25- Free the CDC

Additional furor over the CDC.

This time it’s personal.

The CDC director was asked to step down after refusing to support the administration’s agenda. Newly confirmed Susan Monarez refused. So they fired her for refusing to toe their line of bullshit and refusing to listen to RFK Jr.’s nonsense.

Basically they fired her for choosing public health over politics.

Good for her.

Also good for the wave of resignations that followed of an additional four high level department heads including the head of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious diseases. The others who resigned in protest were the deputy director and the heads of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and the head of the office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology. Like that’s not going to shoot us in the foot. Or, rather, in the public health.

For those who are not aware of what public health is, the definition that the American Public Health Association goes by is that “Public health promotes and protects the health of all people and their communities.” The association goes further to explain that their solutions are science-based, and evidence-backed that strives to give everyone a safe environment to live, work and play in.

For those who are not aware what science-based means broadly that there has been use of “rigorous, systematic, and objective methodologies to obtain reliable and valid knowledge.” This definition is by the American Education Research Association and is used as a framework to members of Congress. As someone who has spent the last three years learning how to do research I can assure it is not “vibes” only.

For those who are not aware what evidence backed means it is another way to phrase evidence-based. This means that the information used to back up the care or the data as been found through credible, reliable science. It is important to understand that there is a hierarchy of evidence that is used to rank research. The strongest is systematic reviews. This is a systematic investigation of the meta- analyses of research. There are nine steps to the pyramid of hierarchy of evidence pyramid with the last, lowest step being expert opinion. There are many hierarchy of evidence lists from the NIH, from the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination’s Level of Evidence, and many other. Not one of the progenitors say “vibes” only.

Former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra was understandably concerned with this development. He said, “Politicians don’t do science well. It is dangerous to put politics over public health.”

It is my opinion that is also costly to put politics over public health. Not just in lives of the people that will die but also fiscally. It is expensive to care for those who are caught up in the web of deceit that now descends on the agency.

Unless of course you don’t care about scientific inquiry and base your entire secretary-ship on the lies you tell yourself. And other people. That is cold comfort to those who have to bury the dead from the misinformation.

Don’t forget that over 80 people died when RFK Jr’s lies led them not to trust the Mumps, Measles, Rubella vaccination. They decided that he knew what he was talking about and didn’t vaccinate and a cluster soon followed. A deadly choice on their part. This information is in part from Senator Brian Schatz (D, HI) at the circus of confirmation of RFK.

This information is also widely known and you’d think it would be enough to sink his ego.

But that’s not a bad enough vibe for these people.

Cookie Thursday 8/28/25- no cookies today

No cookies today.

This is a medical appointment pause. Not mine, the husband’s.

It has taken up too much of my brain capacity. No, it’s not my appointment but there are a lot of questions that I am fielding and answering. Not to mention the nutritional consults that are unending.

We could have stopped by the hospital and picked up cookies at the store. After all, what is more no heat than other people’s kitchens heating up because of baking.

But I didn’t want to.

So I didn’t.

I have been having a bit of a thought about the viability and persistence of Cookie Thursday is a Thing.

People are either uninformed or forget when the cookies arrive. I get that new people aren’t informed and that is okay. The information trickles down, eventually. But dumping out a half full container of cookies and taking the empty container home gets old.

There isn’t a rhyme or reason as to how many cookies are eaten.

Even the experiment cookies are popular and the fudgy cocoa no bakes are not popular. It goes week by week.

So I find myself at a bit of a crossroads with CTIAT.

Until we were driving home from the appointment when I brought up the possibility of downgrading Cookie Thursday is a Thing. I said point blank to my husband that was I making cookies to comfort myself or to comfort the department. His response, while high as a kite and doped up, was “It is both. The people who need morale boosting changes every week. And don’t forget the doctors also need morale boosting.”

Huh.

Out of the mouth of someone fresh-ish out of anesthesia.

I’ve long known that the act of weekly cookie making is helpful to me, not only as a weekly appointment with my kitchen to zen out. But I believe, firmly, that is also helpful to those who just need a sweet little something. No strings, no expectations.

