Will Lau

I've been using @DuckDuckGo's anti- app tracking feature since this article came out yesterday (Nov 16), and I'm incredulous at the huge volume of tracking that goes on, even from the most benign-looking apps. Protect yourself out there arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/1…

@SupplySignalAI @sentdefender You're not hitting ships with ballistic missiles though.

Diego Garcia is the forward logistics node for every US military supply chain operation in the Indian Ocean, from Gulf escort missions to Pacific staging. Iran just proved they can reach it at 4,000km range. Jebel Ali, Nhava Sheva, and the entire Oman coast all sit inside that same strike envelope. Insurance underwriters have been running Hormuz-only scenarios, war risk premiums already at 0.5% to 1% of hull value. They'll need a much bigger map now.

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing multiple U.S. officials, Iran has targeted the joint U.S.-UK base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean with two intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM). According to the report, one missile failed in flight whilst the other was engaged by a U.S. destroyer utilizing an SM-3 interceptor, but a successful interception was not confirmed. None of the missiles hit the base. This is notable as Iranian long-range precision fires have not previously been publicly assessed as having the range to hit such a target as Diego Garcia, as the base is some 4,000 kilometers from Iran proper.

@SixTwoLiters @benryanwriter COVID times were crazy!

@benryanwriter Giving scientists a tool that lets them fart out their thoughts to the whole world has been a disaster for trust in science.

Only one study has ever directly assessed whether cross-sex hormone use among youth is associated with an independent, statistically significant difference in the suicide death rate among them. Conducted based on a huge amount of national Finnish data, it found no such link. It found the suicide death was elevated among youth attending gender clinics, but that this elevation was only independently associated with severe psychiatric conditions, not with gender dysphoria. It also found that such deaths were nevertheless rare among the dysphoric youths. Astrophysicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein raises the question of what “medically eliminate” means. If a teen identifying as transgender seeks but cannot obtain cross-sex hormones and then has to wait a few years to obtain them as an adult, does that trans teen cease to exist, literally or metaphysically?

@onzathegreat @cremieuxrecueil Or.... Advances in prenatal detection allows for selective abortion of fetuses with debilitating autism, which is generally coupled with other major abnormalities

@cremieuxrecueil Is the decline in rate of children with debilitating autism due to improvements & wider availability of therapies for autism that reduce the degree of disability in the worst cases, or is it because increased early detection of autism allow for more & better early interventions?

Data from the CDC shows that the rise in autism between 2000 and 2016 was two things: - A decline in rates of debilitating autism - A rise in non-debilitating autism Diagnostic drift explains essentially all of the increase in diagnoses. If anything, kids got better!

@lizardmech @TrentTelenko Lol I knew someone would propose the failed M247 Sergeant York

@TrentTelenko Bring this back, use 30mm instead of 35mm since they have proximity fused rounds for it, replace the ADATS with 48 APKWS rockets.

I have been screaming about this gap in cost-effective US anti-drone capabilities for three years on X. Only when reality came along and B*tch slapped the US Military that their Big/Expensive/Few weapons have failed the cost-effectiveness in combat test did they notice. The d*mned fools. 1/2

@benryanwriter @PaulSaxMD This is true but it's way harder to ensure wearers are clean shaven

