2024-09-13
etc
-
The Long Road to Fiber Optics - by Brian Potter
The path to getting fiber optics was long and meandering. It required a broad range of technological advances in a variety of different fields to make possible, and for many years the technology did not appear particularly promising. Many, perhaps most, experts felt that other technology like millimeter waveguides were a better bet for the next step in telecommunications. And even once fiber optics seemed possible, it took over a decade to go from the early development efforts to the first field trials, and several more years before it was used for major commercial installations. Unpacking how fiber optic technology came about can help us better understand the nature of technological progress, and the difficulty of predicting its path.
the development of fiber optics provides something of a counterpoint to the point in my recent piece that Bell Labs was a unique innovation engine. While Bell Labs was a key participant in the development of fiber optics technology, most of the important firsts (the first laser, the first semiconductor laser, the first ultra-high clarity glass fibers) were developed elsewhere. And while AT&T had historically been known for being slow to introduce new technology (its northeast corridor project made relatively conservative technology choices, such as multi-mode fibers and LED light sources), the rush of many telecom companies to deploy fiber and get an edge over their competitors following AT&T’s breakup probably helped accelerate not only the deployment of fiber optics but its rapid improvement. There’s some evidence that despite its long record of achievements, AT&T and Bell Labs actually held back innovation overall. Fiber optics provides an example.
Horseshit
-
Startup employee claims she was fired for 'liking' a post on toxic workplaces
-
Sextortion scam includes new threat of Pegasus–and a picture of your home
-
Hi-Tech Bifocals Improved My Eyesight but Made Me Look Like a Dork
-
Huawei seeks to steal spotlight from Apple with launch of $2,800 tri-fold phone
-
1913: When Hitler, Trotsky, Tito, Freud and Stalin all lived in the same place
-
The hell and horror of cow attacks: 'I told my husband to leave me to die'
Cattle are the most common cause of death in the UK farming industry – with some figures suggesting cows kill more people than dogs. So what can you do if the herd approaches?
-
Election Betting Is Going Mainstream After Major Brokerage Gets on Board
celebrity gossip
Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering
Musk
-
Neither Elon Musk nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars
Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic active dynamo at Mars's dead core? No? Well. It's fine. I'm sure you have some other workable, sustainable plan for shielding live Mars inhabitants from deadly solar and cosmic radiation, forever. No? Huh. Well then let's discuss something else equally realistic, like your plan to build a condo complex in Middle Earth. OK, so you still want to talk about Mars. Fine. Let's imagine that Mars's lack of a magnetic field somehow is not an issue. Would you like to try to simulate what life on Mars would be like? Step one is to clear out your freezer. Step two is to lock yourself inside of it. (You can bring your phone, if you like!) When you get desperately hungry, your loved ones on the outside may deliver some food to you no sooner than nine months after you ask for it. This nine-month wait will also apply when you start banging on the inside of the freezer, begging to be let out. Congratulations: You have now simulated—you have now died, horribly, within a day or two, while simulating—what life on Mars might be like, once you solve the problem of it not having even one gasp worth of breathable air, anywhere on the entire planet. We will never live on Mars.
-
X's AI chatbot spread voter misinformation – and election officials fought back
Electric / Self Driving cars
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
-
Americans used record 100T megabytes of wireless data in 2023
-
Wikipedia is facing an existential crisis. Can Gen Z save it?
Therein lies the problem: as Wikipedia’s visibility diminishes, reduced to mere training data for AI applications, it also loses prominence in the minds of readers and potential contributors. When someone notices a topic that is poorly described on Wikipedia, they might feel motivated to correct it. But this can-do spirit goes away when the error comes through an AI summary, where the source of the information isn’t clear.
