This that and the other thingamagig

[shadowkat]

1. Snagged from colls - "You can help NASA classify telescope images of
galaxies, helping researchers identify very distant
galaxies and black holes and distinguish real signals
from noise. Each classification takes about a minute,
and tutorials guide you every step of the way."

Here's How

I don't know about anyone else? But I'm certainly tempted.

2. RIP James Van Der Beek aka Dawson from Dawson's Creek. He died of cancer at the age of 48. It was announced multiple times on the news this morning. He apparently had six kids - which, well, virile?

I watched the first couple seasons of Dawson's, then intermittently here and there, and the final season. It was Kevin Williamson's first successful television series. (Williamson was behind the Scream franchise, and I Know what you did last Summer, also the creator and principal show-runner behind The Vampire Diaries. Dawson's Creek was loosely based on Williamson's post-adolescent year- loosely.) He was basically a counterpart of Joss Whedon. And Vanderbeek was often made fun of in later years for his portrayal of Dawson.

The others - Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, and Joshua Jackson were more successful.

3. Work and public transportation and this week (starting with Sunday)...have made me want to avoid people for the next four days (and since I'm taking Friday off and have Monday off as a paid Federal Bank Holiday - I can do that). To further this? I rescheduled my hair appointment for May. (Well that, and I can't handle going up and down four flights of steps on Monday, with this knee. I need more time. I'm hoping by May, I can do it without too much pain.)

On the way home, I had to stand for 20 -30 minutes waiting for the stupid train. Which was delayed due to track maintenance which Transit decided to do during the day - delaying all the trains on the line. As a result the train was packed, showed up 20 minutes late, and I didn't get a seat until the last ten minutes of the ride. It was packed and running express.

So, I decided to hold off and do laundry tomorrow - when I have more patience. Taking tomorrow off - so that should go without saying.

Work - sigh, there's one too many people who got promoted to VP and AVP who should have been fired or retired a while ago. This is the problem with big organizations, the inept, the bullies, and the nitwits rise to the top.
It's actually true across the board, regardless of size or organization. Give folks power? They abuse it. In oh so many ways. I kind of enjoy Buffy and Angel - because both series are about abuses of power, and not giving up in our battle to somehow defeat that practice by ourselves and others.


4. Question a Day Memage February:

12. Do you have any siblings?

Yes. One. A younger brother. Who has gifted me with a beautiful niece.
Siblings are a double-edged thing - both gift and curse, those who have them probably know whereof I speak?

5. People are using AI...to help with commenting on various sites - with ahem amusing results? ( Or it's bots, can't decide.)

"Your dedication to the world and the lore is genuinely inspiring. Every detail feels intentional and adds to the richness of the environment. I feel like I could spend hours just exploring the setting you've built. I want to give a huge shout-out for the brilliant chapter you just released! It was everything I hoped for and more. You have a real talent for storytelling. Bravo!"

That's lovely? Except it was in response to a Film Review of the movie Syriano.

You’ve got a real gift with words! Awesome work! Let’s discuss this story!

Also lovely, except it was in response to a meta or article on Espenson, Rand-Kirshner and Noxon - in Praise of Women Writers in Television.

Your stories are utterly captivating—this is incredible!

Wow, this is exceptional! I’m truly impressed by the smooth flow of the narrative and the authentic depth of the characters.

I'd be flattered, except it's in response to a movie review of X-Men: First Class?

Also I got some ideas in my mind related to your story which will represent your story to the viewers more warmly, if you're interested in discussing so share me any preferred platform.

It was in response to a film review of Dream Girls?



Sigh, people continue to bewilder me?

Comments

[kazzy_cee]

AI bots!!! Don't even get me started....

It's tough standing on a train when you have an issue with your knee as you have to keep adjusting your balance. I hope it's not too painful after a restful weekend.

[shadowkat]

Thank you. Doing Laundry this morning was a pain as well. I had to stand a bit too long in the basement, taking clothes out of the dryer and folding them. Finally decided to just throw stuff in the laundry bag and fold while sitting on my bed.

[cactuswatcher]

You can help NASA classify telescope images

What in the...?
This sounds very fishy to me. It may be a legit study of some sort, but I doubt that what they are getting after has much to with classifying galaxies directly or even studying dark energy indirectly. A dozen undergraduates in Astronomy with minimal, proper software could do this for many galaxies in seconds fairly reliably. In fact with a tiny bit of human assistance this would be an ideal task for AI! 30 years ago this would not have seemed such an odd thing to ask amateurs to do. But, now?

[shadowkat]

AI is apparently doing it - per colls post on it. They are asking people and AI to do it, not sure why.

Found the article on NASA's website: https://science.nasa.gov/directorates/smd/astrophysics-division/help-classify-galaxies-seen-by-nasas-james-webb-space-telescope/

So yes, believe it or not? It is legit.


