SoylentNews

Need Twilight Zone music...

Mean Gene Okerlund

Super Dave Osborne

Daryl Dragon (The Captain)

Rest in peace, it's over in an instant...

• Reduced patent coverage and duration.
• Less chemical and drug laws.
• Require all cops to wear body cameras.
• Removal of 'sovereign immunity' and 'qualified immunity'.
• Simplification of the tax code and removal of deductions and other market altering rules.
• Removal of all tech tarriffs.
• Improvement in criminal discovery access.
• Provision of more due process rights.
• Removal of secret courts and gag orders.
• End to foreign oil wars
• Reduction in federal education subsidies, and replacement of degree requirements for government licensing with topical examinations.
• Reduction of copyright terms to 40 years.

General

This is a post / TFS text pre-processor designed specifically for use with soylent.org

It is Python CGI that must be installed upon a webserver, and is then used via the web page it generates.

Capabilities:

• Generates <abbr> tag pairs with terminology expansions for caps / numbers / caps+numbers sequences
  • Over 1000 term expansions (as of Jan 1st, 2019)
  • Can expand electronic components such as R2, VR5 and IC44 (default on)
  • Can ignore specified terms on-the-fly
  • Can list all expandable terms (default off)
  • Flags unknown terms that may be expandable on the web page
  • Handles pre-existing <abbr> tag pairs when you want to add one-off uses
  • Handles HTML and won't try to expand within HTML tags
  • Includes test code to verify file containing expansions, generate statistics
  • Includes command line tool to check to see if term already present in expansion list
• Built-in macro language
  • Can list available macros (default on)
  • Multiple random/selected user signature generator (default off)
  • Includes macros to make posting easier (you can add as many as you like):
    • blockquote {bq quoted text}
    • strikeout {strike struck text}
    • bold {b bolded text}
    • italic {i italicized text}
    • bulleted lists {ul item|...|item}
    • numbered lists {ol item|...|item}
    • links, canned and/or on-the-fly {link URL|linked text}
    • temperature display and conversion {f NN}, {c NN}
    • let me google that for you {lmgtfy search term}
    • smile (emoji) {smile}
    • shrug (character art) {shrug}
    • escapes: {vb}=|, {ls}={, {rs}=}, {sqig text}={text}
• Handles unicode posting
• Incorporates basic self-test when run from command line

The project can be found here on Github.

--
If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?

On 29th March we remove ourselves from our local, and very successful, trading bloc, the EU.

I have been preoccupied making plans and making my objections known in a peaceful and democratic manner. I'm afraid that politics and worrying about the future has taken over.

I figured I should brush up on my French and I've made a stash of supplies so that we can eat after the borders close on 29th March. We import most of our food. And that food which we do grow is often picked by migrant workers who will no longer be welcome after Brexit.

We have oil and gas pipelines that cross continental Europe and we buy gas from that nice Mr Putin who only wants the best for his patriotic friends. We also import electricity directly from France via a 2GW cable under the English Channel. Obviously this gets more and more expensive as Sterling continues to lose its value.

Several prominent Brexit supporters, including Jacob Rees-Mogg decided it would be better to move their business to Ireland (in the EU) and the great patriot John Redwood advised his customers to pull their money out of the UK and invest in places like the EU in the light of Brexit.

There's still the unsolvable problem of the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Dinosaur-deniers the DUP are propping up a minority Tory government and staunchly preventing any progress because they don't want a "border" between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, despite the fact there's already a physical one in the form of the Irish Sea.

The Scottish Government brought a case to the European Court of Justice asking for a ruling on whether a country (eg the U) could unilaterally revoke Article 50 (the statement of intention to leave the EU). The UK Westminster government opposed the Scottish governments action, but was unsuccessful. The ECJ ruled that the UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50 without the agreement of the other 27 EU member states. All we need is a vote in the Westminster Parliament (which is sovereign). So it's not over yet!

The banks in the City of London have been making further preparations. About £700M of assets have moved to Frankfurt.

We also have to consider the extra delays at the borders for goods and raw materials coming in and out of the country. Much of our trade goes through Dover, in Kent. In Kent, they're preparing by creating another motorway-lorry-park, this time the M26. Industry will perhaps find it difficult to produce and to sell when things are held up in Kent.

Believe it or not, we have a Kipper in the family. He's also a Baptist. Goodness knows where he got that from. He was shown Father Ted when young but hey ho. I was treated to an entertaining conspiracy theory about Silicon Valley and the EU deliberately suppressing "right wing free speech." A long, convoluted "explanation" followed.

