he arrival of Chia on the mainstream media radar brought with it some challenging and interesting questions here at Backblaze. As close followers of the hard drive market, we were at times intrigued, optimistic, cautious, concerned, and skeptical—often all at once. But, our curiosity won out. Chia is storage-heavy. We are a storage company. What does this mean for us? It was something we couldn’t ignore.
Backblaze has over an exabyte of data under management, and we typically maintain around three to four months worth of buffer space. We wondered—with this storage capacity and our expertise, should Backblaze farm Chia?
For customers who are ready to farm, we recently open-sourced software to store Chia plots using our cloud storage service, Backblaze B2. But deciding whether we should hop on a tractor and start plotting ourselves required a bunch of analysis, experimentation, and data crunching—in short, we went down the rabbit hole.
After proving out if this could work for our business, we wanted to share what we learned along the way in case it was useful to other teams pondering data-heavy cloud workloads like Chia.
Ron Coleman
@RonColeman
Today the New York Supreme Court dismissed the "toddlers meme" lawsuit for "misappropriation" against our client Carpe Donktum (Logan Cook) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l1kM8lGbFJh-eUWKJLD0eQSmyd83GA4V/view?usp=drivesdk
Harmeet K. Dhillon
@pnjaban
·
Jul 9, 2021
Congratulations to my @dhillonlaw partner @RonColeman for defeating the lawsuit brought against client Logan Cook aka Carpe Donktum and 45 over the infamous toddler video, commentary upon which is a matter of public interest! Congrats to President Trump as well! #FirstAmendment
There Is Not Enough Time for Nuclear Innovation to Save the Planet
By Allison Macfarlane //
Nuclear reactors worldwide are aging and, for the most part, are not being replaced as they are shut down. In 2019, for instance, six reactors started operations and 13 units were shut down. The average age of the world’s 408 operating reactors in 2020 was 31 years, with 81 of them over the age of 41 years. //
For all these reasons, nuclear energy cannot be a near- or perhaps even medium-term silver bullet for climate change. Given how many economic, technical, and logistical hurdles stand in the way of building safer, more efficient, and cost-competitive reactors, nuclear energy will not be able to replace other forms of power generation quickly enough to achieve the levels of emission reduction necessary to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
Innovations in reactor designs and nuclear fuels are still worthy of significant research and government support. Despite its limitations, nuclear power still has some potential to reduce carbon emissions—and that is a good thing. But rather than placing unfounded faith in the ability of nuclear power to save the planet, we need to focus on the real threat: the changing climate. And we need strong government support of noncarbon-emitting energy technologies that are ready to be deployed today, not ten or 20 years from now, because we have run out of time. We cannot wait a minute longer.
From NY Post:
To qualify under the bill, an applicant or his farm needn’t have experienced racial discrimination. There is not even a requirement that the applicant have suffered any direct economic loss due to the lockdowns. Skin color is the most important consideration.
Those who qualify are eligible for up to 120 percent debt relief on their farm loan through the Farm Service Agency. You might notice that 120 percent is higher than 100 percent. Yes, the bill offers a windfall to many farmers who might never have personally suffered discrimination in the course of their agricultural business or any serious financial damage from COVID-19. //
“The Court finds that Plaintiff has shown a substantial likelihood that he will prevail on his claim that Section 1005 violates his right to equal protection under the law,” the decision states. “Absent action by the Court, socially disadvantaged farmers will obtain debt relief, while Plaintiff will suffer the irreparable harm of being excluded from that program solely on the basis of his race.”
What is obvious from this is that no one, even the imbeciles on MSNBC, is denying that Carlson’s communications were intercepted. What they can’t explain is how those communications were made available to people outside the IC with Carlson’s name attached to them. The reason they can’t explain that is that this sequence of events is only possible if someone decided to unmask Carlson after he was swept up in legal surveillance and illegally distribute his communications…or if Carlson is under surveillance by the US government. Serious journalists, if we had any in this nation, would be trying to find out.
