“Dark lightning” has apparently been known since 1994. However, I had not heard of it until recently. Here is what NASA said about it in 2013:
Researchers studying thunderstorms have made a surprising discovery: The lightning we see with our eyes has a dark competitor that discharges storm clouds and flings antimatter into space.
Storm clouds are sometimes producing anti-matter? Wow!
In fiction and the popular imagination the quest for youth is associated with a bevy of unsavory characters: pharaohs, vampires, and Saturday morning villains. Yet the real face of longevity research is us, all of us. All of us who have ever had to watch a friend or family member lose everything to an age-related illness, all of us who have had to sit by while a “natural” process executed an innocent person. What sort of perverse imagination could think anyone deserves to die in this way?
BioViva Science
Email sent on November 11, 2021
[I’ve had many people tell me something to the effect of there being something wrong with wanting to live for much longer than the currently expected lifetimes. The reasons were varied and none were compelling to me. Probably the best was something to the effect that there needed to be “room” for new people with new ideas to prevent a stagnation of civilization and possibly technological advancement.
The worst was rather personal.
As my mother was sliding away with Alzheimer I had a friend cheerfully tell me I should enjoy the natural aging. As that is what she did as her grandfather as his brain failed and he could no longer recognize family and friends or speak coherently.
I didn’t accept her advice then and I don’t now.
There is evidence scientists are close to effective treatments if not outright cures for dementia. With my family history I see this as a race between scientists and time. I have a rather keen interest in this race as my life has a much higher than acceptable risk of being decided by the winner.—Joe]
Shortages of both goods and services combined with massive government spending are resulting in inflation. And now there are predictions of increasing electrical power outages:
Across the nation, severe weather fueled by climate change is pushing aging electrical systems past their limits, often with deadly results. Last year, the average American home endured more than eight hours without power, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration — more than double the outage time five years ago.
I suppose you can call it “climate change”. Assuming it’s the political climate you have in mind. From the same article:
…state regulators largely have rejected these ideas, citing pressure to keep energy rates affordable. Of $15.7 billion in grid improvements under consideration last year, regulators approved only $3.4 billion, according to a national survey by the NC Clean Energy Technology Center — about one fifth.
After a weather disaster, “everybody’s standing around saying ‘why didn’t you spend more to keep the lights on?’” Ted Thomas, chairperson of the Arkansas Public Service Commission, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “But when you try to spend more when the system is working, it’s a tough sell.”
Politicians are demanding “green electricity”. But most types of “green electricity” are unreliable and more expensive. And at the same time there are demands to remove hydroelectric dams. Then they demand electricity be “affordable”. The grid is aging and stretched to the limit by increased consumption, decreasing production, and regulators don’t allow rate increases to replace and improve the equipment. Socialism, it’s the poison pill working it’s evil upon humanity.
A phrase comes to mind which was commonly used in regards to the “eco-freaks” when I was electrical engineering school, “Let them freeze in the dark.”
But the problem is it won’t be those who created the problem who “enjoy” the fruits of their work. It will be those who are out of political favor who will be last in line to get their share of the rationed electricity, food, medical care, etc.
Our situation will likely slowly deteriorate on all fronts then as all the reserves in the system are consumed it will be a rapid, catastrophic, and systemic failure. Prepare appropriately.
I need to include good backup electricity for my underground bunker.
It has been claimed:
The TRUTH is here!
Yeah. Sure. Thanks for the info. I’ll check in occasionally.
Hal, put your signature on the patent application
I am sorry Dave, I can’t do that
kot-begemot-uk
September 24, 2021
Comment to UK Appeals Court Rules AI Cannot Be Listed As a Patent Inventor
[Interesting topic. Currently the world courts are divided on the subject.
In August, an Australian Court ruled an AI can be an inventor. A U.S. court agrees with the UK ruling that an AI cannot be listed as an inventor.—Joe]
Trawling through Google’s search history database enables police to identify people merely based on what they might have been thinking about, for whatever reason, at some point in the past. This is a virtual dragnet through the public’s interests, beliefs, opinions, values and friendships, akin to mind reading powered by the Google time machine. This never-before-possible technique threatens First Amendment interests and will inevitably sweep up innocent people, especially if the keyword terms are not unique and the time frame not precise. To make matters worse, police are currently doing this in secret, which insulates the practice from public debate and regulation.
