Happy 69th Birthday Atlas Rocket!

Happy 69th Birthday to the Atlas rocket! The Atlas rocket has an unmatched legacy of evolution across all these years and 691 missions. I'm proud to have been a part of that history by working on everything from the Atlas E, Atlas/Centaur, Atlas I, II, III, and V, and into the early days of Vulcan before I retired. 

 

 

 

Something worth noting: In this confusing world of corporate pac-man, I worked for four different companies, but with the same group of highly competent and congenial people, while supporting Atlas development and operations over the decades. We launched everything from communications, GPS, weather and spy satellites, to Mars and other planetary reconnaissance missions. Big congratulations to the current team keeping the streak alive!

Thursday... looking up

We enjoyed a pleasant Thursday, with nothing much to share, except a tentative report of me feeling like I'm finally on the upswing, after too many (7) weeks of dealing with this medical craziness. Maybe a few pics from today will bring my perspective back to something fun.

Here's what our Thursday morning looked like. We continue to enjoy watching the Finches come and go from our feeders over the deck.

Sitting at the breakfast nook table, drinking my 3rd (of 5) big glass of water, and enjoying some French-press coffee, several slices from a Trompeau Bakery baguette that we got at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, along with some chunks of Humboldt Fog goat cheese, some slices of Rattlesnake Cheddar cheese, and oh yeah, some "everything but the bagel" Cheddar cheese. Yum!

We love seeing the Goldfinches out there, and especially when the bright daylight illuminates their beautiful yellow colors so nicely. It was a good day to not venture too far from the house -- you can see the clouds gathering over the foothills.

We came across these pretty roses at Gallup Gardens on our short walk around Ketring Park. I'm feeling like I can start getting out again, a little at a time, without risking the dreaded side-effect of Cipro, "ruptured tendons." This has been a long drawn-out 7 weeks.

Looking out over the deck at the usual Spring rain showers that are making their appearance this afternoon.

Coffee DOES count!

OK, I take it back: I apologize to anyone I've ever told, that "Coffee and tea don't count toward our liquid intake, because they're diuretics."  

 

I learned something new this week, while researching things to do about a medical condition I've been fighting for the past month. Firstly, yes it's true that caffeine is a diuretic, so that part was never wrong. But in the course of all my searching, I've learned something new to me: Modern medical research has concluded that the fluid in your coffee or tea easily balances out the mild diuretic effect of the caffeine. It absolutely counts toward keeping you hydrated and flushing out your kidneys and gall bladder. Which is a great idea for me, these days...

 

So drink up, enjoy your morning latte (which DOES count toward all those glasses of water we're supposed to be drinking), and forgive me for my years of spreading old information!

Of course, as my cousin mentioned, fluid intake is one thing, and the effects of caffeine itself are another thing entirely. Don't forget that the FDA recommends limiting your daily caffeine to 400mg, unless you're a fan of irregular heartbeat, chest pain, and stroke. And, of course, for those that are sensitive to it, adverse effects on sleep, especially when drinking caffeine late in the day.

 

Here's a good reference from the Mayo Clinic for the curious.

Memorial Day 2026

My mom, dad, and uncle all served and survived, but many of their comrades did not. Today, I am honoring the fallen heroes who served right alongside my family and gave everything.

 

Pretty sunset

 We enjoyed a beautiful sunset this evening!

 

Frightening diagnostic details of TDS

I ran across this TDS "revised definition" online and couldn't resist sharing:

 

Revised Clinical Definition: Trump Dependency Syndrome (TDS)

 

Diagnostic Overview:

A cognitive condition characterized by the total suspension of personal ethics, logic, and long-held civic principles in favor of an unwavering allegiance to a single individual. Unlike traditional political support, TDS involves a "reality-decoupling" where the subject views a leader’s erratic behavior and factual errors as evidence of superior genius.

 

Primary Symptoms:

• Fact-Refractory Logic: An immediate, involuntary rejection of peer-reviewed science, documented history, or video evidence if it contradicts the leader’s current statement.

• The "4D Chess" Delusion: A persistent belief that tantrums, policy reversals, or obvious mistakes are actually part of a brilliant, invisible master plan.

• Ethical Elasticity: The ability to excuse personal conduct (infidelity, crude language, or financial opacity) that the subject previously spent decades condemning in others.

• Hyper-Defensive Deflection: When presented with a specific policy failure, the subject reflexively shouts "What about...?" to protect the ego from acknowledging reality.

