Flutterby™! From 2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31

Good morning from Grass Valley, where the storm has lifted and the sun is shining, and they've closed off a street to cars and now I wonder with they can't do the whole town. The drive up yesterday was exciting, between the storm and the Bolt's interesting range predictions, but we are nestled into a cute little Vrbo just off downtown, and chilling.

[ related topics: Photography Fabrication Java ]

Wandering through BookTown in Grass Valley, a several-sellers used book store. After several sections of celebrity autobiography I'm struck by how much humans seem to take delight in the suffering of others.

[ related topics: Books ]

What?

[ related topics: Photography ]

What?

[ related topics: Photography ]

Now that's merchandising!

[ related topics: Photography ]

Now that is merchandising!

[ related topics: Photography ]

Software Maxims: I am not a supplier

There is a small problem here. We are not suppliers. All the people writing and maintaining these projects, we are not suppliers. We do not have a business relationship with all these organisations. We are volunteers, writing code and putting it online under these Licences. And yes, we put it online for people to use them. But we do not get anything from it.

[ related topics: Weblogs Software Engineering Writing ]

Fuuu. Out here on vacation, my phone bit the dust. Which is fine, whatever, without my phone for a few days, but all of my work 2FA stuff is kablooie.

Print out those recovery codes kids, and carry them in your wallet... or... uh... maybe not, but be careful about your phone recovery plans.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Work, productivity and environment ]

Washington Post: White contractors wouldn’t remove Confederate statues. So a Black man did it.

Over and over, history-minded friends directed Henry to the words of John Mitchell Jr., the civil rights pioneer and editor of the Richmond Planet, a groundbreaking African American newspaper. In 1890, the year the state erected an enormous statue of Robert E. Lee on what would become Monument Avenue, Mitchell wrote about the resilience of the Black person in society.

“The Negro … put up the Lee monument,” Mitchell wrote, “and should the time come, will be there to take it down.”

Gift article link if you're not a subscriber.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Weblogs Space & Astronomy Journalism and Media Civil Liberties Race ]

Down side: My phone broke, on vacation, screwing up 2FA and car charging and all that.

Up side: Is there anything more adorable in the world than an eager T-Mobile phone salesperson trying to optimize their incentives, whatever deals you've got going on, and the customer's needs?

I've got an extra line for 2 years, but I'm saving $7/mo vs buying the phone directly...

[ related topics: Automobiles ]

Reading Joanne McNeil is "Lurking. How a person became a user." It's striking how much has changed from finding online spaces as accepting and places for vulnerability to those in which we deliberately cultivate personal brand and images.

And I'm now pondering even more deeply the conflicts inherent in the privilege that lets me yearn for those deeply filtered spaces.

So while we were getting my phone replaced, T-Mobile sales guy said "what do you do for Internet at home", and we told him, and he said "this device, $25/ month, you'll save so much". So I took the fixed base station home, and.... nope. 60Mbps down, 4Mbps up, 174 ping. A few years ago I'd have been overjoyed by it, but not now...

[ related topics: Net Culture ]

I bought a shaving brush holder a while back, and the bottom rusted out, so I replaced it, and the plating on the post was peeling and my new brush didn't fit, so tonight I abused some brass on the scroll saw and replaced the vertical with wood.

[ related topics: Photography Invention and Design Model Building Woodworking ]

Greta has staked out her territory under the heater.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Sorted away for future use: Detecting the real IP of a Cloudflare'd Mastodon instance

Interesting: Ladybird Browser Year in Review: What We Did in 2022!

Ladybird looks to be a ground-up new HTML+CSS+JavaScript platform (along side Safari and Chrome and Firefox) for the Serenity OS platform.

[ related topics: Open Source Invention and Design Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Sigh. We've gone from useless StackOverflow results dominating the front page of Google to pirated copies of useless StackOverflow results dominating the front page of Google.

New phone arrived. It's only been a few days, it should be in my muscle memory, but I cannot for the life of my manage to enter my unlock code to migrate the backup...

[ related topics: Invention and Design Archival ]

Motorcycle rallies and organ donation: A curious connection

In addition, this study suggests motorcycle rally organizers should incorporate organ donor sign-up programs into these events.

[ related topics: Weblogs Health ]

Sigh: Democratic officials’ homes, offices shot up in New Mexico

[ related topics: Politics Invention and Design moron ]

New bathroom decor just dropped...

(hat tip to https://researchbuzz.masto.hos...r@goblin.camp/109639751034778842 )

[ related topics: Photography Invention and Design ]

Afroman Got Raided by Cops, So He Put Them in His Music Video

Lyrics for "Will you help me repair my door?" and for "Lemon Pound Cake".

Via MeFi

[ related topics: Music Law Enforcement Video Food - Cake ]

"Recommended by Pocket" is the new "why did someone spend precious hours of their life writing this?"

[ related topics: Invention and Design Writing ]

Thinking Flowmaster exhaust systems are part of their cultural heritage doesn't make someone any less of an asshole.

[ related topics: Sociology ]

Yesterday Charlene pulled out her gotta be decade old Linux laptop to copy her phone data off. I asked why not her newer MacBook Air, and she said it felt kinda clunky and like everything on it was trying to upsell her.

When a non-technical user like her chooses the older Linux box first for her general computing, well... I guess my relationship instincts are correct.

(And, yes, I also didn't want to deal with the bullshit that is getting a Mac talking to an Android phone...)

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source Macintosh ]

The worst thing about provisioning a new phone is turning off all the fucking Ring camera alerts, again.

