@Bernard said: Question: Are proper names allowed in the Word association thread? I have avoided using them, but sometimes they are the first to pop into my mind. I thought the original rule was no proper nouns. My personal opinion is that rule is silly and that anything goes!

Spot

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The US defense secretary, ⁠Pete Hegseth, this week ordered an annual testosterone-deficiency screening for active-duty and reserve service members aged 30 and older, which he says will help to maintain military readiness. But many medical professionals warn it might do nothing of the sort and instead could increase service members’ risk of infertility or lead to other consequences if testosterone is prescribed inappropriately. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/18/us-military-testosterone-screening-doctors On a related note.... Retired Adm James Stavridis, former supreme Allied commander, on the testosterone testing (on Smerconish this morning): But let's back up, Michael, does it make sense? I don't think so. When I look at the needs of the 21st century battlefield, sure, you need some big, burly, UFC like guys, maybe on the very front end of things. But who are the -- who are the killers at scale on these battlefields? They're destroyer captains, often women. They're fighter pilots, often women. They're aircraft carrier commanders. Captains of aircraft carriers, recently, a woman. They are cyber warriors. They are drone warriors. Believe me, Ukrainian women have probably put more Russians in their graves than you can imagine. So when I look at the 21st century battlefield, I'm not sure all of those women who are by definition Low T individuals are the problem. And I think testing everybody and then offering testosterone supplements doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If you want to do something smart medically for the force, go back to requiring flu shots, which were taken away by Secretary Hegseth. https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/smer/date/2026-07-18/segment/01

Josh Kerr makes athletics history by shattering one-mile world record in London Time of 3min 42.66sec betters El Guerrouj in 1999 by 0.47 Kerr becomes seventh British man to hold record https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jul/18/josh-kerr-makes-athletics-history-by-shattering-one-mile-world-record-in-london

Japan: https://www.sinchew.com.my/news/20260718/international/7680304 The metric this time is fraction of households where the caregiver and the care recipient are both above certain age. Age 75+ : 37.1% of households in Japan are such that the caregiver and care recipient are age 75 or older. Age 65+ : 61.9% of households in Japan are such that the caregiver and care recipient are age 65 or older.

It sucks she never got justice. His punishment was to not be elected president. You or I would have done real time.

Made bread during the festival. Came out fine but it appears that oven in the camper is not real even. Will have to remember to rotate pan during baking in the future. [image: IMG-6352.jpg]

Shapiro is DOA

@RealPlayer said: It’s 158 here. Grey skies but I don’t smell smoke. You feel something’s off though, an “ugh” sensation being outdoors. With better air, I’d be on my bike. I hate not riding in otherwise nice weather. Yep. I keep putting off my ride another day…. Before you know it a week passes.

@Mik Single pass cooling systems are a terrible idea in general.

Nice trick with good potentials. Still need to solve the sound/audio issue. Also brings along use cases for wireless integrated sensing and communication ("ISAC", where you use the wireless communications networks to "detect" objects and motions).

Not sure there's a "science" behind this. There's mathematics, sure. We know the exact mathematical operations performed to train the LLMs and to make use of the LLMs (perform inferences). But I hesitate to say there is "science" behind it because the mathematical operations performed do not attempt to simulate or approximate any physical system. It's like you execute a series of mathematical operations and plot the output of each step onto a canvas using some coordinate system, then you step back and notice some "interesting patterns." Doesn't mean there is a "science" behind your series of mathematical operations, the output just happen to resemble something you deem interesting when mapped using a certain coordinate system.

@Bernard said: @AndyD Yes, that's the one. But I don't like that recording of it. Well she was only 21 years old at the time. It's well beyond my abilities.

@wtg Thanks! I had searched for "The Piano Tuner" and I guess fuzzy results don't come up. Anyway, highly recommended!