The Junk Drawer

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
If you ever get the chance to look at the late-summer Milky Way through good binos in a really really dark sky —

it looks like a violent storm faintly lit from inside. A Cat 5 hurricane at a timescale such that it looks frozen. I’ve never gotten that effect from even slightly light-polluted skies. But from a true dark location, it is hair-on-end awesome.
I'll check it next year but were pretty polluted from Denver. Were the binoculars about $1k not sure I want to spend quite that much or I'm looking at the wrong thing. I took notes let me see...Fujinon 10x70? Maybe like $500 or less? Can you link me to a good choice?..i'm getting Tirion Sky Atlas and Burnhams Night Sky V3.
 
Last edited:

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
I'll check it next year but were pretty polluted from Denver.
here in the desert I’m a hundred miles from LA and it kills the sky. That, and everybody and his sister has security lights. Try somewhere on the western slope out of sight of the interstate or any town with pop > 1000.
 

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
Harvard's Sinclair Lab has been working with EPIGENOME it's how your DNA is read..as you age it gets scratched much like a CD- we now know how to remove the scratches which reverses aging..they've rapid aged mice then cleared the scratches through the Epigenome and the mouse returned to youth.

We will have this technology soon.


Just a question of when?
 

schuylaar

Well-Known Member

Very sad I hate when people go crazy but my profile has this killer as:

  • Male​
  • Single Act​
  • Premeditated​
  • They knew him and let him in​
  • Student at the College​
  • Motive - Jealousy​
  • Serrated blade? Without seeing the crime scene yet, I'm thinking killer hacked these people bad.​
He'll be in custody soon..too many hidden eyes and cameras everywhere. They'll get tips because he was bloody..someone had to see him walking around- it's a college town.
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
Harvard's Sinclair Lab has been working with EPIGENOME it's how your DNA is read..as you age it gets scratched much like a CD- we now know how to remove the scratches which reverses aging..they've rapid aged mice then cleared the scratches through the Epigenome and the mouse returned to youth.

We will have this technology soon.


Just a question of when?
Just a question of who can afford it? I fear this will not help slow the speciation event going on between the wild type and its offshoot Homo billionairus.
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
Harvard's Sinclair Lab has been working with EPIGENOME it's how your DNA is read..as you age it gets scratched much like a CD- we now know how to remove the scratches which reverses aging..they've rapid aged mice then cleared the scratches through the Epigenome and the mouse returned to youth.

We will have this technology soon.


Just a question of when?
with a population that has surpassed 8 billion, we shouldn't even be trying. we don't have the self control to breed selectively. we're already reduced to living on a stipend that politicians use as a political pawn once we get past 67. what about people coming up through the ranks of a company? are they forever to be denied advancement because the same person has been in that job for 75 years, and they still look 35?...we are not ready for drastically extended life spans, we have a lot of maturing to do first.
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
with a population that has surpassed 8 billion, we shouldn't even be trying. we don't have the self control to breed selectively. we're already reduced to living on a stipend that politicians use as a political pawn once we get past 67. what about people coming up through the ranks of a company? are they forever to be denied advancement because the same person has been in that job for 75 years, and they still look 35?...we are not ready for drastically extended life spans, we have a lot of maturing to do first.
It’s not as if this would be generally available.
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member

What this effectively means is as with most EU regulations and laws not entirely clear. It does suggest companies like Facebook and Twitter will get huge fines. The whole mandatory usb-c charger option is dumb, totally with Apple on that one. And not allowing MS to include their own IE browser installed by default to give competitors an option, not my idea of fairness but I guess they did do people a favor with that one. The EUSSR sending a $1billion fine to Twitter or FB for not shutting up Trump's hate speech or dangerous covid advice... well, all those unelected politicians don't pay their own salaries you know. Elon Musk was already warned on the day he took over Twitter, he can change the rules, it'll still have to comply with EU laws to avoid fines or eventually even be active in EU. But then who will decide what is disinformation or hate speech, who'll watch the watchmen. Is the answer to Russian troll armies an army of fact checkers? Not allowing people to write and talk utter bullshit and lies isn't the way to go.
 

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
Just a question of who can afford it? I fear this will not help slow the speciation event going on between the wild type and its offshoot Homo billionairus.
We got mRNA on the quick when we needed it.

This was invented by the guy who founded the stem cell research and we use stem cells everywhere today..they sell umbilical cord cells lab grown for use in cosmeceutical's..I've tried..funky smell as I spread baby umbilical cells on my face:lol: That shit's expensive a very small amount I guess a month's worth was $125 back in 2010.

OMG! Pizzagate is real!
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
We got mRNA on the quick when we needed it.

This was invented by the guy who founded the stem cell research and we use stem cells everywhere today.
Apples/oranges, I say. A vaccine is like a rifle: can be quickly designed, cheaply produced and deployed. Epigenome manipulation is more like retooling the entire navy, a broad-fronted and deliriously expensive proposition. Two current aircraft carriers cost more than Twitter did.
 

