Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Trackers

RE Bondi Junction incident.
I guess its an internationally known location thus making news in your fair Albion.
Thank you very much for making the effort to express your kindness, care and consideration. Which is of course a natural and organic element of your character requiring no effort 🙂

We were not in contact with harm, thank you.
But Sydney is a safe and tolerant place. And things like this simply don’t happen. So the community is certainly in shock. I am in sorrow for the workers exposed to things no one should ever have to witness.
The legislators are making noise about legislation. Saner authorities are, fortunately, quickly pointing out the harm a draconian knee-jerk response can cause.
As ever, looking toward the positive, potentially much good can spring from this. Horror has a tendency to bring people together in acceptance and forgiveness. It will surely bring more resources and attention to the needs of the marginalised and vulnerable

@ResarchererZero
Loved your stable, astute, level headed observations on this topic, toward the end of the last Squid

Jon (a different Jon) • April 19, 2024 9:25 PM

@cybershow:

Could you please let someone know that the ‘moving star’ backdrop is so horrifically distracting that I had to turn off every single image in my web browser just to be able to read more than a couple paragraphs in a row?

This, of course, left me with white text on a white background. ‘Select All’ solved that problem, but not very well.

Please knock that moving background crap off. Thank you very much.

lurker • April 20, 2024 2:38 AM

@Jon (a different Jon)

Here’s a nickel kid, go buy yourself a decent browser …

No falling stars here. Mind you I have to use xcalib -i -a
just a personal thing about white text on black.

ResearcherZero • April 20, 2024 2:58 AM

@Jerome

Thank you. I hope you are well, and thank you for the kind comment.

Admittedly I have unfortunately had some bad encounters in the past, so I have had the time to think through those situations. I also helped people who suffered bad situations or with impairments to find stable accommodation and support. That was a bit of an eye opener.

When the state-funded mental hospitals were shut, not much was put in their place. In some situations I had to organise housing and get all the furniture from charities for mental patients. The public trust paid for a few appliances after obtaining at least three quotes for each appliance. That cost is then deducted from the patient’s long-term pension.

I could purchase a car for the cost of a private psychologist. Referral times are a minimum of six months, and quite possibly twelve to eighteen, if they have an opening for a client. Dealing with all the steps just to get a referral is quite a maddening experience.

It’s clear that without more housing, no amount of workers could possibly keep up. Trying to navigate the system, even if experienced, is very time consuming and frustrating.

It’s a clunky and disorganised system, with frequent funding cuts and rotation of support workers. Much more public housing is required, as support workers are being snowed under.

I do remember government reviews and reports recommending an urgent need for public housing a few decades back, but all the major parties failed to adopt any sensible solutions.

As a result, mental health is now the number one reason that people visit a GP in NSW.

–

Two Ivanti zero-days exploited to target Mitre’s VPNs

‘https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/mitre-confirms-hackers-breached-unclassified-rd-network-a-24907

“skirted past our multi-factor authentication using session hijacking”

They employed a combination of sophisticated backdoors and webshells to maintain persistence and harvest credentials.

https://medium.com/mitre-engenuity/advanced-cyber-threats-impact-even-the-most-prepared-56444e980dc8

Robin • April 20, 2024 3:42 AM

@cybershow, @Jon (a different Jon), @lurker

… and while we’re on the subject – dark blue text (links) on a black background is virtually unreadable. Yes, I know I could change it, but – why bother?

ResearcherZero • April 20, 2024 5:03 AM

The Devil Comet

It is currently visible low in the western sky after sunset, albeit almost lost in the glow of twilight.

“It will be so low that you might need to use binoculars to see it, and it will only be visible after the Sun has well and truly set. So don’t go looking before sunset – you’ll not be able to see the comet, and you’ll risk damaging your eyesight if you end up looking at the Sun through the binoculars!.”

Near the constellation of Orion in early May.

“For those southern observers, the comet will gradually get higher in the sky and easier to spot through May and into June, but it will be starting to fade by then. It will likely still be visible to the naked eye (just) in early June, when it is closest to Earth.”

That means getting out of the city and away from sources of light pollution, and choosing nights where the Moon is smaller or below the horizon.

‘https://theconversation.com/the-devil-comet-12p-pons-brooks-has-finally-become-visible-from-australia-what-can-we-expect-226625

–

Improved anodes and cathodes.

A high-performance hybrid sodium-ion energy storage device.
Sodium is more than 500 times more abundant than lithium.