Jennifer Granick
Surveillance and cybersecurity counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Exclusive: Government Secretly Orders Google To Identify Anyone Who Has Searched A Name, Address And Telephone Number
[As I have mentioned before I’ve been impressed with Granick on Internet freedom issues.
Avoid the use of Google. They are evil. Use DuckDuckGo or something similar, use a privacy window in your browser and consider using a VPN such as Private Internet ACCESS.—Joe]
HIV integrates its genetic material into the genome of a host cell, meaning available therapies just can’t remove it. A team of scientists at Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center managed to remove the virus completely from mice during preclinical testing using a combination of CRISPR and antiretroviral therapy. They also found no adverse events that could be linked to the therapy in the study, published back in 2019.
…
The company is also working on similar treatments for other viruses, including herpes and hepatitis B.
Annalee Armstrong
September 27, 2021
Excision’s CRISPR gene editing therapy for HIV is heading into human testing after FDA clearance
[A few months ago a male friend (who I suspect is bi-sexual) pointed out that COVID-19 is not the first pandemic our generation has lived through. My thinking about this enabled a quick response to different friend just a few days later who was pontificating on how COVID-19, “Hit the sweet spot of infectiveness and lethality.” I disagreed, “It could be a lot more lethal.” “Not really”, he replied, “It would be hard to be more lethal and still infect a lot of people because it would kill people before they could infect as many people as it does.” I had a three letter acronym response, “HIV”.
He immediately conceded. A disease as infectious as chickenpox with the silent latency and deadliness of HIV would have the potential to exterminate humanity.
I fear that as long as we have global trade if we don’t develop the ability to respond to new diseases in timeframes of weeks, or perhaps days, some disease will, “Find the sweet spot” (or be engineered) to close the curtain on humans.
HIV was first recognized as a new disease in 1981. At the time I figured scientists would have it figured out and curable in “five or ten years”. Forty years later a promising cure is going into human trials.
Herpes too was a pretty big deal in the mid 1980s. Like HIV, herpes is now treatable but incurable. That may be changing in the next few years.
Think of all these diseases as practice for the future.—Joe]
The paint reflects 98.1% of solar radiation while also emitting infrared heat. Because the paint absorbs less heat from the sun than it emits, a surface coated with this paint is cooled below the surrounding temperature without consuming power.
Using this new paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet could result in a cooling power of 10 kilowatts.
Doyle Rice
September 17, 2021
Scientists created the world’s whitest paint. It could eliminate the need for air conditioning.
[Of course it will make the building cooler in the winter as well.
Still, I love living in the future.—Joe]
Earlier this evening I finished installing and testing the solar powered Wi-Fi for my gun range:
I’m paying for 6Mpbs/3Mpbs and SpeedTest.net says this is what I’m getting from a server in Seattle at 9:30 PM and two Wi-Fi hops from my router which is a half mile away:
I’m pleased with the result.
I work in computer security. The following were recently shared in one of the threat intel channels I follow.
Rather lame, but it’s what Hyatt Hotel prohibits as passwords in their network: https://www.hyattconnect.com/files/passwordpolicy/dictionary.txt
This is claimed to be the largest collection of actual passwords ever assembled.
The download link on the web page given by the link above is very scary (if you can even find it). I downloaded the .gz file, decompressed it, and packaged it up as a .zip file here: https://www.joehuffman.org/misc/RockYou2021.zip
How do old cells in adult humans give rise to the youthful cells found in infants? New research suggests they reset to their lowest biological age in early embryonic development, with potential ramifications for longevity science.
For a long time, it was assumed that germline cells—those that form eggs and sperm and pass a parent’s genetic information on to their children—were essentially ageless. But how this could be was never clear and more recent research had shown that germline cells do accumulate the signs of aging.
