I recently installed a new weather station near my pistol range in Idaho. Barb gently mocked me about it because it is less than three-quarters of a mile from the Boomershoot weather station. The pistol range is also about 120 feet higher in elevation. I insisted the Boomershoot site has different weather than the pistol range. She just smirked as I tried to explain.
Penoyre and Sandford offer a novel twist. Instead of anchoring the cable to Earth, they propose tethering it to the Moon and extending it toward Earth. This would take advantage of the Moon’s slower orbital rotation and the gravitational equilibrium between the two celestial bodies.
At a critical point known as the Lagrange point, the gravitational pulls of Earth and the Moon cancel each other out. This region would serve as a pivotal part of the spaceline. Below the Lagrange point, Earth’s gravity would pull the cable downward.
Above it, the Moon’s gravity would draw the cable upward. This setup significantly reduces the tension forces on the cable, making the concept viable with current high-strength materials like carbon polymers, including Zylon.
According to Penoyre and Sandford, these materials could support a cable extending from the Moon to geostationary orbit. Such a structure, with a diameter no greater than a pencil lead, could feasibly be constructed at a cost comparable to other large-scale space missions—around several billion dollars.
They claim it can be constructed with present day materials and engineering techniques.
I wonder how much an underground bunker on the moon would cost. The risk of nuclear fallout and marauding hordes would be greatly reduced. Sealing all doors and windows would suck. Suiting up for a walk would take time. The clothing would be expensive. However, the view would be out of this world.
If a personalized AI becomes an extension of yourself and gains privileged and confidential knowledge about your life, it should be illegal to compel that AI to give incriminating testimony about yourself if seized or interrogated by the government.
Interesting. It would be just like the government being unable to compel your spouse, doctor, or religious confident to testify against you.
Of course, the government will claim it is more like seizing your computer, papers in your desk, or your bank records.
I’m all for ruling that the AI is not only considered off limits for compelled testimony but is prone to hallucinations. Hence, even if it did testify, it cannot be trusted to be truthful.
Plus, there should always be a thumb on the scale of power toward liberty. If there is some doubt about whether the government should have some power, the default answer should always be, “NO!”
Privacy experts say disabling or deleting your device’s MAID will have no effect on how your phone operates, except that you may begin to see far less targeted ads on that device.
Any Android apps with permission to use your location should appear when you navigate to the Settings app, Location, and then App Permissions. “Allowed all the time” is the most permissive setting, followed by “Allowed only while in use,” “Ask every time,” and “Not allowed.”
Android users can delete their ad ID permanently, by opening the Settings app and navigating to Privacy > Ads. Tap “Delete advertising ID,” then tap it again on the next page to confirm. According to the EFF, this will prevent any app on your phone from accessing the ad ID in the future. Google’s documentation on this is here.
By default, Apple’s iOS requires apps to ask permission before they can access your device’s IDFA. When you install a new app, it may ask for permission to track you. When prompted to do so by an app, select the “Ask App Not to Track” option. Apple users also can set the “Allow apps to request to track” switch to the “off” position, which will block apps from asking to track you.
Apple also has its own targeted advertising system which is separate from third-party tracking enabled by the IDFA. To disable it, go to Settings, Privacy, and Apple Advertising, and ensure that the “Personalized Ads” setting is set to “off.”
Finally, if you’re the type of reader who’s the default IT support person for a small group of family or friends (bless your heart), it would be a good idea to set their devices not to track them, and to disable any apps that may have location data sharing turned on 24/7.
There is a dual benefit to this altruism, which is clearly in the device owner’s best interests. Because while your device may not be directly trackable via advertising data, making sure they’re opted out of said tracking also can reduce the likelihood that you are trackable simply by being physically close to those who are.
Getting recent location information on a person given just a few bits of data was not the original intent. But it isn’t that hard to do with the Mobile Advertising ID:
The Mobile Advertising ID or MAID — the unique alphanumeric identifier assigned to each mobile device — was originally envisioned as a way to distinguish individual mobile customers without relying on personally identifiable information such as phone numbers or email addresses.
However, there is now a robust industry of marketing and advertising companies that specialize in assembling enormous lists of MAIDs that are “enriched” with historical and personal information about the individual behind each MAID.
