March 14, 2021
WhatIfAltist
...who, like me, is basically annoyed by most philosophy, just (kinda') did a philosophy video out of sheer frustration.
No great breakthroughs here, but it's very well presented.
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Not a Reassuring Trend
This is "interesting".
So I encountered a story about how the ATF has shut down a website and arrested the owner for the crime of distributing schematics of auto-sears. (Auto-sears are devices one can install into a semi-auto firearm in order to convert it to full auto and perhaps not have it blow up.) The ATF, for its part is boasting that they did the thing. Oh. Also, anyone who purchased these products from this company is facing 10 years in prison and 250,000 dollar fine. Now, these schematics were printed on sheets of metal so that one could, if one had access to a machine shop, cut out a piece of metal and, if one folded it properly have an auto sear. Still. It's just schematics, plans, words, and this isn't even under the purview of the thorny problem of ITER regulations. A book on how guns work, is not that different from this, so the implications are worrisome.
But wait.
It gets worse.
This very same morning, right before I started to write this post, I stopped by Pixy's and found this story about how the CEO of a Canadian company has been indicted first by EU ministries of justice and now by Biden's justice department for having adequate encryption.
Last night, the United States Department of Justice announced that they had indicted the CEO of Sky Global, Jean-Francois Eap, and one of his associates, Thomas Herdman, for allegedly violating federal racketeering laws (RICO). Herdman is said to be a former global distributor of Sky Global devices."According to the indictment, Sky Global’s devices are specifically designed to prevent law enforcement from actively monitoring the communications between members of transnational criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking and money laundering."
Of course they are designed to prevent anybody from actively monitoring one's messages, whether they be ChiCom secret police, Corporate spies, Murderous spouses, Sharia enforcers, child traffickers interested in your kids, Antifa hate mobs, white nationalist thugs, or the Westborro Church. Thwarting 4th amendment violations is really just a happy bonus.
Note too, that the people indicted are not alleged to have trafficked in drugs or done anything untoward except honor their contract. They are likely to go to jail because someone who was allegedly bad might have used their service (but this is unproven because the messages the Justice Department wants to read to prove they are bad are encrypted.) If it is KNOWN that these are bad people, then the evidence that was obtained independently of reading their mail should be used to prosecute them.
The 50 cent army and STASSI, are not things we should pattern our law enforcement methods after. Two different stories, on the same day, both involving law enforcement deciding that first and fourth amendment provisions do not apply to the internet, is a troubling trend indeed.
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This is Why...
...it is important to ensure that one's marketing department has some passing familiarity with one's products.
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March 13, 2021
Bygone Babbagery
One of The Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes brings us the latest on the oldest.
(Dinosaur looking thing is unrelated.)
Scientists have used X-Rays, a watchmaker, fine manipulation tools, previous reconstructions and a Greek-English dictionary to come up with the latest, most accurate reconstruction of the oldest known mechanical calculator, the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient Greek device that was discovered in 1901 and was vastly more advanced in concept and construction that had been thought possible during that age. One of the big breakthroughs on this latest attempt was the discovery, via X-Ray that there were, inside the device, a much more complete set of instructions on how to use it than had previously been known.
The paper is here.
The 2 hour presentation by the scientists is here.
A video overview of the matter with slick CGI and dramatic music is here.
(Thanks to Pixy for the initial Nature.com article. )
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Haiku of the Day
What I put my milk
and cereal in was a
strainer not a bowl
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March 07, 2021
Whut
I honestly don't know what Boston Dynamics is going for with regards to customer perceptions of the firm or product messaging. But they may wish to reassess their customer relationship management.
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From Mojave to Big Sur
...is a heck of a road trip but, to my astonishment not a great deal of trouble with regard to Mac operating systems.
I've judiciously avoided MAC updates after the Catalina fiasco last year, but now, as I try to get my Twitch channel up and running and do video editing, I find I need the latest OS to run the associated software.
Despite my trepidation, the update went quite smoothly. I purchased my iMac in August of 2019 and went from Mojave to the new Big Sur with no real problem.
In stark contrast to the Catalina fiasco, almost everything works.
