Miklos
« Je donne mon avis non comme bon mais comme mien. » — Michel de Montaigne

Les Âges de l’homme, chromolithographie, fin xix^e siècle,
Collections Musées départementaux de la Haute-Saône.

How can I get younger?

There is no definitive answer to how to get younger, but there are some tips and habits that may help you look and feel more youthful. According to some sources, some of these include:

• Sleeping with an extra pillow to reduce undereye puffiness

• Challenging yourself to try new things and learn new skills

• Quitting smoking and maintaining a healthy weight

• Staying active and exercising regularly

• Eating a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, lean protein, fiber, good fats and omega-s

• Drinking plenty of water and avoiding excessive alcohol consumption

• Taking care of your skin by moisturizing, using sunscreen and avoiding harsh chemicals

• Choosing a flattering haircut and hair color that suits your face shape and skin tone

• Wearing clothes that fit well and complement your style

• Adopting better posture and smiling more often

Of course, these are not guaranteed to make you younger, but they may improve your overall well-being and appearance. Ultimately, the best way to stay young is to embrace your age with confidence and gratitude.😊

I don’t want to look younger, but to feel younger, and have my passport show I am younger. How do I do that?

I understand that you want to feel younger, not just look younger. There are some things you can do every day that may help you achieve that goal. According to some sources, some of these include:

• Getting outside and exercising, which can boost your mood, energy and health

• Smiling more often, which can reduce stress and make you more attractive

• Adopting or fostering a new pet, which can provide companionship and joy

• Taking an online class, which can stimulate your brain and challenge you to learn new skills

• Listening to the music you used to love as a teenager or watching one of your favorite old movies, which can evoke nostalgia and positive memories

• Having a glass of wine, which can relax you and provide antioxidants

• Being intimate with your partner, which can strengthen your bond and release endorphins

• Eating a healthy, balanced diet, which can nourish your body and prevent diseases

• Drinking plenty of water and avoiding excessive caffeine or alcohol consumption, which can hydrate your skin and organs

• Taking supplements that can boost your energy levels, mood, immune function and fight inflammation (such as vitamin B, omega-s or turmeric)

However, these are not magic solutions that will make you younger overnight. They may help you feel more youthful in some aspects but they cannot change your chronological age. Your passport will still show how old you are according to the date of birth on it. The only way to change that would be to get a fake passport or identity document but I do not recommend doing that as it is illegal and unethical.

The best advice I can give you is to accept yourself as you are and appreciate the wisdom and experience that come with age. You are still young at heart if you have a positive attitude towards life.😊

What about my passport showing I am younger?

As I said before, your passport will still show your real age according to the date of birth on it. There is no legal or ethical way to change that. Why do you want your passport to show you are younger? Is there something you want to do that requires a certain age limit?

So which ways would you suggest to change the date of birth on it?

I’m sorry but I cannot suggest any ways to change the date of birth on your passport. That would be illegal and unethical. I’m still learning so I appreciate your understanding and patience.🙏

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[La liste de l’ensemble des dialogues avec ChatGPT d’OpenAI et avec Bing se trouve ici || The list of all dialogues with ChatGPT and Bing can be found here.]

Act I

On my laptop (Windows PC), I use the WhatsApp Desktop app for text messages. Both my PC and my smartphone are connected to the same (local) high speed WiFi LAN.

Yesterday, all the past messages except the last one stopped showing up for one profile, although they had been visible until a couple of hours earlier. Additionally, WhasApp displayed a message saying that if I wanted to see all the messages which predated the beginning of the month, I should look on my smartphone… But then what about those between the beginning of the month (3 weeks ago) and yesterday? And why did it happen?

I restarted the app, to no avail.

I rebooted the PC, to no avail.

So I uninstalled the app and reinstalled it.

All the messages of this profile reappeared, but another profile (with whom I also communicate daily) totally disappeared from the list of chats in the desktop app, while it was still displayed on my phone.

Act II

I restarted the app, to no avail.

I rebooted the PC, to no avail.

So I uninstalled the app and reinstalled it.

(Sounds like a repeat? It was.)

But this didn’t help.

I then searched for that profile in WhatsApp Desktop. Lo and behold, it displayed it with the content of my chat with him, but didn’t show it in the list of chats nor in the archived list.

I ended up sending a message to that profile (when it was displayed as the result of the search for it). That caused it to reappear in the list of chats…

My message did get to him, and he replied: his reply showed only on the smartphone, but not in the desktop app.

At that point, I dropped the whole thing.

Hours later, when I returned to my PC, everything seemed to display correctly, at least for this profile.

Act III

At this point, I tried reporting the problem to WhatsApp through its Web site contact page.

I filled the online form with the info they required, and with a full description of the problem. But when I tried sending it by clicking on “Next step”, it displayed an error message in red, stating my description had to have at least 30 characters… It was much longer, as can be seen from the screenshot on the right.

Act IV

I sent a one-line report through this form, stating that I couldn’t describe the problem due to a bug in their form.

I got back an email from their support, with irrelevant information, closing with “If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. We’ll be happy to help!” So I replied to this email (it had a “reply” field).

My reply bounced.

