SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Unban Iodine: Why the US Iodine ban should be lifted
Iodine is an element on the periodic table. What a lot of people may not know, is that Iodine is a DEA List I chemical in the United States, which makes it illegal to manufacture, import, or export without a license. Iodine can be converted to hydroiodic acid which can be used in the production of methamphetamine.
What makes this ban especially stupid is how easy it is to make iodine in bulk. You only need three chemicals, all of which are unregulated and can be bought in large quantities: Hydrogen Peroxide, basically any acid like Hydrochloric Acid, and an iodide salt like Potassium Iodide or Sodium Iodide. Just mix them all together, and boom, iodine. Easy as cake.
Iodine is a useful chemical, and banning it doesn't stop anyone from aquiring it. People making drugs are going to break the law anyway and the chemicals needed to make it can be purchased in bulk without raising suspicion, so this law only harms scientists and other law abiding citizens.
Iodine can even be extracted from the potassium iodide added to salt, an essential human nutrient. Stopping people from getting access to iodine would result in lots of people getting very sick.
It's time to stop the silliness, unban iodine.
Zen 3: +17% IPC?
It is pointed out that in mixed operations that leverage both integer and floating-point units of the Zen architecture, Zen 3 could deliver a 17% IPC gain on average. It is also stated that the integer ops are getting a 10-12% increase on average while the floating-point operations could feature up to a 50% increase in performance. Integer operations are what most general consumer apps use but in floating-point heavy applications, Zen 3 has the potential to be a big game-changer for the industry and especially the server market (HPC/Datacenters).
Big if true. Looks like a worthwhile upgrade to Zen/Zen+ systems if your motherboard is compatible. Otherwise, it might be better to wait it out until Zen 4 on a new AM5 socket, likely allowing upgrades to future Zen 5 and Zen 6 CPUs.
NVIDIA, CUDA, and F@H on Linux
Ohhhh-kay - video cards on Linux have always been a hassle. Nothing works right, right? Except, when it does work right, it's really right!
I've finally figured out how to make NVIDIA GPU's work right, and I'm documenting it here, for myself and anyone else who can use the information.
First, you download the SGFXI script from https://smxi.org/site/install.htm
After a new install of your OS, run the script. It takes all the headache out of blacklisting Nouveau etc. It's all in the script, you need not even think about it. By default, the script will install the latest current NVIDIA driver. Using the switch -o when you invoke it, you can choose which driver to install. But, the choices are limited, it doesn't support all available NVIDIA drivers. It's probably best to just go with the default, which is currently 440.40.
That latest, greatest, shiny new 440.40 should be your choice of driver anyways, right? Nope. It doesn't crunch very well, if it crunches at all.
The script runs, and announces that the driver is installed, asks if you want to restart your desktop. I always just reboot the computer.
So, the computer boots to your desktop, with 440.40, it's time to install the good, working CUDA driver. Grab the CUDA toolkit from https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads
I boot into single user before running it, but that isn't strictly necessary. Navigate to wherever you downloaded it to, and invoke it with './cuda_10.2.89_440.33.01_linux.run' or similar, as Super User. Some of the NVIDIA installers balk at SUDO, so you probably need to be SU instead of SUDO.
It's a very large download, 2.5 gig if I recall correctly. Just wait for it to extract itself, and you'll get a menu, giving you options of features to install. For our purposes here, we ONLY NEED the driver. I'm not a programmer, and I'm not going to learn how to make CUDA jump through hoops. F@H has already figured that out, they just need the proper driver to make the hoops with. Unselect everything but the driver, and tell it to run.
When the driver is installed, reboot, and install F@H, or whatever programs you might be running that require CUDA.
IF you had your card working with any other driver, this 440.33 driver will make your GPU look like an upgraded video card!
And, no, the sgfxi script will not install this driver. If you extract it, and put it into the sgfxi/downloads folder, the script will simply tell you that the driver is unsupported.
