MrG's Blog & Notes

* This is an archive of my own online blog and notes, with weekly entries collected by month.

[MON 02 OCT 23] THE WEEK THAT WAS 39

* THE WEEK THAT WAS: Donald Trump is currently facing four criminal trials, with a total of 91 felony counts. Lost in this shuffle, at least until this last week, was a civil suit against Trump being pushed by New York State Attorney General Letitia "Tish" James, with Trump being accused of tax fraud. The trial will start on 2 October and will last at least two months.

AG James had accused Trump, his sons Don JR and Eric, and the Trump Organization of inflating the value of their properties by more than $2 billion USD, claiming the defendants issued false records and financial statements to get better terms on loans and insurance deals -- and, by understating the value of the assets, to pay less tax. She's after $250 million USD in damages and a ban on Trump's business activities in the state.

The case had been dragging through the New York courts for several years, with AG James expressing exasperation at Trump's expert delaying tactics. To speed things up, she asked for a summary ruling on whether Trump had committed fraud. On Tuesday, Judge Arthur Engoron of the New York State bench judged that Trump had indeed committed fraud, and ordered the cancellation of business certificates that allow some of the former president's businesses, including the Trump Organization, to operate in New York. That won't dissolve his company, but could end his control over signature New York properties such as Trump Tower and the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street.

Judge Engoron noted in his decision that Trump:

• Overvalued Mar-a-Lago by 2,300% in one financial statement.
  
  
• Overvalued his penthouse at Trump Tower in New York by claiming that it was three times its actual size.
  
  
• "Absurdly" argued that calculating the area of the penthouse was subjective, ruling "a discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud."

Judge Engoron commented: "The documents here clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business. That is a fantasy world, not the real world."

The upcoming trial will now focus on a more narrow set of six remaining claims and determine the size of any potential penalty. Trump has of course denounced the ruling as another "witch hunt" and called the judge "highly politicized". Trump's lawyers had tried to get the case thrown out and only succeeded in antagonizing the judge. He fined five Trump attorneys $7,500 USD each for making "preposterous" arguments already rejected by the court, and fueling what he called their clients' "obstreperous" conduct.

Incidentally Eli Mystal, a lawyer and commenter who takes a dim view of Trump, was wondering why he didn't see the headline:

   NY Judge To Trump:  "YOU'RE FIRED!"

I suggested back that would be a heading the NEW YORK POST would use, but they're Trump backers, so no.

Anyway, could this civil trial lead to Federal investigation of Trump's taxes? Is one going on already that hasn't been announced? The trick is that the fraudulent property valuations mean nothing for Federal taxes, since the Federal government can't tax property, and the fraud against insurers and the like are state crimes as well. However, the leak of Trump's taxes by the NEW YORK TIMES suggest the Feds have plenty of ammo to use against Trump in the context of taxes -- for example, hiring on his kids as "consultants" with hefty payments, and then charging them off on taxes. Trump thought he could get away with anything. It needs to be proven to history that he can't, so no other clown tries it again.

* In the meantime, Trump is flirting with jail. Outgoing Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley made some remarks about his dealings with Trump that Trump didn't like, with Trump suggesting that Milley should be executed. Special Counsel Jack Smith, the Federal prosecutor going after Trump, filed a complaint with Tanya Chutkan, the Federal judge in charge of that particular case, saying that Trump was engaging in witness intimidation and tampering. The Feds don't want to put Trump in pre-trial confinement, but he seems to be forcing them to do so. What happens remains to be seen, but this Friday General Milley, in his retirement speech, cut Trump down to size:

QUOTE:

END_QUOTE

I increasingly wonder if it is realistic to think Trump will be the GOP presidential nominee in 2024. How can that work, when he'll be in court so much of the time? What makes that even more bizarre is the reality that the GOP doesn't have any other candidates that are as credible.

In other chaos, the MAGA caucus in the House of Representatives tried to manufacture a government shutdown this weekend, but it was called off at the last moment. A temporary budget was passed, the only constraint being that it didn't have funding for Ukraine. Since Congress is about 75% pro-Ukraine, that problem will likely be fixed quickly. The MAGA insurgency now appears to be heading for a train wreck.

* As discussed in an article from NEWATLAS.com ("Origami-Inspired Technique Used To Created Folded Glass Objects" by Ben Coxworth, 28 March 2023), three-dimensional glass objects have been traditionally produced by blowing or molding, with 3D printing more recently having been used as ell. Chinese researchers have devised a new approach to fabricating 3D glass objects, using folding.

