SoylentNews

Soylent News has a racism problem. The problem is not so much the racists, though we do seem to have plenty of those in the comments, and I offer all of them a virtual punch in the face. The real problem is the inability to discuss racism. For example, our most recent inability resulted in the mod-banning of the TMB, just because he is Native American. This is not right.

So in the interest of raising the level of discourse here on SoylentNews, I thought it might be a good idea to submit some recent studies and confessions on exactly this topic. But my efforts have been rebuffed, with great vehemence and vitrol. For example, one rejection reads:

We're sorry, your submission "My regrettable libertarian romance: I rebounded from my experimental phase, but many don't" was declined for the following reason:
My regrettable liberal romance: I rebounded from my experimental phase, but many don't

The editors felt it inappropriate for them to correct the issue themselves.

Well, duh! the prior submission was all about the Dunning-Kruger Effect, so of course they felt it was inappropriate. And who the hell of the Eds thinks I am a liberal? Are we politically illiterate on SN? Θεέ μου.

The submission, in all its rejected glory, can be found here: My regrettable libertarian romance: I rebounded from my experimental phase

And the next rejection was even more, well, childish? What are the Eds afraid of? That they might be racists? (They are.) and not know it? (They don't.) But that is no reason to reject a submission from the Pew Research, pointing out that racists don't know they are racists, unless they know they are racists, and intentionally seeking to draw our attention away from it? No reason given for this rejection. Hmmm. Here it is:
The most racist people are also the least likely to recognize their own racism

And then, we have a follow up to our TMB disturbing study, what with the facts and all, that still offends the eds. Rejection notice:

We're sorry, your submission "Americans See Advantages and Challenges in Country’s Growing Racial and Ethnic Diversity" was declined for the following reason:
"whites are more likely than blacks to say diversity is very good for the country"

The reason is a quote from the Fine Article? I do not understand! Are the Eds saying that the submission does not make some point that they think I am making? Or is the fact that most "whites" are not racist means that the Eds of SoylentNews are not racist? Puzzling Evidence, per David Byrne and Talking Heads. Original (disappeared quickly, this is the point, these submissions did not languish in the queue for days, they were killed in a matter of hours: why? Truth hurts?):
Americans See Advantages and Challenges in Country’s Growing Racial and Ethnic Diversity . Of course, the entire point of the submission was to point out that racists are a minority, a white Republican minority, in America. We cannot be talking about that on SN, Richard Spencer and Milo would not be happy.

Finally, a submission pointing out that, well, read the title:
Nearly half of white Republicans say it bothers them to hear people speaking foreign languages

Some may be aware, if they peruse the queue, that I on occasion submit submissions from places other than America or its lapdog, Britain, in languages that Americans find opaque and disturbing. And of course, this is most prevalent among the least educated, and therefore Republican, Americans. Really, we should internationalize SoylentNews. We have Unicode, and we can't use it? Why? The only explanation is, yes: Racism. So before you say, "I am not in favor of Racism, but . . ." , allow me to say, "μπορεί τα γαϊδουράκια να βρουν το δρόμο τους στην πισίνα γονιδίων σας."

Even my submission where I purposely made no comments, no editorializing, no nothing, rejected! Must be racism!

********Update! Yet another rejection! This one is Is there life after the Alt-right Apparent answer, from the eds, is no. Nothing but death, destruction, darkness, nihilism, hatred, racism, misogyny, pro-business attitudes, and The Dark Side. Once you go alt-right, you'll never be able to be a normie again. Kinda the point, eh? But some of us reject the premise. Come back from the Dark Side, Soylent! It is not too late for you! We'll burn you in a Jedi funeral! Promise.

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And this:https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=33637
It was going to be an alt-right white wedding! (yeah, right!)

There are many reasons. Who owns who is unclear.

Some people in a rural area say they keep a cat because: "it keeps the vermin down".

What does that mean exactly?

1. the cat reduces the population of vermin?

2. the cat has a remarkable ability to not vomit up the vermin?

The google definition of vermin, and especially the google images page for vermin, would suggest that meaning 2 is what is intended by that "keeps the vermin down" phrase.

