Thread: A look back at the top 10 most-read @undarkmag stories published in 2020, starting with…

#10: I had not personally heard of the Voynich manuscript — a cryptic, centuries old “text” that still baffles researchers — until super-smart @jillianefoley brought this story idea to us. If you don’t know about this puzzle, prepare to be fascinated:

#9: A riveting review by @Svobodster of @jameshamblin's book "Clean" and our collective obsession with "surface notions of cleanliness."

#8: My personal favorite headline of the year, which I continue to argue contains a gift to any budding garage band looking for a name. (You’re welcome). Story by the always excellent

#7: Written all the way back on April 16th, @kategammon’s smart look at the anti-vaxx community’s then-percolating suspicions around the hunt for a Covid-19 vaccine seems eerily prescient as vaccine roll-outs get underway now.

There is a distinction between what is something you ought to do and what is legal. It is legal to drink yourself to death. It is probably not a good idea. The distinction is not a small one. Let's apply it to the social norms many people suggest we adopt on silencing others.

I hear quite frequently arguments to the effect that private platforms are legally _allowed_ to silence people. And yes, they are, and yes, they should be. Is this a good idea, though? Let's have a quick look for a moment.

It's possible to imagine a society where every restaurant refuses service to people of the wrong political background, every supermarket checks to see if people arriving match a particular political affiliation before selling them groceries.

We can imagine neighbors only talking to other neighbors of the correct political tribe, jobs refusing to allow people with the wrong political beliefs to apply, etc. This is probably a thing that is legal or at least ought to be legal.

Is it, however, a recipe for a peaceful society? Or would it ultimately lead to something more bloody than the wars of religion during the Protestant Reformation?

💥💥What is D5?💥💥

Good question. You aren't likely to find the answer with a Google search. But the key to unraveling what is going on in politics and the world today seems tied up in that mystery.

You think it's accidental Google doesn't provide clear answers? That the mainstream media doesn't talk it? The Q community believes it is a date. December 5th. What happened on that date?

There's a reason why Democrats, and even some Republicans, celebrities, and the media are at open war with Trump. Didn't you ever question why? Do you just accept the News without knowing

@ajhospitalmng Our recent experience at this prestigious self-proclaimed hospital felt we need to share so that others are aware of what will come their way.

This review and feedback are in no way to attract attention to our woes but think well before you plan

your recovery at this place.

My wife was admitted a few days back for a C-section Surgery, and praise God we were blessed with a beautiful boy, and now we have been discharged and back home.

Our experience at this hospital though was not so much as peaceful at all, though.

- Worried about the current pandemic time, we thought the hospital was more cautious and safer, but as we entered, the staff just filled the COVID screening forms by herself, including our body temperatures without even checking.

They didn't even ask if we had any symptoms or did we have COVID before.

- We were moved to the Labour Theatre Area 'Being Mom' zone, spent the night, the wife was taken to the Labour Theatre in the morning, by afternoon we were out from there, and back into the ward.

- Throughout our time in this hospital, we struggled a lot to communicate with the nurse and staff of the hospital. 99% of the staff only speak Malayalam, and they don't even know how to communicate with other staff or us.

Kamala Harris is not eligible to be VP or POTUS under Article II & the 12th Amendment of the Constitution.

its really a vaporwave time rn

no other genre of music is going to fit the many overlapping things that are materializing or pressing into ur life in general, for the foreseeable future, from where im standing. if youre unacquainted or only know the hits u can start here:

i know people feel like its “played out” or that “it happened” already but really its the opposite. vaporwave was premonitory. it was seeing into an aspect of the future (now present) that is never going away. it illuminates this in a unique way, honestly, as only it can

people talk about how vaporwave is like a critique of consumerism or has XYZ view on capitalism but thats really not it imo. overall it is metapolitical and i think trying to shoehorn a political position into it is kind of missing what it points to, which is now everywhere

imo vaporwave in general (visual, music, the vibe in general) is about being [spiritually in exile] from [the reality of the future], that reality being opposed to [the idea or former idea of the future]. i try and not go full word salad but thats the most simple way to phrase it

physically, youre here, youre in this time and place. but spiritually, you, are in some form of exile or at least altered state. theres all this tech, and new modes of life, but somewhere along the way the path forked, + physically, ur here, but spiritually, ur on the other path

TELEPATHY - Lesson Two:

I'd like to expound a little bit more on a few little side notes that I feel are good to understand, although I am sometimes a bit hyperanalytical, and I can dive into more detail than anyone else cares to know, so feel free to just skim and take what you

For some of us that are yet to see an ✈️ not to talk of boarding one, these Buhari’s new trains (Ibadan/Lagos/Ibadan) are giving us that kinda vibes.. Obvious that work is still in progress... I can’t wait to share my experience. Thank you @MBuhari | @ChibuikeAmaechi

There’s a lot of emphasis on time even while buying tickets...

