Link. Last days of the idiocracy.
Monthly Archives: January 2021
“wild pig, outlined and filled in with mulberry-hued pigment, dates back at least 45,500 years, according to a study published on Wednesday in Science Advances. It was discovered deep inside a cave called Leang Tedongnge in December 2017”
Link. A good day for a grad student.
“Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, Cerner, Epic Systems, the Mitre Corporation and the Mayo Clinic — announced on Thursday morning that they were developing technology standards to enable consumers to obtain and share their immunization records through hea
Link. Where’s Apple?
M1 Mac startup mode.
Link. Diagnostics seems a bit obscure.
Mac Intel – startup modes reference.
Link. I didn’t know Internet Diagnostics vs Diagnostics.
China has too much talent.
Link. So does the world. We have a glut of talent. Also an ocean of money looking for opprtunity.
1776 report: slavery not an issue because of things.
Link. Do they even mention native peoples? History by Charlie Kirk.
The genius Biden plan: “the obvious plan for combating Covid-19, full of ideas many others have thought of and strategies it is appalling we haven’t yet tried”
Link. We can do this.
Zwift sort-of has some Apple Watch integration … maybe
Link. It doesn’t work so far on my iPhone, but in theory there’s something. (I think their instructions have confused Zwift.app with Zwift Companion.)
TidBITS reviews Signal
Link. Best summary anywhere.
M1 Mac Fast User Switching bug with screensaver lockout.
Link. I had something similar with Mojave on my 2015 Air but bug was fixed in last point update.
Charles Stross imagines Mars after Musk – with COVID-70.
Link. Fun! Charles knows the tech context is unimaginable that far out, but it’s a neat bit of world building.
“using extra solar peak capacity for BTC-mining could make solar a better financial proposition for a utility”
Link. Weird idea but I get it. There are lots of other ways to use the “excess capacity” buffer though.
“It’s not clear whether 3.5 percent unemployment will be the exact level America will achieve again. What is clear is that many policymakers want to test what the economy is capable of, rather than guessing at a magic figure in advance.”
Link. I remember advocating for this in the 90s. If only I were Emperor.
Loathsome Gazelka and MN GOP make national news after COVID death.
Link. “Afterward, Republicans alerted their own caucus about the virus outbreak, but not Democrats. They instructed Republican staff members not to go to the Capitol for a special session of the Legislature on Nov. 12 — but did not inform Democrats … Mr. Gazelka’s mother-in-law died in December after contracting Covid-19.”
COVID-19 twin studies: substantial variation
Link. “identical twins differ by an average of 5.2 early and naturally occurring developmental mutations”. Intriguingly similar to variation in schizophrenia between identical twins.
Nordic ski program to roadless Alaskan communities: “… other coaches and I went for an 11 p.m. walk in dim sunlight and got charged by a polar bear.”
Link. Pre-industrial humans lived there. Almost every paragraph in this article surprised me.
“There’s only one multibillion-dollar media corporation that deliberately and aggressively propagated these untruths. That’s the Fox Corporation, and its chairman, Rupert Murdoch; his feckless son Lachlan”
Link. Why isn’t this said weekly or daily?
“The police visible in the videos fought tenaciously, and the resulting sense of betrayal in the crowd is palpable.”
Link. The best documented mob in the history of mobs.
“America needs to humble itself and start copying best practice from countries that have things figured out more than we do, instead of imagining that we can reinvent the wheel.”
Link. Hell yes. Start with Canada and Germany then Taiwan and Singapore.
“31 percent of Americans believe it is a good idea to have a “strong incumbent leader who does not have to bother with Congress and elections.”
Link. Oct 2020 poll. The government of ancient Egypt waa stable for thousands of years of very limited learning.
“Peloton has a customer rating of 1.4 out of five stars with the Better Business Bureau”
Link. My Schwinn IC 4 was far less expensive, has worked well, and can be used with Peloton app, Zwift, and other services.
“his allies collecting fees from wealthy felons or their associates to push the White House for clemency,”
Link. Of course.
“Mr. Irving, the House security chief, was against putting the National Guard on alert because he had concerns about the “optics” of such a move”
Link. Lots of people want to talk with him.
The four inflations.
Link. Only one is concerning – if it happens.
Reduce ride-share COVID risk.