-
The Steam Families update: You can all play at the same time
-
Authors fighting deluge of fake writers and AI-generated books
-
Microsoft hosts a security summit but no press, public allowed
-
EU consumer groups slam 'manipulative' video game spending tactics
-
Samsung will force you to make an account to get updates on your Galaxy phone
-
Ex-Google exec said goal was to 'crush' competition, trial evidence shows
-
Global telecom leaders join forces to redefine the industry with network APIs
-
The new EVE MMO uses blockchain tech to create a "boiling financial hellscape"
TechSuck / Geek Bait
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
-
Framework Convention on AI and Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law
-
The AI bubble is over if Oprah is doing a special about it. Oprah Winfrey Interview on Her ABC Special 'AI and the Future of Us'
-
NIST Draft Guidance Inherently Hostile to Open-Source AI Models
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
-
Underfunded, aging NASA may be on unsustainable path, report warns
-
NASA Postpones Upcoming Mars Mission, Citing Delays with Bezos's Big Rocket
-
Humans have never before been this high – spacewalk w no airlock
-
NASA Pulls Off Delicate Thruster Swap, Keeping Voyager 1 Mission Alive
-
Eminent officials say NASA facilities some of the "worst" they've ever seen
Economicon / Business / Finance
-
Which U.S. Stocks Generated the Highest Long-Term Returns?
from December 1925 to December 2023. The majority (51.6%) of these stocks had negative cumulative returns. However, the investment performance of some stocks was remarkable. Seventeen stocks delivered cumulative returns greater than five million percent (or $50,000 per dollar initially invested), with the highest cumulative return of 265 million percent (or $2.65 million per dollar initially invested) accruing to long-term investors in Altria Group.
-
U.S. Median Income Rose to $80,610 in 2023, Census Bureau Says - WSJ
Inflation-adjusted median household income was $80,610 in 2023, up 4% from the 2022 estimate of $77,540, the bureau said in its annual report card on households’ financial well-being. This move returned incomes to about where they were in 2019, the peak that was hit just before the pandemic. The census report included some mixed signals on poverty trends while showing that women saw smaller income gains than men last year.
-
Mastercard acquires cyber threat intelligence company Recorded Future
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
-
USPS' long-awaited new mail truck makes its debut
The current postal vehicles — the Grumman Long Life Vehicle, dating to 1987 — have made good on their name, outlasting their projected 25-year lifespan. But they’re well overdue for replacement. Noisy and fuel-inefficient (9 mpg), the Grummans are costly to maintain. They’re scalding hot in the summer, with only an old-school electric fan to circulate air. They’re have mirrors mounted on them that when perfectly aligned allow the driver to see around the vehicle, but the mirrors constantly get knocked out of alignment. Alarmingly, nearly 100 of the vehicles caught fire last year, imperiling carriers and mail alike.
-
House passes $1.6B to deliver anti-China propaganda overseas
Harris / Democrats
-
Kamala Harris' Greatest Debate Win
It was the exchange on abortion rights, though, where Harris really shined. While Trump relied on his go-to claims of abortion “after birth” and the idea that ‘everyone’ wanted Roe overturned, the vice president was able to bring the issue back to what really matters: people. She spoke clearly and passionately about the women and families devastated by abortion bans, calling their suffering “unconscionable.” In fact, in the ten minutes that the candidates sparred on reproductive rights, Harris did something that would have been unthinkable just two years ago: She reclaimed ‘family values’ on abortion.
-
(Aug 8 2024) List Of Groups Who Protested The Democratic Convention
-
Some undecided voters not convinced by Harris after debate with Trump | Reuters
-
Liberalism’s tragic descent into paranoia and conspiracy theories - Washington Examiner
The Rise of BlueAnon is one of the most important political books of the decade. It’s also one of the saddest, exploring how a once-great Democratic Party has become infected with paranoia and conspiracy theories. Harsanyi, a columnist for the Washington Examiner, calls these new liberal crazies “BlueAnon.” They are the left-wing version of QAnon, the crazy far-right conspiracy nuts. Thus, there’s no real difference between conspiracy guy Alex Jones and Russiagate hoaxer Rachel Maddow. Harsanyi argues that while QAnon is a fringe phenomenon, BlueAnon has entered the mainstream of American culture through media, universities, and the internet. It has also become a dangerous threat to the future of American democracy.
