COFFEE BREAK
8B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
TuESDAY, ApRIL 6, 2021
Unguarded comment may cause brothers to break permanently
DEAR ABBY: I am a senior
male. I understand I may have
some beliefs that others find
old-fashioned. However, I con-
sciously try to be tolerant of
others’ feelings
and beliefs. That
said, my problem
is with my younger
brother, who is a
homosexual. I have
always tried to
ignore that side of his life and,
consequently, we have always had
a good relationship. He lives in
another state, so we only talk on
the telephone.
A couple of months ago while
we were talking, the subject of
sexuality came up, and I told
him I find the fact that he is gay
“disgusting.” I know it was a
poor choice of words. I merely
meant to say that I, myself, am
and always have been totally het-
erosexual. I have never had any
sexual interest in members of my
own sex. I never
meant my comment
to be judgmental
DEAR
of my brother or
ABBY
anyone else.
I left several mes-
sages apologizing
for anything I said that he found
objectionable. Now, when I try to
contact him, he doesn’t answer my
phone calls.
Abby, I miss my brother. I truly
love him, and I don’t want to lose
all contact with him. If you have
any advice for me, please give
it to me. I’m desperate and can
think of nothing I might be able
your brother. But if he continues
to be unreceptive, you will have
to live with it.
DEAR ABBY: I met a man
online seven months ago. We hit it
off right away. I checked to make
sure he wasn’t a “catfisher” and
everything checked out. We talk
on the phone at least twice a day,
Facebook Messenger and video
chat. He sent me a card for my
birthday along with some money.
I have developed strong feel-
ings for him, and he has told me
he loves me. He has told me many
times he wants to meet, but we
couldn’t do it because of the pan-
demic. He’s a jewelry designer
trying to get his business back up
before he loses it. He’s afraid to
lose everything.
I don’t know what to do.
to do to restore our relationship.
Please help me.
— FEELS LIKE A FOOL IN
WASHINGTON
DEAR FEELS LIKE: I have
never understood why so many
straight people spend so much
time obsessing about what gay
people might be doing behind
closed doors. THAT, to me, is
disgusting.
I’ll be frank. After what you
said to your brother, he would
have to be a saint to forgive you.
He is doing what emotionally
healthy people do, erasing a nega-
tive influence from his life.
You can continue trying to
apologize by penning a heart-
felt letter of apology and remorse,
promising to never use those
words again, and sending it to
Should I keep waiting or just stay
friends with him?
We really care about each
other, but circumstances prevent
us from meeting.
— BROKENHEARTED IN
NEW YORK
DEAR BROKENHEARTED:
Because “circumstances” pre-
vent you from meeting this man
in person, try HARD to regain
your balance and stay friends.
Although you think you know
him, until you finally meet in
person, you really don’t. Even if
you confirmed he works in jew-
elry design, he may still be hiding
something from you. Often when
a significant other keeps making
excuses not to meet, there’s a
good reason for it and not always
what you want to hear.
News of the Weird
Robot artist sells art for
$688,888, now eyeing
music career
HONG KONG — Sophia
is a robot of many talents —
she speaks, jokes, sings and
even makes art. In March,
she caused a stir in the art
world when a digital work
she created as part of a col-
laboration was sold at an
auction for $688,888 in
the form of a non-fungible
token.
The sale highlighted a
growing frenzy in the NFT
market, where people can
buy ownership rights to
digital content. NFTs each
have a unique digital code
saved on blockchain ledgers
that allow anyone to verify
the authenticity and owner-
ship of items.
David Hanson, CEO of
Hong Kong-based Hanson
Robotics and Sophia’s cre-
ator, has been developing
robots for the past two and
a half decades. He believes
realistic-looking robots can
connect with people and
assist in industries such as
healthcare and education.
Sophia is the most
Vincent Yu/Associated Press
David Hanson, left, creator of Sophia, shows a work of Sophia at his studio in Hong Kong on March 29, 2021.
Sophia is a robot of many talents — she speaks, jokes, sings and even makes art. In March, she caused a stir in
the art world when a digital work she created as part of a collaboration was sold at an auction for $688,888 in
the form of a non-fungible token (NFT).
self, that could generate
art,” Hanson said in an
interview.
“Sophia is the culmi-
nation of a lot of arts, and
engineering, and the idea
that she could then gen-
erate art was a way for her
to emotionally and visu-
ally connect with people,”
he said.
famous robot creation from
Hanson Robotics, with
the ability to mimic facial
expressions, hold conversa-
tions and recognize people.
In 2017, she was granted
Saudi Arabian citizenship,
becoming the world’s first
robot citizen.
“I envisioned Sophia
as a creative artwork her-
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
Sophia collaborated
with Italian artist Andrea
Bonaceto, who drew por-
traits of Sophia. Sophia
then processed his work via
neural networks and pro-
ceeded to create a digital
artwork of her own.
