thirdwave

Github Mirror

Week 13

"In the past 10 years, there has been a new trend in wind power: harvesting the energy of high-altitude winds. At 1000 m altitude, winds are about three-times faster than surface winds... Furthermore, high winds are steadier and available almost all over the world, unlike surface winds which are intermittent and only exploitable in certain areas of the globe"

"@bkeegan

Anyone else remember when people and corporations were shelling out huge sums of cash to buy virtual islands in Second Life around 2006? Good times"

Moscow criteron.. interesting.

"[About UK doctrine 'Moscow criteron'] It has been the UK’s policy that the independent British nuclear deterrent should be able to defeat ballistic missile defences around Moscow. If the UK decided alone to take the apocalyptic decision to use its nuclear weapons, it would want to be able to target large centres of population such as Moscow. Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be dwarfed by such events. The rationale for this policy is that our independent deterrent has to cover the possibility that, if the US decided for any reason not to use its nuclear capability to defend Europe, the continent and the UK in particular could defend itself"

Link

"@H2Europe

@Alstom acquires @HelionPower to foster its #hydrogen knowledge. "[...]This transaction is in line with Alstom's strategy to extend and enhance its expertise in #sustainable, intelligent #mobility," says Jean-Baptiste Eyméoud, President of @AlstomFrance"

"The market is efficient!". "It will cure all!"

NYT: "In the early days of the pandemic, when drug makers were just starting to develop vaccines, placing orders for any of them was a risk. Wealthier countries could mitigate that risk by placing orders for multiple vaccines and, by doing so, tied up doses that smaller countries may have otherwise purchased, according to experts.

As a result, most higher-income countries were able to pre-order enough vaccines to cover their populations several times over, while others had trouble securing any doses at all"

Link

Why so many BEV charging stations? Wasnt the selling pt of this shit "charge at home" (or just use existing infra)? What happened? @garrygolden

BEVs (retarded ZEVs) are environmentally dangerous.

Wired

Zero emission vehicles. Good wording..

No it is no necessarily a constant descend for gliders.. there are "thermals" hot pockets of air rising, if they catch one of them they can climb. Ride enough of them glider can keep going and going..

Dude broke hang glider distance record, 368 km, that is flying uninterrupted in a single day, clocking in 40 km/h on average.

Link

Yes students need to understand the individual pieces of every approach and how they are put together (key to inno), not just learn how to turn knobs on a ready-made black-box, prepackaged solution. Demystify.

Professor: "The simulation of non-trivial practical problems in fluid dynamics ... usually requires sophisticated tools. These tools often come with many whistles and bells, are proprietary or difficult to tinker with, modify the code and add to it. Students with access to these tools end up spending most of the time learning how to press their many buttons and become technicians instead of professionals. It is the experience of the author (in a similar field, Electrical Engineering) that most of these technicians are laid off in their thirties when the standard recession cycle hits the industry. Their diplomas were not of much help. Expensive and proprietary software tools have their place in the industry. Students in their formative years at school should be able to write code, be able to read the code written by others and modify, improve and expand it. Code, simulate, debug and correct. This is the way to develop understanding and intuition"

"Reuters: Fuel cell maker Plug Power Inc said on Tuesday it planned to build a green hydrogen production plant in south-central Pennsylvania with Brookfield Renewable Partners"

"@SoutheastAsiaDC

Australia on Wednesday announced it would begin building its own guided missiles in close collaboration with the United States as it seeks to boost its defense capabilities"

"Researchers have developed a cheaper and more efficient way to produce hydrogen from water... [T]he new metal catalyst developed by this team of researchers uses an alloy made of ruthenium and iridium, so that both hydrogen and oxygen can be generated at the same time through accelerating chemical reactions.

The alloy comprises of microscopic crystal sheets measuring just 3 nanometers thick. One nanometer is one-millionth of a millimeter.

Because it is so dense, the crystalline structure can be seen on its surface, giving it an appearance similar to coral.

Ruthenium is a relatively cheaper material and it accounts for 94 percent of the catalyst’s composition, so the cost of the catalyst’s metal ingredients can be reduced to a fraction of the cost of using a combination of platinum and iridium oxide...

The team’s results suggest it is much more efficient than other conventional methods that use the same voltage. Due to its high reaction rate, this method can produce around 30 times the amount of hydrogen, the researchers said"

Link

It stands out bcz I was listening intently, the descr makes a difference, maybe it is Lowess? Loess? (all legit terms from Stats). Then I realized he is just saying "loss" with an accent

Certain part of physics will forever be etched in my brain in Brooklyn accent. "It's not energy luuoos, it is information luuoos"

Answer

"In a greater-whole concoction how simple should each piece be?"