They left at exactly 8am
For the unfortunate ones that like to throw local jobs at Ibadan, does your city have a functional rail station?
Se Buhari fùn yin ni train

We have just arrived the ‘ongoing’ Abeokuta Train Station, Ogun State to pick more passengers....
Guess who I saw... Our own Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka.

Another ‘very brief’ stopover at Papaa in Ogun State... You can see the ongoing works...

One of the value chains and good things about these inter states train stations is that the it opens up the communities around to opportunities. Somewhere in Ogun State...
Ku ise @ChibuikeAmaechi
Ose @MBuhari

Thread: Going through my TL, pulling out relevant tweets that show facets of things that have been happening in the past weeks/months, trying to use pattern recognition to put together a coherent picture, I'm struck by our cultivated allergy to nuance. (1/x)

I took a drive down the 22 yesterday to check out a #monolith that popped up in the Crowsnest Pass area! Went to investigate, left realizing the @UCPCaucus is likely involved, in a bad way, as usual

More in thread 🔽

#monolithmystery
#FiretheUCP #ableg #WaterNotCoal #Alberta

If you haven't driven down the 22, it is gorgeous - rolling foothills, streams cutting through picturesque ranch land, and a rugged mountain landscape background. Near Maycroft provincial park, right near the Crowsnest pass is where this thing stands, approx. 12 feet tall.

It sounds like the Tin Man from Oz when you knock on it and looks to be made of shiny sheet metal. Seems to be mounted firmly into the ground, with no visible supports

Its similar to others I've seen, only in pictures, but has an additional feature: what appears to be an extra component that seems to indicate the monolith is 'pointing' to a larger swath of area, rather than strictly in the direction of the acute triangle shaped object's 'point'

If that is the case, it looks to point towards a chunk of the eastern slopes of Southern Alberta. A chunk that happens to be where the proposed Grassy Mountain Coal mine would be located.

The republican speeches today are familiar to any abuse survivor.

"I hate that you made me hit you. I've never hit anyone before, so that's how awful you've been to me to make me do that. And the way you keep pushing this, it feels like you're trying to make me go there again."

@amerix @FitFounder 1/16 I tried deep-diving into some of the learnings from @JamesClear . In such simple words Atomic Habits gives such a great framework as to how to go about in life.

Sharing some of those learnings for common benefits.

A Thread

@FitFounder @JamesClear 2/16 Whatever habits are normal in your culture are among the most attractive behaviors you will find.

@FitFounder @JamesClear 3/16 For this exercise, first action item is to write down your desired identity. Only if you are aware of who you WANT TO BE, would you be able to decide the best in the world around you.

@FitFounder @JamesClear 4/
1. The Close :

Find groups with whom you benefit from having a shared identity.

@FitFounder @JamesClear 5/
Action Items :
a. Join a book club if you are a reader
b. Toastmasters if you like public speaking
c. Build Chat(whatsapp)groups with people you share a common identity with eg Those who are equally passionate as you about Gyming or Starting up.

A lengthy thread I wrote just to write. Feel free to ignore.

1/ The future of consumer GPUs is probably less ASICy than people think. I think we're nearing the end of growing non-general purpose compute/cache die utilization in consumer GPUs. Here's why:

2/ Real world RT core usage is far from peak theoretical perf. On Nvidia, they're cache starved. The way to improve performance for Nvidia is to add more cache to the die a la infinity cache. On AMD, it's just to improve their RT core design, which isn't great.

More importantly,

3/ real world RT core usage is very naive. It's often collect n sample per pixel with m reflections w/irradiance caching, & then run A-SVGF to denoise. This usually works well, but sucks w/moving objects, fine details like leaves on distant trees, and the combo of leaves in wind.

4/ But research already shows that you can get pretty drastic improvements w/adaptive sampling in that case.

Beyond that, adaptive sampling research usually focuses on general cases. But consumer GPUs use RT for e.g. games, Blender, etc. These aren't super general. The engines

5/ underpinning these applications have access to a lot of information. For example, developers can add hints to objects to suggest to the renderer that they be sampled more or less.