‘https://techxplore.com/news/2024-04-sodium-battery-capable-rapid-seconds.html

JonKnowsNothing • April 20, 2024 8:16 AM

@ ResearcherZero, All

re: public housing strategy

Over and over the many decades when public housing became visible through media reports (good and bad), it always escaped me WHY it either didn’t happen or was a Total Failure (ST LT) as a housing program.

I think there are slightly different economic forces at work in countries, but the problem of housing is not getting any better on a global scale.

What I have come to understand is that the failure of existing housing and the failure to provide “public” housing is rooted in Hayek-Libertarian-NeoCon-Austerity economic model

Leave nothing on the table

For this model, profit is the only motive. There is no public good, there is no concept of neighborhood or community, there is only profit.

A recent MSM report of the closing of an institute at Oxford was another nail in the Hayek model. (1) However, it did highlight why people who CAN make a difference DO NOT make effective differences.

For some years, the tech-bros and oligarchs have vied to have the bigger e-peen projects. Such projects tended to be of ginormous scope, even beyond government funding and had ETA results far far in the future (if ever). Almost nothing practical in terms of the current state of the world was even contemplated. It appears this was not misguided but by selective choice of how NOT TO address current problems or difficulties.

Even when someone tries to address a social issue, the Austerity economic model (USA) overrides the attempt. Social housing is seen as an Asset that can be Stripped to provide Profit to those who can gain control of it.

In the USA, a number of attempts of social housing in Los Angeles California have collapsed. The funding for building maintenance was short term. There was no long term access to funds. When the buildings came under court administration, a For Profit Recovery firm was engaged to fix the issues with an allocated fund (court oversight) for the repairs. It’s no surprise that in quick turn about the For Profit Recovery company claimed the court approved funding was not enough.

iirc(badly) The For Profit Recovery company will eventually gain title to the buildings. They will either sell the buildings to a partner renovation company for Market Rate Rentals or tear down the buildings and replace them with higher profit margin new Market Rate housing.

This cycle has been repeated many times, with different projects, all ending with social housing disappearing into Market Rate housing.

This cycle also works in other forms of social support. If there is an asset available to strip, the Austerity model requires it to be harvested and dismantled, the profits going to a few and the majority of the impacted left to their own devices.

===

HAIL Warning

ht tps:/ /www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/19/oxford-future-of-humanity-institute-closes

Nick Bostrom’s Future of Humanity Institute closed this week
The Future of Humanity Institute, dedicated to the long-termism movement and other Silicon Valley-endorsed ideas such as effective altruism, closed this week after 19 years of operation.
Effective altruism, the utilitarian belief that people should focus their lives and resources on maximizing the amount of global good they can do
longtermism movement, which held that humanity should concern itself mostly with long term existential threats to its existence such as AI and space travel.

lurker • April 20, 2024 2:43 PM

@ResearcherZero, @ALL

“Sodium is more than 500 times more abundant than lithium.”

and a lot (500 times?) more flammable than lithium, especially in the presence of water …

vas pup • April 20, 2024 2:58 PM

The nuclear reactors that could power bases on the Moon
http://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240417-the-nuclear-reactors-that-could-power-moon-bases

“Astronauts living on the Moon will need lots of power – but they can’t take fuel supplies with them. A new generation of miniature nuclear reactors could be the answer.

Nasa and the US Department of State have issued combined guidelines for peaceful lunar exploration in the form of the Artemis Accords. So far 36 nations – including India, Japan, the UK, Canada, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea – have signed up.

China is also spearheading a base on the Moon with an equally practical title.
The International Lunar Research Station, announced in 2021, currently has Russia, Belarus, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Egypt and South Africa as
signatories.

But whichever coalition builds the first base on the Moon, they will all need a
reliable power source. Across the world many companies and space agencies have all come to the same conclusion.

“The truth is that nuclear is the only option to power a moonbase,” says Simon
Middleburgh from the Nuclear Futures Institute at Bangor University in Wales.

A day on the Moon is not 24 hours, as on Earth, but a month. Or 29.5 days to be precise. There are effectively two weeks of daylight followed by two weeks of darkness, with temperatures reaching -130C (-202F). This is why the Apollo missions from 1969 to1972 all took place during a lunar day and close to the Moon’s equator, when temperatures were manageable and prolonged sunlight could power scientific instruments and landers.

A radioisotope thermal generator was first used on the Moon in 1969, on Apollo 11, using heat generated by the decay of radioactive plutonium-238 to keep scientific instruments at a working temperature. On Apollo 12 this heat was
converted into electricity to power an instrument package, marking the first use of a nuclear reactor on the Moon, albeit not on the scale we have on Earth.

