SoylentNews

So, it turns out the lake was insanely crowded last week when I went fishing. We're talking ten times the people you'd find on a normal busy day. Thankfully all my coughing and sneezing made sure I didn't have anyone crowding my fishing spot. Mind you, I always cough and sneeze in late March, because that's when all the cars turn yellow with pollen around here. I wasn't going to tell them that though.

I see a lot of people using names like Coronavirus, "Wuhan Virus", and "COVID-19" for the virus, only creating confusion.

Please only refer to the virus that's currently shaking the world by its official name: EBOLAIDS.

Thank you.

NEW!: This AI Makes "Audio Deepfakes" (5m37s)

Neural Voice Puppetry: Audio-driven Facial Reenactment

Everybody Can Make DeepFakes Now! (6m55s)

Hyperparameter Tuning As Easy As 1-2-3

First Order Motion Model for Image Animation

Older video: This AI Makes The Mona Lisa Speak…And More! (4m22s)
Older video: This AI Makes Amazing DeepFakes…and More (4m48s)

The audio synthesis part might be more difficult, or the code is being deliberately held back.

1. Create or use an existing homoiconic language. By definition, these are languages where code is readily manipulated as any other sort of data by the base language itself. I was looking at using an modestly extended version of Curry combinators (with stochastic and I/O combinators added) for simplicity. Programs could then be thrown as data to programs of the same kind.
2. Construct a rudimentary optimizer for the initial kick. I'm feeling the genetic algorithms approach here, but if completely desperate could randomly generate programs and hope something sticks to the wall before the heat death of the universe.
3. Find or make a standard structure to describe optimization problems and construct a useful random optimization problem constructor.
4. Go meta. Using the best optimizer I have, use it to construct a population of optimizers that then compete on the random optimization problems to determine the next generation of best optimizer (I'm expecting a population rather than a single one because I'm using a stochastic process which has more than one possible output). I can similarly optimize my random optimization problem constructor in the same fashion to come up with more challenging, useful, or complex optimization problems.
5. Figure out what's going on.

The idea is to take the human out of the loop near completely and see what happens. Since I think the basic building block, the Curry combinator is rather inefficient, the point is more to build a model of how bootstrapping works than to build useful, efficient code (my primary contribution to efficiency is to pick a system that isolates the resource-consuming copy combinator) - though I have no problems with that, if it should be a consequence.

A key problem is that we don't know what to expect from bootstrapping, particularly metrics for things like rate of improvement. Some samples, even if they aren't practical, would help us come up with conceptual models of bootstrapping. For a crude example, suppose we can measure the rate at which the productivity of our efforts increases as a function of our present productivity. If that function slows down enough, we'll cap at a near future amount little better than present. If it's linear, that's exponential growth (at least as long as it lasts). If it's greater than linear (at least for a stretch), then there's an genuine near-singularity in the near future.

Some useful features down the road would be ways to log information about generations (I'm sticking with the genetic algorithms paradigm though there's no reason to expect future generations of optimizers to strictly follow it).

If there's interest, I can go on. At this point, my hope is that this is close to simple enough that people will look at it and think "Hey, I can do that" and maybe we can bust open this particular concept (and how to measure it) in a way that doesn't require an army of coders.

President Trump's Job Approval Rating Up to 49%

Approval rating up five percentage points from prior poll
60% approve of president's response to COVID-19
Job approval higher among independents, Democrats

The data was collected from March 13 to March 22. Some gaffes were reported during this time but it might take another round of polling to measure any effect from those.

President Trump is as popular as he's ever been right now

Trump’s Reelection May Hinge On The Economy — And Coronavirus

A lot can go wrong for Trump, and even if the economy bounces back, a lot of local businesses could end up shuttered (say goodbye to comic book shops, many restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, real estate agents, etc). But he is riding high and the media has picked up on why:

The media must stop live-broadcasting Trump’s dangerous, destructive coronavirus briefings
Trump uses daily coronavirus briefings to replace campaign rallies
Are Trump's coronavirus briefings the new 2020 campaign rallies?
“They Are a Clown Show”: Media Orgs Wrestle With Covering Trump’s Campaign-Rally COVID-19 Briefings
CNN and MSNBC Staff Push Back on Airing Trump’s Coronavirus ‘Lies’
Trump’s White House coronavirus briefings draw ‘Bachelor,’ ‘MNF’ ratings
Trump’s Briefings Are a Ratings Hit. Should Networks Cover Them Live?
Trump Turns a Crisis Into His New Nightly TV Show
Trump's coronavirus briefings see big audiences. Some argue that's bad

Free press was helpful to Trump in 2016, when Hillary Clinton outspent him about 2-to-1.

