Week of May 13, 2024
There is a six-day time window in early May during which we celebrate my wife's birthday, Mother's Day, and our wedding anniversary. As my younger son says, "There is a finite amount of sentiment in the universe, and this time of year explores that limit." However, we can outsource our feelings thanks to generative AI (and poetically link divergent ideas). Though the need for highly bespoke greeting cards celebrating overlapping occasions is real, having A.I. express my feelings is wrong and entertaining.
Please write me a greeting card in rhyming couplets that celebrates my wife's birthday, Mother's Day, and our wedding anniversary, all happening in a 6-day window. Please include her love of peonies, Sex and the City, and a perfectly cooked salmon fillet.
To my beloved, on days of joy, so close together,
Your birthday, our love, and Mother's Day, a festive feather.
In the garden of life, you bloom like peonies so bright,
Adding color and fragrance from morning to night.
As Carrie seeks her Manolo in the city's grand allure,
You've found your style and grace with a heart so pure.
Let's toast with salmon on the plate, cooked just so,
Celebrating the love and life that we've come to know.
These six days in May, each a petal of your flower,
Reflect your warmth and strength, your feminine power.
Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, and Mother's Day too,
Here's to many more years of loving and cherishing you!
Wow.
---
I am questioning the value of hospitalization data, given that the CDC no longer requires hospitals to report COVID cases. Wastewater data indicates stable coronavirus rates for the next few weeks.
The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) website uses wastewater levels to forecast 4-week predictions of COVID rates.
https://pmc19.com/data/
based upon https://biobot.io/data/
------
Pandemic articles - no COVID articles this week
Vigilance and concern for H5N1 influenza (bird flu) were all over my medical media feeds this week. Here is a selection of some of the best information I found:
Wastewater monitoring for H5N1 demonstrates the presence of the virus in at least nine cities in Texas. It is most likely that animals are the source, but it is good to know the same monitoring for SARS-CoV and polio work for flu, too.
https://x.com/miketisza/status/1789268107040616904
and
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.10.24307179v1
There was a recent pandemic from which we should have learned some lessons on a potential flu outbreak.
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1788954810676576359/photo/1
from a pay-walled article in the Lancet shared by Eric Topol
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1788954810676576359
Dr. Ellie Murray, an epidemiologist, offers a thoughtful analysis that balances data with concerns found on social media.
"In past H5N1 outbreaks, 30-50% of people who got sick died. For COVID, more like 1% died and even that overwhelmed funeral homes. Either H5N1 is *not* secretly already circulating in America, or the fatality rate is *way* lower than we thought. If you think it's everywhere already, then you should be *less* worried. Personally, I think it is NOT everywhere (yet), so monitoring & containment are vital."
https://twitter.com/EpiEllie/status/1789672902897385951
IF there is a more substantial outbreak, there will likely be no shortage of logical fallacies and made-up science. Two bad/unproven ideas do not yield good science (like drinking unpasteurized milk to expose your body to viral particles in the hope of inducing immunity). "Mark McAfee, founder of Fresno's Raw Farm and the Raw Milk Institute, said his phone has been ringing off the hook with 'customers asking for H5N1 milk because they want immunity from it.' (Bird flu has not been detected in California's dairy herds.)"
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-05-12/raw-milk-enthusiasts-uncowed-by-bird-flu-risk-in-dairy
Medical Trends and Technology
The first live recipient of a genetically modified pig kidney passed away 2-months after the transplant on May 11. The 62-year-old dialysis patient had reportedly run out of other options and was willing to be the first person to undergo what will likely be the future of organ transplant. While the patient's exact cause of death is unstated, the Massachusetts General Hospital surgeons reported that they did not see his death as directly related to the xenotransplanted organ.
https://apnews.com/article/pig-kidney-transplant-recipient-dies-d6cf10ac76a4bcde1b3021f45b9695b4
The patient from New Jersey who received a combined genetically modified pig kidney AND specialized heart pump (a Left-ventricular assist device or LVAD) in April is, as best I can tell, still living.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/woman-receives-genetically-modified-pig-kidney-transplant-after-heart-pump/
A subsidiary of Google (DeepMind/Isomorphic labs) released Alphafold 3, software that predicts "the structure of proteins, DNA, RNA, ligands (and more), and how they interact."