The origami-inspired process was devised by Xu Yang, a graduate student working in the lab of Professor Xie Tao at Zhejiang University. Xu started by mixing nanoparticles of silica into a solution of a photosensitive liquid polymer and other compounds. Exposure to ultraviolet light then converted the solution into a solid cross-linked polycaprolactone polymer, loaded with the silica beads,

Xu cut the material into flat translucent sheets with mechanical properties similar to those of paper -- with the material folded into origami-based shapes. Heating the polymer at about 130 degrees Celsius (265 degrees Fahrenheit) when folded or stretched would adjust the polymer to ensure it kept it shape. Once the item was in final configuration, Xu heated it to 595C (1,100F), which melted away the polymer -- and finally turned up the heat to 1,260C (2,300F), which fused the glass beads, resulting in forming a smooth, transparent finished product.

Obvious, the scheme can produce more elaborate objects than are possible with glass moulding or blowing. It's also faster than 3D printing, plus it doesn't result in the coarse, layered look of many 3D-printed items. The researchers are investigating using the same approach to fabricate ceramic objects, for example using beads of titanium dioxide or zirconium dioxide.

* I've lost interest in taking long tourist trips, but for the time being I'm still taking regional trips. I got to looking around online for regional balloon fiestas, and found there was one in Colorado Springs over Labor Day weekend, the first weekend in August. I equivocated on going, but then I found the "Labor Day Lift-Off" had a drone lightshow. I'd never seen one before, so I decided I would go.

It was only a two-hour drive south from Loveland to Colorado Springs, going down Interstate 25. The only tricky thing was finding the park in Colorado Springs where the balloon fiesta was supposed to take place. I got into Google Maps and figured out where to go, going down to street view to visually trace out the route.

I got up very dark and early on Saturday, 5 August, and was soon on the road. It was an easy drive, the only complication being getting to the park in Colorado Springs. One of the things about going to street view on Google Maps is that it's hard to gauge distance, and I overshot the park. No worries, I looped around and got a parking spot, paying $15 USD for the privilege.

I was still on elbow crutches at the time, but I made my way to the center of the park. It was a bit chillier than I expected and I hadn't taken a jacket or sweatshirt, so I used a large towel I kept in the car as a shawl; it did the job. I got in position just in time for the drone lightshow. It was fun, but not particularly imaginative.

That done, I had to kill time for the Sun to come up and the balloon lift-offs to start. I should have brought my camp chair, too, but I hadn't thought of it either -- partly because airshows sometimes discourage people from bringing in gear like that. I did end up playing, along with some kids, with two cute and affectionate corgi dogs.

The lift-offs finally began and continued for two hours or so. I was thinking the Labor Day Lift-Off would be much smaller than the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta that I had attended in 2014, but it was still a big event, with about 70 balloons, including a fair number of special-shape balloons. The launch area in the park was well smaller than had been in Albuquerque, so they had to phase balloon launches. I got a ton of pictures.

The launches over, I went back to the car and left, going back north. I ate lunch at the Fazoli's Italian restaurant on 120th Street North in Denver; it's right off I-25 and easy to get to. I'd forgotten to check operating hours there before I left, so I'd stopped there on the way south to confirm that it did open at 1030 AM and had scheduled myself accordingly. Having eaten, I drove back to Loveland, fueled up my car, and went home.

It was a cheap trip, only $54 USD including food and fuel, and it was definitely worthwhile. I probably won't go to another balloon fiesta again, however. I've seen two of them -- I've seen them all.

[MON 09 OCT 23] THE WEEK THAT WAS 40

* THE WEEK THAT WAS: As discussed on ECONOMIST.com, on 18 September 2023, Iran and America each exchanged five prisoners in a deal sweetened by America's unfreezing of $6 billion USD of Iranian assets, primarily oil revenues, held in South Korea. The released hostages included Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman held since 2015 -- his father was detained a year later when he went to Iran to secure Siamak's release and held until 2022 -- and Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-American environmentalist who also holds British citizenship. However, Iran is still holding dozens of other hostages, and Iran is arresting more of them. A Western diplomat who had been based in Iran says: "The Islamic Republic isn't a banana republic, but ... it still behaves like a mafia state."

