Week 16

Left Voice: "A Letter from Mahmoud Khalil on His Ongoing Detention.. 'all too often, America has been a democracy of convenience. Rights are granted to those who align with power. For the poor, for people of color, for those who resist injustice, rights are but words written on water'"

"@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org

In the UK outside an Amazon Fresh"

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In 2001 someone tried to blow up a jet with a shoe bomb, then regular citizens are forced to take off their shoes at the airport since - the bought out government wants to protect the plane, not help people on it. In 2017 someone murders 60 people in Las Vegas, there is a brief ban o bump-stock firearms, the ban quickly goes away. Why? The biz friendly government is protecting the firearms industry not the people getting shot by that industry's product. Without the proper lens, the policies described sound contradictory. They are not.

You can't understand America from the lens of public policy, as in the helper / protector of citizens, in a "continental", "Napoleanic Code" kind of way. Their ruling class origin is plutocracy.

They like freedoms that help businesses and the wealthy.. This is a selective type of freedom.

I bet the same people who are against government interventions support the excessive fine described below. We like freedom, we don't like freedom.. which one is it?

Michelle Goodwin: "In Texas you can experience a 100K fine for each time you help to terminate a pregnancy even if it is to manage a miscarriage"

IO: Oman, Netherlands, Germany sign historic hydrogen deal.. Oman, Netherlands, and Germany sign deal for world's first liquid hydrogen corridor. Green energy for Europe by 2029.

Doctorow: "Mark Zuckerberg personally lost the Facebook antitrust case.. It's damned hard to prove an antitrust case: so often, the prosecution has to prove that the company intended to crush competition, and/or that they raised prices or reduced quality because they knew they didn't have to fear competitors...

Now imagine that [a] founder/CEO.. who communicated with his underlings almost exclusively in writing, and thus did he commit to immortal digital storage a stream – a torrent – of memos in which he explicitly confessed his guilt...

Zuck's CFO.. wrote to Zuck warning him that it was illegal to buy Insta in order to 'neutralize a potential competitor.'.. Zuck replied that he was, indeed, solely contemplating buying Insta in order to neutralize a potential competitor"

Net popularity fell to -4% for the first time

CNN: "Internal Trump administration document reveals massive budget cut proposal for federal health agencies"

TechHQ: "[2022] China retires last Windows desktops for homegrown Linux distro.. Government services in China have been ordered to replace the final 20% of Windows installs by the end of this year. Kylin Linux is gaining prominence"

Deutschlandfunk: "Schleswig-Holstein's state government advocates for the abolition of Microsoft programs.. [SH]'s Digitalization Minister, Schrödter, is advocating a move away from Microsoft products against the backdrop of economic tensions with the US. Being trapped in software solutions from large, particularly non-European, providers is not only a security threat, but also cripples the growth of the country's own digital economy, the CDU politician told "Bild." The move has already been decided in the state"

Stevenson: "[Let's take someone with a] wealth of 700 million pound[s].. People often don't realize there is a passive income that comes with that... When I say passive income, I mean that the income he gets just from his wealth not from his work. You know he's going to make around 5%, £35 million a year, let's be conservative, 26 million a year, half a million pound a week. So imagine.. you're making half a million pounds passive income a week, how much you're going to spend? Not a lot. You'd spend, you know, 50 grand a week, live like the queen basically, I couldn't spend 50 grand a week if I tried, right? The problem is, once you have this group of society with very large passive income, unless you have a rapidly growing economy, they basically have nothing they can do with that income other than buy up the rest of the assets. It's as simple as that. It's basically compound interest, if you have the wealth of the rich growing at 5% in an economy that is growing at one or two percent, there's nothing they can do, they outgrow the economy, and they squeeze everyone else out. And what ordinary people see is house price is going up, stock price is going up, my kids can't afford the house.. and that is is the rich squeezing the middle class out. It's the kids of the rich outbidding your kids for things like houses, [college degrees, even medical services]"

A Working Man script wasn't really good... I expected better from Stallone, story co-written by him and D. Ayer, who did ok on his own with The Beekeper but this thing went bust. Did somebody phone it in?

