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just me. my current interests and stories for the interwebs.
The nine-station La Jolla line will run 11 miles from Old Town to UCSD. SANDAG estimates the new line will attract 20,000 new transit riders a day.
I find it hard to see the 20,000 "new" transit riders a day within this locale. Maybe a brunt of it would be students going downtown but unless it actually stretches further North, I think this could easily be another 78 corridor ridership-less mode of transportation.
A new study says that while autonomous vehicle technology has great promise to reduce crashes, it may not be able to prevent all mishaps caused by human error.
Auto safety experts say humans cause about 94% of U.S. crashes, but the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study says computer-controlled robocars will only stop about one-third of them.
Take a look at the first two paragraphs. The headline itself states, “Autonomous vehicles won’t make roads completely safe,” but you could have also stated it as, “Autonomous vehicles will help make the roads a third safer.” This is what I call bullsh*t headlining. The first two paragraphs already show conflict. We know that autonomous vehicles won’t manage and mitigate 100% of all accidents but we do know that 94% of automobile accidents are caused by human error so… let’s reduce that by a third and that’s lives saved. What’s the freaking issue? Let’s continue to make improvements and not title this articles like it isn’t working.
The 23-campus California State University system plans to all but cancel in-person classes in the fall and instead will offer instruction primarily online, Chancellor Timothy White announced Tuesday.
The vast majority of classes across the Cal State system will be taught online, White said, with some limited exceptions that allow for in-person activity. The decision comes as schools throughout the country grapple with how long to keep campuses closed amid the coronavirus crisis.
We are in for a new normal. And with Los Angeles announcing a shelter-in-place order until the end of summer, it’s going to be a very different West Coast experience or lack-thereof. At least the beaches are open?
Hopefully everyone continues to keep their distance as we start mobilizing a bit more. I know I’m getting antsy. In today's news (Monday, May 11, 2020), California is looking worse than expected and one family gathering at Easter has resulted in a cluster of 5 cases including an individual who was coughing and joking about possibly having it. Do everyone a favor and protect yourself. Wear a mask not only for yourself but for others as well. We should know this already! Thanks to contract tracing, it hopefully has been isolated.
Researchers are now predicting that California could see more than 6,000 COVID-19 deaths by the end of August, up about 1,420 from projections they released last Monday. It’s the fifth-largest increase in projected death tolls among U.S. states, after Pennsylvania, Illinois, Arizona and Florida.
The upward revisions “are a result of a combination of updated daily death and case data, recent actions to ease previously implemented social distancing measures and steadily rising levels of mobility in many places,” the researchers said in notes released with the data.
Peloton reported it’s earnings today and smashed it. Wall Street loved it sending its stock up 5% in after-hours. Take a look at this highlight below!
For starters, Peloton added an insane 1.1 million users to its digital fitness platform from March 16 to April 30, amid a free trial promotion. The thinking here is that Peloton could convert these free trials into paying memberships, and eventually into a bike or tread.
The fact that I have at least 5 friends who just recently purchase the bike in the last two weeks alone makes me think that Peloton can even go higher and maybe, just maybe, they’ll release their rumored rower or just buy Hydrow. I hoping for the latter as I already love my rower so much and I think that Peloton’s digital base and software will only make the Hydrow experience that much better; as long as they keep the current athletes.
Note: I have a small position in $PTON and am going to hold onto it for a few months.
Update: Wall Street is loving it and Peloton (use my referral code for $100 off: QZGJZA) is up 10% after hours and I think we’ll continue to see a more money flooding into Peloton with their respective less expensive at-home competitors rising as well. At the same time, I’m seeing publicly traded gyms / membership workout services continue to tumble.
I’m was “fortunate” to wait and wait for a newly designed MacBook Pro since I was going to spend an exorbitant amount and I am more than happy that I did. Consequently, I skipped the entire butterfly keyboard in its entirety and with it, much of it’s many defects and highly publicized issues! Apple debuted the 16” MacBook Pro last November and has since released the new Magic Keyboard along its entire lineup concluding today with the new 13” MacBook Pro. From 2020 on, you won’t be using that butterfly keyboard on any of Apple’s new devices including the new iPad Pro Magic Keyboard which debuted just two weeks ago! I’m contemplating buying it for my 11” iPad Pro but I’m still unsure and disappointed in the price.
