and in a cat fight you neither asked for nor fueled.

IF you strain to make yourself clearly heard by someone who just isn't listening....

....you're being argumentative.

:banghead:

So, I dished up 4 ounces of dog food and placed this raw blob in her hand and said slowly...

"THIS much food feeds a 48 pound dog.

Forget the container".

Thankfully the light bulb lit.

Here I use the Ignore Feature.

Or silence as the case requires.

customboss · April 3, 2022

On 3/7/2022 at 1:20 PM, Grumpy Bear said:

Inflation

Consumer price index comes out this week and will show blah, blah, blah and the market will blah blah blah. Everyone with a 401K will gasp blah, blah, blah......

I make a $1 an hour. A basket of product cost 10 cents. Fifty years later I'm making $100 an hour and that basket of products cost $10. Kids that is NOT inflation. I can still by ten baskets of product.

However if that basket cost $40 instead of $10? That is inflation. I lost buying power. 40% to be exact. About the loss in buying power since 1972.

This price bubble foolishness is just that. A bubble. People like to buy bubbles for some reason. I avoid them like the plague.

Wages going up slower by fractions of a cent per year goes unnoticed by Joe Public but not by Business or by Government. Oh the publish it. They just don't publish that data in centralized ease to read way BECAUSE????

It's just how they boil a frog.

We have extremely high inflation because 60% of it is unchecked corporate greed.

Corporations exist and enjoy all the protections of the constitution while having or showing very little of the common responsibility that the constitution and good will being a citizen requires. The founders left good will of the citizen, elected officials and now corporations as individuals ( supreme courts decided in "Citizens United as personhoods" ) a major player in our form of republic based representative democracy. Good Will means we all understand we share common defense, roads, natural resources, air, water, etc and that includes the ability to trade, work, sell, buy, in those spaces. When supply is constricted, have a national or world pandemic, war, natural disaster we all bond together as citizens and do what it takes to make it better for those who are suffering........no so with the person-hoods, corporate citizens...

US corporations have made more during the pandemic than they ever have. Corporate profit is at record levels. These person hoods have become robin hoods of evil but get protection of an individual citizen while screwing their fellow citizens who fight for them in war, work for them for a pittance, die from lack of healthcare or pandemic..

Inflation has always been in the US about greed because the playing field could be leveled for all. It's not level, .....because a few powerful WE keep electing keep screwing the regular working class citizen.

Our ignorance and ambivalence enslaves most US citizens. The 1 % enjoys that fact. All the way to the bank.

You collectively get what you vote for. Boiling the frog is spot on.

For the more curious read this : https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/corporate-profits-drive-60-of-inflation?s=r

diyer2 · April 3, 2022

IMO

It is what it is and no cares if an individual can afford things or not.

customboss · April 3, 2022

31 minutes ago, diyer2 said:

IMO

It is what it is and no cares if an individual can afford things or not.

The individual gets what WE vote for. That opinion confirms the majority mentality that keeps us in that position. When less than 1 % fight for the US in any war and an elite 1% control our national assets we aren't in a gilded age but a platinum age.

Not caring or giving up collectively enables the decline collectively. We of a certain age get tired and retreat.

KARNUT · April 3, 2022

We were going and blowing until the last election. Cheating and censorship gave us what we are experiencing presently. And the war on fossil fuels. Weakness in the withdrawal of Afghanistan empowered our enemies. Now tariffs are being lifted on China goods causing a shrinking of made in America again. A solar panel maker in Atlanta an example. The Biden corruption is paying off for China. The southern border fiasco is baffling. The only corruption that worries me occupies the Oval Office. Hopefully it can be reversed. The deep state has been exposed with the fines levied against the Clinton campaign. Hopefully it doesn’t stop there.

pokismoki · April 4, 2022

On 4/3/2022 at 9:52 AM, customboss said:

The individual gets what WE vote for. That opinion confirms the majority mentality that keeps us in that position. When less than 1 % fight for the US in any war and an elite 1% control our national assets we aren't in a gilded age but a platinum age.

Not caring or giving up collectively enables the decline collectively. We of a certain age get tired and retreat.

vote for?? last election everyone voted for one guy, and the hackers gave us the other guy.. your vote doesn't count in this modern technological world. we're along for the ride. enjoy that "blue-pill" fella

customboss · April 5, 2022

3 hours ago, pokismoki said:

vote for?? last election everyone voted for one guy, and the hackers gave us the other guy.. your vote doesn't count in this modern technological world. we're along for the ride. enjoy that "blue-pill" fella

Sad commentary. Poki, Gumby ain’t your friend. Constitution is. Use it.

Grumpy Bear · April 5, 2022

Well that went sideways quickly

:wtf:

The inflation post was meant as more of an explanation of the mechanics of inflation.

:dunno:

customboss · April 5, 2022

On 4/3/2022 at 1:18 PM, KARNUT said:

We were going and blowing until the last election. Cheating and censorship gave us what we are experiencing presently. And the war on fossil fuels. Weakness in the withdrawal of Afghanistan empowered our enemies. Now tariffs are being lifted on China goods causing a shrinking of made in America again. A solar panel maker in Atlanta an example. The Biden corruption is paying off for China. The southern border fiasco is baffling. The only corruption that worries me occupies the Oval Office. Hopefully it can be reversed. The deep state has been exposed with the fines levied against the Clinton campaign. Hopefully it doesn’t stop there.

Wish you could read and comprehend that link above. Inflation is the subject.
60% of it is caused by American consumers getting screwed by our corporate titans raising prices while they can.
That line of misguided cause and effects for the most part are why we are heading to idiocracy instead of being a constitutional republic. Putin Orbahn and Trump are pretty much same and love you got it.
US Conservative sanity launched somewhere into space and fantasyland.