BC SOCIETY
Saved by @SteveeRogerr

gonna get in line for the vaccine because I've heard all these urban legends about tracking microchips

and I think I might be able to root it and install Doom

 supposedly bill gates is involved, right?
so it's probably like a miniaturized 386 running ROM-DOS.
the doctor walks in, looks down at my charts, and sighs.
"well, the bad news is that you've got the virus. I'm sorry..."
"and the good news?"
"well..."
*at doom's gate starts faintly playing from my lungs*
https://t.co/6QFwNCdTpD
it took them four tries to figure out that I had the virus, because every time they did a nasal sample, the diagnosis machine kept glitching and playing a youtube video

https://t.co/R8Z6lDUKMy
I laugh in the hospital bed while they're like "ma'am sir ma'am sir, please, this is serious: we can't treat you. Our ventilator keeps trying to reboot in to Windows 3.1 and play skifree. we're quarantining you here so you don't spread this DIGITAL VIRUS to other patients"
https://t.co/fAzkHdgSk8
my last message is an annoyed rant on discord where I complain I can't access the full power of the tracking chip and get it to 3d accelerate my software enough to play crysis
all I can do is unlock the mode that turns everyone into femboy catgirl maids. USELESS, I SAY!
the police access my PC and discord has 900 friend requests, all from people named like awoo_lizard with anime-animal avatars
it's like fermat's last theorem: but for furries.

furry's last theorem ?
in case this seems exceptionally random, even for me: there was a conspiracy meme about masks which was "they want you to keep doing this [picture of mask wearer] because eventually they're going to make you do this [picture of a woman in a burka]"
which naturally got meme'd on really hard and fast with a lot of silly second images, like ravers in gas masks, furries in fursuits, and people wearing maid outfits
and it's long since past the point where you are gonna see more versions of the parody than the real one (especially if you don't hang out on weird-conspiracy-facebook) so yeah. that's what I was referencing.
I just realized it wasn't very clear what the heck I was talking about, and I can't even locate that specific joke image right now to clarify, so it may be WAY more obscure than I thought
here's the gas mask version, at least:
https://t.co/o8WEx2hPpK
also every time I try to type "gas mask" my fingers type "gask mask"
I suspect the one I'm referencing is actually this meme (the parodies of anti-mask memes) crossbreeding with an unrelated meme, which is basically just "I don't care what gender you are: put on the maid outfit".
the first line is often removed. and it's just become "PUT ON THE MAID OUTFIT" with threats of violence.
anyway it's weird that two of the conspiracy theories about the virus are "the government is making us wear masks! (for reasons other than public safety)" and "the government and/or bill gates is gonna track us with the vaccine!"
because you know how we actually DO track people, quite a lot, right now? and this is a known, proven thing, not a conspiracy?

FACIAL RECOGNITION
you know what causes a huge problem for facial recognition systems?

MASKS
but I guess conspiracies don't really have to make sense, especially when combined with other conspiracies.

Try to build a grand unified set up moon landing and/or JFK conspiracies sometime, for example.
my favorite versions of both are, by the way, the SCP "we landed on the moon, successfully, and then ended up faking it later" and the Red Dwarf "JFK was killed by the gunman on the grassy knoll... who was also JFK" answers.
although I'm looking forward to the theory that unifies the two and explains that JFK was either killed by the moon, or he's not dead: he's on the moon.
ANYWAY before you mock the "tracking microchips in the vaccines!" people too hard, that's basically how the CIA figured out where Osama Bin Laden was.
https://t.co/jruIWAQQ0P
it's sometimes disturbing how often "crazy conspiracy theories" are basically just "what if the US had slightly better technology and/or was slightly more competent"
my favorite amusing one of those is the urban legend that the spy satellites can read your license plate from space.
and the reply isn't "we're not observing the US" or "the government doesn't want to track cars" or even "that's impossible", it's always "don't be silly: you'd need telescopes with at least twice the resolving power (of declassified systems) to be able to read license plates"
it's a wild conspiracy theory and the counter argument is basically "not yet, they'd need bigger telescopes and algorithms and optics, but all are within reach within the next decade or so"
anyway, bill gates? if you have computers small enough to fit in the bloodstream, hit me up. I want some of those. you can even skip out on the vaccine part, I just want to be full of computers.

