Category Archives: Coping

The Invasion of the Invasives Is Here (Right In My Back Yard)

Washington Post

Scientists warn invasive pests are taking a staggering toll on society

The authors of a major new U.N.-backed report say invasive species are costing the world more than $423 billion a year

By Dino Grandoni
 — September 4, 2023

Invasive pests are wreaking havoc across the planet, destroying crops, disseminating pathogens, depleting fish people rely on for food and driving native plants and animals toward extinction, according to a major report backed by the United Nations.


[COMMENT: Also from a report in my tiny back yard in Durham NC. . . .]

Continue reading The Invasion of the Invasives Is Here (Right In My Back Yard)

Two Pieces of Good News: AI Bringing Speech for the Paralyzed Closer, And Dawn at the Grand Canyon

The Guardian – August 23, 2023

Paralysed woman able to ‘speak’ through digital avatar in world first

By Hannah Devlin

Latest technology uses tiny electrodes on brain surface and is faster than synthesisers which rely on eye tracking

A severely paralysed woman has been able to speak through an avatar using technology that translated her brain signals into speech and facial expressions.

The advance raises hopes that brain-computer-interfaces (BCIs) could be on the brink of transforming the lives of people who have lost the ability to speak due to conditions such as strokes and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Continue reading Two Pieces of Good News: AI Bringing Speech for the Paralyzed Closer, And Dawn at the Grand Canyon

U. S. Suicides Hit All-Time High in 2022

MIKE STOBBE — Associated Press  August 10, 2023

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741. It is a free 24/7 service that can provide suicidal persons or those around them with support, information and local resources.

NEW YORK (AP) — About 49,500 people took their own lives last year in the U.S., the highest number ever, according to new government data posted Thursday.

Continue reading U. S. Suicides Hit All-Time High in 2022

Gwynne Dyer: Could insurance companies help with the climate crisis?

Insurance firms to the rescue?

By: Gwynne Dyer — Jun. 9, 2023

OPINION

California’s fall from grace has been steep and swift, and now even the insurance companies are pulling out. The two biggest American home insurance companies, State Farm and Allstate, announced last week that they will stop selling insurance policies to Californians.

Why? Climate change-related wildfires are making it too risky to insure Californian houses. Continue reading Gwynne Dyer: Could insurance companies help with the climate crisis?

AI Quakerism, Part Two: ChatBot Delivers Solutions for Our Five Biggest Problems. (Or Does It?)

A sign from the heady days of Occupy Wall Street, in Fayetteville NC. The message still seems apt.

Yesterday, we asked ChatBot to identify the five biggest issues facing Quakers today, and posted the  query and the full text of its reply.

Then, as promised, we followed up by asking ChatBot (CB for short) to sketch out practical solutions to these problems, again based on its familiarity with the presumably vast resources of the web.

This interchange is below, in full. We suggested a thousand words for the reply, but it only sent bout 560 words; we suspect it’s under instructions to keep replies  short. This might be due to demand: our first two submissions were in fact denied, based on overload; seems CB is a popular dude. Continue reading AI Quakerism, Part Two: ChatBot Delivers Solutions for Our Five Biggest Problems. (Or Does It?)