[ related topics: Photography tolkien Invention and Design ]

Does anyone make a weather hardened handheld WiFi terminal? Thinking about how to fix our swim spa controller, and a little web app talking to a relay board seems like a way better idea than giving AquaLink a few thousand more.

Thinking about how it's always DNS, and how we need to get away from domain names for identity, and how I already pay for a gigabit connection from home, and yet we don't have a good replacement for DNS...

First block on Mastodon. I feel like that's worth recording somehow. Does make me realize that there's a difference between blocking and a killfile, and I kinda feel like the latter is a little more inline with what I want. At any rate, don't need chucklefucks showing up in my mentions with incoherence that looks like GPT3 on acid.

[ related topics: Skating ]

I see that we're having the future of news discussion again, and I'm thinking about how I pay for an Argus Courier subscription, and on the rare occasion I read an article feel like it's a bad summary of the situation, and I donate to the North Bay Bohemian because when they do long-form up investigative work it's awesome.

But I'd love a daily or weekly reader, and right now that's an email that a friend puts together, and lots of local orgs plagiarize in their own newsletters.

[ related topics: Current Events Work, productivity and environment California Culture Community ]

Listening to The Hallowed Covenant as a serial on the Nobilis Erotica Patreon podcast feed, and thinking that the story I really want is that of the heretics, the resistance working to overthrow the hegemony of the nanobot ai gods that rule this oddly non-utopian utopia.

[ related topics: Erotic Work, productivity and environment Pop Culture Artificial Intelligence hubris ]

Thinking about how I used to edit text files to update DNS and mail, and how those processes could be scripted and abstracted and automated, and now I use web interfaces that obscure the inner workings, or buggy oauth cli scripts, and... We're not moving forward, are we?

Reading Dave Winer's notes on the death of online advertising, and thinking what "perfectly targeted advertising is just information" means in the context of Google's declining search result quality and StackOverflow responses becoming increasingly indistinguishable from GPT3 spew, and how their revenue depends on giving us advertising, ie: bad information... http://scripting.com/stories/2.../onlineAdvertisingIsNowDead.html

[ related topics: Dave Winer Consumerism and advertising ]

A few acquaintances haven't migrated from Twitter to the Fediverse yet, but the account I most miss on Mastodon is the World Bollards Association...

Julian Gough: I wrote a story for a friend — In which I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft… and give it to you.

Via the Twitter thread in which the problems of journalism legal departments and Microsoft fact-checkers understanding the Streisand Effect are explored.

[ related topics: Humor Microsoft ]

Extortionate thieves Experian enable identity theft in order to create environment which makes their extortion more attractive: Krebs on Security: Identity Thieves Bypassed Experian Security to View Credit Reports

Via the ever wonderful ResearchBuzz, on Mastodon.

[ related topics: Nature and environment Sociology ]

Measuring the direct and indirect effects of low-carbon lifestyles using financial transactions

This study investigates the net effect of four low-carbon lifestyle options that could potentially be adopted by many individuals and households to achieve substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions: not owning a car, not flying, not living in a detached house, and having a vegan diet. … Our results show that these four lifestyle options are associated with substantial net emission reductions, ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 tonnes of CO2eq/cap/yr each. The results also suggest that, contrary to the theory of economic rebound effects, the indirect effects of these practices are related to further emission reductions in other consumption domains, except for people who do not fly, for whom we saw a very limited rebound effect. The sample has on average relatively strong pro-environmental personal norms, which limits the generalizability of the results and calls for further research.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135739

[ related topics: Aviation Automobiles Economics Real Estate Woodworking ]

QAnon Star Who Said Only ‘Idiots’ Get Vax Dies of COVID

Cirsten Weldon had amassed tens of thousands of followers across right-wing social media networks by promoting the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy under the screenname “CirstenW.” She was prominent enough to become a sort of QAnon interpreter for comedian conspiracy theorist Roseanne Barr and started recording videos about QAnon with her.

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Current Events Journalism and Media Conspiracy Aviation - Helicopters Government ]

More reason to learn Rust: An Open Letter to the C++ Community: A Call to Action? — Alice (pseudonym), 09 January 2023

CW: Sexual harassment and a certain convicted rapist in the C++ community

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Pop Culture Community ]

RT spigot hellsite, licensed milf @the_feral_housewife@hellsite.site

2023 year of the linux deskbottom

pissco elysium @pisscotheque@godforsaken.website

butt doctor... i am pagliacci

- pagliacci arriving at his proctologist's appointment

lisa rokusek @lisarokusek@mastodon.social

There are people on LinkedIn getting ready to rumble over whether Adam and Eve were Christians if you want to know how well 2023 is shaping up.

[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama Health Open Source ]

Here Are the Concessions Kevin McCarthy Had to Make to Become House Speaker

[ related topics: Politics Real Estate ]

Petaluma Police are sending lots of updates about road closures today, including Rainsville Road, and for some reason I keep reading it as a The Most Dangerous Game reference. I had to check, and, yes, it's Rainsford. Maybe now my brain can let that go.

[ related topics: Games Law Enforcement ]

Reading Violet Blue's amazing memoir "A Fish Has No Word For Water". Consider this me grabbing you by the lapels and excitedly shouting "you have to read this book!"

[ related topics: Books ]

The famous Tom Porter, Rob Cook & Loren Carpenter pool balls render, but recreated in Shadertoy in your browser

[ related topics: Food Graphics Beer ]

Wow. The current under the Petaluma Balshaw Bridge has subsided from yesterday, but the water level at the new F St bridge is way high.

