Politics 3/2020

I really don’t want to include political items in this blog, because it’s supposed to be things that make you learn and/or laugh, and I’m concerned that political items will make people make a funny face and go elsewhere. And yet I feel compelled to post these:

Don’t just blame President Trump. Blame me — and all the other Republicans who aided and abetted and, yes, benefited from protecting a political party that has become dangerous to America. Some of us knew better.

But we built this moment. And then we looked the other way.

(…) The failures of the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis can be traced directly to some of the toxic fantasies now dear to the Republican Party. Here are a few: Government is bad. Establishment experts are overrated or just plain wrong. Science is suspect. And we can go it alone, the world be damned.

All of these are wrong, of course. But we didn’t get here overnight. It took practice.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/18/elections-have-consequences-slow-response-virus-is-one-them/

And speaking of utter hypocrisy:

Leadership: Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2013

…whereas on Friday March 13, 2020:

“I don’t take responsibility at all,” Trump announced during a press conference declaring a national emergency in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And Liam Fox makes this important point on Twitter (Liam Fox@Liamfoxactor·Mar 13):

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side.

When Yoda makes more sense than @potus you know what to do this November

Vacuum friction

I mean, outer space vacuum friction. Vacuum is empty, right? Not quite. I ran across this phrase in Science News and it’s another amazing aspect of the universe.

In physics, a virtual particle is a transient quantum fluctuation that exhibits some of the characteristics of an ordinary particle, while having its existence limited by the uncertainty principle. (Wikipedia)

So outer space vacuum is actually full of extremely short-lived particles… enough to create vacuum friction on other particles moving through the vacuum. Now an apparatus has been designed that may be sensitive enough to prove whether this really happens: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-torque-detector-could-spot-quantum-friction-vacuum.

Bust card

Is it a good idea to talk to the cops? What are your rights? What could possibly go wrong?

Bust card. The ACLU has a convenient one-page list of your rights, responsibilities, and safest actions if you are stopped by a police officer. Print it out, read it, and put it in your wallet or purse.

Here is a discussion of a video by a law professor. Note, the video link on that page doesn’t always work so here is one that does (46 minutes); search for “james duane don’t talk” for other videos by the professor.

Another blog post on your rights, and elaborate discussion on that post at Hacker News.

2019 Tweets of the year

Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune runs a weekly contest for Tweet of the Week. And we need something funny between the more serious posts. He has posted his 40 favorite tweets of 2019 here. Some samples:

  • A day without coffee is like — just kidding, I have no idea (various users).
  • If buying new underwear is evidence of an affair, my husband has been faithful for at least nine years (@nerdreign).
  • Never ever tell yourself, “my idea isn’t good enough.” The entire premise of Marmaduke is, “What if a dog was big?” And that nonsense has been going for more than 60 years (@_AlexHirsch).

How to protect yourself from Google’s surveillance program

Why yes, everyone is spying on you. Or at least Google is:

It’s a scary thought: You and your friends are marching for gun control, climate action or social justice when a crime happens a mile or two away. Now you and the thousands of people who attended are suspects. And guess who turned you in: Google.

That’s because Google knows where you are right now, even if location tracking on your Google apps is turned off. And the company is handing over your location information to law enforcement agencies.

Google calls this program “Sensorvault” and its use by law enforcement for nearly 10 years was a well-kept secret until the New York Times recently exposed Google’s operation.

https://blog.credo.com/2019/10/how-to-protect-yourself-from-googles-sensorvault-surveillance-program/

Note. I have started using duckduckgo.com for most of my searches instead of Google, because they promise that they are protecting my privacy. Search results seem to be roughly as good as Google. You should be able to set this as your preferred search engine somewhere in “Preferences” for your web browser (Firefox, Safari, Chrome etc).