https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-deepmind-isomorphic-alphafold-3-ai-model/#life-molecules
This software will greatly enhance molecular biology, pharma, and many areas of medicine. Here is a selection of comments worth reading:
https://twitter.com/jankosinski/status/1788532231939453015
and
https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1788514648062333192
and
https://technewsalarm.com/the-future-of-protein-structure-prediction
Infographics
This infographic compares U.S. prices of popular items across countries. Or, put another way, buy bananas in India and Heineken in Nigeria.
https://infographicjournal.com/how-u-s-food-and-product-prices-compare-to-the-rest-of-the-world/
Things I learned this week
Roman-style chariot racing, where motorcycles replace horses, is real (but seemed most common in the 1920s). Despite the danger, my life insurance policy does not explicitly exclude this sport (whereas death via sky diving, base jumping, etc., is not payable). Australians, Americans, and Europeans disagree about who originated this sport.
https://www.motorious.com/articles/features-3/motorcycle-chariot-races/
and
https://www.thedrive.com/news/38365/motorcycle-chariot-racing-was-a-real-sport-and-every-bit-as-glorious-as-it-sounds
and this video is from a more recent race (about which I cannot find additional details).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUxRt1oebwI
Living with A.I.
ElevenLabs, a generative A.I. text-to-speech audio company, shared some examples of text-to-music (with lyrics) capabilities. The generated music, again including lyrics, is unsettlingly good. Interestingly, since the music is an amalgam of songs from the genre, the lyrics seem self-referential, essentially average lyrics from music in the genre.
https://x.com/elevenlabsio/status/1788628171044053386
https://www.paymanai.com/ is a company that allows A.I. bots (or agents) to hire humans with skills A.I. does not yet have. Essentially, it is a version of Task Rabbit or Thumbtack, but A.I. is hiring humans instead of humans hiring humans. I signed up to be a Beta human (in more ways than one, I suspect). Who knows when an AI bot will need nephrology advice?
A.I. art of the week
Picture of a mailman on a Roman chariot attached to motorcycles instead of horses throwing out greeting cards while riding down a street. The greeting cards are coming out of a 1990s-style laser printer on the back of the chariot.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17f7Xb0yQXizVl9cDyqnaFFjrxjaIdzpv/view?usp=sharing
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
There is a six-day time window in early May during which we celebrate my wife's birthday, Mother's Day, and our wedding anniversary. As my younger son says, "There is a finite amount of sentiment in the universe, and this time of year explores that limit." However, we can outsource our feelings thanks to generative AI (and poetically link divergent ideas). Though the need for highly bespoke greeting cards celebrating overlapping occasions is real, having A.I. express my feelings is wrong and entertaining.
Please write me a greeting card in rhyming couplets that celebrates my wife's birthday, Mother's Day, and our wedding anniversary, all happening in a 6-day window. Please include her love of peonies, Sex and the City, and a perfectly cooked salmon fillet.
To my beloved, on days of joy, so close together,
Your birthday, our love, and Mother's Day, a festive feather.
In the garden of life, you bloom like peonies so bright,
Adding color and fragrance from morning to night.
As Carrie seeks her Manolo in the city's grand allure,
You've found your style and grace with a heart so pure.
Let's toast with salmon on the plate, cooked just so,
Celebrating the love and life that we've come to know.
These six days in May, each a petal of your flower,
Reflect your warmth and strength, your feminine power.
Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, and Mother's Day too,
Here's to many more years of loving and cherishing you!
Wow.
---
I am questioning the value of hospitalization data, given that the CDC no longer requires hospitals to report COVID cases. Wastewater data indicates stable coronavirus rates for the next few weeks.
The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) website uses wastewater levels to forecast 4-week predictions of COVID rates.
https://pmc19.com/data/
based upon https://biobot.io/data/
------
Pandemic articles - no COVID articles this week
Vigilance and concern for H5N1 influenza (bird flu) were all over my medical media feeds this week. Here is a selection of some of the best information I found:
Wastewater monitoring for H5N1 demonstrates the presence of the virus in at least nine cities in Texas. It is most likely that animals are the source, but it is good to know the same monitoring for SARS-CoV and polio work for flu, too.
https://x.com/miketisza/status/1789268107040616904
and
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.10.24307179v1
There was a recent pandemic from which we should have learned some lessons on a potential flu outbreak.
