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The principles of Western Science
by Punk-BatSoup-Stasi 2.0 13 Feb '22

13 Feb '22

" Non-Polio Acute Flaccid Paralysis (NPAFP) is “clinically indistinguishable from polio but twice as deadly,” according to Keith Van Haren, child neurologist at the Stanford School of Medicine. Van Haren explains that Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) is a polite term for polio: “It actually looks just like polio, but that term really freaks out the public-health people.” In 2012, the British Medical Journal wryly noted that polio eradication in India “has been achieved by renaming the disease.” "

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No more transistors: The end of Moore’s law
by jim bell 13 Feb '22

13 Feb '22

https://interestingengineering.com/transistors-moores-law There has been a lot of talk about the end of Moore’s Law for at least a decade now and what kind of implications this will have on modern society. Since the invention of the computer transistor in 1947, the number of transistors packed onto the silicon chips that power the modern world has steadily grown in density, leading to the exponential growth of computing power over the last 70 years. A transistor is a physical object, however, and being purely physical it is governed by laws of physics like every other physical object. That means there is a physical limit to how small a transistor can be. Back when Gordon Moore made his famous prediction about the pace of growth in computing power, no one was really thinking about transistors at nanometer scales. But as we enter the third decade of the 21st century, our reliance on packing more transistors into the same amount of silicon is brushing up against the very boundaries of what is physically possible, leading many to worry that the pace of innovation we’ve become accustomed to might come to a screeching end in the very near future. The transistor is a semiconductor that usually has at least three terminals that can connect to an electrical circuit. Generally, one of the terminals is responsible for controlling the flow of current through the other two terminals, which allows for rapid switching in a digital circuit. Prior to the transistor, this kind of rapid circuit switching was done using a thermionic valve, which is commonly known as the vacuum tube of old.

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RIP Luc - Nobel-Winning Co-Discoverer of H.I.V
by professor rat 13 Feb '22

13 Feb '22

Luc Montagnier, Nobel-Winning Co-Discoverer of H.I.V., Dies at 89 The New York Times Luc Montagnier, Virologist who Codiscovered HIV, Dies at Age 89 The Scientist

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I think people will be able to buy privacy on the internet
by professor rat 13 Feb '22

13 Feb '22

" . . . projects are focused on guaranteeing user sovereignty on the public blockchain https://dailyhodl.com/2022/02/12/this-privacy-focused-altcoin-is-skyrocketi… First of many more mergers to come?

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NYCCoin Week Numbers
by Gunnar Larson 13 Feb '22

13 Feb '22

NYCCOIN PRICE CHART $0.0031 $-0.01 (-40.61%)

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The Intercept: Kitchen Appliance Maker Wants to Revolutionize Video Surveillance
by jim bell 13 Feb '22

13 Feb '22

The Intercept: Kitchen Appliance Maker Wants to Revolutionize Video Surveillance. https://theintercept.com/2022/02/11/surveillance-video-ai-bosch-azena/ BOSCH, THE GERMAN MULTINATIONAL most famous for its toasters, drills, and refrigerators, is also one of the world’s leading developers of surveillance cameras. Over the last three years, the company has poured tens of millions of euros into its own startup, Azena, which has the potential to completely transform the surveillance camera industry. Via Azena, Bosch has led the development of a line of surveillance cameras that relies on edge computing — where each camera has its own processor, operating system, and internet connection — to provide “smart” surveillance of people, objects, and places. Like smartphones, these cameras connect to an app store, run by Azena, where customers can purchase apps from a selection of cutting-edge video analytics tools. These apps allow camera owners to analyze video feeds for different security and commercial purposes. Here, the devil is in the details: In its documentation for developers, Azena states that it will only carry out basic auditing related to the security and functionality of the software available in its app store. According to the company, responsibility for the ethics and legality of the apps rests squarely on the shoulders of developers and users.

