2021-11-15

Cool

• Simulating an XY oscilloscope on the GPU | NICK TASIOS

• (April 2021) Chocolate from Bean to Bar

  • also linked from discussion: Mast Brothers: What Lies Behind the Beards (Part 2, Equipment) | DallasFood

  Earlier still, in 2003, John Nanci launched his influential Chocolate Alchemy web site, becoming the prime mover of modern small-batch chocolate. Nanci laid out the processes and equipment—evolving through contributions of active participants of the online community he built—that are now used by most chocolate makers in America today

  • I recall that era and that site fondly; incredible educational resource. This story, however, is an insane tale of PR and public gullibility, worth reading too.

• (~1999? Classic Adequacy.org troll) Is Your son a computer hacker

  AMD is a third-world based company who make inferior, "knock-off" copies of American processor chips. They use child labor extensively in their third world sweatshops, and they deliberately disable the security features that American processor makers, such as Intel, use to prevent hacking.

Worthy

• Welcome To The Terrible World Of Prescription-Only Apps - Astral Codex Ten

etc

• ongoing coverage: Live coverage: Space station crew members take cover from space debris – Spaceflight Now

  • Space debris 'event' forces ISS crew to take evasive action

  It came amid unconfirmed reports that Russia had carried out an anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) test -- rare show-of-force demonstrations criticized by the space community because of the risk they create for crews in low Earth orbit.

  "US Space Command is aware of a debris-generating event in outer space. We are actively working to characterize the debris field and will continue to ensure all space-faring nations have the information necessary to maneuver satellites if impacted," the agency said.

  • Russia has conducted an Anti-satellite weapons test. ISS crew sheltering

  • Next debris transit @ 19:27CT @joroulette

  • Russia blows up a satellite, creating a dangerous debris cloud in space - The Verge

  • Russia may have just shot down its own satellite, creating a huge debris cloud | Ars Technica

  "The Russian Federation recklessly conducted a destructive satellite test of a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile against one of its own satellites," US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said. "This test will significantly increase the risk to astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station as well as to other human spaceflight activities. Russia's dangerous and irresponsible behavior jeopardizes the long-term sustainability of outer space."

• Havana syndrome: the misconception about a mystery illness Archive

  High-level diplomats are as prone to sociogenic illness as anyone else.

• And at least 15 years of industrial constipation that corked up the entire market: Intel Celebrates 50th Anniversary of 4004: The World's First Commercial Microprocessor - A Retrospective

• Why You Should Assume Everyone Is Stupid, Lazy, and Possibly Insane Including You

Horseshit

• An Online Community of People with Microchip Implants

• Cyclist who knocked down girl, 5, is now SUING her dad for posting a viral video of him online

• Dr. Becky Doesn’t Think the Goal of Parenting Is to Make Your Kid Happy

• (Nov 2020) AMA? BITFD! - Epsilon Theory

• Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable – pv magazine International

  Piñera explained that, through the cable, the electricity produced by between 200 and 600 GW of photovoltaic generation capacity may transmit power to Asian countries when it is daytime in Chile and nighttime across the Pacific, or when it is winter in Asia and summer in the southern hemisphere.

  In Europe, British company Xlinks announced in the spring that it plans to build 10.5 GW of wind and solar power in Morocco and sell the power generated by the massive plant in the U.K. This would be possible thanks to a 3,800km, high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line. In total, Xlinks expected to invest about £18 billion ($24.1 billion).

  • HN thread wherein folks estimate optimistic 30% to 60% power losses in such a system. 300+GW of direct ocean heating, to use the accepted inflate the worst possible case math.

celebrity gossip

• Ghislaine Maxwell finally goes on trial after 15 months on remand

  • WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Ghislaine Maxwell tells all from inside her US prison cell: Heiress says ‘I am weak, frail, tired and don’t even have shoes that fit… guards feed me rotten food and one apple had maggots in it’

• Neal Stephenson Interview

COVID / VaxCult

• Eighty Percent of Deer in Iowa Study Test Positive for Covid-19

• Monetary incentives increase Covid-19 vaccinations

• Can you undo your vaccine?

• 5th Circuit Extends Stay of OSHA's Vaccine Mandate

• Why Don’t We Have a Covid Vaccine for Pets?