 

Behavioral Indicators:

1. Science Aversion: A deep-seated suspicion of experts and data-driven institutions, replaced by a reliance on "vibes" or unverified social media posts.

2. Tantrum Normalization: Viewing childish outbursts and professional bridge-burning as "strength" or "authenticity" rather than a lack of emotional intelligence.

3. Institutional Erosion: A willingness to dismantle the guardrails of democracy (free press, independent judiciary) to satisfy the whims of one individual.

 

Conclusion:

True derangement isn't found in those who notice the emperor has no clothes; it’s found in those who describe the fine silk of the emperor’s invisible suit while shaming everyone else for being "blind."

Mother's Day 2026

Wishing a wonderful Mother’s day to all my mom friends! 

Spring Snow, power outage, breakfast!

Well, the heavy, wet spring snow that's been in the weather forecasts has finally arrived, and we have a decent accumulation of over half a foot and counting. ☃️ The birdies are here partaking of our bird seed, which is much easier to find than their regular food under the snow right now. 

We woke up to no electrical power, which was a little bit of a surprise, considering that the power company was out trimming trees along Ridge Road this week. That is supposed to prevent this kind of snow-induced outage, where the heavy snow weighs down the tree branches, which then touch the power lines, and cause a short circuit. Oh, well… 🤷‍♂️

Our gas fireplaces are providing heat to the bedroom and living room, so it’s not likely the house temp will fall down anywhere near freezing. Not worried about the water pipes because of that. Avoiding the refrigerator so it can hold onto whatever cold it’s got. Falling back on our cell phone connections for Internet, with our several backup batteries to power them… And beginning to cast an info net, in search of a place to find breakfast!

Noon update: Yum! We met my sis for a delicious breakfast at Le Peep! Considered a walk around the nearby Clement Park lake, and opted to return home. That was a lucky decision, as I just got a notification that I’ve got a dermatology appointment soon. Yikes! I forgot! 

 

Here are some photos from today's adventure:  

 

 

Pretty view of the snow-laden bird feeder, with the nearby horse corrals in the background. 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Snow covered bunny, weather station, deck railing, furniture. My best guess from this photo, is that the snow on the railing, which is somewhat representative, was about 4 inches deep at the time. 

  

 

 

  

 

This is the stereotypical Denver "my backyard furniture under snow" photo. It's nice to have a lattice over this half of the deck, to filter out some of the snow. 

 

 

 

 

 One of many hungry birdies that visited our feeders today. 

 

  

  

 

 

 

Our pretty bedroom view of the snow. The kitties spent some time up in between the plants, gazing out at the snow for awhile this morning. 

 

  

 

Our grid-powered bedroom clock was not at all helpful about telling us what time we woke up! 

  

 

 

 

Here's the Denver metro power outage map — for me, the blank areas indicate where to head for breakfast!  

 

 

 

 

 

More Than One Kind of Introvert

Everybody’s different. Even Introverts have their varieties. Over my lifetime, I’ve heard introverts describing introversion differently, but it wasn’t until recent years that I started using the label Extroverted Introvert on myself. Based on this Upworthy article, which identifies four types of introverts (Social, Thinking, Anxious, and Restrained), I suppose that along with the Social Introvert label, I might lay claim to one or more of the others, but I’ve always felt myself start squirming, when I tried to pigeon-hole myself like that. The Myers-Briggs indicator always felt a little entrapping as well. 

License plate MISREADERS

Here's yet another disturbing example of bad data entry causing huge problems downstream. The title of this article is a misnomer, but the actual subject is even more concerning. Becoming the subject of police scrutiny and automatically and wrongly being assumed to be guilty of something, should be a huge concern to all of us. The fact that they don't have a straightforward way to feed back corrections into the database is perhaps the worst part of this disaster. As always, what sounds like a useful approach to law enforcement can be surprisingly bad, when human error isn't factored into the design. 

 

I was looking into this issue a little more, and I found something even more frustrating: This isn't always just a computer being "dumb." It’s a human policy. Some police departments intentionally list a suspect's plate both ways, for example as "BOB123" and "B0B123" in their warrants, to ensure they don't miss the suspect. In doing so, they effectively "criminalize" the innocent owner of the second plate, turning their commute into a gauntlet of potential police confrontations. 

 

As always, y'all be careful out there! Here are some suggestions, for those who are more likely to have this issue:

• Check your plate: If you have an "O" or a "0," be aware that you might be a victim of "Plate Alias" errors.

• Demand transparency: Ask local councils about the "misread rates" of the ALPR cameras they are buying with taxpayer money.

