Category Archives: Health

AI – There’s also those that don’t know they don’t know.

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Yes. Said by a Yorkshire man many years ago. The full quote is:
There’s those that know, and there’s those that don’t know, There’s also those that don’t know, they don’t know.
The stifling effects of industrialisation on humankind are already known. Individualism in the design of clothes, carpets, curtains etc., has virtually disappeared, with the exception of those resourceful folks which chop up rags, and create original pieces of their own design.
The same can be said for almost every utensil, or machine we make use of.
The BBC recently published an article on AI chatbots Sadly they did not publish a link on their post to the study itself. I found that using a search it is here.

It’s interesting where a study of some other’s work takes you, especially when the BBC itself employs folk who simply repeat what they have read from an unreliable source, such as boasts by a company regarding a motionless wind generation system.

One such item I followed was regarding the recommendation of vaping to give up smoking. Again, the report does not provide a link to the source. So I checked the NHS website on giving up smoking. This makes grim reading. The three options ‘recommended’ are all chemical options. The NHS comments giving up is difficult: Many people try to quit with willpower alone, but going cold turkey can be tough.
That apparently is the help you get for a non-chemical approach. This is nothing short of appalling. No wonder AI chatbots get it wrong.

I gave up in 1986. After smoking from the age of 12. I’m 78. I’ll leave you to do the arithmetic.
I had a friend, who had been a smoker, but was then a member of ASH – Action on smoking and health. He advised me, and informed me about both the good things that would happen and the bad. He warned me about ‘transferring’ my addiction to alcohol or food. He also informed me of more colds, and personal plumbing failures.
It was bad, very bad at times, but ‘situation normal’ was eventually resumed. I’ve never smoked a cigarette since.
On the NHS site the chemical ‘solutions’ are presented first. Only later are you invited to contact your ‘local’ Stop Smoking Service – everyone has one, don’t you know.. Significantly ASH are never mentioned. Their summary on vaping is interesting.

My advice on giving up is simple. Don’t transfer your addiction by consuming nicotine by other means. Talk to those who have given up by ‘cold turkey’. Enjoy the extra spending in your wallet.

Thanks for the memory

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Yes. Thanks for the memory.
I’ll start this with a quip made of my old blog RFFT in 2016

An elderly couple had dinner at another couple’s house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen.
The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, ‘Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I would recommend it very highly.’
The other man said, ‘What is the name of the restaurant?’
The first man thought and thought, then finally said, ‘What’s the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know, the one that’s red and has thorns.’
‘Do you mean a rose?’
‘Yes, that’s the one,’ replied the man. He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, ‘Rose, what’s the name of that restaurant we went to last night?’

Yes, I agree, the above is somewhat extreme, and in my view demonstrates not simply impaired memory, but preoccupation with something else. IOW He isn’t ‘in the room’.

As someone in their seventy-eighth year. It is obvious to me, that short-term memory problems are a clear and present danger for me. The results are usually not too bad if I’m at home, but are accompanied with foul-mouthed expletives leveled out loud at myself.
I’ve always been strict about placement of items I need, not simply everyday objects but tools, electronic components, and last but not least, code and other scribbling held on digital media.
The ‘help’ from individuals who apparently can’t remember where they took something from, and insist on finding a new ‘home’ for it is deeply unwelcome.
This is a feature I referred to above, one of pre-occupation. Their attention is on problems of their own, and lead to lack of focus on what they are currently doing.

My ‘outages’ are generally simply irritating, thankfully. The classic of writing out a shopping list, only to leave it on the table, are apparently not just a trait of mine, but other folks.
I get to the mart, and realize, I haven’t the list, but inevitably remember what I need in spite of this. Those occasions when I don’t write a list, can frequently end up forgetting something I need, despite the item count being relatively small.

Long term memories can be both a blessing, and a curse. I remember the squalor and discomfort of my early life in post-war Gateshead. But even then, there was beauty. Ringtons Tea merchants had a small fleet of hansom cabs, and some truly beautiful horses. I would walk to school early, just to stand and watch them leave in the morning. Mark Tony, who had an ice cream parlour on the High Street, also had a cart pulled by a lovely big grey, and I would stand and talk to it whilst eating my penny cornet.

Most of the pain came from people that should have known better. Teachers, and parents, and of course, the school bullies. Interestingly, I realize now, just how bad it really was. The truth is simple, everyone was suffering much of the same.

Well, I’ve mentioned now, and the dim distant past, what of the middle? To say too much here, would hurt too many folk. The memories are strong, and looking back, I wouldn’t be a subject for sanctification. Many mistakes were made, and not just by me. There is the gift of lovely children, and the apparent rancor of ex-partners and others.

So I have to accept that, despite circumstances, I can still remember the very good and the bad. In most respects, that hasn’t changed, nor would I want it to. I can’t ‘erase’ my mistakes, preferring to learn from them.

Now a bit of ‘old’ fun from someone really discombobulated.

‘I went to the pictures tomorrow
I took a front seat at the back
A lady she gave me some chocolates
I ate them. and gave her them back.
I fell from the pit to the gallery
And broke a front bone in my back
I called for a taxi, and walked it
And that’s how I never got back.’

The much derided Snot – O tão ridicularizado Ranho

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[English]
‘The boy stood on the burning deck
Picking his nose quite bad.
He rolled bits into little balls
And flicked them at his Dad‘.

Yes, and you’ve probably seen and heard worse,
One reference is in the quite naughty rhyme that has a young man asking permission to progressively touch the body parts of a new girl-friend:

‘Touched her on her nose, that’s my share.
That’s my snotter-box and you can play there‘.

As a kid, both sleeves of my school jacket had mucous trails on them. My mother was disgusted, but had stopped providing me with hankies, because I lost them, and they cost money. (No tissues back then)
A common sight on Gateshead High Street was to see an old man, standing on the kerb of the pavement, holding the top of his nose, and blowing streams of it, into the road.
Having been a City dweller for many years, I never suffered from ‘Hay-fever’, as it was known. Now, here in the foothills of The Serra De Lousa, in Portugal, a large part of the year brings on incessant bouts of nose dripping and requires the purchase of large quantities of paper tissues.
The ‘results’ if examined visually, are usually completely clear. No I can’t see the myriad spores of pollen and other irritants such as fungi etc.

The BBC recently published an article which is quite informative, and has some amusing artwork also. Look here: What your snot can reveal about your health

A Portuguese translation will be done a little later, but the verse, being idiomatic, will be omitted.
Será feita uma tradução para português um pouco mais tarde, mas o verso, por ser idiomático, será omitido.