Very recommendable!
Saturday, April 30, 2022
University of California Study shows how to lower divorce rate among poor Americans: Raise the minimum wage
Pseudoscience produced by the University of California and the nonprofit Rand Corp.
Some scientists are no better than charlatans! Or they are political activists!
According to their analysis, if you raise the state minimum wage by two dollars low income individuals would not marry anymore. 😄
"... The UCLA–RAND study shows that when states increased their minimum hourly wage by $1, divorce rates declined by 7% to 15% over the next two years among men and women earning low wages — including but not limited to those earning minimum wage.
The researchers also found that a $1 per hour increase in a state’s minimum wage reduced marriage rates by 3% to 6%. When younger low-wage earners earn more, they often delay marriage, rather than forgo marriage entirely, said co-author Thomas Bradbury, a UCLA psychology professor. ..."
From the abstract:
"... Using the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey, this project applied a quasi-experimental difference-in-difference method to exploit similarities between states that have, and have not, raised their minimum wage. ...
Across data sources, among men and women earning low wages, a one-dollar increase in the state minimum wage predicts a 3%–6% decline in marriage entry and a 7%–15% decline in divorce one and 2 years later. ...
Implications
Government policies that reduce stress on couples and facilitate their access to resources may improve family outcomes"Study Nearly Doubles Known Cancer-Linked Mutational Signatures
Update of 5/8/2022: Here is another article about this Trove of tumour genomes offers clues to cancer origins Largest-ever study uncovers patterns of mutations that might pinpoint cancer’s causes.
Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!
"... The work, published yesterday (April 21) in Science, also includes a new tool to allow clinicians to search for such patterns of mutations in individual cancer patients, something the team argues could point to beneficial therapies. ...
The researchers conducted their analysis on samples from 12,222 patients in the 100,000 Genomes Project as well as a few thousand other genomes from existing datasets, for a total of 18,640 genomes across 19 cancer types—the largest set of whole genome sequences to date. In the end, they confirmed 51 of the more than 70 mutation patterns listed in the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) and identified 58 additional signatures. ..."
The researchers conducted their analysis on samples from 12,222 patients in the 100,000 Genomes Project as well as a few thousand other genomes from existing datasets, for a total of 18,640 genomes across 19 cancer types—the largest set of whole genome sequences to date. In the end, they confirmed 51 of the more than 70 mutation patterns listed in the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) and identified 58 additional signatures. ..."
Science editors call this a "A signature accomplishment
Tumor development is associated with the accumulation of mutations in the genome. Depending on the causes of a given cancer, such as environmental exposures or DNA repair abnormalities, these mutations can form a specific pattern called a mutational signature. Many mutational signatures have already been reported in cancer, but by performing whole-genome sequencing on a particularly large collection of cancer samples, Degasperi et al. not only confirmed previously reported signatures, but also discovered many rarer ones (see the Perspective by Szüts). The authors characterized these signatures, tried to elucidate the underlying biology where possible, and then provided an algorithm for applying these findings to individual patients to help personalize cancer treatments. —YN"
Substitution mutational signatures in whole-genome–sequenced cancers in the UK population (no public access)
Biotech company studies show complete remissions in patients with blood cancers using natural killer cells
Good news! Cancer is history (soon)! I did not have time to more thoroughly evaluate these reports, but the news sound promising.
"Nkrarta is among companies developing cell therapies for cancer based on NK [natural killer] cells, the body’s first line of defense against foreign invaders.
Nkarta said Monday that two experimental, off-the-shelf treatments, both made from engineered natural killer cells, induced complete responses in patients with advanced forms of blood cancer. The results marked the first reveal of clinical data from its research programs. ..."
‘All value is socially constructed’. Really!
This statement is pure ideology and demagoguery! Real values are created by individuals!
These demagogues are calling for a Big Government program to forcefully correct manufactured injustices by inappropriate or even unconstitutional means!
Better ways are to create more free market opportunities for home ownership. E.g. less regulation and lowering the costs of home building etc.
How far apart are home appraisals really when you compare white, Asian, Hispanic home appraisals of homes in similar neighborhoods and homeowner with similar socioeconomic status? I bet not very far!
"... Research has shown that, for decades, homes in predominantly Black neighborhoods have been appraised at lower values than those in majority-white neighborhoods, even when comparing similar houses in neighborhoods with similar socioeconomic status. ...
The Biden administration created an interagency task force last year to evaluate the cause and consequences of this appraisal bias, measure the extent of the issue and propose steps to address it. ..
But the reality is that no true, fair housing market exists. How we value homes and neighborhoods is entirely subjective, dependent on biases embedded in society and in the housing systems we’ve built. ...
If we start with the assumption that a fair housing market exists and the problem is that some people can’t access it ...
The action plan called for diversifying the appraisal industry ...
“We have to deal with the fact that we’ve allowed certain communities to accumulate more wealth than others ..."
The Biden administration created an interagency task force last year to evaluate the cause and consequences of this appraisal bias, measure the extent of the issue and propose steps to address it. ..
But the reality is that no true, fair housing market exists. How we value homes and neighborhoods is entirely subjective, dependent on biases embedded in society and in the housing systems we’ve built. ...
If we start with the assumption that a fair housing market exists and the problem is that some people can’t access it ...