Other than someone eats the cookies.

I am also super excited about next month’s theme.

What is September’s theme? Shh, spoilers.

Call Secrets of the OR #6- Sometimes you get beaten by the buzzer

Look, we are in the business of solving the case, of being the kiss on a boo-boo, of the patient having a problem and we need to fix it, of being the buzzer beater every damned time.

Sometimes that doesn’t happen.

And it sucks.

I had a difficult case a few weeks ago.

The kind of case where the patient is going to sleep and I am holding their hand, telling them that their son told me to tell the patient “I love you from your Danny.” He told me this while I was getting a phone consent with another nurse because the son was frantically waiting for his flight to get to the area and the patient, who was struggling to breathe, smiled.

The kind of case where you are listening to the pulse ox beeping get lower and lower and, without letting go of their hand you turn your head and tell the scrub tech to please let the first arrivers to the pre-op area (0530) to be on stand-by because the patient might need them.

The kind of case where the abdominal blocks are on hold because if the patient goes straight to the unit what’s the point of them?

The kind of case where you call the anesthesiologist back to the pre-op area that is also PACU at 0400 to tell them of the patient’s desired code status.

The kind of case where the anesthesiologist came right back and spoke to the patient and the son on the phone about what needed to happen about the code status during surgery.

The kind of case where there are a thousand different needs from the field, from the anesthesia team, from the front desk calling you for some reason because they want to tell you not to call in the PACU nurse.

The kind of case where before you even are in the room with the patient you look to see where the open beds are, hoping that there is an intensive care bed.

The kind of case where you text the nursing supervisor that you will need an ICU bed as you are on the phone with pharmacy looking for the coumadin antagonist that has been ordered. STAT.

The kind of case where the surgeon asks for an impossible item that does not live in the hospital, despite you mentioning it several times that it has been requested. The surgeon didn’t want to use the off-brand disposable.

The kind of case that when day shift workers, who have shown up by now, are in the room for the sixth time asking how they can help you send them to get gloves and to try to find the piece of equipment that the surgeon is demanding that you know doesn’t live in the hospital.

The kind of case where the surgery is cut short and the surgeon says that the patient will have to come back to the OR in the next day for completion of the surgery after the patient was worked up a bit more (we call that resuscitation). Because the surgeon knew that the patient was too ill to continue surgery, after the offending part had been excised.

The kind of case where you’d love to go home and get back into bed but you’ve a full day planned between meetings for the hospital and a long delayed birthday lunch.

The kind of case where you leave the patient open because of the need for a further surgery shortly. Open but with a wound-vac.

The kind of case where you call and ask the pre-op area to please get the ICU bed from ICU and a transport monitor and the bed that is left for the patient is a regular patient bed. And the transport monitor? It is dead.

The kind of case where it takes so long to pack the patient and their various lines up and get ready to bag the patient all the way to the ICU the ICU bed and monitor make it downstairs. And you help put the patient on it, making sure that all the lines and the foley is untangled and not caught.

The kind of case where you clock out at 0830, an hour and a half after your end of shift.

The kind of case where you tell the front desk, the unit admin, the charge nurse that the ice cream you’d made for the ice cream social that afternoon was in the freezer and every damned person in the lounge and at the desk freezes and says they forgot that it was today. You collect money and go to the grocery store across the street and buy 4 gallons of ice cream, ice cream bars, 3 different types of syrup, canned whipped cream, sprinkles, spoons and bowls for the exact amount that you collected from the guilty coworkers who forgot about the 11th annual ice cream social. It isn’t like this happens every year.

The kind of case where you go home and stare at the wall for awhile. But you have meetings to attend! So you get up and join the meeting.

The kind of case where you never know the outcome because the patient was transferred to a higher acuity hospital and it is against policy to open up charts willy-nilly because you are curious.

Ugly calls will exist.

What matters most is that you were able to comfort the patient as they went to sleep and you were able to pass on the message from their loved one. What matters most is that you were able to manage all of the calls and push and pulls of day shift and the call shift in that moment.

And that there was ice cream.

