Chinese censors have banned the release of Christopher Robin, a new film adaptation of AA Milne’s beloved story about Winnie the Pooh, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The Winnie the Pooh character has become a lighthearted way for people across China to mock their president, Xi Jinping, but it seems the government doesn’t find the joke very funny.

The blocking of Winnie the Pooh might seem like a bizarre move by the Chinese authorities but it is part of a struggle to restrict clever bloggers from getting around their country's censorship.

When is a set of wrist watches not just a set of wrist watches? When is a river crab not just a river crab? Inside the Great Firewall of China of course.

Winnie the Pooh has joined a line of crazy, funny internet references to China's top leaders.

One of the most commonly used string operations is concatenation. String concatenation is just a fancy programming word for joining strings together by appending one string to the end of another string.

In this tutorial, we will explain how to concatenate strings in Bash.

Concatenating Strings

The simplest way to concatenate two or more string variables is to write them one after another:

 VAR1="Hello,"
 VAR2=" World"
 VAR3="$VAR1$VAR2"
 echo "$VAR3"

If-else statement takes a specific condition and checks whether the condition is truthy or falsy. If the condition is true, then the if statement executes a specific code block. If the condition is false, then the else statement executes a different code block. //

The switch statement is a multiple-choice selection statement. Once you have given the choices and relevant expressions for each choice, It looks through the choices until it finds the choice that matches the expression and executes it. //

Choosing one over the other is not that straightforward. Here are some tips when choosing one over the other;

You can use if-else when:

• The condition result is a boolean.
• The conditions are complex. For example, you have conditions with multiple logical operators.

You can use a switch-case when:

• There are multiple choices for an expression.
• The condition is based on a predefined set of values such as enums, constants, known types. For example, error codes, statuses, states, object types, etc.

The document exists among the papers of Justice Bushrod Washington. It was traced by scanning through hundreds of microfilmed documents. The images used in the story are photographs of the original.

The original purchase agreement for a tract of land that would become the Liberian capital of Monrovia was uncovered by historian C. Patrick Burrowes in August. (Chicago History Museum) //

It was billed as a land of promise — a place where free Black Americans could obtain more political rights and a better quality of life.

Liberia did not receive its name until 1824, but the territory that became its capital city was purchased on Dec. 15, 1821.

Almost exactly 200 years later, a Liberian historian has discovered that original purchase agreement — a document missing since 1835 that sheds light on the acquisition of the only U.S. colony in Africa.

C. Patrick Burrowes, who was born in Liberia and has taught at Penn State Harrisburg and Marshall University, uncovered the handwritten document in August. It details the sale of a tract of West African land that later became Monrovia, the Liberian capital. The selling price was about $300 worth of weapons, rum and other merchandise.

The document’s whereabouts had been unknown for so long, Burrowes said, that there was speculation it had never existed at all. For the historian, finding the purchase agreement has been the most significant discovery of his career, he said. And for historical understanding of Liberia’s origins, this document helps debunk several prevailing myths about the acquisition of territory that became its capital.

“The details of the land transfer have been shrouded in some controversy, so the recent discovery by Dr. Burrowes is timely, especially so close to the 200th anniversary of the event,” said Herbert Brewer, a Morgan State University historian who studies slavery and the African American diaspora.

93.6% of Americans Agree:

“In general, parents have the constitutional right to
make decisions for their children without government interference
unless there is proof of abuse or neglect.” - 2010 Zogby Poll

Children need to be raised and represented by parents who love them, not by disconnected government officials.

Heating and cooling the cabin of electric vehicles needs to be more efficient to avoid loss of range.

Last May, researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC revealed that elastic response and engineered gradient materials could be combined to make extremely efficient acoustic metamaterials, according to Physics Today.

Physically speaking, our Universe seems uncannily perfect. It stands to reason that if it wasn't, life as we know it – and planets, atoms, everything else really – wouldn't exist.

