Cavalcade of Mammals

Kindle e-reader models

Windsurf Launches SWE-1: AI Models Built for the Entire Software Engineering Process

Chicago did it, in 2025 we had the fewest murders recorded since 1965–416 in 2025, 395 in 1965!

J6ers: Where Are They Now? Catching up with notorious insurrection offenders a year after Trump’s pardon spree.

JD Vance Roasted After Comparing Trump Economy to ‘Titanic’

Nature article on cuts to Science funding under the Trump administration. Cuts of 25% to 35% this year. Fewer new grants funded. Science agency staff cut 20%. International students down 17%. Nature analysis.

Trump’s acting cyber chief uploaded sensitive files into a public version of ChatGPT

Reported in the Guardian, “AI being used to help cut A&E waiting times in England this winter” by Hannah Devlin. “

The A&E forecasting tool predicts when demand will be highest, allowing trusts to better plan staffing and bed space. The prediction algorithm is trained on historical data including weather trends, school holidays, and rates of flu and Covid to determine how many people are likely to visit A&E.

A&E is England’s term (Accident & Emergency) for the ER. So the national government brought this in from the top. The company and ‘AI’ is not described in the article, really just a puff piece for the government directors, but it is Faculty AI, a UK company. The tool is ‘available’ to all the NHS trusts, not clear if there’s much usage of it.

What does this ‘demand prediction tool’ predict? More demand during cold snaps and heat waves, on school holidays, and higher demand during peak flu and Covid season. Are these pedestrian predictions worth millions of pounds? Doubtful.

User Clip: Trumps insane mental asylum rant

If He Builds It, Tear It Down. Pendulums must swing. by Hamilton Nolan

Illumina: Introducing constellation mapped read technology

Monitor network traffic to web server:
tshark ‘tcp port 80 and (((ip[2:2] – ((ip[0]&0xf)<<2)) – ((tcp[12]&0xf0)>>2)) != 0)’

He made beer that’s also a vaccine. Now controversy is brewing. A scientist’s unconventional project illustrates many challenges in developing new vaccines. by Tina Hesman Saey

Golf Carts w/missing wheels: Rebutting Sen. Lankford’s CNN Appearance, Part 2

Within five years, anything above an entry-level bike will require batteries — and I don’t like it. Bikes shouldn’t need batteries to work: a stance against electronic shifting’s ubiquity. by Michael Venutolo-Mantovani

Setting up web commerce / shopping cart on a WordPress site: woocommerce module & oceawp theme.

Updated Voronoi_inkscape_1.4.2.zip extension to work with Inkscape 1.4.2! (ver 1.1, ver 1.3 of the extension.). To install, go to Inscape -> Extensions -> Manage extension -> Install packages tab -> click on file icon and select the zip file.

Takes as input a shape to fill with a Voronoi diagram. The number of levels of recursive Voronoi diagrams can be set.

Options

Random seed points: Number of starting points. The distribution of the starting points is set for each level of the diagram.

Options:
Levels of recursion: Within each Voronoi region, a new Voronoi diagram is created.

Level(rand_type):relax,…: Sets of parameters for each Voronoi diagram level.
<level>(<normalization method>[param1=n;parms2 = n.n; params3=foo…]):<Llyod’s relaxation interations>
The randomization type can be ‘normdist’, ‘normdist_edge’, ‘random’. ‘Random’ distributes the seed points randomly. ‘Normdist’ distributes the seed points around one or more ‘centers’ (default is 1 center), distributed around the centroid. ‘Normdist_edge’ moves the seeds away from the centers toward the edge.
Llyod’s relaxation moves each of the points halfway between its current position and the centroid of the Voronoi polygon it is located in with each iteration.

Parameters:
centers = 2 – Number of centers to cluster ‘normdist’ random points around. Centers are spaced at center_dist from the centroid of the input path.
keep_centers = 0,1,3… – Which of the centers to use. Numbering starts at 0.
center_dist = 1.23 – Distance from the path centroid to place the random seed centers. dist = size / center_dist. Default = 2.0. Large numbers push the centers towards the edge.
min_dist = 1.23 – Minimum distance of random points from the edge of the path. In Inkscape units. Default = 5.
sd = 1.23 – Standard deviation of the random points. sd = standard deviation of the random points. sd = size / sd. Larger numbers give a tighter distribution. Default = 2.5.
xy = x1,y1, x2,y2… – Explicitly enter random seed point locations. In Inkscape units. Overrides random dist center parameters.

Return lines or polygons: The Voronoi regions are added to the document as polygons or lines.