Apple today updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the new Magic Keyboard for the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook and doubled the storage across all standard configurations, delivering even more value to the most popular MacBook Pro. The new lineup also offers 10th-generation processors for up to 80 percent faster graphics performance1 and makes 16GB of faster 3733MHz memory standard on select configurations. With powerful quad-core processors, the brilliant 13-inch Retina display, Touch Bar and Touch ID, immersive stereo speakers, all-day battery life, and the power of macOS, all in an incredibly portable design, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is available to order today, starting at $1,299, and $1,199 for education.
If you want to know which configuration of the 13” I would opt for, specifically, I’m surprised that Apple didn’t debut the long-rumored 14” bezel-less MacBook Pro. But I digress. Obviously, the first option, since you can’t upgrade most of these machines after the fact, is to max out the RAM. While the base model starts at $1,299, it only comes with 8GB RAM and I know that macOS Catalina along with Google Chrome or Apple’s Safari web browsers will eat it all up. While the $1,299 and $1,499 only max out at 16GB RAM, the higher model with the Intel 10th Generation CPU starts at 16GB 3733MHz LPDDR4X and can be maxed out at 32GB RAM which is also faster than 2133MHz LPDDR3 found in the lower two models.
So with that, I start at $1,799 base setup then upgrade the RAM, for $400, then upgrade the hard drive to 1TB for $200. If you have anything left over, going from the Intel i5 to the i7 for $200 is a logical upgrade too in my book. You can always add hard drive space with external drives or USB sticks but the RAM and CPU are nonupgradable components. So with all that added up, we’re back at $2,399 or $2,599 with the i7 CPU. Still an amazing little computer and also near the same price as the outgoing model.
The development of smart technologies paves the way for new diagnostic possibilities. In the case of the Apple watch, after the mobile application is installed, the records an ECG when a finger is placed on the watch’s digital crown. A 30-s tracing is stored in a PDF file that can be retrieved from the application.
Thus, the Apple watch may be used not only to detect atrial fibrillation or atrioventricular-conduction disturbances but also to detect myocardial ischaemia.
An apple a day may keep myocardial infarction away.
Obviously, one isn’t supposed to take this and make it an end-all for the Apple Watch in detecting all heart conditions, but it does serve as a great example that wearables, particularly the Apple Watch, is proving to be more than a wrist decoration but more of a valuable tool for those that wear one. Here is the direct link to the European Heart Journal’s PDF.
Mayor Dedina explained, “The river flow in the Tijuana River should be zero gallons a day during dry weather. Today, it is 60 million gallons a day.I That’s a minimum flow. The entire Tijuana sewage system has collapsed, and it appears there are absolutely no efforts underway in Mexico, or on the part of the U.S. Federal Government, the Trump administration, to actually move forward and ask for emergency repairs so we don’t endure an entire summer of polluted beaches.”
You read that right! 60 Million gallons a day!!! This is a complete disregard for safety and environmental responsibility. Since there is zero liability, how do you make a country or it’s border city responsible? Then of course, there’s the dedicating on our own sidewalks in San Francisco. What is going on in this world?
Starting at $399 for a 64GB phone that posses the fastest mobile chip on the market in both iOS and Android ecosystems, this is a steal giving this device either the best value for performance and size or overall best phone for the 2019 year! I know that’s pretty conclusive of an idea but where are you going to get this kind of performance for this kind of price? I would opt to pay an additional $50 for the 128GB model in white.
For someone who has a 2.5-year-old iPhone X, if I go through Apple’s trade-in program, I get $320 credit, to which I can pay $79 to upgrade to the latest device and even have some features that the iPhone 11 (non-Pro) has in terms of camera quality! I’m thinking about this every day but at the same time, I’m deciding on whether to just wait for the iPhone 12 which is looking more and more like it’s going to be delayed due to the current global crisis.
Introduced with iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, A13 Bionic is the fastest chip ever in a smartphone and provides unparalleled performance for every task iPhone SE handles. Perfect for photography, gaming and augmented reality experiences, A13 Bionic makes every action feel fluid.
