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Tag Archives: Pinboard (jgordon)
Four people with courage – opposing MAGA show-trial confessions.
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/four-undaunted-individuals
Trump’s forced humiliations are deeply repulsive and an assault on democracy. These four did not surrender.
If you give up an airplane seat – so many nasty games airlines play
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/travel/frontier-volunteer-voucher.html
“Be wary of anything a gate agent promises you verbally, and always politely try to get a receipt or other written evidence. Ask to watch as the agent enters your information, and take a picture of the screen and the agent — with consent. Favor cash over vouchers, which are nearly always time-limited, and ask for a complimentary hotel room if your substitute flight isn’t until the next day”
“Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 69,000 claims in 2023 regarding financial fraud involving crypto, resulting in more than $5.6 billion in reported losses”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/magazine/crybercrime-crypto-minecraft.html
Half of all US fraud losses. Article provide details on one major case.
“thieves are generally young and cavalier and sometimes leave a trail of clues in their wake … Minecraft servers into a cesspool for budding cybercriminals…”
One of the kids almost got his parents killed.
“more liberal-minded Chinese, having overcome the initial shock at actions that reminded them of their own authoritarian government, are applying their creativity to Washington”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/business/china-trump-vance.html
Bring it! Mostly AI generated content but I appreciate the sentiment. I suspect Xi will kill it —too much is applicable to him.
Musk mockery must burn him — as Tesla dies in China.
“Mr. Vance is now known as “the eyeliner man” on the Chinese internet.”
More about how world’s dumbest man botched an opportunity to actually improve the federal bureaucracy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/us/politics/musk-cuts.html
Musk had every opportunity to actually improve gov function. He had reliable legal ways to decrease workforce and close units.
And he f* up in every way.
Glioblastoma 1 person trial: “the 17-month mark there is no evidence by brain imaging of any recurrence of the tumor”
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/new-glioblastoma-treatment
Pretreatment with immunotherapy cocktail then big surgery then radiotherapy and chemo.
Yes, for glio 1 survivor is meaningful. (In old days glio was called “benign” because it doesn’t metastasize. I think that usage stopped)
DOGE: “lawyers, statisticians and other high-ranking agency officials are being sent from the Baltimore headquarters to regional offices to replace veteran claims processors who have been fired”
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/100-days-doge-lots-chaos-not-so-much-efficiency-2025-04-24/
But of course they don’t know the software or processes. On the bright side they will learn what needs to be fixed — if we ever have a competent President again.
Musk is a curse.
China über alles: “Some companies have maybe 40 to 60 days of [rare earth minerals] stock left”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/04/24/rare-earths-trade-war-us-china/
“It will take 10 to 15 years before a robust supply chain that excludes China can be fully developed”
Maybe Fox News is not a good policy source.
The Physics of Perfect Pour-Over Coffee: “Pour high, slow and with a steady stream of water.”
Next Trump tariffs: “Department of Commerce will be conducting sham investigations to arrive at predetermined results that say exactly what the President wants them to say”
https://www.apricitas.io/p/the-clues-to-trumps-future-tariffs
Integrity is a joke for the GOP.
“what was Bessent even doing at this event? Senior government officials aren’t supposed to be helping investment banks entertain their clients.”
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/cronyism-capitulation-and-chaos
Keep sharing the corruption.
“Minnesota’s economic output is greater than the Philippines, but slightly less than Norway”
And it’s going to go down down down. Unless Trump goes.
Streptomycin For Metastatic Cancer
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/streptomycin-metastatic-cancer
Wild. It will definitely be tried. The cancer toxicity does make me uneasy about using the antibiotic for its few remaining indications however.
The Death of Direct File: a brief shining moment of government efficiency killed by DOGE
https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-death-of-direct-file
A minor sadness in the TrumpMusk catastrophe is that they had an amazing opportunity to actually make government more efficient for both the public and for gov staff. Instead they just did their clown thing.
Language article from MIT’s encyclopedia of cognitive science
https://oecs.mit.edu/pub/ho9e9c80/release/1
I wish my linguistics prof had read this.
A decent review of fat reduction strategies for athletic persons.
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/how-to-train-while-losing-weight/
Evidence based review. This didn’t get enough focus though: “Meaningful increases in energy expenditure can require up to two to three times the current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.”
You can lose fat with exercise but it’s way more exercise than most will ever consider (or be physically able to do or sustain).
DOGE management explained with necessary humor.
https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/doge-is-red-tape
It’s an achievement to say anything about DOGE without inspiring reader self-injury.
