Science and Technology Thread

[NTP66]

Have you tried Edge Chromium? Seriously, since build 90 or so, it has surpassed Chrome in every way. Resource consumption, bugs, etc. It's our new default browser at work, and my #2 at home (still a Firefox guy).

So, does Chromium mimic the look of Chrome or is it a different UI?. I'd like to get the resource hog that is chrome off of my home PC, but my wife insist on using it.

They're based on the same engine (Chromium). The UI is similar enough that I bet your wife wouldn't even notice if you changed the shortcuts and icons.

[Kane]

I don't think I'll test her on it. Still might give it a shot, though.

[count2infinity]

So Amazon released some new products today... some that I'm interested in, such as the Echo Show 15, and some that I'm less interested in, like the Amazon Glow (and interactive projector), and some that I'm WAYYYYYY less interested in like the Amazon Astro. What the actual f*ck???

[dodint]

Take it to the Randomness Thread, science-man.

viewtopic.php?p=971210#p971210

[NTP66]

Lol, I mentioned that in the Randomness thread.

[count2infinity]

NONE OF YOU ARE USING THIS THREAD CORRECTLY

[NTP66]

The Halo View is the only product that I think will do really well. Don’t like any of the new Echo stuff, at all. The drone cam… must resist.

[count2infinity]

What is the difference between a Halo View and a Fitbit which everyone already has on their wrists?

[NTP66]

I assume price? Honestly not sure. If they can undercut Fitbit, they’ll make a killing like they do with everything else.

[dodint]

That's what I was thinking when watching the Ryder Cup. Why would I buy a Whoop when I'm already in the Garmin/Fitbit/Apple/etc ecosystem?

[count2infinity]

I do most of the cooking in our house, especially on the weekends. If I have a 15 inch screen in my kitchen that I can stream sh*t like football games, Netflix, music, whatever, I'm down. I guess if I wanted to, I could just get a tablet and it'd do the same thing, but I really like my current Echo show 5 device.

[NTP66]

It’s just a weird looking device to me.

[NTP66]

I just read that the Halo View requires a $4/month subscription for **** like your sleep score. Lol, I take it back, that will flop.

[NTP66]

It’s just a weird looking device to me.

So I was definitely thinking of the Glow device, and not the Show 15. I'm now wondering if it'd be worth getting one and putting it on a swivel mount that swings back up underneath my cabinets in my kitchen. I have power in one of the cabinets, so that would already be taken care of.

[count2infinity]

Hmmmmm.... now there's an idea.

[NTP66]

They make mounts for the current Echo devices, so I imagine that these will become available shortly after the 15 is released. Would definitely be worth looking into so that it doesn't take up countertop space, IMO.

[shafnutz05]

This guy's Youtube channel is solid gold. So much interesting content.

[count2infinity]

I love Kurzgesagt in a nutshell...

"When cures don't materialize and diets don't turn out to be magical, we lose confidence in science and start to think of all science communication as misleading."
...
"...a gut feeling that you understand the science better than you actually do, which can lead people to ignore actual experts over their dangerous superficial knowledge and gut feeling. And this can have negative consequences for all of us because in the worst case, overconfidence in your own understanding of science can lead to bad decisions made with confidence. Just think of the surge of people that confidently disavow vaccines or climate change without truly understanding the subject matter."

[Shyster]

Other mRNA vaccines are starting to hit the test phases:

[count2infinity]

This could really go into the political or covid thread, but I think it belongs here.

I really like this video. It walks people through how the publication process in science works and essentially how not all "scientific papers" are equal and you have to have an understanding of the process before you start making claims.

He goes into a few of the people that latched onto this analysis and have been using it to push their agenda. Here's another:



It really makes me wonder why these people are so latched onto ivermectin or previously hydroxychloroquine. What is the rationale behind sticking by it and cherry picking whatever you can to try and "prove" you were right? Is that it? They just want to show that they were right the whole time and the man was keeping them down?

Scientists are wrong all the time. I safely say that over 95% of my experiments that I've done through my career in science didn't work. The beauty of science and technology is understanding failures, moving on, and then doing better.