[ related topics: Photography Invention and Design ]

Just trying out panorama mode on the new phone.

[ related topics: Photography Invention and Design ]

I have actually thought about trying to port my stack to NGINX, in part because of issues related to this, and I support the descendants of earlier residents of Turtle Island in asking for the Apache Software Foundation to stop appropriating indigenous culture.

https://blog.nativesintech.org/apache-appropriation/

https://www.endasfmascotry.com/

[ related topics: Free Software Weblogs Open Source Software Engineering Sociology California Culture ]

At Aqus for the book launch for Tony Brasunas's "Red White & Blind".

And... He talked me out of the book. I came in looking for a media critique, I ended up thinking he's so caught up in his own narratives that there's not much he's going to teach me about that.

[ related topics: Books Photography Space & Astronomy Race Handicaps & Disabilities ]

Ross Wintle describes using an iPhone with Apple Shortcuts doing OCR to automatically check for specific allergen ingredients in lists in products

[ related topics: Apple Computer iPhone ]

RT Dave Rupert @davatron5000@mastodon.social

It's not called an "app" unless it was made in the Appalachia region of the Eastern United States, otherwise it's just sparkling website.

Bicycle Retailer on who's going to regulate Class 3 electric bikes, on the differing state definitions of classes of electric bicycles, and at the Federal level what falls under CPSC vs NHTSA purview:

A 2002 federal regulation, 16 CFR 1512.2(a)(2 defines e-bikes as a type of bicycle with a motor no larger than 750 watts and “whose maximum speed on a paved level surface, when powered solely by such a motor … is less than 20 mph.” The regulation was an early key to developing the e-bike category outside NHTSA regulations.

But Class 3s go to 28 mph, you recall. To quote Jon Lovitz’s character in "A League of Their Own," “Well then, this would be more, wouldn't it?”

Except that there's some disagreement over the pedal assist parts, especially with PeopleForBikes.

Via

[ related topics: Nature and environment Pedal Power Bicycling ]

RT Holden @holden@tech.lgbt

OH: “I’m furry adjacent, I do Linux networking.”

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source ]

I've been thinking about what's necessary to de-gas my household appliances, for climate change reasons, but of course there's all sorts of evidence now that burning gas inside homes is very bad, for more reasons than just CO dangers.

Of course that's become a culture wars issue: WaPo: How the humble gas stove became the latest flash point in the culture wars

Regulators have no plans to ban gas stoves, but Republicans are slamming the Consumer Product Safety Commission for announcing it will examine the health impacts of the appliances

Of course that's just the start of looking at aspects of my lifestyle that are negatively impacting my neighbors. Part of the reason we were glad to get out of that canyon in Lagunitas was wood smoke in the winter, and we still have occasions where it gets pretty intense. The most truck nuts device I own is a Traeger pellet grill, and I'm starting to wonder if I can justify using that, given impacts on my neighbors. More grist for that mill: Air pollution is much worse than we thought.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Health Nature and environment Sociology Consumerism and advertising California Culture Machinery Woodworking Global Warming ]

RT Steve Silberman @stevesilberman@newsie.social

Post of the Day from Jack Kimble:

“You couldn’t make 'Blazing Saddles' today. If you did they’d make it all woke. They’d probably have to make the sheriff black.”

And here's the Twitter link, and as I look deeper into Kimble I'm not sure if he's doing a bit, or... dude makes me question everything.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Edit: the link has gone 404, I'll dig around The Existential Crisis of "Hunter's Laptop"

This laptop had not yet been manufactured when Mac Isaac claims that Hunter Biden dropped it off. Either he lied about the drop off, or he lied to the FBI about which laptop Hunter dropped off.

In fact, this laptop did not even exist when the PDF files of two emails that the NYPost would publish (a year later) were created.

[ related topics: Current Events Law Enforcement Macintosh ]

Matt Haughey: First thoughts from a Rivian R1S test drive

A comment is racking up the likes for an "I can tell by some of the pixels..." reference on MeFi, and I'm reminded of how important cultural literacy is for enjoyment of media, and how far out of step my own experience of culture is with the mass market. I had a lot of trouble with Glass Onion, and my wife had even more, because a lot of the things that were clearly references were lost on us. We just aren't exposed to enough mass media to "get it".

[ related topics: Language Food Sociology Journalism and Media California Culture Economics Marriage ]

RT Ken White @Popehat@mastodon.social

You know, I know I've said people should not talk, go on TV, go on radio, or tweet about their crimes, but I must admit I have never specifically said not to substack about them. That's my bad.

To be fair, though, substacking itself is probably a symptom of deeper problems.

[ related topics: Technology and Culture Television Race ]

Music Business Worldwide: The Top 10 hits in the US last year accounted for fewer than 1 in every 200 streams

<blockqutoe>That market share (0.425%) was itself around half the size of the market share that the equivalent Top 10 tracks held in 2019 (0.83%) and around a third of the size of the market share the Top 10 claimed in 2017 (1.23%).

Luminate U.S. Year-End Music Report for 2022 is one of those register to read it kinda things.