• COVID-deniers and anti-vaxxers threaten German doctors

• With COVID Hospitalizations At Year-Long High, Doctors Urge Minnesotans To Get Vaccinated; ‘We Are Essentially At 100% Capacity’

• Former FDA head warns of post-Thanksgiving spike in COVID-19 cases

• 8 lingering questions about the new Covid pills from Merck and Pfizer

• Why China is still trying to achieve zero Covid

• OK State Lawmaker Introduces Bill to Force Employer to Pay as Much as $1 M per Vax Injury

• (Jul 2021) Deaths in Children and Young People in England following SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first pandemic year: a national study using linked mandatory child death reporting data | Research Square

  3105 CYP (children and young people) died from all causes during the first pandemic year in England. 61 of these deaths occurred in CYP who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. 25 CYP died of SARS-CoV-2 infection; 22 from acute infection and three from PIMS-TS. 99·995% of CYP with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test survived. The 25 CYP who died of SARS-CoV-2 equates to a mortality rate of 2/million for the 12,023,568 CYP living in England. CYP >10 years, of Asian and Black ethnic backgrounds, and with comorbidities were over-represented compared to other children.

  • comments say "they should've counted all 61!" without doing the math any further.

• How many "China did so well in the pandemic" articles has CNN had the last 2 years? Chinese police execute corgi with crowbar for zero Covid

  The killing of a corgi shows how government power has grown unchecked in China in the name of Covid prevention

  • HN thread

• Also, Its permissible to speak of domestic animals in association with COVID now? See BBC from Nov 11:

  • First Covid-19 case in pet dog confirmed by vet

  The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says cases like this are extremely rare and there is no strong evidence to suggest that dogs, cats or other pets are passing on the virus to humans.

  • I would have sworn the first edition of this story mentioned the Feb 2020 Hong Kong dog with COVID.

• WTF happened to The BMJ? - RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE

  The BMJ recently published an “exposé” by Paul Thacker alleging patient unblinding, data falsification, and other wrongdoing by a subcontractor. It was a highly biased story embraced by antivaxxers, with a deceptively framed narrative and claims not placed into proper context, leading me to look into the broader question: WTF happened to The BMJ?

  • this here, tho... balls:

  Antivaxxers sure do love their “whistleblower” narratives, don’t they?

• Slovenia: Drivers must present Covid certificate in order to refuel cars

• Excellent: Why did they give antidepressants to Covid patients?

• Britain Expands COVID-19 Booster Availability to Ages 40-49

• Smartphone screen testing: a novel pre-diagnostic method to identify SARS-CoV-2

• Hospitals Became Vaults That Hid Evidence of Covid’s Toll

  in the first months of the pandemic, only a small number of the more than 6,000 hospitals in the U.S. let journalists inside — and when access was permitted, it was usually limited to a short time span.

• Austria orders nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated

  prohibits unvaccinated individuals older than age 12 from leaving their homes except for basic activities such as working, grocery shopping, going for a walk – or getting vaccinated. Unvaccinated people can be fined up to 1,450 euros ($1,660) if they do not adhere to the restrictions.

• Researchers uncover gene that doubles risk of death from Covid-19

  Dr Damien Downes, who led the laboratory work from the Hughes research group, said: ‘Surprisingly, as several other genes were suspected, the data showed that a relatively unstudied gene called LZTFL1 causes the effect.’ The researchers found that the higher risk version of the gene probably prevents the cells lining airways and the lungs from responding to the virus properly. But importantly it doesn’t affect the immune system, so the researchers expect people carrying this version of the gene to respond normally to vaccines.

• 50 percent of people who survive Covid-19 face lingering symptoms, study finds

• How Long Will Boosters Last?

Culture War / Re segregation / Identdoctrination

• Media Calls for 'Rules' Treating Republicans as Not 'Normal' – RedState

  “You have to have new ground rules for the media,” Rubin whines. “They have to stop treating Republicans like normal politicians. They are not normal politicians … This is a party that spends its entire time cooking up ridiculous culture memes & fanning violence & coming up with outright lies.” Then the MSNBC host completely endorses the crazy idea, shaking her head ‘yes’ and telling Rubin she’s completely right.

• Medicine won’t remain more trusted than activism if they are indistinguishable

• William Hogarth's Paintings Now Come With A Trigger Warning | Blog Posts | VDARE.com

• A Black Woman Invented Home Security. Why Did It Go So Wrong?

• Famed Chinese Dissident: U.S. ‘Already In Authoritarian State,’ ‘Dangerous’ Wokeism Like Mao Revolution | The Daily Wire

• Implicit Snitching is good! How Your Family Tree Could Catch a Killer

• Shirley Cards - 99% Invisible

  • HN thread

  As a dark skinned photographer I always am annoyed by the take that “white people who designed cameras made them take better photos of white people.” No, that’s not what is happening. The fact is that you get a lot less light from a dark face, and the nature of light sensing technology means that it’s going to be harder to take a picture of a dark face holding all else constant. Of course you can use exposure compensation etc but the “white supremacy” hot take is very misinformed.