Despite being readable it’s also a rather accurate DOGE portrait.
Answer Engines work well now – without reasoning delays (AI assisted search-based research).
https://simonwillison.net/2025/Apr/21/ai-assisted-search/
[Adam Engst calls them “answer engines” (AE) and that is a great term]
“I’ve been throwing all kinds of questions at [search enabled] ChatGPT (in o3 or o4-mini mode) and getting back genuinely useful answers grounded in search results.”
Search-based research has worked in Perplexity for me for about a year. They really don’t get enough credit. The new chatGPT answer engine is much faster though.
A key contributor is ability to search academic refs including the once ignored Allen Institute for AI’s Semantic Scholar.
Legacy Google Search is a relic, legacy Big Publishing is “suddenly” very powerful, and the pivot of ad budgets to Answer Engines is going to accelerate search engine death.
Managing the incredibly annoying Apple Wallet notifications on Sequoia.
https://tech.kateva.org/2025/04/managing-incredibly-annoying-apple.html
Apple Notifications have degenerated into bad design interacting in bad ways. I think the most critical setting is disabling display of iPhone notifications in macOS Sequoia (specifically Apple’s incompetent macOS Notification Center).
At the moment I’m trying to kill them all. Then I can try to resurrect anything I care about.
Kenya and other African nations doing sub-sub-contractor content moderation and AI training.
https://restofworld.org/2025/big-tech-ai-labor-supply-chain-african-workers/
Might be preferred to working in mines, but abuse is inevitable. African nations will improve regulation with some internal and external pressure.
Revenge addiction and, of course, you-know-who.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/opinion/trump-retribution-revenge.html
Humans are not a good candidate for civilization. Maybe another 100ky without tech would have got us through.
Trump mercantilism, tariffs, dislike of expertise, and belief that the strong owe nothing to the weak are all lifelong fixed beliefs.
https://musgrave.substack.com/p/hes-always-been-like-this
The madness is his.
Significant advance in EV battery tech
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/business/catl-battery-china.html
1/3 cost of Chinese EV is the battery. CATL dominates. Cold weather is problem in China and MN alike.
Synology, Sonos, and Eero: Good products made bad for bucks.
https://www.caseyliss.com/2025/4/20/footguns
A bit more obscure, but I’d add the Fujitsu ScanSnap to the list. Most would add Dropbox. I’d add Google.
AGI day: Cowen says it was April 16, 2025.
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/04/o3-and-agi-is-april-16th-agi-day.html
Debate is about what the G in AGI means.
Why Trump cannot control the Fed: defense in depth then self-destruct sets in
https://www.twincities.com/2025/04/20/real-world-economics-powell-hits-first-trump-hits-back/
Even full-tyrant mode, even sending goons to arrest Powell, it can’t be done.
Former Trump Staff: “personally and publicly direct the levers of the federal government against publicly named citizens for political reasons sets a new and perilous precedent”
K interviews Nathan Tankus: The world of finance under Musk-Trump attack.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/nathan-tankus-part-ii
Our civilization, and the world of money that runs it, is insanely complex. Musk has delusions of omnipotence and Trump is deeply weird — and both are dumping garbage into poorly understood and very stressed mechanisms. Don’t assume the bond market will save us.
You need to join a Tesla Takedown.
Lifetime prevalence of “psychosis”: white/asian 9.7%, Black/Latino 14%”
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1280253/full
“individuals of recent African or Afro-Caribbean descent are more susceptible to experiencing psychosis … Black and Hispanic participants in this study had lower overall rates of mental illness.”
I came across this in a “Harper’s Index” pop-sci thing and didn’t believe it. Turns out this is a consistent worldwide finding, prev of schizophrenia diagnosis 2 to 4 times! higher. Likely a mix of cultural norms, some substance effects, and how people label their own mental states. There is keen interest in environmental stress effects. (I suspect white/asian are better able to deny/ignore delusional states.)
“Trump is openly defying the courts, and we believe we are firmly in a constitutional crisis”
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/the-democracy-index-b23
Third time lucky.
The post-American world: it can be done.
https://gwynnedyer.com/2025/trump-a-window-of-opportunity/
Perhaps a better world. One day America might apply to join.
TIdBITS answer engine review; “Perplexity: For most people, I recommend Perplexity. Its success rate is high, and you can use it for free”
https://tidbits.com/2025/04/17/ai-answer-engines-are-worth-trying/
I forgot Perplexity could be used for free. I pay and get engine options, etc.