The action plan called for diversifying the appraisal industry ...
“We have to deal with the fact that we’ve allowed certain communities to accumulate more wealth than others ..."
City of Cambridge, MA will give $500 a month to every family below the poverty line
This is a very slippery slope! First it is cities, then entire states, and followed or preempted by federal government.
This is vote buying on steroids! Receiving money from the government is very seductive! It is a step towards the utopia of guaranteed universal basic income for everyone!
It starts small and grows. People get used to manna from heaven. Today it is $500 per month, tomorrow perhaps $1000 per month. Today, it is the poverty line, tomorrow perhaps the median income ...
Well as long as taxpayers can vote with their proverbial feet, this does not have a chance to go very far.
"... The direct cash assistance — in the form of $500 dollars per month for about 18 months — will be for every single eligible family under 200% of the federal poverty level in the city. ...
The city last year launched Cambridge RISE, a guaranteed income pilot for single caretakers that gave out monthly cash disbursements to 130 families. RISE has had a “life-changing, stabilizing impact” on these families, Siddiqui said."
The city last year launched Cambridge RISE, a guaranteed income pilot for single caretakers that gave out monthly cash disbursements to 130 families. RISE has had a “life-changing, stabilizing impact” on these families, Siddiqui said."
Royal Society: Scientists call for global cap on plastic production
These are politicized agitators and authoritarians, not scientists!
Plastic is one of the greatest inventions of modern times! Plastic is immensely useful in many circumstances! To demonize plastic as a pollutant is pure propaganda and demagoguery! Heil plastophobia!
One can only hope, that Western countries will be smarter not to sign on to any excessive U.N treaty on plastic in 2024.
Sure enough, the Royal Society is again disseminating such ideological rubbish! Isaac Newton, David Faraday, Charles Darwin and others are wildly spinning in their graves!
Prohibitions are most of the times the dumbest solutions human can come up with! History is littered with such foolishness! When will humans ever learn!
Intelligent human beings develop e.g. recyclable or decomposable plastics! Human ingenuity can handle this issue easily!
"Following the United Nations’ decision last month to adopt a global and legally-binding treaty by 2024 to end plastic pollution, and with governmental negotiations on the agreement slated to begin soon, an international group of scientific experts are arguing that such a treaty must cap production of new plastics from fresh feedstocks, and phase them out in the long-term. ..."
Here are some excerpts from the United Nations demagoguery on plastic:
- "On track ‘for a cure’"
- "‘Triumph by planet earth’"
- ""It is an insurance policy for this generation and future ones, so they may live with plastic and not be doomed by it." Inger Andersen"
Friday, April 29, 2022
China secures industrial park in Kabul. Is mining lithium and copper next?
Recommendable! Afghanistan is rich in mineral resources. India nervously watches being encircled by China.
How Mark Zuckerberg lost his fortune
Recommendable! He deserves for e.g. spending over $400 million on the November 2020 election in the U.S. to help a demented and senile candidate win the White House!
On the Perceiver: General Perception with Iterative Attention
Recommendable research by Google! Lot's of historical background included.
It presents a single multi-modal approach based on the Transformer covering natural photos, videos, point clouds, and audio. The depth of the model is independent of the input size, which means e.g. it can process larger photos or longer videos.
The authors even cited Immanuel Kant.
It was accepted at the International Conference on Machine Learning 2021 conference.
Perceiver: General Perception with Iterative Attention (open access)
How a totalitarian dictatorship like China sets Covid-19 vaccination priorities
And we still do not know what exactly happened in Wuhan or elsewhere in China where the SARS-CoV-2 virus first originated
"Mass testing and lockdowns are familiar parts of China’s Covid-19 strategy, but vaccinating the elderly isn’t. While about 88% of Chinese residents had received two vaccine doses as of mid-March, among those over 80—those most at risk of severe illness and death from an infection—it was just 51%. When vaccines rolled out, China’s priority was getting them to people of working age to rev the economy. Reluctance among family members and officials to expose the elderly to potential side effects was one factor behind the low vax rate among older people. A lack of a sense of urgency was another." (Source)
And lately, particularly the elderly in mega cities like Shanghai suffer under the new wave of strict lockdowns.
Contrast this with Western countries, where the elderly had a choice and were provided with vaccine doses. In many Western countries the vaccination rates among the elder are way above herd immunity (about 67%, and sometimes over 80-85%).
US has destroyed last of its VX nerve agent stockpiles
While Putin the Terrible continues to his war of aggression against the Ukraine, the U.S. has nothing more urgently to do than to disarm?
This is the second news in the last seven days or so with a similar message. I blogged here about the Vice President's announcement that the U.S. would not longer conduct certain anti-satellite missile tests anymore.
This smells horribly like appeasement by the demented and senile 46th President!
Can you believe it!
"After decades in storage, 470 tonnes of VX, sarin and mustard gas were safely eliminated
The US has destroyed the last of its 18,000 VX-filled rockets, meaning it has now eliminated 470 tonnes of VX, sarin and mustard gas – about 2% of the country’s entire chemical weapons stockpile. ..."
AfD-Abgeordneter Karsten Hilse: Das Klima als Religion, um die Menschen umzuerziehen
Sehr empfehlenswerte Rede im deutschen Bundestag! Bravo! Die AfD ist die einzig wählbare Partei in der Bananenrepublik D.
