feed on feeds - 2019/10/21 - items 0 to 15

Short podcast. The battery on my new Subaru Forester died today, resulting in an interesting mystery of user interface design. I got the car going again, btw. All is well.

Have you noticed that Rachel Maddow talks about Trump having been impeached, in the past tense. I like it, and I also like that no one challenges her chutzpah. She sometimes says it as part of interviews, in front of guests.

I think a blog should be like an old Herb Caen column in the SF Chronicle. A goings-on-around-town type flow of mostly gossip. Short items not essays. Caen's first columns were literally columns. I wonder if there are online columnists who use this style. Send pointers if you know of any (I assume there are many).

Heaven forbid a political candidate's Facebook account gets hacked. They might spread disinformation ... like they're already allowed to do in Facebook ads ... From a report: Today Facebook made a slew of announcements designed to stop 2020 election interference. "The bottom line here is that elections have changed significantly since 2016" and so has Facebook in response, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a call with reporters. "We've gone from being on our back foot to proactively going after some of the biggest threats out there." One new feature is called Facebook Protect. By hijacking accounts of political candidates or their campaign staff, bad actors can steal sensitive information, expose secrets, and spread disinformation. So to safeguard these vulnerable users, Facebook is launching a new program with extra security they can opt into. Facebook Protect entails requiring two-factor authentication, and having Facebook monitor for hacking attempts like suspicious logins. Facebook can then inform the rest of an organization and investigate if it sees one member under attack.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One of the best purchases I've ever made -- a Brita water pitcher. It fits perfectly in the door of a refrigerator. Fill the top with water, put the pitcher in the fridge. It takes a few minutes to filter the water. Next time you want a glass of cold water, just open the fridge and pour a glass. It has no taste. I used to drink bottled Poland Springs water, but I prefer this to the bottles. I still keep some bottled water around for guests.

Police have arrested Brian Smith, who has pleaded not guilty to the September slaying of 30-year-old Kathleen Henry.

Scientists have raised fresh hopes for treating people with genetic disorders by inventing a powerful new molecular tool that, in principle, can correct the vast majority of mutations that cause human genetic diseases. From a report: The procedure, named "prime editing," can mend about 89% of the 75,000 or so harmful mutations known to mangle the human genome and lead to conditions such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anaemia, and a nerve-destroying illness called Tay-Sachs disease. The landmark work opens the door to a new era of genome editing, but scientists caution that more research is needed before it can be safely used in humans. Beyond proving its safety, another major hurdle is how to deliver the molecular machinery to cells that need it in sufficient amounts to treat a disorder. "This first report of prime editing is the beginning rather than the end of a longstanding aspiration in the life sciences to be able to make any DNA change in any position of a living cell or organism, including potentially human patients with genetic diseases," said David Liu at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The ability to rewrite the genetic code is one of the most striking scientific advances of recent years. The most common approach, known as Crispr-Cas9, has been likened to "molecular scissors" which home in on a particular DNA sequence and then cut it in two. The procedure allows scientists to disable specific genes and even correct harmful mutations by providing cells with fresh strands of DNA with which to repair the cut.