The universe that we can see is so large that it might as well be infinite. Our little solar system is like a speck of dust by comparison. That part of the universe that we can't see may actually be infinite, but we might never know.
2020-10-31
2020-10-30
2020-10-29
Fwd: Chemical Printer
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From: Larry
Scientists make digital breakthrough in chemistry that could revolutionize the drug industry
- At the Cronin Lab at the University of Glasgow chemists developed software that translates a chemist's words into recipes for molecules that a robot can understand.
- Professor Lee Cronin, the lab's principal investigator, has designed a robotic chemist called a "chemputer" that can produce chemicals from XDL programs, including the drug remdesivir, a FDA-approved antiviral treatment for the coronavirus.
- Cronin and his colleagues represent one of many groups rushing to bring chemistry into the digital age.
digital instructions for whipping up a batch of the nearly 400-atom molecule at the push of a button have been sitting on Github, an online software repository, freely available to anyone with the hardware needed to execute the chemical "program."
A dozen such chemical computers or "chemputers" sit in the University of Glasgow lab of Lee Cronin, the chemist who designed the bird's nest of tubing, pumps, and flasks, and wrote the remdesivir code that runs on it. He's spent years dreaming of a future where researchers can distribute and produce molecules as easily as they email and print PDFs
Cronin and his colleagues described their machine's capability to produce multiple molecules last year, and now they've taken a second major step toward digitizing chemistry with an accessible way to program with the machine. Their software turns academic papers into chemputer-executable programs that researchers can edit without learning to code, they announced earlier this month in Science. And they're not alone. The team represents one of dozens of groups spread across academia and industry all racing to bring chemistry into the digital age, a development that could lead to safer drugs, more efficient solar panels, and a disruptive new industry.
2020-10-28
China hunting in America...
Federal authorities unveiled criminal charges Wednesday against eight people who allegedly served as part of a covert Chinese repatriation squad that sought to forcibly return fugitives to the Beijing government.
The suspects, whose mission was allegedly sanctioned by the Peoples Republic of China, worked for more than three years as part of a campaign known as "Operation Fox Hunt" to coerce Chinese nationals living in the United States to return to China where they were wanted for various government offenses, said John Demers, chief of the Justice Department's National Security Division.
Five of the suspects, including a New Jersey private investigator who allegedly assisted with surveillance, were arrested earlier Wednesday and charged as illegal agents of the PRC. The three others are believed to be living in China.
"The Chinese government's brazen attempts to surveil, threaten and harass our own citizens and lawful permanent residents while on American soil are part of China's diverse campaign of theft and malign influence in our country and around the world," FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
2020-10-27
Fwd: Political Terror
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From: Larry
From: Larry
7 Open Leftist Threats That Political Terror Is Coming To America Whether Trump Wins Or Not
Examples of hostilities toward Trump and his supporters abound, but leftists' threats of terror are even greater should Biden win the presidency.
Trump Resistance Plans 'Mass Mobilization' After Election To Shut Down The Country If Biden Doesn't Win
Shut Down DC's 'Strategic framework for action following the 2020 election' sketches out their plans for rioting and attacking American institutions and life unless and until Joe Biden is installed as president.
1. A Think Tank Guy Should Meet…A Firing Squad
First, in a chilling Twitter incident, agitator Nils Gilman called for the execution of journalist and former Trump adviser Michael Anton. Gilman publicly stated, "Michael Anton is the Robert Brasillach of our times and deserves the same fate." Brasillach was a Nazi collaborator in France whose fate was execution by firing squad. Neither Gilman nor Twitter took down the tweet, despite many protests, including a public letter of grave concern from the Claremont Institute, where Anton is a senior fellow.
Gilman is head of the George Soros-funded Berggruen Institute and a co-founder of the "Transition Integrity Project," which war-gamed the ouster of Trump from office regardless of whether he wins re-election. Anton's crime, in Gilman's mind, was publishing an article about Gilman's project in the American Mind, titled "The Coming Coup."
Why is Gilman's Sept. 21 death threat against Anton still up on Twitter an entire month later? Will it remain up after the election?
2. Shoot This CEO For Not being Woke Enough
Second, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo objected to the company Coinbase's decision to ease up on forcing employees to engage in social justice agendas such as critical race theory. Costolo accused Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong of being among the "me-first capitalists" who would be the first lined up and "shot in the revolution."
Costolo, who has 1.5 million Twitter followers, added that he would "happily provide video commentary" of the executions. The tweet has disappeared, although there is no mention of it being deleted. One response comes with a screenshot though:
3. If Trump Loses, His Supporters Remain 'An Existential Threat'
Third, if the Democrats take over the reins of power — in an election, a coup, or a bought-and-paid-for "color revolution" — what happens to those who have supported Trump?