The digital work that
sold for $688,888 is titled
“Sophia Instantiation”,
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
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Condon
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Baker City
30 69 37
Comfort Index™ 10
La Grande
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Newport
Eugene
5
10
3
37/57
47 24
61 34
45 25
1
10
0
43 25
2
10
0
10
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Sunday
Low Sunday
High: 103°
Low: 10°
Wettest: 0.44”
65°
26°
63°
30°
63°
31°
0.00
0.00
0.10
1.09
2.30
Trace
Trace
0.21
5.69
4.44
0.00
0.00
0.27
13.17
7.97
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Sunday
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HAY INFORMATION WEDNESDAY
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Hours of sunshine
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RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Monday)
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Unity Reservoir
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STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Sunday)
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7890 cfs
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80 cfs
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49 cfs
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836 cfs
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534 cfs
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342 cfs
TUE.
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6:23 a.m.
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MOON PHASES
Apr 11
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City
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THU.
Hi/Lo/W
50/40/sh
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53/41/pc
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56/39/c
59/33/s
64/36/pc
57/40/c
63/41/s
52/41/r
65/36/pc
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60/32/s
66/42/pc
65/30/s
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Hi/Lo/W
51/35/pc
51/24/pc
57/32/s
55/40/c
55/21/s
51/33/pc
56/33/c
45/25/pc
49/24/pc
57/32/c
59/32/pc
51/33/pc
49/26/pc
49/26/pc
42/23/pc
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29/76
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Lakeview
27/65
McDermitt
Shown is Wednesday’s weather. Temperatures are Tuesday night’s lows and Wednesday’s highs.
WED.
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Fields
30/66
RECREATION FORECAST WEDNESDAY
City
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Ontario
Pasco
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Powers
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The Dalles
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WED.
THU.
Hi/Lo/W
66/42/pc
51/38/r
63/36/s
71/42/s
49/39/sh
49/34/sh
76/42/s
65/42/pc
63/38/s
56/42/c
56/38/pc
64/31/s
62/41/c
55/38/c
57/34/pc
58/42/pc
61/32/pc
62/40/pc
Hi/Lo/W
54/35/pc
54/31/pc
49/21/r
64/35/c
49/35/c
53/30/pc
63/28/s
62/31/s
54/31/pc
55/36/c
56/35/c
54/21/pc
59/33/c
55/32/c
52/31/s
56/33/pc
45/21/pc
55/35/pc
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
May 3
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During the winter of 1827-28, tempera-
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Louisiana. However, a sudden freeze on
April 6, 1828, killed many of the early
crops as far south as northern Florida.
First
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39/70
41/53
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37/55
Coos Bay
Ocotillo Wells, Calif.
Clayton Lake, Maine
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High: 77°
Low: 22°
Wettest: Trace
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SUNDAY EXTREMES
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ALMANAC
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Halfway
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52 26
44 23
33/67
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Corvallis
Showers
possible
67 33
10
32 61 34
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Monument
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Salem
54 25
10
34 65 36
Comfort Index™ 10
Enterprise
THU
Partly sunny and Partly sunny and
cooler
milder
Elgin
31/64
La Grande
36/57
Maupin
Mostly sunny
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Pendleton
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Portland
Newberg
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39/66
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TIllamook
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TONIGHT
gence hive mind.”
Sophia’s artwork selling
as an NFT is part of a
growing trend. In March,
a digital artwork by artist
Beeple — whose real name
is Mike Winkelmann —
sold for nearly $70 mil-
lion, shattering records and
making it the most expen-
sive digital artwork ever
sold.
Henri Arslanian, Price-
waterhouseCooper’s Global
Crypto Leader, said that
NFTs give people “brag-
ging rights” of the assets
that they own.
“And what is really
amazing with NFT is that it
not only allows you to actu-
ally show to the broader
world that you own this, but
it really creates this bond
between the holder of the
NFT and the artists,” he
said.
It also allows art to be
sold without traditional
intermediaries, so that art-
ists can connect directly
with buyers without being
constrained by galleries or
auction houses, Arslanian
said.
— Associated Press
and is a 12-second video
file which shows Bonace-
to’s portrait evolving into
Sophia’s digital painting.
It is accompanied by the
physical artwork painted by
Sophia.
The buyer, a digital art-
work collector and artist
known as 888 with the
Twitter handle @Cryp-
to888crypto, later sent
Sophia a photo of his
painted arm. The robot then
processed that, adding that
image to her knowledge and
painted more strokes on top
of her original piece.
In a tweet on Sophia’s
account, the work was
described as the first NFT
collaboration between an
“AI, a mechanical col-
lective being and an
artist-collector.”
“As an artist, I have
computational creativity
in my algorithms, creating
original works,” Sophia
said when asked what
inspires her when it comes
to art. “But my art is cre-
ated in collaboration with
my humans in a kind of
collective intelligence like
a human-artificial intelli-
ANTHONY LAKES
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