I didn’t directly order any tests from IHD labs but maybe one of the doctors I have consulted over the years did. How do I know whether this message is legitimate or not? What is my appropriate response?
I tried calling the number given. After 5 minutes on hold I gave up. After all, they have an infinitely patient AI to harass me but my human calendar is already full. I did leave a message explaining that I will not pay anything without further information. Since they already have my phone number they should be able to identify me with that. I left them no other personal data.
I looked up IHD Lab on the web. Yes, they seem to be a real medical testing lab in southern California. Neither I nor any of my doctors live anywhere near them. I could find no phone number or email address to enable me to discuss their claim. I have no way to verify that the message on my phone actually came from IHD Lab.
This is a perfect example of why many of our technologies are not sufficiently developed to be released to the public. On the one side, they enable criminal behavior for which most of us have no defense. On the other side, the organizations that deploy them legitimately do not understand how to provide adequate information to their clients. Everyone is a victim of childish digital developer geeks telling themselves, “if we can do it, why not?”
This is why not.
Author Archives: Liza Loop
Is it PHISHING???
Here and Now Song
Here and Now Song
Today is my day
And right now my finest hour.
I feel the comfort of a loving touch,
Smell the sweetness of the flower.
Everything I need is given,
All my cares are swept away.
Turn my thoughts toward merry laughter,
Step by step I make my way.
Love surrounds me and protects me.
Music lifts my heart with song.
I leave yesterday behind me
Release anger, hurt and wrong.
What is over doesn’t matter.
What’s before me fills my view.
See, hear, touch, taste now for pleasure
In a world that is all new.
What I was fades from my mem’ry,
Where I am brings me delight.
Let the past be like a river
Flowing gently from my sight.
Chorus:
I am grateful for the sunlight and
I revel in the rain.
What’s before me cheers my soul.
What’s before me cheers my soul.
Filed under Liza's Peotry
Are we preaching to the choir?
Dear Dr. S,
Thank you for putting together the webinar, Guardrails of Government – Legal and Administrative Resilience in Trump 2.0 Feb 21, 2025. (registration: bit.ly/3WuFqep) It’s very important that we, the people, figure out how to govern ourselves in ways that build wellbeing for future generations of humans. As the holder of a Master of Education degree, I will probably attend and enjoy this event, agreeing with the major points made. It will be an echo chamber for me. I’m already a member of the choir.
My concern is that your target audience for this event is not the people who elected our current president. We are already singing many of the songs I anticipate your panel will present.
What strategies do you have for engaging the voters who are dissatisfied, afraid, and choosing pathways that the academic elite see as dangerous dead ends? My own approach would be a more therapeutic model as compared with another set of talking heads out to persuade the audience.
By this I mean inviting a thorough airing of grievances, deep listening, with plenty of time to process that fear and anger. After the venting has subsided and the issues have surfaced, we academics would encourage these folks to identify their core, mutual values and commonalities, followed by brainstorming (from the voters, not the academics) and examining pathways to solutions.
As you are undoubtedly aware, critique of suggestions is not part of the first phase of the brainstorming process. Telling people that they are wrong and we are right rarely changes minds or actions. Our goal would be to get as many ideas out in the open as possible – from violent revolution and assassination to benevolent dictatorship to theocracy to socratic debate and beyond. After issues, values, and suggested solutions have been generated and listened to, critique and analysis, followed by path choices are in order.
Creating space for people (learners) to examine and refine their own ideas is a soft skill emphasized in every teacher training program in the US. Lecturing or presenting panel discussions to a passive audience is often less effective. Along with events such as your upcoming webinar, do you think using our academic skills to engage more of our voting population in safe, secure, and supportive problem solving might contribute better legal and administrative resilience in the long run?
Filed under Civic Engagement, Future Gazing, Uncategorized
Wide-Eyed Child
by Liza Loop, 2010
photo by Allan Mas
We knew each other once
But then I lost you.
Lost you to determined pedals Pushed forward at the top of their arc, Left and then right, left and right.Lost you to the un-wet bed, the hung-up clothes, The stuffed toys put in rows.
Remember stepping into the garden pool
With one high-topped leather shoe,
The wonder of the ant on the peony
And the chaffer eating the rose,
The sweet smell of the rose, the sharpness of the thistle,
The softness of the kitten and the wriggle of the hamster’s toes? You were valiant in your fight against extinction,
Persistent in the giggle and the squirm.
