Link. The COVID boom.
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“… there is a powerful entrenched force arrayed against the climate solutions we need — it just isn’t economists, billionaires, or lefty activists. It’s the fossil fuel industry.”
Link. It’s their nature.
The Rankings Racket Goes to Kindergarten
Link. For colleges: “dilute the influence of any one ranking system, by adding much more complexity and different facets to the system”. US News must die.
“there’s a valuable new command to export passwords from Safari and a new pane in System Preferences, which nobody knows about. And if you look in the tool for managing keychains, password export isn’t supported at all”
Link. Remember MacUser?
History of Evernote: “Pachikov worked on the prototype of Evernote (which was initially known as EverNote) for two years, and released a beta version of the tool for Windows in 2004.”
Link. I love his memory ambitions. I love Simplenote because we seem unable to sustain anything more ambitious.
macOS File types: “MIME types when downloading from the Internet, can still use old Classic Mac OS four-character type codes, but ultimately relies on UTIs”
Link. The taxonomy is pretty crude.
“If the Democrats do not succeed in passing a voting rights law, we can expect America to become a one-party state that, at best, will look much like the American South did between 1876 and 1964.”
Link. “The Senate will vote on the Freedom to Vote Act on Wednesday.”
“Espino is searching for employment elsewhere and is considering seeking a license in Florida, where vaccination requirements are lax.”
Link. She will not like the places that are desperate enough to hire her.
Norway, Oil and Climate.
Link. Doing the right thing even when it really hurts.
The Quad and Containing China.
Link. “Quad members collectively outnumber, outgun and surround their adversary.” Australia, India, Japan, US.
“can do nothing about flank collapses on volcanic islands except have a good early warning system”
Link. There are lots of low probability disasters lurking. The mega-tsunami wasn’t on my radar. (MN safe from that, but not from Yellowstone)
“71 percent of the vaccinated trust hospitals and doctors “a lot,” for example, while only 39 percent of the unvaccinated do”
Link. We need to resurrect anthropology. We will have to rename and relaunch because the original flamed out.
A guide to using charts – pie, line, bar and more.
Link. Uses Numbers as example. Marvelous reference.
“the forerunners just weren’t there any more. No mass extinction of American megafauna (large prey animals) until the Clovis hunters arrive sixty centuries later makes it almost certain.”
Link. The first First People did not survive.
“Chinese economy is utterly dependent on foreign trade, and China’s geography makes it extremely vulnerable to blockade.”
Link. Details on how China invades and the role of a massive missile attack on Taiwan’s defenses.
“Biden has brokered a deal among the different stakeholders to end what was becoming a crisis.”
Link. Things are getting fixed.
“for most people, low-dose aspirin … should not be used for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease … or colorectal cancer.”
Link. Not a surprise. People with NO known disease.
There are no real consequences for refusing a congressional subpoena.
Link. As long as you have a ready supply of lawyers.
Alden Global Capital’s war on newspapers.
Link. “For Smith, the Palm Beach conservative and Trump ally, sticking it to the mainstream media might actually be a perk of Alden’s strategy.”
“production at one of the key iPhone camera module manufacturing facilities in southern Vietnam has gradually resumed in recent days after several months of on-and-off disruption”
Link. COVID related.
Siri’s Grim 10-Year Anniversary.
Link. I use Siri fairly often and it works for me. It is a long way from the crazy early hype however.
Apple Health efforts flounder.
Link. They aren’t scientists or clinicians and they don’t want to hear bad news.
“puts to bed any notion that this virus had to have been concocted, or somehow manipulated in a lab, to be so good at infecting humans”
Link. True, though limited impact on lab escape theory. More importantly: we need to invest a lot more into potential natural threats.
The Trump coup: “…. many pieces needed to fall into place for the plot to work”
Link. It was a long shot, but the coup attempt exposed *many* flaws in America’s institutions and laws.
Safari and Monterey enable CSV export for iCloud passwords.
Link. Rare example of Apple doing the right thing with data.
“Thiel, one of the most sought-after GOP donors, has emerged as a financial force behind the effort to unseat Trump critics.”
Link. Thiel is hard core Trumpista. What aspects of Trumpism most appeals to him?
“an overview of the last 28 years of scripting the Mac”
Link. “one for the user in the GUI, AppleEvents, Automator actions, and now Shortcuts actions.”
Bad look.
“Some of the U.S. cyberdefense systems are at a “kindergarten level,” he said”
Link. Government software procurement is historically broken — but much is now outsourced to Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.
Don’t try to update Mojave to Big Sur?
Link. Yikes. This is very ugly.
“Tennessee’s systems for protecting children failed. Yet they haven’t been fixed.”
Link. We have a federal government.
“The future of American democracy depends, frankly, on whether journalists stop burying their head in ‘the work’ of balanced-but-misleading reporting and admit that, yes, actually, we are at war.”
Link. We are screwed.
“the new coronavirus cannot replicate infinitely fast or travel infinitely far.”
Link. Reassuring. :-). Humor aside, a good review.
Econ Nobel: “Just as no physicist would claim that “water runs uphill,” no self-respecting economist would claim that increases in the minimum wage increase employment.”
Link. That is a wonderful WSJ quote. Wonder if Buchanan ever admitted error. Also … “whores”.
Kape, a company with a shady past, is buying up VPN services and a VPN ratings site.
Link. I have used 1.1.1.1+ and TunnelBear but some apps don’t work with them.
Backing up to network storage in Big Sur and beyond
Link. Apple SMB is a thrash and they are killing AFP. Intervention needed. (Is a new protocol possible?)
iPhone Leather Wallet “wallet features a secure NFC chip which enables support for Find My”
Link. Phone saves location where detach occurred. So a kind of limited support.
Supple chain – retailer adapt.
Link. Chartering smaller ships that can offload at smaller ports.
Why do Americans worry about deficits?
Link. “some people just want change to stop in general, and pointing to the debt as a reason to stop change is just easy and convenient”.
“when he was just six von Neumann could multiply two eight-digit numbers in his head and converse in Ancient Greek”
Link. Even among genius there is almost always another level.
Singapore and the psychology of endemic COVID.
Link. It is a weird and hard transition.
California’s housing transformation.
Link. Slower version happening in St Paul MN. The world moves on.
“The stuff you return probably isn’t restocked and sent back out to another hopeful owner.”
Link. “Consumers say they’re returning XYZ, but they really return a dead rat and a cinder block.” Yikes.
“from Settings pick Privacy and Record App Activity and turn it on”
Link. Good list.
iOS 15 and Google AMP: 3 block extensions.
Link. AMP must die.
iOS 15 Tips and Tricks.
Link. I’m waiting for 15.1. So many bugs.
The Best Way to Build Muscle, According to Science
Link. Useful!
“Covid screening tests in France will no longer be free for unvaccinated people starting on Oct. 15”
Link. Tightening the screws.
“AT&T has been a crucial source of funds flowing into OAN, providing tens of millions of dollars in revenue, court records show. Ninety percent of OAN’s revenue came from a contract with AT&T-owned television platforms”
Link. This is so bad.
First Malaria Vaccine: “In clinical trials, the vaccine had an efficacy of about 50 percent against severe malaria in the first year, but dropped close to zero by the fourth year.”
Link. Dawn of a new age. We will get better. Malaria, be afraid.
“update with Macro Mode is available on all iPhones with a neural engine, which means the iPhone 8 or newer, and it produces full 4K resolution JPEGs”
Link. Clever. Halide Pro.