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China will unveil a 100 petaflop supercomputer next month after investing $500 million to develop domestic chips after US ban on Intel Xeon exports to China

US Supercomputer Chip ban delayed China's 100 petaFLOP computer by 8 months and contributed to Intel laying off 12,000 employees

The Briz pawnshop in downtown Vancouver, Washington specializes in musical instruments. Over the phone they estimated the could lend me $150 for them, but that won't be definite until they can inspect them. Both are in mint condition though.

I'll use the money to promote my business, mainly postage for junk mail to potential clients, as well as printing of business cards and PO box rental.

Yes I now live in Vancouver now - but I still work in Portland. No one needs to know that I work from Shari's Restaurant and Pies. If I purchase a $2.35 coffee, I get a power socket, wifi and restroom all night long.

Plus I get to flirt with a special lady. ;-)

• Read It And Weep

A great many - not just here at SN - have harshly criticized my amateurish website design. While presently it's an experiment, it's inspired by the websites of many world-reknowned coders, such as Ward Cunningham and Bjarne Stroustrup.

Somewhere I found a free webhost that specializes in technology professionals. I don't recall the URL but those guys are definitely Rocket Scientists. Every last one of them has a website just like mine.

At least my website has a logo.

The actual response I've received is entirely from hard-core techies. My experience is that those folks are the best clients.

I used to get a lot of work from non-technical people, such as some marketing chick who made bank in the dot-com boom, but every last one of those people gave me grief - including the sole owner of a $200,000,000.00 hedge fund.

Ex-Chemist In Massachusetts Was High On Drugs At Work For 8 Years

Nearly every day for eight years, a former chemist in Massachusetts was high on drugs — drugs stolen from the lab where she worked.

An investigation by the state attorney general found that from 2005 to 2013, Sonja Farak, 37, heavily abused various drugs including cocaine, LSD and methamphetamines and even manufactured her own crack cocaine using lab supplies. Though Farak was arrested in 2013 and sentenced to jail in 2014, the findings from the state's investigation into the scope of her misconduct were just released Tuesday.

During her career as a chemist, Farak worked for two years at the Hinton Lab in Jamaica Plain, Mass., and then for nine years at the state drug lab in Amherst, Mass. According to the attorney general's report, "her responsibilities involved testing, for authenticity, various controlled substances submitted by law enforcement agencies" and testifying "in court as to her test results, which served as evidence in criminal cases."

The state gave Annette Shattuck a permit to sell marijuana. Then busted her for possession with intent to distribute.

BTW, if anybody ever wants to take any of my journal entries and work them up into an SN submission, feel free. You don't even need to credit me. Not sure I feel this one is close enough to "news for nerds," but you might.

For TrumpetPower!

Bills sponsored:

H.Res. 423 (105th): Expressing the sense of the House with respect to winning the war on drugs to protect our children.

Source.

Votes and speeches:

(Crime category)

• Speech: Hastert Taps NationaExperts to "Keep Kids Safe in Cyberspace"
• Speech: Speaker Hastert Applauds Passage of the Children's Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act of 2005
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Yea (Conference Report Vote) - S 151 - Enhance AMBER Alert bill - "Vote to adopt the conference report that would combat child crimes, including, but not limited to, enhance the AMBER alert program, provide additional protection for children against sex crimes, and promote stricter sentencing for child pornography and other child sex crime offenders."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Yea (Passage) - HR 503 - Unborn Victims of Violence Act - "Vote to pass a bill that criminalizes harming an unborn child/fetus while committing any of 68 federal offenses."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Yea (Passage) - HR 1501 - Juvenile Justice bill - "Vote to pass a bill to provide state and local governments with federal grants to control juvenile crime, improve the juvenile justice system, and strengthen penalties for specific firearms-related crimes."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Yea (Passage With Amendment) - S 2073 - Juvenile Crime Control and Delinquency Prevention Act - "Vote to pass a bill to amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, amend the Safe Streets Act of 1968 and appropriate funds to create a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Yea (Passage) - HR 3 - Juvenile Crime bill - "Vote to pass a bill that allows juveniles that commit violent crimes or specific drug offenses to be tried as adults more easily."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Yea (Passage) - HR 2137 - Megan's Law - "To amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to require the release of relevant information to protect the public from sexually violent offenders."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Nay (Conference Report Vote) - HR 3355 - Omnibus Crime Bill - "Vote to adopt a conference report that amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to provide $30.07 billion in grants from 1995-2000 to reduce violence and crimes, enhance law enforcement, provide education and activity programs for youth, and for other purposes."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Yea (Passage) - HR 4092 - Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 - "Vote to pass a bill that provides $28.69 billion in grants from 1995-2000 to reduce violence and crimes, enhance law enforcement, provide education and activity programs for youth, and for other purposes."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Yea (Passage) - HR 3351 - Youth Offenders Alternative Punishment - "Vote to pass a bill that provides supplemental funding for and evaluations of state programs punishing young, non-violent criminals in ways alternative to incarceration or probation."