I’ve always been about having the “latest and greatest” especially for something that you are constantly using everyday and this pricing is key! If you want a great comparison head over to 9to5mac for their iPhone SE vs iPhone XR write-up.
Style, sophistication, performance. With breathtaking looks, this LEGO® Technic™ 42107 Ducati Panigale V4 R captures the spirit and design of the original. It’s the first model motorcycle in LEGO Technic history to include a gearbox for exploring different speeds and techniques. Other amazing features include steering, front and rear suspension for realistic movement, plus front and rear disc brakes. Amazing details capture the spirit of Ducati Ducati fans will appreciate the attention-to-detail in this amazing motorcycle replica. A kickstand, exhaust pipe, windshield and dashboard add the little details that make this model toy so true to the full-size version. And of course, the classic red color scheme is sure to quicken the pulse of any Ducati fan. Build and learn with LEGO Technic model toys As part of the LEGO Technic universe, this motorcycle model kit provides an immersive and rewarding building experience. With realistic features, it introduces builders to the world of engineering, as they discover how gear mechanisms work.
Did you read that?! It’s has a freaking 2-speed gear-box AND it’s over 12” long AND it’s actually selling for $69.99 on August 1st! Perfect for a post birthday present to myself!
Her doctors diagnosed a dangerous condition called acute necrotizing hemorrhagic encephalopathy, or ANE, which they detailed in the journal Radiology last month. It’s a rare complication known to occasionally accompany influenza and other viral infections, though usually in children. With the flu, scientists believe such brain damage is caused not so much by the virus itself but by squalls of inflammation-inducing molecules called cytokines, which are sometimes produced in excess by the body’s immune system during an infection. Scientists are still trying to figure out if the same is true for Covid-19, or if the coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 is actually invading the nervous system directly. It’s an open question, the answer to which could have wide-ranging implications for how doctors diagnose and treat Covid-19 patients.
We are all aware of the common symptoms of COVID-19 but other symptoms are starting to pop up more frequently leading to a whole slew of newer ailments some of which are already being documented to be long-lasting. JAMA Neurology just posted a paper on it last Friday as well.
BUT IF SARS-COV-2 turns out to be a brain-invader, it wouldn’t shock Stanley Perlman, a microbiologist and infectious disease physician at the University of Iowa. During the 2003 SARS epidemic that killed 774 people, only a few dozen autopsies were ever performed. But in at least eight of them, pathologists found bits of the virus and its genome in the brain, in addition to the lungs, kidneys, digestive tract, and spleen. Perlman wanted to understand how that might happen. So he zoomed in on a receptor called ACE2, which SARS-CoV—the coronavirus that causes SARS—uses to enter human cells. In a 2008 study, Perlman and his colleagues genetically engineered mice to express that human receptor and then squirted a small dose of SARS-CoV into their noses. Rather than descending into their lungs, the virus climbed out of the nasal cavity and into their brains using olfactory neurons like rungs on a ladder.
I’m happy that both these amazing companies, that dominate the smartphone world, are finally collaborating for the great good of humanity but much bigger questions loom. Without a doubt, I’m happy that Apple is taking a lead in this project with their concerns for privacy as I hope that they will champion in protecting us more so than what we have seen from other corporations. You can find both Apple and Google’s Press Releases here with their images below on how the app will work. Privacy is the biggest issue here and really does seem like a big brother way of tracing but is there a better solution? If you want to read further into the technical documentation, click here!
Apple and Google will be launching a comprehensive solution that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing. Given the urgent need, the plan is to implement this solution in two steps while maintaining strong protections around user privacy
Techcrunch put it best in summary:
There is zero use of location data, which includes users who report positive. This tool is not about where affected people are but instead whether they have been around other people.
If you haven’t been able to stop by Google’s COVID-19 Community Mobility Papers, that’s something to definitely check out!
One such retailer is Gap Inc., which made an unprecedented move to halt orders of its summer and fall collections, effectively telling manufacturers and suppliers not to send products for stores. The effort comes on the heels of companywide furloughs that left most employees of Gap and its sister brands jobless around the nation.
Maybe this is the end of seasonal style and fashion’s waste problem?