Tom Elliott
@tomselliott
HHS’ @XavierBecerra on Biden's controversial door-to-door vaccination program: “The federal government has spent trillions of dollars to keep Americans alive during this pandemic. So it is absolutely the government’s business” to know if you’ve been vaccinated.
7:58 AM · Jul 8, 2021
Nan Hayworth, M.D.
@NanHayworth
Sec. Becerra's attitude is dangerously authoritarian.
COVID risk doesn't justify this level of aggression by the federal government, and this is a precedent we should vehemently oppose setting.
It's brilliant to create vaccines and great to OFFER vaccines. Not to COMPEL them. //
Jason B. Whitman, OD
@JasonBWhitman
Yeah no, it’s none of the government’s damn business, and that was our money, not theirs.
Fast startup (aka: hiberboot, hybrid boot, or hybrid shutdown) is turned on by default in Windows and is a setting that helps your PC start up faster after shutdown. Even faster than hibernate. Windows does this by saving an image of the Windows kernel and loaded drivers to the hiberfile (C:\hiberfil.sys) upon shutdown so when you start your PC again, Windows simply loads the hiberfile (C:\hiberfil.sys) into memory to resume your PC instead of restarting it.
If you disable hibernate, then it will also disable fast startup.
You must be signed in as an administrator to turn fast startup on or off.
This tutorial will show you how to turn fast startup on or off for all users in Windows 10.
Do you know what happens when you raise taxes by almost $100 billion on oil and gas companies while we are already in the midst of a cost explosion? The price of energy, whether gasoline or electricity, skyrockets even more. Does that sound like something that’s going to help out the middle class? And how exactly is that part of a “build back better” agenda? //
Ask yourself who uses the most gasoline in this country. The answer is truck drivers, construction workers, delivery drivers, home-health nurses, and a variety of other blue-collar professions. Meanwhile, those who use the least gasoline are wine-sipping liberals in urban enclaves that take the subway or ride a bike to work. In other words, what Biden is proposing is just another payoff to his chosen demographic of far-left ideologues. //
scgrl625
6 hours ago
Let's break this down. So, he charges $90 billion to the gas companies. That amount would trickle down to consumers, and as mentioned in the above article, would mean the American people and the trucking industry, which would trickle down to food prices being basically unaffordable, which would trickle down to families needing to be on government assistance.
Got it.
When host Maria Bartiromo asked if there was no way anyone else could have seen the emails, Carlson said the only other person was his executive producer.
He added that just before his show aired on Tuesday, he got a call from a reporter who read the email back to him.
“There is no possibility that anyone else could have known. And then again yesterday I get a call right before air, like 7:15, from a journalist I know and like, not many left, but I do like this person. He repeated back to me what’s in my email, he got it because the NSA leaked it, so, yes, entirely real,” Carlson said.
The NSA declined to comment. //
Jonathan Swan
@jonathanvswan
New: Tucker Carlson was talking to U.S.-based Kremlin intermediaries about setting up an interview with Putin shortly before he accused the NSA of spying on him. U.S. gov't officials learned of this outreach ... but that's where details get cloudy.
Tucker Carlson sought interview with Putin at time of NSA spying claim
axios.com //
None of these scenarios mesh with what Carlson has alleged. A legit unmasking would not result in his emails being offered to another reporter.
As RedState reported earlier, Tucker Carlson’s previous claims of being spied on and having his communications leaked by the NSA were true. Axios reported on the leaked emails today, which contained nothing but Carlson attempting to set up an interview with Russia’s Vladamir Putin. Of note is that NBC News interviewed Putin just a few weeks ago and there is nothing untoward about a news host seeking an interview with an adversarial figure. //
That means a lot of people who originally doubted the story look like clowns tonight (and I’ll have a separate piece on that later), and Carlson continued his victory lap by pointing out the obvious motivation of the leak — to try to paint him as a Russia agent.
It’s a go-to accusation that the left, facilitated by the left-wing hacks in our intelligence community, just can’t let go of. Of course, Carlson was simply trying to do what NBC News had done prior — land a major interview and make news. But by leaking his emails, the intel community wanted to make it seem as if Carlson had done something wrong and sinister. It’s an insidious, completely unAmerican game.