Iranian officials shoot back that their adversaries don't play fair with Iran, so why should Iran play fair with them? Their wrath has been inflamed by American sanctions, and by the unloading in August of Iranian oil from a tanker America had seized and taken to Texas. Hostage-taking maintains Iran's image as a rogue state, working against tourism and foreign investment -- but the short-term cash is attractive to an impoverished state that faces public discontent in the face of soaring inflation and a plunging currency.

The money was sent to Qatar, and its use will be monitored to limit it to humanitarian purposes. The deal is seen as an encouraging sign of a diplomatic thaw, with Iran planning talks with other Gulf states, most significantly Iran's arch-rival Saudi Arabia. The Iranians are also having discussions with the Americans, on subjects such as Iran's nuclear enrichment program, the supply of Iranian combat drones to Russia, and Iranian threats against the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq.

Few think that the 2015 agreement to limit enrichment, abandoned by the Trump Administration, will be revived -- all the more so because the Iranians are already well past the limits, being on the threshold of building the Bomb. It seems more likely that the Iranians will come to an agreement with the Saudis, each side promising not to build the Bomb if the other doesn't. The Bomb is a highly ambiguous weapon, one that nobody dares to use, and can be seen as more of an expensive liability than an asset.

Driving the diplomatic outreach is the regime's need to bolster international support as the Islamic Republic struggles with plans for the succession of its 84-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and taking on its greatest threat: its disaffected population. Public demonstrations began a year ago, after the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman detained for showing her hair. More than 500 Iranians were killed in the months of protests that followed.

The authorities have suppressed the dissent. Riot police and bully boys on motorbikes roam the streets to prevent demonstrations, while cafes have been shut down to prevent youths from congregating. Of course the discontent hasn't gone away, Iranians speaking of growing tensions. Resistance takes subtle forms: women refuse to wear the mandatory headscarves and refuse to pay fines, or "cash-for-hijabs" as Iranians call them, for breaking the dress code. Security people, knowing they are seen as enemies of the people, wear balaclavas to hide their identities. Nobody is expecting the tension to relax any time soon.

* The war in Ukraine rages on, with a recent video suggesting the fighting between Ukrainian and Russians has spread to Africa. Russian mercenaries of the Wagner group have footholds in a number of African countries, in general supporting thug African regimes. Wagner mercenaries are also fighting in Sudan, working against the government there.

In the video, a special unit sniper of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate (HUR) is seen lying prone on a rocky outcrop in Sudan, firing rounds from his silenced rifle at a target near a house in the distance. Other videos show Ukrainian attacks on Wagner in Sudan using drones. General Kyrylo Budanov, the HUR commander, commented that he would neither confirm nor deny Ukrainian activities in Africa, but added:

QUOTE:

END_QUOTE

The war in Ukraine will end, but the Ukrainians will still have scores to settle with the Russians.

* Not all that incidentally, US funding for Ukraine was put at risk in a budget battle, in which the MAGA caucus in the House of Representatives threatened a budget shutdown. A temporary budget resolution was indeed passed, but with no Ukraine funding. That was consequently followed by the eviction of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of the GOP, leaving a leadership vacuum.

The House GOP is split between MAGA and non-MAGA, with only the MAGA extremists really wanting the job of Speaker. The GOP has a slender majority, while the House Democrats have made it clear they will only vote for their minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, as Speaker. The GOP is now in an extremely difficult position, saddled with a good deal of comical anger at the Democrats for not sorting out the GOP train wreck. They can't, and they sensibly don't want to even try. As one "@SundaeDivine" put it on Xitter: "Not our circus -- not our monkeys."

* As discussed in an article from NEWATLAS.com ("Water-Activated Paper Battery May Lead To Greener Disposable Tech" by Ben Coxworth, 28 July 2022), printed batteries are not a new idea, but they've had little or no impact so far.

Researchers Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science & Technology (Empa in its German acronym) have demonstrated a promising paper printed battery that cheap and is eco-friendly -- because it's activated by water, and degrades after being discarded. The battery consists of one more linked cells. Each cell measures a square centimeter; its paper substrate is impregnated with sodium chloride (table salt). One end of it has a wax coating, to which two wires are attached.

Printed onto one side of the paper is an ink containing graphite flakes, which serves as the cathode. An ink containing zinc powder, which serves as the anode, is printed onto the other side. A layer of graphite flakes and carbon black is then laid down on both sides of the paper, to provide electrical connections to the wires. When the battery is wetted, the salty paper becomes an electrolyte between the two electrodes.

