2021-04-08

Cool

• Samizdat Jazz: The Real Book - 99% Invisible

• Computer Vision and Embroidery — Andrew Healey

  Over the weekend, I wrote a program that tries to identify which DMC threads are used in embroidery hoop images. I didn’t take a computer vision course at university — nor had I used OpenCV before — so it was fun to learn a few things and I hope you learn from my learnings.

• Vector Laser Projector Student Project

• PSRD:The Tarnished Moon

  To produce the observed hematite on the generally reducing lunar surface it is essential to add oxygen. Li and colleagues outline the possibilities, pointing out the complex set of processes involved in the environment at the lunar surface: There is no air, solar wind bathes the surface and implants hydrogen (a reductant, opposite of an oxidizer), and micrometeorite impacts add considerable heat and in most cases water. None of these add oxygen in a form that would change iron from the 2+ to the 3+ oxidation state. So where does the oxygen come from? Shuai Li and team suggest it comes from Earth's upper atmosphere.

Worthy

• When asked to fix something, we don’t even think of removing parts | Ars Technica

• A skeptic's take on Neuralink and other consumer neurotech - STAT

  As I type this, I’m not paying attention to the movement of my fingers across the keyboard. So, while typing with my brain may be a neat party trick, in a gimmicky look, ma, no hands sort of way, will it be practical for healthy individuals to use their focused, conscious attention to move cursors and peck out letters on a keyboard? A neurotech device would need to demonstrate superiority over current methods of human-computer interaction to gain market traction.

  We’re still smack in the middle of a neurotech bubble fueled by venture capital, one that will inevitably yield an increasing number of prophecies about our sci-fi future.

• The Physicists: a history of a scientific community in modern America | Locklin on science

etc

• St Vincent orders evacuations as volcanic eruption appears imminent

• SpaceX does not plan to add ‘tiered pricing’ for Starlink satellite internet

• In a comprehensive new test, the EmDrive fails to generate any thrust

• The Welsh teen who tried to post himself home from Australia

  + [Crate escape: Search for Irishmen who airmailed Brian Robson
  home - BBC
  News](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-56648439)
  

  • This man is looking for the friends who shipped him overseas in a crate in 1965

• (PDF) The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050

• Escobar: Bombshell Book In Germany Revives 9/11 As A Business Model | ZeroHedge

• Broadband use surged more than 30% during pandemic

Horseshit

• Study finds herding sheep via drone better for their welfare

• Ford Mustang Mach-E owner praises car, receives threats from Tesla fans

• Could You Go for a Month Without Coffee?

• Europe rights court rules obligatory vaccination necessary in democratic society

  The European Court of Human Rights (#ECHR) on Thursday ruled that obligatory #vaccinations can be seen as necessary in democratic societies, in a landmark judgement after a complaint brought by Czech families over compulsory jabs for children

  • ECHR rules obligatory vaccination may be necessary

• The evidence is in: working from home is a failed experiment

• (2017) How Western Civilisation Could Collapse

celebrity gossip

• Caroline Jurie: Mrs World arrested over Sri Lanka pageant bust-up

• Notes left for Trump staffers came from celebs: Dave Chappelle

• NFL pro Phillip Adams is South Carolina shooting suspect who killed 5, then himself | Fox News

Obit

• Archive link Charles Coolidge, Oldest Medal of Honor Recipient, Dies at 99

  • The Hero of Signal Mountain: The Army’s Last World War II Medal of Honor Recipient | Article | The United States Army

Media / Many Ministries of Truths

• Confirmed: The Laptop Belongs to Hunter Biden...And the Liberal Media Can Eat a Ton of Crow by Matt Vespa

• Battenfeld: Despite scoffing by liberal media, Trump's claim of vaccine eligibility by April comes true

• Google Has a Secret Blocklist That Hides YouTube Hate Videos from Advertisers

• Among the Covid sceptics: “We’re being manipulated, without a shadow of a doubt”

• Conservative Filmmakers Start to Fight Back

• Covid vaccine: Social media urged to remove 'disinfo dozen'

• Twitter won’t let federal archivists host Trump’s tweets on Twitter

  "Given that we permanently suspended @realDonaldTrump, the content from the account will not appear on Twitter as it did previously or as archived administration accounts do currently, regardless of how NARA decides to display the data it has preserved," a Twitter spokesman told Politico. "Administration accounts that are archived on the service are accounts that were not in violation of the Twitter Rules."

  Instead, NARA says it will post an archive of Trump's tweet to the website of the Trump Presidential Library, which itself is under NARA's control. NARA says that the archive will include all of Trump's tweets, including controversial tweets that got warning labels from Twitter, as well as the tweets that ultimately got Trump banned.

  NARA spokesman James Pritchett told Politico that the agency is "working to make the exported content available... as a download." That sounds like NARA may only offer the tweets as one large download as opposed to making each tweet available online individually—a much less convenient format than bringing the tweets back to Twitter.

  • National Archive can't resurrect Trump's tweets, Twitter says

• Twitter Pokes at China with Emoji Supporting MilkTeaAlliance

Identity Politics / Re segregation

• Students of color are getting flagged because testing software can’t see them

• Are We Automating Racism?