Carlson then got to the real heart of the issue — that laws were broken here. The NSA is required to keep the identity of Americans caught up in surveillance of foreign figures secret. Only via an unmasking request could his name have been revealed. After that request was clearly made, likely by someone in the Biden administration and having to have been signed off by the NSA head, they then took that information and leaked it to try to harm Carlson and Fox News.
“Current plan is to increase base Raptor thrust to ~230 tons or ~500 million lbs & increase booster engine count to 32 or 33. All Raptors on booster, whether fixed or gimbaling, would be the same. 33*230 gets ~7600 tons of thrust & T/W of ~1.5.” //
“Center engines on ship will be same as booster engines. This is basically Raptor 2. Raptor Vacuum would be only variant. Tbd as to whether to commonize R-Vac with Raptor 2 (more thrust), keep same or tighten throat (more Isp). Adding 3 more R-Vac to ship with max Isp maybe …” //
SpaceX’s website shows the previous plan was for the Super Heavy to offer thrust of 16 million pounds. Musk’s comments suggest this figure could reach 17 million pounds.
By comparison, the most powerful rocket to ever fly was the Saturn V. It last flew in 1973, and generated just 7.6 million pounds of thrust. //
"Mass of initial SN ships will be a little high & Isp a little low, but, over time, it will be ~150t to LEO fully reusable.”
For Mars missions, the more important information could be that “T/W” of 1.5. The thrust-to-weight ratio shows how the thrust compares to the weight of the vehicle itself. Unlike an aircraft that takes off horizontally, a rocket that launches vertically needs its thrust to be higher than its weight. The higher thrust-to-weight, the greater acceleration. //
“T/W will be ~1.5, so it will accelerate unusually fast. High T/W is important for reusable vehicles to make more efficient use of propellant, the primary cost. For expendable rockets, throwing away stages is the primary cost, so optimization is low T/W.” //
November 2018 — BFR, first announced in September 2017, gets renamed to Starship.
December 2018 — Musk confirms the new ship has switched to stainless steel.
January 2019 — Shortened “Starhopper” prototype unveiled and Musk explains the switch to steel.
February 2019 — Raptor engine beats a long-standing rocket record.
April 2019 — Starhopper completes a tethered “hop.”
July 2019 — Starhopper launches 20 meters (67 feet).
August 2019 — Starhopper launches 150 meters (500 feet).
September 2019 — Starship Mk.1 full-size prototype unveiled.
May 2020 — Starship SN4 full-size prototype completes a static test fire.
August 2020 — SN5 launches 150 meters (500 feet).
October 2020 — SN8 completes the first triple-Raptor static fire.
December 2020 — SN8 launches 12.5 kilometers (41,000 feet) and crashes into the ground.
February 2021 — SN9 launches 10 kilometers (33,000 feet) and crashes into the ground.
March 2021 — SN10 launches 10 kilometers (33,000 feet), lands, and explodes eight minutes later. That same month, SN11 launches 10 kilometers (33,000 feet) and hits the ground in several pieces.
May 2021 — SN15 launches 10 kilometers (33,000 feet) and lands without a hitch, except for a small fire at the base.
The New York Times
@nytimes
Six months after the Jan. 6 riot, the U.S. Capitol Police is planning to expand operations outside Washington in an effort to better protect lawmakers, beginning with the opening of field offices in California and Florida. //
According to the New York Times, the U.S. Capitol Police have announced they are now planning to expand operations outside Washington “beginning with the opening of field offices in California and Florida” but the plan is to open “several additional regional offices.” Their spokesman says they need to monitor and quickly investigate threats against lawmakers.
The New York Times tries to justify this by saying that Secret Service has field offices elsewhere. But the Secret Service has multiple missions including not just covering protectees like the President or Vice President but also investigations into crimes against the financial infrastructure of the United States. They’re also part of the executive branch and subject to review and FOIA.
The Capitol Police is now basically just saying we’re going to have this huge expansion of this police power without any review or even a vote of Congress. They are completely controlled by Congress (translation: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at this point). We’ve seen how they respond to a basic question of who killed Ashli Babbitt by simply refusing to answer because they can. How do we think that’s going to work as they fan out and start investigating people across the nation? As we saw in the case of Babbitt, they are also not subject to FOIA.
