Thursday, March 26, 2020

The Federalist: Inaccurate Virus Models Are Panicking Officials Into Ill-Advised Lockdowns

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Inaccurate Virus Models Are Panicking Officials Into Ill-Advised Lockdowns
By Madeline Osburn March 25, 2020

How a handful of Democratic activists created alarming, but bogus data sets to scare local and state officials into making rash, economy-killing mandates.

As U.S. state and local officials halt the economy and quarantine their communities over the Wuhan virus crisis, one would hope our leaders were making such major decisions based on well-sourced data and statistical analysis. That is not the case.

A scan of statements made by media, state governors, local leaders, county judges, and more show many relying on the same source, an online mapping tool called COVID Act Now. The website says it is “built to enable political leaders to quickly make decisions in their Coronavirus response informed by best available data and modeling.”

An interactive map provides users a catastrophic forecast for each state, should they wait to implement COVID Act Now’s suggested strict measures to “flatten the curve.” But a closer look at how many of COVID Act Now’s predictions have already fallen short, and how they became a ubiquitous resource across the country overnight, suggests something more sinister.

Just like global warming ('scuze me, climate change) alarmism is based on inaccurate facts and bogus simulations, so is this. Only this time their exaggerations are intended to convince the country to impose martial law, nationalize all businesses and put the entire population on welfare.

Stalin himself, couldn't want more.

Friday, March 20, 2020

Gateway Pundit: Now 3 International Studies Find Chloroquine with Azithromycin Shows 100% Success Rate in Treating Coronavirus in 6 Days! (VIDEO)

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Now 3 International Studies Find Chloroquine with Azithromycin Shows 100% Success Rate in Treating Coronavirus in 6 Days! (VIDEO)
by Jim Hoft, March 19, 2020

There are now THREE international studies — China, Australia and France — that found that Chloroquine with Azithromycin Shows 100% Success Rate in Treating Coronavirus in 6 Days!

We have reported on the success of Chloroquine earlier today and this week.

President Trump announced on Thursday morning that the CDC had approved use of the drug in treating coronavirus patients.

But tonight we heard more from Rep. Mark Green, a former Army Flight Surgeon, that the combination of Chloroquine with Azithromycin cleared the virus in 3 days in 100% of the patients in the study.

Great news! Now, can we start treating people and get society up and running again?

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Georgia Tech: Shimon: Now a Singing, Songwriting Robot

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Shimon: Now a Singing, Songwriting Robot
February 25, 2020

Marimba-Playing Robot Composes Lyrics and Melodies With Human Collaborators


Marimba-playing robot Shimon has learned some new skills, thanks to a class of machine learning known as deep learning. Working with human collaborators, Shimon writes lyrics and melodies — and soon, he's going on tour.

He has moves like Jagger (almost). And he’s coming to a music venue near you.

But he’s not like any performer you’ve ever seen. He’s not even human.

Shimon, the marimba-playing robot, has learned some new skills: He sings, he dances a little, he writes lyrics, he can even compose some melodies. Now he’s taking them on the road in a concert tour to support a new album — just like any other musician.

The new album will have eight to 10 songs Shimon wrote with his creator, Georgia Tech Professor Gil Weinberg. It will drop on Spotify later this spring.

“Shimon has been reborn as a singer-songwriter,” Weinberg said. “Now we collaborate between humans and robots to make songs together.”

[Listen to Shimon's first single, "Into Your Mind]

Way cool.

h/t IEEE Spectrum magazine

R Street: Small Regulatory Reforms That Can Help People During the COVID Pandemic

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Small Regulatory Reforms That Can Help People During the COVID Pandemic
Mar 18, 2020

While the federal and state governments figure out the appropriate way to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, there are plenty of narrow regulatory reforms they can implement to help people deal with the fallout. This is not to say that regulatory reform is the only solution, but it can be helpful as people struggle to access medical care and food.

All of these are common-sense proposals. While we definitely need government action in some areas to help fight this virus, there are many areas where we would be best served if government would get out of the way and let those with critical skills and jobs do what they do best without getting bogged down in red tape.

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Space-based cell towers coming soon to a phone near you

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Lynk scores big win in global space race
Mike Dano, Light Reading, 3/18/2020

Startup Lynk said it successfully transmitted a message from a satellite in space to a standard, Android-powered GSM phone on the ground.

The company said the test shows its technology works – an important milestone along the company's path toward commercializing its offering.

Lynk posted a video of the test, conducted February 24 in a remote location in the Falkland Islands where it would not interfere with other operations. It also linked to a longer version of the video that features some salty language from the company's engineers celebrating the successful test.

Lynk CEO Charles Miller told The Verge the company delivered the transmission from equipment it sent to the International Space Station in December aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Astronauts on the ISS attached the transmitter to a Cygnus cargo spacecraft that remains in orbit.

This is a great milestone. With luck, the tech will scale and become affordable. Once fully deployed, this tech should provide cellular coverage anywhere in the world, connecting to a satellite whenever there is no compatible land-based tower in range.