Joe Biden Debuts His Own Briefing To Counter Donald Trump’s Daily Spotlight
Joe Biden found his footing — then coronavirus changed everything

The marketing blitz, though, is undermined by a Biden campaign that still seems unprepared for this moment. The jury-rigged television studio in the rec room of Biden’s house projects more like a home-movie production than a high-tech presidential campaign.

He gave his first speech — about COVID-19, of course — on Monday, amid confusion about when the remarks would start. Biden got out of sync with the teleprompter and lost his place. He called the governor of Massachusetts “Charlie Parker” (his last name is Baker).

That was the bad news. The good news was that viewership was limited. None of the major television stations carried it live. It both relieved and frustrated many backers of the former vice president. The operational glitches of the campaign right now make them cringe.

When low viewership is seen as a positive (because gaffes go unnoticed), you've got a problem. Reuters points out the effect on fundraising:

Biden battles for attention as coronavirus threatens to blunt Democrat's momentum

But when [Joe Biden] delivered the debut speech on Monday morning, major cable news networks broadcast New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus briefing instead.

[...] Instead of the former vice president wrapping up the Democratic nomination, the coronavirus has taken attention away from the 2020 White House race and threatens to blunt Biden’s momentum by postponing state nominating elections and indefinitely halting in-person campaign events and fundraisers.

By contrast, Trump, who initially played down the virus’ impact, has used his daily televised White House briefings on the crisis to project optimism about getting the pandemic under control and grab media attention.

The turn of events frustrates Democrats who were eager to move past the nominating contest’s intraparty fighting. It is forcing the Biden campaign to recalibrate quickly to find new ways to connect with voters and donors and compete for attention as Trump leads the national response to the crisis.

“You’re not going to have high-dollar donor parties,” said Ed Rendell, the former Pennsylvania governor and Democratic National Committee chairman, who supports Biden. “That’s going to hurt.”

Trump can get free press as usual (for now), Biden's messaging can't seem to get the same traction, and you can kiss those $50,000-a-plate fundraiser dinners goodbye.

Some media outlets may stop giving Trump's daily briefings coverage, but that would hurt ratings and ad revenue. So history could repeat itself.

Raspberry Pi-Compatible Microcontroller Wio Terminal Arrives in April

Wio Terminal: ATSAMD51 Core with Realtek RTL8720DN BLE 5.0 & Wi-Fi 2.4G/5G Dev Board

This looks pretty interesting, and at a decent price.

I can't tell if the RTL8720DN supports the long range PHY (Bluetooth is a disaster).

AMD Ryzen 4000 ‘Zen 3 Vermeer’ Desktop CPU & Radeon RX Navi 2X ‘RDNA 2’ Graphics Cards Expected To Launch in October 2020

Zen 3 will be the last upgrade for AM4.

AMD Expresses Commitment To Partners Through COVID-19 Pandemic

AMD and Intel Issue CPU Supply Updates Amid Coronavirus Turmoil

Professors worried students will share lectures with 'right wing sites'

Jon Street
Managing Editor
@JonStreet
on Mar 19, 2020 at 12:42 PM EDT

        Professors across the country are expressing concern over courses being moved online as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
        One professor expressed concern that "right wing sites" could expose what is being taught in college courses.

Professors across the country are taking to social media to express their concern over being forced to deliver their course lectures online amid the coronavirus outbreak, sharing with each other tips on how to limit the number of people who are able to see what they're teaching students, and criticizing "right wing sites" and even Campus Reform, specifically.

Texas Christian University Associate Professor of Political Science Emily Farris tweeted Thursday, "if you are recording a lecture on anything controversial, be prepared for right wing sites to ask students to share it." Campus Reform reached out to Farris via Twitter Direct Messaging to allow her the opportunity to further explain her comments or to clarify. She later blocked the author of this article on Twitter.