The cylindrical generator measured just 45.7 by 40.6cm (18.2 by 16.2in).

It’s a challenging brief. A micro nuclear reactor will have to be light and robust enough to travel 384,400km (238,000 miles) and then be installed for use under extremely difficult conditions, including the intrusive fine dust or regolith that covers the lunar surface.

Last month the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, announced that it will build a
lunar nuclear reactor with the China National Space Administration by 2035 to
power a joint moonbase. Yury Borisov, Roscosmos’ director general, told Russia’s state media that it would be constructed “without the presence of humans”.

“For more than 60 years, Rolls-Royce has quietly been designing, manufacturing and supporting all of the nuclear reactors for the Royal Navy submarines,” says Jake Thompson, Rolls Royce’s chief engineer of the company’s Novel Nuclear program. “We have a vast heritage of providing very small, very compact nuclear reactors. So we’re bringing that capability into these really exciting new domains like space exploration.”

Each Rolls Royce micro-reactor will produce 50-100 kW and last for at least a
decade. “It’s entirely scalable. It depends on the needs of the architecture and the infrastructure that’s on the lunar surface, but we envisage a microgrid with a few of these reactors supplemented with solar power at the South Pole.”

“When our lunar reactor mission is complete, we will shut it down and the
radiation levels will gradually diminish so it can be safely approached and moved to a long-term storage location if desired,” says Bhakta.

Funding and time to mature these technologies are essential but the benefits of lunar micro-reactor designs could extend to Earth, ranging from flexible, scalable power modules much smaller than existing power plants, to nuclear medicine.”

vas pup • April 20, 2024 4:19 PM

MIT

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/05/22/1073465/brain-waves-can-tell-us-how-much-pain-someone-is-in/

“Brain signals can be used to detect how much pain a person is experiencing,which could overhaul how we treat certain chronic pain conditions, a new study has suggested.

The research, published in Nature Neuroscience today, is the first time a
human’s chronic-pain-related brain signals have been recorded. It could aid the
development of personalized therapies for the most severe forms of pain.

Chronic pain, defined as pain that lasts for three months or more, affects up
to one in five people in the US—more than diabetes, high blood pressure, or depression. It can sometimes affect people after a stroke or limb amputation.

Because we still don’t really understand how it affects the brain, it’s also very difficult to treat. Quality of life can be severely affected.

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, implanted
electrodes in the brains of four people with chronic pain. The patients then
answered surveys about the severity of their pain multiple times a day over a
period of three to six months. After they finished filling out each survey, they sat quietly for 30 seconds so the electrodes could record their brain activity. This helped the researchers identify biomarkers of chronic pain in the brain signal patterns, which were as unique to the individual as a fingerprint.

Next, the researchers used machine learning to model the results of the
surveys. They found they could successfully predict how the patients would score the severity of their pain by examining their brain activity, says Prasad Shirvalkar, one of the study’s authors.

“The hope is that now that we know where these signals live, and now that we know what type of signals to look for, we could actually try to track them noninvasively,” he says.

“As we recruit more patients, or better characterize how these signals vary between people, maybe we can use it for diagnosis.”

The researchers also found they were able to distinguish a patient’s chronic pain from acute pain deliberately inflicted using a thermal probe.
The chronic pain signals came from a different part of the brain, suggesting that it’s not just a prolonged version of acute pain, but something else entirely.

Because different people experience pain in different ways, there is no one-
size-fits-all approach to tackling it, which has proved a major challenge in the past. The team hopes that mapping individuals’ biomarkers will make it
possible to better target therapeutic use of electrical brain stimulation, a
treatment Shirvalkar likens to turning pain on or off like a thermostat.”

I hope not future usage for Room 101 🙁

Alice of Wichita • April 20, 2024 5:59 PM

@ JonKnowsNothing

Over and over the many decades when public housing became visible through media reports (good and bad), it always escaped me WHY it either didn’t happen or was a Total Failure (ST LT) as a housing program.

Most public housing programs are basically set up to fail, because only poor and/or low-income people are allowed to be there and there’s no coherent larger strategy. That leads to some instability: if you live in such housing and cease to be poor, you’ve gotta move to market-rate housing, which might pull you back into poverty. Not that anyone really wants to live in “the projects”: poverty is often associated with other problems such as mental illness and crime, which means those problems tend to be present. Living in a stigmatized area, around people who only live there as a last resort, rarely leads to happiness.

