Do you want a PET scan from a machine with unauthorized adjustments?

Not long ago, a shade-tree mechanic with average skills could fix whatever was wrong with your car. These days, cars are far more advanced. On-board computers allow cars to diagnose themselves for most common problems and make engines run more efficiently while squeezing out more power than ever before.

All this advanced technology has put the shade-tree mechanic pretty much out of business. Working on a car today requires advanced training and technical ability. The technology inside and outside the car consists of patented software, chip designs and proprietary systems. But the benefit to consumers has been enormous. These inventions are covered by patents to encourage and reward innovation.

American innovation is dependent on the protection of intellectual property. It encourages innovation by discouraging theft. But there are those who are philosophically opposed to intellectual property protection. Left-leaning public interest law firms and activist groups led by U.S. PIRG, an association of public-interest law firms, have been trying for years to undermine intellectual-property protection through “right to repair” campaigns in state legislatures. During this legislative session they are pushing their anti-innovation agenda in the guise of a “right to repair” advanced medical devices.

In my state, Texas, Rep. Thresa Meza has introduced a bill this session titled the Medical Device Right to Repair Act. This bill would require manufacturers of highly advanced medical devices like MRI machines, CT scanners and PE-scan systems to disclose confidential and patented design and service information.

A “right to repair” sounds reasonable, but forcing manufacturers to disclose their proprietary technologies would erode the incentive for innovation and endanger patients. Today the Food and Drug Administration regulates and monitors medical-device safety. The FDA demands that original equipment manufacturers follow its guidelines regarding software updates, patches and more-comprehensive repair jobs. The uncertified third-party service providers who would conduct repairs if these bills pass aren’t regulated by the FDA. There’s no assurance they will follow FDA standards. //

Parabolic reflector antenna gain can be calculated from some simple formulas or equations, and the practical factors affecting the 'dish' antenna gain.

Yesterday marked a significant anniversary in the domain of aerial circumnavigation achievements. Specifically, it was the 45th anniversary of Pan Am’s ‘Liberty Bell Express’ circumnavigation. This saw the airline fly a Boeing 747SP eastwards around the world from New York JFK in record time between May 1st and May 3rd, 1976. //

AlanF
20h ago

I believe on the DEL-HND leg they detoured so the flight would touch the equator. I think that was part of the official requirement to set a record for around the world. Otherwise you could just fly to the North Pole and do one quick loop around it and say you had been around the world. They subsequently flew a 747SP on a speed record flight that went over both poles. I forget the routing. //

BillyDolan
10 Points
15h ago

Another PanAm first was achieved between Oct 28-30 1977, probably with the same plane, B747SP Clipper New Horizons, when they circumnavigated the world over both poles departing SFO on Oct28 1977 over the North Pole to LON, then south to CPT,SA and over the South Pole to AKL, NZ, to arrive in SFO on Oct 31st 1977. Total miles flown 26,706 miles, total elapsed time 54h7m12s, avg air speed 494 miles/hr. Captain Walter H. Mullikin was the skipper of Pan Am flight 50. //

BillyDolan
10 Points

At one time SAA held the distance/time record on the delivery of their first SP, non-stop Seattle-Johannesburg... around 21 hours in the air.

Earlier this year, the lone Major League Baseball club outside of our borders, i.e. the Toronto Blue Jays, announced they were going to streamline their announcing arrangement by combining the television and radio audio into one. Our friends up north were generally not amused, especially Rush (the band) bassist/vocalist/keyboardist Geddy Lee. His own penchant for preferring multi-tasking notwithstanding, Lee quickly made his opinion known:

Some of my most memorable baseball memories were not from sitting in the stands or watching the game on the tube, but listening to the radio. Driving home from the cottage, I heard Dave Stieb’s heartbreaking first one-hitter.

There are nuances and descriptors that radio broadcasters share with their audiences that are simply not the same as a cabal of TV announcers, no matter how good they are. It’s a time-honoured craft that requires a special ability to bring to life what we at home simply cannot see. This is a bad and regrettable decision.