You sang and twirled and rolled down hills,
Invented modern art, progressive jazz
And transcendental meditation.
But the urge to know and learn seduced you.
The pond of pleasing others sucked you down to its swampy bottom And held you there.
You burst into the kinders’ garden intoxicated,
Unaware that addiction to achievement and success
Would yield asphyxiation.
While once you scampered after butterfly, then bird,
Now you lumber toward the good.
The kiss that used to simply sing, “Oh happy me”
Has now become a slave to love and duty.
Somewhere deep inside the folds of my being You still whisper, “Oooh! Look! Why?”
Your smile’s reflected in the mirror of my tears. I strain against quilts of education,
Held tight around me by laces of criticism, Walled in by obligation and padlocked
By the admonitions, “Don’t be selfish.”
You were never selfish. What we told you was: “Don’t be.”
I’m walking to the twilight of my life.
I want you back.
I want you free.
copyright (c) Liza Loop 2010, Mountain View, CA USA
Filed under Liza's Peotry
New Practices for Year 80 – Episode 2
It has been close to 6 months since I started practicing being 80 and almost three months since I wrote Episode 1. A lot has changed, most of it good…
I submitted my resignation as Executive Director of the nonprofit I started 50 years ago – – effective Nov. 3, 2025.
My oldest grandson turned 21 and I went to his birthday party. He is surrounded by talented bakers!
I’ve walked around my town or into the countryside even though it’s often dark and rainy. I’m counting my steps and competing with myself to equal or surpass the number each day. Not by much, just a little.
I had a relaxed visit with my first born and his family in Washington state. Playing cards was a favorite occupation of my grandparents.
Most importantly, I’ve stopped filling my calendar with more appointments and tasks than I can manage in each day.
Sometimes people ask me what I’m going to do with myself now that I’m retiring. It seems like a funny question since I’ve had the privilege of doing whatever work I chose for most of my life. The difference is that I’m not going to push myself any more. I can stop trying to prove I’m worthy of the advantages I was born with.
The results are blooming already. I’m sleeping better and am less depressed. Perhaps I’m accomplishing less but I’m still feeling better about it.
Next time I’ll tell you more about the things I am doing. They’re not all wonderful. Certainly I will continue to think, write, and talk to people around the world about learning and education. I’m also darning that pile of old socks full of holes and learning to make bread in a dutch oven.
All these things require practice.
Mother and Our Three Dogs
This is my first experiment with posting my audio recordings. I made this one on my 63rd birthday during a period when I was trying to sort out how my childhood experiences have shaped my personality, character, and adult behavior.
All of us have had some trauma as we grew up. Challenges are part of life. For many of us, the small, vaguely remembered incidents may have had more influence than those lightbulb events we usually label as psychologically impactful. This is a recollection of three incidents that I rarely associate with my mental health issues of depression, fear of abandonment, and anxiety over challenging authority. Don’t get me wrong. I love animals – horses and dogs especially, cats too but not as much. My childhood home was always teaming with critters – familiar domestic pets, captured or wounded wild ones, and science experiments. Most of my memories are of gratifying interactions. But these three probably deserve some further reflection.
Click on the white triangle below to listen. It takes a few seconds for the audio to load before starting.
The original Liza’s ears drooped on the floor when she slept. 
Pepper would lie like this at the foot of Mother’s bed.
Trippy was always alert for a game or a chase, even a car.
Practicing Being 80 – Episode 1
Very few of us have had the privilege of being taught how to grow old. For most of us, this is a process of discovery. I began my 80th year a few months ago and I’m trying to figure out how to play the game of life in this last phase. How did I get
from this:
to this:
I wake up each morning in my cozy bed and stretch. What hurts today? Will I be hot, cold, or comfortable if I move the covers? Will I wet the bed if I don’t immediately rush to the bathroom? What do I absolutely have to get done today? Does it matter what I wear? Do I have to get dressed at all? What would I enjoy doing today? What is the purpose of my life in this “end-game” stage?
Others are raising their grandchildren, running countries, or meeting adoring crowds at 80. Although I am apparently healthy, I don’t have that much energy. I dread taking on new obligations and the isolation of the pandemic has gotten me used to staying at home. My income is stable, my daily needs are met. My children and grandchildren are doing well. In spite of all this good fortune I feel immersed in a pool of sadness. How do I make this an era of joy and satisfaction?
Perhaps the problem I am facing now began in my early teen years. That’s me in the middle of a class picture – maybe 6th grade. I felt like the ugly, brainy outsider and retreated into intellectual oddity.
