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Australian school apologises for 'suggestive' saint statue

The idea of an "(in)finite unbound"¹ universe isn't new to me at all (insert video game reference here ...Asteroids uses wraparound) but the last bit was a step I hadn't seen or taken myself and it blew my mind.

"If the Universe is finite but unbounded, it is also possible that the Universe is smaller than the observable universe. What are seen as very distant galaxies may actually be duplicate images of nearby galaxies, formed by light that has circumnavigated the Universe. It is difficult to test this hypothesis experimentally because different images of a galaxy would show different eras in its history, and consequently might appear quite different."

From Wikipedia and NextBigFuture's rearrangement. I put the last bit in bold for clarity.

The article of the quote argues that the size of the universe including the size of the universe that we currently observe are much larger than one commonly would think due to expansion i.e. one has to add the expansion during age of the light gathered from a distant object onto the redshift distance to the object. Thus the universe is much larger than what we usually say. Seems legit to me :)

But the main point for me was the quote above, I never thought about how the same galaxies etc. would look very different each time their (older and older) past light looped through an unbound universe. Maybe I'm the last one to hear about it?

¹ To me a "finite unbound" and an "infinite unbound" is exactly the same, simply "unbound". I know just enough to intuit that I might be tempting fate at the hands of aggravated mathematicians by saying something like that but not enough to know why they might (hoo-hoo now I'm really asking for it aren't I) be correct :D (teaspoons please, if you don't mind).

Granted, it was a long weekend, but still... The euphoria of being up 100K, then the despair of watching it disappear over the span of a couple days. It's fucked up. I'm not rich. $100k is a fucking shit-ton of money to me.

This story starts in the spring of 2013. Bitcoin had just broken $250USD and was crashing (or 'correcting') downwards. A coworker that had built a mining rig a year earlier told me that they sold and made enough money to buy a car - she had made some real money. I decided to take a better look into bitcoin.

Over the next few days, I spent hours reading all about bitcoin and eventually got my computer mining bitcoin for me. Then I bought another video card. And another. It wasn't long before BTC mining wasn't profitable anymore, so I started mining LiteCoin. I had a dedicated computer in my basement (a motherboard with 2 video cards sitting on an old coffee table -- no case) that I ran for a year. I got 200 Litecoin from that.

In November 2013, shit started getting real. LTC had been holding steady at $4/LTC making my stash worth about $800. That month, LTC shot up to a peak of ~$50/LTC. All of a sudden, these Litecoins were worth $10k! I sold 1/2 @ $45. It was amazing timing, because the next day the bubble burst. I managed to walk away with about $5,000.

That $5k is what I used to later buy Bitcoin in the spring of 2014. This was just after Mt Gox had imploded and the price of bitcoin was... erratic. Everyone thought that the Goxxing would be a minor blip, and that bitcoin would recover quickly. Well, it wasn't. I spent the next 2 years watching bitcoin go lower and lower and lower.

In January of 2015, some guy decided to sell 30,000 bitcoin. That's an insane amount, and I think is the biggest on-exchange dump ever. He earned the nickname 'manbearwhale'. 1/2 man, 1/2 bear (in trader lingo - a seller), 1/2 whale (a big player). It was a depressing time. Bitcoin had been losing ground for years. My $5,000 was significantly less at that time and I had spent the previous 2 years watching it dwindle away.

That event started a reversal. Bitcoin had hit rock bottom, so there was nowhere to go but up. It's been going up ever since.

***

Last week was an interesting week in Bitcoinland. The blocksize increase that we have been waiting for years to implement was called off days before it was scheduled to take effect. Bitcoin now doesn't have any -real- scaling plans. If Bitcoin can't grow, then it's useless. I feel that bitcoin (or something like it) is literally going to change the world. It's as important as the transistor or the Internet. If bitcoin can't grow to accommodate more than a few million users, then it's effectively dead.

Disheartened with the path that bitcoin was headed, I decided to convert a big chunk of my bitcoin into Bitcoin Cash. Well... Bitcoin cash had a wild weekend. It rocketed from $600 all the way to $2,700 - a 4.5x increase in a couple days. I had a good entry point, and had been buying a bit more as it went up. Before I knew it, I was up over $100k! It was euphoric. I had predicted a rise like this (not the magnitude of the rise, but that there would be a significant rise). I was telling my wife, and dreaming of expensive cars and exotic vacations.