“Anyone who has read the Federalist Papers … knows that somewhere between and third and a half of the essays are very specifically about Donald Trump”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/scotus-can-let-the-president-break-the-law-they-cant-change-it
America has the right, and the power, to end its democracy. All it takes is to do nothing.
Establishment conservative David Brooks: “It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/opinion/trump-harvard-law-firms.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
“Trump is shackling the greatest institutions in American life. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
Might cause some on Wall Street to worry.
Bike helmets in the Netherlands: “nearly two-thirds of cyclist road deaths were attributed to head injuries”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/world/europe/bicycles-helmets-dutch.html
We have data on death, but brain injury is far more likely. Basically bicycling has significant injury risks, some can be mitigated. Hair is a big issue everywhere, esp with cultures, genders and people for who artful hair is important.
The Chinese Century: “Perhaps the U.S. efflorescence was a very rare and special thing, whose like we will not soon see again.”
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/will-this-be-the-chinese-century
America had advanced heart disease and didn’t know it.
Trump debt default pending: “Mar a Lago accord” … forced conversion of short-term Treasuries into long-term bonds.“
GLP-1 pill is small molecule that binds to peptide site: “Researchers at Chugai Pharmaceutical Company, a Japanese company, figured out a way, licensing their drug to Lilly in 2018.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/health/pill-glp-1-eli-lilly.html
Not yet approved though looks good. Other oral med did not get traction though. Side effects?
PowerPhotos 3.0 is out.
https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/comments/powerphotos_3.0_released
I’ll wait 2-3m. 50% discount for v2 users.
“if Trump actually does have the ability to arbitrarily send any American to an overseas prison with zero due process … we do, in fact, live in a dictatorship”
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-authoritarian-takeover-attempt
Speaker for the technocracy concedes the time has come. What will the technocracy do?
Exploring latent space: “deep neural networks that allow language models to continue thinking in mathematical spaces before producing any text”
AI latent spaces are presumably unique, so they will need to develop an efficient language for inter-AI communication.
I hope they call it Marain.
Homo naledi remains deep in an obscure cave system: “What today’s cavers can do is not a good guide to what a smaller species, better adapted and practiced at climbing, might have done.”
https://johnhawks.net/weblog/how-homo-naledi-got-into-the-dinaledi-chamber/
One may speculate that for them it was a very secure place to visit or live in.
There are probably other similar spaces we would need to explore via bots.
“Trump is claiming the power to ignore the due process of the law guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, declare someone is a criminal, kidnap them, send them to prison in a third country, and then claim that there is no way to get that person back.”
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-13-2025
Move over Nazi, MAGA is here.
“Bukele has been offering to hold U.S. citizens”
Gotta learn more Spanish.
“Once you give up the idea that we are all equal before the law and have the right to due process, you have given up the whole game.
“Trump bragging to NASCAR drivers visiting the White House that investor Charles Schwab made $2.5 billion on Wednesday”
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-12-2025
Insider trading has been a Congress crime for years but now it’s next level.
“investing in bribes for the ruling family clearly yields excellent returns”
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-trump-tariffs-just-got-even-worse
MASC: “Make America a Shithole Country”
Senators have been a good investment for decades. Trump just kicked it to standard authoritarian mode.
Anti-corruption is the Dem platform I like.
“have a clinical definition of A.D.H.D. that is increasingly unanchored from what we’re finding in our science”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/magazine/adhd-medication-treatment-research.html
All psych / MH disorders have same problem: the clinical descriptions are obsolete AND everyone wants a label. Autism is the worst.
DOGE scam: “One of the group’s largest claims … involves canceling a contract that did not exist”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/us/politics/doge-contracts-savings.html
“the contract … was actually canceled when Joseph R. Biden Jr. was president. The third-largest savings that the group claims comes from a canceled grant to a vaccine nonprofit … it had actually been paid in full, so the savings was $0”
DOGE itself is fraud and abuse. Musk is a con man. Join a Tesla Takedown.
Neutrinos mass at most a millionth of electron mass.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/science/neutrinos-mass-physics.html
New precision. We know non-zero. Key to moving beyond standard model
90s Globalization (China Shock): “Standard economic theory held that the people and places hit by those losses should have adapted relatively quickly.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/business/economy/tariffs-trump-china-shock.html
THIS! One of my pet theories is that 1990-2020 globalization and IT exceeded a speed limit — a limit on how quickly a socioeconomic system can adapt.
And our society crashed and burned.