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Bitcoin mining and green energy
bitcoin’s BIG PROBLEM is that it uses a country’s worth of electricity to run the most inefficient payment network in human history. people don’t seem to know this! and i tell them, and they get angry. because a bunch of nerds killing each other for e-pennies is one thing, but that much CO2 is quite another. you could say “it’s their money, they can spend it how they like”, and that’s how things work, sure. but it’s still a massive externality, and this is a big problem.
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Werner Arber shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of restriction endonucleases "The most primitive cells may require at least several hundred different specific biological macromolecules. How such already quite complex structures may have come together, remains a mystery to me. The possibility of the existence of a Creator, of God, represents to me a satisfactory solution to this problem." ... "I know that the concept of God helped me to master many questions in life; it guides me in critical situations, and I see it confirmed in many deep insights into the beauty of the functioning of the world." - Werner Arber
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Systems Chemistry Symposium 2020 - Introduction video by Petra Schwille
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Shocking temperatures across the Arctic
The hottest October ever in Europe is now followed by a November weekend with an average of 6,7°C above normal across the Arctic. September was also the warmest in Russia’s 130-year recorded history of measuring temperatures in its Arctic regions.
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Researchers Uncover 2,000-Year-Old Maya Water Filtration System (smithsonianmag)
The city of Tikal purified one of its reservoirs with technology comparable to modern systems
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Design and architecture software company Autodesk has announced that it's reached an agreement to acquire Spacemaker, a Norwegian startup that develops AI-supported software for urban design and development. Autodesk is coughing up $240 million for the company.
The Rise and Rise of Spacemaker AI
Spacemaker AI develops a game changing AI technology that discovers the smartest ways to maximize the value of any building site.
Sidewalk Labs Launches Machine Learning Tool for Urban Design
Sidewalk Labs recently released Delve, a generative design tool powered by machine learning (ML), which helps developers, architects, and planners design urban neighborhoods. The ML algorithms can generate design concepts from minimal user input about the space and the goals of the project, while also measuring the impact of each design choice.
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Week in Review, focus on Corona
Coronavirus: China calls for global QR code system to track international travel amid pandemic (independent.co.uk)
Xi Jinping wants ‘smooth functioning’ world economy but rights expert warns of surveillance
Could this COVID-19 ‘health passport’ be the future of travel and events? (WEF)
Rising COVID-19 infection rates pose a threat to global tourism. A new app acts as a health passport for travellers who are virus-free. Using blockchain technology, it provides an encrypted record of test results. Its creators say it could allow healthy travellers to avoid quarantine. The app could also allow sports and entertainment venues to reopen safely, as well as the global conference and exhibition industry.
Ethiopia’s military chief calls WHO head Tedros a criminal supporting a rebel region (WP)
In a televised address Wednesday night, Ethiopia’s army chief of staff, Gen. Berhanu Jula, called Tedros a criminal and said he should step down from his position as director general of the WHO for seeking to procure weapons for the Tigray region, where the Ethiopian military is fighting local forces.
Vaccine Safety to Remain Unclear Until Millions Get Their Shots (Bloomberg)
Some worry federal safety monitoring isn’t well coordinated. CDC safety expert says wide amount of date to be watched.
Vaccine rumours debunked: Microchips, 'altered DNA' and more (BBC)
"Injecting RNA into a person doesn't do anything to the DNA of a human cell," said Prof Jeffrey Almond of Oxford University. Pfizer spokesperson Andrew Widger said the company's vaccine "does not alter the DNA sequence of a human body. It only presents the body with the instructions to build immunity". It is true that no mRNA vaccine has been approved before, but multiple studies of mRNA vaccines in humans have taken place over the last few years.
#Comment: 🤪 rumours🤪 debunked 🤪 no 🤪 questions 🤪 left 🤪 LOL!! 🤪
TikTokers are pretending to have horrible side-effects from COVID-19 vaccines. The posts are jokey, but medical experts say they can encourage real anti-vaxx views. (BI)
A series of videos on TikTok show creators play-acting as patients who get sinister side-effects after taking a COVID-19 vaccine. The videos are part of the "point of view" trend. Many are clearly fictional, but some dabble in widespread conspiracy theories.
Bill Gates, the Virus and the Quest to Vaccinate the World (Billionaire Propaganda - by nytimes)
New DNA-Based Tagging System Could Replace Barcodes (interestingengineering)
University of Washington researchers teamed up with Microsoft to create the new system that could even revolutionize voting.
"To earn the freedom pass, people will need to be tested regularly and, provided the results come back negative, they will be given a letter, card, or document they can show to people as they move around."
This video provides one of the most erudite and informative looks at Covid-19 and the consequences of lockdowns. As AIER notes, it was remarkable this week to watch as it appeared on YouTube and was forcibly taken down only 2 hours after posting.
Top Pathologist Claims COVID-19 Is "The Greatest Hoax Ever Perpetrated On An Unsuspecting Public" (zerohedge)
Top pathologist Dr. Roger Hodkinson told government officials in Alberta during a zoom conference call that the current coronavirus crisis is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public.”
German police arrests lockdown critic Dr. Andreas Noack in a shocking video
Reports from Germany indicate that a German doctor, Dr. Andreas Noack was arrested during a police raid while he was recording a live video.
