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Have a Happy Thought:  Those of us older than a decade or so have gone through multiple formats of “saving” information. From physical documents, to reels of tape (be kind, rewind!), CDs and DVDs, flash drives (aka thumb drives aka USB drives aka aka aka), and, of course, “the cloud”. Now, I present to you the newest* method of recording information... a starling. Image: from gardenbirdwatching.com Basically, a guy who is “in to music and science” decided to test out his theory of converting an image into a soundwave, and then teaching that soundwave to a starling. His FIRST ATTEMPT was successful! And while this is fairly slow at an optimistic 2Mbps (a USB can transfer from betweeen 1 2Mbps to 12,000Mbps ), the fact that this theory has passed the first test is quite amazing. You can watch the ~30-minute video explaining the starling-storage system here, including a great explainer as to why starlings are so good at making so many noises: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Have a Happy Thought:  Reading truly is a way to explore other minds and other worlds. Science-fiction especially is a great way to explore possible futures. From Star Trek communicators inspiring the popularity (if not the development ) of flip phones... ...To the terrifyingly accurate description of American politics in the mid 2020’s in Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower and sequels...     ...And then there is Roald Dahl foretelling ChatGPT. Yep, you read that right. The author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG accurately described today’s “AI” language generators, in his 1953 short story “ The Great Automatic Grammatizator” . It’s a short read, and well worth it, here are the things that really impressed me. Dahl forecast: the over-use of strange or exceptionally long words real life : words like comprehend, boast, swift, meticulous, and delve Dahl: “For example, there’s a trick that nearly every writer uses, o...

Have a Happy Thought:   Fairy tales and ancient myths really come to life through the amazing work of talented illustrators. Here is a selection of such work, all drawn by Virgina Frances Sterrett. She was yet another of the late 19 th /early 20 th  century artists whose life was cut short by  Tuberculosis . But her work lives on, ready to be re-discovered by simply opening a book (even a  virtual book !)   Cover of Old French Fairy Tales by Comtesse De Segur; illustrated by Virginia Frances Sterrett; 1920; The Penn publishing company, Philadelphia. From Old French Fairy Tales. Text: “She threw her arms around the neck of Bonne-Biche.”   From Old French Fairy Tales. Text: “They were three months passing through the forest.”   From Old French Fairy Tales. Text: “They walked side by side during the rest of the evening.”     Cover of Tanglewood Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, illustrations by Virginia Frances Sterrett; 1921; Philadelphia, Penn Pu...

Have a Happy Thought:   Many of us grew up loving the one-sided confrontations between Roadrunner and Coyote. But did you know there were very specific rules for how these encounters would play out?   Warning : as you read these, you may find cartoon scenes playing in your head.   Rule 1. The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going "beep-beep!"   Rule 2. No outside force can harm the Coyote - only his own ineptitude or the failure of the ACME products.   Rule 3. The Coyote could stop anytime - if he were not a fanatic. (repeat: "a fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.' -George Santayana)   Rule 4. No dialogue ever, except "beep-beep!"   Rule 5. The Road Runner must stay on the road - otherwise, logically, he would not be called Road Runner.   Rule 6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters - the Southwest American desert. ...