2021-03-17

Cool

• University of Leeds | News > Global > Lightning strikes played vital role in origins of life on Earth

  “Lightning, on the other hand, is not such a one-off event. If atmospheric conditions are favourable for the generation of lightning, elements essential to the formation of life can be delivered to the surface of a planet. This could mean that life could emerge on Earth-like planets at any point in time.”

• Killer whales of Eden, New South Wales - Wikipedia

Worthy

• Intel's Rocket Lake CPU shouldn't have been made - SemiAccurate

  Lets start our look at Rocket Lake with the good stuff. The complete list of up-sides SemiAccurate sees for this new Intel backport of a 10nm design is that it is officially out. The end. We really wanted to find something good about this CPU even if our initial technical assessment said it was unlikely. After the rather solid pre-briefing, the basic questions SemiAccurate asked were either dodged or ignored, and things went downhill from there, it was another string of own-goals for no potential up side.

  Intel claims the i7-11700K that Anandtech tested is a 125W TDP CPU but they measured 294W in one test, a number which you could be forgiven for not considering close to the advertised spec.

  To make matters worse, the die is absolutely huge, 270+mm^2 or so according to reliable sources vs 206.1 or so for the previous Comet Lake CPU. (Note 2: Intel refuses to disclose die sizes for not good reason)

  What it comes down to is Intel took a 10nm design that was not intended to be process portable and backported it to their 14nm process. Those massive energy use reductions and claimed 2.7x die shrinks work both ways, think 2.7x die area gain and sucking wattage like it was going out of style. Backporting Ice Lake’s CPU and GPU cores to 14nm is just stupid, there is no defense for it at all and the results speak for themselves. Intel should not have done this and the fact that those who greenlighted this turkey are still employed at the company is a bit shocking.

• The Rise of Touch Screens in Cars Explained

• The ancient fabric that no one knows how to make - BBC Future

• Illegal Content and the Blockchain - Schneier on Security

  • from comments:

  I found the way the data is stored in the ledger, it abuses the bitcoin addresses. The bits are cut up in bitcoin address size chunks and these are then entered as the outgoing addresses for a transaction. The limit is 100,000 bytes per transaction, which is considerable. A miner can use a complete block of 1 MB. You collect all the (fake) addresses and can reconstruct the original file from the bits. As the addresses are fake, the ingoing bitcoins become unspendable.

etc

• NOAA issues a rare “high” alert for severe US weather

• Watch: California Neighborhood Leveled In Powerful Commercial-Grade Fireworks Explosion | ZeroHedge

• Welsh goat population rockets after Covid cancels contraception drive

  Pidcock said a campaign to give contraceptive injections to nanny goats last summer had to be postponed because of Covid. “It means there are more kids being born on the Great Orme now than there would have been,” she said. As long as Covid allows, a contraceptive vaccination campaign will take place this summer.

• Tesla On Autopilot Plows Into Michigan State Trooper's Patrol Car  | ZeroHedge

• Mathematics, Politics, and Justice Denied - IEEE Spectrum

• Second Hand Books Are Theft – Terence Eden’s Blog

  Any digital good is worthless on the resale market. This has been a rather long-winded way of saying that we shouldn’t treat digital art as though it were a stock to be traded.

• Gunman kills eight people at three Atlanta-area massage parlors

  • Georgia Massage Parlor Massacre Suspect Says Wasn't Race-Related, Blames "Sex Addiction" | ZeroHedge

• New set of Dead Sea Scrolls recovered from West Bank, first Biblical artifacts found in 60 ...

  • Bible scroll fragments among dazzling artifacts found in Dead Sea Cave of Horror

  Along with the “new” biblical scroll fragments from the Books of the Minor Prophets, the team excavated a huge 10,500-year-old perfectly preserved woven basket — the oldest complete basket in the world — and a 6,000-year-old mummified skeleton of a child, tucked into its blanket for a final sleep.

• Scientists determine the origin of extra-solar object 'Oumuamua'

• Book Review When the Aliens Arrive, What Will They Look Like? A Zoologist Has Answers

• Oh great, like we needed more mice Mouse embryos grown outside the uterus

Horseshit

• China Tells Media to Downplay Oscars with Protest Film Nominated

• California Bill Proposes Removing Cops Who Express Religious Or Conservative Beliefs

• Iowa house passes bill to ban ‘divisive concepts’ from curriculum

• 3D printed houses are leading a revolution in real estate

• FCC cracks down on robocalls with record $225M fine

• Science solved the mystery of feet washing ashore in the Pacific Northwest

Media / Ministry of Truthy

• 5 Other Totally Bogus Stories Designed To Hurt Trump The Media Got Away With

• Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online

• Cable and Satellite TV Use Has Dropped Dramatically in the U.S. Since 2015

• A Remedy for the Spread of False News?

