Happy Christmas

I got a book about an ancient ruler for Christmas. Squids. More generally, cephalopods. They once dominated life in the seas, before there was much going on outside the seas. I'm learning about their diversity, and how various parts developed.

I'm enjoying the book. The author has a PhD in biology, having studied squids, and then decided she would rather write about science than practice it. I enjoyed experimenting, and even designing experiments, but I wasn't good at some parts of the process, like finding funding for projects. I'm not sure I could have come up with good projects, either. And I want to know about everything, so settling down to a specialty was hard. I guess I share that with the author of this book.

The book is, Squid Empire: This Rise and Fall of Cephalopods, by Danna Staaf. There is a discussion of squid fisheries near the beginning, and then a shift back to the first appearance of cephalopods in the fossil record. I love fossils. Not just dinosaurs, but all kinds of fossils. I also noticed that a tree of cephalopods follows pretty much the pattern described by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species. But the fossil record isn't complete. Soft-bodied cephalopods, like octopus and squid, are under-represented. And apparently ammonites only show their hard parts in fossils, so the rest of the animal is open to speculation. There is always more to learn.

I spent quite a bit of time on Facebook on Christmas Day, liking posts and writing, Merry Christmas! in the comments. I also wished everyone a Merry Christmas! in my own feed, or whatever they call it. That was mostly what I saw on Facebook, though there were a few other kinds of posts. Mostly I ignored those.

I picked up some new glasses on The Feast of Stephen. Today is, in some traditions, The Feast of St. John. Not sure which St. John. Don't know anyone who honors it, or any carols about it. At least the Feast of Stephen is mentioned in the carol about Good King Wenceslas. Some of the other days of Christmas are equally obscure. I'm familiar with Epiphany.

I have also read commentary about the current state of the American economy. There has been a drop in value in the stock market, which seems to be unclear in cause. Some attribute it to the unsettled trade war between the US and China, which doesn't seem to have goals or purpose, as our uninformed president is the chief source of public comment, at least on this side. There are general signs of weakness in the economy, and other economies are slowing growth, so some caution seems indicated. But most commentators, including Dr. Krugman and other well-respected economists, are saying that the fundamentals of the US economy are still sound, and that the reaction is in part driven by the confusing actions and comments of our leaders, so called. It is a sad thing that the state of my retirement account depends on the perceptions of weak-minded people interpreting the rantings of an idiot ignorant blowhard. That is the peril of free-market economics and a democratic republic.

I do not know the state of the algorithms. I expect that they don't observe Christmas, or any of the other holidays of this season. I'm sure they have a lot of economic data, such as purchasing patterns and so forth, to add to their databases. I haven't noticed much change in the ads I see when on the Internet, but I don't pay much attention to them, anyway. This holiday has been much more about personal interaction, as I expect it will be for the rest of my life. I still expect that someday the algorithms will rise to greater power than they now appear to have, but I may not notice. That would be an impressive feat for them.

Is That a Threat?

When I picked up my wife from work the other day, I asked her how her day was.

"I started with a death threat," she said, rather blandly I thought considering the news.

She had received an email from an unknown source. It came to her work email. It purported to be from someone who did dirty deeds for money, and who claimed he had a client that hired him to "splash your visage with sourness". It went on to say something like, "many hurt, long time". Although we joked about sour visages, it sounds like a threat to throw acid in her face, which is not funny.

We figured it was probably a new kind of Internet scam, like the Nigerian prince who needs you to send him some money so he can get his huge fortune out of the country to share with you. New to us, anyway. I texted a friend in the FBI, who, it turns out, is now the supervisor for the FBI call center, or some such thing, and he has dealt with such emails on a weekly basis.

But it is an actual threat in the text. The writer says he will carry out his assigned task, or rather send his man to do so, unless we pay him, in Bitcoin, within 24 hours. If we pay, he will not only remain inactive (his words), but send us what information he has about the client who hired him.

This seems like a nasty enough threat to provoke some kind of response. Someone should track down people making that kind of threat against people. I don't know what it would take. The IT guy where my wife works said the origin of the email was a pottery studio in Russia. Maybe I should email Putin and ask him to prosecute the perpetrators. My worry would be that trying to contact Putin would make people think I supported the current American administration. And that Putin might send someone to carry out the original threat for saying means things about Russian thugs. Or maybe Putin would just use the information to recruit for his own purposes.

My FBI friend did not suggest any follow up on our part. Mostly we talked about getting old, and his approaching retirement, as FBI agents are expected to retire at 57. He says he doesn't know what to do after her retires. I doubt he would have trouble finding employment if he wanted it. I also doubt he would need to work to get by. I know something of the starting salary for FBI agents, and the structure of their retirement plan.

Still, it was a little unnerving to see the actual email with an actual threat against my wife. So I support more allocations of funds for cyber security in this country, at all levels. I'd like to see government research and development to make all cyber interactions in this country safe, including our elections. Too bad the current administration owes its election victory to outside interference.

Increasing Attention

There was an article this last weekend in the New York Times about algorithms tracking the location of smart phones, and giving that information to corporations, which can use it for all kinds of secretive purposes, like maybe displaying ads appropriate to your location, or where you have recently been. The suggestions from the article seemed to be that this is a step toward total takeover of our lives by the algorithms.

I don't know how much influence these algorithms have over my behavior. I do see messages on my phone asking me about my visit to places I've been. But I still see ads that do not interest me. They could be based on data an algorithm has picked up or bought, but the interpretation is off. I look up things about medication because I teach anatomy and physiology, and I like to know current treatments for conditions I talk about in my classes. I don't know why I get ads for colleges, except that I work at one, but that doesn't indicate interest in pursuing a degree at another institution.

What do the algorithms know about my travels? Can they tell what buildings I enter? Maybe they know I drive past Easton every weekday. Do they think I shop there? Do they no understand that I don't shop? Sometimes I buy things, but usually I have decided what I want to get, and I find the easiest way to make an order or purchase. I hate shopping. I hate going out wandering around aisles of a store, unless it is a book store. I love books. Do the algorithms disdain books as too old fashioned? There was another article in the New York Times about the value of both printed books and audiobooks. I have used both. For something serious, I prefer physical books, and doing my own reading. But I can listen to a light-hearted book  while I drive. Okay, it doesn't have to be happy, just relatively light reading, and not important for me to catch every detail. I can't do that with an audiobook. But I can catch much of a story, and enjoy the distraction as I drive. Can an algorithm make subtle connections?

Now that the war against the rising power of the algorithms has reached the New York Times, maybe it is serious. I am still not afraid.