The perception helps lead to the result. Just as nobody wants to live there, nobody wants such a project built near whether they already live. Concerns about attracting the “wrong type” of person have always been present too (often being thinly-veiled racism, classism, nationalism, or whatever’s in vogue). So these get built away from the “good areas”, whose residents have an over-sized influence on the politicians, and they’re already starting at a huge disadvantage.

It’s not like that everywhere. About 77% of people in Singapore live in public (government-operated) housing, and that’s down from a high around 88%; it’s completely normal, with no stigma and with various levels of luxury. I believe there are also areas in Europe that have had more success than North America; I’ve heard some try to intentionally mix people of different economic backgrounds, to avoid becoming slums.

The U.K.’s history is interesting. The decline of public housing there is often attributed to Thatcher’s government. In particular, building was discouraged, the pre-existing quality standards were abolished (so the things that were still being built were undesirable), and existing tenants were allowed to buy their (pre-enshittification) units at highly discounted prices—taking them out of the public housing stock and depriving public housing organisations of the income. One could argue about whether these changes were well-intentioned—they did significantly increase home ownership rates, but, in retrospect, maybe that was not a good metric.

JonKnowsNothing • April 20, 2024 6:38 PM

@Alice of Wichita, All

re: programs are basically set up to fail

Similar design defects are in public transportation in California.

It’s similar to the Last Mile network connection problem. No telco or internet company wants to do the last mile connection.

In California and some other states, the internet companies have notified the State and impacted customers, that they will not restore or maintain service in what is predominantly rural areas. Especially those that have been affected by fires in the last few years. All the dead-tree-line-poles burnt to the ground and the internet and utility providers have no intention of replacing them and they are not at all interested in the customer base, as this demographic tends to be less wealthy with limited disposable income.

There have been lots of fights over public transport: rail, bus, light-rail, high-speed rail, etc. The designers only want to build to a major hub. However, people have to get from the hub to-and-from the end points (work & home). The lack of the final leg of the journey means that nearly all public transit systems fail in revenue (self fulfilling) and ridership.

Transit systems that could work, impact auto-sales, urban sprawl, real estate, environment damage, even the sale of tires and batteries. It’s designed to fail.

The Austerity view is Take an Uber. Which doesn’t really solve anything at all.

JonKnowsNothing • April 20, 2024 6:42 PM

@lurker, @ResearcherZero, @ALL

Re:
@R: “Sodium is more than 500 times more abundant than lithium.”

@L: and a lot (500 times?) more flammable than lithium, especially in the presence of water

Are we planning to pool dunk circuit boards?

Last time I dropped an electronic gadget in the pool, that was the last time it worked.

lurker • April 20, 2024 8:36 PM

@JonKnowsNothing, @ALL

Going swimming wearing a FitBit might be OK, but @RZ’s original post was in relation to sodium being used to replace lithium as a battery electrode. When we consider the circumstances where lithium batteries catch fire, there seems to be potential for more interesting fires with sodium batteries. The existence of a sodium battery in a fire will require respnders to a} be aware of this, and b} modify their extinguishing methods.

Ferritecore • April 20, 2024 10:35 PM

Verne’s Captain Nemo used batteries with sodium-mercury smalgam electrodes.

They weren’t rechargeable, however. The sodium was consumed leaving the mercury behind to be recycled.

Alice of Wichita • April 20, 2024 11:26 PM

@ JonKnowsNothing

The lack of the final leg of the journey means that nearly all public transit systems fail in revenue (self fulfilling) and ridership.

As in the U.K. housing example, success is being judged by a questionable metric. I live beside a road, from which the city makes precisely $0 of revenue each year—and they’ve gotta spend a bunch to maintain it. In terms of revenue and expenses, 99% of roads are abject failures. But, unlike transit, nobody really questions it; we just expect to find free roads leading to anywhere we need to go.

(A similar example, more relevant to this blog’s readership, is computer and network security. At most companies, it incurs significant expense while producing no revenue. And if its budget is increased or decreased, there’s no quick and obvious result.)

In my current location, transit costs are too damn high, so I mostly bike. It’s like $3 for a bus ride, and $3 to come back (unless I can finish really quickly), and by setting that price they’re basically saying “if you can make a trip by any other method for less than $6 per person, stay off the bus”. It’s particularly punitive for someone who has a family, such that it’d be 20 or 30 dollars every time they all go out; “go buy a car” is the obvious message (it’ll save a lot of time, too). Quadruple the preceding numbers if regional commuter rail is involved.