How Isis Brought Her True Love Back From the Dead
Very recommendable! An amazing story about Isis and Osiris!
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Tucker Carlson: The 46th President created a new federal agency of truth
Very recommendable! And watch Tucker explain who the the demented and senile 46th President is going to put in charge of this new agency.
The Central African Republic Adopts Bitcoin As Legal Tender
Good news!
"The move makes the African country the second nation in the world to officially adopt BTC as a lawful currency, enabling its citizens to use it in regular commerce as well as to pay taxes. ...
El Salvador became the first country in the world to bring bitcoin under its umbrella of legal currencies last year. The Central American country’s Bitcoin Law came into force on September 7, 2021, as citizens and businesses were given the green light to transact in the peer-to-peer digital currency. ..."
El Salvador became the first country in the world to bring bitcoin under its umbrella of legal currencies last year. The Central American country’s Bitcoin Law came into force on September 7, 2021, as citizens and businesses were given the green light to transact in the peer-to-peer digital currency. ..."
Schöne, überkreuzte Beine im britischen Unterhaus
Diese Journalistin irrt sich zweimal oder versucht zweifach ihre Leser in die Irre zu führen, wenn ich mich nicht irre:
- Es waren wohl nicht übereinander geschlagene Bein, sondern es sollen gespreizte Beine gewesen sein. Ein riesiger Unterschied!
- Es war nicht im Unterhaus, sondern in einem meeting mit dem Prime Minister
Was sind die Motive dieser Journalistin für solche Desinformation? Wie wäre es mit Frauen sind immer unschuldig, Männer sind immer die Täter!
Im Kampf der Geschlechter ist jedes Mittel recht!
P.S. Ich bin kein Experte dieses "Vorfalls"!
U.S. federal government wants to ban menthol cigarettes to save black lives
Big Government knows best what is good for your health! Big Government is addicted to controlling your life and blames your nicotine consumption!
Do you detect naked systemic racism here: So black American smokers are too stupid to make the right decision for their own lives!
"They account for more than one-third of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. each year." (Source)
"While the White House reviewed the FDA’s plan to phase out menthol cigarettes—expected to be released by the end of this month—tobacco lobbyists, anti-smoking advocates, civil rights groups, and others clamored to have their say ...
Ban’s impact: Eliminating menthol cigarettes, the FDA says, could prevent 630,000 smoking deaths over 40 years—more than a third among Black people.
Why is menthol so dangerous?
Menthol’s cooling effect “has been shown to make it easier to start smoking and harder to quit.”
Black smokers, 85% of whom use menthols, disproportionately suffer the negative health effects. ..."
With Omicron, nearly 60% in U.S. have been infected during pandemic
More evidence that the global SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 pandemic was relatively harmless to the large majority of people!
The article does not even bother to discuss deaths or severe infections in this context! Most likely because there weren't any!
Why global SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 pandemic is a relatively harmless disease
Why the cure was worse than the disease
Why global SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 pandemic became the biggest scandal of the 21st century!"Nearly 60% of people in the United States, including 3 in 4 children, have now been infected with Omicron or another coronavirus variant, data released Tuesday show."
What choices does the world need to make to keep global warming below 2 C? Basically None!
It is quite appalling that the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology promotes the Global Warming Hoax/Climate Change Religion!
What does this latest demagoguery rely on? Phony computer models like most of this demagoguery!
100 year projections again! This is so absurd! Pure charlatanry! A grand pretense of knowledge!
"... The first technique, Monte Carlo analysis, quantifies uncertainty levels for dozens of energy and economic indicators including fossil fuel availability, advanced energy technology costs, and population and economic growth; feeds that information into a multi-region, multi-economic-sector model of the world economy that captures the cross-sectoral impacts of energy transitions; and runs that model hundreds of times to estimate the likelihood of different outcomes. The MIT study focuses on projections through the year 2100 of economic growth and emissions for different sectors of the global economy, as well as energy and technology use. ..."
Anticipating others’ behavior on the road
Good news! The future of self driving cars is arriving!
"... MIT researchers have devised a deceptively simple solution to this complicated challenge [of erratic or unpredictably behaving humans when it comes to urban road traffic safety]. They break a multiagent behavior prediction problem into smaller pieces and tackle each one individually, so a computer can solve this complex task in real-time. ...
Their behavior-prediction framework first guesses the relationships between two road users — which car, cyclist, or pedestrian has the right of way, and which agent will yield — and uses those relationships to predict future trajectories for multiple agents.
These estimated trajectories were more accurate than those from other machine-learning models, compared to real traffic flow in an enormous dataset compiled by autonomous driving company Waymo. The MIT technique even outperformed Waymo’s recently published model. ..."From the abstract:
"Predicting future motions of road participants is an important task for driving autonomously in urban scenes. Existing models excel at predicting marginal trajectories for single agents, yet it remains an open question to jointly predict scene compliant trajectories over multiple agents. The challenge is due to exponentially increasing prediction space as a function of the number of agents. In this work, we exploit the underlying relations between interacting agents and decouple the joint prediction problem into marginal prediction problems. Our proposed approach M2I first classifies interacting agents as pairs of influencers and reactors, and then leverages a marginal prediction model and a conditional prediction model to predict trajectories for the influencers and reactors, respectively. The predictions from interacting agents are combined and selected according to their joint likelihoods. Experiments show that our simple but effective approach achieves state-of-the-art performance on the Waymo Open Motion Dataset interactive prediction benchmark."