my DMs are open
BTW, one thing I've been thinking about with the masks, especially with the whole right-wing-memes about how it's all a conspiracy to later force us to wear SOMETHING ELSE:
Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters.
It's a 1951 novel about mind-controlling parasite aliens who invade and start taking over, but they don't go inside people, they're just like a small animal that has to extend a tentacle to your brain and drive your body like a marionette
and they're relatively flat creatures like a manta-ray so they can hide under clothes, so the government decides the only way to stop them is to BAN WEARING CLOTHES IN PUBLIC
so the whole nation switches over to mandatory public nudity for a while, except for some extra-conservative areas in the south, which are revealed to be mainly caused by alien infiltration anyway.
and it's just amusing at the idea that you could force that radical of a shift in what people wear in public, and only have minor outcry.

meanwhile, in the real world, it's just "wear a mask" and BOY HAS THERE BEEN SOME PUSHBACK AGAINST THAT
but I guess maybe you could justify it in the case of The Puppet Masters, since the novel is set in the far future, maybe a lot of social mores have changed by then?

the far off future of 2007
flying cars and everything. one of the protagonists is an FBI agent who grew up on the Venus colony.

we were SO SURE the future was gonna be amazing.
BTW, the novel is often compared to Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
It came out 5 years before the movie, and 3 years before the book, and takes a very different tone.
It's very much less "what if secret infiltration of modern day society with EVIL MIND CONTROLLING PARASITES?" and "what if in the future some aliens show up and start mind controlling people, and it goes public and we have to wage a complex global war against them?"
it's a decent book. I recommend it.
It got made into a movie, too, which I don't recommend.
the movie basically removed all the weirder elements and future setting and open warfare, which basically turned it into a bad adaptation of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
which seems kinda pointless since we already had two adaptations of Invasion of the Body Snatchers already, the 1956 version and the 1978 version.
The movie was in 1994, which puts it between the 1978 adaptation and the 2007 adaptation, "The Invasion".
and @DoomishFox found an example of the meme I was talking about, more or less. I could swear there was a maid version too.
https://t.co/TGsdUhG0dh
ok @minirop found two examples of the maid versions, so I definitely didn't make this up:
https://t.co/tuLTPayc7u

More from foone

foone
foone
@Foone
A fun fact on the wikipedia page for the metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor:
it is the most frequently manufactured device in history, and the total number manufactured from 1960-2018 is 13 sextillion.

That's 13,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.


Though this picture is a bit misleading.

Even with devices this small, we couldn't make 13 sextillion of them in 60 years.

So imagine a chip like this. It's the 555 timer, which is one of the most popular integrated circuits ever made.

In 2017, it was estimated a billion are made every year.


And at the heart of it is the die, which looks like this:
(from Ken Shirriff's blog)
https://t.co/mz5PQDjYqF


And that's fundamentally a bunch of CMOS transistors (along with some diodes and resistors), which are a type of MOSFET. How many of them are on a 555?

about 25. Not many, but it's a very simple chip.
TECH
foone
foone
@Foone
So there's a class of puzzles called "river crossing puzzles" which involve having to cross a river on a boat/bridge containing some set of individuals/items with restrictions on which ones can be on the boat/left on each shore, right?

and the most common subclass of these problems is the one where you have 3 items/animals to cross with.
This is alternatively called the "fox, goose, and bag of beans" or "wolf, goat, and cabbage" puzzle.

the idea is that your boat can only carry one item at a time, but if you leave the wolf/fox unattended with the goat/goose, the wolf/fox will eat the goat/goose.
and similarly, the goose/goat will eat the beans/cabbage if left alone

so you have to set up a set of actions that never leaves either side of the river in one of the lose-states.

the solution to this variant being:
1. take the goat/goose over
2. return empty
3. take the wolf/fox over
4. return with the goat/goose
5. take the cabbage/beans over
6. return empty
7. take the goat/goose over
GAMES
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foone
foone
@Foone
So Sony has this format called Optical Disc Archive, right? It's a high-density storage cartridge, but it turns out it works by cheating.


because if you open it up (which you should never do. trust me on this one)
it turns out... it's blu-ray.


it's a big STACK of blu-ray


And the idea is that Sony built some very complicated drive which you can slot this cartridge into, and it'll open it up and grab out the right disc and just read/write that one

then when you hit the eject button, it shoves the discs back in and closes up the case, and hands you the cartridge.
TECH
foone
foone
@Foone
time to get back to "repairing" old computers


The funny thing about making the 8-bit-guy into a meme about "repairing" computers with powertools is that the obvious heightening joke would, like, the "8 rounds guy", who fixes computers with firearms

but that would also be him, given that he's also a big gun enthusiast.

so it's inherently hard to satirize the repairing-computers-with-dremels guy, since they're also the guns-guy.

you'd have to go up to like a mythbusters level of overkill.