Then it started crashing. Down. Down. Down. A relentless grind downwards. Do I sell? Hold? I would just watch the red candles slip more and more. My euphoria was turning into despair; Worry. I couldn't watch the chart continue to fall, but I also couldn't look away. Down some more. Finally it found some support, then dropped again...

In the end, I pretty much broke even, but it was a wild ride. I have never made and lost so much money in a matter of days, and likely never will again.

This is a dumping ground for links and other stuff for the 2018 4/20 article. Might as well get started now. Feel free to post articles or your suggestions in here up until April 20, 2018 (journal comments remain open forever, if you hadn't noticed). The article will cover topics including but not limited to cannabis, the opioid crisis, and the drug policies of any countries you are interested in, not just the U.S. I especially want articles regarding state/local ballot initiatives, implementation of drug policies, and the like, as well as articles about single events that can fit well on a timeline (such as this). If you want to critique the pro-legalization crowd, that's fine too.

Theoretically, the article could grow to an insane size without pissing everyone off too much with liberal use of the spoiler tag:

I've already lost some of the links below due to an invalid resource error. I will probably edit my extension to add the equivalent of the "submission draft" feature for journals.

This journal entry will be edited to include more links and notes as we get closer. Although I'll retain a few surprises for the actual article.

Here are the past 4/20 articles:

2015: 4/20: StonerNews is People
2016: 4/20: Half-Baked Headline
2017: 4/20: The Third Time's Not the Charm

Timeline
(I have to decide whether I want to include many events or just past SoylentNews articles here.)

April 21: Massachusetts Throws Out 21,587 Tainted Drug Convictions
April 23: Remake of Classic "Your Brain on Drugs" Ad Slams Disastrous Drug War

May 11: Vermont Legislature Passes Cannabis Legalisation Bill
May 15: Jeff Sessions Reboots the Drug War
May 16: Cop Brushes Fentanyl Off Uniform, Overdoses

July 31: 34 Criminal Cases Tossed after Body cam Footage Shows Cop Planting Drugs

August 5: Cannabis Company Buys Entire California Town to Create Marijuana Tourist Destination
August 11: President Trump Declares the Opioid Crisis a National Emergency
August 17: Another Canadian Banned From the U.S. for Past Drug Use
August 30: FDA Designates MDMA as a "Breakthrough Therapy" for PTSD; Approves Phase 3 Trials

September 11: Thanks to the DEA and Drug War, Your Prescription Records Have Zero Expectation of Privacy

October 14: Study Suggests Psilocybin "Resets" the Brains of Depressed People
October 26: According to Gallup, American Support for Cannabis Legalization is at an All-Time High
October 27: Opioid Crisis Official; Insys Therapeutics Billionaire Founder Charged; Walgreens Stocks Narcan
October 28: Study Finds That More Frequent Use of Cannabis is Associated With Having More Sex

November 2: FDA Cracking Down on Unsubstantiated Cannabidiol Health Claims
November 4: People Who Take Psychedelics Are Less Likely to Commit Violent Crimes, Study Says
November 15: FDA Blocks More Imports of Kratom, Warns Against Use as a Treatment for Opioid Withdrawal
"Drug Bazooka" Seized Near the U.S.-Mexican Border
November 16: Opioid Commission Drops the Ball, Demonizes Cannabis
November 27: Hallucination Machine: Psychedelic Visuals in VR

December: World Health Organization Clashes With DEA on CBD; CBD May be an Effective Treatment for Psychosis
Ketamine Reduces Suicidal Thoughts in Depressed Patients