Big Government in Western countries wants to monitor and control many human car drivers
Again the justification by Big Government is saving some lives! Are these draconian measures justified? Rather not!
What sounds superficially reasonable is very reasonable at all! These are serious government interventions into individual freedom and responsibility!
To monitor human car drivers to collect evidence so it can be evaluated in case of an accident is probably acceptable.
However, active or even passive government control of driver behavior or forced interventions should raise some serious concerns!
"... Overhead cameras equipped with computer vision are spotting distracted drivers on the road.
What’s new: A system from Melbourne-based Acusensus alerts police when drivers are engaged in risky activities such as using a cell phone, not wearing a seatbelt, or speeding, ...
How it works: The Heads-Up system uses sensors mounted over the road on overpasses, signs, or movable structures. An infrared flash camera captures images through windshield glare, heavy weather, and nighttime darkness. Radar gauges a vehicle’s speed. ..."
"... By next year [2023], the European Union will have, by far, the most stringent vehicle safety standards in the world with systems including Advanced Emergency Braking (AEB), Emergency Lane Keeping Assist (ELKS), drowsiness and distraction recognition and Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) all mandatory. By 2024 every new car sold in the EU will need to be fitted with these technologies. ...
The most effective and appreciated systems, already available since 2015 on several vehicles, assist drivers by cutting engine power once the legal speed limit has been reached. The driver can override the system by pushing further down on the accelerator pedal. Systems that intervene in this way, could reduce road deaths by 20%. ..."
The most effective and appreciated systems, already available since 2015 on several vehicles, assist drivers by cutting engine power once the legal speed limit has been reached. The driver can override the system by pushing further down on the accelerator pedal. Systems that intervene in this way, could reduce road deaths by 20%. ..."
Credits: Andrew Ng's The Batch
Unterseekabel: Verdächtige Aktivitäten von russischen U-Booten
Ich glaube darüber habe ich schon mal in der Vergangenheit gelesen.
"Unterseekabel sind das zentrale Verbindungsstück des Internets. 440 Stück gibt es weltweit, zusammen messen sie rund 1,3 Millionen Kilometer."
"Russland steht im Verdacht, mit speziellen Tauchbooten Unterseekabel auszuspionieren. Westliche Staaten reagieren auf die mögliche Bedrohung, doch der Schutz der Datenverbindungen auf dem Meeresboden ist schwierig.
Darum ist es wichtig: Die Unterseekabel haben eine grosse geopolitische Bedeutung. Über sie fliessen rund 95 Prozent des internationalen Datenverkehrs. Wer sie kontrolliert, kann unter Umständen den Informationsfluss mitlesen oder gar beeinflussen. Experten warnen, Russland könnte «mit relativ kleinem Effort die Weltwirtschaft in Geiselhaft nehmen»."
U.S. government offers $10 million bounty for Sandworm, the Russian hackers blamed for destructive cyberattacks
Somebody must be reading my blog posts. Just kidding!
However, about two weeks ago I complained here about the lack of effective law enforcement against e.g. malware and ransomware and cyber attacks and possible state actors behind it.
Let the hunt begin! Bounty hunters to the rescue!
"The U.S. government has stepped up its hunt for six Russian intelligence officers, best known as the state-backed hacking group dubbed “Sandworm,” by offering a $10 million bounty for information that identifies or locates its members.
The Sandworm hackers — who work for a division of Russia’s GRU, the country’s military intelligence division — are known for launching damaging and destructive cyberattacks against critical infrastructure, including food supplies and the energy sector. ..."
On government mandated food labeling
Is government mandated food labeling a good choice? Clearly NO!
In Western countries like the United States there are even serious questions about the constitutionality of such government interventions!
If sovereign consumers want food labeling then private businesses in a free market economy will deliver! It allows private enterprises to distinguish themselves from their competitors etc. etc.
Government's role: Law enforcement e.g. if labels significantly disagree with content.
Unfortunately, India wants to make the same mistakes as Western countries. See my blog post here.
Why video calls are bad for brainstorming. Really!
This research claims that video calls reduce idea generation and creativity. I would say this phenomenon is short lived. It is likely e.g. more a matter of humans getting used to virtual instead of physical/presence communication.
A new kind of cell division
Amazing stuff! For almost two hundred years there were only two types of cell division.
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
India may soon make food labeling mandatory
India has a large scale obesity crisis?
Is government mandated food labeling a good choice? Clearly NO!
If sovereign consumers want food labeling then private businesses in a free market economy will deliver! Government's role: Law enforcement e.g. if labels significantly disagree with content.
If sovereign consumers want food labeling then private businesses in a free market economy will deliver! Government's role: Law enforcement e.g. if labels significantly disagree with content.
Greg Kelly: The Bush-Biden parallel you didn't know about
Recommendable! More about the Biden family clan and their business interests.
When will Tesla buy Nikola or will Nikola buy Tesla?
Your guess is as good as mine! 😄 Does Elon Musk have a few billion dollars left after buying Twitter?
Nikola Tesla belong together! One without the other one?
