cont'd 2/

* part of Shell’s promise to zero its emissions by 2050

[2023-06] Shell’s New CEO Goes to New York to Show Oil Investors the Money

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-13/shell-s-new-ceo-goes-to-new-york-to-show-oil-investors-the-money

* Shell CEO Wael Sawan set to show a ‘ruthless’ drive for better returns

Prior Shell commitment

[2021-02] Shell accelerates drive for net-zero emissions w. customer-1st strategy

https://www.shell.com/media/news-and-media-releases/2021/shell-accelerates-drive-for-net-zero-emissions-with-customer-first-strategy.html

cont'd

* 6 mo. after becoming Shell plc CEO Wael Sawan quietly ended world’s biggest corporate plan to develop carbon offsets

* environmental projects designed to counteract warming effects of CO2 emissions

Profit over humanity

* 2023-06: Sawan laid out updated Shell strategy

* cutting costs; doubling down on profit drivers like oil, gas

#WaelSawan #Shellplc #CarbonFootprint #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange #capitalism #FossilFuels #ClimateCrisis #EcologicalDestruction #CorporateEthics

Europe's Biggest Oil Company Quietly Shelves Radical Plan to Shrink Its Carbon Footprint

Shell Plc walked back once-ambitious plans to develop millions of carbon offsets projects around world

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-08-31/shell-silently-abandoned-its-100-million-a-year-plan-to-offset-co2-emissions

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37336299

* HN comment: "Then there should be consequences for destroying environment and making earth inhabitable for humans ..."

#Shellplc #CarbonFootprint #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange #capitalism #FossilFuels #ClimateCrisis #EcologicalDestruction

DIY ‘bionic pancreas’ changing diabetes care

People w. type 1 diabetes got a self-built device approved

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37321028

* people w/o T1D: when glucose levels rise pancreas releases insulin, hormone that helps tissues absorb glucose

* in T1D these cells are killed by immune system; people manage blood sugar by taking insulin

* tech-savvy group of people w. type 1 diabetes (T1D) pursued DIY approach to their own treatment

#diabetes #T1D #insulin #DIY #DIYhealth #healthcare

🎵 Morning ☮-in

Kraftwerk Autobahn [full; audio; 22:42]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-G28iyPtz0

Autobahn (2009 Remaster; 22:47)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkOZNJYAZ7c

Shorter live version 🙂

Kraftwerk - Autobahn (live; 8:52) [HD]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DO-Ddqbqgs

Kraftwerk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraftwerk

* German electronic band formed 1970

Autobahn (album): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn_(album)

* 4th studio album 1974

* transition f. experim. krautrock to electronic pop

Namaste 🙏 🕊

#MorningPeaceIn #Kraftwerk #Autobahn #Electronica #SynthPop #krautrock

Addendum 4

DeSantis Insurance Law Could Makes It Harder to Rebuild After Hurricanes

Makes it difficult to sue insurance companies for short-changing policyholders

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/08/hurricane-idalia-desantis-home-insurance/

* Hurricane Idalia Category 3 storm

* region of FL hasn’t seen such strong wind gusts, storm surges in >125 yrs

* changes to Florida’s tort laws by GOP/DeSantis

Insurers Gave Ron DeSantis Millions. He Made It Harder to Sue Them

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/08/florida-home-insurance-crisis-desantis

#DeSantis #Florida #ClimateChange #HomeInsurance

Addendum 3 cont'd

* DeSantis rejected $5 million federal grant to set up rebate program for FL who retrofit homes w. energy efficient appliances

* meant Florida couldn’t access $341 million Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)

* rejected $3 million IRA funds to help fight pollution, & Solar for All program helping low-income people get solar panels

* IRA major part of Biden climate agenda; largest investment addressing climate change in U.S. history

#DeSantis #Florida #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming

Addendum 3

#GOP #ClimateChange #neoliberalism #GlobalWarming #neofascism

Trump County in Iowa Ousts Conspiracy Theorist, Elects Democrat

https://newrepublic.com/post/175283/iowa-trump-county-warren-ousts-conspiracy-theorist-elects-democrat

* small Iowa county voted out election auditor who shared conspiracy theories incl. QAnon, 2020 election

* David Whipple (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66589065) replaced w. Democrat

* Warren County voted 57.3% Trump in 2020

Warren County Appoints Conspiracy Theorist As New Auditor

https://iowastartingline.com/2023/06/14/warren-county-appoints-conspiracy-theorist-as-new-auditor

He spread conspiracies about elections. Now oversees them

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66589065

#Iowa #GOP #Trumpists #Democrats

Addendum 6

Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians

A Look Into Decades Of Oppression And Domination

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/

[report] Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/5141/2022/en/

Linux 6.6 To Better Protect f. Illicit Behavior of NVIDIA Proprietary Driver

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.6-Illicit-NVIDIA-Change

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37319537

* kernel community/developers strongly dislike proprietary kernel modules

* cannot be debugged/fixed other than by creator

Better article

Making life even harder for proprietary modules

https://lwn.net/Articles/939842

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LWN.net

Mentioned: modules: only allow symbol_get of EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL modules

