This Is Fine

1:33 PM

@Wipqozn Nothing major is happening in US politics, and the Corona developments are just depressing in their inevitability. Sometimes it's a good sign if there's nothing to talk about in here, not really this time

Tim

@Wipqozn Hi, it really looks to me 24 hours or 1 min didn't matter, and your decision was solely based on who were talking about the topic. If you were even handed, you could have made the same comment earlier.

1:48 PM

@MadScientist yeah, lack of insanity is probably the reason for nothing else. I just figured "eh, 24 hours is enough for off-topic."

@Tim You're absolutely wrong. We're not going to "crack down" every time someone strays off-topic. Off-topic doesn't really matter unless it goes on for an extended period.

And like I said, you're more than welcome to make another room to discuss this more if you want. All I'm saying is it's not really what this room is for.

here's some good news, An international treaty banning nuclear weapons has been ratified by a 50th country, the United Nations has said, allowing the "historic" text to enter into force after 90 days.

despite the US's attempts to fuck it up

like, we're not going to see nuclear weapons disappear in 90 days but this is a start

@Wipqozn It's not really a lack of insanity, but right now it's just the usual insanity. I dread the lame duck period for Trump

@MadScientist As do I.

To be perfectly honestly I think there's a very real possibility it's going to end in civil war, no matter what the election result is.

I think the result won't be close enough that it could come to something like the Supreme Court deciding the outcome.

2:04 PM

The White House…wanted to get Santa performers to promote a COVID-19 vaccine in exchange for early access?

there's the above-usual insanity again

@TimStone I mean, at least they're trying to encourage people to get the vaccine....I guess?

You have to listen to the audio though to truly appreciate how off the wall it is

Caputo says "If you and your colleagues are not essential workers I don't know what is" and the person on the other end does a full-ass Santa "ho ho ho" laugh

Child: hey Santa, what Vaccine?
Santa: ummm, well....
Trump: \*pushes Santa to the ground\* it's called Regeneron, it makes you super immune to every disease because i took it and i'm immune to everything

But yeah I guess they really thought they'd have a vaccine by now? lol

2:11 PM

(that last bit would make Melaniasmile for once)

@TimStone that's what Trump kept saying, that they would have a Vaccine before the election

We're probably close to having something, I guess, but whether the efficacy holds up is a whole other story

not that any sane person belived that

and the not sane people who did still will give him a pass even if it comes next year

@TimStone I don't think we are. Experts, and I think even Trumps own admin, are saying 2021 is the earliest we can expect a vaccine... and that it won't be distributed large enough segments of America to matter until 2022.

Trump is the only one claiming a vaccine is just "weeks away."

There's a bunch of phase III trials that have the first point where they're evaluated likely somewhere in November/December. So if those are working well, that's the first point where we'd know

Of course you don't have the full statistical power of the entire trial at these points, so this will only help if the effect is large enough

@MadScientist Yeah, I'm counting time to actually produce and start distributing it as well. So early 2021 at the earliest to starting rolling it out.

2:16 PM

They're producing already I think, but of course it will still take some time until you can distribute it for real once a phase III trial shows it works

@MadScientist That's good to hear.

I did hear some vaccines were being produced already, in the event they pass phase 3.

This situation is unusal enough that it really doesn't matter if you waste a billion producing a vaccine that turns out not to be effective. We're just rolling the dice as often as we can with many different candidates

yeah, money not really a problem

But the number of cases now is really disturbing, I didn't expect this wave to start so sharply and so soon.

I think Canada had it's largest one day spike last week.

Nova Scotia is still doing good though.

Hopefully it stays that way.

yeah, canada had a little over 4000 new cases on Oct 13, which was our largest jump in a single day.

2:37 PM

we're at ~11000 - 14000 right now, the weekend tends to distort the numbers here

Distributing the COVID Vaccine: The Greatest Logistics Challenge Ever

3:18 PM

►

To give you an idea of how tricky it'll be to distribute the COVID vaccine

Like, they're actually building entirely new cold chain distribution centers for the vaccine

3:32 PM

First 'murder hornet' nest in U.S. located near B.C.'s southern border cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/…

> Officials were able to attach radio trackers to three hornets, the second of which led them to the discovery of the nest, while one other managed to chew its tracker off.