"this hard drive from 1986 won't spin up. We tried freezing it, tapping it with a rubber hammer, and opening the case to lower the friction... there's only one option left: GET OUT THE C4 EXPLOSIVES!"
INTERNET
foone
foone
@Foone
1. in the beginning, browsers didn't have download statusbars
2. firefox got a browser statusbar extension. it was configurable and worked well
3. chrome cloned it without options and it didn't work as well

4. firefox realized chrome was faster and more secure at everything and therefore dropped extensions
5. now firefox doesn't have a download statusbar either

6. someone reimplements download statusbars in firefox's new web-extensions format. it's terrible because of the inherent limitations of the significantly less flexible and powerful extension format

7. CHROME WINS! (with its terrible download statusbar implementation which can't be fixed by users, because No Options and No Skins and No Extensions)

this is where we are now
SOFTWARE

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Ifeoluwa💞
@ifeoluwalydia
LET’S TALK ABOUT RELOCATING TO CANADA AND HOW TO APPLY FOR PERMANENT RESIDENCE (PR) IN 2021.

Are you interested in relocating to Canada and don't know where to start from? No worries, this tweet is for you.

A THREAD! 👇

I was supposed to make this post before now but I had to do extensive research and verify its authenticity before posting.

Stay with me...

One of the reoccurring topics in Nigeria today is how to ‘Japa’ (Move away) from Nigeria.

The question that comes to mind are:
> How do I go about it?
>What is the process like?
>Is there a seamless way to go about it?

First thing you must know is that from 2021 to 2023, Canada will welcome more than one million new immigrants! Yayyy!!! Good news abi??

I really do not blame anyone who decide to ‘japa’...

Do you know the benefits that accrues to one becoming a permanent resident in Canada?
Let me share them with you.

1. You can live and work anywhere in Canada. Yeah! Anywhere. Permanent Residents are not tied to a specific employer or a specific province...
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1/OK, I should really write another thread about university-centric regional development, because I think people often make some (very understandable) mistakes when thinking about this issue.

2/The biggest myth, I think, is that universities help regions by educating locals as undergraduates.

Skeptics of universities say: "But most of the people who graduate end up leaving."

3/In fact, most of what a university does for a regional economy is NOT about educating local kids.

Educating local kids is good for the nation, but doesn't help a region much.

The way a university helps a region is through

4/Undergraduates usually leave town after graduation.

But university RESEARCH pulls in OTHER smart people from other regions, and they stay there.

Here's a paper showing that this is the main way universities increase a region's human capital:

5/Research also pulls in business investment.

Companies want to partner with university labs, so they can commercialize the technologies the labs produce. So they invest in the labs, and sometimes they even put their offices in the town.
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Mohamed Samaan Mhukhut...
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Sandbank Danger, A Thread


Controversy Has Been Caused By The Digging Of A Narrow Channel By A Resort On A Sandbank Near K. Hinmafushi.


Hinmafushi Council President Shan Ibrahim Stated To Sun That The Resort, Which Dug The Trench Creating A River On The Sandbank, Did Not Have Ownership Over The Sandbank.

Officials From The Island Of Hinmafushi Had Traveled To The Sandbank To Stop The Process Of Digging The Trench When They Became Aware Of It, Said Shan.

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Scott Coley
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The reason that so many conservative evangelicals these days appear to be moral relativists is that they *are* moral relativists.

They would deny this, of course. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Here's why.

They’ve bought into the premise that all statements are either fact or opinion: facts are objective and verifiable; and everything else is opinion—subjective and unverifiable. In other words, they've bought into full-fledged modernism.

From there, the secular path to moral relativism places all moral statements in the “opinion” category. On this view, morality is subjective—dependent on cultural context, historical background and the like.

Conservative evangelicals recoil from this approach, as they should.

So instead, they place morality in the “fact” category, claiming that moral truth is objective and empirically verifiable.

And how is moral truth empirically verified? The Bible, of course. Problem solved.

This is tempting, for two reasons. First, Scripture is entirely true; and much of that truth pertains to morality.