• Be Prepared: If pulled over, understand that the officer might be acting on "hot list" data that they believe is 100% accurate, even if it's a data entry error.

 

Littleton Fire Muster 6/13/2026

 

They'll be hosting a Fire Muster in Littleton on June 13. I stopped into a fire muster years ago, during Littleton's annual Western Welcome Week, when walking Mandy with Ken, and it was a lot of fun to see the old and new fire engines and other apparatus. The kids absolutely loved running around under the high water sprays in their bathing suits. Some of those old fire engines are being kept in gorgeous condition. 

Fun fact: The first recorded fire muster occurred in 1849 in Bath, Maine, involving five hand-powered pumps, or "hand tubs". While that historic town of Bath holds a very chaotic, bittersweet memory in my own life, it eventually became a favorite travel spot for Jennefer and me. But if you want to experience a piece of that 1849 tradition closer to home, head down to ACC this weekend! 

Power OFF Day!

Power off day! I could say that we're being Eco-conscious by not using electrical power today, but it's off more from necessity. When I renewed my maintenance subscription for the local company that maintains my furnace/AC, plumbing, and electrical, they said, "Oh, you're due for your free annual inspections!" Heh, heh. 

 

So of course after the inspection, the electrical guy reminded me again (I've been hearing this from electricians for years) that my 31-year-old power distribution box with all the circuit breakers is long overdue for refurbishment. I've been ignoring those recommendations in the past, but this time he pointed out some termination screws that have changed color, from a nice clean silver to a dirty orange from overheating over the years, some miswired neutral connections, and a bunch of leaves, spider webs, a hornet's nest, none of which matter. But then he also demonstrated that several of my ground fault circuit interrupters don't disconnect when the test button is pushed. OK that got my attention. One of them even buzzes, which is a symptom of electrical arcing inside. Bad news overall. 

 

So I bit the bullet and scheduled the work, and this morning they're on their way, to refurbish my panels, which in this case means replacing the original 1995 vintage circuit breaker box entirely, and then replace all the circuit breakers in the "new" 2008 vintage box. One benefit of all this, will be the re-labeling of all the circuit breakers to identify where in the house is affected by each one. I'll love having that, as the original labeling was washed out many years ago, when someone left the electrical door open to the weather for a few weeks, until I finally discovered it one day. 

 

I expect that it will be quite interesting, for this technology-dependent couple, to be entirely without electrical power all day. And I wonder about possibly tomorrow, if the work runs long. The good news, is that I have a battery backup on my Internet & WiFi, so we'll be able to use that for a few hours, until the battery runs down. 

 

It's cold, foggy, and even somewhat drippy out there -- great weather for our nice hot breakfast and homemade latte, so I'll hurry to finish all that, before they get here and shut off the main bus.

Who knew?

I just read this morning that Quinine is ototoxic (affects the inner ear). I drank an entire small bottle of tonic water a week ago Wednesday to deal with a major hamstring cramp, my worst ever. It helped with the cramp, but the next day and subsequent days, I've noticed some dizziness, weakness, spacial disorientation, and my everyday tinnitus got significantly louder. 

 

I've had other issues going on for the past week, for which I saw a doctor on Friday, and have been taking an antibiotic until today. But I was curious about my entire suite of symptoms, so I asked an AI to try to integrate and analyze all the information I could think to provide about my activities and symptoms for the past week. I was surprised when it mentioned that the much louder tinnitus was probably the result of drinking the tonic water. What?! 

 

So I asked Google to tell me more about quinine and tinnitus:

"Based on your description, you are experiencing symptoms consistent with cinchonism—a syndrome resulting from quinine toxicity, which often causes the exact side effects you mentioned: tinnitus (ringing/buzzing), dizziness, and vertigo. While quinine in tonic water is diluted, sensitive individuals can experience these effects, which are recognized as being ototoxic (harmful to the inner ear)."

 

The attached image contains the complete response. Interesting!

 

P.S. My dad got me started on tonic water for cramps decades ago. This time, with a massive and repeating cramp that was getting the best of me, I gulped down the entire 12oz bottle, instead of just taking a few sips. So that could have been a factor in why it affected me so much more than before. 

Misinformation: Bixonimania

Misinformation warning: Don't trust anyone quoting Bixonimania as a real disease

If you ever do a search for itchy eye symptoms, and find an article or quote or other information saying that those symptoms are caused by Bixonimania, STOP! The alarm bells should be going off in your head, and the red flags should be waving madly. 