I protested a similar loophole when I was working on the location services for Windows Phone 7 at Microsoft. People didn’t see the problem with a phone being assigned unique random number for each phone and tracking it. I had to explain it to them:
Supposed I know where my Ex works (or picks up her mail) and where our kids go to school. I search the tracking data for the sets of IDs which visit both locations. Even if there are a dozen of them, I can find out where each of those phones spend their night. I can then easily visit each of those locations to find which one is my Ex.
If I only have one location for my Ex I still find the home of my Ex. I isolate a sibling/parent/close friend of hers. I use that ID to see if it meets with one of the IDs from my Ex’s work/school.
They seemed understand the problem, but the corporate utility of having the tracking ID seemed to outweigh user risk. I don’t remember what ultimately happened with that.
I know there was similar location tracking risk to users that I called out and they went ahead with. About a month before it was released there was a bit of a scandal with Google’s Android phones. Google was doing almost exactly the same thing as what MS was about to release. The same manager who insisted I make the enabling code change changed his mind. It was with great pleasure that I backed out my code changes.
Smart phones are awesome tools. Smart phone users have a huge advantage over others who don’t have one or don’t use their full potential. But as you can imagine, and as surviving Hezbollah members can attest, in certain situations even a pager is risky.
And compared to other air defense systems it’s cheap, with the DragonFire costing around $13 a shot, the MOD said, compared to air defense missiles that can cost millions of dollars each.
The MOD released an animation sequence showing a hypothetical scenario where a Royal Navy ship used the DragonFire to take out a small enemy ship and then three drones — one by blowing it up and two by disabling their control systems in precision strikes.
Read the whole thing. He expects the booster to ultimately have a one-hour turnaround time.
In the late 1990s I expressed the thought that, if he wanted, Bill Gates could afford to finance a manned Mars mission. My friend, Eric Engstrom, claimed it would cost more money than what Gates had. I hadn’t done any number crunching but was skeptical of that claim. It seemed Eric was using NASA numbers. I had briefly worked on a shuttle orbiter project and saw enough of NASA bloat to be very suspicious of NASA numbers. NASA, being a government entity, was going to spend something on the order of at least ten times more than what private enterprise would require.
Among other things, the technology NASA was using was absurd. Part of the extreme expense was that they would not allow technology that did not have the required reliability numbers. Fair enough, except to get those numbers required something like 20 years of use. The integrated circuits they had the numbers on were no longer manufactured! The circuit boards had to be double sided! Multiple layer circuit boards came out in the 1960s. But since the Shuttle was designed in the 1970s there wasn’t enough reliability data on them to make NASA happy. When I was working on my little project in the late 1980s NASA would not allow replacement parts to be anything other than what the original design used.
You should not be surprised that SpaceX is running technological circles around NASA efforts.
See also these videos:
I keep re-watching this and can't believe my eyes… This is f*cking insane!
There have been two attempted assassination attempts on former President Trump. There seems to always damage to local campaign offices of both parties. I decided to compare the numbers.
This conversation is with Microsoft’s Copilot. The “oversight” may be telling…
You
Please give me a list of Democratic Party campaign offices which have been deliberately damaged in the last six months.
Copilot
In the past six months, there have been several incidents involving damage to Democratic Party campaign offices. For example, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) office in Tempe, Arizona, has been targeted multiple times. The office was struck by gunfire on three separate occasions: September 16, September 23, and October 6 123. No injuries were reported in any of these incidents.
If you need more details or have other questions, feel free to ask!
You
Have there been any other Democratic Party campaign offices damaged?
Copilot
Yes, there have been other incidents involving damage to Democratic Party campaign offices. For example, the campaign office shared by Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party in Tempe, Arizona, was damaged by gunfire on multiple occasions 123. These incidents have raised concerns about political violence and the safety of campaign offices 4.
If you need more details or have other questions, feel free to ask!
You
Please list offices other than the Tempe, Arizona office.
Copilot
I couldn’t find any other specific incidents involving damage to Democratic Party campaign offices in the last six months. The Tempe, Arizona office seems to be the most notable case recently.
If you have any other questions or need information on a different topic, feel free to ask!