Take a look at this Aug. 1 Salon article, which argues that even if Biden wins, Trumpism "will survive the election and continue to be an existential threat." Author Paul Rosenberg examines the arguments in writings by John Feffer and other anti-Trump pundits who believe there is a lot of work to be done to force the "de-trumpification" of America. They compare Trump supporters to Nazis or the Baathists of Saddam Hussein's Iraq and describe America under Trump as a "pathocracy."
Rosenberg cites Feffer, who says the solution is "to drain the swamp Trump created, bring criminal charges against the former president and his key followers, and launch a serious campaign to change the hearts and minds of Americans who have been drawn to this president's agenda." He even brings up the Nuremberg trials as instructive, trials that resulted in death sentences for 37 Nazis.
That isn't good enough, however, according to Feffer. It's important to go after "low-level participants" to root out Trumpism. It recommends enforcing this changing of "hearts and minds" so that there is "an attitudinal shift that could lead to lasting transformation." This is not a far cry from re-education camps and coercive thought reform.
The formula appears to be threefold and on a large scale, "the scale on which we need to be thinking," according to the Salon article. First, divide the so-called redeemable Trump supporters from those intent on keeping America great. Second, send those who are problematic to virtual education camps. Third, stomp out all the ideas the power elites don't like.
In the same vein, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who has 1 million Twitter followers, recommended that a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" be established to rid the nation of Trumpism.
4. Prosecute Everyone Who Supported Trump
Fourth, former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann recently ranted that everyone associated with Trump, including his enablers and supporters, must be "prosecuted and convicted and removed from our society." To many, Olbermann might seem to be a has-been, but he has nearly 1 million Twitter followers. He represents the viewpoint of many in the propaganda media that control more than 90 percent of the megaphones. Olbermann referred to Trump supporters as "maggots" who needed to be chased from the stage.
5. Trump Supporters 'Must Be Eradicated From Society'
Fifth, on Aug. 4, 2019, a supposed religious scholar and CNN contributor Reza Aslan announced on Twitter — a tweet still up as of Oct. 22 — that all Trump supporters "must be eradicated from society" along with Trump, and that there is "no longer any room for nuance." Aslan has nearly 300,000 followers.
His extremely defamatory and threatening tweet reads verbatim: "The President is a white nationalist terror leader. His supporters — ALL OF THEM — are by definition white nationalist terror supporters. The MAGA hat is a KKK hood. And his evil, racist scourge must be eradicated from society."
7. Plots to Dox Political Opponents
Seventh, the left is now using doxing tools to invite widespread targeting of Trump voters. A recently unveiled database called "The Media Manipulation Casebook" is described as a means of gathering personal information that exposes anonymous Trump supporters. NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny appears to use it to find "addresses, property records … even Amazon wish lists" that can be a "goldmine for learning about what a person reads, buys, and wants."
At the same time, open-source materials, such as donations tracked by the Federal Election Commission, are being used to invite the targeting of Trump donors, either by name or address on a hostile site. The information can be used much like the Southern Poverty Law Center's "hate map," which triggered the attempted murders at the Family Research Council and the GOP baseball practice.
Terror Is Predictably Increasing
Examples of hostilities toward Trump supporters abound. Many are connected to the potential for violence should Trump win re-election. As the examples above show, however, the threat of terror is even greater should he lose. If Democrats gain control of the White House and other branches, the left has spoken openly of their intent to punish a huge swath of Americans with a program that threatens to cancel them, impose thought-reform programs on them, and worse.
How far will this go? Members of the domestic terror organization Weather Underground, headed up by 1960s radical Bill Ayers, explained some 50 years ago that when "the revolution" came, a lot of Americans would have to be located to education camps. This sounds eerily like what Reich and others are now proposing after they oust Trump. Weather Underground members said that those who didn't comply despite re-education, which they estimated would include about 25 million Americans, would have to be eradicated, as in killed.
Of course, that could never happen here, right? Just remember that history is littered with societies filled with decent, normal people who descended into chaos and murder, often incited by propaganda from a heavily controlled media. However unlikely this seems, we must pay close attention to these patterns so we don't repeat some of the darkest days of history.
2020-10-25
ISDH - Novel Coronavirus: Indiana COVID-19 Dashboard and Map
https://www.coronavirus.in.gov/2393.htm
In Indiana, we have 162,607 cases with a population of 6,72,000. People talk like there could be a vast number of mild cases that are unknown, but we are already up to 2.4% of the population that we know about. Among these, we have a death rate of 2.4%, which could be higher because of unresolved cases.
Indiana has recently been adding 2,000 to 2,800 new cases per day, which seems like a serious problem. At present trends, we could have 300,000 known cases by the end of the year.
In Indiana, we have 162,607 cases with a population of 6,72,000. People talk like there could be a vast number of mild cases that are unknown, but we are already up to 2.4% of the population that we know about. Among these, we have a death rate of 2.4%, which could be higher because of unresolved cases.
Indiana has recently been adding 2,000 to 2,800 new cases per day, which seems like a serious problem. At present trends, we could have 300,000 known cases by the end of the year.
