tingilinde

touching the sun

The Parker Solar Probe makes its closest approach to the Sun at 11:58:48 UTC on the 24th of December. It will be within 3.8 million miles of the Sun - technically in the solar atmosphere and traveling at about 120 miles per second - NY to LA in about 20 seconds.  The fastest human made object ever. 

 

christmas lights

Our family had a string of the NOMA bubble lites .  They didn't last very long.

 

 

an unsurprising gop mega-donner

Liz and Dick Uihlein's company has some scummy practices.

snip

...

Uline – a giant Wisconsin-based office and shipping supply company controlled by billionaires Liz and Dick Uihlein – shuttles in its own workers from Mexico, who are using tourist visas and visas meant for employees who are entering the US temporarily to receive professional training, known as B1 visas. But instead of being part of a dedicated training program, the Mexican employees stay for one to six months and – sources with direct knowledge of the matter allege – perform normal work in Uline’s US warehouses.

Lawyers and immigrants’ advocates told the Guardian they believed the alleged practice is likely illegal and could be exploitative of the workers enrolled in the program.

...

a tip of the hat to Sukie

If you buy office supplies, there are more reputable companies with leaders that aren't into right-wing christianity and overthrowing democracy.

 

 

 

 

another use for photoacoustic microscopy

A very interesting imaging technique may be useful in cancer surgery.

snip

...

In the current leading method to quickly sample and image tissue samples obtained during surgery, a biopsy is conducted to obtain a tissue sample that is then frozen, stained to enhance viewability, and sliced into thin sections that are mounted on glass slides. Then, an optical microscope for histology is used for a detailed examination of the tissues. The presence of tumor cells on the surface of a tissue sample indicates that the surgeon has cut through, not around, the tumor—meaning that a portion of the tumor remains inside the patient, who will then need a follow-up surgery to have more tissue removed. Frozen section pathology faces challenges such as tissue artifacts and reduced staining quality, affecting diagnostic accuracy and surgical decision-making.

Caltech's new PUV–PAM technique would simplify and speed up that process, removing the need to freeze, section, or stain tissue samples. Even relatively thick samples with irregular surfaces that are typically too thick to image with microscopy can be directly imaged using the new method. That could give oncologists the ability to analyze biopsy samples right in the operating room, providing them the ability to remove additional tissue as deemed necessary without follow-up surgeries.

...

 

 

on the public health costs of ai

Looking at the hidden costs of GAI.

snip

...

The authors also found that air pollution stemming from AI disproportionally affects certain low-income communities, partly because of their proximity to power plants or backup generators at the data-processing centers. Additionally, the pollution drifts across county and state lines, creating health impacts on communities far and wide, Ren says.

"The data centers pay local property taxes to the county where they operate," Ren says, "But this health impact is not just limited to a small community. Actually, it travels across the whole country, so those other places are not compensated at all."

For example, pollution from backup generators at data centers in Northern Virginia drifts into Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, creating regional public health costs of some $190 million to $260 million a year. If these backup generators emit at their maximum permitted level, the annual costs will increase tenfold and reach $1.9 billion to $2.6 billion.

In some areas, the public health cost associated with AI processing centers may exceed what the tech companies pay for electricity, the study shows.

...

 

 

dogs vs spotted lantern flies

Dogs have great noses for the task (audio and text)

snip

...

Bronco is part of that mission. Years before he began hunting insect eggs, Bronco’s handler, Paige Malone, trained him for sport scent work—recreational competitions wherein dogs race to find hidden cotton swabs laced with essential oils, usually clove, birch, anise, or cypress scents. While Bronco would slow down near a scent, he wouldn’t stop and hold his nose in the swab’s exact location—a move that alerts the handler that a desired smell has been found.

Malone knew that Bronco could track odors despite being a middling competitor, so when she spotted a Facebook post about the citizen science project in February of 2023, she signed up. So did more than 1,500 dog handlers nationwide, including her mother. Together, they formed part of the study’s Ohio team—five dogs and five handlers eager to see if their pups could learn to find eggs like professional lanternfly detection dogs that are used by a handful of local and state agencies along the East Coast.

...

 

buckle (and mask) up for the holidays!

YLE on current epidemic trends for "influenza-like illnesses"

 

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

 

class and culture wars

Tools of the oligarchs 

snip

...

So when people say we need a class war, I sympathize. The grotesque inequality of wealth in the United States is at the root of countless problems. I dwell on this in both On Freedom and Road to Unfreedom. And, of course, in the coming years, cities and states should redistribute wealth and provide social services, thereby helping people to become free. At the national level, though, you cannot just declare a class war, because you cannot decide what class people belong to for them, or tell them what their class interests are. Even basic interests, like staying alive, being safe, or having money, are experienced in emotional contexts. Class anxiety can lead right to oligarchy or fascism or both.

If you are an oligarch, you know this. You win the class war by fighting the culture war. You engage negatively with both class and culture. You never say: "hey, I am Elon Musk, and I care about you, therefore I am writing every American family a check for $5,000." You stay away from numbers and math. You tell a story about how the wealth of the wealthy somehow benefits everyone. And you reinforce the idea that the people who threaten the prosperity of your voters are those who threaten their culture. And so Blacks or immigrants or transexuals (or whoever) are always presented as threatened both prosperity and identity.

On the other side, those who want democracy rather than oligarchy must engage positively with culture in order to engage with class. That people even have a class identity is not given by nature. It is a result of education, experience, camaraderie. The welfare state was curtailed at its foundation in the 1930s and weakened in the 1980s because of racism. Labor unions became effective at defending wages when they became effective at admitting non-Whites. Americans deny themselves the policies that would serve them because of culture, because of who they see as the real people, the real citizens. And that is why we cannot effectively care about economic inequality without practical, everyday understanding of racial other sorts of inequality.

...

 

a camera for immersive video

If you want to make high quality films for the Apple Vision Pro, this might be the ticket.  It seems inexpensive given the specs.  I assume most filmmakers would rent.

 

 

zeynep on drone hysteria

So many aren't into the business of rational thought

snip

...

In 1954, a few people in the town of Bellingham, Wash., reported seeing pits and dings on their windshields — perhaps the work of vandals. Roadblocks were quickly set up. This became front-page news in nearby Seattle, prompting people to rush to check their own windshields. Thousands then reported that they, too, had mysterious dings, in an ever-widening area from Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Panic quickly spread. People speculated that the cause might be cosmic rays, a radio transmitter in a nearby naval base, fallout from H-bomb tests or sand-flea eggs hatching in windshields. The mayor of Seattle begged for help from the governor and the White House. Motorists began stopping police cars to add their name to the list of the affected. Scientists were called in, Geiger counters whipped out.

The mysterious windshield pits of 1954 turned out not to be the result of vandals, aliens, radioactivity or sand fleas, but were instead the domain of mass human psychology. Examinations revealed that these were mundane, long-present imperfections, everyday wear and tear. It’s just that no one had bothered to notice them before, because who studies his windshield that closely?

...