Just two drops of water were sufficient to activate a single cell within 20 seconds. The battery had an open-circuit voltage of 1.2 volts. The cell's voltage dropped appreciably after an hour, but it could still generate half a volt for another hour, if two more drops of water were added.

Lead scientist Professor Gustav Nystroem -- who earlier developed a biodegradable mini-capacitor -- believes that with further engineering, drying of the paper shouldn't be nearly as much of a limiting factor. He sees the battery as useful for applications such as "smart" shipping labels, environmental sensors, and disposable medical diagnostic devices.

* During the Trump Administration, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) discarded the policy of "net neutrality" -- that is, the idea that internet service providers (ISP) could not constrain or skew access to the internet over their services. As discussed in an article from REUTERS.com ("US FCC Chair Proposes To Restore Net Neutrality Rules" by David Shepardson, 26 September 2023), the Biden Administration's FCC is now moving to restore the net neutrality policy.

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel is asking her colleagues on the FCC board to perform an initial vote on October 19 to bring back net neutrality, the policy having been originally been created in 2015, during the Obama Administration. Why did it take so long to restore the policy? Because Democrats were only now able to obtain a majority on the 5-person board. Nobody expects any snags in the vote.

Rosenworcel said the repeal "was problematic not only because it wiped away enforceable, bright-line rules to prevent blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization" and it also "had a lot of downstream consequences." The revived rules will introduce something new, giving the FCC the right to block, on national security grounds, authorization of companies that might be controlled by foreign adversaries.

The repeal of the net neutrality regulations caused no real problems because twelve states, most significantly California, passed their own net-neutrality laws, leaving ISPs generally as stuck with net neutrality as they had been before. Industry groups tried to strike down the California law, but in 2022 a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the California law stood. The industry groups then gave up.

[MON 16 OCT 23] THE WEEK THAT WAS 41

* THE WEEK THAT WAS: After the brutal Hamas attack on Israel starting on 7 October, Israeli military forces have been preparing to invade the Gaza Strip, softening up targets with airstrikes. Palestinian civilians have been ordered to leave northern Gaza, but it appears Hamas fighters won't let them go.

It is likely that Gaza will be partly or even completely flattened, with the underground tunnel complexes built by Hamas destroyed by penetrating bombs and other specialized weapons. Civilian casualties are likely to be high in the end, with the Israelis being criticized for their offensive. I don't think they care very much.

The Iranians are threatening to intervene, but it seems unlikely they will. There have been complaints by Ukrainians that the crisis in Gaza is crowding out the war in Ukraine, but in a few weeks, the headlines from Israel will recede. In the meantime, after the Ukrainians put a dent in Russian lines at Avdiika, the Russians have been furiously counter-attacking to drive the Ukrainians out. So far, the Russians have been slaughtered in their efforts. They haven't given up yet. Putin has ordered his generals to counterattack, and so the bodies pile up.

* Donald Trump is continuing his shaky campaign for the presidency, with those hearing his speeches wondering about his mental health. Some of it was misreading the teleprompter, which Trump has done before, but there was also a session where Trump clearly believed Barack Obama was still president. One Xitter poster suggested:

And then hang up.

I'm finding it difficult to think that Trump will even be the Republican nominee. How could it happen while he's being demolished in court? [ED: Alas, it turned out the GOP had no alternative, which was anything but good news for them.]

* As something of a follow-up to the item on collaboration between Japan and South Korea run here in September, an article from ECONOMIST.com ("China Isn't The Only Country Giving Out Goodies In Asia", 21 September 2023), the Asia-Pacific region is in great need of aid and development money. China has emerged as the biggest source of funds, most notably President Xi Jinping's "Belt and Road Initiative" to improve infrastructure and lower obstacles to trade. However, some recipient countries are getting fed up with China, while obtaining aid from other countries -- particularly Japan and South Korea.

In South-East Asia, for example, China is the single biggest provider of official aid, providing about $5.5 billion USD a year, a fifth of the total. However, while China is strong in infrastructure, with nearly 40% of all development finance in that sector), Japan funds transport slightly more than China does. South Korea is level with China in communications. China dominates energy, but in water and sanitation it is barely there. Incidentally, except via the World Bank, the USA isn't investing heavily in the region.

