May the Fourth and All That Stuff

I saw the following question on today's New York Times morning newsletter. 

It's definitely one I would never have thought to ask because of no awareness of how the two activities could be related in any way.

 

Is eating meat as harmful for the environment as using ChatGPT or other A.I. tools? | Emily Osborn | Salt Lake City, Utah

Evan Gorelick, a reporter for The Morning, writes:

This is a little like comparing apples to oranges, so the numbers won’t be perfect. But let me try:

Asking a medium-length question on ChatGPT can use 20 to 30 watt-hours of energy, according to recent estimates.  (That’s enough to toast a slice of bread!)

 The carbon footprint depends where the data centers are and where their electricity comes from — though it’s mostly from fossil fuels, which emit lots of carbon. 

 Researchers estimate that a chatbot query can emit the equivalent of between seven and 15 grams of carbon dioxide. Call it 11 grams. So in 30 minutes, you might spew something like 110 grams.

Beef, the most carbon-intensive meat, emits the equivalent of around 6,040 grams of carbon dioxide per serving — a lot more than an A.I. prompt.

But prompting isn’t the only way A.I. affects the environment. There’s also the water it drains and the energy that goes into training new models. 

 OpenAI’s older model consumed about 50 gigawatt-hours during its training. (That’s enough to toast nearly two billion slices of bread!) 

 Newer and bigger models could consume significantly more. On a per-person level, the carbon output is still probably less than cow farming, but it’s rising quickly.

HMMMM!

Guess I'll pick and choose when to eat meat and how often to use AI from now on.  

Right now, AI seems to be less expensive for me than meat. 

And, below another item suggests that teachers are now doing their part to limit energy drain from AI and promote more human brain energy.  

Seems like a good idea. 

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Take-home writing assignments, once inescapable in your English and history classes, are on the way out.

 It’s too easy for students to cheat with artificial intelligence. 

Chatbots can generate polished essays in seconds — analyzing Supreme Court cases, parsing symbolism in “The Great Gatsby,” explaining the science behind the Artemis mission.

But teachers have a fix: 

They’re making students write inside the classroom, where they can be observed. The assignments have changed too. 

Some educators ask students to reflect on their personal reactions to what they’ve read — the type of writing A.I. struggles to produce.

Will Love, Portland Fire coach Alex Sarama and Debbie Love, this past weekend. 

Willie and Debbie made a quick trip to Portland this weekend to observe a practice with the new WNBA team, the Portland Fire. 

The team's coach Alex Sarama became their friend after he visited Sandpoint a few years ago to conduct a clinic with the Sandpoint and Lake City High girls baskeball teams. 

Alex was named Portland Fire head coach after serving as assistant coach for the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Willie recounts the weekend practice experience in his informative substack. 

He picked up a lot of neat ideas about practices. 

 Click the link below.  

Good luck to Alex and the Portland Fire. 

https://coachingidaho.substack.com/p/practice-with-the-fire?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9bd84321-2db1-425d-8166-98396548cae0_1190x934.png&open=false

🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

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🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎

The woman below is a hoot (look for the video of her cheering her horse on) as well as a talented racehorse trainer. 

Her story and her historical achievement were definitely among the many bright spots of the weekend. 

It was fun to see her graduate from exuberant and understandable insanity into a state of much-deserved ecstasy as she watched the horse she trained win the Kentucky Derby. 

First woman ever to know that feeling.

This year's was an amazing Derby. 

 

Speaking of horses:  once again, yesterday, it was the student instructing his teacher. 

Monty told me a long-forgotten (in my mind but not his) story during my lesson yesterday.

About 50 years ago, he was riding my sister's Appaloosa mare Sassy and getting red ribbons at a 4-H horse show. 

Apparently, I pulled him aside and told him to ride the rail and stay out of the pack, assuring him that he'd do better. 

"The next class I won a blue," he said. 

It was a monumental moment for him and just another slice of advice in my mind. Lots of tidbits given go under the bridge and are forgotten when one is a teacher. 

Such gestures, however, are momentous to young people trying to learn.

Well, the tables have turned.  

I'm no longer Monty's 4-H leader or English teacher.  

I am now HIS student.  

Besides his knack for telling hilarious stories about his years of training and riding horses, Monty shares valuable information with spot-on timing as a riding instructor. 

These days, it may not seem a big deal to him or my sister Laurie who has been helping with my regaining confidence on the back of a horse, but the nuggets issued and brief lessons about specific moves on my part while aboard CB are momentous to me. 

Those two "coerced" me into loping CB again yesterday.   

This time, knowing that last week's session where I loped a horse for the first time in 15 years did not result in death or painful leg muscles, I submitted rather quickly and without protest to the announcement:  "now, you are going to lope."