For science, I should repeat the process a couple dozen times. I'm lazy though - 4 runs is more than enough!
I hope someone finds that useful! Enjoy.
I was the Walrus!
"Soros is hardly a Jew. I'm more of a Jew than Soros is. I probably know more about -- he doesn’t go to church, he doesn’t go to religion -- synagogue. He doesn't belong to a synagogue, he doesn't support Israel, he's an enemy of Israel. He's elected eight anarchist DA's in the United States. He's a horrible human being."
The dream is over
Baba Ram Dass Dies at Age 88
Baba Ram Dass, Proponent of LSD and New Age Enlightenment, Dies at 88
Baba Ram Dass, who epitomized the 1960s of legend by popularizing psychedelic drugs with Timothy Leary, a fellow Harvard academic, before finding spiritual inspiration in India, died on Sunday at his home on Maui, Hawaii. He was 88.
His death was announced on his official Instagram account.
Having returned from India as a bushy-bearded, barefoot, white-robed guru, Ram Dass, who was born Richard Alpert, became a peripatetic lecturer on New Age possibilities and a popular author of more than a dozen inspirational books.
The first of his books, “Be Here Now” (1971), sold more than two million copies and established him as an exuberant exponent of finding salvation through helping others.
He started a foundation to combat blindness in India and Nepal, supported reforestation in Latin America, and developed health education programs for American Indians in South Dakota.
Only cops should have guns!!
Here, we have a case of "blame the victim", and the cops are going to get away with it. The fact that she is young, white, and pretty will work against her, I'm sure. And, she's from Alabama. The Gestapo busts in on her, while she's taking a nap, shoot her down, and they have the nerve to say, "Well, if she hadn't pointed her gun at our officers . . . "
This, among many other incidents, is why I can't follow the liberal logic. WTF do any of you want the cops to have guns, but deny yourselves the opportunity to defend yourself from those rogue cops? Disarm the police, then I might think about giving up my own weapons. Key words are "might" and "think about".
WILMER, Ala. (WALA) -- A huge investigation underway after a woman is shot during an undercover warrant roundup. It happened Thursday morning at a home in Wilmer on Old Moffat Road.
Turns out the suspect agents were looking for was already in Metro Jail.
"As agents went up to the house they detained two men outside, who said there was a woman still inside. As they went to make entry into the house... This lady had armed herself with a shotgun and the entry team was giving her orders to drop the gun, put the gun down, drop the gun several times -- over a period of a few seconds it seems like... And there is video recordings of that. She didn't and she pointed the gun at one of them -- then two or three agents fired upon her striking her three or four times," said Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran.
The woman idenitfied as Ann Rylee was not who agents were looking for. Instead, they were there to execute outstanding drug warrants for 41-year-old Nicholas McLeod -- the uncle of Rylee's fiance.
McLeod has a long drug arrest history. Prior arrests list the home on Moffat Road as McLeod's home address. Turns out he was already in Metro Jail. McLeod booked in on Wednesday at 3:36 p.m. on the outstanding warrants.
Sheriff Cochran says had they known -- they wouldn't have gone to the house.
"We do know there was a miscommunication... And we've narrowed it down to one of two things: The investigators did not make one final check this morning to send teams out to make the arrests or warrants section did not communicate to the computer system -- that the warrants were no longer active. We're running that down," said Cochran. "However, if she would not have pointed a gun at the agents -- they would have determined all of that on the scene and would have bid her a good day and thank you very much."
It's a multi agency team -- running the warrant round-up consisting of Mobile County Sheriff's deputies, Homeland Security, and agents with the U.S. Marshals Office. Sheriff Cochran tells us it was not one of his deputies that fired the shots.
Meanwhile, there is no body camera footage because the Mobile County Sheriff's Office doesn't have body cameras.
The Alabama Bureau of Investigation was called in to take over the case.
