Link. Video formats are, of course, much harder. For me Adobe’s DNG converter is good enough.
Category Archives: share
“Sibelly said there were no staff absences, pointing out that most teachers had contracted Covid last month or over the Christmas holidays.”
Link. London. Essentially all teachers will get Omicron, but without surveillance many won’t know.
The Case Against Crypto(currencies) – “every use case is better served by another simpler technology except for crime, ransomware, extralegal gambling, and sanctions evasion”
Link. Handy reference.
How Mars got red.
Link. It’s a bit complicated.
“Many of number theory’s most important problems arise when mathematicians think about how multiplication and addition relate in terms of the prime numbers.”
Link. The starting points are so easy to understand. Then the warp drive kicks in.
“If you see a hedgehog in your backyard,” he said, “you should probably avoid kissing it.”
Link. MRSA evolution from fungus vs. bacteria on hedgehog skin.
Antigen tests less sensitive to Omicron.
Link. More pressure on PCR.
“Feature that allows me to use Google’s search engine through DuckDuckGo: prepend “!Google” to searches. Basically, DuckDuckGo launders my search.”
Link.
Oracle’s Ellison: “You’ve got to be good at intellectual intimidation and rhetorical bullying,”
Link. That’s the Ellison we know, but this shocked: “He later disavowed this as the strategy of an “inexperienced and insecure” C.E.O.”. WTF? Is there nobody we can trust?
“school disruptions were an important issue for swing voters who broke Republican — particularly suburban white women.”
Link. GOP will encourage unions to fight for remote schooling. Article doesn’t mention unvaccinated teachers – a weird omission.
Lawsuit Alleges Google Paid Apple to Stay Out of Search.
Link. A 30 billion dollar fine would be nice.
“Blockchains are designed to be a network of peers, but not designed such that it’s really possible for your mobile device or your browser to be one of those peers.”
Link. 1st readable web3 review.
[untitled]
Link.
Flurona: not twice as bad.
Link. Multiple simultaneous infections was little studied until past 20 years.
“two divorces were soon underway, and Mr. Perelman and Ms. Duff were soon engaged.”
Link. “The wrong box got checked and out went $893 million … because the error was Citigroup’s, the loss belonged to them, rather than to Mr. Perelman”
The ‘Strongman’s Dilemma’.
Link. “the problem of strongman succession may be, on some level, irresolvable.” China.
“At Seattle Children’s Hospital, for example, about 21 percent of children are testing positive for the coronavirus, compared with the average of about 1 percent”
Link. Still possible omicron is hard on small airways.
“he refused the preventive treatment of a rabies vaccine along with donated antibodies”
Link. He committed suicide in other words. “treatments are life-saving, they can be prohibitively expensive, costing thousands even with insurance.”
“Last year, for the first time, the number of registered Independents exceeded the number of registered Republicans.”
Link.
Noah Smith: climate change meets science.
Link. Insane transition speed.
“we could have had lower overall inflation if we had squeezed service prices — say, by slashing aid to families or raising interest rates”
Link. We made better choices.
“If you told me in April 2020 that unemployment would be 4.1% by December 2021, I’d have laughed in your face.”
Link. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
“Between 1982 and 2016, the American ski season shrunk by an average of 34 days annually, and levels of snow cover saw an average drop of 41 percent”
Link. I used to Nordic Ski. Now I ride a fat bike. I remember the great cross country ski lodges of the 20th.
COVID Group Home Staffing Crisis.
Link. High risk settings. Similar to teachers and long term care facilities.
“In 1983, he wrote an article for Parade magazine outlining his exercise habits routine. To maintain his physique, Reagan informed his readers of the virtues of weight training to shape one’s outward appearance.”
Link. Reagan lifted puny weights, but this was a big deal for the day. Great essay. Could be expanded by including bicycle/health craze of 1890s that died of cars and tobacco by 1910. (2015 Essay)
Beyond boosters: NYT squints through murk.
Link. They don’t address the interesting question of whether this strain is a good choice for the well immunized.
State of the many lies.
Link. Murdoch’s Fox plays a key role.
“over 87,849 “power-intensive” mining rigs have made their way from China to Kazakhstan.”
Link. I wondered what they would do. Nov 2021. Via Charlie Stross.
“GOP has no platform other than a Christianist White Supremacist Authoritarianism, no goal other than a corrupt oligarchy, and no plan for its supporters other than to keep them hyped up on fear and hatred of anyone who is a convenient target.”
Link. Romney’s party.
1942 Letter to a son going to war.
Link. Damn. That dude could write.
“Numbers uses a proprietary, compressed binary format to store its tables. This format is comprised of a zip file containing images, as well as Snappy-compressed Protobuf.iwa files containing metadata, text, and all other definitions used in the spreads
Link. Brilliant work.
Novak Djokovic: “players seeking an exemption had to pass muster with two panels of medical experts.”
Link. Those “medical experts” should be tarred, feathered, and deported.
“On Thursday, several days after the Journal sought comment for the findings detailed in this article, TikTok said it would adjust its recommendation algorithm”
Link. Eating disorder amplification.
Making Paxlovid. Don’t expect a lot anytime soon.
Link. The modern world is more complex and wonderful and fragile and terrifying than we can imagine.
Americans unenthused about Expanded Child Tax Credit.
Link. This is a harsh nation.
“Alibaba’s profitability declined by 38% from a year earlier.”
Link. Xi is devastating China’s software industry. Also: “She lost more than 100 million followers” !
Google search: “the last few months I’ve noticed a huge decline in the quality of its results”
Link. For me they have been poor for years.
“you could buy a display that claims to be HDMI 2.1-certified but that actually supports only HDMI 2.0 capabilities.”
Link. Stick to quality vendors.
“Mayo Clinic said Tuesday that approximately one percent of its staff across all locations will be released from employment”
Link. Mayo did not blink. Kudos earned.
Djokovic Granted Covid-19 Vaccine Exemption.
Link. Spineless. Now let’s see if Australia allows him to enter.
Best review of N95 masks I’ve seen. Comfort varies; duck bill best.
Link. Dignity is so 2019. You must be clean shaven though.
Supple chain: “There are lots of good regulations too, and it’s a very hard problem to solve.”
Link. Deregulation and reregulation done well is vital work. Most of what he wants is government action to address market failures – and buy his products.
SciAm EO Wilson article – an angry response.
Link. Sociobiology is more than a little unpopular now.
Meliodosis from “contaminated bottles of an aromatherapy spray sold exclusively at Walmart.”
Link. Impressive they were diagnosed!
“Mr. Aung Kyaw, a video journalist for the independent Democratic Voice of Burma, was a prime target.”
Link. He and his family escaped. It’s hard to fathom this kind of stubborn courage in the face of a brutal and corrupt society.
The Year in Biology 2021
Link. A short and readable review. Multicellular life seems to evolve quickly.
Unregulated tests for birth disorders are usually wrong and widely used.
Link. When you test for rare disorders 99% specificity is not good enough.
“In the 1862 midterm election, held a little over a month after the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln and the Republicans got shellacked.”
Link. Doing the right thing is often a losing strategy. At least In the short term.
1619 Project: a flaw and the greater defense.
Link. Oversimplified for the sake of emotional impact, but gets the big picture right.
Aerial Tram car rescue.
Link. High risk rescue. Kudos for success