Chinese arrogance tends to breed resentment among recipients. It delivers fewer projects than promised, and often relies on Chinese companies and workers, with less emphasis on local hiring and training. Chinese aid, in part, amounts to subsidies for Chinese companies. Borrowers from China's two main policy banks don't give good deals, while there is sometimes corruption and shoddy work. In Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Laos, Chinese loans have turned sour as borrowers struggle to repay. It's hard to get specifics on the problems, since the Chinese are not transparent in their actions. That doesn't win them friends, either.

Japan is not new to aid and development in the region, having been doing so from the 1950s, partly as an apology for wartime aggression. Today the Japanese build not only things, but also capacity. Unlike China, Japan often works with local contractors. Complex new subway systems, such as in Jakarta or Manila, come along with technical assistance on how to operate them. Surveys show Japan as easily the most trusted power in the region. Young Japanese, defying a tradition of annoying chauvinism that didn't make friends, go overseas as volunteers on Japanese poverty-alleviation projects, establishing trust.

Japanese organization helps, too. Unlike China, Japan makes development-assistance loans generally at favorable rates -- primarily through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which also provides first-class Japanese expertise for advice and training. The Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) provides project financing for infrastructure development. JICA and JBIC form a winning team. In India and Bangladesh, Japan is the biggest bilateral donor. In the Philippines, says one South-East Asian diplomat, Japan "does all the heavy lifting" among donors, competing "very, very aggressively" against China.

South Korea's aid approach is much like Japan's. As an exporting powerhouse, it has huge dollar holdings to recycle and a set of high-class companies in areas such as infrastructure, mining and communications to back up its aid strategy. It helps that such companies are active in the region anyway. President Yoon Suk-yeol wants to elevate his country into the ranks of the world's ten biggest donors, having sharply increased aid spending, these days with an emphasis on health care. South Korea is also not seen as an overbearing power, while its games, music, films, and food tend to be popular in recipient countries.

As noted previously, relations between Japan and South Korea are getting better, with the two countries talking about aid collaboration. They are complemented by Australia, the key donor to Pacific island states and keen to expand in South-East Asia, with the Aussies also talking of working with "like-minded" partners. Trying to get them to work together is complicated, but they are very much linked by belief in the same things: transparency, anti-corruption, the rule of law, safe sea lanes and so on.

That dovetails with the American-led plan for a "free and open Indo-Pacific", devised with China's contempt for international rules and imperialist territorial and maritime claims in mind. That means aid assistance is edging into security policy. Japan, for example, provides the Philippines with patrol boats to police its waters against piracy and smuggling; the same boats keep an eye on intruding Chinese vessels, including warships. Projects to help improve ports, which could be used for both civil and military purposes, are similarly double-edged.

Aid workers do not like having to deal with security issues, the reality is that development assistance and security, butter and guns, are now interlinked in the Asia-Pacific region. China's push for regional dominance ensures that they will stay interlinked.

* I got my third COVID booster shot on Friday the 13th. I got a flu shot a month ago and I woke up in the night as one big ache -- I took painkillers the next day and was OK the following morning -- but the COVID booster caused me no trouble at all. I've started to mask again when I go out in public, I do so from 1 October to 1 April. It's no bother, and even if spares me a cold, it's worthwhile.

As far as the COVID booster goes, I said on Xwitter: "This is my fifth COVID shot. So far, I haven't died, turned into a zombie, or improved my 5G reception."

[MON 23 OCT 23] THE WEEK THAT WAS 42

* THE WEEK THAT WAS: As discussed in an article from REUTERS.com ("US Intelligence Report Alleging Russia Election Interference Shared With 100 Countries" by Jonathan Landay & Simon Lewis, 20 October 2023), Russian disinformation campaigns have become a fact of life -- denied only by Russian trolls and their local accomplices, to end up proving the fact.

This last Friday, the USA sent an intelligence report to more than a hundred countries that described how the Kremlin is using spies, social media, and Russian state propaganda media to erode public faith in the integrity of democratic elections worldwide. The most specific reason for sending out the report was the upcoming 2024 US elections, which are already being targeted by Russian trolls.

A senior State Department official said that Russia was encouraged to intensify its election influence operations by its success in amplifying disinformation about the 2020 US election and the COVID-19 pandemic: "Success breeds more, and we definitely see the US elections as a catalyst."