Alabama Public Health
@ALPublicHealth
Darth Vader wears a mask to help himself. Thank you for continuing to #WearAMask to help those around you. #MayThe4thBeWithYou //

Dave Rubin
@RubinReport
He also chopped of his son’s hand, murdered dozens of younglings and was the strongman for the most tyrannical regime in the history of the galaxy.

Also his last words were asking his son to take off his mask. //

Steve Deace
@SteveDeaceShow
He slaughtered children. Ravaged entire civilizations. And his final request while seeking redemption was, “Luke, help me take this mask off.”
#MayTheFourthBeWithYou

A bill that will create the largest licensing program in Denver passed in a unanimous vote at a city council meeting Monday night.

Rental property owners will now be required to have a license – the requirement goes into effect in a phasing process – multi-family rental property owners have until Jan. 1, 2023, to secure a license and single-family rental property owners have until Jan. 1, 2024.

So again, in Denver, I will be required to obtain a license to enter into a private agreement with another private individual on my own private property. //

. As is the case with many good-intentioned government regulations, its only forte is the impeccable construction quality of the road to hell. The per-unit increased cost of this atrocity for landlords is estimated to run from $50-$500. Of course, landlords will have challenges in passing that cost along to renters as the city will likely resort to rent control measures that prevent them from doing so. Unsurprisingly, government action increases costs.

The fallout from this action will likely lead to a significant sell-off of rental properties in the City of Denver, reducing rental availability. Anyone who can fog a mirror would know that the subsequent reduction in the supply of available rentals will ultimately increase the cost of the available properties. The city will then be forced to further impede on private property rights to “protect” “vulnerable” renters. Again, as is the case when it comes to government, the proposed solution to “problems” is inevitably a more restrictive government.

“From The Desk Of Donald J. Trump” is a new webpage on www.DonaldJTrump.com, the website of the former President.

As noted in this Fox News story, the Facebook “Oversight Board” is supposed to rule as early as tomorrow on whether Pres. Trump will be allowed to return to using Facebook and Instagram. His accounts were suspended based on his social media and other commentaries on January 6 (allegedly). //

It may, in fact, turn out to be the case that the social media bans imposed on Pres. Trump end up being a boon both economically and influence-wise. Trump had millions of followers on social media and received more than 75 million votes in the November election; I suspect it won’t take too much time at all for him to reach a number of followers in the tens of millions for any new venture once it is built out.

Had Facebook and Twitter allowed him to remain on their platforms, they could have manipulated their technology to limit his reach by creating bottlenecks for his information and messaging.

By kicking him off their sites, they incentivized him to work with others to seek to build a new platform beyond their control.

From the New York Post:

Woke Coke has gone flat.

Coca-Cola has paused its controversial diversity plan — that included penalties on outside law firms if they failed to meet racial diversity quotas — after intense backlash. //

ej38di
@ej38di
Switched to Pepsi made with real sugar and it tastes way better than Mexican coke. Once coca cola told me I should be less white I decided to drink less coke products instead.

Rasmussen Reports
@Rasmussen_Poll
‘Get Woke, Go Broke?’ 37% Buying Less Coke https://bit.ly/3n72Ymx

AssasinGLX
@GlxAssasin
·
Apr 27, 2021
Replying to @grantbza @RabeNgege and @PicknPay
Im not hating, but please explain to me how Coco cola is racist?

grantza
@grantbza
From coca-cola be less white seminar - sure it doesn't affect you so you not bothered, but racism is racism, regardless of who the target is. I'm sure if coca-cola had a be "less black" seminar you would be up in arms: //

VL
an hour ago
Be less woke, buy less Coke.