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1788954810676576359/photo/1
from a pay-walled article in the Lancet shared by Eric Topol
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1788954810676576359
Dr. Ellie Murray, an epidemiologist, offers a thoughtful analysis that balances data with concerns found on social media.
"In past H5N1 outbreaks, 30-50% of people who got sick died. For COVID, more like 1% died and even that overwhelmed funeral homes. Either H5N1 is *not* secretly already circulating in America, or the fatality rate is *way* lower than we thought. If you think it's everywhere already, then you should be *less* worried. Personally, I think it is NOT everywhere (yet), so monitoring & containment are vital."
https://twitter.com/EpiEllie/status/1789672902897385951
IF there is a more substantial outbreak, there will likely be no shortage of logical fallacies and made-up science. Two bad/unproven ideas do not yield good science (like drinking unpasteurized milk to expose your body to viral particles in the hope of inducing immunity). "Mark McAfee, founder of Fresno's Raw Farm and the Raw Milk Institute, said his phone has been ringing off the hook with 'customers asking for H5N1 milk because they want immunity from it.' (Bird flu has not been detected in California's dairy herds.)"
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-05-12/raw-milk-enthusiasts-uncowed-by-bird-flu-risk-in-dairy
Medical Trends and Technology
The first live recipient of a genetically modified pig kidney passed away 2-months after the transplant on May 11. The 62-year-old dialysis patient had reportedly run out of other options and was willing to be the first person to undergo what will likely be the future of organ transplant. While the patient's exact cause of death is unstated, the Massachusetts General Hospital surgeons reported that they did not see his death as directly related to the xenotransplanted organ.
https://apnews.com/article/pig-kidney-transplant-recipient-dies-d6cf10ac76a4bcde1b3021f45b9695b4
The patient from New Jersey who received a combined genetically modified pig kidney AND specialized heart pump (a Left-ventricular assist device or LVAD) in April is, as best I can tell, still living.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/woman-receives-genetically-modified-pig-kidney-transplant-after-heart-pump/
A subsidiary of Google (DeepMind/Isomorphic labs) released Alphafold 3, software that predicts "the structure of proteins, DNA, RNA, ligands (and more), and how they interact."
https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-deepmind-isomorphic-alphafold-3-ai-model/#life-molecules
This software will greatly enhance molecular biology, pharma, and many areas of medicine. Here is a selection of comments worth reading:
https://twitter.com/jankosinski/status/1788532231939453015
and
https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1788514648062333192
and
https://technewsalarm.com/the-future-of-protein-structure-prediction
Infographics
This infographic compares U.S. prices of popular items across countries. Or, put another way, buy bananas in India and Heineken in Nigeria.
https://infographicjournal.com/how-u-s-food-and-product-prices-compare-to-the-rest-of-the-world/
Things I learned this week
Roman-style chariot racing, where motorcycles replace horses, is real (but seemed most common in the 1920s). Despite the danger, my life insurance policy does not explicitly exclude this sport (whereas death via sky diving, base jumping, etc., is not payable). Australians, Americans, and Europeans disagree about who originated this sport.
https://www.motorious.com/articles/features-3/motorcycle-chariot-races/
and
https://www.thedrive.com/news/38365/motorcycle-chariot-racing-was-a-real-sport-and-every-bit-as-glorious-as-it-sounds
and this video is from a more recent race (about which I cannot find additional details).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUxRt1oebwI
Living with A.I.
ElevenLabs, a generative A.I. text-to-speech audio company, shared some examples of text-to-music (with lyrics) capabilities. The generated music, again including lyrics, is unsettlingly good. Interestingly, since the music is an amalgam of songs from the genre, the lyrics seem self-referential, essentially average lyrics from music in the genre.
https://x.com/elevenlabsio/status/1788628171044053386
https://www.paymanai.com/ is a company that allows A.I. bots (or agents) to hire humans with skills A.I. does not yet have. Essentially, it is a version of Task Rabbit or Thumbtack, but A.I. is hiring humans instead of humans hiring humans. I signed up to be a Beta human (in more ways than one, I suspect). Who knows when an AI bot will need nephrology advice?
A.I. art of the week
Picture of a mailman on a Roman chariot attached to motorcycles instead of horses throwing out greeting cards while riding down a street. The greeting cards are coming out of a 1990s-style laser printer on the back of the chariot.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17f7Xb0yQXizVl9cDyqnaFFjrxjaIdzpv/view?usp=sharing
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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