To better compete in the country’s northeast corridor, the two airlines teamed up and decided to share flight lanes and revenue. In this region, American and JetBlue were underdogs against United and Delta, and they did as underdogs do: joined forces to increase their market share and better serve customers. //

It should be noted that this agreement was sent to the Trump administration’s DOJ for its blessing — where it passed, because the administration knew this was just how business works in the United States. //

And on the merits of the anti-trust action itself? This one’s easy: The United States does not currently have a problem of concentrated corporate power. We have fresh evidence for this. In the last few months alone, massive, multi-billion-dollar companies — GE, Toshiba, and Johnson & Johnson — have announced that they are splitting up into component, independent firms. They’re doing so because of business strategy, but the fact that they’ve done so is all the evidence we need that the US market economy is functioning as it should. Put more directly: Market forces are doing just fine without Merrick Garland’s guiding hand to help us.

It was created as a major national security asset in 1975 after Arab oil producers halted exports to the U.S. for resupplying Israel’s military during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, which they lost.

The Reserve, however, was intended for real emergencies, not PR stunts. In 2011, Barack Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who was busy bombing Libya’s Moammar Gaddafi out of office, released 30 million barrels to cover supply disruptions.

George H.W. Bush released 17 million in 1991 for similar disruptions during the first Gulf War and his son released 11 million barrels to bolster regional supplies after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Joe Biden’s “genuine emergency” is of his own making — the continued plummet in job approval tied to the continued rise in gas prices.

That strategic reserve is an immense stash of oil purchased at lower prices by savvy previous presidents, including most recently Donald Trump, and pumped into salt caverns deep underground at four sites in Texas and Louisiana. Currently, it contains some 612 million barrels of oil of its maximum 714 million.

That can seem like a lot of oil; though it’s barely enough to fuel the country for six months. //

(A barrel of oil, by the way, contains about 42 gallons, which through refining produce roughly 20 gallons of gasoline, 12 gallons of diesel, four gallons of jet and rocket fuels, and other material like asphalt.) //

Biden’s all the time talking about an end to fossil fuels. All of which reduced supplies and market confidence while boosting fears of future shortages, which in turn boost prices.

When Biden was elected, the average gallon price of gas was $2.11. When he took office, it was $2.24, two months later $2.71, by May $2.89, July $3.12, September $3.17, today $3.39. Some California pumps now charge more than $5. //

Borrowing 50 million barrels from a strategic oil reserve for political purposes is a useless exercise, even if other countries do the same on a smaller scale. It’s not going to change anything. And the reserve will be refilled at higher prices.

First of all, it’s a drop in the barrel, literally. May seem large, But it’s merely eight percent of the reserve. That’s less than three days’ average U.S. domestic oil use and only 44 hours of OPEC production.

A new book investigates the truth behind famous quotations that have been wrongly attributed, misremembered, garbled in translation—or are flat-out fake.

The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New
York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat." - Albert Einstein ///

Possibly apocryphal, like m good quotes

Lauren Boebert
@laurenboebert
To get a sense of how large Biden wants to grow our IRS.

@ElonMusk
’s Tesla has about 70,000 employees.

@Apple
has around 154,000 globally.

Biden wants our IRS to have 170,000 employees.

An increase of 87,000 supposedly to monitor the 614 billionaires in America.
7:50 PM · Nov 21, 2021

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.” -from the Declaration of Independence

Look, you know the drill. Billionaires don’t pay their “fair share” of income taxes because most of their money isn’t income. Mostly, they own paper wealth — the value of the shares of the companies they founded.

They also have tax lawyers who eat IRS agents for breakfast.

So, no, Presidentish Joe Biden’s additional 87,000 agents won’t be going after Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos.

They’ll be going after middle-class taxpayers because we’re appealing for two reasons:

We have just enough means to pay up
We don’t have enough means to fight the IRS
Biden would send hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

But can you blame him? It isn’t cheap buying 81 million LOL votes, so Biden needs to rob the middle class because that’s where the money is (and the lawyers aren’t).

That’s why Insanity Wrap is announcing our 2024 presidential campaign, starting today.

If elected, Insanity Wrap will reduce the entire IRS to one guy named Phil, who has narcolepsy, short-term memory problems, and tends to drink too much.