Despite the left’s claims that stricter voting laws disproportionately prevent black people from voting, the data shows that voter turnout was at record levels in 2020. The Wall Street Journal reported: //

Notably, GOP states with stricter voting rules didn’t experience significantly lower minority turnout. Black turnout was highest in Maryland (75.3%) followed by Mississippi (72.8%) and lowest in Massachusetts (36.4%). Liberals have lambasted Georgia for “purging” voters and restricting ballot access. But Georgia had a smaller black-white voting gap than Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia and California—all states controlled by Democrats. //

The states with the biggest black-white voting gaps? Massachusetts, Oregon, Wisconsin, Iowa and Colorado. Three allow same-day voter registration (Wisconsin, Iowa, and Colorado), according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Good luck trying to discern a link between a state’s voting rules, partisan control and minority turnout. //

California is one of the easiest states to vote in. They allow same-day registration, ballot harvesting, and other accommodations for voting. In contrast, Arizona does not allow these practices. Still, it “had a higher turnout among all minority groups and smaller voting disparities with whites than California,” according to the Journal.

Jason
February 16, 2020 at 10:48 pm
I don't know what nuclear plants you are talking about, but I know for a fact the nuclear plant I work at Operates at $21-22 per megawatt. That is significantly less than the $100 per megawatt this article claims. Also, it appears the figures provided for solar and wind include federal subsidies into the prices being so low. Subtract those subsidies and solar and wind become far less attractive.

As far as safety, the US commercial nuclear industry, historically, is one of the heaviest regulated and safest, especially post Three Mile Island. Compare commercial nuclear with oil, gas, coal, etc... And how frequent minners get stuck in mines, refineries and oil rigs catch fire, gas lines explode etc etc. You never see that in the US commercial nuclear industry. I work in the industry and nuclear reactors are extremly safe. There are numerous safety systems and backup systems and back ups to the back ups to the back ups in commercial nuclear plants. Chernobyl was a flawed Soviet design mixed with unnecessary and harmful government interfierience which lead to the worst commercial nuclear disaster in world history. Chernobyl doesn't belong in the same conversation as Three Mile Island and Fukushima. TMI is what it is and as bad as it was there are no deaths nor adverse health conditions attributed to TMI. The commercial nuclear industry learned immensly from TMI and the US commercial nuclear industry is much much safer today because of it. As for Fukushima, this is a complex issue that primarily resulted from a poor choice of lacation and the selection of a BWR reactor design vs the inherently safer PWR design that you see in the overwhelming majority of the reactors in the US. Had Fukushima been a PWR like the reactors at the plant I work at it wouldn't have been an issue. A PWR has gravity dropped control rods that immediatly stop the reaction and eliminates 90% of the heat inside the reactor. The remaining 10% is decay heat which would have been controlled with numerous systems including passive accumulators, but in a worse case scenario like Fukushima in which all off site and onsite power was lost (ie they lost the grid and their onsite emergency diesel generators), a PWR design would have utilized natural circulation (thermodynamic principle in which warm water rises from the reactor to the higher elevated steam generators and cooler water flows from the steam generators to the lower elevated reactor) the secondary loop of the steam generators would then bleed off steam to drive a steam driven Terry Turbine Aux Feedwater pump which would pump large tanks of demineralized water into the inlet of the steam generator which cools the primary loop via convective heat transfer (ie shell and tube heat exchanger... The steam generators ) the shell side is the feedwater side which is clean thus excess steam not needed to run the terry turbine is vented through steam dumps and relief valves. The primary side is reactor grade water and the investory is never lost it remains in the primary loop inside containment and is continually cooled via the secondary feedwater loop. This design would have allowed a PWR to survive a Fukushima level disaster where a BWR could not. As bas as Fukushima was it was nowhere near as bad as Chernobyl nor say a Deep Water Horizon or other frequent oil and gas disasters, nevertheless; the industry learned from Fukushima and made changes which in turns made the industry safer. One thing common in commercial nuclear power is they learn from any mistakes that have occured and make changes to prevent the saem issues from arising again. This is done via the NRC regulations as well as Industry Leader revomendations throughout the industry (ie INPO and WANO). Often people have the impression that Homer Simpson is running your local nuclear reactor, but this couldn't be further from the truth. In addition to the federal government, INPO and WANO the workers operating reactors are some of the smartest and best people on the planet. The large majority of nuclear operators in the US are former Navy nuke workers from submarines or carrriers, or are well educated, college degreed individuals with backgrounds in physics or engineering. So there are many many factors that keep nuclear plants safe. Thats why you don't hear about accidents occuring anywhere near the rate you do in oil and gas and there are smart individuals in those indistries as well.