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20230731083806.453036-6-hch@lst.de

#Linux # #NVIDIA #LinuxDrivers

cont'd 2/

* if site were Reddit, Planned Parenthood, or EFF the internet would be up in arms

* affected site: Kiwi Farms - universally despised forum for hateful speech, vicious attacks on vulnerable people

Hurricane Electric: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Electric

* Tier 1 ISP

https://persagen.com >> search: "kiwi farms"

#EFF #censorship #FreeSpeech #SocialMedia #HumanRights #HurricaneElectric #DigitalRights #KiwiFarms #transhobia #CultureWars #Crunchbits #trolls #InternetTrolls #FarRight #extremism

ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech, No Matter How Awful

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/08/isps-should-not-police-online-speech-no-matter-how-awful-it

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37313349

* Tier 1 ISP Hurricane Electric interfering w. traffic

* EFF mission/history requires us to look at bigger picture, sound alarm about risks even when the facts horrific

Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Frontier_Foundation

* internat. non-profit digital rights group

#EFF #internet #ISP #censorship #FreeSpeech #OnlineSpeech #HumanRights #HurricaneElectric #DigitalRights

Addendum 8 cont'd 2/

* unconditional cash assistance is a common anti-poverty intervention in low- and middle-income countries, e.g. Indonesia & Zambia

* U.S. has largely shied away from unconditional cash assistance

#poverty #homelessness #BasicIncome #WealthInequality #socialism #HumanRights #inflation #capitalism #GuaranteedIncome #BridgeProject

Addendum 8 cont'd

* Bridge Project: https://bridgeproject.org

* NYC–based program launched in 2021 by Monarch Foundation: https://themonarchfoundation.org

* $1,000/mo to pregnant people across NYC & Rochester for 36 mo

* belief that cash can disrupt intergenerational poverty at a specific juncture that exacerbates inequality: childbirth

#poverty #homelessness #BasicIncome #WealthInequality #socialism #HumanRights #inflation #capitalism #GuaranteedIncome #BridgeProject

Addendum 8

See also Addendum 7

What Happens When You Give New Parents Cash Aid?

Cash transfer programs forging path for guaranteed income

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/cash-transfer-programs-pregnant-postpartum

* cash transfer programs for pregnant & postpartum people

* lifeline to low-income families

* reviving discussion on afterlife of pandemic-era expanded earned income & child tax credits

#poverty #homelessness #BasicIncome #WealthInequality #socialism #HumanRights #inflation #capitalism #GuaranteedIncome #BridgeProject

[thread] Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek Ramaswamy Used Dark Money Connections to Enrich Investment Firm

https://jacobin.com/2023/08/vivek-ramaswamy-strive-pensions-ethics-esg-leo

* possibly ethics rules violations around lobbying

* GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy

* leveraged right-wing dark money relationships to win lucrative public pension investments & consulting business from state financial officers

* Vivek Ramaswamy, “anti-woke” asset manager Strive Enterprises

#StriveEnterprises #SFOF #DarkMoney #LeonardLeo #Ramaswamy

🎵 Morning ☮-in

Lazy Sunday 😴

Classic!! 😀 👍️

Lazy Sunday - SNL Digital Short

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRhTeaa_B98

Awesome bluesy guitar work 🎸 ; fr. classic album Machine Head

Lazy - Deep Purple

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqM5L5JQseI

Namaste 🙏 🕊

#MorningPeaceIn #SNL #LazySunday #DeepPurple #Lazy #ClassicRock

Interpretable Graph Neural Networks for Tabular Data

https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.08945

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37269376

* GNN essentially deep NN black-box models

* IGNNet: Interpretable Graph Neural Network for tab data

* notable HN comment, resp. to critique: " Right, the significance of orig. article & related research is ChatGPT-like models don't handle tabular data well & there's need for things that do"

#DataProcessing #GraphNeuralNetworks #GNN #TabularData #GPT #LLM #IGNNet

Deep Neural Nets: 33 yrs ago & 33 yrs f. now

https://karpathy.github.io/2022/03/14/lecun1989

Disc'n: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37268610

* Interesting retrospective / perspective / prospective f. phenom Andrej Karpathy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrej_Karpathy

* founding member, OpenAI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI | ChatGPT, GPT-4, ...)

* "most important trend ... training NN f. scratch ... quickly becoming outdated due to finetuning esp. w. emergence of foundation models like GPT ..."

#MachineLearning #GPT #NeuralNetworks #AndrejKarpathy #YannLeCun