If you look for Business Item 39 on the NEA website, https://ra.nea.org/business-item/2021-nbi-039/, you find the page has been scrubbed. The copy posted in this article is from the Wayback Machine.
What purpose was served by deleting an item the NEA voted to approve in a meeting viewed by thousands of people? The obvious answer is that the battle over the definition of CRT is not over for some on the left, and the NEA acknowledging that they are pushing CRT undercuts the argument that no such problem exists. Nevertheless, two equally large lessons for us can be drawn from this episode. The first is that CRT is a major focus of NEA activity, and, as Ron White says, that’s a handy piece of information to have.
The second thing is that we can expect the NEA to change course and begin to relentlessly lie about their advocacy for CRT.
All of this goes to show that we are in a total war for the minds of our children. If we don’t fight it by running for office and passing laws outlawing racism as a teaching technique, we will lose this nation and deserve to do so.
ORATION, DELIVERED IN CORINTHIAN HALL, ROCHESTER, BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS, JULY 5TH, 1852.
Published by Request
ROCHESTER: PRINTED BY LEE, MANN & CO., AMERICAN BUILDING.
1852.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ESQ.:
National Geographic
@NatGeo
Scientists found that vulnerable people and communities of color are disproportionately exposed to air pollution from firework celebrations //
This weekend, at least 92 people were shot, with 16 killed since Friday. Imagine if we take that statistic and place it somewhere other than Chicago? Would we then get people to pay attention and do something? This is something that “disproportionately affects people of color.” So where’s your story on this, National Geographic? Why is there no attention to this? Because it’s a Democratic city? Because you really don’t care about black lives unless you can use them to further a left-wing political purpose?
Six children were among the wounded, including a five-year-old girl who was shot in the leg and a six-year-old girl.
I am amazed the Levine and his ilk can so cavalierly skip over the over 4,900 words Douglass wrote which precede the paragraph that they love to use as a cudgel. Douglass spoke about the country’s founding as an arbiter and source for good. That the foundation of America is a blueprint for liberty, and this is why that foundation must be made true by ending slavery in the United States. Douglass rightly expounded that slavery is antithesis to the heart and soul of a great nation, and if America was to continue to be that, it must change its ways.
Douglass debunks the 1619 Project blather that America’s founding is rooted in systemic racism and slavery with this insightful phrasing:
Fellow-citizens! there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it.
[…]
Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.
Far-leftists have despised America for decades. Members of Congress who call themselves progressives decry the ills of American society like police brutality, poverty, and all kinds of injustice. Activists march and protest in the streets and on college campuses for equity. However, despite governing most of the areas in which the afflicted masses reside, they have done little to nothing to affect significant change.
In light of this reality, it is appropriate to ask: What exactly do these people want? What has to happen before the adherents of wokeism finally develop at least a modicum of respect and – dare I say it – love for the United States?
Leftists who rail against America are conspicuously quiet when it comes to laying out specific objectives. Take racism, for example; since racial bias can never truly be wholly extinguished, how much will it need to be decreased before these people acknowledge that the country is worthy of respect? Furthermore, if they care so much about racial disparities due to racism, why have they not pursued real solutions? Finally, why have they not encouraged productive conversations on these matters instead of just lazily accusing everyone with whom they disagree of being slobbering bigots? //
The hard left will never love America – at least not in its current incarnation. The America these people would love is one in which the government has the most control and influence over our lives. Affection for the U.S. can only come after their pipe dreams of a western utopia are realized.
To put it another way, those on the hard left will not be satisfied until they have destroyed America and then, from the rubble, rebuild it in their own image. Marxism must rule the day if America is to be worthy of respect. //
It is important to remember this when watching how the hard left moves. Their objective is not to improve America, it is to remake America. They will not stop until they finish what President Barack Obama started when he declared they would “fundamentally transform America.”