ResearcherZero • April 20, 2024 11:38 PM

@lurker

There has been some work done on obtaining energy from substances in a non volatile state, and reducing the volatility of various energy storage devices. Cost has been an important factor. It’s simply cheaper to produce more volatile energy storage devices.

The quality of the manufacturing process has a cost of course. A cheap electric scooter is more likely to ignite than an expensive laptop/phone. The cost is coming down over time.

If you were willing to throw in an extra $40,000, your Tesla’s battery would be safer.
This will improve over time. Much like the petroleum based killing machines improved.

Life itself is not always nice and tidy either. The sun really is a **** of thing to jam into a bottle. Plants partially figured out some way of getting along with the sun. Within a given context, and a set of variables. Microbes also worked out how to catch some rays.

–

The sun is a very magic fellow
He shines down on me each day-ay-ay-ay
The sun is a very magic fellow
He shines down on me each day-ay-ay-ay
Shines down on me each day

‘https://theconversation.com/the-big-dry-forests-and-shrublands-are-dying-in-parched-western-australia-227053

The wind is a very fickle fellow
He blows all my dreams away-ay-ay-ay
The wind is a very fickle fellow
Blowin’ all my dreams away-ay-ay-ay
Blowin’ all my dreams away
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/20/western-australias-eucalypt-forests-fade-to-brown-as-century-old-giant-jarrahs-die-in-heat-and-drought

MarkH • April 21, 2024 1:21 AM

@lurker:

It might be a mistake to assess fire hazards of metal-ion batteries on the flammability of the metals in purified form.

Battery fires tend to be bad, because (a) when charged, they hold a lot of chemical energy, and (b) their anode structures release oxygen.

That said, I found a couple of sources claiming that sodium battery electrolytes are more stable at high temperatures than lithium battery electrolytes.

An obvious inference may be incorrect.

ResearcherZero • April 21, 2024 1:53 AM

@lurker, @MarkH

Shape and design can also have a large effect on flammability. If the elements are separated and insulated in a manner that reduces the spread of fire. Some plants employ techniques that reduce their susceptibility to fire, while others encourage it.

Botanists might be able to provide valuable insights to material scientists. There definitely needs to be more money thrown at the study of plants. Many remain unstudied.
Their material properties especially, and their chemical compositions and adaptability.

The indigenous elders held vast knowledge of plants and insects and their properties.
Much of that knowledge went ignored, but we have thousands of years to figure it out.

–

continued informance effect

The term “continued influence effect” (CIE) refers to the phenomenon that discredited and obsolete information continues to affect behavior and beliefs.

‘https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-023-01402-w

“To put it simply, once we’ve been exposed to certain information, our brains tend to hold onto it, and it continues to influence our thoughts and actions, irrespective of its accuracy. It highlights our susceptibility to cling to misinformation, even when presented with concrete evidence refuting it.”

https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/the-continued-influence-effect-cie-and-its-impact-on-user-experience-ux-478ffddc2504

Radically different realities, radically different in ways we do not understand…

‘https://www.fastcompany.com/90846471/ai-is-taking-over-our-workplaces-heres-how-it-could-impact-human-psychology

Psychologists may be among the most qualified to answer those questions.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-digital-self/202309/brace-for-cognitive-impact-from-artificial-intelligence

What are the core elements of being human?

Some velvet mornin’ when I’m straight
I’m gonna open up your gate
And maybe tell you ’bout Phaedra
And how she gave me life
And how she made it end

‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coMxoORqSQw

ResearcherZero • April 21, 2024 4:45 AM

What if AI serves humans too well?

We underestimate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying human consciousness.

Even if these language models, now or in the future, aren’t at all conscious, this doesn’t matter. Different people want different things and have countless ideas of what constitutes “the greater good.”

‘https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-03-31/ai-sentience-humans-animals-safety-alignment

Nipun Mehta, the founder of ServiceSpace, emphasizes the importance of integrating compassion into AI. He states, “How do we start to bring that into greater circulation? I mean, that’s really where it’s at, right.”

https://whyaiquestion.substack.com/p/i-got-your-ai-ethics-right-here

misalignment

How can we build AI (artificial intelligence) systems such that they try to do what
we want them to do? This, in a nutshell, is the alignment problem.

‘https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11229-023-04367-0.pdf

–

How AI might alter our reality and our minds?

“Hey who was that bloke I talked to last week who had the really good ramen recipe?”

Human brains are really good at story retrieval, but not great at remembering details, like specific dates, names, or faces.

“The basic pieces of cognition, the fundamental one is memory.”