(Marriage, Family, and Children category)

• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Yea (Amendment Vote) - H Amdt 871 - Adoption Amendment - "An amendment numbered 2 printed in H. Rept. 105-679 to prohibit any funds to be used to carry out any joint adoption of a child between individuals who are not related by blood or marriage."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Yea (Passage) - HR 3682 - Child Custody Protection Act - "Vote to pass a bill that prohibits transportation of a minor across state lines to avoid parental notification laws and obtain access to abortion services."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Nay (Amendment Vote) - H Amdt 335 - Family Planning Parental Notification Amendment - "Vote to adopt a substitute amendment that requires federally funded family planning providers to certify that family participation is encouraged when minors seek family planning services, and that counseling is provided on how to resist coercive sexual activities."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Nay (Amendment Vote) - H Amdt 1280 - Family Planning Services Clinics Amendment - "Vote to adopt a substitute amendment that requires family planning clinics to certify that they encourage family participation in the decision of a minor to seek family planning services in order to be eligible for government funds."
• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Nay (Passage) - HR 670 - Abortion Counseling Bill - "Vote to pass a bill that requires family planning projects receiving federal funding provide information concerning prenatal care and delivery, infant care, foster care, adoption and termination of pregnancy to individuals that request the information. Requires family planning projects that object to giving out such information on religious or moral grounds refer individuals to another service that will provide the information."

(Minors and Children category)

• Vote: J. Dennis Hastert voted Yea (Amendment Vote) - H Amdt 923 - Contraceptive Amendment - "Vote to pass a substitute amendment requiring counselors to notify parents when a minor attempts to obtain contraceptives."

Watching Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars with the kids tonight. It's a couple years old, but only recently showed up on Netflix, so this is our first time to see it. I am highly entertained! If you have kids and want to help expose them to how wonderful geekiness can be, Phineas and Ferb is a great choice. If you're already familiar with the show, you will probably like this one. (Even if you are a prequel and special edition hater - there will be some shout outs to you.)

ETA: Found a page listing a lot of the gags in the show, if you'd rather read than watch. Spoiling Star Wars stories is a great tradition that goes way back to at least 1999...

Florida Prosecutors Drop Charges Against PINAC Reporter Jeff Gray – Again

For the fifth time since 2010, Florida prosecutors were forced to dismiss criminal charges against PINAC reporter Jeff Gray before even going to trial, proving once again what we have known all along.

That his arrests are always unlawful and unconstitutional; nothing but an attempt to keep him from doing his job.

The latest case was dismissed Monday; the trespassing charge from last month where he was standing on the sidewalk in front of St. Augustine High School holding up a sign that read “The First Amendment is Not a Crime” on one side and “Public Records Access is Not a Crime” on the other side.

St. Johns County Schools Superintendent Joseph Joyner had barred Gray from stepping within 500 feet of any school to keep him from investigating safety oversights regarding school buses.

The trespass order stated he was only allowed to drop off or pick up his children, attend public meetings or submit public records requests to the district’s main office. Other than that, he needed to stay outside the “School Safety Zones,” which is defined as 500 feet within any school. Even if his three children attend the school as they do.