Third-Gen Ryzen Threadripper Zen 2 CPUs Mysteriously Vanish From AMD's 2019 Roadmap + Tom's

Delaying Threadripper 3 might make a lot of sense. If Ryzen 3 doubles the max core count to 16, and Epyc 2 doubles it to 64, Threadripper 2 will continue to have up to 32 cores. It is unknown what core count Threadripper 3 will have. They could use 4-8 chiplets to provide 32-64 cores. Most high-end users probably don't need it right now, Threadripper 2 is still a better value than Intel, and AMD could just cut Threadripper 2 prices to get rid of the inventory.

AMD Navi GPU Rumors: Navi 20 Based Radeon Instinct Delayed To Q1 2020, 7nm Navi Can’t Reach 7nm Vega Clocks, Alleged Radeon RX Navi Specifications

What is known is that Navi will still be based on AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) design which is showing its age. It effectively has a 4,096 stream processor limit.

PS5 will include a Navi GPU, and the GPU or SoC will apparently include hardware acceleration for ray tracing. It's not known if desktop Navi GPUs will have this capability.

From the article:

Navi is meant to be the last GCN based GPU design by AMD and as such, should be the most optimized version of the architecture we have seen to date with multiple improvements being delivered. However, the report says that early Navi samples are not even able to match Vega 20 clock speeds and the Navi GPUs which can meet the frequency targets are reportedly facing major thermal and power consumption issues. We heard similar rumors for the Vega 10 and Vega 20 parts before they launched and those rumors turned out to be very close to the real image when the cards finally landed into consumer’s hands.

It may be possible that AMD is trying to uplift the performance by increasing frequency while sacrificing thermals and power efficiency. That is pretty much what Radeon VII was but it’s still much early to say if that’s the truth as the cards won’t be available until next year.

Worst case scenario: Navi is lackluster due to being GCN-based and power consumption issues, and its first non-GCN successor ends up lackluster due to a lack of optimizations.

A leaked/alleged lineup is given in the article showing Radeon VII or better performance starting at $430, and RTX 2070 performance at $330. If that holds true, Navi could be a price/performance win over Nvidia, just not as good as it could have been.

A parody website with embarrassing photos of Joe Biden is outranking his official campaign page on Google

The internet snafu suggests the Biden campaign is having early difficulty with its digital operation. That could pose trouble for the 76-year-old as he competes in a field that has already proven to be savvy with new tools for online outreach and fundraising.

The problem has also emerged despite the Biden campaign's prolific spending on Google.

An online tracker maintained by the progressive digital advertising firm ACRONYM shows the Biden campaign has spent more than $360,000 on Google platforms, racking up more spending on the site than all the other candidates in the crowded field except Sen. Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

Google search

joebiden.info

joebiden.com

The informative parody website doesn't come with an annoying popup like the official one does.

The parody website presents a number of Biden's past positions:

In 1996, Senator Joe Biden voted for the Defense of Marriage Act which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. This law also prevented states from recognizing same sex marriages.

Senator Joe Biden voted for the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 which initiated the “3 Strikes and You’re Out” policy which has resulted in many people spending life sentences in jail for minor crimes.

In 1982, Senator Joe Biden initially voted for a constitutional amendment which would have allowed states to overturn Roe v. Wade – the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion.

In the 1970s Joe Biden stated that “I have become convinced that busing is a bankrupt concept.” He actively worked to oppose busing as a way to desegregate schools. Biden even wrote letters seeking the support of people who thought schools should be segregated by race.

Senator Joe Biden, who at the time was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voted for the resolution to authorize military involvement in Iraq. The Iraq war resulted in the death of 4,424 US military members and cost taxpayers $2.4 trillion.

Harsher mandatory minimum sentences for drug use, civil asset forfeiture without a conviction, and imposing death penalty for drug related murders – this is Joe Biden’s legacy. He voted for both the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and its 1988 counterpart and claimed George H. Bush’s war on drugs was “not tough enough, bold enough, or imaginative enough.”

