This was a time of innovation. Somewhere between 4,000 and 3,001 BCE (6,000-5000 years ago): Beginning of the Bronze Age Writing systems emerged (Mesopotamian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics), proto-writing may have emerged earlier Probable first domestication of the horse (Ukraine) Earliest known numerals (Egypt) Lyres, harps, flutes and clarinets (Egypt) Desertification of Northern Africa begins ... Read more
Yes, it will take that long, but also yes, we will achieve normalcy once again. Repurcussions of this crisis precipitated by disgraced former president Trump will echo long into the 2020s and beyond, as a scar. Yes it will take that long. 2021? forget about it. 2022? Still reeling from the pandemic, and maybe everyone ... Read more
Originally published 2018-09-06, updated 2020-07-29 My beloved KeepassX has not seen a release since 2016, but a newer fork entitled KeePassXC has. The latest version looks very much the same when viewed from LMDE3 with a dark theme. The added functionality is quite nice: A TOTP Seed and Code Generator. For native theme support (under ... Read more
There are several advantages to a ketogenic or keto diet. The main problem is that one is faced with having to battle one's culture to do it. Keto as culturally rare Most developed or developing (non-hunter-gatherer) cultures are heavy consumers of carbohydrates: rice, pasta, bread. This is not to mention the impact of sweets and ... Read more
Facemasks in the United States During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the WHO and CDC initially performed a disservice by downplaying the advantages of facemasks. This was due to the critical shortage of these and the need for health and medical personnel to have access to them. In particular, the CDC underscored that surgical masks or ... Read more
In the mid-2000s I attended courses in Future Studies at the University of Hawaii. Jim Dator, one of the founders of Future Studies in North America was there, and he had some useful, if soft, methods for going about understanding different futures. This is relevant to the latest pandemic because it is one of the ... Read more
Fortune is a pseudo-random quote display, based on formated text file(s) and strfile(s). The runtime is available via apt install fortune, and then it is a matter of: Deleting current fortune files Creating one or more new fortune files Running strfile FORTUNEFILE to generate the .dat file Invoking fortune perhaps with cowsay in the /.bashrc ... Read more
The Onyx Boox Nova Pro is a popular 7.8" eNote device with grayscale e-ink Carta screen, and a Wacom touchscreen layer, under mobius and glass. The hardware includes USB-C, an on/off/sleep button and a back button, along with bluetooth and wifi. The main advantage, though still a bit incomplete, is the ability to read and ... Read more
If there ever will be a world government, one which speaks for and works on behalf of humanity for the entire planet, or most of it, that system will not use miles, pounds, ounces, inches, and yards. That system will be a rational measurement system that 99.5% of the earth already uses. This is how ... Read more
When one wants to understand what the most sigificant digits are regarding courses of action, it is vital to have the appropriate time-scale. What can be done in 1 day is a much more constrained problem than one can be done in 1 year, 10 years, 1,000 years, etc. Ten million years is sufficiently large ... Read more