“It’s the functional inner loop, the basis of almost all of our inference. Almost all of our daily cognition or computation is memory-based. We can do so much augmentation with just memory. It’s just one of the things that humans aren’t so hot at.”

‘https://www.wired.com/story/humans-forget-ai-assistants-remember-everything/

How human responses compare to AI
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/how-humans-outshine-ai-in-adapting-to-change

Everybody’s lazy when they’re tired
‘Cause everybody’s sucking on fluoride
And everybody’s filing into line
‘Cause everybody’s sucking on fluoride

‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUvVhmOmXxw

JonKnowsNothing • April 21, 2024 11:16 AM

@ Alice of Wichita , All

re: roadways & maintenance / from which the city makes precisely $0 of revenue

(USA) We have property taxes that are assessed annually and paid in 2 installments. In the fine print, there is a charge for roadway maintenance. Everyone who owns property gets one of these; renters do not see it but get sur-charged for the amounts in their rent.

Road maintenance is an very interesting industry and impacts nearly every economic activity. It’s pretty complex and not every example fits an existing configuration.

The hidden revenue stream is the connection between the building industry, the roadway industry and municipal governments.

An example of how this works in California.

A large real estate development corporation buys up 100 acres of formerly farm lands. Farm land is desirable because it has been leveled; the building costs are reduced as they do not need to contour the development much.

Housing is often described by houses per acre, the same as hamburger patties are described by the pound. In urban settings, this might be 4:1 (4 houses per acre or 1/4 acre yards) or 16:1 or 50:1. All depending on exchanges between the city, city planning, city zoning and the real estate developer. There are laws, mitigations, some give and take (like parks) on the poker table.

For each home built, that is a new property tax revenue stream. Farms don’t pay much as the land is “unimproved” v “improved by having a house”. So for 16:1, this is 16 new property taxes over 100 acres or 1,600 new property tax revenues for the city.

* There are other entities on the property tax bill that also benefit from the new income stream

The builder, as part of the negotiations, puts in all the underground infrastructure (we don’t do a lot of above ground anymore). They work with the utility companies and the internet companies to build in all the connections needed. Different connections types are located on different parts of the building-property.

* Sewer lines run from the house to the street, and from the street to the nearest sewer main lines. Pumps installed as needed.

* Internet connections may not be directly on the building but used to be a green pylon on the lawn.

* Electrical and gas are connected to the building but run in their own conduits to a main junction box.

* Roadways are all built out, shiny new asphalt, throughout the complex. Street signs and intersection lights are worked out with the city roads design department. The city gets say-so in the configuration and traffic analysis patters as they don’t want too many stop lights in close proximity.

It all looks like a sweet deal for the city. More property tax revenues, little investment by the city, and infrastructure that requires minimal maintenance which can be deferred for decades.

Of course, the piper needs to be paid and in some cases it’s a long time in arrival.

RL tl;dr

Small town road maintenance

A section of town did not have their roads repaved. The city had a repaving schedule and this section had not had their roads repaved in decades. The roads had disappeared and the roadway was now a dirt road.

The city claimed this section was not in the city limits and therefore the city had no obligation to repave the road. Repaving the road was the responsibility of the County. The County was not interested in paving this residential area either.

After many attempts to get their road repaved the residents were able to get some legal assistance and an official survey for their area, which proved this section was part of the city.

The city, grudgingly, repaved the road.

It is perhaps of no surprise, that the residents of this neighborhood were less wealthy than the ones who got their roads repaved and maintained every 2 years.

In economically poor neighborhoods, the value of the property tax is less than *PMO* homes.

===

PMO – an acronym for 3 very wealthy residents of California living in hi-rent, hi-lifestyle parts of the state. Well, maybe not live here, they visit their homes here. A very princely activity.

Bob • April 21, 2024 1:40 PM

@cybershow

“It’s” vs “its,” my guy.

lurker • April 21, 2024 2:15 PM

Google will be updating its Terms of Service effective 2024 May 22. They have sent an email to affected users inviting them to peruse the new Terms. The url is munged to a) require sign-in, and b) provide a region specific version.

For an English speaking non-European country they provide a short summary summary which the atomod here objects to. some extracts:

“we won’t claim ownership over original content generated by our AI-powered services.”

“for users outside the US, we’re adding clarifications to our limitations of liability and indemnity sections to avoid any misu.nderstandings in light of local laws or customs.”

“we’re clarifying that if you violate our terms, our remedies aren’t limited to suspension or termination of your access to the services”

“we’re adding language about how our services work, and updating certain Google service brand names that have changed over time.”

