covid numbness and russian censorship: digital walls rise (20220331)

links, etc

• Why America Became Numb to COVID Deaths - The Atlantic

  there’s a lot to unpack here, well worth the read.

• C Isn’t A Programming Language Anymore - Faultlore

  i was more amused by this than i should have been. there’s a lot of truth in here.

• A homespun stitch in time could save us | Essay - Minnesota Reformer

  definitely a stop and make you pause article. i don’t have fond memories of my homemade clothes. but i do think there’s a lot to be said about having less material stuff in our lives and the exploitation that goes along with more stuff is going to come back to roost. see also, the right to repair.

• New blocks emerge in Russia amid war in Ukraine: An OONI network measurement analysis | OONI

  this is the best thing i’ve read on the content blocking currently underway within russia. the cyberwarfare stuff has been less apocalyptic than expected, surely there’s a lot of stuff that we’re not seeing but so far the most interesting development on the network front has been the nature of the censorship apparatus.

• Talking Silicon Photonics Signal And Noise With Andy Bechtolsheim

  cool material sciences and optics stuff from work.

• The (Edited) Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto

  pretty much spot on.

• The Electric Car’s Shrinking Role in Reducing Oil Demand - Austin Vernon’s Blog

  this is an interesting take on things. i’m honestly not sure i parse it all.

• Bias in Internet Measurement Infrastructure | RIPE Labs

  RIPE takes a look at the placement and inherent biases in RIS, ATLAS and misc. other internet data sources. the results are unsurprising, but it was nice to see them break things out like this and the charts are purty.