> "Stopping this cold is very crucial," said entomologist Sven-Erik Spichig with the WSDA.

> "Only a few Asian giant hornets can take out 30,000 healthy honey bees in just a matter of a few hours," he said

We're so fucked

6:10 PM

9 days

holy crap

buckle-up Americans

We're in for a bumpy ride.

Unionhawk

6:28 PM

lol

The youtube-dl code has been attached to the GitHub DMCA repository

the RIAA claims that youtube-dl violates the anti-circumvention bits of the DMCA and therefore any copies of the code constitute a violation

even though like, there isn't any real copy protection it's just code that says "hey youtube I am a browser send me this video" afaik

6:54 PM

@Jolenealaska Not just Americans. I'm Belgium and full of anxiety about these elections. Back in 2016 I actually couldn't sleep from it

Trump HAS to lose these elections for the good of the world. He's just too unpredictable and volatile for the US to survive 4 more years of his presidency, and if the US falls into civil war, that's going to have a global impact

@Nzall I don't know whether to thank you for the solidarity or to apologize for, well, everything.

I live in a world where I deal with Trumpists every time I leave my apartment. Since I never leave these days without wearing an anti-Trump t-shirt, I often participate in impromptu debates.

As an aside, by some valid metrics, Anchorage is the most violent city in the US. I live in a fairly rough neighborhood of that city.

@Jolenealaska I have to say, I'm somewhat hopeful. What I've seen so far on Reddit and Twitter shows me that Republicans are switching sides because they no longer identify with Trump's GOP. There are states that have voted solidly Republican for the past 40 years which are currently a REALLY close race. Like, Biden and Trump are neck and neck in Texas. TEXAS! The last Democrat they elected was Carter

I believe Trump will lose.

I fear what will follow, especially during the lame-duck period.

AACS encryption key controversy

Yeah, same

Ave

7:28 PM

@Unionhawk There's some copy protection as far as I've seen

There's some cipher stuff used on vevo stuff etc, but it's not like proper drm

like they do also use widevine for some videos

Unionhawk

I see

In any case this is starting to feel like this situation:

A controversy surrounding the AACS cryptographic key arose in April 2007 when the Motion Picture Association of America and the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator, LLC (AACS LA) began issuing cease and desist letters to websites publishing a 128-bit (16-byte) number, represented in hexadecimal as 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 (commonly referred to as 09 F9), a cryptographic key for HD DVDs and Blu-ray Discs. The letters demanded the immediate removal of the key and any links to it, citing the anti-circumvention provisions of the United States Digital Millennium...

Ave

Yes

Unionhawk

7:46 PM

They're going to have to get meta and issue takedowns to scripts designed to repost it lol

I kind of want to create an empty repo called youtube-dl

7:59 PM

Huh, Biden got Batista to do a campaign ad

Meanwhile the Trump campaign has apparently bought out the YouTube "masthead" from now until the election but I don't even know what that is

8:19 PM

@TimStone It's a pagewide ad across the entirety of the Youtube frontpage

youtube.com/videomasthead

Do you just not see it if you're logged in or is it because I have adblock?

Ave

@TimStone it's because you have adblock

Silly YouTube, ~~trix~~ ads are for ~~kids~~ people without ad blocking

Tim

8:33 PM

@Nzall Reddit and Twitter give you disillusion

They will keep you happy and optimistic

The silent majority is very shy

@Tim well EXCUSE ME for trying to find some vestiges of hope and sanity in this hellscape

Tim

Even Democratic party wins, I am very worried about if they will repeat doing the same things to be defeated in 2022 and 2024

as they were defeated in 2010, 2014 and 2016

i.e. I am worried about whether their victory is sustainable

Their victory may trigger the right wing to grow stronger in the following years.

if their performance is disappointing after taking over the power

murgatroid99

9:12 PM

@Tim By definition, you don't know what the silent majority wants. There are too many confounding factors in an election to infer their existence from a particular outcome.