• California prisons have hundreds of transgender inmates requesting new housing

• Boston Doctors Push Race-Based Discrimination In Hospital As 'Antiracist'

  “Offering preferential care based on race or ethnicity may elicit legal challenges from our system of colorblind law,” Harvard Medical School professors Bram Wispelwey and Michelle Morse wrote in the piece. “But given the ample current evidence that our health, judicial, and other systems already unfairly preference people who are white, we believe — following the ethical framework of Zack and others — that our approach is corrective and therefore mandated. We encourage other institutions to proceed confidently on behalf of equity and racial justice, with backing provided by recent White House executive orders.”

• The Chauvin Trial So Far | Power Line

  That raises, once again, the question of whether Derek Chauvin can possibly get a fair trial. Everyone knows that if the jury doesn’t convict, and probably if it doesn’t convict Chauvin of murder, the city of Minneapolis will go up in flames. This is why the power of the state is arrayed so unanimously against him.

• Medical Student banished from UVA campus for questioning Microaggressions

• Like It Never Even Happened by Derek Hunter

  But a funny thing happened on the way to ratings gold and agenda success – the man arrested was a Syrian immigrant and a Muslim. Not being a white guy, the story was no longer useful to the left and it disappeared from the news. A mass shooting with two more victims than Atlanta, which was still driving the news cycle at the time, and suddenly it was gone. The races of the victims and the perp were wrong, so those lives did not matter.

• Nobody will win the Culture Wars - UnHerd

  Alternatively, you can simply define things however you want, and argue about them forever, in the great unending online row. But it won’t get us anywhere. The culture war rows will go on forever, because there is no right answer: we can simply change what we’re talking about, whenever we want. It’s a forever war; until we learn to say what we actually mean, there is no way out.

  • Nobody will win the Culture Wars | Hacker News

  • me:

  "until we learn to say what we actually mean, there is no way out."

  Disagree. Plenty of people are speaking as plainly as they can, and not being heard. When we have endless articles explaining how "these words didn't really mean what they meant," and "that apology wasn't really an apology," the fault can't be fairly laid at the feet of those speaking when they're misunderstood, can it?

  "People should be judged by the content of their character, and not the color of their skin." Does saying this make me a Nazi? Does attributing the quote to Dr King make the difference? Or is it that some people want to call me a Nazi and don't care to hear what I'm actually saying?

TechSuck

• Verizon recalls 2.5M hotspot devices due to fire hazard

• Amazon Union Election: 'No' Votes Outnumber 'Yes' Votes So Far

• Dell Alienware launches its first AMD-powered gaming laptop since 2007

• AMD and Xilinx Stockholders Overwhelmingly Approve AMD’s Acquisition of Xilinx

• Facebook does not plan to notify half-billion users affected by data leak

• Fedora Council statement on Richard Stallman rejoining FSF Board - Fedora Magazine

  In keeping with our values, we will stop providing funding or attendance to any FSF-sponsored events and any events at which Richard Stallman is a featured speaker or exhibitor. This also applies to any organization where he has a leadership role.

• In fighting deep fakes, mice may be great listeners

• Twitter reportedly discussed buying social audio app Clubhouse for $4B

• Mask2Face: How We Built AI That Shows the Face Beneath the Mask

• Apple and Epic lay out strategies for their upcoming court battle

Economicon

• Low Inventories, Chip Shortages Spark Unprecedented Spike In Used-Car Prices In March | ZeroHedge

  From 1995 to the end of 2019, used-vehicle prices have risen at around a 1.5% to 2.0% per annum (admittedly with some pops and drops along the way). The last year has seen prices rising at around 15% per annum... and March's 5.9% spike MoM sent the year-over-year change in prices up a stunning 26.3%.

• Robots threaten jobs less than fearmongers claim

• Bill Hwang Had $20B, Then Lost It All in Two Days

• Miami Mayor Tries to Build a Tech Mecca, One Tweet at a Time

Poilitcks

• New Mexico is the second state to ban qualified immunity

• U.S. adds seven Chinese supercomputing entities to economic blacklist

• Biden Admin Announces Plans To Curb 'Ghost Guns', Push 'Red Flag' Legislation | ZeroHedge

• Biden’s Nominee To Lead ATF Pushed Dubious Claim About Waco Siege To Call For Blanket Ban On Assault Rifles | The Daily Caller

Security / Militaria

• The purpose of Russia's 100-megaton underwater nuclear doomsday device

World

• America Is Exporting Moral Panic, Not Freedom

• Russia Is Escalating Its Campaign to Control the Internet

  • Russia May Have Found a New Way to Censor the Internet

• Drought in Taiwan Pits Chip Makers Against Farmers

Health / Medicine / COVID

• Israel may have achieved herd immunity against Covid-19

• Vaccine Refusal May Put Herd Immunity at Risk, Researchers Warn

• Australians under 50 told to avoid AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, when possible

  • Australian govt announces Pfizer as the preferred vaccine for adults under 50

• Philippines suspends use of AstraZeneca vaccine for people under 60

• Calls for Further Inquiries into Coronavirus Origins

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Rates of Parkinson’s disease are exploding. A common chemical may be to blame

• BP created 'carbon footprint' as devious, manipulative PR tactic

• Marine species increasingly can’t live at equator due to global heating

• The Hydrogen Revolution in the Skies

• How Big Fund Families Voted on Climate Change: 2020 Edition