School Me Saturday 8/23/2025- You and the environment is what feeds AI

I know, I know. AI was exciting and the new shiny thing when it bowed into existence in November 2022.

But.

But have you ever wondered what AI gets out of this?

It can make you feel like an artist. It can make you feel like a writer. It can make you feel like the best singer/producer in the world. It can make you feel like the best director of a movie ever!

It can make your appointments and keep your calendar and give your reminders of things.

But it can also steal ideas and already published works. These are video, music, and writing. They call this training the AI and writers and performers and movie companies have no say.

What I want to write about today is the way that you, a regular joe or jane, feeds the AI.

The AI requires VAST amount of energy and water. Lots of water. Millions of gallons of it.

Your data is being compromised and stolen every time you interact with it.

All of it. Your identity.

Your brain (we talked about that last week).

Your ability to engage meaningfully in the world without the AI crutch.

All of this is fed into AI program and repackaged and sold back to you. At a higher cost.

There is definitely a reason for the existence of AI. To crunch the numbers and the existing data that we have on things like cancer rates, medication classes, and it can even see cancers before the human eye can.

AI is meant to serve us.

Instead, we are serving it.

Our attention.

Our time.

Our energy.

Our water.

And ourselves.

On a golden platter.

Because it is the new shiny and you can make a lady picture with 5 breasts.

This is a warning.

Also a reminder to go re-watch the Matrix. Or the Terminator series. But I like the Matrix.

AI is here and thriving.

Because we are its food.

Cookie Thursday 8/21/25- Cinnamon Ice Cream

It is the Thursday before the start of public school here in our county and most of the surrounding counties. This is when the department all participates in the Ice Cream Social to celebrate the end of summer and the kids going back to school. It is also a sweet break before the end of year rush really begins.

This is the 11th year that the department has participated in the tradition.

Well, I participated. But more on that in a bit.

I made cinnamon ice cream. I’ve made it before in homage to my very favorite ice cream in the ENTIRE world- the oatmeal cookie chunk from Ben & Jerry’s. At least until they stopped making it several years ago and stopped selling it in their store a few years ago.

It is cinnamon ice cream, oatmeal cookie chunks, and chocolate chunks. And it is amazing!

It is made with 2 c heavy cream, 14 oz of sweetened condensed milk (an entire can), and cinnamon flavoring. In the past I have done a combination of cinnamon and cinnamon oil. And that was good. But this time, I made it with an additional 1/4 of cinnamon syrup. Like the kind that the coffee shops use.

Yuuuuuuum-mmmm-mmmmmyyyyy.

I made it last night and, knowing I needed to head to the hospital for something, I was going to bring it to the hospital immediately after making it, so that I can freeze overnight. Condensing my trips, you know? Next I went to the pharmacy and to pick up the Too Good To Go order at Whole Foods.

And I got called in at 0400. For a critical patient. I didn’t leave until nearly 0800 because charting and wanting to get the patient to the ICU, etc.

I had encouraged the night call people to try it after the case because it had frozen by then. Because who doesn’t need a sweet treat after that train wreck?

I got dressed and was ready to leave and I decided to check the freezers for ice cream.

Nothing but freezer burn ready meals, ice (for whatever reason, there is an ice machine on the counter), and a wrist brace.

This was frustrating. Because I had announced the Ice Cream Social at the leadership meeting, it was announced at the various department meetings. There were signs with slots to sign up to bring ice cream, toppings, cones, bowls, spoons, all the things at each department counter. Yesterday I asked the admin to put up reminder signs on the lounge doors. I wrote a reminder on the white board in the lounge on Monday.

Frustrating.

And a bit disheartening.

As I was looking through the freezers, people jumped into give me money to run to the store to supply the entirety of the ice cream social.

I collected $60 in short order and headed out.

I am sure you have noticed the price of goods at the grocery store these days. However, the grocery store I went to was having their end of summer ice cream sale. Jackpot!

With the $60, I bought 4 gallons of ice cream (at buy one get one free prices), 3 types of syrup, canned whipped cream, 2 types of ice cream bars, sprinkles, bowls and spoons.

Next year I will just collect money instead of relying on my coworkers memories. Time has shown that with the decreased participation over the last three years. Because I am not there to remind them every day.

