2021-08-06

Cool

• The WWW is 30 years old today

• Supporting half-precision floats is really annoying

  there are actually (at least) two half-precision float formats. All take up 16 bits in memory, but differ in how they allocate those bits to significand and exponent.

  • ... and that's just the beginning

  Other GPU applications respect any or all or CUDA_HOME, CUDA_PATH, and CUDA_ROOT. And, to my great regret, now Futhark does as well.

Worthy

• Adumbrations Of Aducanumab - by Scott Alexander - Astral Codex Ten

  While I acknowledge that aducanumab probably sucks, I think the Atlantic article and its global warming metaphor are totally off base. Nobody in the “FDA is too strict” camp has written a rebuttal yet, so I want to try my hand at this.

  A bunch of laboratories, universities, and health care groups came up with COVID tests before the virus was even in the US, and were 100% ready to deploy them. But when the US declared that the coronavirus was a “public health emergency”, the FDA announced that the emergency was so grave that they were banning all coronavirus testing, so that nobody could take advantage of the emergency to peddle shoddy tests. Perhaps you might feel like this is exactly the opposite of what you should do during an emergency? This is a sure sign that you will never work for the FDA.

etc

• Hyenas Hoarded Thousands of Human, Animal Bones in Saudi Arabian Lava Tube

• History of Dean Kamen's Segway: The mysterious invention was going to change the world, and I helped kill it.

• What do many terrorists have in common? They abuse women

• Space flights at Virgin Galactic start at $450k a seat

• Mailing viable mouse freeze-dried spermatozoa on postcards

Horseshit

• Sex With Humans Killed Neanderthals: Study - InsideHook

• Tokyo Olympics - 'A real-life nightmare' - Horse ruins Annika Schleu's gold medal hopes in modern pentathlon - Eurosport

• "For The Sake Of The Kids" - Chicago Teachers Union Threatens No In-Person Education Due To "Immediate Threat" Of Delta

• Is Covid Being Used as an Excuse to Stop Cheap Travel?

celebrity gossip

• Elizabeth Holmes gives birth as Theranos fraud trial nears

• Mark Zuckerberg's Brutal Prank on Sequoia

• Jennifer Aniston to cut unvaccinated people out of her life

• Larry Page Revealed as Another Billionaire with Secret Residency in New Zealand

Culture War / Re segregation / Identdoctrination

• No, the Unvaccinated Aren’t All Just Being Difficult

• CNN Fires Three Employees for Coming into the Office Unvaccinated

• School board president cuts off Iranian immigrant mom delivering anti-critical race theory remarks as crowd erupts in anger - TheBlaze

• Teachers' union sues mom over requests for CRT curriculum info

• Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

• Yelp to allow users to filter businesses based on staff vaccination requirements

Media / Many Ministries of Truths / Censorship

• U.S. FTC says Facebook misused privacy decree to shut down ad research

TechSuck

• (PDF) Apple CSAM Detection Technical Summary

  There's gonna be loads of fun picking this apart.
  

  Only another image that appears nearly identical can produce the same number; forexample, images that differ in size or transcoded quality will still have the same NeuralHash value

  cf all the "calculated collisions" arguments already made

  Before an image is stored in iCloud Photos, an on-device matching process is performed for that image against the database of known CSAM hashes.

  cf all the questions about that database of "official Badness"

  First, Apple receives the NeuralHashes corresponding to known CSAM from the above child-safety organizations.

  sharing that authority out to who exactly? i didnt catch the names in this document...

  and also cf the already raised points about "won't $Nation want their own version of this with their own database of Bad".

  Nations or religions, could Muslim countries keep their "no images of the Prophet" rules more strictly using these tools? would they not try?

  • Apple's Plan to “Think Different” About Encryption Opens a Backdoor to Your Life

    • Apple's plan to “think different” about encryption opens a backdoor to your life | Hacker News

  • On Apple’s “Expanded Protections for Children” – A Personal Story – Areoform

  • Internal Apple memo addresses public concern over new child protection features | AppleInsider

Economicon

• "We Haven't Seen This In More Than 30 Years" - Shipping Rates From China To US Hit Record $20,000 With No Drop In Sight | ZeroHedge

• 'Unprecedented' fraud penetrated rollout of Covid-19 small business loans

• Beware of 'Shrinkflation,' Inflation's Devious Cousin

• The Era of Cheap Natural Gas Ends as Prices Surge by 1k%

• Tree-planting: Why are large investment firms buying Welsh farms?

• US employers added 943,000 jobs in July, signaling a strong labor market

• A Fed-issued digital dollar could print money – for the people

Poilitcks

• White House snubs non-union Tesla at electric vehicle event featuring ‘Big 3’

• Yellen privately lobbying lawmakers against Wyden-Lummis-Toomey crypto amendment

Crime / Police

• SolarWinds urges US judge to toss out crap infosec sueball

• Brooklyn mom shot dead point blank in Crown Heights - New York Daily News

• 2 Hackers are suing the Iowa sheriff who imprisoned them for pentesting

World

• Indonesian army hints at ending invasive 'virginity tests' for female recruits

• Lukashenko Orders Closing Belarus' Borders | ZeroHedge

• Customs makes biggest cannabis bust to date, raiding hi-tech farm in Hong Kong

• Hezbollah Launches 20 Rockets On Israel As Border Fighting Escalates | ZeroHedge

Health / Medicine / COVID

• China sees highest daily figure of Covid-19 patients in current outbreak

• Australia is Under Dystopian, Military-Enforced Lockdown Despite Less Than 5 COVID Deaths a Day - Foundation for Economic Education

• Vaccine passports would create a hideously divided two-tier society

• Amish community in Lancaster County reaches herd immunity from Covid-19

• Robert Dingwall, critic of Covid vaccines in 12-15 year olds, axed as advisor

• Fauci: New, Resistant Variants Will Happen If Vaccinations Don’t Rise – Deadline

• Covid vaccine: Who in Europe is leading the race to herd immunity?

• A giant trial of COVID-19 treatments is restarting. Here are the drugs it’s betting on | Science | AAAS

  a global study led by the World Health Organization (WHO), will test three new drugs in hospitalized COVID-19 patients: the cancer drug imatinib, an antibody named infliximab that is used to treat autoimmune diseases, and artesunate, an antimalarial.

• Myocarditis and pericarditis 5X more likely after vax than reported by CDC

• Early signs Covid-19 vaccines may not stop Delta transmission, England says

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Meteorologist sparks controversy by diving into heat wave climate science

• California hits drought milestone as Oroville hydropower stops for first time

• As climate change disrupts supply chains, life is poised to change drastically

• AC Feels Great, but It’s Terrible for the Planet

• New Climate Report Will Detail Grim Future of Hotter, Extreme Weather

• U.S. per capita carbon emissions are lower now than in 1918

• Last month was worst July for wildfires on record, say scientists

• Diagnosing Earth: the science behind the IPCC’s upcoming climate report