All content © 2019, WALA; Mobile, AL. (A Meredith Corporation Station). All Rights Reserved.
https://www.fox10tv.com/news/mobile_county/mcso-sheriff-woman-pointed-gun-at-officer-before-she-was/article_effd4f0c-22da-11ea-b92c-97a70d44e2ba.html
My prediction for 2020
President Trump will announce a complete US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan between October 1, and November 1, 2020.
Reason #1: Pulling the troops out of Afghanistan would be popular and will help him in the election on November 3.
Reason #2: Trump likes to punish subordinates for failure. Afghanistan has been a failure, and this will be how he punishes the military brass.
Timing: Given the heat Trump took for his minor Syria withdrawal, he doesn't want to open a big window for criticism. And poll bounces fade, so he will time it close to the election for maximal impact.
In Everyone Knows America Lost Afghanistan Long Ago the author Stephen Walt describes US behavior from a foreign policy perspective, although I hope he's being too negative about the President. Walt writes:
Back in 2016, he [Trump] said U.S. foreign policy was “a complete and total disaster,” and he blamed repeated failures on insiders with “perfect resumes,” claiming they were out of touch and unaccountable.
October surprises have a long history in US politics.
More Zen 2 Laptop Chips Leak Out
That's Ryzen AF: Some Old AMD Chips Might Be Getting a 12nm Makeover
AMD's first-gen Ryzen processors are selling at all-time low pricing, but it turns out that some of these chips are filtering out into the hands of enthusiasts with an unexpected surprise: The 12nm process, which is more efficient and faster than the original manufacturing process used with AMD's freshman Ryzen chips.
The original Ryzen 5 1600 landed with six cores and twelve threads powered by the 14nm GlobalFoundries process, but a new "AF" version has appeared at retailers for a mere $85 and apparently comes with the 12nm Zen+ architecture.
[...] The newer AF models also come with the Wraith Stealth cooler, which is a lesser cooler compared to the Wraith Spire that came with the original 1600 models.
Performance may or may not be slightly better.
8 cores at a 15 Watt TDP sounds great (I have a Llano system with 4 cores at 35 Watts), although we'll have to see if hyperthreading is dropped or if that was just related to how it was tested.
I don't think using Vega graphics instead of Navi is a deal killer. But if there is no AV1 decode on the media engine, I don't want to get it. Also, I want to start seeing some AMD APUs with HBM or stacked DRAM on the chip, which could come with Zen 3 or Zen 4, if not later. AFAIK, Intel isn't planning to stop including eDRAM on certain models, and the next-gen consoles will probably have the CPU, GPU, and RAM packed in close.
Here are some proper APUs. Except I'm not sure I care about a 45 Watt TDP chip in that form factor anymore. Even if I take the hit down to 15 Watts, it would perform better than any laptop I've used.
The important thing is that this could help AMD claw back some market share in the segment and get some design wins.
AMD’s Radeon RX 5500 XT Graphics Cards Bottlenecked by PCIe Bandwidth?
If Radeon RX 5500 XT launch reviews were crippled by using PCIe 3.0 instead of 4.0, WTF is AMD's marketing department doing?
There is an expectation that APUs will completely take over 1080p gaming in the near future, and the already tiny die size of the RX 5500 XT is notable. Shrink to "7nm+" or "5nm" and that level of performance will require an even smaller die size.
These people are crazy
Yes, crazy. Trump has screwed the pooch, with his "letter" to the +House of Representatives. Wholey fricking crapola! Dude just confessed! So, now, the United States of Americans shall spend the next couple of weeks explaining to the Trumpsters what crime is, and how it is violating laws, and what Laws are, and why we should obey them. All very troublesome, and much more difficult than just shooting them in the head. Which they deserve. Repungables, bouncing of the bedrock of good farming folks an their indigenious same-sex practices! If only Runaway1992 had come out earlier, we could accept him as a trans-ammo-sexual. He could go, . . .. or he could go . . . . I have no idea where we are now in Conservative gender/caliber identity. But 5.56 mm, means you have a tiny dick, and you are trying to make up for it with velocity, or fragmentation, which is really, seriously, a dick move.