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Week in Review, focus on Politics and Economics
First, it was a "technical issue" in Europe which back on July 1 caused European stock markets to suffer a 3 hour outage. Then, in August, New Zealand’s stock market was forced to halt trading over four days in August after distributed-denial-of-service attacks overwhelmed its website. Then on October 1, another "technical issue" hit the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which resulted in an unprecedented all-day trading halt. And just a few weeks later, in late October, trading in all stocks and derivatives on Euronext NV markets was shut down for three hours affecting activity in countries including France and Belgium. The problem was traced to due to a software issue. Now, about a month later, the "glitching" rolling market blackout struck again, this time in Australia whose stock exchange opened for less than half an hour before a software issue forced it to close for the rest of Monday’s session, just as the country rolled out an "updated" trading system.
A Chinese defense contractor recently test-launched a swarm of loitering munitions from a light tactical vehicle, and there's a video of the system in action. Loitering munitions, more commonly known as suicide drones, fill a capability gap between cruise missiles and traditional fixed-wing combat drones by lingering over the battlefield. China is not alone in exploring swarm drone capabilities, but it has made significant strides in recent years.
Dragon flies, eagle crashes at geoeconomic summits - by Pepe Escobar
XI made his case for multilateralism, international cooperation and Global South representation while Trump was absent or golfing
Macron Accuses Russia, Turkey of Promoting Anti-French Sentiment in Africa
President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia and Turkey of seeking to promote anti-French sentiment in Africa by funding people who whip up resentment against France in the media, in an interview published Friday. "We must not be naive on this subject: many of those who speak, who make videos, who are present in the French-speaking media are funded by Russia or Turkey," he told Jeune Afrique magazine, accusing Moscow and Ankara of trying "to play on post-colonial resentment." 🤪🤪🤪
An heiress, a judge and a job: France's Sarkozy goes on trial for corruption
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial on Monday accused of trying to bribe a judge and of influence-peddling, one of several criminal investigations that threaten to cast an ignominious pall over his decades-long political career.
Mexico says it wants its ex-officials tried in Mexico
Mexico’s foreign secretary said Thursday the country no longer wants officials accused of corruption to be put on trial in the United States, a move that could scale back a tradition that saw most of Mexico’s corruption cases tried north of the border.
Mexico Threatened All U.S. Cooperation Over General’s Arrest
Mexico threatened to cut cooperation with the U.S. after the surprise arrest of its former defense minister in Los Angeles, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Thursday. The U.S. violated a 1992 pact that all investigations on Mexican soil must be shared with the Latin American nation, Ebrard said at a press conference alongside President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. “There are two paths. Either this violation of the accord that exists between us is repaired, or we put all cooperation off the table,” Ebrard said. “We just want mutual respect,” Lopez Obrador added.
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Public Shut Out of Global RF Health Briefing - Updates from NTP, Japan, Korea & WHO
An international briefing on RF health research, known as GLORE 2020, was held online, November 9-12, featuring updates on the second phase of the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) project and the Japanese-Korean partial repeat. The WHO presented a status report on ten ongoing systematic reviews of RF health effects. Government and industry representatives from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and the U.S. participated, as did an assortment of academics. The public and the press were not invited. Everything about GLORE 2020 is being kept secret.
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"Don't be impressed by money, followers, degrees, and titles. Be impressed by kindness, integrity, humility, and generosity." - Richard Feynman
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"Evolution is cleverer than you are." - Orgel's Second Rule
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The "Fossil Fuel" deception Explained By L. Fletcher Prouty
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"All Matter is Fossilised Thought" - Hans Peter Dürr
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Minimal Phenomenal Experience - presentation by Thomas Metzinger
#Comment: Metzinger is trying very diligently to approach the meditative/psychedelic/qi/zen/dao/dada/call-it-what-you-want space from a rational scientific perspective - even proposing ideas for a computational model. It's interesting and fascinating work for sure - but it tethers on semiotic masturbation and it conveniently ignores the elephants in the room !
During the Q&A Metzinger says the following:
"I am just trying to make progress on this phenomenology because, it has be reported for centuries in different cultural traditions - but now we have a very new interesting situation: We have all these tools of neuroscience, we have modern analytical philosophy of mind, and we have millions of meditators in the west that are pretty secular - and don't have a strong belief system in which they report their experiences."
The notion that "secular western (meditators) don't have a strong belief system" is ridicules on so many levels - yet indicative of the world view that permeates the emerging "WEIRD, male scientists trying to compute consciousness" field (Karl Friston, Christof Koch, Hartmut Neven, etc.). WEIRD ("Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic") make up only 12% of global population. Much greater diversity (gender, cognitive, etc.) would certainty make this type of discussion much more interesting and fun.
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Ladrang Wilujeng
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Swiss strike carbon offset deal with Ghanaian govt
Some of Switzerland's carbon dioxide emissions are to be offset through projects in Ghana, the Swiss government announced, after concluding a similar deal last month with Peru.
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Deep Frozen Arctic Microbes Are Waking Up (scientificamerican)
Thawing permafrost is releasing microorganisms, with consequences that are still largely unknown.
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US sidelined as China, Korea and Japan unite (asiatimes)
RCEP may lack clarity but the China-centric trade pact ties three of Asia's four biggest economies closer together than ever.
Xi says China will consider joining TPP (nikkei)
Beijing eyes greater influence in Asia-Pacific through economic integration
The post-national world is quickly coming more into focus (image from "Regional organization")