I needed to taste my own ice cream before I left because by now it was 0900 and I was NOT coming back at 1400 because I was going to be asleep. I didn’t need any syrups or sprinkles or whipped cream. All I wanted was the cinnamon ice cream.

One of the techs participated in my taste test.

Moment of silence for how good the ice cream was.

My coworker said it tasted like a cinnamon bear.

It was amazing. Will definitely do again.

Call Secrets of the OR #5- Designated Call Room

This is it. The big call secret.

It’s not about how to make friends with people you wouldn’t talk to at a party. It isn’t about making nice with others of the opposite political divide. It isn’t about sleep deprivation or a cool, dark place to sleep. It isn’t about keeping all the procedures in your head so that you can pull out the appropriate one and get to work. It isn’t even about being on call.

It is about having a designated call room.

No, I don’t mean a room in the bowels of the hospital to chill in if your call is a twenty-four hour deal.

It is about having a designated operating room for call.

We like to think that all operating rooms are the same. We like to think that all operating rooms are a blank slate, just waiting for us to walk into and start the surgery.

We like to think about the call shifters as being separated from the rest of the OR crew. After all, we are a small cohesive unit. We work well together because we know the mission is to get in, do the case, and get out. No breaks, no water cooler moments, just case and be done.

In our perfect little world, every operating room would be the same. Each room would have exactly what it needs for the most common call cases. It would have a video tower, it would have an auxiliary monitor that shadow casts from the video tower. And it would be hooked up. It would have a full tank of carbon dioxide so that you can inflate the abdomen. It would have an irrigation module so that irrigation can be run into the abdomen. It would have a functional suction tree, with every “branch” that has a suction cannister. It would have the powered coagulator that you need to create access in the abdomen. It might have a tourniquet. The dilation and curettage machine would be in the designated spot. It would also be fully stocked. The irrigation would be warmed to the correct temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit and in the anteroom. The warmed blankets would be in the same warmer as the irrigation, steps away from the action.

The perfect little world call room is also close to help if you or the patient needs it.

But we don’t live in a perfect little world.

These operating rooms are workhorses. In the course of a day they can go from an OB-GYN case, to an orthopedic case, to a podiatry case, to a general case, and back again.

You will never be able to enact your will on every operating rooms. Don’t even try.

Because there are humans who inhabit the rooms during the other shifts. And their idea of a perfect operating room will differ from yours. The orthopedic rooms will have a tourniquet but will not have the power coagulator. The OB-GYN room will have most of what you need for a perfect little world call room, plus stirrups. The podiatry room will have a tourniquet and a bump for under the hip.

However, what is possible, is to have a dedicated call operating room that has all the equipment that the perfect little world operating room does. But you know that the dilation and curettage machine is fully stocked and where it should be.

This is imminently possible to have a conversation with your boss, or the boss before that one, or the boss before that one, about why having a dedicated call operating room is important.

Ideally invoking the wrath of a code blue in a surgery is not necessary. Remember what I said about close to help. Having a dedicated operating room allows those who would show descend on you if there was an actual code know where they are going.

I’ve done a code in the far flung cysto room. Now, do you understand why there are directional signs to that cysto room?

Having a dedicated call operating room will make your life so, so, so, much easier.

You won’t have to run around like a chicken, cursing day shift out loud as you search for the irrigation module, or the cord that connects the video tower to the auxiliary tower, or a video tower in the altogether. Or frantically searching operating room by operating room, in every store room, in the other store room, maybe it’s in the cysto room, looking for the dilation and curettage machine.

And that?

Is priceless.

And well worth the brow-beating you have to do to accomplish having a perfect dedicated call operating room.

Tuesday Top of Mind 8/19/25- RIP United States Women’s Research, 1990-2025

RIP to women’s research, 1990-2025.

Although you were only active for a handful of years, compared to all the research that has been done on men (cough, cough, erectile dysfunction), you will be missed.

I realize that it wasn’t until the early 2020s that period products such as tampons and pads were even tested using human blood, but you taught us so much.