Second, apart from special revelation, it’s difficult to imagine where we might go to find empirical verification of moral truth—you can't *see* moral properties.
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Tammy Bruce
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In the 90s I was a host on a talk radio station in LA, the same that aired Rush. I was president of LA NOW, & the liberal wkend host when he visited the station. He was so vilified by my then-crowd, I expected a monster. Instead, I met a remarkable, kind and encouraging man... 1/

He was gregarious & generous when we met. He shook my hand & I was shocked that he was nice & genuinely curious about my radio work and activism. I realized I was going to have a fascinating conversation 2/

There were many events during this time as a radio talk show host that changed me. It was my first job in the medium starting in 1993. My meeting Rush & our conversations made me realize the left had been lying to me about many things... 3/

Rush was not a monster, he wasn’t evil, he did not mean people harm, he wasn’t a bigot, or any of the other smears lobbed against him by my leftist associates. I liked him very much, and while we disagreed on many things (then) he was nothing has he had been painted 4/

In my conversations with him, we talked about the issues and despite the disagreements, he also took time to give me advice about hosting, style, connecting w the audience, etc. He encouraged me and gave me advice that made a huge difference in my career… 5/
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Facebook originally a CIA program called "LifeLog".
LifeLog, via DARPA, terminated on Feb 4th, 2004.
Facebook was launched on Feb 4th, 2004.
Many of the LifeLog team became execs at FB.
Zuckerberg is a figurehead.
CIA allowed Cambridge to help Trump win

https://t.co/enzOXDCogV


Pentagon Kills LifeLog
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Jaya_Upadhyaya
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SRI CHAMPAKADHAMA SWAMY, BANNERGHATTA HILL, BENGALURU (KAR)
#bharatmandir

The shrine is dedicated to Sri Vishnu along with Devi Lakshmi and Bhoodevi.
It is built in an area full of Champaka trees.
As champaka flowers are offered to Sri Vishnu here, it is called Champakadhama.


It is believed that King Janmejaya had sarpa-dosha. To get rid of it, he took bath in the nearby pond. He emerged with a golden body and sarpa-dosha was also removed. The pond is called Swarnamukhi and believed to have curative powers.
Sri Vishnu murti was consecrated by him.


It is also believed that this forest area was the Dandakaranya where Sri Ram stayed in exile.
Some believe that the original shrine was built by Pandavas.
The pushkarni/pond is emptied once a year so that the rock at the bottom (which has image of Anjaneya) may be worshipped.
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ANTARVEDI LAKSHMI NARASIMHA SWAMY, EAST GODAVARI DIST.(AP)

Located where Vasistha Godavari joins Bay of Bengal.

Present structure was built by Kapanati Krishnamma of Agnikula Kshatriya clan in 1823.

It is one of the oldest among 32 Narasimha Kshetras in AP.
@LostTemple7


Legend says that here Maharishi Vasishta prayed to Narasimha to end the demon Rakta Vilochana.

Narasimha created Maha Maya, also called Ashwaroodambika or Gurralakka to suck his blood as he got a boon from Brahma that blood falling from his body would produce another demon.


After his death, the stream of blood was let out by Maya to form a pond called Rakta Kulya.

Narasimha,then,washed Sudarshan Chakra at a place called Chakra Tirtha.

Brahma is said to have performed Yagna and installed Shiva Linga here. Hence the place was called Antarvedi.


Later Sri Rama prayed here and Arjun also visited here.

Panchamrita Abhishekam is done every day.
One can have Nijarupa Darshanam (main murti without any decorative shield) between 6.00 a.m. and 8.00 a.m.

Anna Prasadam is very famous and distributed daily from 10:30 to 2 pm.
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8 March 1679 - The date on which 300 saffron clad warriors gave their life to protect temples from mugal army. Thread➡️
Aurangzeb's huge army, which was adorned with artillery, elephant and horses, under the leadership of Commander Darab Khan had marched to punish the ruler of/1


Khandela Raja Bahadur Singh, who became a rebel due to the anti-Hindu policies of Aurangzeb, and to destroy the temples of Shekhawati. Bahadur Singh to compete with such a large army, vacated Khandela for the purpose of conducting guerilla warfare and went Kot Sakrai /2

located in the inaccessible hills of Sakrai. People of Khandela also vacated Khandela and hid in nearby villages.

But some Shekhawat warriors did not like this as they knew that the royal army would not leave a single temple located in Shekhawati unbroken./3

so soon the teams of self-sacrificing Dharma-protectors Shekhawat heroes started reaching Khandela to protect the Dev temples.

Sujan Singh Shekhawat, the young thakur of Chhapoli, was coming back from his wedding when he heard about the imperial army from Shepherds./4

झिरमीर झिरमिर मेहा बरसे,मोरां छतरी छाई |
कुल में है तो आव सुजाण, फोज देवरे आई ||

if you are born in your glorious clan, then come, the army have come to destroy temple. /5
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@SimonDeDeo
"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."


We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.

Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)

It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.

Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
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