Daily Show segment from 2015 (5m5s)

Previously: Joe Biden's #MeToo Adventure Continues

So there it is. janrinok did not respond directly to my challenge, like a gentleman, but he is English, so some accommodation is in order.

But he did, or, at least he might have, reigned in his dog, (and, yes, I know that the proper word is "reined", but there was precipitation) and with that admission, I consider the matter to be partially closed.

In the future, I expect aristarchus submissions to be given equal consideration with all other submissions, and not be dismissed without cause, hint, or license. And I expect Editors to be able to distinguish alt-right agitprop, and islamophobic hysteria, and Runaway submissions when they fit one of those categories,

But, and let me make this clear, the next time there is such an affront to justice and myself, or any other honorable Soylentil, I will demand satisfaction in blood. Or ouzo. Either way.

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Followed immediately by this:

We're sorry, your submission "Perché l’associazione ultra cattolica di Bannon vuole una scuola di sovranisti in Italia:" was declined for the following reason:
Submissions must be in English - https://soylentnews.org/faq.pl?op=editorial. -- JR

Do you not realize, denizen of the Fairy Isles to the West, that to a Greek Italian is English? Americans are the problem. Monolingual troglodytes who Steve Bannon is going to bambozzle.
----------------------
Further followed by a newsworthy submission:
https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=33468
Rejected by takyon with the words:

We're sorry, your submission "2 from white supremacist group plead guilty in Charlottesville rally violence" was declined for the following reason:
nope -takyon

Seems nothing has changed. #freearistarchus!!!!

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And I would be remiss if I did not profusely thank Azuma Hazuki for her invaluable service as a second in this affair. Without her, the matter would not have ended as amicably as it did. ありがとう、お姉さん.

I heard someone talking about The English Channel?

Then I realized. My cable package does not include The English Channel!

Is there somewhere it is available streaming online? (for free, of course, because socialism, and/or entitlement)

If I lived in England and did not get The English Channel I would be so mad I would swim South all the way to France!

(for extra credit one could try swimming North all the way to France)

I don't believe that's exactly true.

Anybody find the tapes?

Intel to Support Hardware Ray Tracing Acceleration on Data Center Xe GPUs

No confirmation on the first-generation Xe client or integrated GPUs, but I will be surprised if the "enthusiast" tier doesn't have it.

Another thing to look for: will the implementation be dramatically different from Nvidia's approach? Will Intel need to dedicate a portion of the die for ray tracing?

Well Wow, just noticed all the fine defintion on the "comments enabled"! I, of courese, will allow all and sundry, since I am the foremost proponent of free speech on SoylentNews, but the option to only allow Left-handed Friends of Particular Sexual Orientations was very, very tempting. On to business.

Janrinok. The editor has been with us for a long while, since the beginning? And yet he persists in rejecting aristarchus submissions with the admonition: "Journal please--JR " Now doubtless this is more helpful than the generic

The editors felt it inappropriate for them to correct the issue themselves. Please feel free to correct the issue yourself and resubmit.

with not even the slightest hint about what the errors might have been, other than being an aristarchus submission! But this is the point. Putting crucially important news items into a journal reduces them to the equivalent of Snow's sex life, John Miller's sucking of various parts of the Donald, or khallow's tenuous grasp of economics, in other words, the suggestion that I put my submissions into journal is an insult of the greatest magnitude.

I hereby challenge janrinok to a meeting on the Field of Honor, at dawn. Your choice of weapons, ground, and date. You have insulted me, janrinok, with your mendacious behavior, and it is now time to stand up to your calumny like a man. I await your seconds to call upon my seconds, so that the details of the resolution of our dispute can be resolved.

Yours, in honor and truth,
Aristarchus of Samos

And now, the janrinok does respond, in a rejection, by saying:

Can't see a STEM or specific topic of interest. Journal please.--JR

We are the descendants of the Slashdottoeri, the tech, the savvy, the ones who knew what news mattered; STEM does not become us. But evidently White supremacy does. Dawn, janirock! Your white skin will not protect you from my Social Warrior Justice!