Just sat down to blog.. and the wireless wasn’t working.. of course not.. Mercury is in retrograde.. whatever that means.. Actually , those astrologically or astronomical aware readers will know that we are just leaving the periond in which mercury’s and earth’s orbits do this little do-see-doh.. and mercury appears to stall and then travel backwards across the ecliptic..   The key word is ‘appears’.. nothing crazy is happening in space.. it’s just from our vantage point things look kind of wacky.. it’s like car wheels appearing to go backwards when you look at them through a fence..    That sounds pretty cool.. no ?

the trouble is, the period of retrograde has a terrible reputation for things not working.. Communications, computers. machines, cars, relationships, finance.. everything..

now.. I’m a scientist.. and there’s no way in the world that an optical illusion around the position of a small sun blasted rock several light minutes away could have anything to do with how my electronics are function here on earth… but.. Evidence over the past few days is trying to get me to believe otherwise..

In the past two weeks i’ve had problems with our house wireless, our  printer, dines  iPhone , my new iPhone, several USB cables, the down stairs wifi dongle, a tesla coil, a theremin.. the Amazon echo, my weather station, my smart things setup, several tile tags…

maybe mercury in retrograde is just bad for IoT ?

Anyway.. i note on the calendar that we are just leaving retrograde.. I give all my electronics permission to start working together again..

can’t we all just get along ?

nite all, nite sam

-me

This morning I heard from my friend Rafe that Prof. Marvin Minsky had died. Minsky who founded the AI lab at MIT  was considered by most  to be the father of Artificial Intelligence . He was also the father of our good friend Henry who lived in our dorm .   The Minsky’s lived in Brookline in a great old house that was just packed with cool stuff and cool people. I didn’t know Henry’s parents all that well, but when we saw them they were always really warm and welcoming. I remember one time sitting in a full size swing in their dining room ,looking at a 6 foot long mortar shell and listening to Marvin play the piano.. he could make up things that sounded like Bach fugues.   Last time I saw him was a few years back at a FIRST competition in Boston.. he lent me his fork.. .. He was such a cool guy..

My colleagues and I  are working more and more on AI concepts that Marvin developed. We owe him much…  Thank you Marvin.. !

nite all, nite sam

-me

High point of today was going to see my cousin Dr. Jon Patz speak at UVM  on the Global warming.  It was a great talk.. He didn’t give  one of those doom and gloom global warming talks.. instead he talked about how the health savings of avoiding global warming more than offset the costs of the mitigations required to control it.. It was a compelling argument !

Jon did have some scary charts.. like this best case/worst case on warming.. right now we’re on track for the one on the right !

and a chart showing relative carbon emissions vs mortality rates due to climate related problmes

Jon talked about his times meeting the Dali Lama..

and the carbon impact of diet !

eating bugs is an option !

or maybe worms !

I was so proud to be there .. here we are with Jon and Jean.. right after, we took them to their plane

ok.. 1AM.. and just finishing up work..

time to sleep !!!

-me

Joust back from a really nice dinner with my cousins.. Bill and Deb and Jon and Jean. Jon and Jean are here from Wisconsin because Jon, who is my dad’s first cousin, is giving a lecture tomorrow at UVM called

“Health Opportunities Arising from Climate Change Policies Negotiated in Paris”

At 2PM in the Silver Mapble Ballroom in the UVM Davis Center. Should be a great talk..

While we were finishing our after dinner Tea, I got a txt from my friend Hilary  on the Sanders campaign .. (no..not TAHT Hilary !) . She was at a Bernie rally in Cedar Rapids Iowa.. and the place was full of our light up Bernie signs !> She says the energy there … like the signs.. was electric !

Very, very exciting  !

nite all, nite sam

-me