"@gabriel_zucman

Biden corporate tax plan released today:

If enacted, the development model of tax havens collapses"

"@ABarbashin

We are not that used to the idea of China - Russia competition lately. Most watchers argue about the 'alliance' and degree of cooperation of the two. Sure, there's a lot of cooperation. But, competition between the two is growing across the board. Neither Moscow, nor Beijing like to talk about this too much publicly. One evident example is Central Asia where China has long surpassed Russia in terms of investment and overall economic engagement. Russia still holds to the security role but it is being challenged by China continuously.

Another telling example is Serbia. Russia's 'little sister' that is becoming truly a battleground for Moscow and Beijing. China's trade with Serbia is already surpassing Russia's, same goes for the investment. China is challenging Russia as a main arms exporter.

And yet another story is Covid vaccine. We have a detailed text at @RiddleRussia on this coming up later this week. China-Russia competition is 'almost silent' but nevertheless growing. And it doesn't seem that Russia is winning"

PNG does not come up much in strat talks but they have a prime location and sizeable enough landmass.

"@supbrow

Australia's #SecurityAssistance to [Papua New Guinea] is significant & important. Donating Patrol Boats is more than just delivery of the boat, but long term #SecurityCooperation btn neighbors w shared #MaritimeSecurity concerns"

Link

"Possible cooperation: Merkel, Putin and Macron advise on Sputnik"

Link

Forbes: "Disney’s Firing Of Gina Carano Is Confusing And Hypocritical, Lacking Sound Management"

Link

"The episode examines 'mob mentality,' the court of public opinion, and the role of social media."

Link

The Orville episode Majority Rule; excellent. Scifi at its best.

"@Joyce_Karam

BREAKING: US, UK and 12 Other Govs issue Statement of 'Shared Concerns' on WHO - #China study that stresses animal transmission of #Covid"

Link

NYT: "Coronavirus Origins Remain Unclear in W.H.O.-China Inquiry"

"Pfizer has been accused of 'bullying' Latin American governments in Covid vaccine negotiations and has asked some countries to put up sovereign assets, such as embassy buildings and military bases, as a guarantee against the cost of any future legal cases, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism can reveal.

In the case of one country, demands made by the pharmaceutical giant led to a three-month delay in a vaccine deal being agreed. For Argentina and Brazil, no national deals were agreed at all. Any hold-up in countries receiving vaccines means more people contracting Covid-19 and potentially dying"

Link

Processed Seshat dataset for Asia Minor population, post.

Previous PCA analysis still valid on scaled values, yes #Seshat

"@StellaMoris1

After a hard night, Julian woke up this morning to a kind, personal message from Pope Francis @pontifex delivered to his cell door by the prison priest"

Good Reductionism and Nonlinear Power

"@shashj

So much discussion around the UK's Indo-Pacific tilt misses the point that the UK is also part of a wider European tilt to the region (rather than indulging in some sort of neo-colonial nostalgia trip)"

"For a year, we’ve been fighting legal battles over the British government’s secretive NHS data deals with controversial ‘spy tech’ firm Palantir. Today, we can announce an important victory.

Back in December, after we had spent months on legal efforts to get transparency, the government snuck through a massive £23m, two-year deal with Palantir, a CIA-backed data firm. They contracted Palantir to process our sensitive health data.

We raised objections: the initial deals were framed as a short-term, emergency COVID response, but the new contract revealed mission creep well beyond the pandemic.

Government lawyers insisted that citizens have no right to a say in major NHS contracts with big tech. But we believed the public does have those rights. So we sued.

Facing our lawsuit, the government has finally caved"

Link

France 24: "Glimpse of a post-Covid future? Masks ditched as Gibraltar nears total vaccination... Signs reminding people to wear a face mask in public were taken down by workmen in Gibraltar on Sunday in the latest indication that life is slowly returning to something close to normal in the small British overseas territory. Gibraltar is one of the first places in the world to have vaccinated virtually its entire adult population against Covid-19 and may now offer a clue as to how other nations will fare when their own populations are inoculated"

Peter Beck of Rocketlab on Venus. RocketLab has delivered successful payloads to space, solid outfit.

Link

WSJ: "WHO Report Into Covid-19 Origins Leaves Key Questions Unanswered... A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic found that data examined during a recent mission to China was insufficient to answer critical questions as to when, where and how the virus began spreading"

"Stanford Scientists Reverse Engineer Moderna Vaccine, Post Code on Github"

Link

My approach allows for it.. We cant rule out schools tho, or "that other place where kids can go to outside their home", or whatever it may be called in the future, bcz it doubles as a daycare center for many working parents (the pandemic made this clear), and especially in poorer neighborhoods, if there is trouble at home, etc it can work as a sanctuary of sorts, kids go there, to a well-known place where other adults are present.