2020-10-24
RealClearPolitics - 2020 - Latest Polls
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/
Biden's lead seems to be slipping away. I have thought for a month that Trump is actually winning.
2020-10-23
2020-10-22
2020-10-21
Laptop connected to Hunter Biden linked to FBI money laundering probe
The problem with corrupt people is that they act stupid, so they get caught eventually.
2020-10-20
2020-10-19
Response to herd immunity post.
I made these comments in response to the notion that the way to fight COVID is for enough people to get the disease to develop herd immunity. It was claimed that the death rate in New York has gone to almost zero... We can look at stats here: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ As of today, New York state has 892 new cases compared to 1584 cases for Indiana, despite New York having roughly 3 times the population. The total death rate in New York compared to cases is 6.4%. The total death rate in Indiana is 2.65%, which matches the US rate. However, in both states, if you compare deaths to recovered+deaths, which reflects the total number of resolved cases, then you get a higher percentage because this factors out unresolved cases. In New York, I get 7.5%, and in Indiana, we get 3.5%, and for the whole country, we get 4.1% If you compare new deaths to new cases, then you get 1.55% for New York and 1.45% in Indiana. Since these are only one-day figures, the numbers could be way off, but this is a long way from zero. You could attribute lower death rates due to better health treatments. Early death rates were spiked by mismanagement, especially in New York. It is not proven that the number of new cases in New York is is lower due to herd immunity, especially since only about 2.5% of the population has been infected. New York has been in lockdown for months, and they have been stricter than most states. It has been claimed that there are a larger number of asymptomatic cases, and there likely is, but I don't think that we have good evidence of what that is. The World Health Organization thinks that 1/10 people have been infected, but that still leaves 90% of the population who can spread the disease. The most optimistic projection that I have seen for the death rate of COVID is around 0.7%. This comes from the CDC. Infect 300 million people and you still have 2 million deaths.
We are so close to a vaccine that we should be trying to prevent more people from getting sick and dying.
2020-10-18
2020-10-17
2020-10-16
Spike in new COVID cases.
Not long ago in Indiana, we were looking at 500 new cases per day. I was kind of surprised when it crept over 1,000. The latest includes 300 cases whose reporting was delayed for technical reasons, but that still leaves us with 2,000 new cases.
Hiking accidents
I used to hear about accidents like this all the time while living in Utah. Many people went hiking in the mountains and accidents happen.
There was a young couple at my work, Trent and Alexis Pabst, who went hiking to the top of a mountain when a storm moved in. They were killed by lightning. I noticed the very dark storm clouds from a distance as I was driving home from work, and the next morning one of the secretaries at work was in tears.
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Best wishes,
John Coffey
John Coffey
On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 10:33 AM Albert Nelms <wrote:
2020 irony: Some people will not live long enough to die from Covid-19. Wear your mask anyway.
https://apple.news/Ad7xFUk72Ra2DJC3fuLULkg
2020-10-15
6G - Explained!
I think that 5G is not very practical yet, given that the high frequencies are easily blocked. However, this video is already talking about 6G, to come in 10 to 15 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvcAovqG5Kk
2020-10-13
Intel lost the game - AMD Ryzen 5000 Reveal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uWXfoX1x3A
In the old days, Moore's law (as I remember) said that computer power would double every 18 months. This was true for a long time. However, as they made the circuits extremely microscopic, the laws of physics started to get in the way. Over the last ten years, improvements have been more incremental. Now people get excited over a 20% increase.
However, AMD has made some big advancements recently.
2020-10-12
2020-10-09
I really like this digital no contact thermometer
I really like this digital no contact thermometer. It is smaller than it looks in the picture, which at first disappointed me, until I found out that it fits perfectly in my hand. The oral surgeon I went to used the same model to check my temperature.
It gives such consistent temperature readings, unlike my oral thermometer, that I stopped checking more than once.
WHO: 10% of world's people may have been infected with virus
Nine months ago today there were less than 45 cases that we knew about. Eight months ago it was about 25,000. Now they are telling us that possibly 760 million people have gotten the virus.
https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-archive-united-nations-54a3a5869c9ae4ee623497691e796083
https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-archive-united-nations-54a3a5869c9ae4ee623497691e796083
2020-10-06
The secret history of dirt
This is a bit environmentalist but interesting nevertheless.
It would be reasonable to assume that farmers have some training in how to take care of their soil as well as some incentive to do so. Otherwise, they would be getting lower yields every year. It is possible that they rely heavily on chemical fertilizers, which is mostly just nitrogen, instead of natural ones. Chemical fertilizers are derived from fossil fuels, which are a finite resource.
2020-10-05
Remembering César Pelli’s lost mark on the Midwest
I was 11 or 12 when they built the Commons mall. I loved it. They tore most of it down and turned it into offices. There is still a restaurant and a small "Commons" area with a children's playground.
2020-10-01
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