Donald is impeached. Even if the Senate Replicans acquit, he has been impeached. Bad Precedent, Loser President, White people suck at being president, and he is going down. So sade. Marquis de Sade! Into young girls, and Slovenians! Oh, oh my God! ]
Real God, not the American fuckfaced Evangelical ignoramous Fundmentalist alleged Christians who say, "Cyrus"! Do you have any idea who Cyrus was, and why the Greeks had to become all gay and shit to fight his grandson, Xerxes? I guess not, history is not a strong point amoungst Americans, nor is Geography, or Math, or Biology (Vaxxers), or Astrophysics (Flat-headed Earthers, and Trumpers). So here I just want to say, crazy people, you need help. Sam Colt made crazy people equal, but not in the way you think. Once you realize how deeply you have been spoofed, hoodwinked, and bamboozled, and other words with two "oo"s in them, you will realize, go Dem, or go "boom".
I am violating my own journal periodocity rule! Oh, Well, Happy Impeachment Eve! Especially to all not USAians. And khallow. Poor khallow.
93 Virginia Jurisdictions Second Amendment Sanctuaries
93 Virginia Jurisdictions are Now Declared Second Amendment Sanctuaries
Multiple sites are carrying that blurb, which I quote here in it's entirety.
Not happy with the blurb, I tracked down the original source, which is little more than a blurb, itself.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/virginias-second-amendment-sanctuaries-an-update/
Last week I wrote about the spread of Virginia’s “Second Amendment sanctuaries” — counties, towns, and cities that vow not to enforce state gun laws they deem unconstitutional, in the wake of the Democrats’ taking control of the state government. There are a few new developments worth noting.
For starters, the sanctuaries have spread dramatically. They’re up to 93 jurisdictions — covering roughly 40 percent of the population, by my quick spreadsheet tally. That’s huge, though the biggest victory, in Prince William County, is likely to be overturned when the county board flips to the Democrats, and some of these places have passed vague resolutions in support of the Constitution rather than the more aggressive language proposed by the Virginia Citizens Defense League.
As I noted in my previous piece, these resolutions have limited legal effect; local governments are basically subordinate to state governments. But defiance like this can put political pressure on moderate Democrats — and, failing that, can force the state government to either (A) take drastic action to stamp out resistance or (B) give up and let these places refuse to enforce new gun laws, possibly ramping up state-police activity there as a replacement.
On the politics, it’s worth noting that the state Democrats have already caved on confiscating “assault weapons,” modifying a bill so that it would still ban sales going forward but would require current owners to register their guns rather than turning them in.
It’s also worth comparing this map of sanctuaries:
. . . with this one of Virginia senate districts. (Click here to see the interactive version via the Virginia Public Access Project; I chose the senate because it’s much closer politically than the house.)
If an area is blue in both maps, it’s both a sanctuary and represented by a Democrat, suggesting a senator who might experience this movement as pressure from home. Such places do exist, though often the sanctuary jurisdictions make up only a minority of the Democratic district’s population. (See, e.g., districts 18, 21, and 25.) However, the senate is split 21–19, so it doesn’t take a lot of side-switching to stop a bill.
Finally, on how the Democrats will respond in the event they pass new gun laws and many local law-enforcement agencies refuse to enforce them, the governor has threatened “consequences,” and other Virginia Democrats have floated everything from prosecutions of local authorities, to cutting off state funds, to National Guard deployment.
Fun times.
Blurb, or no blurb, the important thing is, people are refusing to comply. Is it time to dance yet? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/Breakin2.jpg
It's only fair to note that the whiners at slate dot com consider these sanctuary counties to be different than liberal sanctuary cities.
But some Virginia localities have gone further, indicating that they will not enforce state law that they deem unconstitutional. Some proponents have even resurrected words like nullification and interposition, terms first used extensively by Southern secessionists prior to the Civil War and more recently during the “massive resistance” to federal laws requiring desegregation in the 1960s.