The last thing ill mention is this. If you took the average american and you took all the electricity they would consume in their entire lifetime, and say it was all from nuclear power, the waste that would have accumulated could fot inside a 12oz pop can. That's it! This tid bit of info even suprised me, but nuclear is not wasteful it is not chemical burning of coal or gas, nor does it require large quantities of rare earth metal batteries or PV cells. According to Lawrence Berkley Lab, the fission of 1 g of uranium or plutonium per day liberates about 1 MW. This is the energy equivalent of 3 tons of coal or about 600 gallons of fuel oil per day, which when burned produces approximately 1/4 tonne of carbon dioxide. Now the US doesn't use Plutonium in our reactors largely because i dont think we are allowed to per Nuclear Nonproliferation Act of 1979 , but if we could nuclear reactors make plutonium as a result of U238 neutron absoption. This fact makes nuclear fuel recyclable, but we can not reprocess it so it sits in fuel pools and decays away until we can put it in dry cask storage that we keep onsite. I can walk right up to a dry cask full of old fuel, take my dosimeter right up to it and register 0.0 mR/hr. These dry casks are concrete and/or lead lined and were supposed to eventually be stored inside Yucca Mountain (a projected site paid entirely by the commercial nuclear industry and not the tax payers) , but the last administration killed that, so until we find a permanent location waste will be an issue in 50-100 years or so, but Yucca or a Yucca mountain like location would solve this problem. The good news is the funds are already secured for the long term storage all that really needs done is the beaurocratic process to take place. Remember a pop can size amount of waste per person in their entire lifetime on nuclear alone. Think about how many tons and tons of solar pannels that would take that laste what maybe 10 years at best.

I'm not knocking solar or wind they are an important part, but if you want to get serious about climate change you can't do it without nuclear power it is pound for pound the most effective energy source we have. And, if we only funded it 1/10th of what solar and wind get in subsidies i'd imagine we could fix the few flaws the commercial nuclear industry has. My appologies for all the typos im sure this is riddled with them.

Jason
February 18, 2020 at 3:09 pm
The 10% decay heat I presented above is a little high. That 10% would be a very very conservative amount factoring begining of core life and rounding up for a conservatism. The real numbers are closer to 6-7% and even as low as 1-2% toward the end of core life. By enlarge the commercial nuclear industry in the US has gotten more predictable, more reliable, safer and more cost effective in the last 10-15 years or so. With funding towards advancing nuclear power the industry could explore Thorium reactors which you theoretically can press a button and walk away without any decay heat kr radiological concerns, or could look towards producing Hydrogen in conjuction with electricity which can be used to fuel H2 automobile cells. Really there are a vast array of things nuclear power can do, but we are not even scratching the surface.

David Campbell
March 6, 2021 at 9:09 am
The article claims the nuclear industry needs to solve these things and aren't. This is patently false.

Molten salts as opposed to pressurized water solves the melt down problem. High thermal load following tanks rather than piles solves this issue entirely. Safety is inherent in all the new designs being developped.

The waste problem will be solved by reactor designs that will use existing waste as fuel. The fuel waste thing will be eliminated for good.

Costs will plummet with these new designs. Given theres no huge risks of meltdowns or explosions there will not be a need for huge concrete containment domes and other expenses. The reactors will be small modular designs meant to be built in a factory and shipped to location, not permanent constructions with cost overruns. Most of these new startups are targetting being cheaper than coal.

Commentators from Greenpeace to the World Bank agree that climate change is an emergency, threatening civilization and life on our planet. Any solution must involve the control of greenhouse gas emissions by phasing out fossil fuels and switching to alternative technologies that do not impair the human habitat while providing the energy we require to function as a species.

This sobering reality has led some prominent observers to re-embrace nuclear energy. Advocates declare it clean, efficient, economical, and safe. In actuality it is none of these. It is expensive and poses grave dangers to our physical and psychological well-being. According to the US Energy Information Agency, the average nuclear power generating cost is about $100 per megawatt-hour. Compare this with $50 per megawatt-hour for solar and $30 to $40 per megawatt-hour for onshore wind. The financial group Lazard recently said that renewable energy costs are now “at or below the marginal cost of conventional generation”—that is, fossil fuels—and much lower than nuclear.