I stayed on that horse through two loping sessions, and, yes, I look like a sack of potatoes with absolutely no finesse, but I stayed on and managed the controls without any disasters. 

That is momentous for me, and once again my confidence increased. 

It's fun when tables turn and the same respect given you as a teacher is exchanged when that student becomes your teacher. 

Plus, I love my horse and especially love what he has learned, thanks to his "teachers" along the way.  

I took a trip to The Flower Farm yesterday.  

 

Today a bunch of purty posies will go into their spring, summer and fall homes.

This stretch in May is always one of my favorites every year because of endorphins and flowers and a general feeling of outdoor euphoria. 

Lovin' it. 

Happy Monday.  

Sunday Miscellany

 

Caribou Creek.

My sister Laurie has a new set of wheels, and she is beaming. 

The Ford diesel has plenty of power for pulling their new horse trailer with living quarters. 

So, if all goes right the white truck will pull horses and accommodations to a Moses Lake horse show this next week. 

Of course, as is customary, we all inspected the new purchase and were blown away with its features, including steps AND a ladder leading into the pickup bed. 

That's my brother Kevin, who helped Laurie decide on the truck. 

From my friend Pat Gunter with whom I totally agree about what he has to say in this letter to the editor. 

| May 3, 2026 1:00 AM

I am 72 years old and have lived in Bonner County all my life. I have watched a lot of politicians come and go and I know the difference between a public servant and a self-promoter.

I have been a Jim Woodward supporter since he first ran. When I saw the claims in Herndon’s fundraising letter, postmarked from Virginia, I will be honest — it gave me pause. 

That is not the Jim Woodward I know. So I did what most people apparently do not do anymore. I picked up the phone and called Jim.

Jim picked up and we talked through the claims in the letter. He walked me through Herndon’s claims and set the record straight. 

He was calm and direct and did not raise his voice. He just explained the facts and let me draw my own conclusions.

That conversation told me everything I needed to know — not just about the claims, but about the character of the man I have been supporting.

A few days later the “Official Republican Voter Guide” arrived in my mailbox. I read it cover to cover. Then I used it to start a bonfire. It served its highest purpose.

I have seen four Woodward vs. Herndon campaigns now. Herndon’s tactics do not change. 

Jim Woodward does not change — steady, honest, and willing to pick up the phone when a 72-year-old constituent has a question.

That is the kind of senator North Idaho deserves to keep.

Vote May 19.

PAT GUNTER

Sagle

The 2026 Derby has come and gone.  

Although So Happy did not win, it was neat to see history with the first woman trainer to win a Kentucky Derby. 

Now, I'll be pulling for Golden Tempo to win The Preakness. 

I loved seeing the museum history note (below) in today's Daily Bee. Lots of treasured memories associated with our trips to Wenatchee. 

We looked forward to and loved experience.  One year, we hired tour buses and stayed overnight in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, on our way to Wenatchee. 

We chose Salmon Arm because Dean Fredlund, who had taught biology at Sandpoint High School, had moved to Salmon Arm.  

He helped with the coordination, and after staying overnight with families, the students performed for the Salmon Arm student body. 

Today's note featured the year before our son Willie was born, so I can remember confidently that we bedded down on a gym floor in one of the Wenatchee schools.  

I say "bedded down" because I don't remember sleeping.  When you're the adviser keeping track of students on an overnight trip, you don't get much sleep. 

In this case, I think it was more the hard floor than the kids that kept me awake. 

The next year, when it came time for the trip, Willie  was just a month old.  He went along on the bus with 40 Ponderettes who passed him from seat to seat on the bus and doted on him the entire trip.

As I recall, someone even gave him a sucker, which wasn't exactly the best for a month old child, but he survived.  

Bill followed the bus in the car so we had a hotel room while some friends took overnight chaperoning duties. 

By the time we arrived in Wenatchee (about a five-six hour trip), Willie had had enough.  He screamed and screamed, enough so that I had to take him outside while everyone else was having dinner. 

I don't think Willie remembers the experience, but I do.

Nowadays, as a coach, Willie endures similar bus trips with his teams.  He gained his yellow school bus experience very early on, so he's up for the trips.   

from the Bonner County Daily Bee:

BAND, DRILL TEAM TO BE IN PARADE 

About 90 SHS students will travel to Wenatchee, Wash. for the annual Apple Blossom Festival. 

The SHS Ponderettes Drill Team, led by captains Sue Self and Marla Spielman, will wear uniforms promoting the parade’s Bicentennial theme. 

Providing the music for the Ponderettes will be the 60-member German-clad Bulldog band in their green lederhosen, white shirts, suspenders and Tyrolian hats, led by drum major Rick Franck. 

Junior Miss Cheryl Wooden and princesses Karen Holm and Mindi McCormick will grace the Sandpoint Community Float, which has a showboat theme. 