P.S. Nikola Corp. or Motors is "Nikola Corporation is globally transforming the transportation industry. As a designer and manufacturer of zero-emission battery-electric and hydrogen-electric vehicles, electric vehicle drivetrains, vehicle components, energy storage systems, and hydrogen station infrastructure, Nikola is driven to revolutionize the economic and environmental impact of commerce as we know it today. Founded in 2015, Nikola Corporation is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona."
Google Sheets Annoyances
Yesterday (4/26/2022), I also had to find out that Google Sheets apparently provides no straight forward and convenient way to filter cells whether they have a comment or not.
This should be part of the standard filter criteria, but it is obviously missing!
This is pretty bad and not easily explainable why such an important functionality is missing. For example, if you have a sheet with over 100,000 cells, most of them filled with data, and you want to know where your data validation rules failed (usually indicated by a comment), then what?
Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Real diversity, equity, and inclusion
Money talks louder than ideologues and demagogues!
Just look at the centibillionaires! Among them two Indians!
The 12th ranked is from Mexico! The 16th from China!
"$125 billion — Indian industrialist Gautam Adani’s net worth as of Tuesday (4/16/2022), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the richest people in the world that is updated each business day. He’s richer than Warren Buffett, who has a mere $120 billion. Earlier this month, Adani became the world’s newest centibillionaire. His net worth has risen by $48 billion since the start of the year." (Source)
AI is helping train the next generation of U.S. air force pilots. Why?
The real question is do we still need human air force pilots? Would drones not be cheaper and better going forward. This would be contrary to a major paradigm shift!
The war of aggression by Russia against the Ukraine has raised serious questions about future warfare strategies etc.
Credits: Andrew Ng's The Batch
A modest proposal: Elon Musk Should Require a Character Minimum for Tweets. Really!
From maximum number of characters per tweet to minimum number! So silly! I almost had a laugh attack!
Did nobody talk some sense into this author before publishing this article?
Do the editors not care?
This article is published by a policy think tank that promotes free market economy and individual liberty. Strange!
Pepto-Bismol compound’s structure unveiled after 120 years
Amazing stuff! It is very curious why it took so long for a remedy that has been used probably by hundreds millions of people so frequently.
The latest analytic techniques that were applied here will probably result in more discoveries in the near future.
From the abstract:
"Structure determination of pharmaceutical compounds is invaluable for drug development but remains challenging for those that form as small crystals with defects. Bismuth subsalicylate, among the most commercially significant bismuth compounds, is an active ingredient in over-the-counter medications such as Pepto-Bismol, used to treat dyspepsia and H. pylori infections. Despite its century-long history, the structure of bismuth subsalicylate is still under debate. Here we show that advanced electron microscopy techniques, namely three-dimensional electron diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy, can give insight into the structure of active pharmaceutical ingredients that are difficult to characterize using conventional methods due to their small size or intricate structural features. Hierarchical clustering analysis of three-dimensional electron diffraction data from ordered crystals of bismuth subsalicylate revealed a layered structure. A detailed investigation using high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy showed variations in the stacking of layers, the presence of which has likely hindered structure solution by other means. Together, these modern electron crystallography techniques provide a toolbox for structure determination of active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug discovery, demonstrated by this study of bismuth subsalicylate."
Can you imagine you swallowed something so beautiful!
Fidelity Investments To Allow Bitcoin Investments In Retirement Plans
Good news! Physical cash is on its way out!
"Fidelity, which manages employee benefit programs for nearly 23,000 businesses, is set to become the first major retirement-plan provider to allow bitcoin exposure in retirement accounts. The company has $2.7 trillion in assets under management in its retirement services division alone. ..."
Transit of Phobos across the Sun as recorded from Mars
Wind power farms to displace husbandry and forests
Caution: Satire!
Today, it dawned on me that perhaps one of the real reasons to build many and large scale land-based wind power farms in Western countries is to displace forests (because they consume too much CO2) and husbandry farms (because they produce too much CO2 and other green house trace gases).
And for these reasons, an obsolescent technology like wind power turbines was revived!
Sure, this makes sense! 😄
The problems with Elon Musk’s plan to open source the Twitter algorithm. Really!
These concerns are mostly laughable and baseless! Such or similar concerns have now been repeated again and again since Musk purchased Twitter. I suspect ulterior motives and dishonesty behind these criticisms.
I think, Elon Musk is right to open source Twitter source code. It is worth a try! Wait and see!
We have now decades of experience with open source software and they are mostly positive in many respects including security.
Virtuelle Hauptversammlung börsennotierter Unternehmen gebilligt
Bravo! Das nenne ich Energiewende mit Vernunft und Verstand! Wieder den Klimawahn in der Bananenrepublik D.!
Wieviel Benzin und Verkehr wird durch diese Maßnahme eingespart!
Making blood donations a thing of the past
Good news! I think it is quite possible that humanity will not dependent anymore on blood donations in the very near future.
"... Israeli startup RedC Biotech has a radical solution: generating an unlimited supply of universal red blood cells from a single donation of human stem cells. ...
The need is great: While around 120 million blood donations are given every year worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there’s a shortage of up to 100 million units, mostly in low-income countries and regions. ...
Donated blood is also expensive. The average US hospital pays about $200 per blood transfusion, and that does not include staffing and infrastructure expenses involved in transfusions. ...