The report was sent in a State Department cable to more than 100 US embassies in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa for distribution to host governments. The report stated that Russian disinformation operations between 2020 and 2022 sought to "undermine public confidence in at least 11 elections across nine democracies, including the United States," adding 17 others were targeted by less visible efforts.

The report said that Russia "utilizes both overt and covert mechanisms, including influence networks and proxies managed" by Russian spy services. As an example, Russia's FSB security service secretly worked to intimidate election workers, organize election day protests, and "sabotage overseas voting" in an unnamed European country's 2020 election.

Russian state media claimed polls would be undemocratic and "amplified false claims of fraud" in advance of multiple elections in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America between 2020 and 2021. Russia also used social media platforms and "proxy websites" to spread doubts about the integrity of elections, the report said. It described Russia as "the leading culprit" conducting operations to undermine public faith in the conduct and results of elections. China has had similar intent, but has never gone nearly as far as Russia.

The report recommended that countries work to mitigate Russian election interference through sanctions, information sharing, expulsions of Russian spies, and travel bans.

* In somewhat related news, Ron Filipkowski, a well-known "Never-Trumper" on Xitter, reported that a MAGA troll named Douglass Mackey has been sentenced to 7 months in jail for attempting to trick black and hispanic Democratic voters out of their votes in the 2016 election by spreading false information during the 2016 elections.

Mackey set up a Twitter account under the name "Ricky Vaughn". He sent out fake advertisements, saying that the lines at polling places were long and encouraging people to "legally" vote by text, providing a fictitious text number. The advertisements were designed to look as if they were coming from the Hillary Clinton campaign. One ad was written in Spanish, and the other featured a black woman holding a sign that said: "African-Americans for Hillary."

Both Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor-Greene have asserted that Mackey did nothing wrong and should not have been prosecuted. Of course, election fraud is illegal, and Mackey's foolish scam was guaranteed to be found out. The interesting thing about this story is that it demonstrates how action against traditional mail fraud and the like is becoming more common on the internet.

* As discussed in a press release from the University of Michigan ("AI Runs 10,000 Experiments A Day On Bacteria To Speed Up Discoveries" by Michael Irving, 8 May 2023), scientific experiments can generate vast amounts of data that tax human patience. Fortunately, artificial intelligence (AI) technology is now available to automate experiments. A new platform dubbed "BacterAI" can perform as many as 10,000 experiments per day to learn about bacteria.

The human body is home to trillions of microbes, living both inside and out. Some are pathogens, but others are important to maintaining health. Research into our "microbiome" is a hot topic these days, but it is challenging. Paul Jensen, the lead in the University of Michigan research, says:

QUOTE:

END_QUOTE

AI is good at digesting huge datasets and finding patterns, and so is useful as a probe of the great complexity of the microbiome. Traditionally, AI machine learning has been all about feeding the AI system a massive dataset from which it extracts patterns, but that only works when there is such a dataset available. Studying bacteria with AI is problematic, since we only have good data on about 10% of bacteria.

Jensen and his research team developed BacterAI to address this problem. It creates its own dataset by designing experiments for laboratory robots to run one after another, with the results of each informing the next. BacteriaAI uses the data obtain to devise a set of generalizations and rules that the researchers can use to probe more deeply in specific directions.

In a demonstration, BacterAI was able to perform 10,000 experiments per day; by the 9th day of the sequence, it was able to predict the outcome of the experiments 90% of the time. The researchers see this capability as informing the development of new drugs or other useful molecules.

* I've been interested in acquiring a cheap, lightweight method of transportation -- one experiment leaving me dependent on crutches for a time. More successfully, I obtained a Razor A6 adult kick scooter and have been cruising around the neighborhood with it.

It looks much like a kid's kick scooter, but is bigger; I'm 190 centimeters tall (6'3") and can ride it standing up. The wheels are also bigger, like 25 centimeters (10"). I've been going up the learning curve on riding. It's not at all equivalent to a bicycle, being more laborious and slower, though it's easily twice as fast, on the average, as a brisk walk. It also requires caution in riding, one particular problem being that I can't look around to see what's behind me; I'm thinking of getting a head-mounted rearview mirror. Using the heel brake also takes some getting used to, and I'm having to physically condition myself so I can handle longer rides.