Above: some of the seven "Sisters" in the Selkirk Mountain Range. 

Bill, the dogs and I decided that last night was a perfect occasion to take our annual evening driving up Pack River in the Caribou Creek drainage. 

It was the earliest trip we've taken up that way, so no wild flowers except for some trilium. 

Sadly, no sightings of the usual snowshoe hare running and hopping about on the road.  Same was true with the mosquitoes, so that was a plus. 

When we set off with the dogs on a walk in an area that offers views of the Selkirk Mountains, we met Cody.  

A few sentences later, I was telling Cody that I had taught both his mom and dad, Chenoa and Brian, at Sandpoint High School. 

Cody is a senior at Priest River High School.  He appears to be a very self-directed and mature.  

I told Bill he seemed like 18 going on 25. 

We enjoyed our brief visit and then Cody, who seems to know the Bonner County back country very well, went on his way.

Nice young man.

And, the trillium were impressive too. 

Happy Sunday. 

  

Saturday Slight

 

It's finally Croc season. 

There's a bike race in the outskirts today.

 https://www.panhandlegravel.com/34-minus-cykeltur

The Farmers' Market opens for business at Farmin Park in downtown Sandpoint today. 

https://www.sandpointfarmersmarket.com/

A bunch of Rotarians have come to town.

There's a trivia contest at the museum. 

 museum.https://hagadonenewsnetwork.com/news/2026/apr/30/local-history-to-be-celebrated-at-saturday-trivia-night/

And, then, along with a lot of other activities,  there's The Derby. 

Whatever the choices, there will be more than enough available to avoid boredom on this idyllic and gorgeous day in May.  

Did I forget to mention planting garden and mowing more lawn or picking out more flowers?   

Yesterday I went to Pac West Parts, which is owned by our lawnmower wizard Tony.  The night before he had taken a bad tire from our Toro lawnmower with him with hopes of finding a replacement.  

So, we agreed that I would stop by yesterday to see if he was successful.   He was not, but he had found a tire that would probably work if he put it on our Toro rim. He also ordered a new tire for the mower. 

It took him a while to prepare the loaner tire, so I spent some quality time visiting with his mother Eileen and daughter Stasha (pronounced STAHSHA but so often mispronounced that she says she answers to anything, including "Crasha," which her father sometimes calls her because she's accident-prone. 

While we talked about names and kids and dogs, Tony's mother pointed to a framed photograph on the wall (the one above). 

It's Tony at a slightly younger age, but the photo proves one thing for sure:  that little guy was destined to know and fix lawnmowers during his lifetime.  

Who knows how many thousands of times he's gotten acquainted with the innards of lawnmowers and fixed them up just right to make their owners happy. 

In the 20 or so years that Tony's been repairing our lawnmowers, I'm sure that I don't have enough fingers or toes multiplied many times over illustrate how often I have sung him praises. 

His clients are all SO lucky that little Tony knew his destiny way back when. We've all benefitted from his knowledge and persistence to do the job right.   
 

💚💚💚💚💚💚

Sandpoint's "Three-Name Lounge" is have a Derby benefit today. 

~~Tervan - Tavern - Tam o' Shanter~~

Sounds like fun for a worthy cause. 

So Happy 

Out of So Cunning and by Run Happy

https://apnews.com/article/kentucky-derby-so-happy-80e836f0666ad91a169b2d7f4a7d5d06

I think I'll stick with him for today's Kentucky Derby because we need a lot more happiness in our world. 

He's a long shot, a bargain horse with an old jockey riding him AND there's a touching story to go along with him. 

Let's all hope we'll be SO HAPPY at the finish line. 

Whatever the outcome, the stories about horses, their owners, trainers and jockeys should be wonderful as ever.  

🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎

In the food for thought department:  

Have we arrived at this point with our interactions or lack thereof?

A segment from this today's New York Times morning newsletter

It has become very easy to avoid talking to strangers.

 Noise-canceling headphones, internet shopping, self-checkout lines and, when all else fails, our phones — taken out at a bar, a party, a concert — insulate us against humanity’s intrusion. 

It’s not all terrible: I recently made a doctor’s appointment via consultation with my medical practice’s “virtual assistant” and it was refreshingly frictionless. 

In a city, headphones are indispensable for boundary setting; they send a signal that one is not to be bothered. 

But when not interacting becomes the default, our social muscles atrophy.

Some people tell me that I've never met a stranger, but they have it all wrong:  I've met many many throughout my lifetime in a variety of venues.

For the most part, the experiences turned out to be rich, sometimes life-changing and almost always interesting. 

We just have to be cautious and use our antennae when we decide to engage with a perfect stranger, and when we are careful, the gesture just might make somebody's day along with our own.

Happy Saturday.  Enjoy this beautiful day.