Link. “open the windows that are opposite each occupant. That configuration allows fresh air to flow in through the back left window and out through the front right window”
“The BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine has this digital code at its heart. It is 4284 characters long, so it would fit in a bunch of tweets. At the very beginning of the vaccine production process, someone uploaded this code to a DNA printer (yes), which then convert
Link. 20th century was a long time ago.
“you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them
Link. When HRC first said this it seemed obvious to me. Now every sane person knows this is true.
[FBI] … “did not necessarily suspect Russian involvement in the bitcoin transfers, which appear to have been made by a French computer programmer who died by suicide on Dec. 8 after triggering the transfers”
Link.
“at least 300 rioters were present in footage taken inside the Capitol while police were struggling to evacuate lawmakers. The actual number of rioters is probably greater…”
Link. Detailed recreation of what we know so far.
Why Aren’t We Wearing Better Masks?
Link. Answer starts with a T.
“Trump wanted Americans to believe a falsehood that there were two elections — a legitimate election composed of in-person voting, and a separate, fraudulent election involving bogus mail-in ballots for Democrats.”
Link. His least bad option.
Trump’s top lies.
Link. This compilation is an ugly job well done. If only we knew Trump was truly done. So many gullible victims.
“a middle-aged man wearing a Trump flag as a cape told a young man standing beside him, “There’s gonna be a war.” His tone was resigned, as if he were at last embracing a truth that he had long resisted”
Link. Bottom of the curve.
Trumpism: “two-thirds of Americans over the age of 18 don’t have a college degree, with degrees being most common among those ages 35 to 54.”
Link. Over 55 4y degrees are unusual — and cognitive decline is common. (Yes, we clearly see decline at 55.) Over 55 is particularly susceptible to FoxGOP and Trump, easy to fleece for money.
macOS clipboard has no numeric datatype.
Link. Is Windows better? Computers are weird.
Autistic (white) child dies during extended police restraint.
Link. Police almost certainly had no or little training. And some were likely cruel and stupid.
“only reason I could think of that they weren’t shooting us was they were waiting for us to shoot first. And if it became a firefight between a couple hundred officers and a couple thousand demonstrators, we would have lost.”
Link.
Toyota pays tiny fine for violating the law.
Link. Just the cost of doing business.
Pastor Kirbyjon H. Caldwell close to Bush and Obama – ran a vile scam.
Link. Six years seems light for what he did. What a lousy person.
Reminder: iMessage Not Meaningfully E2E
Link. Anything digital can be take. Apple makes it easy for FBI.
Terrific thread on deprogramming Trump cultists
Link. “1. Establish rapport (no shaming). 2. Ask for a claim. 3. Ask for a measure of confidence in this claim. 4. Ask what reasoning supports this claim. 5. Ask what justifies this reasoning. 6. Then explore if those justifications are strong enough to support that level of confidence.”
Johns Hopkins security researchers ‘shocked’ at Android and iOS vulnerabilities
Link. Casablanca class shock I suspect. Potemkin security keeps FBI happy.
“By the time he drove from Tennessee to Washington to march on the Capitol, his Facebook group had swelled to more than 61,000 members”
Link. Fame makes heroin look like tylenol. Fb Groups are huge problem.
“A mere nine years after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia elected a former KGB lieutenant colonel, Vladimir Putin, to the presidency. It was the last meaningful election we ever had. We chose unity and we got dictatorship.”
Link.
“It takes a tremendous amount of work to educate citizens to resist the powerful pull of believing what they already believe, or what others around them believe, or what would make sense of their own previous choices.”
Link. Civilization relies on those who can do this.
Chapman Univeristy’s John Eastman claimed Pence could overthrow the electoral college.
Link. “Richard Cullen, Mr. Pence’s personal lawyer, called J. Michael Luttig, a former appeals court judge revered by conservatives”
MN GOP speaker: “weeds of leftist liberals subjecting us, suffocating us. We are a garden that needs to grow. We cannot grow if we have weeds choking us off.” The audience chimes in, shouting: “Kill the root, kill the weeds!” and the speaker close
Link.
COVID anosmia biology.
Link. Readable and useful.
Impeachment 2: “… it’s a delaying tactic — a way to keep Trump occupied in the final days of his presidency so he causes as little additional trouble as possible”
Link. Not only, but yes. McConnell may be cooperating in his own Slytherin way.