Links

* Veterans in New York can now get medical marijuana to treat PTSD
* A 12-Year-Old Girl With Epilepsy Is Suing Jeff Sessions Over Medical Marijuana
* Marijuana could be legal in New Jersey as soon as April
* The War On Drugs Repackaged
* Campaign to legalise magic mushrooms gains momentum in California
* Reports: Manson hospitalized in California
* Ohio's First Crop of Medical Marijuana Dealers See Green, But Face Hurdles
* The Rush is on for Ohio's Marijuana Dispensary Licenses
* Don Martin: Retired cops chasing pot of gold at the end of legalization rainbow
* Veterans are key as surge of states OK medical pot for PTSD (archive)
* The Indigenous Mexican Tribe That Honors Rare Psychedelic Toads
* What It's Like to Smoke the World's Strongest Psychedelic Toad Venom
* Europe's Largest Legal Weed Farm Is Being Built in a Nuclear Bunker
* Why It Feels Like You Can Communicate with Nature on LSD
* Jeff Sessions Isn’t Giving up on Weed. He’s Doubling Down.
* VIDEO: For LSD, What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
* New York Is Closer Than Ever to Legalizing Weed
* Solving the Dutch Pot Paradox: Legal to Buy, but Not to Grow
* Non-psychoactive cannabis ingredient (CBD) could help addicts stay clean
* A Dying Southern Town Needed a Miracle. Marijuana Came Calling.
* Reader: Kratom Saved My Life From a Heroin Addiction

Notes

Cannabis is the scientific term for the drug colloquially known as "marihuana/marijuana", which is now regarded as an outdated and racist term that was intended to scare the public.

What is the difference between "opioids" and "opiates"? "Opioid" is a broader term:

Want to legalize drugs easily? Make recreational drugs treatments for "boredom" and "spiritual malaise".

Report: Green Beret killed by SEALs after he uncovered alleged theft

Two Navy SEALs being investigated over the death of an Army Green Beret in Mali in June are accused of killing him after he discovered they had been stealing, according to a report in the Daily Beast.

CNN has not independently verified the information in Saturday's article, which the Daily Beast attributes to "five members of the special-operations community who were not cleared to speak publicly."

Naval Criminal Investigative Service spokesman Ed Buice confirmed to CNN last month that the NCIS was investigating whether two members of the Navy's elite SEAL Team Six killed Army Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar.

The New York Times was the first to report that the SEALs were under investigation for Melgar's death at a US government compound near the American embassy in Bamako, the capital.

[...] The Daily Beast article cites two special operations sources as saying the SEALs under investigation over Melgar's death had been taking money from a fund used to pay informants. It says the sources allege that Melgar uncovered the theft and declined an offer to take a cut of the proceeds. On June 4, according to the Daily Beast's sources, an altercation broke out -- the cause of which the article says is unknown -- and Melgar stopped breathing. The SEALs and another Green Beret took Melgar to hospital, the Beast quotes former AFRICOM officials as saying.

Now that's what I call a dishonorable discharge.

Someone gave me 0.990 LTC a week or two ago. At the time that was about $54.00. It has since gone up to about $60.

I bought $60 each of BTC and ETH, paid for with EFTs from my business checking account.

BTC went way down today doubtlessly due to some burglar bragging that he just stole $32,000,000.00 worth of bitcoin by hacking into digital wallets.

CoinBase offers USD wallets if you're down with uploading pix of the front and back of your ID. So I can no longer use CoinBase for money laundering.

The great advantage of the USD wallet is that the transactions take place immediately, rather than having to wait seven days as happened with my EFTs. The price was locked-in when I ordered the purchase but I wasn't permitted to trade the ETH or LTC for over a week.

Now I have BTC 0.0253 that just now is worth $169.15.

My code is going to go beta by the middle of next week. That means I get paid. I'm going to buy one BitCoin - presently that costs $6,682.00 - as well as a mining rig.

The reason I'm doing this is that I have no other hope of funding a decent retirement. Even if I contribute the maximum of $6500 - the "catch-up" rate for people over 50 - until I'm 65, my retirement will have me living like a starving artist through all of my golden years.

So I'm speculating on cryptocurrency. Even if I lose it all, my retirement won't really be any worse than I presently foresee it.

I might form a 501(c)3 tax-deductible non-profit corporation to operate Soggy Jobs. If I do that I could give myself the employment benefit of a 401k, which will enable me to contribute about three times as much as my IRA permits.

I'm soliciting donations but they're not yet tax-deductible.

Google.org exists to give money to charities. I expect I can make a good case for contributing to soggy jobs. There are many philanthropic organizations; if I do form the non-profit I'm going to work with a grant writer to get me some of those Samoleons.

Original story: Woman says Roy Moore initiated sexual encounter when she was 14, he was 32 (archive)

Roy Moore can still win

Moore has zero incentive to listen to calls from official Washington for him to leave the race. In fact, the louder those calls get, the more likely it is that Moore digs in even further.

