> I think there's something a bit funny in worrying about giving a copy of your IDs to companies who already know everything about you from your full social graph to your political leanings and interests.
I believe it's because the governments (which are far more powerful than any "corporation", because they have the de facto monopoly of violence: Microsoft can sue you, but the government can just jail you) can then pressure said companies if there's something that is not liked, with all consequences that come from there.
There's no need to bring conspiracy theories in, FTR. The power of the government must be always limited and bound by strong chains, and this goes in the opposite direction.
> I believe it's because the governments (which are far more powerful than any "corporation", because they have the de facto monopoly of violence: Microsoft can sue you, but the government can just jail you) can then pressure said companies if there's something that is not liked, with all consequences that come from there.
But the idea that giving your ID changes anything is a fiction. These platforms already require you to provide your phone numbers or an email. They have your location. They already know who you are and they can already be pressured by the government for all that. They don't even need to be pressured actually. They willfully share a ton of information as has been shown time and time again. The ID that you can somehow get plausible deniability regarding the association between your social media profile and identity is a complete myth.
> There's no need to bring conspiracy theories in, FTR. The power of the government must be always limited and bound by strong chains, and this goes in the opposite direction.
I don't think a theorical, overblown and mostly fictitious increase in risks trumps the very real need to limit the armful impact of these actors. It makes for ok-ish lobbying but that's pretty much it.
I have no interest in EM. I joined an anime themed Mastodon instance and left two months later as all I could read was EM hatred. I wasn't interested in EM to begin with!
FTR the old Twitter was as bad as the new X for those who strayed just a bit from whatever was the trend, in my experience.
This article [1] has an image of the pager and a video supposedly showing one exploding in the bag of some guy while shopping groceries. From that I would suspect a supply chain attack integrating some explosive, that seems way too violent for just an exploding battery or anything else you would usually find in that kind of device.
The batteries are the only major energy storage device there to breach.
Clearly Israel has found a software vulnerability that lets them overload some otherwise minimally used processor and overheat the batteries. Above ~140f lithium ion cells go into thermal runaway.
I was discounting the possibility that Mossad was in control of global supplychains with sufficient intensity and recklessness to hide semtex and a detonator in an entire brand of consumer electronics, in its urgency to provide retroactive justification for every antisemitic conspiracy theory out there and ignite war with the entire Middle East.
The only thing in a pager that SHOULD BE THERE with enough energy to 'explode' on demand, is a lithium ion battery. Which is evidently, given further reports, not what happened here.
I don't get the fad with circos plots. At least in genomics, they offer a high density of information but unfortunately at the price of hard if not impossible interpretation. Like the systems biology papers of old, showing beautiful dense graphs, but with little room for biological interpretation.
In addition, circos is quite... peculiar as an application, in particular its quirky configuration file format, which is half ini like and half XML or HTML like. Last I looked at it, about a decade ago, there weren't any APIs to create plots programmatically.
> Some say that "commute helps clear the mind / switch context", but a simple walk does the same IMO
No, it doesn't for everyone. Personal experience matters: after a 70-day lockdown including a very stressful work period (dedadlines etc), there's no way I'm going to WFH ever again.
But that's just me, of course. For others, priorities may be different.
Because it wasn't just the lockdown: it was a pretty complex affair at the job too (including very tense moments; it would've been bad even in the office, mind you) and there was no way to shut that away from me.
FTR, I did WFH in other times (2 years in the 2009-2011 period) and it wasn't like that.
The lack of distinction between your workspace and reduced socialisation still exists - not OP but personally I’m climbing the walls after a day of working from home.
I cope by have social outings and activities outside my home basically 7-nights-a-week. It works but I don’t consider it a positive I’ve that I’m more or less incapable of relaxing in my own home.
You got “verge of a breakdown” from that? Is it that disturbing to you that your preferred working arrangements don’t work for others?
Getting out into the outside world and seeing people prevents under-stimulation, and separating my work environment lets me switch off at home. Spending my every waking hour in my apartment doesn’t do it for me.
It’s not about “doing some work at home” - it’s about spending 5 days a week working in the same space I’m supposed to eat, relax, and sleep.
> It’s not about “doing some work at home” - it’s about spending 5 days a week working in the same space I’m supposed to eat, relax, and sleep.
Do you have good working habits? E.g. clean separation for working/non-working hours?
Do you have friends on Discord that you can engage with in activities post-work?
> It’s not about “doing some work at home” - it’s about spending 5 days a week working in the same space I’m supposed to eat, relax, and sleep.
It really is though. There shouldn't be much difference if at all between working 8 hours in a home office vs regular office + wasting 1-2 hours on commute. Commute helps some people separate work/leisure, but it shouldn't be a necessity or "drive you up a wall" like you said.
I read it as that being the point - they have a bad association for it so it's just not appealing now. Likewise you might have a terrible time in one office that puts you off working in any office.
Same. I can work from home if I have an errand or something, but for me the default is and will continue to be to be in office. And I will actively select work places were that is reasonable. and common.
Actual ovarian cancer researcher here. To be perfectly honest, it is the first time I've heard of talc or asbestos being linked to ovarian cancer.
Mesothelioma is one thing. One of the drivers of malignant mesothelioma (which is caused by inhalation of asbestos) is a chronic state of inflammation caused by the inability to remove or degrade the asbestos fibers.
But in ovarian cancer the major mechanisms are not inflammatory in nature. Depending on the type (there are a few), usually it's a mutation in a key gene that then causes other, larger alterations in the chromosomes and ultimately a malignant outcome.
Now, mutations can be caused by inflammation (in particular due to the release of reactive oxygen species or ROS), but as fa as I'm aware, mechanisms of asbestos-like chronic inflammation being a cause (not a link, a cause, I mean with a molecular explanation) are not widely reported in literature and I haven't heard anything like that from my peers (much more knowledgeable than me on the topic).
Then there are the computational biologists, such as myself. Many have a CS background but some (raises hand) actually come from biology itself (I was a wet lab scientist for a number of years).
At this point I'm thinking I got the worst of both worlds... (I jest! But on bad days I do feel like that)
I believe it's because the governments (which are far more powerful than any "corporation", because they have the de facto monopoly of violence: Microsoft can sue you, but the government can just jail you) can then pressure said companies if there's something that is not liked, with all consequences that come from there.
There's no need to bring conspiracy theories in, FTR. The power of the government must be always limited and bound by strong chains, and this goes in the opposite direction.
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