LaSalle University Assistant Professor of Public Health Christen Rexing replied to Farris' tweet, asking why others could find topics such as "gun safety, women's health, elections, etc." to be "controversial, as they are "evidence-based."

"Seems like the flood gates could open," Rexing commented in response to courses moving online.

University of North Carolina political science graduate student Stephanie Shady also weighed in, saying, "Annnnd I just realized that the second half of my course focuses on public opinion towards and politicization of immigration. This will be interesting." Another user with the Twitter name "Prof CWO" replied "Sigh, I teach about white nationalism and this has been my biggest fear since we began transitioning to online instruction."

Columbia University political science professor Jeffrey Lax said he has been "thinking about" how students would be able to record classes.

Trinity College Associate Professor of Political Science Isaac Kamola who, as Campus Reform previously reported sought to hire a "Campus Reform Early Responder," specifically mentioned Campus Reform in his reply to Farris.

"If Campus Reform harasses you or someone you know, the best response is to 'follow the money.' Campus Reform receives $1.4 million from the Leadership Institute, a Koch-funded organization designed to delegitimize academics they consider too left. They are not a new [sic] source," Kamola tweeted.

A user whose website says they are a history professor at a "community college in North Texas" wrote, "I'm taking steps to limit this but nothing is foolproof."

Farris asked how Gunter was working to ensure her lectures are not made public, to which Gunter responded with one tip for her colleague.

"Instead of posting videos direct to LMS (which would then own them) I'm posting links to the videos on youtube. The videos themselves are 'unlisted' meaning you can't find them in a search or if you go to my page-only if you have the direct link. Doesn't stop link sharing though," Gunter said.

https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14563

So, here I am, trying to wrap my head around the fact that liberals FEAR the possibility of the public learning what they are teaching. Does that make any sense at all? If I want to shape the world, wouldn't I WANT more people to hear the word, to understand my thoughts and goals, and hopefully to get on board with my agenda?

Instead, we have liberals who FEAR the idea that their thoughts might go viral.

Imagine that. We might suspect that liberal college professors are actually just propaganda indoctrination technicians. Brainwash the kids while they are young, before they develop critical thinking skills, right?

Embedded 1.8-inch Zen PC: DFI Unveils Credit Card-Sized AMD Ryzen Board

DFI has announced what they consider the world’s smallest single-board computer (SBC) that uses an AMD Ryzen Embedded processor. The highly-integrated credit card-sized GHF51 motherboard can be used for a variety of applications that have to be small, yet offer capabilities as well as performance of a modern PC.

The DFI GHF51 1.8-inch platform carries AMD’s dual-core Ryzen Embedded R1000-series SoC with AMD Radeon Vega GPU featuring three compute units (192 stream processors) with hardware H.264, H.265, and VP9 decoding. The SoC can be paired with 2/4/8 GB of single-channel DDR4-3200 memory as well as 16/32/64 GB of eMMC storage. The SBC features one Mini PCIe slot for an add-in card, an 8-pin DIO header, two micro HDMI 1.4 outputs (4Kp30), one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, a GbE connector (controlled by the Intel I211AT or the I210IT chip), and an fTPM 2.0 chip.

No pricing. Like some of RasPi's recent competing boards, it doesn't have HDMI 2.0 so it can't output 4K @ 60 Hz without Display Stream Compression. The spec sheet lists the new 6-10 Watt Ryzen Embedded APUs along with the previous 12 Watt ones.

Also at Wccftech.

Make a hand sanitizer with 90 % alcohol.

Offer it in various colors and fragrances, just like any good hand sanitizer.

But your line of products has the fragrance and taste of popular alcoholic beverages. Each fragrance of your product is labelled with a name similar to the alcoholic beverage it smells/tastes like.

Make it safe for human consumption.

Don't market it as a beverage. It's not. Really. It's a hand sanitizer. It's very slightly a gel in consistency and viscosity.

It can be sold anywhere. Grocery stores. Convenience stores. Schools vending machines. Church parking lots.

But licensed and heavily regulated alcoholic beverage stores might not be able to sell it since it is definitely not an alcoholic beverage.

Nothing for anyone to get upset about. It's just hand sanitizer.