Then there is the fact that the widespread condemnation of Moore among GOP senators is not entirely shared by Alabama Republicans.

Take Alabama state auditor Jim Ziegler, for one. In an interview, Ziegler downplayed the accusations against Moore by citing Scripture:

Take the Bible. Zachariah and Elizabeth for instance. Zachariah was extremely old to marry Elizabeth and they became the parents of John the Baptist. Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus. There's just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.

Then there was Alabama Marion County GOP chair David Hall, who told the Toronto Star's Daniel Dale this: "It was 40 years ago. I really don't see the relevance of it. He was 32. She was supposedly 14. She's not saying that anything happened other than they kissed."

In the Post report, however, the accuser also says Moore sexually assaulted her. She says Moore touched her and forced her to touch him.

Marrying young girls is old hat. We just grope and move on now.

Romney: 'Unfit' Moore 'should step aside'

Why do we care what Romney thinks, again?

Romney mulling Senate bid: report
I Never Liked Mitt Romney, But Now I’m Desperate for His Comeback

Oh, ok.

I went to the new restaurant that wants to become the 'McDonald's of pasta' — and they are onto something big

Ladner says Pasta Flyer's service model embodies the two cornerstones of fast food: speed and low prices. But he refers to the food itself as "slow" and more comparable to what you'd find at a traditional restaurant.

[...] I sampled four pastas: fusilli with basil pesto sauce, fettuccine with creamy Alfredo sauce, whole grain rigatoni with Nonna's meat ragu, and spaghetti and meatballs with marinara sauce. I was shocked to find that all four were of the same quality I would expect from an upscale Italian restaurant that charges around $25 for a bowl of pasta. The noodles were cooked to al dente perfection, the sauces were warm and rich, and the meat was flavorful and tender. The dishes were simple, but done right.

[...] To make this happen, Ladner says the sauces are held just above a temperature set by the NYC Department of Health. After a customer orders, their noodles are cooked in 15 seconds while their sauce is brought to a boil, and then the two are plated.

[...] Ladner says the wheat is milled directly before the pasta is made, resulting in a noodle that's "fresh and alive," and will still be al dente when you eat it a day later as leftovers. "It's the best pasta I know of in the world, and it's $7.50," he says.

Spotted on reddit:

Someone might have just cracked Intel's ME via JTAG. This twitter post:
https://twitter.com/h0t_max/status/928269320064450560

Game over man! Game over!
If true, then we now have ring -3 access into the ME with the possibility of permanently disabling it. I am also a little excited to hear what Intel has to say about this and what their next anti-consumer move is. Though the more exciting thing might be hacking it and using it for good and possibly allowing systems to run libre ME software! Perhaps we might see a proper open source Minix ME project spawn.

Next up! AMD's PSP.

Theoretical Physicists Are Getting Closer to Explaining How NASA’s ‘Impossible’ EmDrive Works

Theoretical scientists are trying to understand why and how EmDrive propulsion works. The NASA paper suggests a tentative explanation based on a quantum physics theory, "a nonlocal hidden-variable theory, or pilot-wave theory for short."

A new research paper by a Portuguese scientist, titled "A Possible Explanation for the Em Drive Based on a Pilot Wave Theory" is now trending among EmDrive enthusiasts in the NasaSpaceFlight forum. The paywalled paper proposes a similar model to the NASA one (here's an open access preprint you can read.)

Pilot-wave theories have been proposed since the 1920s by quantum physicists, notably Louis de Broglie and David Bohm, to make sense of the weird behavior of quantum matter. Recently, pilot-wave quantum theories have gained more popularity after it was discovered that pilot-wave quantum-like behavior can be reproduced in classical fluids and explained by classical (non-quantum) fluid dynamics.

Not enough meat on these bones for another story, but you might be interested.

Previously: Explanation may be on the way for the "Impossible" EmDrive
Finnish Physicist Says EmDrive Device Does Have an Exhaust
EmDrive Peer-Reviewed Paper Coming in December; Theseus Planning a Cannae Thruster Cubesat
It's Official: NASA's Peer-Reviewed EmDrive Paper Has Finally Been Published
Space Race 2.0: China May Already be Testing an EmDrive in Orbit
Physicist Uses "Quantised Inertia" to Explain Both EmDrive and Galaxy Rotation
EmDrive 3.0: Wait, Where's EmDrive 2.0?