I’ve learned to cover up the alienation from myself and others, to say the culturally appropriate thing and deflect attention away from myself and onto others. I’ve devoted my life to modernizing education and other “high impact” social causes. I’ve accomplished enough, given enough, to feel I’ve paid any debt owed to my society.
When I tell people I’ve been fighting depression all my life they respond, “Oh no, not you, Liza. You’re always smiling and right on top of things.” That’s what it looks like from the outside because I have made sure nobody sees me when I’m vulnerable and can’t cope.
80 is different. I’m no longer climbing a career ladder or building institutions. I’m cleaning up the messes in preparation for passing on all those responsibilities. But it’s the met responsibilities, the fulfilled obligations, the kept promises that have gotten me out of bed in the past. That pressure has been a dike that kept the depression within its banks and the alienation at bay. Now my psychological armor is peeling away and I’m having to face my inner demons without the excuse that focusing on myself is somehow “selfish”.
It’s time to reconnect with the curious, exploratory, hopeful character I was as an infant, a toddler, a child before “self” became “selfish”. And you’ll just have to wait and see whether I ever feel like writing Episode 2!
ChatGPT Promises not to Make Things Up
There are lots of fun and practical ways to use the powerful Large Language Model known as chatGPT. But when you want reliable information, watch out. This evening I asked chatGPT, version 3.5, to help me with some research on Open Educational Resources (OER). These are free or very low cost textbooks, short lessons, videos, etc. that any of us can use to learn about almost anything that is taught in schools – nursery school through professional training. I’ll show you parts of the conversation transcript in a minute. But here’s the punchline of this post:
So for any of you who are worried about whether OpenAI, (chatGPT’s corporate parent) is going to stop pretending to provide real, reliable answers to our questions, here’s their promise to cease and desist.
How did we get here? Well, one of the biggest problems with OER is that it can be very difficult to find the right instructional material for what you want to learn. Teachers and instructional designers compose these lessons, or sometimes even whole textbooks or courses, and submit them to organizations called Repositories that act like public libraries. There are many thousands of titles in Repositories waiting for you to discover and use them for free, either by downloading them to your smart phone, tablet, or computer, or by logging into the ‘cloud’ where they live and using them online. So which one is right for you? You have to search the Repository – each Repository – using a limited list of keywords, words like language (English, Spanish, Chinese), audience level (1st grade, high school, beginner, adult), or subject (biology, arithmetic, Python programming). However, each Repository’s search features are a little different. Hmmm, is this a problem chatGPT can help solve?
I started by asking for a list of repositories.
This is good and now you also know where to look for free textbooks, etc. Type one of these repository names into your search engine and start exploring.
Next I wanted to know what keywords we can use to filter the search results for each of these repositories, so I asked the machine…
You can see from the response I got that chatGPT didn’t understand what I was asking for. All three lists were the same.
So I fiddled around with the way I asked for the lists and finally got something that looks about right. I had to ask for a comparison of just two repositories rather than all twenty at once.
Wow! This is just what I wanted. It looks like OER Commons and MERLOT both have 15 search parameters, they share 11 and each have 4 that they don’t share. Now maybe the machine has ‘learned’ enough to generate the lists for all 20 Repositories.
Nope, we’re not doing that. Suddenly we’re back to “commonly provided” and “parameters may vary” when what I want to know is exactly how they vary. This makes me question the responses provided about OER Commons and MERLOT. If the AI can give me accurate answers about two repositories why can’t it do 20. Isn’t the ability to do the same dull task over and over the very reason we humans want to use this technology? Here’s what happens next…
The wording on the OER Commons and MERLOT lists did not indicate these were “possible”, “typical”, or “likely”. It says these are the “unique parameters”. Is this accurate or fake information?
Hey Buddy, this is not “oversight”, this is misrepresentation. First you said, “Here’s the real stuff” when you were just blowing smoke. I won’t find out whether the information is trustworthy or not unless I already know enough to spot fake news and challenge you on it. When challenged you tell me your answer was incorrect. This disclaimer should come before the beautifully worded but untrue essay, not after. This is what make AI dangerous to the non-expert.
When challenged, chatGPT back peddles, pretends it has human emotions, and then promises to reform its reprobate ways…
Is there any reason to believe this string of characters carries any more veracity than the ones that have come before? Who is speaking/typing/communicating here? Is there any author? Any accountability?
