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cyd

@ cyd @lemmy.world

Posts
9
Comments
326
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Drone maker DJI facing U.S. FCC ban — the national security risk and part China-state ownership are key issues

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  • Removed

    Promoted on TikTok, ‘No Thanks’ boycott app targets products tied to Israel

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  • It's gonna get pulled from app stores for "promoting antisemitism". You don't need to be the Kwisatz Haderach to foresee this.

  • ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in US if legal options fail, sources say

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  • As I understand, using VPNs to access will be illegal in principle, and the VPNs can be on the hook for stiff penalties.

    In practice, it will depend on how zealously the government plays the cat and mouse game. Kind of the same situation as with China and VPNs that bypass the Great Firewall (ironic!).

  • US preparing to announce $6B in weapons contracts for Ukraine

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  • I wonder how much of the aid to Ukraine shows up as money that Ukraine can decide for itself how to spend, as opposed to money that U-turns straight back into pre-determined US defence contracts.

  • TikTok's CEO is feeling the pressure and users are freaking out

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  • I mean, you can use that approach to denigrate pretty much any activity people spend time on.

  • Russia says US support for Ukraine will end as ‘humiliating fiasco’ like ‘Vietnam and Afghanistan’

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  • Vietnam is a pretty darn poor example for them to be bringing up. A much poorer country fights for its independence against bigger countries with seemingly insurmountable advantages (first France, and then the USA). And by dint of sheer national sacrifice, sustained over 20+ years of fighting, manages to outlast the enemy. Don't forget also that the Vietnamese started from a vastly poorer and more backward position compared to the Ukrainians.

  • How to Escape From the Iron Age?

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  • How much of the coal in a blast furnace is actually necessary for the carbon impregnation, as opposed to supplying the heat via combustion? Steel contains only a few percent carbon by weight, so it doesn't seem like much carbon is needed (not to mention that the carbon in steel is essentially sequestered).

  • Argentina Monthly Inflation Slowed More Than Expected in March

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  • In a normal economy, balancing growth versus inflation is certainly an important issue. But when an economy is undergoing hyperinflation, getting that under control has to be priority number one.

    Keynes, for example, wrote eloquently about this a century ago. Some of his passages apply quite eerily to the case of Argentina:

    The preservation of a spurious value for the currency, by the force of law expressed in the regulation of prices, contains in itself, however, the seeds of final economic decay, and soon dries up the sources of ultimate supply. If a man is compelled to exchange the fruits of his labors for paper which, as experience soon teaches him, he cannot use to purchase what he requires at a price comparable to that which he has received for his own products, he will keep his produce for himself, dispose of it to his friends and neighbors as a favor, or relax his efforts in producing it...

    The effect on foreign trade of price-regulation and profiteer-hunting as cures for inflation is even worse. Whatever may be the case at home, the currency must soon reach its real level abroad, with the result that prices inside and outside the country lose their normal adjustment. The price of imported commodities, when converted at the current rate of exchange, is far in excess of the local price, so that many essential goods will not be imported at all by private agency, and must be provided by the government, which, in re-selling the goods below cost price, plunges thereby a little further into insolvency.

  • The Tiny Ultrabright Laser that Can Melt Steel

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  • I think those use normal VCSELs. To justify using PCSELs, maybe it would be lidars for long range sensing, like range finding over dozens of meters or something.

  • The Tiny Ultrabright Laser that Can Melt Steel

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  • This is a really neat technology that Noda (the author of the article) has been plugging away at for decades. The main problem, from my understanding, is that people haven't been able to find applications.

    We already have conventional laser diodes that work extremely well, they're not that bright but bright enough to make laser pointers, disc read/write heads, etc., which are applications where miniaturization is important.

    On the other hand, in industrial applications like cutting steel, we have fiber lasers. Those are about the size of a briefcase, compared to the photonic crystal lasers in this article which about a centimeter. But they can reach incredible brightness, about 1000x the output power of the photonic crystal lasers (and about 1,000,000 times that of ordinary laser diodes). And in industrial applications you don't really need the laser to be miniaturized (especially since the power source itself will be a chonky piece of equipment).

    So somehow, right now this neat tech is falling into the cracks. One day, I'm sure someone will find the perfect application for it, though.

    Edit: the potential application that people are most hopeful about is lidar; if, in the future, lidar gets integrated into consumer electronic devices like cellphones, then photonic crystal lasers will probably prove their usefulness.

  • Zelenskyy warns against Russia's and Iran's coordinated 'terror' attacks

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  • For countries in the global South, Zelensky's pro-Israel stance looks totally cynical, and justifies a neutral stance in the Ukraine-Russia war.

  • Zelenskyy to US: Iran’s attack on Israel is ‘wake-up call’ to fortify America’s allies

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  • Shouldn't be assassinating people in other countries, whether it's a consulate or embassy...

  • China supporting Russia in massive military expansion, US says

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  • Chinese companies do business with whoever pays them. Ukraine, for example, is heavily reliant on Chinese drones and has been buying over half the global supply of DJI's Mavic quadcopters.

    And Chinese companies aren't alone in this. Lots of developing economies don't feel they gave a stake in the conflict and have continued to do business. Most of Russia's oil exports have been going through India. The fact that the US has been so muted in its response to this, because they feel like India is "on-side" in the confrontation against China, makes the singling out of China seem hypocritical.

  • One of the World’s Richest Women [Truong My La Lan] Sentenced to Execution

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  • You can tell this is written by an American because it keeps bringing up the war for no reason.

  • Zelenskyy straight-up said Ukraine is going to lose if Congress doesn't send more aid

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  • I hope so, they're in it for the long haul. The Vietnamese basically sacrificed two generations to beat back the US; Ukraine will need a similar level of long term commitment. The recent wobbling over mobilization is not a good sign in this respect.

  • Zelenskyy straight-up said Ukraine is going to lose if Congress doesn't send more aid

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  • The most likely best case scenario is a frozen conflict. But Zelensky doesn't want this because such an outcome would call into question everything he did politically up to now. As for Putin, I'm not sure.

    I think there's a widespread implicit hope among Western policy makers that if they keep propping Ukraine up, and get Ukrainians to hold out long enough, Russia will suffer a sudden internal collapse and be forced to withdraw. That may be, but it seems equally (more?) probable that Ukraine will be the one that suffers a collapse.

  • Malaysia mini-mart outlets attacked after 'Allah socks' outcry

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  • The unanswered question: why are there Allah socks in the first place?

    I am imagining a clothing supplier in China receiving an order for socks for a bargain store chain in Malaysia. "What design should we put on it?" "I dunno, anything that appeals to the customers." "What do Malaysians like?" "They're Muslims, right? Guess they like Allah." "Aight let's go with that."

  • China encouraged armed offensive against Myanmar government to protest proliferation of online scams

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  • Armed offensive against the illegal Myanmar junta.

  • Israel announces largest West Bank land seizure since 1993 during Blinken visit

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  • US keeps getting cucked and going back for more.