However, Joyner and his lawyers failed to do their research because Florida law does not bar citizens from peacefully assembling and protesting within these so-called school safety zones, which is exactly what he had been doing on March 14 when he was arrested.

[...] But Joyner has been desperate to jail Gray, even trying to convince a local state attorney to file felony wiretapping charges against him last year as we discovered by making a public records request for his emails. Joyner has also filed a lawsuit against Gray, which is still pending.

Previous entry: Florida Deputy Illegally Arrests Protesting PINAC Reporter.

Being a Kuro5hin member, I learned the hard way not to post online the real names of the people in my life, so I will call her "Mary-Ellen".

She told me last week she is an artist. She told me tonight that she's a photographer; she shoots film. I'm a photographer too: I shoot slides. I call them "color positives" so I can sound artistic.

I haven't been taking many pictures in recent years due to being out of work, but I expect I can start it up again soon.

She obviously likes me quite a lot. She acts really relaxed around me. I like that, it makes me feel relaxed around her.

In December I realized that I was badly depressed. I went to my psychiatrist and asked him for imipramine. It is a very old antidepressant and so is not commonly used anymore, but in my experience it works well for me:

I was badly depressed from 1994 to 1997, but imipramine enabled me to court the woman who would become my wife. Sadly she is now my ex-wife.

So I take imipramine again, I ask a woman for a date and she accepts.

I'm a lot better than I was, but am still not quite out of my depression. In a normal mood, I like to write, and write prolifically, but these days writing is difficult for me. What little writing I do feels forced.

I'll be moving into my new apartment Sunday. I have a guitar and a professional-quality electric piano keyboard. Having the apartment will enable me to focus on my music. Music always does quite a lot to lift my spirits.

Today I sang on the streets with the aim of financing my as-yet hoped-for coffee date. I made $8.75, but then spent some of it on coffee just for myself earlier this evening, at Starbucks. Tomorrow and Wednesday I'll sing again; maybe I can even buy her something to eat.

I need a haircut. Actually, I need all of them cut. My goatee is way beyond hipster. I'm bald on top but have hair on the side and back of my head. That hair doesn't really grow long, it just gets more and more unkempt. The only way to make it look well-groomed is to cut it really short. Happily, the ladies like it that way.

The Catholic church in Oldtown Portland gives free haircuts every other Wednesday - this week's Wednesday. Hopefully I can get my haircut before meeting "Mary-Ellen" but I'll have to get in line early. (They also serve breakfast.)

In 1994 I recorded an album - an EP really - of my piano compositions, Geometric Visions: The Rough Draft. She has no computer to download my Oggs, so I'll burn a CD for her.

Don't feel like you have to like my music; not everybody does.

This is something you don't see often: somebody openly saying "breastfeeding might not be worth it." A choice quote:

Do we really want to embrace breastfeeding with the passion we have, given that it sets us up for wildly unequal parenting obligations and has little health benefit for our children?

Basically in the minds of most people, you don't go around saying stuff like that. Which means it's a topic that is long overdue for some alternative opinions.

As a father of 8 whose wife was not able to breastfeed (prior surgery, plus an extraordinary protein intolerance for one of our babies meant he couldn't have even had donated breast milk) I've watched the militant breastfeeding culture from the side for years. They are not a group you go up against lightly unless you just really feel like a good flamefest. There are certainly plenty of good decent breastfeeding advocates, but there are also a lot of completely shrill judgmental jerks who think they have the right to tell everybody else what to do and judge what "best" means for everybody else, and who are willing to gamble with the lives of other people's children by encouraging everybody to believe that they can and should breastfeed no matter what surgical trauma their mammary glands might have in their past.

The militant breastfeeding advocacy culture makes for some strange partnerships, too. You have radical feminists and ultra conservative fundamentalist Christian women joined hand in hand to advocate for the right of women to breastfeed anywhere they want to no matter how other people feel about it and for the need to reeducate boys to grow up to not believe breasts are sexually arousing.