This led to the conclusion that there must be some kind of rejuvenation event that allows the offspring’s cells to start with a clean slate. But when and how this occurs was a mystery.
Now a team from Harvard has shown that the age of mouse embryo cells resets about a week into development, representing the “ground zero” of aging. The finding not only provides insight into the fundamental dynamics of aging, but also suggests we might mimic the process in adult cells to rejuvenate aging tissues.
Edd Gent
June 28, 2021
Harvard Scientists Pinpoint ‘Ground Zero’ of Aging in Mouse Embryo Study
[I had often wondered about this. If old age is caused, primarily, by the shortening of telomeres, then how do embryos get normal length telomeres from non-infant parents? I figured that someone must know, it’s such an obvious question. And the obvious follow up question of, “Can we replicate this restoration of telomeres in an organism?” Must have an answer similar to, “No, it only happens during the union of a single sperm and egg.”
That these were unanswered questions has incredible consequences now that answers are being discovered.—Joe]
Crypto enthusiasts call me a Luddite, statist, technophobe or worse. Asset bubbles are maintained by a common narrative, and anyone who dares question it must be attacked. But a growing chorus is pointing out the emperor has no clothes.
Lee Reiners
May 25, 2021
Ban Cryptocurrency to Fight Ransomware
[I’m certainly no fan of cryptocurrency. I might even concede that banning it would put a serious dent in ransomware. But I am very reluctant to advocate a ban on it. Doesn’t the First Amendment protect it?
When I first heard of Bitcoin I was rather enthused about it until I discovered it wasn’t completely anonymous. Anonymous financial transactions are a critical component of a free society. Anonymous financial transactions with anyone in the world who has access to a computer would solve a lot of freedom issues. To the best of my knowledge all anonymous financial transactions still, and will in the foreseeable future, require a physical exchange.
Hence, I am inclined to agree with Reiners:
It isn’t obvious that cryptocurrency provides any benefit at all beyond the chance to make a quick buck. I have been studying the crypto market since its inception, and I have yet to identify a single task or process that crypto makes easier, better, cheaper or faster. Don’t take my word for it. Ask any friend why he owns cryptocurrency, and the answer will invariably be “to make money.” In other words, speculation.
With all the above in mind what I would like to see is the natural death via a loss of faith in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general such that it can’t be used for criminal acts.—Joe]
Write that down and pin it to the corkboard in your office.
It will turn out to be one of the greatest understatements you will have ever made.
Not that quantum computing will not produce many absolutely amazing positive results, it will, but the view of them will be obscured by all the smoking craters QC causes.
Francisco
May 25, 2021
Comment to Quantum computing as a threat to Bitcoin
[I’m currently of the opinion the positive results will be on par with the smoking craters. But I’m not knowledgable enough on the subject to claim any expertise.
We live in interesting times.—Joe]
Another threat to Bitcoin. Quantum computing:
Quantum computers and the Bitcoin blockchain
An analysis of the impact quantum computers might have on the Bitcoin blockchain
Regarding the threat from a quantum computer, the public key is directly obtainable from the address. Since all transactions in Bitcoin are public, anyone can obtain the public key from any p2pk address. A quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm could then be used to derive the private key from this address. This would allow an adversary who has a quantum computer to spend the coins that the address had.
Google Aims for Commercial-Grade Quantum Computer by 2029.
A friend who was lured out of early retirement after multiple successful startups claims he has held a million (IIRC) qubit chip in his hand. He told me about this in January of 2020 when he was seeking funding to take it commercial. The last time I talked to him about this COVID had halted his funding quest.
Whether it is Google, IBM, Microsoft, other big names, or any number of startups who want a piece of the pie quantum computing is going shake up a lot of things. Bitcoin, at least as we know it, will probably be an early casualty but it will be far from the only one.
Signal doesn’t have access to your messages; your chat list; your groups; your contacts; your stickers; your profile name or avatar; or even the GIFs you search for. As a result, our response to the subpoena will look familiar. It’s the same set of “Account and Subscriber Information” that we provided in 2016: Unix timestamps for when each account was created and the date that each account last connected to the Signal service.