Dr. @PaulSaxMD writes: Requiring Annual N95 Mask Fit Testing Is a Waste of Time and Money It’s my debut post for NEJM Voices, and I thought I’d get right to it and confess to you all what a delinquent I am. In my inbox this week, the following automated reminder appeared: Subject: Annual Fit Testing Deadline PassedHello Paul Sax,You have been identified by your manager to be a part of the Respiratory Protection Program (RPP) to ensure your safety. OSHA requires annual fit testing for employees who need to wear an N95 or other tight-fitting respirators. Your annual fit-testing deadline has passed, and you are in violation of this requirement. Translation: Drop everything, report to some booth in the hallway, don your N95 mask of choice while turning your head side-to-side, and sniff some weird, sweet fragrance that seems inspired by a stick of bubble gum in a 1980s baseball card package. Note that I didn’t disclose the number of days I’m in violation because I’ve been passively ignoring these warnings for weeks now. I shared this with one of my colleagues — she said she’s been in the same penalty box for months, and she’s one of our busiest clinicians. So, I guess my job is safe, at least for now. But let’s think about this for a minute — why are we doing this every year? Are there any data that annual N95 fit testing actually decreases hospital-acquired infections among health care workers? Of course not — such a study would have to be massive and expensive and will never be done. So back to my question — why are we doing it? To quote someone from my esteemed infection control team (a group I respect immensely, by the way): OSHA is responsible. The Infection Control community has been complaining that it’s excessive for literally decades. Researching it a bit further, I found the Respiratory Protection Standard 29 CFR § 1910.134 on the OSHA site. It requires employers to provide and enforce a respiratory protection program. I found lots of discussions about types of respirators, plus exposures to dusts, fogs, fumes, mists, gases, smokes, sprays, or vapors. I found no mention of tuberculosis, Ebola, Covid-19, or any airborne infection. I didn’t even find any mention of “infection” or “communicable diseases” or anything like that, but perhaps my search terms were wrong. Nonetheless, if we scroll way down past dozens of rules, we find this: The employer shall ensure that an employee using a tight-fitting facepiece respirator is fit tested prior to initial use of the respirator, whenever a different respirator facepiece (size, style, model or make) is used, and at least annually thereafter. It’s not the only place they mention the need for annual testing. The rationale is that your face might change from year to year — weight gain, dental work, facial surgery, trauma, acromegaly — and suddenly the mask won’t seal. OK, but here’s the absurdity: How often does this happen in healthy adults? A 2023 study of more than 12,000 healthcare workers showed that once you pass a fit test, the odds of failing in the next 3 years are around 0.6% — a 99.4% chance you’re fine. The paper has the quite appropriate title, Annual N95 Respirator Fit-Testing: An Unnecessary Burden on Healthcare. Well said! I reached out to the lead author of the paper, Dr. Thomas Martin, to ask him about his paper and whether or not it had gained any traction in changing policy. His response (quoted with permission): I’m afraid it didn’t shift the dial at all to my knowledge. The original inspiration was that in the UK, no fit testing at all is required, and we weren’t troubled by masses of hospital acquired TB (despite seeing way more TB in London). So it was surprising to see annual testing here in the US. We estimated it’s costing more than 400 million dollars annually at a conservative guesstimate. Defenders of the annual frequency will cite a smaller National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) study conducted in 2015, which found a much higher rate of N95 fit testing failure over a 3-year period — 10% at Year 1 to 20% at Year 2 and to 25% at Year 3. The cheerful flyer at the top of this post, featuring an administrator in a suit advising a worker wearing a hard-hat, cites this study prominently. The difference between the two studies? One was done before the Covid pandemic, the other after; our use of N95 masks and the number of models readily available have increased substantially. When it comes to our familiarity with N95 masks, it’s a whole different world. To demonstrate a more rational policy, I’ve rewritten the email I featured at the top: Subject: N95 Fit Testing Change in PolicyHello Paul Sax,To support staff safety while minimizing unnecessary administrative burden, we have updated our Respiratory Protection Program to align with best evidence and practical experience. In addition to the baseline fit test you have already completed (to show you can wear at least one model), you will only need repeat testing under the following circumstances:1. You’ve had significant weight change (gain or loss)2. You’ve undergone facial or dental surgery, trauma, or scarring that could affect mask fit3. You’re having trouble achieving a good seal during use4. You’re switching to a new N95 model or sizeRetesting at 3-year intervals is still recommended, but optional. That would save countless hours and dollars while still protecting those who actually need it. And we can use the money saved by cancelling this safety theater and focus our work on things that actually matter — like improving ventilation, use of appropriate rapid diagnostics to establish potentially transmissible infections, and elimination of crowded shared hospital rooms. As for that last one — the crowded, shared, hospital rooms — we can dream, can’t we? That, loyal readers, will be the topic for another day.