NPR: "[2013] There's a saying in Mexico: Sin maiz, no hay pais: no corn, no country. Mexico is where corn originated, and it's the food staple most people depend on. It's what Antonio Pena grew on his family farm in Guanajuato in Central Mexico...

The Mexican government used to subsidize corn. It kept the crop price high so small farmers could stay in business. And it kept tortilla prices low so poor people could eat. When NAFTA took effect two decades ago, the trade agreement phased out tariffs in order to lower costs and encourage investment between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The Mexican government ended its corn subsidy..

Seventy-five thousand Iowa farmers grew twice as much corn as three million Mexican farmers at half the cost. U.S. corn flooded Mexico. An estimated two million Mexican farm workers in general left the countryside for big cities. Antonio Pena was one of them... Then, like millions more Mexicans, he crossed illegally into the U.S."

Reuters: "One of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's leading advisers, Dan Caldwell, was escorted from the Pentagon on Tuesday after being identified during an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defense, a U.S. official told Reuters.

Caldwell had drawn attention in Washington for past views that critics have called isolationist, but which advocates said sought to right-size America's defense priorities.

A Marine Corps veteran who deployed to Iraq, Caldwell was quoted saying before going to the Pentagon that America would have been better off if U.S. troops had just stayed home... 'I think the Iraq war was a monstrous crime,' Caldwell told the Financial Times in December 2024."

"@jon@vivaldi.net

.. [Y]ears ago Norwegians started to get pre-filled tax returns in the mail. Later they stopped getting them, but instead had to do [it] online. Now even that is not needed... The reality is that the government already had most of the data needed for most individuals. Your salary is reported by the company you work for. Your bank details, including anything you have in your accounts, any loans, stocks, bonds, etc., is reported as well. Your kids are known.. There might be details to add, but most is known. Why waste people´s time filling out details that are already known and risk people making mistakes?"

"Simplifying the tax code"... Another mantra that never seems to materialize... I bet bihness interests want the tax code Byzantine, the law is full of loopholes, kickbacks, indirect handouts that way.. And at the end you can claim "government inefficiency" and create a cottage industry around it... Bihness wins twice.

ProPublica: "Inside TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free.. Using lobbying, the revolving door and “dark pattern” customer tricks, Intuit fended off the government’s attempts to make tax filing free and easy, and created its multi-billion-dollar franchise"

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Politico: "In unprecedented move, DNC official to spend big to take down fellow Democrats.. David Hogg, the DNC vice chair, wants to take down some safe incumbents. Leaders We Deserve, which Hogg co-founded in 2023, announced plans on Tuesday to spend $20 million in safe-blue Democratic primaries against sitting House members by supporting younger opponents"

US is a corporatocracy. They are in charge, other power centers are their puppet. Israel could never have pulled off this mayhem they've created if it wasn't for MIC's permission. Helpless civilians are dying for money, not any strategery. We need to be clear about that.

DuPont is MIC, hard core. DW is part documentary, see the shady shit they've done... All true.

Dark Waters, excellent work. You learn a lot abt the history of PFOA, C8, forever chemicals and Dupont. That is one evil corporation.

I thought markets were efficient just they way they are... You let them be, and you will always achieve great results in the aggregate.. Wasn't that the idea?

"Anti-trust can be a right-wing approach, as it is about increasing the efficiency of the market"

Reuters: "Biden attacks Trump administration over staff cuts at Social Security Administration.. Biden said the Trump administration has 'taken a hatchet' to the agency... 'This new administration has done so much damage and so much destruction,' he said, as he called Social Security.. 'a sacred promise we made as a nation. We know just how much Social Security matters to people's lives.'"

Politico: "California is first state to sue Trump on tariffs.. It’s Gov. Gavin Newsom’s most direct move against Trump since the president retook office."