[ related topics: Music Economics ]

Since people seem unsure about it, I just want to be solidly on record that the primary effect of GPT3 and similar technologies is to swamp us in bullshit, and that Brandolini's law says that "The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandolini%27s_law

RT clarissa @left_adjoint@tilde.zone

Most "chatgpt will ruin X" profession takes are kinda silly but I think I get this author's point, though maybe not how he envisions it going down

https://www.aier.org/article/chatbots-killed-the-academic-star/

tl;dr a lot of academic publishing is already built to incentivize the appearance of authority over actual quality and has a culture that treats obtuse writing not only as acceptable but sometimes a sign of intelligence and seriousness so having text generation tools that are very good at creating authoritative sounding text that doesn't really make sense in the details could be actively dangerous for academia

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Sociology Writing California Culture Aviation - Helicopters ]

In my teens I was overjoyed to find my people online. Now I'm wondering if an over a reliance on long-distance relationships is like a long commute in a car oriented suburb, removing those everyday on the street interactions that build trust and relationships in our local communities.

Or, perhaps my needing to go online to find my community was a result of living in suburban sprawl...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Automobiles Community ]

Doing a little disaster tourism, started by heading out to Tomales.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Lots of downed trees around Bodega Bay

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment California Culture ]

No stop in Bodega Bay is complete without visiting Ren Brown's gallery.

[ related topics: Photography California Culture ]

Just wandering around Ren's garden

[ related topics: Photography Gardening ]

Where the cherry tree was just starting to bud

[ related topics: Photography Beer ]

Another view of that garden sculpture

[ related topics: Photography Gardening ]

The koi were not coy.

[ related topics: Photography ]

The coast was spectacular, as always.

[ related topics: Photography ]

So XCode is giving me hundreds of these warnings about not calling SecTrustEvaluateIfNecessary on the main thread, but the stack trace has it coming from NSApplicationMain. I'm sure that Apple is calling it on the main thread because of something we did, but danged if I can figure that out from this.

[ related topics: Apple Computer Interactive Drama Photography ]

National Bureau of Economic Research In-Person Schooling and Youth Suicide: Evidence from School Calendars and Pandemic School Closures

This study explores the effect of in-person schooling on youth suicide. We document three key findings. First, using data from the National Vital Statistics System from 1990-2019, we document the historical association between teen suicides and the school calendar. We show that suicides among 12-to-18-year-olds are highest during months of the school year and lowest during summer months (June through August) and also establish that areas with schools starting in early August experience increases in teen suicides in August, while areas with schools starting in September don’t see youth suicides rise until September. Second, we show that this seasonal pattern dramatically changed in 2020. Teen suicides plummeted in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S. and remained low throughout the summer before rising in Fall 2020 when many K-12 schools returned to in-person instruction. Third, using county-level variation in school reopenings in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021—proxied by anonymized SafeGraph smartphone data on elementary and secondary school foot traffic—we find that returning from online to in-person schooling was associated with a 12-to-18 percent increase teen suicides. This result is robust to controls for seasonal effects and general lockdown effects (proxied by restaurant and bar foot traffic), and survives falsification tests using suicides among young adults ages 19-to-25. Auxiliary analyses using Google Trends queries and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey suggests that bullying victimization may be an important mechanism.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Food Mathematics Pop Culture Economics ]

Good morning from the Petaluma River

[ related topics: Photography ]

I'm so old I remember when to read older material we'd scroll up, rather than scrolling down...

Good article on the fall of Twitter: Extremely Hardcore — Twitter’s staff spent years trying to protect the social media site against impulsive billionaires who wanted to use the reach of its platform for their own ends, and then one made himself the CEO.

Among other places, mia a MeFi post that has a bunch of links to articles about the specific collapses within Twitter.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Journalism and Media ]

Good, now do it on all vehicles. NYC says vehicles equipped with speed limit tech reduced unsafe driving

A New York City pilot program testing intelligent speed assistance technology on 50 city fleet vehicles has resulted in near-universal compliance with local speed laws to date, the city announced last week.</blockquot4e>

[ related topics: Invention and Design Software Engineering Current Events New York Government ]

Nice to have it confirmed, hat tip to all the skeptics who called it more strongly than I did: Tesla staged 2016 self-driving demo, says senior Autopilot engineer — The claim was made in a lawsuit over Walter Huang's fatal Model X crash in 2018.

"The intent of the video was not to accurately portray what was available for customers in 2016. It was to portray what was possible to build into the system," Elluswamy said in his testimony, according to Reuters. 3D maps were used to pre-program the route, including where to stop, and during the self-parking demo a Tesla crashed into a fence, Elluswamy said.

[ related topics: Software Engineering Graphics Maps and Mapping Video ]

Quora account that appears to be entirely created with GPT

Via @eliocamp@mastodon.social

Feminist Giant: Essay: Dear White Women Cheering Iranian Women

As you watch the glory and power of the feminist revolution against theocrats in Iran, ask yourself where the fuck is your feminist revolution against theocrats in the U.S.

[ related topics: Movies Writing Race ]

A large block of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs were bought by now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, likely as part of an insider trading scheme.

Via

Browsh, the modern text-based browser

It renders anything that a modern browser can; HTML5, CSS3, JS, video and even WebGL. Its main purpose is to be run on a remote server and accessed via SSH/Mosh or the in-browser HTML service in order to significantly reduce bandwidth and thus both increase browsing speeds and decrease bandwidth costs.

[ related topics: broadband Cryptography Video ]

Adi Robertson @thedextriarchy@mastodon.social

It’s very funny to me that the dominant Twentieth Century conception of AI was a slightly awkward nerd with an inhuman mastery of facts and logic, when what we actually got is smooth-talking bullshit artists who can’t do eighth-grade math.

