{"id":5634,"date":"2026-05-13T13:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=5634"},"modified":"2026-05-13T13:15:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:15:23","slug":"odd-lots-369","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=5634","title":{"rendered":"Odd Lots"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/abc6onyourside.com\/news\/nation-world\/potentially-hazardous-asteroid-apophis-pass-close-to-earth-in-2029-closer-than-satellites-orbit-eiffel-tower\" target=\"_blank\">Asteroid Apothis will come within 20,000 miles of Earth during its close approach in 2029<\/a>. Scientists say there\u2019s no chance of the big rock hitting us, which is a relief, given that it\u2019s the size of the Eiffel Tower (if a lot fatter) and could level any city it struck.<\/li>\n<li>I didn\u2019t know this: <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/universe\/exoplanets\/a-passing-star-our-suns-near-miss\/\" target=\"_blank\">A small red dwarf star passed well within a light year of our solar system about 70,000 years ago.<\/a> It was dim enough that even at its closest approach, it would not have been visible to our naked predecessors\u2019 naked eyes.<\/li>\n<li>A group of Earth scientists have created a site that will <a href=\"https:\/\/paleolatitude.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">display your current location (or at least where your IP address suggests you are) on a graph going back over 300 million years<\/a>. About 320,000,000 years ago, Phoenix, Pangaea was on the equator! (Nuts. Missed it.) H\/T to Old Guy for the link.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/tech\/services-and-software\/chrome-installing-4gb-ai-model-gemini-nano\/\" target=\"_blank\">Google is installing a completely local, 4 GB AI on machines that have Chrome installed<\/a>, without asking permission nor notifying the user that it\u2019s there. The linked CNet article explains how to find out if you have it, and if so, how to flip the flag that enables it. I found it on one of our machines, and flipped that flag. We\u2019ll see what happens going forward.<\/li>\n<li>Law professor Glenn Reynolds\u2019 upcoming book (available 5\/12) explains that the real danger inherent in AIs is not destruction but\u2026seduction. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.encounterbooks.com\/books\/seductive-ai\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Seductive AI<\/em><\/a> explains how lonely people have used AI chatbots as friends and in weird ways, lovers, with all kinds of downsides. <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/01\/tech\/ai-will-slowly-seduce-us-into-our-own-demise-professor-argues\/\" target=\"_blank\">A piece in the <em>New York Pos<\/em>t focusing on the book<\/a> suggests that people have been driven to suicide by excessive interaction with AI. So maybe there\u2019s some destruction going on after all. I\u2019ll review the book here once I get it.<\/li>\n<li>I take five grams of creatine monohydrate every day (and 10 on Mondays when I do weight training at the gym) and <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2026-05-creatine-benefit-body-mind-potential.html\" target=\"_blank\">here\u2019s a solid short summary of what creatine does for us.<\/a> It\u2019s not all about muscle and energy, but also about the brain. I\u2019m sold!<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/studyfinds.com\/eating-eggs-regularly-may-significantly-slash-alzheimers-risk\/\" target=\"_blank\">People who eat five or more servings of eggs per week are found to have a 27% lower risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s<\/a> than those who eat eggs rarely or never. I eat them every morning for breakfast. My brain is my <em>first<\/em> favorite organ; sorry, Woody. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Asteroid Apothis will come within 20,000 miles of Earth during its close approach in 2029. Scientists say there\u2019s no chance of the big rock hitting us, which is a relief, given that it\u2019s the size of the Eiffel Tower (if a lot fatter) and could level any city it struck. I didn\u2019t know this: A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-5634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oddlots","tag-astronomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5636,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634\/revisions\/5636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}