There is an intermittent bug with the Apple Mail application not wanting to autoload occasionally. This affects me not at all, as I hardly use that app ever, linking directly into my mail accounts. On the rare occasions that it doesn't load it can be manually started.
Some older applications no longer work. I'll need to get updates for them no doubt.
The most relevant issue for me is that video files of most types no longer display thumbnails when browsing through finder. VLC works fine, but .WEBMs don't.
That's it. That's the extent of the bugs so far.
Internet works fine.
The new OS is not turning my spreadsheets into pixel salads, or locking my computer up and slowing everything down a crawl.
The interface changes seem to be an actual improvement as well.
I'm not seeing any real problems aside from the most minor issues. The Big Sur upgrade seems to be a throwback those halcyon days of yesteryear when Apple was a hardware company that produced rock solid software for its products rather than a malware company that diffidently produces some widgets.
It's been a whole week, and I'm honestly still waiting for the hammer to fall.
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TFW
One makes a overlong comment on another blog, realizes it could be expanded into an actual post. Then does so but forgets to hit "publish".
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March 06, 2021
FALSE FLAG!!
In an apparent attempt to frame the competition, 2 South African one American and a Dutch V-Tuber have disguised themselves as Hololive and are now terrorizing the necromatically impaired...and themselves...and everybody else.
Those are some really good skins.
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March 05, 2021
A Trend I've Noticed
Scott Lowther links to a particularly silly hit piece on Elon Musk over at the Atlantic.
It ends with this line:
To laugh at Sagan’s words is to miss the point entirely: There really is only one true home for us—and we’re already here.
Lowther does a good job dismembering Shannon Stirone's twaddle, finally using this for an epic finishing move...
There was only one true home for us… the Olduvai Gorge. Until it wasn’t.
Yep. That's a 'fatality', and that should put to bed this particular nonsense.
Alas.
This seems to be a big "thing" in academia right now, and has been percolating since Musk began looking like he might actually pull it off. The arguments I've seen have ranged from environmental concern trolling like this. Safety concern trolling like this and others (to my surprise including Kim Stanley Robinson) and the idea put out by Daniel Deudney and Phil Torres that allowing people off earth is itself an existential threat as people living off planet will develop with different priorities, become different cultures and there will therefore be no alternative to war. (I wish I was being silly, but that is their argument).
I'm not a big fan of terraforming for other reasons (I'm in the Gerard O'Neal/Dandridge Cole camp) but Musk and Zubrin make a good case that the benefits of the tenuous atmosphere and myriad other resources make Mars a very attractive place to do one's crawling, standing and baby steps as humanity gets out of its cradle.
I'm pretty sure that is why there is now such a visceral reaction to this amongst upper class academe and those who the idea of the cosmos being sullied by the great unwashed plebians.
Providence has provided those who would micromanage our lives, via vacuum and hard radiation, a natural barrier to prevent people escaping their attentions that's far more effective than the Berlin Wall. They do not want an alternative or counterexample to the homogenized, post-discontent society they envision. The U.S. Australia, Canada, and a few others provided such safety valves in times past. To have a similar escape route unexpectedly open, just as these can taste their triumph over the human spirit must be rather disheartening.
So, while I think the more rational course is to move on from Mars to space habitats like the Stanford Torus, or O'Neil's Cylinders I do find myself willing to consider an exception to my skepticism against terraforming in the particular case of Mars. It's technically doable. (Hell, people have worked out the math on terraforming the MOON) It would be quite the scenic vacation spot and would represent a middle finger to the culture of the Handicapper General by the Culture of Excellence and Striving for Greatness and Arete. Baring the existence on Sol4 of something more advanced than a Volvox, it would harm nothing of consequence while creating vast benefits and stand as a profound testimony to the potential of Humanity and a meaningful inspiration to the children of future generations.
I'll take the future of Olaf Stapeldon over that of H.G. Wells any day of the week. Those of the opposite opinion need neither suffer nor trouble themselves about us. They can sit in repose, lords of their cradle, smugly secure in the knowledge that we deplorable fools could not possibly have survived our folly.
