Bright ideas . . .
Monday, May 26, 2025. It's the Moon's day . . . and it is “new.” Overnight and morning rains are moving, temporarily, out of TulseyTown as I write this morning. Moderate Northerlies are in the forecasts through the week with some sunshine returning tomorrow, tho slight rain chances remain tonight and tomorrow morning.
Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. And, Heather Cox Richardson's Letters From An American (posted as usual last night) held a poignant Memorial Day memory.
And, speaking of memories . . .
It's Dorothea Lange's birthdate. The documentary photographer whose portraits of displaced farmers during the Great Depression greatly influenced later documentary and journalistic photography was born in 1895, Hoboken, New Jersey.
The first American woman to travel into outer space, astronaut Sally Ride, was born on this date in 1951 Los Angeles.
And, Miles Davis was born today in 1926 Alton, Illinois. He was among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.
AI's bad rap for potential negtives is being overtaken by real world positive applications. Medicine is a good example. Heart disease is still the world’s #1 killer … but AI has entered the chat, and it’s scanning your chest X-rays like Sherlock Holmes in a lab coat. AI is getting scarily good at spotting early warning signs doctors might miss. A study in Nature Medicine showed AI could detect hidden heart failure risks just from simple chest X-rays, without needing tests.
AI imaging analysis has already made significant early detection and treatment possibilities in a wide range of disease diagnoses, including but not limted to heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancer, infectious diseases,
Don’t be shy about asking your doctor for AI-assisted screening or monitoring.
My uncle, Eugene Wilson Young, was a WWII vet who became a geologist after the war. One fine day, so he told me, while tasting and predicting – more often than not – he came up with a bright idea.
My Uncle's Bright Idea
Eugene Wilson had an idea:
Take home as many oil well core samples
as would fit into his new Volkswagen Golf,
put them on a lathe at his workshop
and using carbon fiber sandpaper
polish them into lamp bases
some of which now adorn my abode's rooms
bringing the light he searched for years
to share.
—jab