• HBO special says Ron Watkins is Q

Identity Politics / Race Baiting / Re segregation

• Teachers Compile List Of Parents Who Question Racial Curriculum, Plot War On Them | The Daily Wire

• A Close-Up Picture of Partisan Segregation, Among 180M Voters

• GitHub, f*ck your name change.. Tech industry be whilin. | by MooseyAnon | Mar, 2021 | Medium

  So what would our tech bro saviors have found out if they had actually bothered to talk to anyone black? Well, at least this black person would have told them that calling the branch master is not offensive. Furthermore, black people as a collective are not triggered by words like master wherever they appear in the wild. Context people, context.

  • 1,200 comments, 3k votes ... GitHub, fuck your name change | Hacker News

• DNA databases are too white, so genetics doesn’t help everyone

• Who Is Making Sure the A.I. Machines Aren’t Racist?

• Carved pumpkins and jack o'lanterns create swastikas - Jira

TechSuck

• Totally not creepy Google’s new Nest Hub tells you how well you slept last night

• Micron to abandon its 3D XPoint Memory tech and plans to sell its XPoint fabs

  • Micron will cease development of 3D XPoint

• AT&T halting some free data services in response to California law

  (AT&T) declined to disclose how many customers are impacted. AT&T wireless customers on tiered plans who also have an AT&T video service like DIRECTV or AT&T TV and stream that service over the AT&T wireless network are impacted. AT&T wireless customers on unlimited plans are unaffected.

• Fintech Giant Fiserv Used Unclaimed Domain — Krebs on Security

Economicon

• Fed sees stronger economy and higher inflation, but no rate hikes

• Morgan Stanley becomes first major bank to offer clients access to Bitcoin funds

• Tesla has made more money on Bitcoin this year than selling cars and batteries

• Climate concerns to crime: Bitcoin’s dark side draws scrutiny

• Uber agrees to classify UK drivers as 'workers'

• Winbond plans new 12-inch fab in southern Taiwan

Poilitcks

• US intelligence report says white supremacists have 'traveled abroad to network with like-minded individuals'

• Russia Recalls Its Ambassador to the U.S. for Consultations

• Bubble Biden clearly not up for tough questions — or the job: Goodwin

• MI Judge: Sec. of State's Absentee Ballot Order Broke Law, Vindicating Trump

• EXCLUSIVE: Biden Admin Halts Navy Operations, Orders Soldiers to Undergo 'Chilling' Stand-Down Training – PJ Media

• IRS pushes tax deadline to May 15th

  • IRS plans to push April 15 U.S. tax deadline to May 17

• Top Texas regulator ousted as recording emerges of pledge to protect Wall Street

• Biden Endorses Filibuster Rule Changes

• Biden to Hold First News Conference on March 25

  • Biden to hold first formal news conference on March 25

• Exclusive: Maskless Climate Envoy Kerry Endangers Passengers on Boston to DC Flight - Tennessee Star

World

• Oz Gender-woke squish-cucks assemble! - Alien Sideboob

• China’s internet was hailed as a path to democracy

• Japan Court Rules Same-Sex Couples Have Marriage Rights in Landmark Decision

• China scrubs evidence of Xinjiang clampdown amid ‘genocide’ debate

• Iceland Shaken: 50K earthquakes in 3 weeks

• French glue-trapping of birds not allowed, says EU court

• Pandemic preventing 70% of Brazil's children from learning to read (World Bank)

Health / Medicine / COVID

• No screaming on California roller coasters and thrill rides, state guidelines

• Lab Leak: A Scientific Debate Mired in Politics — and Unresolved

• Y2K strikes again: Spain counted centenarian Covid deaths as infant Covid deaths

• Covid Experts: We’re Putting Out Campfires but the Forest Fire Rages

• Certain Mouthwashes Might Stop Covid-19 Virus Transmission

• The richest countries are hoarding vaccines This is morally indefensible

• New research highlights risks of separating newborns from mothers during Covid

• AstraZeneca to deliver less than 40% of promised vaccines in second quarter

• Child Suicide Is Becoming an ‘International Epidemic’ Amid Covid Restrictions

• The fitter you are the better you burn fat.

• Second U.S. Baby to Be Born from a Dead Donor’s Uterus Is Delivered

• Amazon Care to launch across U.S. this summer, offering access to medical care

Climate / Green Propaganda

• It’s Snowing Plastic

• Volkswagen to Invest $86Bs in EVs

• Show HN: Credit Card that helps you be carbon neutral

• Want Carbon-Neutral Cows? Algae Isn’t the Answer

  • Feeding cattle seaweed reduces their greenhouse gas emissions 82%

• Protecting the ocean delivers a solution for climate, fishing and biodiversity

Obit

• Sabine Schmitz, the queen of the Nurnburg ring dies 51