Reach for the Stars @antares@qoto.org

13 years ago a friend posted something profound which i present with slight modification:

"A thought springs to mind, May your [social media posts] be more dangerous to the builders of violence than violence is to the builders of #peace."

@schrotie @seachanger

The Social Media tl'dr version has 4 points:

* [Animal Reservoirs](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2795140)
* [Lack of a sterilizing vaccine](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1074761322005581)
* [High mutation rate](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-023-00878-2)
* [Asymptomatic spread](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8654597/)

@schrotie @seachanger

As a counterpoint, here is Dr. Monica Gandhi an infectious disease specialist at UCSF explaining why Covid-19 is not the type of disease that could be eradicated regardless of what measures were taken:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/09/21/covid-pandemic-end/

@arialdo

error:: String -> a

by giving error a string it can make any type at all. It does so by stopping the execution of the program the very moment that value is actually needed.

Your function f on the other hand throws out its input without considering its value and so goes on its merry way without ever finding out what its input was.

Interestingly, there is no f you could write that actually not work the way f does because it is not possible to write a function that inspects the value of type of Void. Void is uninhabited so no function can ever force its evaluation.

@freemo We can say with certainty that concert pitch (actually set by A4 being standardized at 440hz today) was higher in the past - as high as A = 401hz. Not every instrument is tunable. Bells and some double reed instruments will never change pitch over their life times. By looking at bells from the 15th and 16th c we can tell that music was in general pitched somewhat higher then today.

The big innovation in modern tuning is equal temperament. All modern digital tuning has an precisely equal ratio between each half step. (about 1.059 to 1) This makes music work like you describe. Start on any pitch and the music will sound the same if the relative intervals are followed.

However much more than absolute pitch, relative pitch is hard without modern measurement methods, Prior to the 1700s the most common tuning was to tune in pure 5ths where every 5th was tuned by ear to a 2/3 ratio. It works pretty well until you get to the point where you go from the end of the circle of fifths back to what should be the note you started on. You find you are off by a scotch less than a quarter tone. This terrible sounding interval is a "wolf fifth" because it howls.

In pure fifths each key had its own flavor and so it was important to play a piece in the key it was written in. The major thirds that define the modern major chords are the most effected by these variations which explains why many pieced before JS Back and company are dominated by 4ths and 5ths that are safer in a pure-fifths tuning.

Bach's innovation which caught on across western music was to "fudge the thirds" to make them all sound similar - giving us the last common tuning the so called well-tempered tuning.

@davidtoddmccarty The Spring field State Journal Register which started publication in Lincoln's home town in 1831 might disagree that there was no news media back then. Regardless of how many people there are, believing that a system cannot be changed is what leads to tyranny, and entrenches ever greater oppression.

@tersenurse Thump is convicted in multiple courts but appeals are still ongoing on election night. Biden's health has deteriorated as the campaign has gone on and he was briefly hospitalized the month before the election. A third party candidate takes 28% of the popular vote nationally but fails to win any electoral college votes. Biden wins the election night count, with Trumps name not appearing on 4 blue state ballots. GOP controlled house uses that as a pretext to to refuse to certify the votes from those states and elect Trump as president with only 36% of the national popular vote.

@MisuseCase @davidtoddmccarty Of course at the time Lincoln was elected he was the part of a new #ThirdParty. The Republican Party was formed as a northern party dedicated to antislavery, drawing from the antislavery wing of the Whig Party and combining Free Soil, Liberty, and antislavery Democratic Party members. Perhaps we should be like the political abolitionists and not choose between parties who no longer represent our values -- if they ever did.

Look who decided to drop by for a visit. Greetings to our friends across the pond in the #RAF who brought a few A400M Atlases to our local airfield today. #planespotting

@mdylanbell This is not "defend its self" this is retribution and [EthnicCleansing](https://www.timesofisrael.com/ministers-call-for-resettling-gazas-palestinians-building-settlements-in-strip/). The IDF is, by their own count, killing civilians at a faster rate then the Germans during the London Blitz.

I am glad that congress is not funding this genocide and I have repeatedly expressed to my congresscritter that they should not pass a Likud funding bill and certainly not if it comes with ethnic cleansing at our own boarder as the price.

@mdylanbell Iowa Caucuses are in 11 Days. We are choosing our party candidates Right Now!

@mdylanbell This was Biden and Biden alone. Nothing forced him to make these sales. "[Biden Administration Again Bypasses Congress for Weapons Sale to Israel](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/30/world/middleeast/biden-us-israel-weapons-sale.html)"

@mdylanbell

Then he better get out on the campaign trail and tell people about it, because if the election were held today he'd lose to Nikki Haley by a wopping 17%!

On the other hand "Generic Democrat" beats Trump by 10%