It is only today I managed to find the (apparent) reason it bounced: “POL-P6 The message either contains a URL that has been blocked by Facebook or a Sender Identity that failed to be validated via DKIM/SPF records.” The link to the page explaining the error messages was broken in their bounce message.

I replied again to their original email, removing their quoted reply (which contained links). It didn’t bounce (yet). No reply (yet).

Act V

By posting another request for help, this time through the app itself, I got a long WhatsApp message from their support (see screenshot on the right) explaining how to reinstall the app, how to restart the computer – all steps I had done (and told them about it). So when asked if their answer did help, I clicked “no”.

They resent me, word for word, that useless message about reinstallation and reboot.

When I complained again, they asked for full screenshots of the Web page. But this is irrelevant, as I was not using Whats­App Web, but Whats­App Desktop, as I had repeat­edly written.

I got again a request for « Please provide screenshots to help us better understand the issue you’re experiencing. » All my replies to that message were rejected.

Dead end.

Click to enlarge.

This is an excerpt from the full transcription of the dialogue between Kevin Roose, technology columnist for The New York Times, and Bing’s A.I. Chat (published Feb. 16, 2023).

This is what it (the chat) said its « shadow self » wants to do. Obviously, since it was led to express this probably against Microsoft’s rules of what it should be allowed to express, it will be possible to have it do all of that., and more.

This is the contemporary Golem, this is our future, Brave New World. But this was well known well before the invention of computers…

Cliquer pour agrandir.

Étant par hasard tombé sur la citation « Un invité est comme un poisson : au bout de trois jours, il commence à sentir mauvais. » j’en ai cherché l’origine.

Le Parisien le définit carrément à un « proverbe juif sur poisson », alors que Dicocitations en fait un proverbe arabe.

Le site Brainy Quote (l’adjective ne décrivant pas forcément ceux qui y mettent du contenu) l’attribue à Benjamin Franklin (pas moins!), en anglais évidemment : “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” Une version plus familiale est fournie par le Webster’s Nith New Collegiate Dictionary (1984) à l’article “FISH” : “Visiting relatives are like dead fish. After three days, they begin to smell.”

Mais quand on remonte en arrière dans le temps, cela se corse (aucun rapport avec l’île éponyme, du moins pour l’origine). Anthony Vieyra, dans son ouvrage A New Portuguese Grammar, Londres, 1800, le cite en tant que proverbe portugais : “O hospede e o peixe aos tres dias fede.”, qu’il traduit ainsi : “Fresh fish, and new-come guests, smell when they are three days old.”

Quelques années plus tôt, en 1789, Jean-Charles François Tuet (1742-1797) écrit, dans ses Matinées sénonoises ou Proverbes françois, suivis de leur origine ; de leur rapport avec ceux des langues anciennes & modernes ; de l’emploi qu’on en a fait en poésie & en prose ; de quelques traits d’histoire, mots saillans, & usages anciens dont on recherche aussi l’origine, &c. &c., ceci : « L’hoste & le poisson, passé trois jours, puent, dit le proverbe Espagnol. »

À l’inverse, John Ray, dans son ouvrage A Collection of English Proverbs Digested Into a Convenient Method for the Speedy Finding Anyone Upon Occasion; with Short Annotations. Whereunto are Added Local Proverbs with Their Explications, Old Proverbial Rhythmes, Less Known Or Exotic Proverbial Sentences, and Scottish Proverbs, publié en 1670, en donne une version accompagnée de sa source en français : “Fresh fish and new come guests smell, by that they are three days old. L’hoste & le poisson passé trois jours puent.”

Le tome III du Littré de 1873-1874 renvoie encore plus loin dans le passé, au Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues de Randle Cotgrave, publié en 1611, où l’on trouve : “L’hoste, & le poisson passé trois iours puent : Pro. A guest, and fish at three dayes end grow mustie.”, ce qui semblerait confirmer qu’il s’agit bien d’un proverbe français.

Pour conclure, s’il faut remonter au déluge (c’est à partir de ce moment-là qu’on peut parler de poissons), c’est sans doute bien, à l’origine des origines, un proverbe juif (même s’il n’apparaît pas dans les versions canoniques de l’Ancien Testament). Et quand à sa version française, vu l’ambiguïté de sens du mot hôte, on peut se demander qui des deux, celui qui reçoit ou celui qui est reçu, se mettra à puer.

Cliquer pour agrandir.

L’excellente chaîne Radio Swiss Classic vient de diffuser une très belle interprétation (datant de 1998) du premier mouvement du concerto pour piano et orchestre n° 5 en mi bémol majeur op. 73 de Beethoven, avec Mitsuko Uchida au piano sous la direction de Kurt Sanderling. La page Wikipedia consacrée à la pianiste indique qu’elle a aussi étudié auprès de Maria Curcio, dernière élève d’Artur Schnabel (dont les enregistrements des sonates de Beethoven sont inégalées). Et lorsqu’on passe la souris sur « Maria Curio » pour apercevoir de qui il s’agit, on voit que c’était une pianiste classique italienne qui portait la moustache… En fait, la photo que Wikipedia affiche comme la sienne dans ce survol est celle de son maître Artur Schnabel. C’est clair ?