It was less than $120 USD, so it works well enough for the price. The scooter folds in half using a slider knob, which is a little tricky to use, but I'm getting the knack of it. I can easily fold it up and throw it in my car. The big wheels are solid and so the scooter rattles teeth on rough roadway. I'd like to get one with bigger wheels and pneumatic tires.

[MON 30 OCT 23] THE WEEK THAT WAS 43

* THE WEEK THAT WAS: Israel's war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza is grinding on slowly. The USA and other Western nations have asked for restraint on the part of the Israelis, but nobody seriously thinks the Israelis wouldn't t respond to the Hamas attacks on Israel. Videos show an Israeli penetrating munition punching through a building and plunging deep into the ground, detonating to blow up in an underground complex -- with flames bursting out of the mouths of about a dozen tunnels.

It appears there's been some fighting in the north with Hizbollah in Lebanon, and Iranian-backed militias in Syria have launched drone attacks on US installations in the area -- with the US responding with precise and limited strikes on militia targets, obviously trying to avoid escalation. Yemen's Houthi rebels also launched Iranian-made kamikaze drones and cruise missiles against Israel, with all shot down by the missiles of a US destroyer.

There are no signs at present that the conflict will escalate further, though that could change. Most likely, the fighting in Gaza will continue for months until it is spent, with the headlines gradually receding to the back pages. After all, fighting between Israel and the Palestinians is nothing new. What happens over the longer run is entirely unclear.

In the meantime, the squabbling online between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli factions is at a hot pitch. For myself, I'm staying out of the crossfire. It's like monitoring a volcanic eruption in some distant land: there's great destruction, people are getting hurt, but there's no taking sides in the disaster.

After the fighting started, there was a rash of videos online of Palestinian sympathizers tearing down publicly-posted fliers describing Israelis taken hostage by Hamas. I had to think: "Give it a few days, and there will be pushback." Indeed, the videos now show those who tear down the fliers being angrily confronted, along with some confrontations between Palestinian and Israeli sympathizers being broken up by the cops.

* George Takei, of STAR TREK fame, is a popular Xitter poster, and had this to say about the various crises we are enduring:

Jason Judge / @JasonDJudge: Are we allowed to mention reversing the polarity? Or is that taboo?

* 42 US state Attorneys General (AG) are now bringing a lawsuit against Meta -- the parent company of Facebook and Instagram -- for intentionally rigging their algorithms in a way that harms children by getting them addicted to their platforms. The basis for the lawsuit was described in a CNBC report:

QUOTE:

END_QUOTE

That may not seem to be anything more than clever design of a product, but 42 state AGs wouldn't have pressed the case unless they thought they could win. As far as damages go, it's hard to put a dollar value on them, but the settlement in this type of case is often a mix of a massive fine, along with court-ordered changes in transparency, programs funded by Meta to help kids, limits on how far Meta can go, and court oversight into the future. The judge could, in the extreme, break up Meta.

One Frances Haugen, previously a Facebook official, said during Congressional testimony in 2021 that Facebook's algorithm could steer young users from something relatively innocuous such as healthy recipes to content promoting anorexia in a short period of time. She proposed a solution for Facebook to change its algorithms to stop focusing on delivering posts that create more engagement and instead create a chronological feed of posts for Facebook users. That, she said, would help Facebook deliver safer content. Haugen was bitterly critical of Facebook, saying:

QUOTE:

END_QUOTE

Meta, of course, provides online media to all age groups, not just kids -- but kids provide the strongest legal lever into the company. What happens with the lawsuit remains to be seen.

* In related news, the Department of Justice (DOJ), along with 38 state attorneys-general, is taking tech giant Google to court, accusing the company of abusing its online-search monopoly to obtain bigger profits, snuff out competition, and slow innovation. The case hinges on how Google pays smartphone makers and other companies big money to make the Google Chrome browser the default on devices. Users don't have to stick with Chrome, but most do so, giving Google a big advantage.

This leveling of the playing field is unlikely to be remotely fatal to Google In early 2020 Europeans won the right to pick their default search engine when they set up devices powered by Google's Android mobile operating system. Since that time, Google's share of European search has edged down from 94% to 90%. A similar reduction in the USA would cost Google billions of dollars, but the company would retain the bulk of its revenue.

The trust-busters have to prove that Google really is a monopoly, and that it is abusing its monopolistic position. Google is offering a lively defense. The outcome of the trial will determine the trajectory of future trust-busting efforts by the Biden Administration.