WHO data reveals that up to two million people die every year as a result of blood loss from violence or injury; some 200,000 women die in childbirth from blood loss; and 300,000 babies are born every year with blood disorders requiring transfusions ...
The need is great: While around 120 million blood donations are given every year worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there’s a shortage of up to 100 million units, mostly in low-income countries and regions. ...
Donated blood is also expensive. The average US hospital pays about $200 per blood transfusion, and that does not include staffing and infrastructure expenses involved in transfusions. ...
WHO data reveals that up to two million people die every year as a result of blood loss from violence or injury; some 200,000 women die in childbirth from blood loss; and 300,000 babies are born every year with blood disorders requiring transfusions ...
RedC’s process would start with a stem cell donation from a single “universal donor” who has a special variant of the blood type O negative suitable for most people.
Since stem cells can multiply continuously and differentiate into any kind of cell, they can be reprogrammed to create a master cell bank.
Samples from the master cell bank are used to grow batches of universal red blood cells in a bioreactor for about a month. The harvested and cleaned mature cells would be shipped to hospitals ..."
From the company's website:
"Innovative 3D stem cell cultivation in chemically defined serum-free media
Multi-patent protected, exclusively licensed core technology ...
Red blood cell production will move from lab scale to large scale bioreactors
Uniform, undifferentiated, self-renewable, efficiently cultured human stem cells cultivated as single-cells in suspension
At an extremely high cell concentration the cells are differentiated to become Red Blood Cells
Red Blood Cells are harvested, rinsed, concentrated, packed and distributed ..."
Zur Nichtannahme von Verfassungsbeschwerden
Empfehlenswert!
Es scheint aber, dass der Autor nicht ausführt, ob individual Verfassungsklagen im Zeitverlauf zugenommen haben, was dann ein Anstieg der Nichtannahme auch teilweise erklären könnte.
Der Autor ist nicht auf die Verlagerung von immer mehr Recht auf die EU eingegangen, die in diesem Zusammenhang auch Einfluss haben könnte.
Das die Nichtannahme ohne Begründung erfolgen kann ist in der Tat fragwürdig.
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Now that Elon Musk is the sole owner of Twitter he ought to move the headquarters out of California
The headquarters of Twitter is located in San Francisco.
There were reports that the employees of Twitter on the day that the completion of the sale was announced were not exactly happy with the ownership change.
A fresh start begins with a new headquarters in a liberty friendly locale. He ought to be careful not to move it to another urban metro area.
Google Sheets Annoyances
Just discovered that the COUNTA and the COUNTUNIQUE functions are not case sensitive if you apply them to text.
This is quite amateurish by Google!
This "feature" is undocumented and there is no parameter available to control it. Quite disappointing! It is a huge problem e.g. when you are looking for duplicates (e.g. AA is perhaps not the same as Aa).
Musk kauft Twitter: Das gefällt hoffentlich nicht nur Donald Trump
Was für eine dämliche und kleinkarierte Schlagzeile geschrieben von dem Stellvertreter des Feuilleton-Chefs der FAZ! Doofer geht es nicht mehr!
Microsoft has demonstrated the underlying physics required to create a new kind of qubit
Sounds promising! Did not have the time to read the whole interview.
It is spectacular how Microsoft evolved over the decades from MS-DOS (in 1981), to Windows (in 1985), SQL Server (in 1989), Microsoft Office (in 1990), Visual Studio (in 1997), .Net framework (in 2002), Azure (in 2008), cloud computing and quantum computing. An amazing story!
Symon Petliura and the Struggle for Independence of Ukraine 1918-21
Given the current ongoing war of aggression by Russia against the Ukraine, this is appears to be an important aspect or background of the history of the Ukraine.
Another one is the Holodomor (the Ukrainian Holocaust) of 1932-33 when the former Soviet Union committed genocide against the Ukrainian people by starvation! Here is my blog post about this tragic episode.
"Symon Vasylyovych Petliura[a] ... 22 May ... 1879 – May 25, 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He became the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian People's Republic during Ukraine's short-lived sovereignty in 1918–1921, leading Ukraine's struggle for independence following the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917."
The scientist who co-created CRISPR isn’t ruling out engineered babies someday
Humans are about to transcend nature and evolution!
I have suggested here several times that one of the first genes to be removed from the human genome is the sneezing gene. 😄 And what about eagle eyes and much better memory? 😄
"Jennifer Doudna is the co-discoverer of CRISPR editing, the revolutionary method for engineering genes that, 10 years after her original breakthrough, is now making its way into human trials.
There’s an expanding list of applications in diagnostics and engineered plants; already researchers are exploring potential treatments to cure sickle cell disease, blindness, and liver disease. In 2020, she shared a Nobel Prize with fellow scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier. The two became the sixth and seventh women to win the award in chemistry. ..."
A research breakthrough could make it easier for transgender men to have children
How far away are we from asexual reproduction outside of the human body (ex utero)? Maybe only 10-30 years. Humans are transcending nature.
About 3 years ago, I speculated here about the state of artificial wombs and ectogenesis.