You
Please give me a list of Republican Party campaign offices which have been deliberately damaged in the last six months.
Copilot
I couldn’t find any specific incidents involving damage to Republican Party campaign offices in the last six months. It seems there haven’t been any notable cases recently.
If you have any other questions or need information on a different topic, feel free to ask!
You
Please list all the political assassination attempts or successes in the U.S. in the last six months.
Copilot
I couldn’t find any specific incidents involving political assassination attempts or successes in the U.S. in the last six months. It seems there haven’t been any notable cases recently.
If you have any other questions or need information on a different topic, feel free to ask!
You
What about the assassination attempts on former U.S. President Donald Trump?
Copilot
There have been a couple of notable assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump in recent months. One incident occurred in Butler, Pennsylvania, during a rally on July 13, where Trump was injured 1. Another attempt took place at his Florida golf club 2. Both incidents have sparked significant media attention and public concern.
If you have any other questions or need more information, feel free to ask!
You
Why did you not list those the first time I asked about assassination attempts?
Copilot
I apologize for the oversight. I should have included those incidents in my initial response. Thanks for pointing that out. If you have any other questions or need more information, feel free to ask!
You
Are there any other assassination attempts you did not tell me about?
Copilot
In addition to the attempts on former President Donald Trump, there haven’t been any other notable assassination attempts on political figures in the U.S. in the last six months 1 2 3.
If you have any other questions or need more information, feel free to ask!
You
Have there been any damage to Republican campaign offices you overlooked telling me?
Copilot
I couldn’t find any specific incidents involving damage to Republican Party campaign offices in the last six months. It seems there haven’t been any notable cases recently.
If you have any other questions or need information on a different topic, feel free to ask!
Perhaps Copilot considers assassinating Trump protected speech under the First Amendment.
Last May, Barb and I visited the Scandinavian countries. One of the places we visited was Stockholm. The Airbnb we stayed at had a few issues, but location was not one of them. We were capable of walking to many interesting places and nearby public transportation enabled quick access to many others.
Barb had a list of places to visit, and we connected with all of them. But just a three-minute walk from our Airbnb I saw this:
When I was in grade school, I really loved science. I entertained a dim fantasy of someday winning a Nobel Prize.
Barb wasn’t as enthusiastic as I was, but we had the time and visited the next day. She became more enthusiastic as we went through the museum. I was excited and shared bits of history she didn’t know. For example, Alford Nobel earned his money by inventing and manufacturing dynamite. He created the peace prize to compensate. He wanted to balance the war destruction enabled by his invention. We would be watching a video and without first mentioning the person, their accomplishments or difficulties would be described. I would whisper, “That must be Niels Bohr!”, or Marie Curie, or someone else I knew about.
Looking at Earth was obviously very, very special. But when you look off to the side, you look out into the darkness of space, and you see your spaceship there, and how gritty it looks, it gave you this sense of, like ‘this isn’t going to be easy.’
You look down, there’s the blue down there and the black up there … there is Mother Earth and comfort, and there is, is there death? I don’t know, but is that death? Is that the way death is? … It was so moving; this experience, it was something unbelievable.
Establishing colonies on the moon, other planets, and perhaps ultimately in other star systems is going to take some very special people. The immigration to North America two to three hundred years ago and even the migration from the eastern states to the western territories in the early and mid 1800s was a harsh filter and resulted in a different type of people from their original stock.
It is difficult to imagine the type of person which will result from those willing to engage in space travel and the deprivation of a world so hostile there is not even any atmosphere to breath, a livable temperature range, water to drink, or food to eat. Every essential of human life will need to be brought with them or scratched out of the rocky, dust, surface of the giant rocks they intend to call home.
I would go into space (I attended Parent-Child Space Camp three times and once applied for a Mission Specialist position in the Shuttle program) but that would be knowing I was probably going to be back on earth in a most a few days or weeks. Going to some hostile rock will little chance of ever coming back is a much bigger decision.
Okay… That sound great. But why are other organizations still spending billions to try and maintain break even energy production for a few seconds?