I mean, we trained it to the behavior that society rewards.

[ related topics: Art & Culture Mathematics Artificial Intelligence ]

Attorney and Clients Sanctioned $2.5mm For Pursuing Objectively Unreasonable Lawsuit Against Wrong Party.

In 2011, a friend visiting Fletcher’s home noticed that the painting was signed “Pete Doige.” Fletcher's friend advised him that Peter Doig created the painting. Fletcher then endeavored to sell the painting. Thereafter, Fletcher contacted Bartlow to sell the painting on his behalf.

In September 2011, Bartlow contacted Doig “regarding the authentication of one of his early paintings done in Thunder Bay while in school.” One of Mr. Doig’s associates informed Bartlow that “Mr. Doig never lived/attended school in Thunder Bay, Ontario.” In October 2011, Bartlow emailed Gordon VeneKlasen, an employee at the Michael Werner gallery, which represents Doig, stating, among other things, “Robert Fletcher alleges to have purchased this painting from the same Peter Doig.” VeneKlasen responded: “Whatever this person alleges is untrue…the painting is NOT by Peter Doig. Anyone can see that.” Bartlow’s attempts to authenticate the painting continued into 2012 and even included communications directed to Doig’s father.

Peter Doig then went on to find the mother and sister of the deceased Pete Doige, and the lawsuit still continued. So good on the court for some smackdown here.

[ related topics: Language Children and growing up Books Law Work, productivity and environment California Culture ]

I don't think I'm that picky about keyboards, I regularly switch between several different types with several different feels, but I just drove home again so I don't have to type on my MacBook Pro's keyboard.

Of course now we have the "spend far too long fiddling with Karabiner Elements" to get the keyboard mapped reasonably stage of plugging a keyboard into this thing.

I have long enjoyed the novels and other writings of John Sundman, since I ran into him at some trade show or another in the early noughties. Anyway, he's started a Substack and is releasing a new novel, and I'm giving him a little attention because he deserves it: https://johnsundman.substack.com/

[ related topics: Invention and Design Writing ]

Science Translational Medicine: Persistent post–COVID-19 smell loss is associated with immune cell infiltration and altered gene expression in olfactory epithelium

Abstract SARS-CoV-2 causes profound changes in the sense of smell, including total smell loss. Although these alterations are often transient, many patients with COVID-19 exhibit olfactory dysfunction that lasts months to years. Although animal and human autopsy studies have suggested mechanisms driving acute anosmia, it remains unclear how SARS-CoV-2 causes persistent smell loss in a subset of patients. To address this question, we analyzed olfactory epithelial samples collected from 24 biopsies, including from nine patients with objectively quantified long-term smell loss after COVID-19. This biopsy-based approach revealed a diffuse infiltrate of T cells expressing interferon-γ and a shift in myeloid cell population composition, including enrichment of CD207+ dendritic cells and depletion of anti-inflammatory M2 macrophages. Despite the absence of detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA or protein, gene expression in the barrier supporting cells of the olfactory epithelium, termed sustentacular cells, appeared to reflect a response to ongoing inflammatory signaling, which was accompanied by a reduction in the number of olfactory sensory neurons relative to olfactory epithelial sustentacular cells. These findings indicate that T cell–mediated inflammation persists in the olfactory epithelium long after SARS-CoV-2 has been eliminated from the tissue, suggesting a mechanism for long-term post–COVID-19 smell loss.

[ related topics: Bioinformatics ]

Key Decoder

This Key Decoding app is meant to be used by Pentesters during their audits, to explain to their clients how easily a criminal can duplicate keys (from picture, by molding, or simply by asking a local locksmith to make a duplicate).

It's got some limitations, you've gotta take the key off the keyring an put it on a reference card, but I'm sure that anyone actually interested in doing this for real has created a better version...

Andrew Tate: Romanian teens explain how he approached them on social media.

She says many men of her age idolise Andrew Tate, who is 36.

"This is a big problem," she told me, "because we can't wake up in 20 years with two million Andrew Tates."

[ related topics: Current Events Journalism and Media Monty Python ]

Gold, lead, depleted uranium whatever. The heaviest substance in the world is purring cat.

I mean, if Le Guin had proposed that illustration and writing would become more convenient by way of traumatizing underpaid Kenyans, nobody would have thought Omelas realistic enough to even be parable.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Writing ]

At Aqus for the Damon Connolly meet and greet.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Fucked up my third attempt at this fan louver, so decided that gluing up a solid piece and trying to rout it out was a bad strategy. Trying lapped pieces for the face this time.

[ related topics: Photography ]

eClinical Medicine: Risk of autoimmune diseases in patients with COVID-19: A retrospective cohort study

Between January 1st, 2020 and December 31st, 2021, 3,814,479 participants were included in the study (888,463 cases and 2,926,016 controls). After matching, the COVID-19 cohort exhibited significantly higher risks of rheumatoid arthritis (aHR:2.98, 95% CI:2.78–3.20), ankylosing spondylitis (aHR:3.21, 95% CI:2.50–4.13), systemic lupus erythematosus (aHR:2.99, 95% CI:2.68–3.34), dermatopolymyositis (aHR:1.96, 95% CI:1.47–2.61), systemic sclerosis (aHR:2.58, 95% CI:2.02–3.28), Sjögren's syndrome (aHR:2.62, 95% CI:2.29–3.00), mixed connective tissue disease (aHR:3.14, 95% CI:2.26–4.36), Behçet's disease (aHR:2.32, 95% CI:1.38–3.89), polymyalgia rheumatica (aHR:2.90, 95% CI:2.36–3.57), vasculitis (aHR:1.96, 95% CI:1.74–2.20), psoriasis (aHR:2.91, 95% CI:2.67–3.17), inflammatory bowel disease (aHR:1.78, 95%CI:1.72–1.84), celiac disease (aHR:2.68, 95% CI:2.51–2.85), type 1 diabetes mellitus (aHR:2.68, 95%CI:2.51–2.85) and mortality (aHR:1.20, 95% CI:1.16–1.24).