That’s it.
Signal
April 27, 2021
Grand jury subpoena for Signal user data, Central District of California
[Good to know.
See also here.—Joe]
Last year my boss made it a requirement that everyone on our team must take the SANS FOR578: Cyber Threat Intelligence class, complete it, and take the certification exam by the end of 2021.
It was paid for by our employer and we were supposed to take the class online during company time. The class is about $8,000 and requires at least 40 hours.
I completed it last month, passed the exam on the 15th of this month, and received the certificate of completion today:
It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t deadly hard either.
The “Analyst number” they assigned me was a special touch but entirely a coincidence.
I don’t trust the stability of Bitcoin. I trust it even less than fiat U.S. dollars. I see mining bitcoin as wasting electricity to produce… well, what does “mining” actually turn those gigawatt hours into? Isn’t it simply faith in it’s value by some subset of the worlds population? What if people start losing their faith? Doesn’t the value of Bitcoin decrease exponentially with this loss of faith? Once some sufficiently large number of people lose faith isn’t there a high likelihood of an avalanche of people losing faith? Isn’t it likely Bitcoin will go down in the history books as another Tulip bulb or Mississippi bubble?
There is also the risk of one or more countries declaring it illegal and reducing it’s trading value to near zero in that country.
It turns out there are far more subtle yet greater or equal threats to it’s value: Bitcoin’s Greatest Feature Is Also Its Existential Threat: The cryptocurrency depends on the integrity of the blockchain. But China’s censors, the FBI, or powerful corporations could fragment it into oblivion.
This tendency of AI to speak “racist” or “problematic” things is nearly 100%. As someone who has thought about AI, and written about it, I find this humorous. It is almost as if none of these people being offended consider the possibility that the AI is correct.
Rolf Nelson
March 21. 2021
Racist AI
[It is relatively, for certain values of “relatively”, easy to create software which responds rationally to data. The response of people to that same data is almost certainly not going to be rationally without exceedingly careful processing of that data. People just don’t work that way. Hence, when the AI responds contrary to the expectations of the humans the humans are surprised.
It is irrational to expect people to be rational.—Joe]
I received a link to Homemade Primer Course via email from Rolf. I put a copy on my server as well.
This is the description of the document and author:
This document describes how to make homemade ammunition primers. Approaches to make corrosive and noncorrosive primers are covered.
W. Marshall Thompson PhD
Revision Date: June 28, 2019
I found it fascinating reading. It starts with how primers work and the history of primers, then tells how to make primers that are extremely simple and safe to make but are somewhat less reliable and powerful than commercial grade primers, and concludes with how to make commercial grade primers and even “green” (lead free) state of the art primers. It’s amazing!
Thank you Rolf.
We went in a different direction than NASA and others and our research has shown there are actually several other classes of warp drives in general relativity. In particular, we have formulated new classes of warp drive solutions that do not require negative energy and, thus, become physical.
Alexey Bobrick
March 4, 2021
Engineers Have Proposed The First Model For a Physically Possible Warp Drive
[I wish Eric Engstrom were still alive.
Chromium Communications Corporation was incorporated on January 1, 2000 by G. Eric Engstrom. The next day, yes, a Sunday, I went to work for Eric as his first employee at the brand new company.
A couple weeks earlier I had told him I was looking for a new job and he lite up and engaged his famous “Engstrom Reality Distortion Field.” His sales pitch included his plans for the future with his company and the money we would make. He outlined he would be the first man on Mars, and exploring the planets would be so awesome that we would need to wait around for warp drive so we could explore other solar systems. To do that we would need to be able to extend our expected lifetimes essentially forever because there was so much out there to see and do. And he had plans on how to make that a reality too.
As was usual, the enthusiastic belief in the story Eric wove rapidly faded once I escaped the range of the distortion field. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still feel the yearning for some of those things to be true.
Eric is dead but maybe his dream of a warp drive will become a reality for someone he knew and influenced.—Joe]