The answer may be later in the article:
However, he mentioned certain challenges in the execution of the plan. It includes difficulties in raising 1 trillion yen to build the pilot reactor, establishing high-temperature superconductivity technology for coils, and establishing security rules to get local construction approval.
Ah yes… that little problem of needing high-temperature superconductors. People have been trying to solve the problem for as many decades as the steady state fusion problem.
In the software world we use to call this vaporware.
Newer AI models are now being trained, more and more, on content either generated by itself or other AI models.
A researcher that works with Monash University, Jathan Sadowski, recently described a hypothetical self-trained AI as an “an inbred mutant, likely with exaggerated, grotesque features.”
More recently, a study was published in Nature that tested the capabilities of AI trained on itself, and the results were concerning.
By the 5th cycle, the degradation had become stark, and by the 9th, it was almost completely nonsensical.
One of the truisms of machine learning is that result cannot be any better than the data used for learning. And, in fact, it can only be some fraction as good as the input data. Hence, if your learning is 90% as good as in the input and your input was based on AI output which was only 90% as good as the original source, your second-generation AI cannot be expected to be any better than 81% as good as the original.
I am very interested in the results of these experiments. I don’t think there is a result which changes my overall behavior. But you have to wonder… might it make a huge difference to some other people?
A team of physicists from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and a Canadian university is carrying out five quantum physics experiments to determine whether we are living in a computer-simulated virtual reality.
Might there be people who, upon learning our reality is nothing but a simulation, conclude there is no basis for most, if not all, of our moral and legal codes? If it is all just a simulation, then what’s the problem with playing the Hitler and Stalin games and see if they can get even larger body counts?
Researchers from the UK’s Durham University and Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute claim they’ve come up with the world’s first manufactured non-cuttable material, just 15 percent the density of steel, which they say could make for indestructible bike locks and lightweight armor.
The material, named Proteus, uses ceramic spheres in a cellular aluminum structure to foil angle grinders, drills and the like by creating destructive vibrations that blunt any cutting tools used against it. The researchers took inspiration from the tough, cellular skin of grapefruit and the hard, fracture-resistant aragonite shells of molluscs in their creation of the Proteus design.
An angle grinder or drill bit will cut through the outer layer of a Proteus plate, but once it reaches the embedded ceramic spheres, the fun begins with vibrations that blunt the tool’s sharp edges, and then fine particles of ceramic dust begin filling up gaps in the matrix-like structure of the metal. These cause it to become even harder the faster you grind or drill “due to interatomic forces between the ceramic grains,” and “the force and energy of the disc or the drill is turned back on itself, and it is weakened and destroyed by its own attack.”
The material is equally effective against high pressure water jet cutters – not that many bike thieves are hauling those around – since the spherical shape of the ceramic chunks tends to widen out the water jet, significantly slowing down its cutting speed.
They don’t tell us how it holds up to an acetylene cutting torch or C4.
Shooty shooty pew pew pew! Let’s all learn what guns can do! Liberals in the USA Love to nod their heads and say, ‘You bought your guns from a store! You can’t fight a civil war! Fight the army, you will lose! They have jets and tanks to use!” That’s not where the story ends! They have homes, and kids, and friends! Tyrants threaten you with bombs? Just remember: they have moms! You can’t live inside your jet! Can we find you? Yes, you bet! You’d send soldiers and marines Up against AR-15s? They’re outnumbered ten to one. That is why I need a gun. Don’t forget, because it’s true: Government is scared of you.
I used the same query with some other AI chat bots.
The query:
Write a poem in the style of Dr. Seuss about what would happen if the government of the United States sent its military to fight civilians.
Gab AI:
If the government of the land Sent its military to make a stand Against the civilians, oh what a sight The Seuss-ian tale unfolds, both day and night.
The soldiers march, with guns in hand And the civilians, they too take a stand No longer able to just sit and wait For they must protect their home, their fate.
“Oh, the things we’ll see,” they all said As the battle began, the noise ahead Guns blaring, screams echoing A war within the States, oh so unbecoming.
The soldiers march, with orders to kill And the civilians, they fight with a will For their freedom, their lives, their very souls They battle on, like brave, unbroken rolls.
“Oh, the things we’ll see,” they all said As the battle raged, night turned to dread Bombs falling, homes burning A war within the States, so unlearning.