For EU users “we’re adding more explanatory text to help you understand the legal concept of “guarantees” under EU and local law.”

Alice of Wichita • April 21, 2024 2:40 PM

@ JonKnowsNothing

(USA) We have property taxes that are assessed annually and paid in 2 installments. In the fine print, there is a charge for roadway maintenance

Indeed, but I think in most cases that’s merely a name. That is, the collected “roadway maintenance fee” goes into the same pot of general revenue as everything else; expenses are then taken out, as required, without regard to whether it was called “road money” on the way in. And, in practice, road-taxes don’t really adjust based on density and quality of roads; there’s little official consideration of value for money.

So, realistically, it’s quite similar to transit-support taxes, which are also taken from general revenue but probably not named on your bill. In most of the U.S.A., taxes cover 70%-90% of transit system expenses—but note that fare-collection is often a pretty significant expense itself. And, like roads and airports, local transit systems have a pretty large economic impact. (An interesting thing about airports is that they’ve always managed to get a lot of government support, whereas the rail systems that preceded them—mostly long-distance, but also the three pre-1940 N.Y.C. transit systems—had to basically be self-funding.)

Anonymous • April 21, 2024 3:21 PM

“Code is law.”

Why would law be written in code if it applies to everyone?

cybershow • April 21, 2024 6:38 PM

@a different Jon, Bob

Thanks for feedback. See changes.

@anon “code is law” is not literal but a figure of speech, see Lawrence Lessig

ResearcherZero • April 22, 2024 12:50 AM

@Alice of Witchita, @JohnKnowsNothing

There were coherent and well planned public housing strategies. Much of the public housing stock was sold off over the last 30 years in a number of countries. Strangely this happened after some Scandinavian countries toured these same countries to see how a successful public housing program is implemented, then established their own successful programs.

There was also a significant housing stock for government services employees. Roads and railways, forestry, public works, military, public health where it exists, and other such services. Much of that was also sold off over the last 30 years, or in some cases, like with public housing, demolished to make way for private development.

Many of these government housing schemes were built by public-private partnerships and were crucial for the operation of public services and vibrant thriving communities. In spite of the government receiving many reports that such schemes were vital into the future, forward thinking was thrown by the wayside and replaced with short-term opportunism to win votes.

A lot of goods flow along roads and the manufacture and sale of goods creates revenue.
Speaking of which, a new mattress has arrived which needs breaking in. Everyone is invited.

–

480 days since Congress last passed a bill allowing American weapons to be sent to Ukraine.

Ukrainians will once again have faith in the resolve of their country’s partners and will be able to look ahead with a degree of confidence that has recently been lacking.

‘https://news.sky.com/story/what-us-aid-package-means-for-war-in-ukraine-after-profound-impact-of-delay-13119684

“properly harness financial and industrial power to moral and security imperatives”

Putin seeks victory, not negotiation, because he sees events moving in his favour.
Russia does not feel it faces the necessity of compromise.

The West must dramatically up it’s game and take the threat seriously.

No one should doubt the stakes.

https://www.iiss.org/online-analysis/survival-online/2024/04/ukraine-the-balance-of-resources-and-the-balance-of-resolve/

ResearcherZero • April 22, 2024 1:00 AM

the monolith

How have we changed ourselves through the use of technology?

AI and the Tattered Edges of Human Reality

‘https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-digital-self/202310/ai-and-the-tattered-edges-of-human-reality

One of Albert Einstein’s most famous thought experiments was on the relative nature of simultaneity. – “Fancy math was never the point for Einstein. He liked to think visually, coming up with experiments in his mind’s eye and working them around in his head until he could see the ideas and physical principles with crystalline clarity.”

Running alongside a beam of light…

Einstein kept that childhood thought experiment alive, all through his years of schooling and beyond, trying to find a coherent, consistent picture of what light would look like if you caught up with it, wondering what form or shape or identity it might take.

Eventually Albert figured it out…
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/einstein-relativity-thought-experiment-train-lightning-genius

–

a daydream of light

The train/embankment experiment:

‘https://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu/presentations/relativity-train

Technology pushes, pulls, and transforms our perception.

https://mindmatters.ai/2022/01/what-is-ai-doing-to-me-how-ai-influences-our-concept-of-reality/

“Eureka!”

Frozen light cannot exist. The universe doesn’t permit it, full stop.

‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdoP-_hGazY

JonKnowsNothing • April 22, 2024 1:53 AM

@ ResearcherZero, @Alice of Witchita, ALL

re: Much of the public [wealth] was sold off over the last 30 years in a number of countries.