I realize that it was until 2013 that the first woman crash test dummy was made and used in crash tests, but for a brief moment the world realized that women are not just small men.

Some other things you’ve given the people with the female parts were life changing and life saving. I am writing about the BRCA and BRCA1 gene research that showed that some breast cancers are linked to uterine and ovarian cancers. This was in 1998. This led to identifying possible antibody treatments for those cancers.

I put 1990 as your birthday because that is when it became law that women and minorities are to be included in all clinical research. Before that, the NIH guidelines for inclusion of women were not included in research, although the policy had been changed in 1989. The inclusion of women and minorities in research allows the analysis of if the variables being studied affect women and minorities in a different way than other (male) participants. Programs were initiated to recruit and retain women for clinical trials.

I further realize that in 2001 the Institute of Medicine published “Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health: Does Sex Matter”. In this paper, the researchers examined biology from the cellular level up and concluded that the different hormones of the different genders DID impact medication response. We, as women, knew that of course there was a difference but the pharmacology companies didn’t even bother to research that until the late 1990s.

Say it with me, women are not just small men.

I realize that women are mysterious and “icky” to those in power. And worth only the output of our uterus. Why should they bother to test medications and tests and everything else with the lens that female and male are not the same? You taught them differently.

I put 2025 as your ending date because, well, we all know what is happening on the U.S. Federal level. With their pushback of all things gender and race that are not white and male.

Why? Hell if I know. Female are icky.

But research into gender disparities and racial disparities have been under attack since January 20, 2025. We all know what happened that day.

Since January, according to an article in the Atlantic, hundreds of research studies into health disparities and transgender health had their granted grant money yanked away from them. The agency officials who supported these research studies have suddenly lost their jobs.

With the new NIH Director the phrase of the day, the phrase that will guide research is “scientifically justified”.

What the hell does that mean?

Again, hell if I know. But I think it means whatever the hell will allow them to change focus on research. No longer will females and racial issue apply to their new male centered, white centered research focus.

Because after all, men are the most important gender/sex there is. Except if it was assigned female at birth. And white men are the most extra special of all.

With a cherry on top! And topless women to bathe them.

eye roll

RIP to the U.S. research focus on women’s body and racial disparities.

We hardly knew you.

May the future be bright. May the other half of this country wake up from the spell it is under and realize that this is stupid.

May other countries fly your flag proudly.

If you need me, I’m going to be listening to the No Cure For Cancer comedy album by Dr. Denis Leary.

And considering if this new hellscape of research has room for me. I know, probably not because I am a female and I have ideas.

Medical non-fiction book review 8/17/25- Beyond Limits: Stories of Third Trimester Abortion Care

Beyond Limits: Stories of Third Trimester Abortion Care by Shelley Sella, MD. Published 2025.

Do I have any idea how this book got on my radar? Nope, none.

But I am not surprised I had it to read. I believe I was perusing the new and notable section of the library. You know, the section where they put all the recently returned and the new and shiny books? Yeah, there.

I am very interested in feminine medical care, especially in these fraught times. Especially when females are under attack by those who should care for us in the governments. Yes, plural. State governments are as complicit as the federal.

But this cannot have escaped Dispatch readers’ attention. Nor the side I am on.

The woman’s.

Always.

This was a quick read. That is not saying it was an easy read. It was definitely not an easy read.

However, I believe it to be an important one.

In these stories, families cared for regardless of their feeling on abortion. That is, until they need one.

In this book, the author is careful to tell all the stories but focuses on the maternal indication, meaning that to be denied an abortion would have substantial negative effects on their life, or the fetal indication, meaning that there is something deathly wrong with the baby. One woman is anti-abortion until she needs one. Another is anti-abortion but understands that this is in the child’s best interest. Unsurprisingly, the second family have the support of their pastor and that of their community.

Dr. Sella points out when the mother has religious beliefs that conflict with abortion, pain, distress, and anxiety are heightened. And she takes steps to lessen all of these. She gives each couple a book about others who have to make the decision of peace for their baby, wanted as they are, loved as they are. It is “A Time to Decide, a Time to Heal: For Parents Making Difficult Decisions about the Babies They Love”. This book is written by Molly A, Minnick, MSW, Kathleen J. Delp, ACSW, and Mary C. Ciotti, MD.