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POLITICO: Dem duo's warning of CIA 'warrantless backdoor searches' revives domestic spying debate
by jim bell 13 Feb '22

13 Feb '22

POLITICO: Dem duo's warning of CIA 'warrantless backdoor searches' revives domestic spying debate. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/11/warning-cia-searches-revives-domes… A newly declassified letter from two Democratic senators warning that the CIA has been conducting “warrantless backdoor searches” of Americans’ data is roiling Washington’s long-running debate over balancing national security with civil liberties. In an April letter declassified on Thursday, Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico allege that the CIA “has secretly conducted its own bulk program … outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection.” “This basic fact has been kept from the public and from Congress,” wrote Wyden and Heinrich, who serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee and have criticized intelligence community practices in the past — Wyden quite vocally. Their letter, addressed to CIA Director William Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, is heavily redacted and does not specify the nature of the data collection or the type of information the agency has access to. But it’s raising new questions about the intelligence community’s handling of Americans’ data as part of its foreign surveillance efforts, most of which is regulated by Congress, and reviving yearslong concerns from privacy advocates who say the U.S. government has consistently violated U.S. citizens’ civil liberties. The senators cited a report from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board that, according to the lawmakers, shows that the “full extent of the CIA’s collection was withheld even from” the Senate intelligence panel. They demanded a swift and “urgent” declassification of several aspects of the program, including the types of records that were collected and the “nature of the CIA’s relationship with its sources and the legal framework for the collection.” A congressional source who has viewed the report pushed back on some elements of the senators’ letter, addressing its sensitive allegations candidly on condition of anonymity. This person said that the CIA is not collecting the information on Americans that’s at issue; rather, its analysts have access to a repository of information collected by other intelligence agencies.

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Yahoo News: New spying revelations prove once again Edward Snowden was right
by jim bell 13 Feb '22

13 Feb '22

Yahoo News: New spying revelations prove once again Edward Snowden was right. https://news.yahoo.com/spying-revelations-prove-once-again-175342050.html Your government is spying on you — again. A heavily redacted letter from Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M) revealed Thursday that the CIA has been doing some sort of bulk collection of Americans' data. We don't really know the details — those parts are blacked out in the redactions, natch — but it was enough to alarm the senators, who both sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "These documents reveal serious problems associated with warrantless backdoor searches of Americans," they said in a joint statement. This is an old problem, but one that was supposed to have been reined in. It's been nearly a decade since whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency had bulk collected records of Americans' phone calls and emails. Federal courts later found the practice was illegal, and Congress tightened up the laws to end the snooping. (Here's a good Twitter thread detailing the state of the law.) The CIA, however, literally plays by a different set of rules. The agency's program exists "entirely outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection, and without any of the judicial, congressional or even executive branch oversight," Wyden and Heinrich wrote. That's an obvious problem. Even if bulk collection is somehow justifiable — and that's a big "if" — it's dangerous in a democratic society to let an agency like the CIA hoover up Americans' personal info without some form of outside scrutiny. That power is easily abused, and indeed the data has been misused in the past: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court found in 2018 the FBI had regularly used NSA information to check up on potential informants who weren't suspected of criminal or national security violations. The FBI blamed the transgression on a "fundamental misunderstanding" of how the data could be legally used. Funny how that happens. Snowden, still living in exile after fleeing the United States when he turned whistleblower, had something to say about all of this. "You are about to witness an enormous political debate in which the spy agencies and their apologists on TV tell you this is normal and okay and the CIA doesn't know how many Americans are in the database or even how they got there anyway," he tweeted on Thursday. "But it is not okay."

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Re: Batshit replies habitually in that way
by professor rat 13 Feb '22

13 Feb '22

Karl hearts Batshit - who said " Opposites attract? " - and just in time for Valentines. Aw. Hey, K-man. Just be careful consummating your relationship - Batshit being an AIDs denier and all. To lose one psychopathic Troller may be regarded as a misfortune - two would begin to look like carelessness.

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Batshit replies habitually in that way
by professor rat 13 Feb '22

13 Feb '22

We've got Batshit-Crazy like a list Barry Manilow. And, along with his two fellow stooges, Gramps and Semich, they plumb new depths of dumbfuck trolling almost every other day. Thank fuck for APster deadpool markets is all I can say - online all-the-time - point and shoot - fire and forget - launch and leave then drag and drop. Nothing takes out the trash better than this.

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