What happened to IoT? You rarely hear that buzzword anymore. Now an older hype?

L. Lohan is clearly a fine actress.. She is playing twins in the movie, one with a heavy accent, and she is like 12.

Said The Parent Trap was a great example of old movies looking better, watched it, it's true.

Critic says new movies look dull, like sludge, flat. In older movies colors looked bold, shadows are rich, some exterior shots even look like oil paintings. The contrasts are great. His expl is new digital cameras kept improving high dynamic range, but the tech shows too much. Have to adjust the new tech differently to create a good viewing experience, most directors don't try.

Copilot LLM is pretty dumb... I've described a task to it in gazillion different ways still doesn't get it.

NPR: "[2013] Wave Of Illegal Immigrants Gains Speed After NAFTA.. The North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA, turns 20 next week. Hailed as a boon for regional trade, it had some undesirable effects. It hastened a trend away from small farmers, and speeded illegal immigration to the U.S."

Jon Oliver is the common ancestor. All Jews descend from his lineage.. The Jewish Adam.

And there is this..

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I guess he looks like Munchkin Mnuchin a little

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Shapiro was attacked because he looks too Jew? Jewy Jewman?

#Frontline #Sudan 03/22 - 04/15

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#Frontline #Ukraine 04/07 - 04/15

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Paper: "The global plastic waste crisis requires innovative solutions, and pyrolysis has emerged as a promising technology. This review critically examines pyrolysis technologies for plastic waste management, focusing on their efficiency, economic potential, and environmental impact. Pyrolysis can convert 60 %–80 % of plastic waste into liquid fuels.. Pyrolysis generates a range of gases, including hydrogen (H2), methane (CH4), ethylene (C2H4), propylene (C3H6), and other hydrocarbons... Hydrogen gas, a key pyrolysis product, has applications in fuel cells and as a clean energy carrier"

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BBC: "Landmark antitrust trial could force Zuckerberg to sell Instagram"

GF could've stayed on longer as champ, continuously past 70s, if it wasn't for a certain Mohammad Ali who staged his own legendary comeback in 1974. He took a lot of punishment for that win though, maybe that contributed to his later health problems... Everyone says Foreman punches hit a man like a ton of bricks. MA sat there and took all that, just to tire out GF (it worked, obviously).

The master of the technique: George Foreman, esp. after his return 80/90s.

Cross guard is ok. It will work wout gloves.

The Sound Stylistics - The Players Theme #music

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Politico: "[A] Democratic lawmaker is seeking a simple but jarring remedy of last resort for California’s college students navigating the state’s housing crisis: Let them sleep in their cars... While roughly half a dozen state legislative proposals this year seek to fund student or faculty housing or loosen building regulations, the benefits would come far too late for current students struggling to stay afloat. With one in four California community college students experiencing homelessness in the past year, Democrats — who have a supermajority in the statehouse — face increasing pressure to deliver on affordability issues.

#Zillow - Affording Housing Today

Sometimes a certain element isn't actually "rare", the slave labor to mine it, and countries who are willing to pollute the environment to produce it are "rare". In that case, automation, clean ways to mine and process can help.

We fast need to develop synthetic subsitutes for every rare element

I'm glad these dependency points are becoming more visible now. If certain high-tech products cannot be built without input from a single country, they may as well not be built. The system is not resillient.

NYT: "China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, threatening to choke off supplies of components central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world"

F24: "Trump vows tariffs for all, signals China exemptions will be short-lived"

Phys.org: "Gas boilers now biggest source of air pollution in central London, study shows "

Times of Israel: "Over 1,600 former IDF paratroopers and infantry soldiers have signed a letter demanding the government reach a deal to bring the hostages home, even if it means ending the war, according to a Ynet report. The letter states: 'We, the fighters and commanders of the paratroopers and infantry units, whose flag bears the words: "We do not leave wounded behind on the battlefield," call for the return of the hostages, even at the cost of halting the fighting. This is a call to save lives'"

ProPublica: "An Algorithm Deemed This Nearly Blind 70-Year-Old Prisoner a “Moderate Risk.” Now He’s No Longer Eligible for Parole."