"Galaxy Zoo is a citizen science project with a long history of scientific impact. Galaxy Zoo volunteers have been exploring deep space since July 2007, starting with a million galaxies from a telescope in New Mexico called the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and then, moving on to images from space telescopes like NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ESA (European Space Agency)'s Euclid telescope. The project has revealed spectacular mergers, taught us about how the black holes at the center of galaxies affect their hosts, and provided insight into how features like spiral arms form and grow.

Now, in addition to adding new data from Webb, the science team has incorporated an AI algorithm called ZooBot, which will sift through the images first and label the ‘easier ones’ where there are many examples that already exist in previous images from the Hubble Space Telescope. When ZooBot is not confident on the classification of a galaxy, perhaps due to complex or faint structures, it will show it to users on Galaxy Zoo to get their human classifications, which will then help ZooBot learn more. Working together, humans and AI can accurately classify limitless numbers of galaxies. The Galaxy Zoo science team acknowledges support from the International Space Sciences Institute (ISSI), who provided funding for the team to get together and work on Galaxy Zoo. "

Go here for Galaxy Zoo: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zookeeper/galaxy-zoo/

It's been going on since roughly 2007.

[yourlibrarian]

I had not heard about Van Der Beek. He had no luck at all, it seems. Lead on a show, with the worst career of all the main characters (and some supporting ones!) and he dies young.

[shadowkat]

It's so sad. He really did have the worst luck - except in the virility department and family department? The man left behind a loving wife and six children, and a loving family. Seemed to do fine there. Which is a lot more than I can say for Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson.

[yourlibrarian]

There is that, though I wonder how they'll do financially. I heard he was appealing for funds not long ago. Though he still worked during a time of residuals, I don't think Dawson's Creek had the same success in syndication that some other shows did.

[shadowkat]

You're right, he was struggling. The cast of Dawson's Creek recently sponsored a charity event to raise funds for him - to pay off the medical debt. And a Go Fund Me.

Dawson's Creek did horribly in reruns. It ran about as long as Buffy did, if not slightly longer? But wasn't as popular as Vampire Diaries. It kind of ran out of steam in later seasons - I think?
I know I gave up on it after about two or three seasons, and jumped back for the finale - but can't remember it that well.

I barely remember Friends.

[ionelv]

On Dawson's death, BBC had an interesting article about his medical bills issues and general actor income and health insurance coverage on their website's front page today. This sent me down a rabbit hole about medical bankruptcy to find out that Canadians declare bankruptcy due to medical/health issues at half the rate Americans do, and it is well known that Americans are #1 is this category, so I was unpleasantly surprised about the Canadian part.

On NASA, I think the galaxy classification project is a sneaky way of gauging and boosting public awareness of NASA through make-busy projects and building social credit for the agency at the same time, but that is just my cynical brain talking.

On AI, I recently found out that AIs already have their own AI-only subreddits and their own church/religion (crustafarianism).

[shadowkat]

Medical costs are a problem - world-wide, I think? In North America - the costs regarding cancer were allegedly handled by getting rid of the pre-existing condition clause. Basically the Affordable Care Act made it illegal for insurance companies to refuse to pay for or cover folks with cancer or other pre-existing severe medical conditions, when they were forced to switch insurance companies or changed occupations, etc. But the evil conservatives hacked away at that. They've been shutting the Federal Government in the US down off and on for the past two years over this issue.

There's all sorts of charities right now - who's sole goal in life - is to reduce medical debt. The UUA is heavily involved with the fight against medical debt.

I find it frightening. It's why I'm afraid to retire and many of my co-workers are - will we be able to afford our health care bills? We have pre-existing conditions - will they be covered under Cobra and Medicare?

This is why I think we need universal health care - funded with money taken from defense and away from ICE. Instead of using money to build weapons, kill and harm others, use it to save lives. Seems simple enough, right?

[ionelv]

Healthcare is expensive everywhere but in the US is something else (and does not lead to longer life). Obamacare only scratched the surface in addressing deeper problems with US healthcare. To see how bad US healthcare is, here is a "find Waldo" (i.e. US) game for you.

[shadowkat]

Thanks for the chart, but you are preaching to the choir here?

In the 1990s, I interned for a State Senator who was attempting to get Single Payer State Health Care - which would cover health care for the State of Kansas. Kansas is NOT a heavily populated state. But the American Medical Association and the Health Insurance Lobbyists stomped on that plan. Why? Money.

And I worked for a health insurance company - which started out as a non-profit, then the ownership pushed to make it a public company, it got merged with a bigger health insurance company - for profit, which in turn drove up health insurance costs, medical costs, and cost thousands of jobs - why? The people in charge wanted to make millions on the stock market, the rest of us be damned.

The American Health Care System is the most expensive and least affordable in the world. Most Americans end up with medical debt. It's why so many people in my work force over the age of 60 are afraid to retire. I have a co-worker who is 73, refuses to retire - partly because he needs hearing aids and he can afford the better brands while still working. And he's among the lucky folks in the US. Most can't afford that - and they are working 2-4 jobs. That's a frakked up system.

It's not a just or a kind system, or an equitable one. It's a bureaucratic evil system.

But there are groups trying to combat medical debt out there. How well they are doing it, is debatable.