Edumacationalizing

• New Orleans marks anniversary of 4 girls integrating schools

Media / Many Ministries of Truths / Censorship

• "We have to stand for sanity." An interview with Chris Best, founder of Substack - by Mike Solana - Pirate Wires

• The media’s epic fail on the Steele dossier - Axios

  A reckoning is hitting news organizations for years-old coverage of the 2017 Steele dossier, after the document's primary source was charged with lying to the FBI.

• Substack says it has more than 1M paid subscriptions

• On Podcasts and Radio, Misleading Covid-19 Talk Goes Unchecked

• France admits it spreads disinformation. Other democracies should also own up

• YouTube Cofounder Updates First Video to Criticize Removal of Dislike Button

TechSuck

• Intel copying ARM’s big little is just stupid and should not have been done

• 3G shutdowns could leave most vulnerable without a connection

• Apple’s Rivalry with Meta Isn’t About Privacy–It’s AR, Watches and Home Devices

• Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

Economicon

• There is no truck driver shortage in the US

• Taproot, Bitcoin’s Long-Anticipated Upgrade, Has Activated

• IKEA is raising its prices, but could be a good thing for the environment

• Property Development stories: From the Office of Dodge, Wiggle,Hack, Shrug & DeCamp LLC — GS

  He shared with me his latest project. It’s a distressed 1970s era fixer upper brick ranch house on an acre lot. It was relatively inexpensive due to its poor condition. I didn’t get it at first, but as we talked I heard the same hint of exhaustion in his voice as my own. He’s tired of swimming against the current. The juice ain’t worth the squeeze anymore.

Gubmint / Poilitcks

• Biden set to sign infrastructure bill into law today

• Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy Won't Seek Reelection

• Exclusive: Kamala Harris struggles with her relationship with Biden

Law / Crime / Police

• Judge Drops Rittenhouse Gun Charge, Finds He Legally Carried AR-15 In Kenosha | ZeroHedge

  • Update (1231ET): After the judge in the Rittenhouse case dropped a gun charge against the teen, YouTube has mysteriously nuked several independent streams of the public trial.

  • Rittenhouse Goes To Jury After Case Collapses in Court – JONATHAN TURLEY

  • Judge dismisses weapons charge against Kyle Rittenhouse

  • Vile messages sent to Rittenhouse judge include death threat against his children, call him a KKK member: report | The Post Millennial

  • YouTube Takes Down Independent Court Livestreams

    • HN thread

• Steve Bannon Taken Into Federal Custody On Contempt Charges

• FBI raid on Project Veritas founder’s home sparks questions about press freedom

  + [ACLU Comment on FBI Raid of Project Veritas
  Founder](https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-comment-fbi-raid-project-veritas-founder)
  

  “Project Veritas has engaged in disgraceful deceptions, and reasonable observers might not consider their activities to be journalism at all. Nevertheless, the precedent set in this case could have serious consequences for press freedom.

  • FBI’s behavior over Project Veritas investigation questioned.

Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Thousands of military families struggle with food insecurity

• Is Eastern Europe On The Edge of War? - The Lid

• Ways Western companies are selling exploits, surveillance tech to NATO’s enemies

World

• BoJo Raises UK Terror Threat Level To 'Severe', Warns Another Attack "Highly Likely" | ZeroHedge

• Could the Russian Military Invade Ukraine Again?

  • NATO Arms Sales to Ukraine: The Spark That Starts a War with Russia?

• Russia is stoking tension with Ukraine and the EU

• The UN is giving names of Uyghur dissidents to China

• Macron darkens blue of French flag to invoke the revolution

Health / Medicine

• Do-It-Yourself artificial pancreas given approval by team of experts

• Dubious $56,000 Alzheimer’s drug spurs largest Medicare price hike ever

  CMS officials said Friday that Aduhelm was responsible for about half of the rise in Part B premiums, according to the Associated Press. Though the CMS is still determining how it will cover Aduhelm under Part B, the agency said the prospect of paying for Aduhelm at all required "additional contingency reserves."

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• HN on: U.S. sets goal to drive down cost of removing CO2 from atmosphere

• Last-ditch attempt to find the Eungella gastric-brooding frog in the wild fails

• Should I have children? Weighing parenthood amid the climate crisis

• IBM, AWS Join to Help Oil and Gas Industry Accelerate Energy Transition

• COP26: What Countries Have Pledged to Do About the Climate Crisis