I said I was in..... so now I am in.

 Between now and June 19th, I will finally be testing this concept that  mentioned ....TEN YEARS AGO.

http://pointlessyammering.blogspot.com/2014/12/

Lets see if I make it the whole way.

Fwd: Printing bricks from moondust using the sun's heat

Pretty cool. Just like a Cory Doctorow story

 

Printing bricks from moondust using the sun's heat
https://phys.org/news/2017-05-bricks-moondust-sun.html

Re: Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes [feedly]

Um... Should we be leaving you alone with your computer now or are you already done?

On Mar 29, 2016 9:18 AM, "Doni Farkovits" <donifar@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes?

Thank you,

Doni Farkovits

@donifar

On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 7:52 AM, Josh Bierman <josh.bierman@gmail.com> wrote:

It's the minority report meets kickstarter.... Yay?
Or ....worrisome? Or.... What?

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Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes
// TechCrunch

 Umbo CV has raised a $2.8 million seed round for its security cameras, which use artificial intelligence to identify suspicious activity and prevent crimes before they happen. The Taipei- and San Francisco-based startup's funding was led by AppWorks Ventures, with participation from Mesh Ventures, Wistron Corporation, and Phison Electronics. Read More

----

Shared via my feedly reader

Re: Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes [feedly]

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes?

Thank you,

Doni Farkovits

@donifar

On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 7:52 AM, Josh Bierman <josh.bierman@gmail.com> wrote:

It's the minority report meets kickstarter.... Yay?
Or ....worrisome? Or.... What?

----
Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes
// TechCrunch

 Umbo CV has raised a $2.8 million seed round for its security cameras, which use artificial intelligence to identify suspicious activity and prevent crimes before they happen. The Taipei- and San Francisco-based startup's funding was led by AppWorks Ventures, with participation from Mesh Ventures, Wistron Corporation, and Phison Electronics. Read More

----

Shared via my feedly reader

Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes [feedly]

It's the minority report meets kickstarter.... Yay?
Or ....worrisome? Or.... What?

----
Umbo CV raises $2.8M seed to create smart security cameras that prevent crimes
// TechCrunch

 Umbo CV has raised a $2.8 million seed round for its security cameras, which use artificial intelligence to identify suspicious activity and prevent crimes before they happen. The Taipei- and San Francisco-based startup's funding was led by AppWorks Ventures, with participation from Mesh Ventures, Wistron Corporation, and Phison Electronics. Read More

----

Shared via my feedly reader

Gun violence in America..... some facts and research

TLDR Version -

1) Conceal Carry laws have either no effect or very small effect deterring crime.

2) gun ownership and gun violence have high positive correlation.

3) Gun ownership and general violence have high positive correlation.

4) Florida is a sucky state to live in violence wise
5) at least we dont live in Alaska.

Detailed Info(read if you are pro gun, its more favorable to you than you expect)

(all data linked at bottom)

Lots of people have pointed to a recent study showing more deaths in summer time linking it to being social and out in the warm weather.... which does not explain Alaska which is both the most violent state overall and the state with the highest rate of gun deaths and cold and the fewest people per square mile (1.3).  As apposed to Hawaii which is both the least violent and has the lowest overall gun death rate, as well as lowest raw number of gun deaths, and is warm and reasonable densely populated (218.6/sq mile).....

OK, raw temp is not part of it.  Neither is raw density. 
What about Conceal Carry Laws?  Turns out, no one really knows (circa 2011).  The biggest proponents say it has a small but measurable impact.  The biggest detractors say it has no measurable impact.  No one has linked it to higher crime rates but all links to lower crime rates are suspect.  The best science can really say is that it does not seem to have any effect PROBABLY because the majority of CC licenses are taken out by upper class white men with little reason to draw who frequent safe neighborhoods and are rarely mugged.

Ok, moving on, guns and violent crime in general.

More interesting in that we swing the other way.  There is a clear correlation (circa 2011).  More guns correlates highly with more gun violence.  However the data is very hard to work with as information on gun ownership is sparse and considered a personal secret.  So, the "truth" in 2011 was that in any geographical area, up to the state level, high gun ownership was correlated with high gun violence.  However, there was no way to tell if that is people buying guns to feel safe in a violent area or violence was happening more often because people have access to guns.

Multiple new studies have found a more convincing link between high gun ownership and high violent crime.
"A new study, however, throws cold water on the idea that a well-armed populace deters criminals or prevents murders. Instead, higher ownership of guns in a state is linked to more firearm robberies, more firearm assaults and more homicide in general. [5 Milestones in Gun Control History]"

However even these studies admit that its correlation, not causation:
"The results do need to be interpreted with caution — this study method proves that more guns are linked to more gun crime and overall homicide, but not that access to guns directly causes this criminal uptick, said study researcher David Hemenway, the director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center."

Homicide rate in 2012 was 45.5/day or 16606 total

Gun deaths in 2014 was 91.95/day (includes homicide, accidental, suicide, other) or 33565/year.