For me this is take away from the entire book. Yes, the baby is dying, but not because of anything the mother did, and not because they aren’t loved and it sucks but the parents will get through this and by undergoing a late 2nd and 3rd trimester abortion, they are giving babies peace and not a life of struggle and pain and death. Or the mother faces certain hardships or death to carry the baby to term.

This doctor and clinic take steps to decrease the mother’s anxiety, with lowered lights, soothing music, and medication as needed to keep the patient less anxious and to decrease the pain. A counselor is also present. This is about supporting the mother who has chosen a better end for their wanted baby. Every person is there for support of the mother.

This book is part history lesson about the abortion care in the U.S. From the 1970s, all the way through the current Dobbs decision. Dr. Sella takes us along on her personal journey and history. Interspersed with the real time four days it takes to complete a third trimester abortion. These chapters focus on four mothers who are at the clinic in search of care.

The author was adamant that she not go to medical school, that she could provide care and counseling away from the bedside. But the doctors were still in charge and she realized that she wanted to support at bedside and give her patients back the power.

She gives the patients scripts to use when talking about why they are no longer pregnant. “The baby was sick and we went for testing. The baby didn’t make it. It’s hard for me to talk about right now.

What struck me as especially compassionate was the discussion she led with the families of what would happen after the now still birthed baby. All of it to make sure the families were as supported as they wanted.

Pictures, both medical of anomalies and commemorative are taken after the stillbirth. These pictures are always taken and kept in the chart, even if the woman says they aren’t wanted. That way they can give them to the family if they change their mind.

Taking pictures of a deceased infant has come a long way in the 25 years I’ve been a nurse. Now there can be photo shoots, and keeping the body in the room on a cold cot for as long as necessary. I have had many conversations with women, patients and friends alike, who have told me they would have like a picture. Or a remembrance of some kind so that others know that this baby was here, and was loved, and died. Because they haven’t forgotten.

Footprints and handprints can be taken. She counsels the families that if the pregnancy is ended closer to term, there will be a birth certificate and a death certificate. The mothers will have the option to view the baby the next day, after they’ve rested and recovered a little. But there is no pressure to do so. Of the four mothers the book is about, only one does so.

In the beginning and through the process, she counsels the families in a group, so that they have support and can feel comfortable sharing their stories.

She leads them through the expected question of will the baby feel any pain. She explains that is why the heart is stopped, through medication, before the delivery can take place. If there is no heartbeat, there can be no pain. Fetal pain is a subject that I have heard a lot about, probably because of the anti-abortion insistence that there is pain for a fetus during an abortion. There is no studies backing that up.

Through the entire book, the author is open to ongoing changes in American law and what these challenges mean to abortion care. And the unceasing anti-abortion backlash, up to an including the release of her personal home address leading to protests in her neighborhood.

Up to and including the murder of her mentor at the hands of an anti-abortion zealot. Inside of his personal church, where he was an usher. What these zealots fail to comprehend is that these are human beings they are calling murderers, and pigs, and more, This is a human being that they killed to satisfy their hate. As if by killing the head of the serpent they would kill the clinic and the need for this level of abortion care.

I think the best way to end was with what one of the fathers said when it was over and they were preparing to leave “Quite frankly, my religion has let me down.”

There are reasons listed in the book as to why these four women are seeking third trimester abortion care. Their babies are ill or the procedure is done to support the mother or the procedure is done to protect the life of the mother and she can now undergo additional cancer care. Dr. Sella ends each procedure four day period with a final meeting with the families.

There are several reasons to have a third trimester abortion. Some are fetal abnormalities incompatible with life. Some are maternal cancers or heart problems. Some are dealt blows by life such as rape or abuse. The reasons are the woman’s alone.

I am a firm believer that personal stories can change mountains and make the explaining of third term abortion need impactful. The personal stories and names, changed though I am sure they are, humanize the patients and give voice to the circumstances that led them to make the decisions they do.