At the end of April, Apple’s introduction of App Tracking Transparency tools shook the advertising industry to its core. iPhone and iPad owners could now stop apps from tracking their behavior and using their data for personalized advertising. Since the new privacy controls launched, almost $10 billion has been wiped from the revenues of Snap, Meta Platform’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Now, a similar tool is coming to Google’s Android operating system—although not from Google itself. Privacy-focused tech company DuckDuckGo, which started life as a private search engine, is adding the ability to block hidden trackers to its Android app. The feature, dubbed “App Tracking Protection for Android,” is rolling out in beta from today and aims to mimic Apple’s iOS controls. “The idea is we block this data collection from happening from the apps the trackers don’t own,” says Peter Dolanjski, a director of product at DuckDuckGo. “You should see far fewer creepy ads following you around online.”

The vast majority of apps have third-party trackers tucked away in their code. These trackers monitor your behavior across different apps and help create profiles about you that can include what you buy, demographic data, and other information that can be used to serve you personalized ads. DuckDuckGo says its analysis of popular free Android apps shows more than 96 percent of them contain trackers. Blocking these trackers means Facebook and Google, whose trackers are some of the most prominent, can’t send data back to the mothership—neither will the dozens of advertising networks you’ve never heard of.

michaeltherobot Seniorius Lurkius et Subscriptor

NOV 22, 2021 2:05 PM

Printzer wrote:
My back-of-the-envelope math shows Minotaur IV having a TWR of ~2.6 at liftoff. And to be fair, those things scoot when they head out.

Which means it rises as fast as if it were falling in 1.6x Earth gravity! TWR was always an abstract number to me until I learned to subtract 1 to imagine the gravity under which it is falling upside down

Glorified Desktop Support Wise, Aged Ars Veteran

NOV 22, 2021 12:56 PM

Cathbadhian wrote:

flerchin wrote:
Congrats Astra. Y'all beat Bezos to the club.

BO's perpetual planning has really left them in a terrible place right now. Reputationally, the accumulation of lost contracts, scheduling delays, competitor successes, and rocket delivery complaints (unofficial, of course), don't add up to a company you want to throw cash at.

Well done, Astra.

Now, there could be a question of if BO (and ULA) can reach orbit before one of the small launch companies scale up like SpaceX did. It almost seems like there should be an equation where time to reach orbit is some function of funding, development time, and number of blown up rockets. Surprisingly, too much funding and not enough blown up rockets seems to greatly increase development time, perhaps exponentially.

Statistical Ars Legatus Legionis et Subscriptor
NOV 22, 2021 12:33 PM

DStaal wrote:

jbode wrote:
Damn, that thing was in a hurry to get off the pad.

One thing I've learned from KSP that was mildly surprising, and I believe translates to real life: Higher TWR rockets are more efficient to launch. The less time you have to burn at full thrust the less fuel you need to carry, which means less fuel used, etc.

To a degree. Higher TWR also means mass used for additional engines which could just be used for more for more propellant. When you consider economics not just raw performance that is even more important. One ton of engines cost far more than one ton of propellant. Higher TWR also means higher drag losses. Higher TWR means you will hit max Q sooner in thicker atmosphere which may require more aggressive throttling (and thus losing some of the benefit of the mass you paid for).

All that means most orbital rockets tend to fall into a TWR range of 1.2 to 1.6 although there are notable exceptions at either end. Saturn V is sluggish off the pad at a initial TWR of 1.14. Electron has a TWR of 1.8. ///

[TWR: Thrust-Weight Ratio]

"I think that this flight really does prove out the approach we've taken." //

Astra never sought to build the best rocket, the biggest rocket, or the safest rocket. The California-based space company simply wanted to build a rocket that was just good enough, and to do it fast.

Early on Saturday morning, Astra proved the value of this philosophy by successfully launching a stripped-down rocket for the first time. The mission hefted a small test payload for the US Space Force into an orbit 500 km above the planet.

The launch came five years and one month after Astra was founded by Chris Kemp and Adam London in October 2016. With this weekend's success, Astra became the fastest company to reach orbit with a privately developed liquid-fueled rocket. With its Falcon 1 rocket, SpaceX required six years and four months. Firefly, Virgin Orbit, and Rocket Lab all needed seven or more years to successfully reach orbit.

To go fast, Astra decided to spend less time designing its rocket and more time testing it in real-world conditions. A first suborbital launch attempt was completed within two years of the company's founding, and Astra has been iterating on the vehicle's design since then. By using iterative design, Astra has had to stomach several failures along the way.