Very interesting, those numbers

Gun related non-fatal injuries have been on the rise for years:
"There were 55,544 non-fatal injuries in 2011 resulting from assaults involving guns — up from 53,738 in 2010 and 44,466 in 2009, the CDC's database shows. Since 2001, the rate of gun injuries is the second highest in 11 years when adjusted for population."

and from the FBI website for 2014 statistics:
"Information collected regarding types of weapons used in violent crime showed that firearms were used in 67.9 percent of the nation's murders, 40.3 percent of robberies, and 22.5 percent of aggravated assaults. (Weapons data are not collected for rape.) (See Expanded Homicide Data Table 7, Robbery Table 3, and the Aggravated Assault Table)"

To be fair I found a number of opinion pieces that stated high gun ownership is correlated with low crime, however not a single one of them cited sources, used the CDC or FBI, or in fact did more than give an opinion..... I left them out.

I

I Was UNABLE to find an article that gave sources to show guns and high crime were not correlated. 

The ten states with the toughest gun laws according to a randomly chosen news site are listed here with their ranking (higher number is safer) and gun mortality rates per 100000 people.
PA      27th    11.2
MD     35th     9.7
IL       40th     8.6
CA     42nd     7.7
NJ      45th     4.7
RI       46th     5.3
CT     47th     4.4
NY     48th     4.2
MA     49th     3.1
HI       50th     2.6

Again, a nice neat and somewhat interesting correlation, not causation.

and of course Florida is #23 with 11.9 deaths per 100000.

and just for the fun of it, here is another random news website ranking the most dangerous states to live in (alaska is number one....always) and FL  come sin number 9, with a really dumb theory on why:

9. Florida
Violent crimes per 100,000: 460.0
Population: 19,552,860
Total 2013 murders: 972 (3rd highest)
Poverty rate: 17.0% (tied-14th highest)
Pct. of adults with high school diploma: 86.8% (19th lowest)

There were nearly 90,000 violent crimes reported in Florida in 2013, or 460 per 100,000 residents. Rapes and aggravated assaults largely contributed to the state's high crime rates, despite the incidence of rape falling more than 11% between 2012 and 2013. Property crimes were also high, with more than 3,100 committed per 100,000 Floridians in 2013, compared to only 2,700 nationwide. The warm climate and more densely populated areas may have contributed to the high volume of crimes committed. According to a study published by Matthew Ranson, an environmental economist at Abt Associates — a public policy research and consulting firm — warmer weather may contribute to higher crime rates: "Warm weather lets people mix socially… And it is only a matter of probability that sometimes that mixture may prove volatile."

This article is where I got a lot of pointers to good info - however it is 3 years old: http://www.factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs-gun-facts/

The newer article I referred to:
http://www.livescience.com/51446-guns-do-not-deter-crime.html

The paper that one talks about:
http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797%2815%2900072-0/abstract

the FBI numbers:
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/violent-crime

the CDC numbers:

Firearm deaths by state: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/Firearm.htm

Florida overall mortality rate: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/states/FL_2014.pdf

Homicide mortality by state 2012:http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/states/HOMICIDE_STATE_2012.pdf

state pop density:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population_density

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we only WANT bad news

Recently someone asked me how I can allow my kids near wifi devices.  After all, she heard they cause cancer.

I had no idea what she was talking about, I thought this debate had died down a long time  ago. So I went looking.
The current fervor seems to have been started by a Forbes article in January (this one) that was immediately debunked by a Forbes article released three days later (this one).

Sadly, no one wants to hear the unimpressive news that everything is OK. If you look at the views on those two articles, the scary one has 300000+ views while the rebuttal has less than 10% of that number.

---

unsurprising but important

A short story on why the latest health news is rarely accurate:

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8264355/research-study-hype

worth a look.  Nothing earth shattering but useful to have it written out for those of us who are not directly aware that most of what the news covers is sensationalized and not necessarily accurate..... that a single research paper does not in fact denote actual proof, but merely the need for further research and evidence.

Science is less about eureka moments and more about an overwhelming body of proof.

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hokey but..... maybe true

According to Google (and we all know Google is always right), this three step item will make your life better at a zero cost (except the first few days when you feel stupid doing it) and a total time consumption of 105 minutes (i peg it at a five minute daily project, not 2).

• Write down three new things for which you're grateful, or
• Spend two minutes each day praising or thanking a person you know, and
• Commit to doing it for 21 days.

Thats an excerpt from this article: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20141124163631-24454816-two-minutes-to-make-you-happier-at-work-in-life-and-over-the-holidays

posted on linkedin by the HR chief at Google.

While it smacks of new-agey bull.... its a low cost to prove it wrong.

105 minutes to happiness.... Im in.

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FINALLY, proof that my way of life has value

fromt he ignoble awards:

High Achievement Through Procrastination

Stanford University's John Perry was the 2011 Ig Nobel literature honoree for his article about the Theory of Structured Procrastination. Perry holds that procrastinators can still become respected high achievers by working on important things as a way of avoiding spending time on even more important tasks.

Naturally Perry had something slightly less important to do than attend the Ig Nobel ceremony, but he left his theory to speak for him, as originally written in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

"If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on Earth could get him to do it. However, the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely, and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important."