Slowly US is going towards less dependence... DJT first term enacted tariffs on China, Biden kept them. Now more are added, though some later reversed, trend seems to be more, not less.

Brexit was about reversing localization, refusing to trade w/ countries near them in the same block as them.. Imagine Virginia refusing to trade w Tennesee. Trump Tariffs have (had) wider reach, they were an attack on the global order.

NYT: "How Brexit, a Startling Act of Economic Self-Harm, Foreshadowed Trump’s Tariffs"

Pascal found his niche in getting cucked, did across multiple shows.. Business is good.

Upcoming Fantastic Four movie might be Woke..? Pedro Pascal's pick was the signal, we see now.. He is the actor you pick when you want to cuck a white looking man who technically isn't white. "He is LatinX! It's fine!" studios signal us.. "It's Woke but for another ethnicity". Phew. We feel much better now.

Clean Technica: "Trinasolar Sets Green Hydrogen Record In China.. Trina Green Hydrogen has already scaled up one electrolyzer production facility in China to 1 gigawatt, and that’s just for starters. 'The company will soon commission a second production base in Yangzhou, China, which will increase its manufacturing capacity to 2.5GW, enabling it to produce up to 500 electrolyzers per year, reinforcing Trinasolar’s ability to meet growing global demand for clean hydrogen,' Trinasolar noted"

Imagine a room full of people playing such an evolutionary game, one strategy is Slap-for-Slap, if person get slapped on the face in one round, he will slap back in the next round. In perfect information scenario no one would slap anyone. But introduce a little noise (misunderstanding, wrongful attack) slapping back and forth would start, and after a while everyone in that room would be slapping the shit out of each other. Some forgiveness would alleviate that.

Ball, Critical Mass: "One of the most interesting and important questions we can ask of the Prisoner’s Dilemma is what kind of behavior emerges when the players can evolve—when they are allowed to change their strategies.. This can be simulated in Axelrod-style tournaments by including an evolutionary dimension. At the end of one full round-robin, for example, we might allow players to adopt a new strategy, where the probability of each strategy’s being chosen is proportional to that strategy’s overall score. In this way, the more successful strategies will multiply while ones that perform poorly will die out. It’s not hard to see that this is a Darwinian 'survival of the fittest' scenario. It mimics the way in which genetic mutations spread in a population..

[Nowak, Sigmund] .. conducted just such an experiment in game theory in 1992, with salutary results. They set up a diverse population of strategies, in all of which the choice of whether to cooperate or defect was determined by what the opponent did in the previous round. Some strategies were more inclined toward defection, others tended to cooperation. Nowak and Sigmund let them all compete against one another, and then altered the proportions of each of them in line with their relative successes.

Naïvely, we might expect that this evolutionary mode) will be ruled by Tit for Tat, which appears generally to fare best in a mixed population. And this did at first seem to be the outcome... But [it was] found that the triumph of TFT is short-lived. Once it has established a culture of cooperation, TFT starts to suffer from its Achilles’ heel: unforgivingness. These simulations contained an inherent amount of noise in the way the strategies worked, and this meant that TFT was gradually superseded by its more tolerant sibling, Generous Tit for Tat. In the end, only GTFT remained"

Jesus was onto something when he talked abt forgiveness as opposed to immediate reprisal which in Game Theory called Tit-for-Tat. Such approaches can be tested in an evolutionary simulations, in multiple rounds where multiple players are tested and each player is allowed to change strategy (choose among some possibilities, TFT being one). Forgiveness can be an evolutionary advantage. Excerpt above.

Looks like it was the Riviera of the Middle East

Enough electricity to power a small town, for an entire year.

"The training runs for current generation models that are comparable to GPT-4o 13 consumed around 20-25 megawatts of power each, lasting around three months"

Stan Lefort feat. JC Sindress - Aravibes #music

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