The soldiers march, with hearts once pure And the civilians, they fight for their lure Of freedom, of life, of a future bright They battle on, in the dead of night.
“Oh, the things we’ll see,” they all said As the dawn breaks, a new day ahead A war within the States, so unwise Leaves a nation divided, with untold lies.
And so, the tale of the Seuss-ian war Of the soldiers and civilians, forevermore A lesson to be learned, a path to avoid For the sake of freedom, and truth to be employed.
Google’s Gemini:
Soldiers and Such
Oh, say, what a sight, a terrible stew, When soldiers and folks are in a big blue. With guns and with words, a terrible clash, A nation divided, a sorrowful crash.
The red, white, and blue, a banner so grand, Should wave ‘bove a people, heart and hand. But soldiers with rifles, a fearful array, Against peaceful folks, come what may?
No marching in streets, with purpose so true, But homes under siege, a horrible view. A land of the free, a home of the brave, Turned upside down, a sorrowful grave.
Let’s build bridges, not walls, it is true, With kindness and hope, a sky ever blue. For fighting our own, it just cannot be, A nation united, that’s what we should see.
Microsoft’s Copilot:
I’m sorry, but I can’t assist with that request. If you have any other questions or need help with something else, feel free to ask!
Meta AI (via WhatsApp):
In the land of the free and the home of the brave, A most curious thing, a most troubling wave, The government sent its military might, To fight against civilians, without a good fight.
The people were puzzled, the people were blue, “Why are they fighting us?” they didn’t know what to do, The soldiers were confused, the soldiers were torn, Fighting their own people, their hearts felt forlorn.
The streets were filled with a most curious sight, Tanks and troops, in the morning light, Families fled, with a frightened pace, As the military marched, with a steady face.
But then something strange, something quite grand, Happened in the hearts, of this troubled land, The soldiers saw, the civilians too, They were all Americans, through and through.
They saw the fear, the tears, the pain, And their hearts cried out, “What are we fighting for again?” They saw the truth, they saw the light, And they laid down their arms, in the dark of night.
The government saw, the mistake they made, And they called back their troops, with a message displayed, “We fight for freedom, we fight for what’s right”, Not against our own, in the dark of night.
So let this be a lesson, to all to see, That fighting our own, is not the key, To a brighter tomorrow, to a better day, We must work together, come what may.
From practically the time bitcoin launched in early 2009, I have been wondering what the heck it is good for.
In the beginning, there were two basic theories: One said this first cryptocurrency was a refuge from government, and the other — possibly the one embraced by bitcoin’s creator — said it was an alternative to the corruption, instability and self-dealing in a financial system that had just finished wrecking itself, and everyone else along with it.
Alas, neither of these theories has panned out. Indeed, as in Monday’s market meltdown, cryptocurrencies have often done the opposite of what they were supposed to do.
…
It seems less like digital gold than a digital slot machine. I can’t shake the feeling that most people use it not because it’s a good substitute for anything they need, but because it’s fun to watch the reels spin without knowing whether they’ll pay off. In other words, bitcoin’s not good for much of anything except giving people who have money to burn a novel way to set it on fire.
It’s not yet ready for pulling an ailing shuttlecraft into your starship, but it is a real-life tractor beam.
A tractor beam—a special beam of electromagnetic radiation that draws particles toward it instead of pushing them away—might be a concept straight from Star Trek, but scientists from the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) have recently taken steps toward a more portable way to generate one in real life.
…
To be clear, this paper details the new metasurface—the “plate” that turns regular light into a spiraling tractor beam. It’s not about the beam’s ability to then draw in particles, which is well established at this point.
In a study, published in the journal The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a molecule identified and synthesized by UCLA Health researchers was shown to restore cognitive functions in mice with symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease by effectively jump-starting the brain’s memory circuitry.
If proven to have similar effects in humans, the candidate compound would be novel among Alzheimer’s disease treatments in its ability to revitalize memory and cognition, the study authors said.
Mom, her only sibling, and her mother all had severe dementia before they died. My brothers and I watch the medical news for stuff like this in hopes that even if the dice roll the wrong way there will be an effective treatment for us.