[ related topics: Gambling ]

Just a few links from doing a little background on the "Reagan created the homelessness problem" meme:

Justia summary of O'Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563 (1975)

Respondent, who was confined almost 15 years "for care, maintenance, and treatment" as a mental patient in a Florida state hospital, brought this action for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against petitioner, the hospital's superintendent, and other staff members, alleging that they had intentionally and maliciously deprived him of his constitutional right to liberty. The evidence showed that respondent, whose frequent requests for release had been rejected by petitioner notwithstanding undertakings by responsible persons to care for him if necessary, was dangerous neither to himself nor others, and, if mentally ill, had not received treatment. Petitioner's principal defense was that he had acted in good faith, since state law, which he believed valid, had authorized indefinite custodial confinement of the "sick," even if they were not treated and their release would not be harmful, and that petitioner was therefore immune from any liability for monetary damages. The jury found for respondent and awarded compensatory and punitive damages against petitioner and a codefendant. The Court of Appeals, on broad Fourteenth Amendment grounds, affirmed the District Court's ensuing judgment entered on the verdict.

KQED: Did the Emptying of Mental Hospitals Contribute to Homelessness?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Current Events Marketing ]

I like this framing: Roundball @shlenny@heads.social

#Crypto mining, prohibited in China moved to countries with laxer regulations such as the United States like the one out of the former Park Falls Pulp and Paper in #Wisconsin

The White House estimated the greenhouse gas footprint of electricity powering U.S. cryptocurrency production is equivalent to 3 million gas-powered automobiles. The United States now hosts about one-third of global Bitcoin asset mining, the report said."

The article is: In rural Wisconsin, former employees lift curtain on troubled crypto mine

[ related topics: Cool Science Nature and environment Theater & Plays Work, productivity and environment Automobiles Cryptography Race Real Estate ]

The Ohio chamber of commerce or somesuch runs these silly ads near tech centers, the SF Bay Area, Portland Oregon, etc, trying to get people to move to Ohio. They generally pretty solidly miss the mark, and I like to troll my Ohio friends with them.

This is a reminder that it's a global marketplace: Washington Post: Want to work from Spain? Apply for a new digital nomad visa.

Everything you need to know about Spain’s new program for remote workers

[ related topics: Invention and Design Bay Area Software Engineering Work, productivity and environment California Culture ]

JWZ muses about the beginnings of Mozilla.org on the occasion of the 25th anniversary.

[ related topics: Weblogs Open Source ]

The Register: It's been 230 years since British pirates robbed the US of the metric system

In 1793, French scientist Joseph Dombey sailed for the newly formed United States at the request of Thomas Jefferson carrying two objects that could have changed America. He never made it, and now the US is stuck with a retro version of measurement that is unique in the modern world.

Hard to find a good pull quote from this one, because by the time it gets down into the meat of things there are so many good citations about long-term negative impacts on companies doing layoffs that narrowing it down to a paragraph is difficult: HBR: What companies still get wrong about layoffs.

The findings of two decades of profitability studies are equivocal: The majority of firms that conduct layoffs do not see improved profitability, whether measured by return on assets, return on equity, or return on sales. Layoffs are especially hard on the performance of companies with a high reliance on R&D, low capital intensity, and high growth. Market response to layoffs was also less positive than might be expected, with three-day share prices of firms conducting layoffs generally neutral. Higher valuations were given for layoffs perceived as helping firms in financial distress return to profitability as well as those that were strategic and forward-looking. Layoffs undertaken only for the purpose of reducing costs tended to lead to drops in share price.

Why are there so many tech layoffs, and why should we be worried? Stanford scholar explains

As layoffs in the tech sector mount, Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer is worried. Research – by him, and others – has shown that the stress layoffs create takes a devastating toll on behavioral and physical health and increases mortality and morbidity substantially. Layoffs literally kill people, he said.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Health Invention and Design Theater & Plays Current Events Work, productivity and environment Education Economics ]

The Petaluma Police Department has set up a challenge. I didn't stand out there long enough to record a high score.

(Description: 15 MPh recommended curve speed warning sign next to a speed radar sign trailer with a 30 MPH speed limit, displaying 30.)

[ related topics: Law Enforcement ]

Skiptracing Books, or: Shenanigans with KDP Paperbacks, how Amazon's print-on-demand operation is screwing authors.

[ related topics: Books ]

no, *you're* prancing around the kitchen singing "🎶 if ya liked it then ya shoulda put a lid on it 🎶"

#AllTheSingleLadles #Beyoncé #DoDoDooDoDoDoDo

[ related topics: Interactive Drama LID (Lightweight IDentity) ]

Fuuu... Accidentally loaded Twitter, and I'm so used to Mastodon now that I almost clicked on an ad.

GM just sent me an email telling me that two-factor authentication is coming. Um... yay, now it's gonna more of a hassle to schedule maintenance for the Bolt, I guess.