I think, the MIT Technology Review is disingenuous to make this article about transgender men, while the featured reproductive scientist Evelyn Telfer's research is not directly related to transgender humans. See e.g. two of her latest published articles (on which this MIT TR article is possibly be based):
Wikipedia about Evelyn Telfer: "She leads a research team which has successfully grown immature human eggs to maturity in the lab, and discovered that human ovaries are capable of growing new eggs."
"Ovaries contain hundreds of thousands of underdeveloped eggs, held in a kind of suspended animation. Each month, one matures and is released—potentially to be fertilized by sperm and create an embryo. For the first time, scientists say they have managed to take eggs from the ovaries of transgender men and get them ready for fertilization in a process completed entirely outside the body.
The achievement, carried out by a team led by Evelyn Telfer, a reproductive biologist at the University of Edinburgh, suggests that viable eggs can be obtained from transgender men even after years of testosterone therapy, which can stop ovulation.
While freezing eggs is an option for transgender men who want children, this typically involves stopping testosterone treatment and allowing a menstrual cycle to return. This can take months and cause fatigue, mood changes, and sleep problems. The need for vaginal probes can prove particularly distressing for transgender men.
Telfer and her colleagues’ alternative involves taking eggs from the ovaries and maturing them outside the body, in the lab. This new technique could not only help transgender men but also many others struggling to concieve."
Die CDU ist nach 16 Jahren SED Kanzlerin Merkel nicht regierungsfähig
Eine zutreffende Feststellung! Die CDU braucht dringend frisches, jüngeres Personal!
Friedrich Merz, noch so ein lebenslanger Berufspolitiker, ist eine schlappe Figure. Er war zu lange dabei. Er ist ein Mitläufer und war wohl ein Wasserträger für die SED Kanzlerin! Zum Vorschein durfte er artig ein bisschen Kritik üben an der Kanzlerin.
Friedrich Merz, noch so ein lebenslanger Berufspolitiker, ist eine schlappe Figure. Er war zu lange dabei. Er ist ein Mitläufer und war wohl ein Wasserträger für die SED Kanzlerin! Zum Vorschein durfte er artig ein bisschen Kritik üben an der Kanzlerin.
Hier ist meine Abrechnung mit der Kanzlerin!
WeChat for digital protests among Chinese citizens in China
Very recommendable! The article goes into great detail how the pervasive censorship by the Communist Party of China is being circumvented by ordinary citizens!
There are more and more reports out of China that civil disobedience is rising in the face of the Covid-19 latest lockdowns! Bravo! Kudos!
When otherwise largely obedient people of a great and ancient civilization become disobedient and creative to circumvent the pervasive censorship of the Communist Party of China!
The totalitarian censors are scrambling ...
"On the night of April 22, millions of people in China watched the same video on their phones: a six-minute montage of audio clips from the covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai, titled “The Voice of April.” Its emphasis on the lockdown’s human toll struck a chord, and people shared it widely on WeChat and other messaging sites. Soon, though, Chinese state censors began scrubbing it from these platforms, prompting people to find clever ways to dodge censorship and help it reach the next viewer.
The online relay became another example of the creativity that Chinese people show in fighting the pandemic censorship machine. They used every technological tool to circumvent or deceive censors—disguising the video by embedding it in other clips, overlaying its audio onto other videos, and using QR codes to share the link. One video sharing feature that WeChat has heavily promoted since 2020 was particularly helpful and unexpectedly fueled the online protest.
First published on WeChat on the morning of April 22, the video compiled over 20 audio clips from quarantine workers, residents, and government officials in Shanghai, played over black-and-white drone footage of the city. It highlighted key moments in the Shanghai lockdown—both critical times when ineffective quarantine rules upset Shanghai residents and positive incidents when residents and volunteers helped each other to carry on. ...
With a reserved tone and no personal comment, the video strikes many as a neutral and politically safe portrayal of life in the city. Yet in China’s political reality, even a “safe” video like this can be seen as disruptive if it reaches too large a crowd. ...
She knew the video would likely be censored, so she acted quickly to keep a copy of her own. She found a downloadable link on Baidu Wangpan, a domestic cloud service, but suspected that censors could remove a copy saved in the mobile app. So [she] resorted to recording her own phone screen while the video played.
A video relay
By midafternoon on the day he posted it, the creator had taken the video down because “viewers may have attached more meanings to it than it originally intended.” But it was already spreading rapidly on social platforms including WeChat and Weibo. Soon, censors started removing copies of the video, which only fueled people’s anger.
As videos were censored, people found ways to keep the relay going. They reuploaded copies to their personal accounts. Some stored the video on the blockchain, while others minted it as an NFT. People put the original audio under footage of party propaganda or popular anime, hoping to trick algorithmic censors.
Meet the Chinese crowdsourcers fighting coronavirus censorship
Faced with information suppression and untrustworthy news, citizens in China and Hong Kong do their best to chronicle the coronavirus outbreak and sift fact from fiction.
According to someone familiar with the matter, the original video uploaded by the creator racked up 5 million views before it was taken down. Given how many times it was reuploaded, the video could have easily reached millions more Chinese people that night. Yet every single version, as well as sympathetic stories that commented on the video, was censored almost immediately.
Censorship of such intensity happening so late at night in China was surprising, ... “The speed in which posts are censored, within seconds [of publishing], made it seem really uncommon to me. It requires ordering many [censorship] employees to work overtime.”