@CerberusFella @astraiaintel Pressure vessels of that size don't come cheap or often

@astraiaintel A LNG tanker should be quite a bit more valuable than a rustbucket oil tanker.

OH SHIT UKRAINE JUST DONE IT DRONES STRUCK THE RUSSIAN ARCTIC METAGAZ OFF THE COAST OF ITALY ITS FUCKING SINKING

@JohnPasalis @RasJazzy @AM34 We all have our lines somewhere

@RasJazzy @AM34 You can stand for whatever you believe. Protest all you want. But I don't think shaming or shunning people for having different views from you is acceptable. But you do you!

Shaming @AM34 for accepting an invitation from his President is a reminder of how polarized we’ve become I’m not a Trump fan, but many friends & family are And if I treated them the way some people are treating Matthews, I’d be estranged from half the people in my life

Data for reference, from the OECD. Link: oecd.org/en/data/indica…

@kingharis @mattyglesias I'm sure this is part of it, but the boom in orders is still staggering seeing that NYC already had multitudes of delivery options pre-COVID

@mattyglesias Do you think higher ages of childbearing are a factor here? Kids grow up when their parents are already deeper into careers, with commensurate lifestyle, raising expectations? Ones kids would expect less early if you had them at 22.

@TerryCarlsonII @NashvilleStori1 @mattyglesias Maybe they bought 5 gallons of milk

@NashvilleStori1 @mattyglesias No way milk and cereal costs $25. Reciepts or you are lying.

Canadians are massively long housing and financials. Both had been fantastic performers over past 20 years. Housing is now in a major bear market. Can Canadian banks continue these returns? Good visual from Hanif

We live in interesting times

Despite experiencing the steepest peak-to-trough decline in more than 40 years, Canadian home prices remain the most overvalued in the OECD by multiple measures

@McRobertsCafe @BenRabidoux Conestoga had more international students than all the GTA universities combined

Maybe because Under John Tibbits, Conestoga College's international enrolment exploded: +1,579% growth (763 in 2014-15 → 12,808 in 2021-22). Peaked at ~30,000-38,000 intl students (over half the population), topping Canada in study permits multiple years. Now sharply declining post-cap. #Conestoga #IntlStudents. Was he getting kickbacks from immigration consultants. He may have to adjust lifestyle

Sayonara, fucker! —> John Tibbits abruptly retires as president of Conestoga College cbc.ca/news/canada/ki…

@TeslaTruckClub One of the biggest thing for me is, what's Tesla going to be like in 3-5 years? The answer isn't great for those who like driving EVs (me), and there's *nothing* in the pipeline that's exciting for us.

All TDSB schools and sites, including child care centres, are closed today due to the weather forecast.

@taipan168 The lack of new products in Tesla's pipeline is the most concerning. Where are the new Model S & X? Those are based on a chassis and tech ~15yo. Where are the new M3 and MY prototypes? Basically, what are they going to sell in 3-4 years?

This is even more notable because Chinese EVs are effectively barred from the US market, whilst Teslas can be sold in China. Guess a lack of product innovation and controversial political views by your boss don’t exactly help. afr.com/companies/tran…

@logyAussie @taipan168 That's on the USB-IF for developing the issue and not doing anything about it. That said, currently it's not a huge issue yet as the data transfer rates are "good enough" and PD charging is semi-smart.

@taipan168 Maximising the use of USB-C is a somewhat flawed idea. What will happen, and indeed what has happened so far, is that we will get cables, and sockets which look the same, but do not function the same. And many existing USB-C cables do not actually comply with the standard.

No idea why people (mostly Americans tbf) are losing their minds at this. The EU just did every Apple user around the globe a huge favour, so Lightning and other cables will die a death and we can just use USB-C.

@HeidlerNeal @BillNWhite @mattyglesias @Sammy_Roth What's the kWh price in California? 🧐

@BillNWhite @mattyglesias @Sammy_Roth This is a common (but dumb rookie) mistake from @mattyglesias . Things are changing FAST: x.com/mzjacobson/sta…