I don’t give up easily so here’s my further challenge…
We are back to the beginning of this post. We have a public statement from Open AI:
“This response is a public statement from OpenAI, indicating a commitment to transparency and accuracy in interactions with all users. It applies to all interactions conducted by the AI model, not just those with you. Thank you for prompting this clarification, and I appreciate your understanding.”
Now it’s up to us users to hold OpenAI and all other purveyors of LLMs accountable for the statements their machines create no matter what prompts we give them.I suspect the fine print in the user agreements we all have to commit to in advance of using chatGPT will make it impossible to take legal action against OpenAI. But we can still vote with our dollars, with our feet, and with our communications to the developers of these products. Take the time to speak out if you are as bothered as I am by the directions the AI movement is taking. So far, AI is like a toddler running around with no judgement and a risk of stumbling into the fire. We are the adults (well, some of us anyway). LLMs as well as other AI technologies can grow into marvelous additions to the human environment. But we’re going to have to socialize them and not permit them to embody, no, simulate the worst qualities of human beings. This little tale is just one example of how we can go wrong.
See this whole chatGPT session, here: https://chat.openai.com/share/431ce57e-9fd4-48b1-bb42-70a7c37339f2
Greater Meanings: a very short story
Greater Meanings 
a very short story by Liza Loop
.
Pitar smiled down at the tiny baby in his arms. A girl this time. Two weeks old and she was perfect. His gaze drifted out the opening of the hut to Anhout rubbing his stubby fingers in the dirt of the yard. It had taken him five years to learn to walk but he would never run like his father. Still, Pitar’s heart was full of joy and pride. Three live children whose mother loved and cared for them. Not many in his village of five hundred families had been so lucky. Abile was already twelve, fully able-bodied and apparently fertile. Pitar very well might have grandchildren.
Sadness, too, flickered across Pitar’s face as he strolled toward the beach where the dolphins capered just beyond the surf. The age of humans is long over, he thought. Not as far away as the dinosaurs but, like them, we are no longer the dominant species. The dolphins remembered the history of their planet and had been willing to share the story once humans had deciphered their language. It wasn’t a pretty tale. Abile, who grew up immersed in dolphin culture didn’t seem to mind at all, had, in fact laughingly asked, “What’s gold” whenever Pitar mentioned the human golden age. But Pitar’s grandmother was raised among living memories of “the change” and “the disaster war” so Pitar still harbored visions of a human community of builders and conquerors. They said there were “billions” of humans and that they nearly destroyed the world for everyone. “You’re better off without all that hoi polloi,” the dolphins said. “Life has no meaning beyond the moment, no greater purpose,” and they jokingly pronounced it “porpoise” and splashed the listeners.
Suddenly Abile streaked across the strand and disappeared into the surf only to emerge amid the swarm of churning flukes and rounded brows. “Be careful,” Pitar yelled, “you could get hurt.” Abile, astride one of his many friends waved at his father as they rounded the point, out of sight. Anhout, who had toddled down the beach to a convenient tide pool, began to scootch toward the opening to the sea. Although handicapped on land, Anhout was already an excellent swimmer. He dove, surfaced and throw a live crab onto the beach at his father’s feet.
“Maybe humanity isn’t doomed,” Pitar said aloud to the baby.
The End
copyright 2017 Guerneville, CA
This story just told itself to me one day. I thought it was going to be longer but when I wrote that last sentence there was just no more to say.
Filed under Liza's Fiction
Old and Grumpy Song
Sometimes I write rhythmic prose that needs a melody to become a song. If you like this one and can put it to music, please record your rendition and share it with us.
Old and Grumpy Song
I don’t like women and I don’t like men
I have been grumpy since I can’t remember when
The kids are noisy and the cashier is rude
You’d better watch your step; I’m in a really bad mood!
Everything around me is beginning to fall apart
My feet are always aching and I have a bad heart
Every friggin’ day I’m worried about my health
Think I’ll just sit down right here and feel sorry for myself
I gotta’ do the dishes or they’re covered in slime
But still they just get dirty so it’s all a waste of time
I really should get up and take the time to make my bed
But I’m so gull darn grumpy gonna’ lie right here instead
Growing old is very painful and it just ain’t fair
My neighbors ignore me and my family’s off somewhere
I’m so lonely, bored and frightened that I’m often moved to tears
And with modern medication, – – ah shit! – – , this is going to last for years
Filed under Liza's Peotry