Better exploitation of temporal data and ray tracing statistics can make a lot of the rays cast

My friend @RiirReeRii comes out with another argument against The Trinity

P1) God exists a se (From the definition of "God)
P2) The Father begetting the Son/Generation is a causal relation.
C1) Therefore, the Son exists ab alio.
P4) The Son is God (From, "Trinity")

C2) Therefore, the Son exists a se (From 1, 4)
C3) Therefore, the Son is exists both a se and ab alio (From C1 and C3)
C4) Therefore, "The Son" Is self-contradictory
C5) Therefore, The Trinity is self-contradictory

By a se we are just referring to God's aseity (i.e, the term a se means "through itself"). Aseity refers to God's uncaused, independant, unconditioned, necessary, etc. Existence.

We are simply exemplifying how God's existence is independant from and unaffected by anything outside of him. It's important to note that "Aseity" doesn't just mean "metaphysical necessity" / "existence in every possible world", since we could have Ab Alio necessities as well.

Ab Alio simply meaning, "Through another." In contrast with A se.

The second Premise might seem a bit weird. Someone might argue that the relation between the Father and the Son isn't "causal" in any sense. But this is just heretical.

I was asked yesterday on a coaching call how I’m always positive :)

This has been an intentional choice & something I’ve worked hard at for years now!

🙏You can’t be grateful & grumpy at the same time!!

🔥I curate my entire life around positivity.

Strategies I use: 🧵
👇👇

❌I never watch sad movies or horror movies.
If I’m watching movie it’s going to inspire or educate me.

❌I never listen to sad music.
All praise music that floods my soul.
I dance & sing often too :)

❌I don’t follow toxic people.
Only Champs that inspire me on my timeline!💪

❌I don’t follow politics or the news at all.
My wife said on Jan 25th something about President Biden & I had no clue he had been inaugurated 🤷
He’s President now?!

Maybe that’s bad,
but I feel I affect the most change in the world from within myself, my home & my community.

❌I don’t allow toxic or negative people on social media or real life.
I block frequently if they are toxic online.

In real life it’s harder, but necessary.
We recently cut out 2 family members that were critical & negative about our mission to foster.
We don’t need that!!✌️

I cut out a long time friend of 16 years that wouldn’t stop talking about politics & Cvoid nonstop.

I asked him to stop & offered to talk other topics but when he persisted & I felt my anxiety rise every time he text,
I decided my peace was more important during this season.

I’ll write a letter for each ❤️



Thank you for always being the best person I talked to. U made me laugh and things like that hope na sana we can still be friends love you💗😚

I've been following the game localization/translation discourse, and there's something which I think hasn't been mentioned yet but is very important regarding the divide between how professionals and laymen use the word "localization" and its dangers.
[thread]

First, just to clear things up, the "industry professional" definition of localization is the process necessary to prepare a game to be prepared for foreign release. This includes translating the text, redrawing the UI, writing the promotional copy, preparing the manual,

dubbing, timing and writing subtitles, designing the foreign cover and logo, etc.
If localization is like preparing dinner, translation is like slicing the vegetables. It's an important step, sure, but it's just a single step.
Now, what has "localization" come to mean for the

average joe? Changing certain details during translation so that the translated text, rather than strictly following the original, focuses on being more easily viable to its "foreign" target audience. According to this definition, "translation" is instead a more literal,

strict rendering of the text in another language.
So, people use a word to describe something different than its original meaning. Big deal, you say. The problem here is that, when you frame it like that, you necessarily create a dichotomy between translation and localization.

On the issue of access to information for adopted persons #knowyouridentity, there are others who have more expertise in this than me but since I didn't get time to make all the points I would have liked to on @morningireland earlier, here are some thoughts (Thread ⬇️)

The previous AG advised that it would be unconst to provide an unlimited right to access info in leg - reasons were not given but we can presume this opinion is based on the result in the IOT vB case, which is a misreading of that case, while privacy was prioritised in that case

The SC indicated that this was an issue which should properly be dealt with by the Oir, which is entitled to conduct a balancing exercise and decide that one right should prevail over the other. The only prob would be if one set of rights was completely disregarded

Also, the weight of law and legal opinion is on the side of the right to know your identity, a CoA judgmnt last feb identified a right right to have your identity correctly recognised by the State and that was said to encompass a right to have a birth certificate and a passport.

The ECHR has recognised identity rights in respect of a variety of adoption information context & under EU law a person’s name is their personal data to which they have a right & personal data can lawfully be restricted only if there is clear legislation that allows for it