This conversation also confirmed a conclusion that I'd reached over the years regarding Kippers (UKIP members). They have a very naive and simplistic view of countries, nationalism, the modern world, "free speech," "hate speech," conservatism, economics, science, international relations, history (the World Wars and the Cold War, the rise of Nazism) and have precious little clue about "their own country" i.e. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. They get it confused with England and are pretty ignorant about Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

When mentioning that I was now in favour of Scottish Independence and that I didn't want to lose my right of Freedom of Movement, and that I hoped Scotland would join the EU, the classic Kipper ill-informed and patronising reply came back, "I can't understand why you'd want to regain your sovereignty only to give it away again to the EU." It's a trading bloc and it is democratic. It's more democratic that British First Past the Post Westminster Centralised "democracy."

My sister had the right idea. She settled in Germany years ago. The mayor of her town wrote to all British citizens inviting them to apply for German citizenship which she has done and will be sitting her citizenship exam in a couple of months time.

Finally, I asked why UKIP had appointed Stephen Yaxley-Lennon as its advisor for being mean to brown people. That didn't go down well. I got chapter and verse on what a nice man he really is and has brown friends etc.

And don't mention Trump. It'll just get blamed on Obama. And Mr Putin is a very nice man.

Game over UK. We have fallen to the fascists. Run while you can.

Where is Subsentient? I don't normally nose into another Soylentil's business but his last comment sounded ominous and worrying and he hasn't posted anything since. I tried an e-mail days ago but got no response. If anyone here knows him better, I suggest you make contact. Here's hoping he shows up back from a vacation tomorrow and proves me utterly wrong and paranoid.

UPDATE: Yep, he's proven me utterly wrong and paranoid.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
...

Must be hell, locked up in that big old House, huh?

I'm currently busy because I received start-up funding (and use of a ridiculously swanky office). The first development deadline is on Mon 31 Dec 2018. The second development deadline is on Thu 31 Jan 2019. The third development deadline is on Sun 31 Mar 2019. Funding currently lasts until Fri 31 May 2019. Unfortunately, this has greatly curtailed my annual fun programming project for Christmas 2018. Previous efforts have taken three days. This took three hours.

I have implemented a small system which predicts the final moderation score of a message on a forum. This uses some search engine theory, such as postings and repetition limits. However, it doesn't use n-grams, stemming, weighting by word frequency or Bayes theorem. Indeed, a significant amount of theory has not been implemented and the result only makes predictions with a relatively weak correlation. This implementation only works with the output of SoylentNews and is heavily dependent upon certain attributes currently found in the HTML. It is also heavily dependent upon line breaks typically found within boiler-plate HTML. Regardless, the concept can be generalized and adapted for other forums.

One script collates words:-

cat /path/to/saved/soylentnews/discussions/*.html | ./collate.pl > collate.txt

The other script allows predictions to be compared against actual scores:-

cat /path/to/saved/soylentnews/discussions/*.html | egrep '(comment_score_|comment_body_)' | ./estimate.pl collate.txt | sort -r -n -k 2 | more

The second script can also be used interactively. This is minor source of amusement but is generally less insightful than browsing the collated statistics:-

./estimate.pl collate.txt

If you want to be argumentative, negative or defeatist then this script will confirm that you'll be unappreciated. For example, one of our resident trolls, SaltySpice, rarely scores above 1.2. In particular, from my cache of saved discussions, "Fuck MDC" scores 0.597.

begin 644 soylentnews-score20181224.tar.gz
M'XL("`ZZ(%P"`W-O>6QE;G1N97=S+7-C;W)E,C`Q.#$R,C0N=&%R`.U76U/C
M-A3.LW^%-KC$(0FV<R$MP6EW=K?MSG1X`*:=:1P8)Q%$7<?.2DHAW0V_O4>2
MKT`&.LNTW4'?0VR?<W0NNGQ'8?$ZQ!&/\#5KL6E,<=MQOW7;[:X]C<,PX'A_
M&5:^$`Z@W^N)I]OO]HM/`;?;Z5;<3M=UX.>@`W9NO^\Z%>14_@6L&`\H0A5.
M"?NXPEN+?4S_E6+GE;UBU)Z0R%YB&J+6;X:Q@T[5KCB&78'>Q(L%O*-3L3O0
M.\;)(N`Q%5932I8<G<5@(_<*^IDP4)%I$"IS!E;6F[K84^ALCL$N8C'E9+78
M-W9`EVXV)!:!&P;%'U<$HM1",H&-5QL8QO6<A-B:X4L2X9EEAO#PCD[/WKX_
M'M;KZ).!D#F-5Q%O-`;P3BX3DUO[:-[U)Z/SX7AO:).8*5NPYOB&>])(#-@@
M'++B*#FB.E5%7\@C<3%R6M^-&]7[SG87P0=\P3%=*`?U@12#/XO!)`34^D$H
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M<$Y*QUM*OD_NE^`RF,YA<(B1]0&O&?H&U'E-,$O9HB2+#::;0M4J<L/+UESH
M[:+QG@DNU6M:XJ90&(0HK</0R9T+U[974@]*LZUFI5GU>;7)5A/&J27&-)UF
MKZZD?\0DLFJHUE3#09C.=-JTC.?G?W4:GX-C'N/_7K>=W_\/'''_=SJNYO__
MCO]_(1,:T#7Z,:9/[`7_A/!ADZ/L=*LK_#*@P<)C<W*IR%=]W[*$)X>V?05T
M6%1Q:H]>MWX?VZ.@]=?8+H\:G0.Y@=QO^37@>V1?E0>S8C=X0'N>J6U[ZT@S
MU<E3F;89)+J+-);'G&*^HI%H&[+LC+UDV8*G/,5C9193YSQCQ1#+I/Q:(PV9
M2T%H%J093:G_0QOC48*4E_)TU+!3(*Y,ZG6*;'.OJ.S?@UI+1?+96MXQ3B[B
MTO21S(H$#.1\AX%+9%U4[ZD,!@\G*V[W#P07&Q8E&8BH:0Z*HJNE8#XO9@9?
K\$@8^4Y`]X7\B]#0T-#0T-#0T-#0T-#0T-#0T-#0T/B_X6]42<M9`"@`````
`
end