Examples:

340 mm diameter circle as a polygon of 30 points.
Parameters: 1(normdist[centers=3;center_dist=1.2;sd=4.14;min_dist=25]):1

Two levels of recursion:

Parameters: 2(normdist[centers=3;center_dist=1.2;sd=4.14;min_dist=25]):1, 1(normdist):1

James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers. He co-discovered DNA’s structure but later engaged in rank racism and sexism. by Sharon Begley

“From today until 2030 big tech firms will spend $5trn on infrastructure to supply AI services. To make those investments worthwhile, they will need on the order of $650bn a year in AI revenues, according to JPMorgan Chase, a bank, up from about $50bn a year today.” link

How to Make Repeat Patterns: A Guide for Designers, Architects and Artists. by Paul Jackson.
Designing tessellations : the secrets of interlocking patterns. by Jinny Beyer.

Density:
0.08988 g/L H2
1.2250 g/L air
Lift: 1.13512 kg / m3

Volume to lift 250 kg -> 220.4 m3
220 m3:
6 m diameter tube -> 7.8 m long
4.5 m diameter tube -> 13.9 m long
6.1 m cube
7.6 m sphere

Volume to lift 150 kg -> 132 m3
Wing with 1 m2 cross-section x 132 m long
Wing with 2 m2 cross-section x 66 m long

Cory Doctorow on the AI bubble
AI as Normal Technology. An alternative to the vision of AI as a potential superintelligence

Lessons from a Red Scare. The American people are capable of turning the tide against repression. by David R. Lurie

Pi with the Major system:

Mad, rat, lip, nacho, llama, lava, pack, puma, gnome, fire
mad -> 31 rat -> 41 lip -> 59 nacho -> 26 llama -> 53 lava -> 58 pack -> 97 puma -> 93 gnome -> 23 fire -> 84
100 digits of pi:

perl -e 'use Math::BigFloat "bpi";print "pi: ",bpi(101),"\n";'

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170680

1. “My Turtle Pancha will, my love pick up my new mover,Ginger”
2. “my movie monkey plays in, a favorite bucket
3. ship my puppy michael to sullivan’s backrubber
4. a really open music video cheers jenny F. jones
5. have a baby fish knife so marvin will marinate the goosechick

Using word length:
Pie, I wish I could remember pi,
“Eureka!” cried the great inventor,
Christmas pudding, Christmas pie,
Is the problem’s very center.

Algorithms for making interesting organic simulations

Scientists just cracked the mystery of why cancer immunotherapy fails. “Unlike ordinary stress responses that slow protein production to help cells regain balance, TexPSR drives protein synthesis into overdrive. The result is a relentless buildup of misfolded proteins, stress granules, and toxic aggregates ¾ similar to the amyloid plaques seen in Alzheimer’s disease. This overload poisons the T cells, crippling their ability to attack tumors.”. Nature 01 Oct 2025.

How Trump Is Making China Great. Why we’re going to lose the trade war, and much more besides. by Paul Krugman

Pluralistic: Apple’s unlawful evil (06 Oct 2025) by Cory doctorow.
Apple has removed ICEBlock, a totally legal app that helps people track the movements of the masked snatch-squads who illegally terrorize brown people in America’s cities, capitulating to a warrantless demand from Trump’s DoJ boss Pam Bondi. link.

Scientists found that “young” immune cells made from human stem cells can reverse signs of aging and Alzheimer’s in mice. pub link.

Titled “Should The Government Inherit YOUR Money?”

Right at the start, Tom Bilyeu characterizes an inheritance tax as “Work, work, work, and then hand it over to the government”. Which is actually the opposite of an inheritance tax. An inheritance tax is paid by heirs, people who did no work. And in the US, the inheritance tax only applies to estates of tens of millions of dollars, typically money which no one has paid income tax on.

And then TB conflates inheritance taxes with government ‘confiscation’, and then talks about the terrible history of inheritance taxes. TB strangely thinks that inheritance taxes destroyed the British empire. Very ignorant. What destroyed the British empire was decolonization after WWII, and the loss of comparative advantage as other countries industrialized.

Funny note, confiscation of church lands in England by Henry VIII, and in France after the Revolution was a benefit to the economies of both countries, and confiscation of the estates of aristocrats also benefited the French people.

TB also posits that economic growth requires the ‘momentum’ of inherited wealth. This idea is nonsense. The most innovative companies are not the ones decades old, but new ones. And kids taking over their parents companies have a terrible track record, grandkids, even worse. What is needed for economic growth is capital–personal capital, that is, educated and trained people, and access to capital to start and expand companies.

Then TB pivots to talk about how the rich already pay too much federal tax, and brings up the discredited Laffer curve as proof that higher taxes don’t bring in more money. TB calls inheritance taxes punitive, though who is being punished? Children of rich parents, who did not earn any money themselves. Then TB pretends that estates are made of savings after taxes, which is not the cases, and that taxing the rich is impossible, because they would find loop holes. Seems like tax avoidance by the rich is an easy problem to fix if the rich don’t write the tax laws.