I would assume that satellite links will have lower bandwidth and higher latency than terrestrial towers, but if it's good enough for voice calls and text messages, then it will allow access to emergency services no matter where in the world you are.

Gateway Pundit: Evidence Shows Director General of World Health Organization Severely Overstated the Fatality Rate of the Coronavirus Leading to the Greatest Global Panic in History

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Evidence Shows Director General of World Health Organization Severely Overstated the Fatality Rate of the Coronavirus Leading to the Greatest Global Panic in History
by Joe Hoft. March 17, 2020

The Director General of the WHO spoke on March 3, 2020 and shared this related to the coronavirus:

While many people globally have built up immunity to seasonal flu strains, COVID-19 is a new virus to which no one has immunity. That means more people are susceptible to infection, and some will suffer severe disease.

Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died. By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1% of those infected.

This statement led to the greatest panic in world history as the media all over the world shared and repeated that the coronavirus was many, many times more deadly than the common flu.

The problem is his statement is false. It was not accurate!

The Gateway Pundit reported yesterday, that the coronavirus fatality rate reported by the media was completely inaccurate and the actual rate is less than the current seasonal flu – the media was lying again. The false reporting of the coronavirus fatality rate of 3.4% in the media started with the statements made by the WHO in early March.

Here’s a summary of the analysis from yesterday proving the Director General’s statement was very misleading and materially false:

N/A – not available

h/t Pamela Geller

Read the original article for a point-by-point detailed explanation of the headline's point.

Of course, we know that this virus outbreak is serious, but the WHO and the press are exaggerating the facts, resulting in a world-wide panic. I don't want to start a discussion about why they are doing this, but it is wrong and needs to stop.

COVID-19 is not 34x as deadly as this year's flu, but is in fact 1/3 as deadly. Because people are acting as if it is 100x more deadly than reality, we are deliberately shutting down the global economy when it is not necessary. Our panicked reaction is going to cause far far more damage than the virus itself.

Monday, March 09, 2020

Johns Hopkins: Coronavirus Disease 2019 vs. the Flu

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Coronavirus Disease 2019 vs. the Flu
Lisa Lockerd Maragakis, M.D., M.P.H.

Influenza “the flu” and COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, are both infectious respiratory illnesses. Although the symptoms of COVID-19 and the flu can look similar, the two illnesses are caused by different viruses.

As of Mar. 8, 2020, the flu is showing much more of an impact on Americans than COVID-19. You can find up-to-date information on COVID-19 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Lisa Maragakis, M.D., M.P.H., senior director of infection prevention at Johns Hopkins, explains how the flu and COVID-19 are similar and how they are different.

To all those who are panicking over COVID-19 (no thanks to media coverage that seems to want a global panic), scroll down to the end, where mortality is compared:

COVID-19: Approximately 3,653 deaths reported worldwide; 17 deaths in the U.S., as of Mar. 8, 2020.

Flu: 291,000 to 646,000 deaths worldwide; 12,000 to 61,000 deaths in the U.S. per year.

The COVID-19 situation is changing rapidly. Since this disease is caused by a new virus, people do not have immunity to it, and a vaccine may be many months away. Doctors and scientists are working on estimating the mortality rate of COVID-19, but at present, it is thought to be higher than that of most strains of the flu.

Even given the final cautionary paragraph, it's important to point out that the flu claims orders of magnitude more lives every year than COVID-19.

Of course, you should take reasonable precautions. But they are the same precautions you should be taking every year because of the flu. Shutting down all of civilization out of fear of what might happen in the future is just ridiculous.

Light Reading: Infinera, Corning deliver 800G single wavelength

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Infinera, Corning deliver 800G single wavelength
3/6/2020

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) and Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW) announced today the industry-leading achievement of delivering an 800 gigabits per second (800G) single wavelength with Infinera’s sixth-generation Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE6) technology across 800 kilometers (km) on Corning’s TXF® optical fiber.

Very impressive. And, of course, after the major telecom providers adopt this tech (whether from Ifinera or others), it will translate into more bandwidth and lower price-per-bit for subscribers.

Wednesday, March 04, 2020

Tips to help guard against coronavirus

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On yesterday's Mark Levin Show (March 3, 2020), a caller provides good advice, based on medical facts, about how to protect against the coronavirus.

Naked Security: Tech support scammers hacked back by vigilante

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Tech support scammers hacked back by vigilante
. By John E Dunn

A UK cybercrime vigilante was so incensed by tech support scammers he reverse-hacked the call centre in India to reveal CCTV footage of perpetrators as they ripped off their victims in real-life calls.

Publicised by a BBC documentary, the hack was the work of ‘Jim Browning’ (not his real name), who has acquired a following on his YouTube channel for his campaigns to expose how these crimes work and the individuals behind them.

I can't ever endorse doing this. It's dangerous and possibly illegal. But I hope law enforcement plays nice and uses this evidence to nail these scammers to the wall.

Monday, March 02, 2020

What's on your bookmark list?

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Occasionally, I'm asked where I get my news, or what sites I visit for fun. So, just for kicks, here are some of the sites I visit most frequently.