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Having ended "Yesterday" with a few words about the Heart song Nada One, I thought I'd start with a subject that has nothing to do with Heart but everything to do with Elon Musk, who could reasonably considered to be a person after the title of the first Heart hit song, Magic Man. Musk has been criticized for doing too much and neglecting his companies, doing the wrong things with respect to his role as "co-president," saving the environment and destroying it. Anyone who can do all that is truly a magic man. Unless...
Are there more Musks than we know of? He named at least one of his children numerically. Perhaps there's Elon 1...n, all interchangeable. Is the Elon with the space program the same one with the Boring Company? Can you imagine more diametrically opposed activities? Holes in space as it were vs. holes in the ground? I can't help wondering: If n is large enough, are there spares available? Should I invite him to come by and rake some leaves? Bet he'd be good at it!
As I have mentioned many times, I drive a Tesla. I've been granted a Full Self Driving referral credit which expires in a few weeks. I attended the IWCE trade show between the official date of this blog and today and again used FSD for the entire trip. My driving finger grew weary, but the car got me from Sedona to Las Vegas and back with almost no intervention*. I feel that Tesla's frequent software updates are making a significant and positive difference.
Current Events
Tesla dealerships are burning. Molotov cocktails are being thrown. Cars are being keyed. Although this blog isn't a big fan of current events, there's so much going on that sometimes I feel compelled to comment.
This isn't one of those times, but I do have a photo of a Tesla bumper sticker which I took a couple days ago. My guess is that the Tesla owner installed it himself. Perhaps he's vexed with Elon for his current politics, which people seem to believe is anti-environmental and worse.
Or maybe Elon just refused to rake his leaves. |
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SETI
My roof was on television! Not the whole roof, just the laser detecting instruments that are looking for extraterrestrials. For that matter, I was on television**, too!
It's only two minutes and a bit, so I'll let the video speak for myself.
Doctors Get Better Swag
Unlike the NAB and CES trade shows that swallow the Las Vegas Convention Center whole, IWCE is a much smaller show that occupies the North Hall with room to spare. It's about "connecting critical communications" such as 911 calls, first-responder communications, and appurtenances such as antennas and generators. Because it's so small, other shows can be held contemporaneously, and one for the USAFP—the Uniformed Services Academy of Family Physicians—was at the convention space of the Westgate Las Vegas Hotel next door. Seeing no guards with syringes at the ready and curious to take a look, I entered their exhibit area and surveyed the booths. I had expected a lot of technical doctor stuff, but to my surprise the vast majority of "exhibitors" seemed to be there to exhort the military-service doctors to join their states, universities, organizations, etc. when their service obligations were fulfilled. There was at least one medical exhibit: Wegovy, the weight-loss drug had a representative. I asked a few questions, he referred me to "my family physician." He could tell I was an impostor.
As foreshadowed by the paragraph heading, I can tell you from personal observation that you're better off being in medicine than in emergency communications. Better swag, better chocolate and other booth candies, and much swankier literature on expensive and heavy print stock. Those Wegovy clinical summaries are gorgeous. I'm not sure which profession is more stressful.
I'm Now Officially Angry at AI
I tried to look up something in one of my previous blogitems, which are well indexed in Google. But the AI summary told me I was "probably" looking for something other than the RIKLBlog. I can understand why it would infer that if I had, for instance, misspelled the name of my blog and it tried to figure out which (far more popular) blog I meant. But no, I spelled it as I have been spelling it for the last 19 years. Harrumph.
* There was a fire engine blocking the road on the switchbacks between Sedona and Flagstaff. I felt it prudent to take the yoke!
** Real, over-the-air television. Channel 12 in Phoenix. |
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