[robbiestoupe]

This could really go into the political or covid thread, but I think it belongs here.

I really like this video. It walks people through how the publication process in science works and essentially how not all "scientific papers" are equal and you have to have an understanding of the process before you start making claims.

He goes into a few of the people that latched onto this analysis and have been using it to push their agenda. Here's another:



It really makes me wonder why these people are so latched onto ivermectin or previously hydroxychloroquine. What is the rationale behind sticking by it and cherry picking whatever you can to try and "prove" you were right? Is that it? They just want to show that they were right the whole time and the man was keeping them down?

Scientists are wrong all the time. I safely say that over 95% of my experiments that I've done through my career in science didn't work. The beauty of science and technology is understanding failures, moving on, and then doing better.

ivermectin mishmash

I've been thinking about this a little since I've been taking ivermectin for rosacea issues. Have to admit I didn't watch the videos you posted. My guess is the people pushing these alternative treatments are also anti-vax. They also believe covid is a real threat, so there must be alternative treatments out there. And it may be plausible that ivermectin, remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine provide some relief in the treatment of covid. If this is your only treatment against covid and your a staunch anti-vaxer, this will be your hill to die on.

Early on in the pandemic, I listened to a podcast where actor Daniel Dae Kim came down with covid and was treated with hydroxychloroquine. He swore that the treatment was essential in him recovering, all the while being very "left leaning" regarding covid. This was way before vaccines were a remote possibility.

[count2infinity]

Right....there are anecdotal cases out the wazoo. "I took hydroxychloroquine and I got better." You even had Joe Rogan publicly announce that he was on ivermectin when he came down with Covid, along with a bajillion other things he said he was taking.

Source of the post And it may be plausible that ivermectin, remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine provide some relief in the treatment of covid.

It's plausible... but there's no proof of it, even in double blind studies. I think there was some usefulness to remdesivir, but I have yet to see a study that definitively concluded that ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine provide any benefit.

My point isn't so much that individual people are finding ease or comfort in these treatments. If dunking your head in ice water is the way you fight off a cold... awesome. Go do it. I have a therapy lamp at my desk that shines light into my face through the day. I'm very well aware that the benefits from it are likely placebo in making me feel better through the day. Do I care if it's placebo or not? No.

But spreading misinformation about vaccines not working or worse, killing people, and offering ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as some miracle drug that will cure covid is dangerous. What I posted here is just a fundamental misunderstanding of how the scientific process works. Like the video states, it's scientific misinformation in real time.

[robbiestoupe]

I don't disagree with that. We've been forced to take some shortcuts during the pandemic, but it hasn't all been bad. Social media is mostly to blame, I'm sure. If media was set back 100 years but everything else in modern times, I doubt we hear about any of these other wacky treatments. Like you said, some things may actually work for some people. Doesn't mean it's something that will work for everybody, let alone a majority.

[count2infinity]

I don't disagree with that. We've been forced to take some shortcuts during the pandemic, but it hasn't all been bad. Social media is mostly to blame, I'm sure. If media was set back 100 years but everything else in modern times, I doubt we hear about any of these other wacky treatments. Like you said, some things may actually work for some people. Doesn't mean it's something that will work for everybody, let alone a majority.

He mentions in the video... you can see the press that articles get on the website that it's posted.

2 news mentions, 3753 likes shares and comments, 14247 tweets. I'd say with those ratios, it's certainly just misinformation.

As far as "actually work for some people". That's why the science is there. There are protocols and procedures in proving medicine works or doesn't in the majority of the population. The experiments and trials are done to make sure that the medicine is actually the thing that is making people better and not just getting better by chance or some other mechanism. I have no issue with someone not taking a drug due to an allergy. That makes sense, while the drug does work for the majority, it clearly doesn't work for that person. If a drug doesn't work as shown by trials and studies, there's no reason to push for its use.

[count2infinity]

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/all ... meteorites

We're nothing but just chemical reactions, my dudes...