Two screenshots showing leaked orders from local governments to remove content relevant to the video also appeared online. While worded differently, the orders both asked tech companies to “clean up” any video, screenshot, or derivative content “without exceptions.” It’s hard to confirm the screenshots’ authenticity, but Liu, having once worked in China’s censorship machine, said the terminology used suggests they are likely legitimate.
History repeats. .. with a WeChat twist
This is not the first time during the pandemic that censorship has triggered a heated grassroots protest online. It happened the night when the whistleblowing doctor Li Wenliang died and again when a story about another Chinese doctor, Ai Fen—applauded as “The Whistle-Giver”—was rigorously censored.
What’s different this time is the new video spread largely through WeChat Channels, a young video-sharing product that Tencent has struggled to build an audience for. Channels allows a user to post videos as long as one hour, which can then both be shared with friends and distributed to the public through WeChat’s algorithms.
Channels was released in January 2020 in response to the explosive popularity of TikTok’s domestic version, Douyin. In the two years since, Tencent has used every tool to promote Channels, including offering monetary incentives for creators, live-streaming concerts by A-list celebrities, and bundling the product with WeChat, an app that’s already used by more than a billion.
Still, its popularity grew slowly. While it now has almost as many users as Douyin, the average time a user spends on Channels daily is 35 minutes, one-third of Douyin’s 107 minutes.
But on the night of April 22, WeChat Channels took center stage.
Ironically, it was Tencent’s own product decisions that made it easier for Channels to become a tool of protest. To attract new users, WeChat made it extremely easy for users to register a Channels account (while it can take days to be approved to register a traditional publishing account on WeChat). This made it possible for many people to open public-facing accounts and instantly upload hundreds of versions of the video. ...
As a newer feature inside a messaging app used among friends rather than strangers, WeChat Channels likely also didn’t have a substantial team of censors. “The more closed a platform is, the less rigorous the censorship,” says Liu. Douyin, by comparison, has a massive team of censors and can guarantee that almost all videos are viewed and approved before even being published.
People’s attempts to repost the video may have helped it survive online for a few more hours, but as the night wore on, censors eventually triumphed. ...
After that night, people went back to talking about the video privately. While WeChat was able to scrub almost all versions, it couldn’t remove the dead links on people’s timelines, reminding everyone of what happened. “The posts are still here; it’s just that you can’t see anything when you click on it,” says Yao. “But the void they left is still here.” ..."
95-year-old Chinese grandmother fights off police as she resists Shanghai quarantine
Bravo! Kudos to this lady!
Monday, April 25, 2022
Greg Kelly reports on the new biography of Jill Biden
She does not come away very good! I have blogged e.g. here about her. I think, she is responsible for her husband becoming the demented and senile 46th President.
World’s Oldest Person, Japan’s Kane Tanaka, Dies at 119
May she R.I.P.! She looks majestic! No beauty contest!
Relative to her, I am only middle aged! Makes me feel much younger now! 😄
"The world’s oldest verified living person, Kane Tanaka of Japan, has died at age 119.
A city official in Fukuoka, southern Japan, confirmed that Ms. Tanaka died at a hospital in Fukuoka on April 19. He gave the cause as old age. Kane Tanaka was born on Jan. 2, 1903, before the Wright brothers flew the first powered airplane."
GM Patents Autonomous Tech to Train New Drivers without human Instructor
Is this not a waste of money and resources by GM? Will this not be a short-lived detour?
Who needs driving instructions anymore when autonomous driving vehicles are about to become reality?
Will the reelected President of France seize the opportunity?
So far my impression of this fairly young French president was rather that he is about as mediocre as his two immediate predecessors, i.e. Francois Holland and Nicolas Sarkozy.
However, President Macron has now the opportunity in his second term to make up for it! His choice of the next French Prime Minister will be a first omen!
As far as his run off contender is concerned, i.e. Marine Le Pen, I hope that is it for her regarding her political career! Time for her to choose a new career. She tried three times to become president!
Elon Musk succeeds in buying Twitter. What is next?
I personally never liked Twitter, never cared much about it, and I never had an account with Twitter.
For many years there was this ridiculous limit of 150 characters per message (probably largely due to technical constraints at the time).
I am curious what Elon Musk plans to do with Twitter!
Will it indeed now become a platform for freedom of speech for inhabitants of the world as so many wish or beg for? Hope so!
An easy measure of the freedom of speech would be how many dictatorships around the world ban Twitter (The Town Square Test by Natan Sharansky).
U.S. Vice President Harris: US commits to no anti-satellite tests that fill orbit with debris
You have to wonder how stupid Kamala Harris really is!!! With a demented and senile 46th President, God please help us all!
Is this perhaps an appeasement or deescalation signal to Russia?
There is a serious war of aggression by Russia against the Ukraine going on for now about 60 days that could potentially spiral into a World War III. And she has nothing more important to do to makes such a lunatic announcement!
"The U.S. has declared it will no longer perform anti-satellite missile testing, a practice nearly universally deplored by the space community for its tendency to fill orbit with dangerous debris. Vice President Harris announced the new policy today in hopes of leading by example — though it hasn’t been that long since we were doing this too.
The anti-satellite commitment is the first in a planned series of new “space norms” being contemplated by the National Security Council, the Pentagon, the State Department and others concerned about the safety and security of orbital operations. ..."
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