 

I just ran across an article about this experiment, but (as usual, darn it) it quickly disappeared from my Facebook feed, so I went searching to find an authoritative article about it, and found this excellent one at Nature.com. 

 

My initial response to the first article I was reading was, "Huh. Why would anyone in their right mind insert fake scientific research into the public information stream? I can only imagine bad results from this, as gullible humans are equally likely to start using this information. Just look at the misinformed vaccines=autism arguments." 

 

But then I sent that remark to one of my AI resources to comment about it, and it contributed some good points to the discussion. To quote: 

 

It is a valid and deeply concerning reaction. The "Bixonimania" experiment highlights a fundamental vulnerability in how Large Language Models (LLMs) function, and your comparison to the vaccine-autism controversy is apt: both involve the "pollution" of an information ecosystem, but AI accelerates the speed and scale at which that pollution spreads. 

 

To understand why this happens and why it’s so dangerous, it helps to look at the "plumbing" of how AI processes information compared to how a human expert does.

 

1. Pattern Matching vs. Veracity

Humans (ideally) use a "truth-first" filter. When we read a paper, we look for peer reviews, institutional credibility, and internal logic. If a paper mentions The Simpsons as a medical source, our "BS detector" triggers an immediate override.

AI models, however, are essentially "probabilistic mirrors." They are trained to predict the next most likely word in a sequence based on patterns. When the researchers uploaded those fake papers to a preprint server, they provided the AI with a professional-looking pattern: medical terminology, structured abstracts, and citations.

To the AI, "Bixonimania" didn't look like a joke; it looked like a "low-frequency token" that suddenly gained a cluster of supporting context. Because the AI doesn't "know" what a skin disease is in the physical world, it can't cross-reference the claim against physical reality—it only cross-references it against its database of text.

 

2. The "Hallucination" Feedback Loop

The most dangerous part of this experiment wasn't just that the AI "believed" the fake papers, but that it began to synthesize and expand upon them. This creates a feedback loop:

a. Injection: Fake data is put online.

b. Ingestion: AI scrapers crawl the web and ingest the fake data.

c. Amplification: Users ask the AI about the topic, and the AI generates "authoritative" summaries.

d. Pollution: These AI summaries are then posted on blogs, social media, or even other low-tier academic journals.

e. Re-ingestion: The AI (or a different model) crawls the web again, finds the "new" mentions of the disease, and concludes that because there are now more sources, the information must be even more credible.

 

3. Why would researchers do this?

While it seems counterintuitive to "pollute" the stream, researchers do this as a form of "Red Teaming" or "Stress Testing." By creating a harmless fake disease (rather than fake instructions for a bomb or a toxic chemical), they prove a systemic weakness.

 

The goal is to force AI developers to:

• Improve Attribution: Making sure the AI tells you exactly where it got a fact.

• Fact-Checking Layers: Implementing secondary "critic" models that are specifically trained to look for satire or logical inconsistencies.

• Source Weighting: Teaching models to trust a peer-reviewed journal at a much higher weight than a "preprint" server (where anyone can upload anything without a review).

 

The "Gullible Human" Factor

You hit the nail on the head regarding "gullible humans." The danger isn't just that the AI is wrong; it's that [some] humans have developed a "transparency bias" toward AI. Because the AI sounds confident, professional, and neutral, some people tend to trust it more than a random person on a forum. For example, if a parent searches for symptoms their child has, and an AI confidently diagnoses "Bixonimania," that parent may stop looking for the real cause, leading to genuine physical harm. This experiment serves as a necessary, if jarring, wake-up call that "sounding smart" is not the same thing as "being right."

The Fort!

We took my local and visiting family out for an "interesting" evening meal on Wednesday. Dinner at The Fort was delicious, with a varied and unique menu, and some fun ambience! Here are a few pics from our outing. 

 

Family photo in the courtyard just outside the main building, looking toward the front wall and gate. 

 

Candid photo of Brighton and Marissa, showing The Fort's pleasant courtyard. 

 

A bit of a closeup of The Fort's entrance from the courtyard. 

 

Interesting artwork on the rocks outside The Fort's front gate. 

 

Pretty view of the skyline over Denver, with The Fort in the foreground. 

 

Garden of the Gods!

I spent a fun Monday at Garden of the Gods with our local and visiting family! I figured parking wouldn't be a problem on a mid-week morning, but it did turn out to be a challenge. Since we were all ready for walking anyway, finding a spot at the south end of the park was no big deal, and gave us a great starting point for a delightful loop around the park. Here's a family pic from where we started, with Pikes Peak in the background. 