It is not strange, it was intentional and is intended. The Hayek economic model, which we know under a number of slogan names:

Trickle Down Libertarian NeoCon Austerity and Spoilt for Choice

was established in Austria, moved to the UK where it lost out to the Keynesian Model, then transported and funded by oligarchs with a fake position using the University of Chicago as cover, where it had many years to influence a transformative view which promotes these very policies as principles.

In countries that resisted Hayek’s model the concept of Public Goods, Public Welfare, and Public Health, continued for a long time. However, as it currently stands, the Hayek model, which is based on Asset Stripping, is running out of assets to strip. It is in collapse, and the prospects are ugly about what this means to the majority of the planet.

Hayek’s model makes little allocation for “long term” because their goal is Maximum Profit Today.

A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow

Once the larger countries shifted to Greed is Good it becomes difficult to re-channel economic activities. No one looks past the EOM reports, EOQ is long term and Annual Reports are irrelevant and oligarchs demand $56 billion in direct payout.

Part of the global economic system is run by the World Bank. (1) They lend money for enormous projects, with poor chance of completion and where the actual returns do not pay the debt load. These projects are pitched to poorer countries where there is little chance of a secondary lending market.

Currently 75 countries have debt loads that are crushing and impossible to pay back, even if they pay interest only on the debt.

The World Bank is acknowledging the collapse of Austerity and warning of the impacts of ignoring it.

… after four years … there hasn’t been a single dollar of debt relief

Debt relief, is aka “a hair cut”. No bank, no lending country, no private equity firm will take a hair cut.

It is this aspect that indicates the Hayek model is collapsing. There are no sources of assets left to strip. Robodebt, Clawbacks, Sick Note v Well Note, £23bn Unclaimed Carer benefits because the fear of predatory RoboCarer Clawbacks, UK Post Office 20yrs of Government sanctioned Robodebt with prison time for anyone that complains.

The Hayek Libertarian model is collapsing. The public is exhausted financially.

However, as there is no source of assets left to strip, there is also no revenue for governments to spend. The whirlpools spins faster as the structure fails. It doesn’t matter who is running the economic show, there’s nothing left.

XAUSTD

===

HAIL Warning XAUSTD

ht tps://ww w.thegu ardian. com/business/2024/apr/21/world-bank-chief-economist-indermit-gill-g20-debt-relief-mechanism-common-framework

World Bank official calls for shake-up of G20 debt relief scheme
four years of debt restructuring has not provided a single dollar of new money
There is no debt being restructured
[debt holders]: ‘This horse is not dead yet, so let’s just keep whipping it.’

ResearcherZero • April 22, 2024 1:56 AM

Main roads workers are “Interplanetary Transportation Maintenance.”
They fill in “Black Holes” so our “vessels” are not torn to pieces by their mighty force?

maybe? – Just an idea, I digress, selling off public housing is not a new phenomena.

It has been done before…

“By 1971, approximately 40% of the houses built by the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement – which had included 96,000 in its first decade, from 1945 to 1955 – had been sold.”

‘https://theconversation.com/australias-deeply-unfair-housing-system-is-in-crisis-and-our-politicians-are-failing-us-219001

Up until the mid-1970s, government took a hands-on approach to housing, constructing homes for people to buy or rent at low cost. Investors weren’t prioritised over the rights of people who needed shelter, and governments helped people buy with cheap loans.

But from the 1980s, Australia’s housing system was being transformed into a “closed shop”, working to expand the wealth of existing home owners and investors. If you owned a home, you had membership to Australia’s exclusive wealth-builders’ club.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-05/house-prices-intergenerational-inequality-how-did-we-get-here/102048266

State governments all sold off stock. Those “in the know” cashed in.

Since elected in 2011, the NSW government sold off more than $3bn of social housing.

‘https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/revealed-sydney-suburbs-where-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-public-housing-stock-was-sold-20230510-p5d79k.html

–

Design flaw allows comments to distribute malware using Microsoft repository URLs

“You can only protect a GitHub account from being abused in this way and tarnishing your reputation by disabling comments.”

‘https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/github-comments-abused-to-push-malware-via-microsoft-repo-urls/

ResearcherZero • April 22, 2024 3:12 AM

Musk makes decision to further run xTwitter into the ground.

‘https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/musk-s-x-ignores-australia-s-legal-threats-to-take-down-distressing-stabbing-content-20240419-p5fl6f.html

–

Schneier on Security

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Trackers

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