Here’s a Mochi flashcard deck with cancer drugs, link.

FDA Publishes Final Rule on Laboratory-Developed Test (LDT) Regulation
“Laboratories must then submit a premarket approval application or a 510(k) submission to the FDA, including evidence of the test’s clinical validity and utility.”

CJ Cherryh, Alliance-Union book timeline, link2

A Q&A with David Neiwert, America’s foremost writer and thinker on far-right extremism, on what might happen if Trump wins—or loses. by Rick Perlstein

Red Book of Westmarch

Free and OpenSource Photo Libraries comparison
Many developers + multiuser support: Immich, Librephotos. Immich had multiuser tagging support.

Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars by Albert Burneko

Millennials, Gen Xers lead jump in “religiously unaffiliated”, survey

The Charlottesville Hoax Hoax by David Corn

The Best Linux Apps for Chess

Behind the Catholic Right’s Celebrity-Conversion Industrial Complex. From Russell Brand to JD Vance to Candace Owens, what happens when the Catholic Church chases influencers—and their legions of followers—down the rabbit hole of the right? by Kathryn Joyce

AP Anatomy and Physiology course plan (source unclear)

Making Meaningful Difference: A Q&A with Philanthropist Laura Gutierrez

How the Republican War on Women Extends to Voting Rights. Most women vote Democratic. And most still change their name when they marry. And that’s where the GOP sees an Achilles’ heel.

How many helium balloons to lift a person? 39 weather balloons, link

Tiny tools, link2

The psychology of conspiracy theory believers, linked article.

HPV vaccine study finds zero cases of cervical cancer among women vaccinated before age 14

Surface anatomy

Fresnel Lens Manufacturing – 2018 Michigan Lighthouse Alliance Conference

Butterflies fly using efficient propulsive clap mechanism owing to flexible wings

Fast Fresnel Hack Embiggens The Smallest Of Heads

Backyard Worlds: Planet 9

Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500 by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler (2023)

Louis Wain “A Kittens’ Christmas Party”
Cats, Cats, Cats! The Incredible Life & Art of Louis Wain
Original Catfluencer: How a Victorian Artist’s Feline Fixation Gave Us the Internet Cat

How Colorful Ribbon Diagrams Became the Face of Proteins (Jane Richardson)

Dark Oxygen Is Changing the Calculus of Extraterrestrial Life

The discovery of oxygen production in the deep oceans has profound implications for the origins of life, both here and elsewhere in the universe.

Say It to My Face. How Democrats learned to tell the plain truth and like it by Rick Perlstein

SF writer M. John Harrison. Nova Swing (2006)

leaf sheep

Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus 2C is a hardwax oil wood finish, $180 / 1.3l, 300 – 500 ft²/l

READING: Isaac Asimov on Dominationist Ethnonationalism. It is for everyone, and everyone catches it… by Brad DeLong. From his autobiography.

Biden and Harris Broke the Suffocating “Washington Consensus” on Economics They put a stake through neoliberalism. Now, the vice president has to convince voters that her antitrust, trade, and public investment policies, unlike Trump’s, will improve their lives. by Phillip Longman

What the Russian Invasion Teaches Us About the Right. Contrarians aren’t critical thinkers. They’re gullible reactionaries, vulnerable to conspiracy theories. by David French

Mechanical Movements of the Cold War: How the Soviets Revolutionized Wristwatches. Shortly after the stock market crash of 1929, the Soviet Union purchased a bankrupt watch manufacturer in Ohio. They transformed it into one of the world’s top watchmaking centers.

Oval: 15.25″ x 6.875″, half point width 5.9375″
81.7 in2 total area

12 Voronoi regions:
7.6 in2 (73.5g, 8.6 layers 2x + 0.6)
9.4 (91.0, 10.6 layers, 3x – 1.4)
10.4 (100.6, 11.8 layers, 3x)
10.4 (100.6, 11.8 layers, 3x)
5.3 (51.2, 6.0 layers, 1.5x)
7.2 (69.6, 8.1 layers, 2x + 0.1)
6.4 (62.0, 7.2 layers, 2x – 0.8)
3.7 (35.8, 4.2 layers, 1x +0.2) 1.5″ doesn’t quite fit
6.7 (64.8, 7.6 layers, 2x – 0.5)
3.9 (37.8, 4.4 layers, 1x + 0.4) 1.5″ doesn’t quite fit
4.9 (47.4, 5.5 layers, 1.5x – 0.5)
5.9 (57.0, 6.7 layers, 1.5x + 0.7) 1.5″ doesn’t quite fit

Place 1.5″ circles (1.77 in2, 8.5g) at each Voronoi seed point.

3 colors + clear: bottom clear – A – B – C (one of each 4 layers, 2x each 7-8 layers, 3x each 12 layers)

Updated jim_voronoi.zip extension to work with Inkscape 1.3! (Original version 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.

Keying off Kevin Drum’s The lessons of COVID, which is a good start but too limited in imagination.

What the US did right: the CDC has great world-wide infectious disease monitoring.

What the US did poorly: the US had spotty local infectious disease monitoring. And lack of data–ignorance–was used as an excuse for inaction. With post-COVID wastewater monitoring, the US is doing better, let’s keep the funding high for it.

Biggest mistake: the federal government responded slowly and ineffectively in the first two months. Faster response that seems like an over-reaction at the time is the best response. If the response is effective, and a disease is slowed or stopped, it should always feel like an over-reaction. Hoof-and-mouth disease is the model.

Tintin store in Porto

DIY cat tower

Big doll mold

In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. […] under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.

The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

The Time I Built an ROV to Solve Missing Person Cases

An Implausible Mr. Buckley: A new PBS documentary whitewashes the conservative founder of National Review. by Rick Perlstein, April 17, 2024

The misleading information in one of America’s most popular podcasts: The Huberman Lab has credentials and millions of fans, but it sometimes oversteps medical fact. by A.W. Ohlheiser

The USDA’s gardening zones shifted. This map shows you what’s changed in vivid detail

Sigma 45mm f/2.8 Lens Repair

What’s Glass Etching Cream Made of?

Open Bookcases by Robert Benchley, New York World, March 15, 1920

How to Make Google’s ‘Web’ View Your Search Default (&udm=14)

How Science Conquered Diphtheria, the Plague Among Children. It was highly contagious, lethal and mysterious. Then medical experts developed treatments and vaccines, and the affliction disappeared—but not entirely

WuXi AppTec news / blocking Chinese biotech outsourcing

Who Goes Nazi? by Dorothy Thompson (Aug 1941)

The Museum of Science and Industry closed for mysterious reasons last week. Here’s why. It’s a sad day when it’s easier to get information out of the Pentagon than from the Museum of Science and Industry. by Neil Steinberg