 

 

At one point, we needed to make a beeline for the restrooms at the north end of the park. While we were waiting for each other, I caught this pretty pic of the nearby ridge of red rocks. 

 

This curious Magpie was also hanging out on the edge of the same space where we were waiting. 

 

 

 

 

Closing out with a family photo in front of one of the prettier red rock features

 

 

My favorite quote of the day: "So, where's the garden?!"

Mixing Sim and Real World

My niece flew back today, after visiting relatives and friends on the east coast. I made a fun new adventure out of it for me, by flying the simulated Boeing 787-10 over the same route at roughly the same time. I had even more fun, by figuring out how to track her flight on the same map as my simulated flight! In this snapshot, my aircraft is the blue airplane symbol, and her Airbus A320neo is the little blue "traffic" symbol surrounded by a red hexagon, about 21 minutes behind me. After I landed, I looked up the gate where she was supposed to arrive, which was B31, and taxied up to the same exact spot on the north side of Concourse B. Yeah, pretty nerdy, I know...

First Walk of 2026

Friday's not usually our day to get takeout breakfast, much less "dine out", but we decided to do something special on our 2nd day of the new year -- breakfast out and a fun walk somewhere we haven't been in awhile. 

So... off we went to the highly popular Urban Egg restaurant for a somewhat different breakfast. They had some cute wreaths outside the kitchen. I love their cinnamon swirl pancake!

After breakfast, we went for a walk, starting at the nearby George M Wallace park in the Denver Technological Center (DTC), and venturing along that trail much farther than I've ever gone. 

Shiny leaf on the frozen creek. It's amazing to me, how much effort it took, to capture this simple little photo. When I brought the camera down lower to capture more of the frozen creek in the background, the bright sun completely washed out the colors, and everything came out in various shades of charcoal. 

Christmas decorations near and far -- at first, we thought the sun was reflecting off the bulbs, but then as we got closer, we realized they were still powered on.

Interesting-looking dried plants in a marshy area -- my phone says this is Pentanema Squarrosum…?

This Sumac seed pod was standing out by itself, just asking me to take a picture. 

Cute goat nibbling on old Christmas tree

Partially frozen over pond by the creek in Orchard Hills Park

Gadwall ducks in a small pond by the creek in Orchard Hills Park

The creek in Goldsmith Gulch, with some interesting clouds in the distance

Happy horses in this field

Delightful blend of subtle colors… my phone says this might be Oregon Grape

Conifer tree with the sun peeking through the clouds just above… puts a cheerful spin on the gloomy sky

Watched Relay

Peaceful sunset to end a quiet Monday, as we wrap up the year. We watched the movie “Relay,” which was a bit of an adrenaline rush. My interest was piqued by the use of pseudo-teletype technology — using a third-party operator as a voice mask to stay anonymous. It’s a clever bit of realism; because the operator just reads the text provided, the caller's true voice and identity stay completely off the grid. I doubt the required level of anonymity would be achieved in real life, as I’ll bet those services are required to keep a log of all their calls.

October Pics

We’re enjoying the Fall color views from our breakfast table, and on our outings in the Littleton area. Here are some photos from this week. 

Rapids along the South Platte River near the Mineral Avenue overpass, with some nice yellow Cottonwoods

Nice view of Eagle Watch Lake, through a yellow Cottonwood

Nice yellow Cottonwood by the rapids where the rafters and kayakers usually put in, on the South Platte River

Reds and yellows along the South Platte River

Cottonwood trees and clouds, with some pretty yellow in the foreground

South Platte River with pretty yellow in the foreground

Pretty red leaves — my iPhone says this is a Virginia Creeper

Pretty reds — the three-leaf pattern reminds me of the Poison Oak I used to see in California — my iPhone says this is Fragrant Sumac

Raindrops on Blackrock Lake

Cottonwood tree chock full of Blackbirds all enthusiastically singing

House Finche inbound to the bird feeder, with Fall colors in the neighborhood below

My favorite tree for Fall, the Purple Autumn Ash

Kitty Rufus and round squirrel

House Finches, Fall colors, foothills and overcast in background

Blue Jay and Fall colors

Kitty Rufus sprawled out

Blue Jay enjoying the peanuts that we put out for the squirrels

House Finches on our Bird Buddy feeder

Cyclist pausing on the bridge over a creek feeding into the South Platte River

Pretty red Fragrant Sumac along the South Platte River

Fall colors in front of Red Tail lake. My phone says this is a Maple. 

Prickly Pear fruit by the trail