"But a lot of new ed approaches are around homeschooling, why aren't you for homeschooling?"

"@MobilityPragma

Hello @villedenice !!! 😎🌞Le vélo à #hydrogène Alpha de passage sur la promenade des anglais. #baiedesanges #nice #bikelife #h2bike #h2now @provencealpescotedazur à Nice Ville - Promenade des Anglais"

Huge actv spike in DR Congo, Mozambique. Lot of deaths in Mali, MSA is French aligned right?

UCDP Feb 2021 data is out. Looking at IS activity. 

import pandas as pd
pd.set_option('display.max_columns', None)
df = pd.read_csv('https://ucdp.uu.se/downloads/candidateged/GEDEvent_v21_0_2.csv')
pd.set_option('display.max_rows', 100)
pd.set_option('display.max_colwidth', 20)
df1 = df[(df['side_a'] == 'IS' )]
g = df1[['side_b','deaths_b','country']].\
    groupby(['side_b','country']).\
    agg({'country':'count', 'deaths_b': 'sum'})
g.columns = ['incidents','deaths']    
print (g)

                                       incidents  deaths
side_b               country                            
Civilians            Afghanistan               3       0
                     Burkina Faso              6       0
                     DR Congo (Zaire)         13       0
                     Egypt                     1       0
                     Mozambique                7       0
                     Nigeria                   1       0
                     Syria                     5       0
JNIM                 Burkina Faso              3       4
Jama'atu Ahlis Su... Niger                     1       0
                     Nigeria                   1       3
MSA                  Mali                      1      10
SDF                  Syria                     9       9
Taleban              Pakistan                  1       1
Yan Gora             Nigeria                   3       0

I realized Seshat data file had some columns "scaled", so they dont reflect the raw value. Where is the raw value? I find the original, which has column values spread out to multiple rows. Woha. Scrubbing now.

"@mercoglianos

[Via @Splash_247] have the word-ship is fully afloat & free to navigate. Her engine is available but they will not use it. #Evergiven will be towed into the Lake to open up the lane & get traffic moving. They will clear the lake & then livestock carriers"

"@man_integrated

Pertamina (Indonesia's state-owned oil company) signed a deal with CPC [Taiwan's state-owned oil and petrochemical company] in June 2020 to double this refinery's capacity... This marks two of Taiwan's most strategically important companies [along with Evergreen] to be hit in the past five days.

'@disclosetv JUST IN - Massive explosion at the Balongan oil refinery in Indonesia'"

Hey I'm all into that contra jive, but this one is little out of whack.

"[Aero] lift is generated due to Coanda effect, not pressure differential as a consequence of Bernoulli's Theorem"

Walk before you can run. Glide before you.. motor fly?

"Orville and Wilbur Wright integrated and safely flew the first successful, controlled, powered airplane. The process they used was one of progressive design and was successful to a large degree because of their experience with gliders. Previous attempts at powered flight were unsuccessful because the inventors tried to fly first with power before the subtleties of control were addressed. The Wrights instead first learned how to fly using gliders as tools to solve the challenges of actutator control, and then added power to invent the airplane"

Link

Dude can rearrange shit at a molecular level.. It's not even fair.

Doh!

Who is the baddest mofo in Marvel Uni? Warlock? Molecule Man?

"@BDMurray

Russia definitely wants to be a critical force in Myanmar, and elsewhere in ASEAN. Such a status would certainly be welcomed in the region as a counterbalance against China and the U.S. But, as I wrote last summer, it has trouble delivering"

"Flipping the classroom" decsription doesnt do justice.. I dont want to flip the classroom around the same avg teacher, but flip it around the bestest, for every subj (thr prerec lectures).

We like seeing people toiling away, actively, busily 'doing stuff'. Our current view of work is faulty. The grader position in my ed system will admittedly not be too 'busy', simply sitting around in the study halls, answering the occas question. But combined with pre-recorded delivery of lectures to all kids, this system will create better results compared to now where the teacher is "busily" lecturing, "doing stuff" all the time.

The answer is "historical statistics" apparently... It's true, a lot of internal dev stats cld be gleaned from wars.

Ha good title

"What Studying War Is Good for"

"@tomgara

An amazing little subplot in the Suez thing is that Egyptian media, which basically reached North Korean levels in recent years, has been reporting that the problem was solved and done with days ago"