This was one of the best medical non-fiction books that I’ve read. I will be recommending it to all the OB and Labor and Delivery nurses I know.

School Me Saturday 8/16/25- AI is Making People Dumber

AI was thrust upon an unknowing public in late November 2022.

All of a sudden AI was EVERYWHERE!

In our search engines. You no longer could run a simple search without AI thrusting itself into the conversation. Uninvited or not. Frankly, it was giving Clippy vibes.

In our “art”. Yes, the quotes are important. Or should it be an asterisk? Also AI art is slop. By that I mean it is crap. Shoddily done, hallucinatory, and ubiquitous. Not to mention obvious.

In our daily planner. Some people began using AI immediately as an assistant. To keep track of their meetings, to bounce ideas off of, and to help write.

Students began using AI to cheat. They didn’t do the assignment. They asked a program, one that has known hallucinatory proclivities (they all do, no matter what people are saying), to write their assignments. And then they were just copy pasting the results into their papers.

When artists and writers objected to their works being used to “train” these large language models, the programmers started to feed the models crap. And the hallucinatory problem got even worse.

And the models started spouting the nonsense it was being fed and some people took that as truth.

I have been invited to use AI to write my thesis. No thank you. The Big Write will be by my own hands and out of my own brain. No large language models needed here.

AI output is only as good as the material that is used to create it. And so much of that is terrible. I would hazard a guess that it is all terrible.

Ooh, you can give a pretend sex doll a third breast. Why not go whole hog and give the bytes four breasts. Or is that too bestiality coded for you?

There is even a name for the phenomenon of the human brain on AI. The phenomenon is split into what the researchers explain are the three main problems.

There is the cognitive offloading. This is when you ask AI to do so many tasks for you, you forget how to do them for yourself. Instead of engaging in the multiple decisions that everyday tasks demand of us, you cede this power over to the machine
There is skill erosion. Simply put this the decreased ability to do the skills that you rely on the program to do for you. Alexa started this cascade. In this the ability to critically evaluate information and come to conclusions is missing.
There are generational gaps. Much like introducing the computer in the 1980s, and the cell phone in the 1990s, and the smart phone in the 2010s, earlier generations who are not born into the AI generation don’t depend on it as much. I have seen this in the subsequent nursing generations. And it is scary how they depend on their AI assisted searches.

All of this results in a population and a generation who is unable to reason, unable to perform simple tasks, and can’t evaluate the results they do get for clarity and for correctness (truth) of the information given.

The best day of the last 6 months was when I found out how to disable the AI search. I taught Chrome how to disengage from AI searching. And I think my searches are better and more complete this way.

This information is from a study as reported by the Forbes Magazine.

FFS Friday 8/15/25- SuperFAKE peace talks

Does anyone else get the sense that the sham going on in Alaska where our president and Russia’s president are meeting over RUSSIA’S sham of a war with Ukraine is a sham?

That is it fake?

Like the badly made consumer dupes that are flooding the stores, homes, parties?

Yeah, me too.

In fact, I am seeing a cheap knock off of the 2004 movie Mean Girls where the Plastics try and hold onto their power over the rest of the student body.

Also insert every single teenaged movie since the inception of the movie.

I am getting a strong sense of both presidents giggling over the death toll in Ukraine.

As they do their hair and make up and try on outfit after outfit. And talk about the killing of innocent people in Ukraine. They might also talk about the SuperFake take over of DC by the president’s thugs. But probably not.

These fake peace talks are definitely giving slumber party antics.

Breathlessly the press is hanging on their every word and action and inaction. The nonevent has been spoken about in reverent tones for weeks. All the world’s reporters are in faithful attendance.

Dance they will.

Nothing will be decided.

The killing of innocent Ukrainians will still go on.

The absurdly trumped up war that Russia’s president started will go on.

Something has to take the world’s attention off the files, after all. As if it could. You know the files I am talking about. How could you not?

I am also getting a whiff of desperation out of both of them. While people die at home and in Ukraine and Gaza, they put on this spectacle.

After all “All the world’s a stage”. Written by William Shakespeare, spoken by Jaques in As You Like It.

Popcorn, anyone?