[ related topics: Fabrication ]

Holy shit! If you are buying theater tickets, *do not* click on any of the Google ads and make sure that you're clicking on the real site, which may be well down in the search results. Like more than 2x for the same tickets.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Theater & Plays ]

Seeing a lot of comments about how ChatGPT is "confidently giving wrong answers to people who aren't experienced enough to fact check it", and, yeah, we're automating the C Suite.

"We appreciate the new bike lanes along Lakeville Highway" is suspiciously like "thank you for the pedestrian facilities behind them targets at the shooting range".

[ related topics: Invention and Design Bicycling ]

Topology of cat and location of leg is confusing.

[ related topics: Photography ]

More evidence that the war on cars is just a capitalist plot to help retail recover: Closing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis

[ related topics: History ]

The sale of ADS-B Exchange to JETNET reinforces that we need a protocol for aggregating and exchanging amateur sensor network data that doesn't let one corruptible party get in the middle of that process. https://www.jetnet.com/news/jetnet-acquires-ads-b-exchange.html

[ related topics: broadband Current Events ]

Thinking about this a lot in terms of subsidies and policies: RT David Gerard @davidgerard@circumstances.run

serving my needs is neutral, serving your needs is politics

Stored for future reference CBC: 'Deny, deflect, distract': How Russia spreads disinformation about the war in Ukraine.

Puff piece on StopFake.org.

[ related topics: Politics History Current Events ]

RT Max Pearl @pearlbear@social.overlappingmagisteria.org

This is a really interesting study. When Black newborns are cared for by Black physicians, their "clinical penalty" that is the difference in mortality from white newborns is halved.

What's fascinating, if you dive in, is that this is despite the fact that Black physicians tend to have higher caseloads, and also tend to serve more underresourced patients.

Things that make you go hmmmmm...

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1913405117

HT: @TheRaDR

Physician–patient racial concordance and disparities in birthing mortality for newborns

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Race ]

Matt Keeter: Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Branch Predictor

I've been writing a lot of AArch64 assembly, for reasons.

I recently came up with a "clever" idea to eliminate one jump from an inner loop, and was surprised to find that it slowed things down. Allow me to explain my terrible error, so that you don't fall victim in the future.

[ related topics: Weblogs Writing ]

Just closing tabs: Streetsblog: The Dangers of Driving Are Way More Normalized Than We Think

PsyArxIv preprints: Motornomativity: How Social Norms Hide a Major Public Health Hazard

Abstract Decisions about motor transport, by individuals and policy-makers, showu nconscious biases due to cultural assumptions about the role of private cars - a phenomenon we term motonormativity. To explore this claim, a national sample of 2157 UK adults rated, at random, a set of statements about driving (“People shouldn't drive in highly populated areas where other people have to breathe in the car fumes”) or a parallel set of statements with key words changed to shift context ("People shouldn't smoke in highly populated areas where other people have to breathe in the cigarette fumes"). Such context changes could radically alter responses (75% agreed with "People shouldn't smoke..." but only 17% agreed with "People shouldn't drive..."). We discuss how these biases systematically distort medical and policydecisions and give recommendations for how public policy and health professionals might begin to recognise and address these unconscious biases in their work.

[ related topics: Health Sociology Work, productivity and environment Automobiles ]

Greater Greater Washington: Analysis: E-bike subsidies are more cost- effective than EV subsidies

Putting it differently, if Maryland had invested its $8.5 million in e-bikes in the same way DC’s legislation proposes, instead of in ZEVs and hybrids, it would have saved almost triple the gasoline miles: about 5.7 million at a cost of just $1.50 apiece. The 1.9 million gasoline miles it will save under current law seems downright paltry in comparison.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Bicycling ]

Just posted a "Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter." reply to someone, and realized how dated that joke is now.

I mean, "Substack" almost has the same connotations, but there are just enough apparently non-cranks on that platform that .... maybe?

RT sam @mardiroos@mastodon.social

The bouncer squints skeptically at the ID. "This really you?" he asks, half-jokingly.

"Well, no, it's not," Magritte says, "it's a representation of--"

Neuron: Virus exposure and neurodegenerative disease risk across national biobanks

Summary With recent findings connecting the Epstein-Barr virus to an increased risk of multiple sclerosis and growing concerns regarding the neurological impact of the coronavirus pandemic, we examined potential links between viral exposures and neurodegenerative disease risk. Using time series data from FinnGen for discovery and cross-sectional data from the UK Biobank for replication, we identified 45 viral exposures significantly associated with increased risk of neurodegenerative disease and replicated 22 of these associations. The largest effect association was between viral encephalitis exposure and Alzheimer’s disease. Influenza with pneumonia was significantly associated with five of the six neurodegenerative diseases studied. We also replicated the Epstein-Barr/multiple sclerosis association. Some of these exposures were associated with an increased risk of neurodegeneration up to 15 years after infection. As vaccines are currently available for some of the associated viruses, vaccination may be a way to reduce some risk of neurodegenerative disease.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.12.029

[ related topics: virus ]

In Napa for the Lighted exhibition

[ related topics: Photography ]

We are at the CIA admiring the attention to spelling

[ related topics: Photography ]

We are at the CIA admiring the attention to spelling

CNet and BuzzFeed writing articles with ChatGPT has me thinking about how many links to those sites I've put on my blog over the years, and how in most cases what I really wanted was the original press release/kit that was worked into the story.