Colin Kaepernick
@Kaepernick7
“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”
- Frederick Douglass
12:03 PM · Jul 4, 2019
Ted Cruz
@tedcruz
You quote a mighty and historic speech by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, but, without context, many modern readers will misunderstand. Two critical points:
(1) This speech was given in 1852, before the Civil War, when the abomination of slavery still existed. Thanks to Douglass and so many other heroes, we ended that grotesque evil and have made enormous strides to protecting the civil rights of everybody.
(2) Douglass was not anti-American; he was, rightly and passionately, anti-slavery. Indeed, he concluded the speech as follows:
“Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country.
“There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain.
“I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from ‘the Declaration of Independence,’ the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.”
Let me encourage everyone, READ THE ENTIRE SPEECH; it is powerful, inspirational, and historically important in bending the arc of history towards justice: https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2945
Cori Bush
@CoriBush
When they say that the 4th of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom they’re referring to is for white people.
This land is stolen land and Black people still aren’t free.
10:48 AM · Jul 4, 2021
Ted Cruz
@tedcruz
Hateful, divisive lies.
The Left hates America. Believe them when they tell you this.
Two years ago, Colin Kaepernick tried to spread the same lies on July 4. I responded with the wisdom of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass:
https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/amp/ted-cruz-colin-kaepernick-2645842138?__twitter_impression=true
For posterity’s sake, I will argue on the merits just a bit here, though. The United States is not built on “stolen” land. Rather, it’s built on a combination of bought and conquered land via several wars. That makes it not unique at all in the annals of history. Almost every single nation on earth gained and maintained its borders via force and bargaining. Nations that haven’t done so are a result of other nations doing it for them and then protecting them along the way.
In fact, every piece of land the United States now rests on was fought over and “stolen” by some tribe from another tribe long before Europeans arrived. That’s simply the way of the world. It doesn’t mean you don’t recognize the wrongs of history, discuss them, and learn from them. It does mean you resolve to live in the current reality as it exists, observing the totality of history, not just what fits the woke narrative.
As Cruz says, these misleading rants by far-left race grifters are meant to divide and nothing else. Bush wants power, and she sees power in division. There is no need to read any deeper into her rant than that.
David French
@DavidAFrench
I was honored to work with @kmele, @thomaschattwill, and @jasonintrator to write in the NYT against broad, vague laws designed to suppress CRT. They’re speech codes and thus “antithetical to educating students in the culture of American free expression.”
Opinion | Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws Are Un-American
nytimes.com //
There are hundreds of different schools of thought that are not taught in K-12 education. You can’t teach Holocaust denial, for example, nor would any student be educated by such tripe. The same is true for CRT, which exists as racial essentialism pushing the notion that certain races of people are inherently oppressive. It’s pseudo-science garbage.
But my point in writing this is not to take the Times article apart or to do another breakdown of why CRT is bad. Rather, it’s to point out that French (he’s one of the multiple authors of the piece) represents a type of Republican that is always looking to surrender. The idea that there is any danger to freedom of speech or ideas because CRT isn’t allowed in school curriculums is obviously ridiculous. Yet, French makes that argument because he needs some way to counter the fact that Republicans are actually making headway regarding a major culture war issue. //
DaveM_2
16 minutes ago
"...antithetical to educating students in the culture of American free expression."
This statement is ludicrous on it's face. CRT can only be taught by suppressing any "free expression" that does not support it. To wit- look at every school district in the country that tried to sneak this through by fiat. Look at the behavior of every school management official confronted by parents. Look at the sudden change in employment status of every teacher that tries to oppose it -to crickets by the union that supposedly represents them. //
writeofcenter
2 hours ago
There is no middle ground here. The CRTers aren't proposing to have a free and open discussion of their philosophy in Townhall forums. They intend to infiltrate elementary and secondary school US history and political science curriculums w/o being answerable to anyone. CRT is the greatest danger to the future of the Republic right now simple because it brooks NO OPPOSITION!
French should be asked if during the Cold War, US history should have been taught from the Soviet point of view painting us as the aggressor and purveyors of a failed economic system. From the Soviets point of view, we were little different from the Nazi invaders.