The US Environmental Protection Agency announced a rule Monday that would phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the potent greenhouse gases that are widely used as refrigerants.

Though HFCs aren’t intentionally emitted in the regular use of refrigerators and air conditioners, they often leak out at various phases in an appliance’s life cycle, from manufacturing through disposal. One of the most widely used HFCs, R-134a, causes 1,430 times more warming than an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide over 100 years. Another that is commonly used in supermarkets, R-404A, has a global warming potential of 3,900. Eliminating the use of HFCs worldwide would reduce emissions enough to avoid up to 0.5˚C (0.9˚F) of warming by 2100. //

Once again, countries from around the world came together to address the issue, signing the Kigali Amendment that updated the Montreal Protocol to include HFCs. Notably, neither the US nor China has ratified the agreement, but last month, the two largest greenhouse gas emitters both agreed to eliminate the use of HFCs. //

there are already substitutes available for new refrigerators and air conditioners. One substitute that is already in many models of refrigerators is isobutane. Known in the industry as R-600a, it’s inexpensive, it has almost no ozone depletion potential, and it has a small global warming potential (three instead of R-134a's 1,430). //

Almost a decade ago, isobutane and other hydrocarbon refrigerants seemed poised for use in the market. In 2011, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) gave the refrigerants the go-ahead, and the EPA followed soon after. But then UL slashed their limits, citing a risk of fire if hydrocarbon refrigerants were to leak in a small room that also contained an open flame, like from a gas-fired water heater. //

Ultimately, the fire issue may be moot as some grocery stores have begun switching to using carbon dioxide as a refrigerant. Though it requires higher pressures throughout the cooling system, carbon dioxide is not detrimental to the ozone layer. And its global warming potential? One.

“It is the one country in the world that has the military, economic, diplomatic capacity to undermine or challenge the rules-based order that we care so much about and are determined to defend. But I want to be very clear about something. And this is important. Our purpose is not to contain China, to hold it back, to keep it down. It is to uphold this rules-based order that China is posing a challenge to. Anyone who poses a challenge to that order, we’re going to stand up and— and defend it.” //

Can someone smarter than me explain how those two statements are not likely mutually exclusive? //

“I think what we— what we’ve witnessed over the last— several years is China acting more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad. That is a fact.” //

And then the question, as posed by O’Donnell: “What is China’s goal?” //

“I think that over time, China believes that it— it— it can be and should be and will be the dominant— country in the world.”

Young Americans for Liberty
@YALiberty
BIDEN: "Anybody making less than $400,000 a year will not pay a single penny in taxes."

Um.... OK? Sounds good. //

The Hill
@thehill
President Biden: "Here's what the American Families Plan doesn't do, it doesn't add a single penny to our deficit."

O’Keefe knew Gates had been acquiring farmland for years, mostly through various Cascade subsidiaries. The mogul’s holdings include large tracts in Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, California, and about a dozen other states. With the Washington state acreage and other recent additions to his portfolio, O’Keefe calculated, Gates now owns at least 242,000 acres of American farmland.

“Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has an alter ego,” O’Keefe wrote: “Farmer Bill, the guy who owns more farmland than anyone else in America.” //

Gates is also quietly funding technology for digital vaccine passports. //

ID2020 is also active in more developed countries such as the US and has partnered with City of Austin, Texas, to provide a blockchain-enabled digital ID platform for the homeless population, as well as to refugees receiving medical treatment from the International Rescue Committee in Thailand.

Now with the sudden onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, this seems to have presented an opportunity to fast track global health into a new era of digital healthcare.