If "journalism" has been reduced to "rewrite the press release to introduce errors", what we need to do is bypass the monetization of that process altogether.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Weblogs Writing Journalism and Media ]

California DMV puts car titles on Tezos blockchain, consumer applications on the way.

Great, now someone can hack legal rights to my car.

[ related topics: Law Consumerism and advertising Civil Liberties California Culture Automobiles Cryptography ]

I believe that within a decade we're gonna view automobiles, especially internal combustion engine ones, as akin to cigarettes: Traffic pollution impairs brain function — First-in-the-world study suggests that even brief exposure to air pollution has rapid impacts on the brain

Environmental Health: Brief diesel exhaust exposure acutely impairs functional brain connectivity in humans: a randomized controlled crossover study

http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12940-023-00961-4

[ related topics: Health Current Events Mathematics Automobiles Machinery ]

So how long before we can start pointing to use of a Lambo on public roads as evidence of intent? Because it sure looks to me like the only reason to have such a thing is to drive unsafely, and if you've got it on a public road and not on a trailer, you're intending to intentionally endanger lives and property.

https://www.petaluma360.com/ar...-dui-after-crashing-into-3-park/

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Current Events ]

Given that US truck manufacturers have stopped making small pickups, and my Ranger is going to become too expensive to bother repairing at some point, I've been lusting after a Nobe 500.

But if Nobe doesn't build one of those, when my current truck finally dies... well... https://carfromjapan.com/cheap-used-truck-for-sale

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Machinery ]

I need a T-shirt that says "ANTIFA" in the same font as those "ATF" or "POLICE" or whatever windbreakers that cops wear.

https://www.lataco.com/antifa-lapd-tyre-nichols-arrest/

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Typography Graphic Design Clothing ]

This has been one hell of a project so far. The intent is to replace that ugly plastic vent fan louver with something more appropriate to the space.

[ related topics: Photography Space & Astronomy ]

Doh. Uploading with a better name...

Doh. Uploading with a better name... Take 2

[ related topics: Photography ]

A way to go, but it's starting to come together. Got a lot of epoxy squeeze out to sand...

[ related topics: Photography ]

A shot of the back, still need to tweak some of those brass bits.

[ related topics: Photography Model Building ]

You can see the remnants of my first the attempts to build that disk, before I went a different direction.

[ related topics: Photography ]

And cutting the circle...

[ related topics: Photography ]

It's time for my CALLERLAB renewal, which means I've been doing some soul searching over square dance calling, and directions to take the hobby that might grow it, or at least attract the sort of community j want to build around me.

This article about a young woman keeping a Candlepin Bowling Alley running has me thinking about the callers who go with Trad vs MWSD... https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/...save-candlepin-bowling-tradition

[ related topics: Current Events Sports Community ]

* Contemporary flush door with the beauty of natural wood grain * Comes primed and ready to paint

[ related topics: Photography Woodworking ]

Previously I'd set up a bunch of jigs to route out the recesses in wall plates and did a bunch at a whack. These days I'm just knocking them out freehand as I need 'em.

[ related topics: Photography ]

My point bandsaw fence, for @brainwagon@mastodon.social . I like this style for resawing because I don't have to try to align the blade to the fence, though the clamping is clumsy and I should rework it to use the bolts on the table side.

[ related topics: Photography Fabrication Furniture ]

The more traditional fence my neighbor Derek built for my band saw, for @brainwagon@mastodon.social . We used this for resawing some rough walnut, mostly demonstrating that I need a beefier saw. Takes some adjusting on the blade position on the wheels, and I need to build some knobs for those bolts that hold it on.

[ related topics: Photography Fabrication Woodworking ]

Boy howdy, the number of white people I know who though the 2020 protests were over-reactions and structural racism wasn't a problem who are, now that it's Black cops, talking about police reform is not lost on me. I hope I can find ways to help them see themselves more clearly.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Race ]

Today I learned about the "Epley Maneuver" for solving certain sorts of vertigo.

CatGPT: What if ChatGPT was a cat?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

RT Anil Dash @anildash@me.dm

One thing to understand about police "reform" is that, if you have to teach someone that it's wrong to brutally beat an innocent person to death, you can't actually teach them that it's wrong to brutally beat an innocent person to death.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Law Enforcement ]

Mail from Mike McGuire crowing about $330M for various automobile projects, including fixing "the nightmare at the Highway 101/580 interchange" and The Novato Narrows "once and for all"...

And $40M for the SMART train. So, yeah, throwing money at induced demand nightmares is popular right now. But at least Marin will be able to continue to import its lower-income workers who can afford to drive there.

[ related topics: Bay Area Automobiles Machinery Trains Currency ]

Eeenteresting: Mercedes-Benz is the first to bring Level 3 automated driving to the US

The company’s Drive Pilot system is approved for use in Nevada, but only at speeds up to 40 mph. You can play Tetris while cruising down the highway, but make sure your face stays visible to the camera, or the system disengages.

The kicker, though, is that in Nevada it's self-certification, so... uh...

[ related topics: Photography Automobiles ]

Seeing people talk about how ChatGPT is only useful for cases where you don't care about the quality of the output, and then thinking about the Google summarizations, and the last half decade or so of StackOverflow, and, of course, CNET and Buzzfeed, and having a bit of an epiphany about the infosphere we've built for ourselves.

More of the pain of living in a developing nation without a healthcare system: NPR Shots: A baby spent 36 days at an in-network hospital. Why did her parents get a huge bill?

[ related topics: Health broadband ]