And perhaps many of those who go won't. It is quite true that this is an objectively wild-eyed and potentially tragic endeavor. Space is cold, (when it's not evaporatingly hot), dark, radioactive and has, to be frank, rather poor toilet facilities and ventilation. It is not for the faint of heart or the stupid or the incompetent. It's gonna be a frontier where you have to make you own fricking air. It will take years to make it safe and generations to make it comfortable and pleasant. But it will be something of real, lasting value, and that is worth risking a lot for.
It is, as they say, the truly great ones who plant trees for their descendants that they will never walk in the shade of.
There is nothing WRONG with not wanting to go into deprivation for a noble dream. In fact it's sensible. However, while I don't begrudge anyone who doesn't want to go, I'm alarmed at the surprising putch of articles demanding that this endeavor NOT BE ALLOWED.
I really fear that these people in academe and positions of societal power will do everything they can to stop this from happening, using every tool in their legislative and cultural quivers. This is a real issue and needs to be addressed.
Don't block the safety exit.
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On This Day in 1953
The world became a slightly better place.
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Amelia Watson...
...broadcasting at the intersection of sedition and insurrection.
Such brazen and premeditated effrontery cannot be allowed to stand.
I'm sure YouTube will get right on that.
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March 04, 2021
Another of Musk's Rockets is Tested
Space-X SN-10 was tested yesterday, the third in a series of launch tests that have been generally successful in breaking new ground, but that have also provided the public with more visceral entertainment.
Well, this time they aced the launch again.
They negotiated the tricky aerobatics again as well.
But this time they nailed the landing too!
Awesome!
"What'cha suppose happened to Musk's rocket 5 minutes AFTER they landed it?
JUST GUESS!"
In addition to asking that vital question, Mr. Manley provides us with a good overview of this inspiring and entertaining test from many different angles.
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March 01, 2021
Wonderduck In Hospital
Wonderduck has been admitted to the hospital with what has been diagnosed as a...blood clot. Many of you know he's had cardiac issues, so this is even more troubling than it normally would be.However, word is that the prognosis is good.
Please go send him some good cheer in his comments.
Thanks to Ben for the heads up.
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February 27, 2021
Robots on Mars
A very detailed and informative press conference doing an almost frame-by-frame analysis of the landing of the Perseverance Rover on Mars. For those that just want to watch the landing, the raw footage of the landing begins at 1:47:44.
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Caution
Side effects may include anxiety, despair, suicidal thoughts, weltschmerz, existential dread, paranoia, uncontrollable urges to quote Dostoevsky, Orwell, or Huxley, general unease, and crippling cynicism.
more...
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February 26, 2021
Questions for my Readers: Uncategorized
Isn't LOG HORIZON supposed to be out this season? Did it not get picked up by an English Language streaming service?
What's y'alls recommendation for a VPN?
Any good shows running now that don't involve giving money to Disney?
Ordinarily, when thinking of concealed carry, I assume .380 ACP (9mm Cort). However, unforeseen circumstances have caused me to become very interested in .32 ACP. Are there any reliable defensive loads in that caliber?
Is it safe yet to upgrade to Big Sur? Also, given that I skipped Catalina because of the horror stories, can I upgrade straight from Mojave?
When you eat taoyaki, do you truly appreciate the effort that went into preparing it?
Art by Akai Sashimi. Support them on Booth and Fanbox!
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February 25, 2021
Here's a Ponderable
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February 24, 2021
A Critique of the First Few Episodes
...of 2021.
After the Gatling gut punch and cliffhanger that was the prequel, I was expecting some respite for the characters and none has been forthcoming. There really needs to be SOMETHING to break the tension, a tender moment, perhaps some comedy relief.
A beach episode would be nice.
However, the writers seem to be a bunch of disaffected boughie boys who think that the unrelenting misery and depravity of iron age comics is the hight of literary accomplishment.
The writers are also hacks because this show is not a medical procedural, the last cour was not entertaining, and this particular emerging plotline is derivative, unoriginal, unappealing and has been done to death.
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February 23, 2021
I Hope None of My Audience Speak Swedish
'cause this is probably lewd or something.
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