What could go wrong? Well, personal privacy (there’s that word again!), fraud, mass surveillance, and manipulation of information, among other things. But this does not seem to matter to Gates and his wicked schemes for you and your life. //

Finally, Gates remains a proponent of lockdowns, despite much evidence to the contrary that they did not work then, and they will not work now. As states in the U.S. were reopening, he sat down with every legacy media outlet he could to sound the alarm on the dangers of not following the science. Gates was as dogmatic as Dr. Anthony Fauci in his insistence; the problem is, at least Fauci has an M.D. behind his name. Gates does not. He has no medical experience whatsoever. Gates cannot even create software that doesn’t catch viruses. //

If you thought Bill Gates was dangerous while buffeted by a wife (who was equally dangerous, frankly), imagine how much more dangerous he’ll become now that he can truly focus on his dreams of global domination.

Create a New SSH Key Pair

Open a terminal and run the following command:

ssh-keygen 

SSH config, which is a per-user configuration file for SSH communication. Create a new file: ~/.ssh/config and open it for editing:

nano ~/.ssh/config

Managing Custom Named SSH key

The first thing we are going to solve using this config file is to avoid having to add custom-named SSH keys using ssh-add. Assuming your private SSH key is named ~/.ssh/id_rsa, add following to the config file:

Host github
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
  IdentitiesOnly yes

Now you can use git clone git@github:username/project

If America is indeed plagued with a “systemic racism” problem as the above continually attest, then a few obvious questions are in order for each of them:

How was Kamala Harris elected first as a US senator in California and then vice president of the US?
How did James Clyburn, who was the eldest son of an activist, fundamentalist minister in Sumter, South Carolina, rise to become the third-ranking Democrat in the US House of Representatives?
How did Hakeem Jeffries, born in Brooklyn and “a product of New York City’s public school system,” become the House Democrat Caucus Chairman?
How was Jamaal Bowman, who spent his early years in public housing and later in rent-controlled apartments in New York City, elected to Congress?
How was Muriel Bowser, the youngest of six children raised in northeast Washington, elected as the DC mayor?
How was Keith Ellison elected to the US House of Representatives, served as the Deputy Chairman of the Democrat National Committee, and elected as the Minnesota attorney general?
How did the high school graduate Lebron James achieve a net worth of $500 million while earning $100 million per year, including lucrative endorsement deals?
How did Maxine Waters, who was raised by a single mother from the age of two in St. Louis and Los Angeles, become the Chair of the House Financial Services Committee? //

Bob Woodson, a former civil rights and community activist and founder of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (NCNE) had the race-mongers pegged in an interview with Laura Ingraham:

“These people are worse than bigots,” he said. “I know what bigotry looks like, but I also know what treason looks like. And what they’re doing to Black America, in terms of pushing this false racial narrative, to me amounts to treasonous behavior against them.”

Host Laura Ingraham responded that Democrats rely on claims of “systemic” racism to shift focus away from their otherwise “ruinous” policies

“I think it’s a deflection away are their personal responsibility,” replied Woodson. “If racism were that pervasive, the question is, ‘Why in the last 50 years are low-income Blacks failing in systems run by their own people?’

“And now the police are being thrown under the bus as an extension of White supremacy, and again, it presents a convenient excuse for why their policies are not working. It’s really to conceal their incompetence, but they’re also weaponizing race and using it for political purpose at the expense of low-income Blacks. And they’re ignoring real remedies.”

Joe Biden got his vaccine under the Trump Administration. https://t.co/1FHhZdhnEY

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 3, 2021

The bill, passed by the GOP-dominated state Legislature Thursday and awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature, would make it a crime to remove state political candidates from Twitter and Facebook, and would mete out penalties of $250,000 a day for any statewide candidate who is deplatformed.

Removing more local candidates would cost the company $25,000 a day.

The bill would also require tech companies to provide users with seven days’ notice that they are subject to being banned and allow them to remedy the issue. It would still allow them to suspend users for up to 14 days. //

While many on the right might be hesitant about supporting government action against Big Tech, others have pointed out that these companies have garnered a troubling level of power over American society. When a small group of people can control what millions of Americans see and hear, it is difficult to avoid state intervention.

In essence, these companies have amassed influence that puts them on par with the Fourth Estate and the government in their ability to sway public opinion. It has become apparent that the individuals who lead these organizations are not interested in using their power responsibly.