Tom Bilyeu then goes on to say that even if the government was able to collect taxes, the money would be spent ‘inefficiently’. In fact, the US government distributes money very efficiently, and is able to build things private industry can’t or won’t–public infrastructure that is effective at increasing economic growth. And looking historically in the US, and around the world, government investment in public infrastructure is necessary and effective for growing economies. When the US was founded, one of the first things done was to invest in infrastructure–canals, ports, and later public universities, railroads, electrification, GPS, and the interstate highway system, and they have been critical for US growth.

The other main categories of government spending are transfer payments, mainly Social Security and disability, and healthcare, again mainly for the elderly. These programs have a great public benefit–they have almost eliminated extreme poverty in the elderly, but also increase economic growth by transferring money from the rich who tend to save excess money to people who spend it.

And then Tom Bilyeu speaks to his deepest beliefs–government transfer payments (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.) should be eliminated, along with the inheritance tax, and the poor should rely their own ability to work and save, and for the unlucky and unfortunate, the kindness of the rich. And this after TB just complained those born without inheritance do not have the ‘economic momentum’ required to start companies. A return to the US government of the 1870s, but somehow with the all the upsides of the reforms of the past century.

25 countries suspend postal services to US over tariffs: UN. “Trump administration said late last month that it will abolish a tax exemption on small packages entering the United States from August 29.” But incompetently: “several critical processes relating to the designation of ‘qualified parties’ and mechanisms for duty collection and remittance remain undefined,”

“Trump is every single stereotype of a loathsome shitheel from the last one hundred years of popular culture, all at once—the ignorant blowhard at the end of the bar, the entitled silver spoon trust fund asshole, the clueless boss who does nothing but create crises for his employees to clean up, the lecherous old man, the vapid self-important celebrity, the penny pinching miser who stiffs the honest working man, the oily corrupt politician, the cowardly bully, the draft-dodging faux-patriot, the scumbag crook who gets off on a technicality. He’s almost literally every repugnant trope from generations of literature, movies, and TV shows.”, link.

Jessica Knurick, PhD, RDN on RFJ Jr.’s anti-vax campaign

The Archive In Between

I am a Private Citizen Seeking to Hold My Government Accountable. Dr. Vinay Prasad, a Government Doctor, Killed My YouTube Channel. Americans do not need our government’s permission to remember the words of our public officials, and I refuse to let them be silenced or censored. by Jonathan Howard

Republican corruption, this time a double: border czar Tom Homan taking a bribe and top Trump admin officials covering it up. “In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration.” link

Cambridge Debate Coach Reveals How She Humiliated Charlie Kirk
Exactly How Charlie Kirk got SCHOOLED by a Cambridge Student

Game: KASANE IRO. “stack tiles to create the right colors”
Game/toy: Hypertiles

Dry needling, Science-Based Medicine, Trigger Point Doubts

Oral polyphenol-based microbeads with synergistic demulsification and fat locking for obesity treatment. “An edible PmFL microbead for obesity treatment via polyphenol-based nanoengineering, showing dual capture and sequestration functions for 9 kinds of dietary fat derivatives (fats and free fatty acids) in the gastrointestinal tract, thereby lowering weight gain.”

California Refineries Close as Gasoline Demand Slips into Permanent Decline

LLMs Can’t Code

Global Prevalence of Long COVID, Its Subtypes, and Risk Factors: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. 36% of people with COVID-19 develop long COVID. Long COVID-19 looks to be a substantial risk going forward given that about 5% of the Us population is getting COVID-19 every year, with 400k-500k hospitalized. It is not clear what the average duration of long COVID is, likely a few months.

Reality undermines the right’s push to censor speech after Kirk killing. by Oliver Willis

Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy and Children’s Risk of Autism, ADHD, and Intellectual Disability. Viktor H. Ahlqvist, PhD; Hugo Sjöqvist, MSc; Christina Dalman, MD, PhD; Håkan Karlsson, PhD; Olof Stephansson, MD, PhD; Stefan Johansson, MD, PhD; Cecilia Magnusson, MD, PhD; Renee M. Gardner, PhD; Brian K. Lee, PhD. JAMA. April 9, 2024. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2024.3172

The Automata Blog
Figures in the fourth dimension : mechanical movement for puppets and automata by Ellen Rixford

Anna’s Archive — books
Z-Library

Disinfect seeds: one-part bleach with 19-parts water for a bleach solution, or 3% hydrogen peroxide.

“Love Of Shopping” Is Not A Gene: Problems With Darwinian Psychology. (2004) by Anne Innis Dagg. Dortorow blog.

Framework laptops, replaceable components.