-
Who won the Harris-Trump debate? We asked swing-state voters
-
Learn more about Trump’s extreme Project 2025
Donald Trump’s plans for total control over our daily lives have been exposed. Scroll down to see what’s in it for yourself — and tell your friends. His Project 2025 agenda would strip away our freedoms – by forcing states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions, cutting Social Security and Medicare, and eliminating the Department of Education.
- or one could read the actual thing, from the Heritage Foundation, not Trump: Project 2025 | The Heritage Foundation
-
Reported Dreamcast addict Tim Walz is now an unofficial Crazy Taxi character
Biden Inc
-
‘Don’t eat cats and dogs,’ Biden tells voters while wearing Trump hat
Joe Biden donned a Trump baseball cap and told a crowd of people “not to eat dogs and cats” during a light-hearted exchange on the campaign trail. The US president was referring to wild claims repeated by Donald Trump during his debate with Kamala Harris on Tuesday that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the pets of the people that live there”. Mr Biden was initially persuaded to wear his former opponent’s hat by a Trump supporter after a humorous back-and-forth between the two men. It started off by Mr Biden offering to give his presidential hat to the Trump supporter, who asked him: “Are you going to autograph it?” Mr Biden said he would autograph the hat before the Trump supporter quipped: “Do you remember your name?” The president joked back that he “doesn’t remember my name” because he’s “slow”, which sparked laughter among the crowd.
Trump / Right / Jan6
-
Trump's message of American decline resonates with pivotal voters
-
"It wasn't that big!" Trump falsely claims CHOP protesters took over a big part of Seattle (Archive)
Former President Donald Trump referenced Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest during the presidential debate Tuesday night, falsely claiming protesters took over a big portion of the city.
The zone’s size fluctuated, but it essentially occupied about six city blocks surrounding the Seattle Police Department East Precinct building and Cal Anderson Park, extending east to 12th Avenue, west to Broadway, south to East Pine Street and north to East Denny Way. The city did not press charges against protesters solely for being involved in CHOP or occupying the area.
-
What will happen if America's election result is contested? (Archive)
Mr Trump is already preparing to dispute this year’s election. On social media this week he accused Democrats of “Cheating and Skulduggery” in 2020 and pledged that this year “WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law”. At a rally in Las Vegas in June he insisted, “The only way they can beat us is to cheat.” At the Republican convention in July Chris LaCivita, an adviser to Mr Trump’s campaign, declared, “It’s not over on Election Day, it’s over on Inauguration Day.” Republican officials have helped prepare the ground by endlessly repeating the claim that Democrats are cheats and Mr Trump is a victim. In 2021 in Arizona, another battleground that Mr Trump narrowly lost, Republicans in the state senate launched an unprecedented partisan audit of ballots cast in the most populous county, inspiring wildcat audits elsewhere (none of which discovered anything much).
-
'There will be no third debate': Trump ends talk of rematch with Harris | Just The News
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
-
Officer who ignored NYPD's 'courtesy cards' receives $175K settlement
-
Exclusive: Police Audio Confirms Haitian Goose Hunting In Ohio
“I’m sitting here, I’m riding on the trail, I’m going to my orientation for my job today, and I see a group of Haitian people, there was about four of ’em, they all had geese in their hand,” the caller tells the public services dispatcher in the audio recording of the call. According to a police report reviewed by The Federalist, the call was placed on Aug. 26, before the Columbus suburb located roughly 50 miles from the state capital became nationally known this week for epitomizing the nation’s migrant crisis. The caller told the dispatcher he saw four migrants in total, two men and two women, each carrying a single goose.