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
Apples/oranges, I say. A vaccine is like a rifle: can be quickly designed, cheaply produced and deployed. Epigenome manipulation is more like retooling the entire navy, a broad-fronted and deliriously expensive proposition. Two current aircraft carriers cost more than Twitter did.
My Neurologist loves to say 'time will tell' because all brain shit gets worse as you age because meds stop working. I told her about this Harvard study when I saw her today- anything to regenerate the brain- and they're doing that in those petri dishes with mini brains..human tissue is regenerating.

I'm pretty stoked.
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
My Neurologist loves to say 'time will tell' because all brain shit gets worse as you age because meds stop working. I told her about this Harvard study when I saw her today- anything to regenerate the brain- and they're doing that in those petri dishes with mini brains..human tissue is regenerating.

I'm pretty stoked.
I’ll need to see it work on mice that were not rapid-aged or of long-lived stock. I’d also like to see it work on the same test animals repeatedly.
 

printer

Well-Known Member
Transparency is derailing China’s debt trap diplomacy
Chinese funding for subpar infrastructure projects across the developing world has long been labeled as a predatory exercise in debt trap diplomacy. The exact details of these white elephants, however, are often kept opaque.

Recently released documents surrounding the Chinese-funded Mombasa to Nairobi railway in Kenya now demonstrate just how predatory Beijing’s secret lending can be.

The deal, inked by then-president Uhuru Kenyatta and the China Exim Bank in 2014, provided Kenya with 85 percent of the financing for the multi-billion-dollar project. At the time of signing, there were early indications that the deal was too good to be true. Without a competitive or public tender, the Chinese state-owned China Road and Bridge Construction (CRBC) was awarded the construction contract. This was subsequently ruled to violate Kenyan law, but only after construction was complete.

Despite local court orders to make the loan agreement public, confidentiality clauses in the deal were used by President Kenyatta to inhibit public oversight. Kenya has now been through two parliamentary and presidential election cycles since the deal was signed, with limited public scrutiny of what critics term the “gravy train.”

Heeding public calls for transparency, the government of recently elected president William Ruto has published several loan documents linked to the project that demonstrate the predatory nature of Beijing’s lending. In addition to the non-competitive construction tender, the deal requires all “goods, technologies and services” in the railway’s construction to be preferentially sourced from China. Additionally, these imports were exempted from Kenyan taxes and duties. Together, these provisions have shortchanged the Kenyan economy of opportunities associated with the construction of the most expensive infrastructural project in the country’s history.

The agreement also runs roughshod over the rule of law in Kenya. In the event of a dispute, the Exim loan stipulates that arbitration can only take place in Beijing, without the right to appeal. More generally, the deal is “governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of China.” The rush to relegate the agreement to Beijing’s jurisdiction hints at the fear of a relatively impartial trial in Kenya. Local courts have been willing to rule against the Nairobi government when civil society has litigated the conditions of the deal, and there is a real risk that they would be equally unintimidated by Beijing.

The corrosive nature of the railway loan is made worse by the project’s lackluster economic performance. Since beginning service in 2017, the railway project has struggled to turn a profit. Earlier this year, it was revealed that Kenya had already paid Chinese lenders more than $10 million in penalties associated with the railway’s fragile finances.

The costly drawbacks of Beijing’s loan conditions are a prime example of what scholars call China’s “sharp power.” Unlike military hard power or cultural soft power, China’s sharp power represents the manipulative erosion of good governance to advance Beijing’s position within the global order. Infrastructural investment and business engagement can make a positive difference in developing countries, regardless of the foreign counterpart. But China’s exercise of sharp power in Africa adds unforeseen costs that are predominantly borne by civil society and communities, such as greater corruption, environmental degradation and diminished political accountability.

While China’s sharp power takes a variety of forms, the Kenyan railway deal represents just the tip of the iceberg of Beijing’s predatory lending and corrosive contracts. Among a sample of 100 Chinese government loans to developing countries, researchers last year found that all loans since 2014 included confidentiality clauses. These clauses not only hide loan conditions from citizens and civil society but also prevent other lenders from accurately assessing the borrower country’s debt profile.

Although Beijing’s loans are shrouded in mandated secrecy, it appears that the manipulative terms of the Kenyan railway loan are not unique. Last November, lawmakers in Uganda revealed that a China Exim loan to expand the country’s sole international airport similarly mandated arbitration in China under Chinese law.

Discussions of China’s debt trap diplomacy often focus on the risk of asset seizure in cases of loan default. While these discussions about worst-case scenarios are important, they overlook the pernicious everyday sharp power provisions that routinely accompany Beijing’s lending.

More than eight years since it was signed, the details of the China Exim loan for the Mombasa-Nairobi railway are only just coming to light. By giving citizens greater oversight of their fiscal liabilities, transparency will further derail China’s predatory debt trap diplomacy.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
For those interested or vested in crypto, here is a 10-minute explanation and discussion on the potential impact of quantum computing on crypto. There have been some important breakthroughs in quantum since this video came out a year ago.

Caveat Emptor crypto fans!


15,207 views Premiered Dec 3, 2020
Bitcoin is back in the news as it is approaching its all-time-high of nearly $20,000. Bitcoin's supporters boast that it is the most secure currency in the world and virtually unhackable for classical computers, but what about quantum computers?
 
Top