(Usual instructions for uudecode process.)

So, I should be really happy and excited: tomorrow I start as a pharmacy technician at a fairly prestigious institute in Madison, Wi. No, not going to tell you where. I've wanted to do this for so, so long, and really--considering I can look at a molecule and give you at least a decent approximation of what effects it will have, this is an excellent fit. But I'm still nervous, if only because so many horrible things have happened to me and the idea of stability and a long-term career seems alien, like something I'm not "allowed" to have if that makes sense. So I'm afraid it'll be taken away from me like so many other things have been.

Wish me luck. I want to get PTCB certified as soon as possible and make a lifelong career out of this, slowly working my way up the ladder and making a positive contribution to the lives of many people. Maybe, though I don't dare to dream, this could even include going back to school and getting involved in the drug-discovery process, especially for new antibiotics or non-addictive painkillers. Other interests include changing hospital spaces to reduce infection and increase patient well-being--think "copper alloy railings, enclosed UVC-light air pumps, and lots and lots of sunlight" and so on--and nutrition, though I fear my low-carb lifestyle is sufficiently against current medical orthodoxy to make this a non-starter and even politically dangerous.

But whatever happens, for the first time in ages, it feels like time has begun to flow for me again. That feeling of being a sort of solid ghost is disappearing. And that can only be a good thing, right? I just hope it doesn't all go to hell...

President Trump has agreed to shut down his embattled personal charity and give away its remaining funds amid allegations that he used it for his personal and political benefit, the New York attorney general announced Tuesday.

New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced that the Donald J. Trump Foundation is dissolving as her office pursues its lawsuit against the charity, Trump and his three eldest children.

The attorney general’s suit, filed in June, alleged “persistently illegal conduct” at the charity and sought to have the foundation shut down. Underwood is continuing to seek more than $2.8 million in restitution and has asked a judge to ban the Trumps temporarily from serving on the boards of other New York nonprofits.

Underwood said Tuesday that her investigation found “a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more.”

“This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone,” she added in a statement.

Trump agrees to shut down his charity amid allegations he used it for personal and political benefit

Talk lately about an upcoming recession has been abuz. Here's some suggestions on how we could respond to strengthen our economy.

First, we should emphasise solar power. Power production is a heart of our economy, and having more of it, cheaper, can only do us good. Solar energy is provided free by the sun and doesn't pollute. Driving down the price of solar power can help us provide power at low rates.

Another point would be to fix the business crisis. Enable competition and stop propping up the megacorp monopolies. An end to subsidies would help to boost competition and protect the market from abuse due to government intervention, all to often a cause of failure. We should reform our antitrust laws to make them more effective at allowing competition to thrive. Anticompete agreements should always be void, not judged on a 'rational basis test'.

Arbitrations need to go out the door. They destroy consumer trust in corporations which reduces overall economic spending. Likewise, we need to depoliticise business. Consumer boycotts today put the brakes on economic development. Separating business from politics would go a long way here.

Regulatory capture doesn't go unnoticed. We need to find better regulators. Less concern with credentials, more with integrity.

Academia is off track. We need more core competency in STEM and less basket weaving, liberal arts, etc. The time cost of education right now is too much. 4 year degrees take 6 years, which is a problem. Removing unproductive subjects like music appreciation could help provide a workforce ready to tackle real challenges with less debt.

Aditionally, our copyright system is being abused by tech companies like Intel that don't publish specs for their hardware. Mandate technical specifications by law to ensure hardware is open to all to use for competitive purposes.