-
Ohio is sending troopers and $2.5 million to city where many Haitian migrants have relocated
-
Springfield, Ohio City Hall evacuated, closed for the day after bomb threat
-
Oversight Report Says a Third+ of Frisks Performed by NYPD Were Unconstitutional
-
John Deere executives bribed Thai officials with trips to massage parlors.
The maker of John Deere tractors has agreed to pay a $10 million penalty to the US government to settle charges that it lavished Thailand government officials with extravagant trips and visits to massage parlors — bribes that netted its subsidiary more than $4 million in profit.
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
World
-
The UK’s Orwellian sounding Equality Act 2010 is strikingly Marxist. It demands equal pay for work of equal value ... In short, supply and demand have been replaced by judges and labor boards with the authority to deem which jobs are “equal” and therefore should be paid equally. And the labor boards do so based on vague and subjective considerations that do not change with changing circumstances. Imagine replacing “jobs” with “condiments” and having judges decide whether ketchup and mustard should be priced equally because they are similar, broadly comparable, or rated equivalent in terms of the effort, skill, and decision-making that went into their production.
-
UK elevates datacenters to critical national infrastructure status
-
Luton-based knife wholesaler surrenders 35,000 'zombie' blades
A knife wholesaler whose weapons have been used in several killings has surrendered more than 35,000 "zombie" blades. Police said the knives and machetes were designed to "kill and maim". Under a government surrender scheme Luton-based Sporting Wholesale will receive £10 compensation for each knife.
Zombie knives were first banned in 2016 but a new, broader definition designed to outlaw more blades will take effect in England and Wales on 24 September. From then it will be illegal to own a knife with a sharpened blade longer than 8in (20cm), if it also has other features, including:
- A serrated cutting edge
- More than one hole in the blade
- Spikes
- More than two sharp points in the blade
Iran / Houthi
-
Iran turns to Hells Angels and other criminal gangs to target critics - The Washington Post
Iran has cultivated ties with criminal networks in the West to carry out a recent wave of violent plots in the United States and Europe.
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
China
Health / Medicine
-
Europeans Used Cocaine Much Earlier Than Previously Thought, Study Finds (Archive)
After analyzing the skulls and brain tissue of nine people who were buried there in the mid-1600s, Ms. Giordano and her collaborators found that two had most likely been using cocaine. The findings, reported in the October issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, offer the earliest evidence of cocaine use in premodern Europe — some 200 years before a German chemist isolated the drug from the coca plant. “We have evidence of coca leaves being used thousands of years ago,” said Christine VanPool, an anthropologist at the University of Missouri. No one knows exactly how or when coca reached Europeans. But Dr. VanPool believes that Spanish colonizers in South America may have been attracted to cocaine’s analgesic properties.
- "No one knows exactly how or when coca reached Europeans" ... It gets found in mummies and grave goods all over the Old World, tho.
-
Breast milk's benefits are not limited to babies (Archive)
not only the molecules in breast milk that could have health benefits. Until about 15 years ago, says Dr Azad, it was assumed that breast milk was largely sterile. But genetic-sequencing tools have revealed it contains a wide variety of bacteria. Some, such as Bifidobacterium, a particularly beneficial bacterium that feeds exclusively on HMOs, can survive the trip into the baby’s gut, where it strengthens the gut barrier; regulates immune responses and inflammation; and prevents pathogenic bacteria from adhering to the lining of the gut. That makes it an ideal candidate for use in probiotics, live bacterial supplements used to remedy the gut’s ecosystem.
-
Viagra and other unlikely candidates lead hunt for new longevity drugs
-
Gilead's twiceyearly shot cut HIV infections by 96% in trial
Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
-
Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated
-
More than half of Brazil is wracked by drought. Blame deforestation
-
As Amazonian rivers recede under drought, manatees are left exposed to poaching
-
Scientists Will Engineer the Ocean to Absorb More Carbon Dioxide
-
Entire earth vibrated for 9 days after climate-driven tsunami event
-
An explosive California wildfire looked like a bomb went off from space