Litmocracy

Monday, March 12, 2018

What is the weight of a priority mail envelope?

Ten 12.5x9.5 USPS Priority Mail envelopes weigh 14.9 ounces. An ounce is 28.3495 grams. How much does one envelope weigh? This question also applies to USPS Priority Mail Express envelopes of the same size.

14.9 ounces times 28.3495 grams per ounce divided by 10 envelopes:

14.9 * 28.3495 / 10 = 42.24 grams per envelope.

Have you heard of "units analysis"? It's a decent way to check your math when you do this kind of calculation. You can ignore the numbers, but you have to remember that anything over itself (as in a fraction) is 1 and multiplying by 1 has no effect. So, applying that to the above, we have:

ounces times grams per ounce (g/o) divided by envelopes (e), or

o * g/o / e. This puts ounces and grams in the numerator and envelopes and ounces in the denominator, and that allows us to "cancel out" the ounces (because they are in the numerator and the denominator), leaving us with grams per envelope.

When I get a receipt from Mailwerkz, my favorite place to send and receive packages, it shows the weight of the package I mailed. This is very handy because I can convert it from pounds to grams and subtract the weight of the envelope to find out how much what I mailed actually weighed.

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Take Responsibility

I found a great discussion in my email box a few days ago. A "Ralph Lopez" had started the discussion by sending an unsolicited email to several people (including me) with the subject "Can false flag survivors and families form a united front?" Groups formed for and against Ralph's perception that authorities are largely responsible for a lot of the problems we face. The divisiveness got to me and so I wrote a reply. Before I put it here, let me give you a little background from the discussion. One of the emails in the discussion contained this:

Laurie Van Auken illuminated this distinction in her response to the government's declaration that "everyone is responsible for 9/11, therefore no one is [personally] for 9/11," to which she commented, "everyone is responsible for 9/11, therefore everyone is responsible for 9/11."

Now I want to share my input with my readers:

These are two very important and seemingly contradictory perspectives. "Seemingly" I say because perspectives are always and everywhere just what seems to be, to someone. I think in analogs and allegories. So I imagine myself saying, after doing something evil: I take full responsibility, but I also blame all of you, in this email thread, in my life, in the world - everyone is to blame for my bad behavior.

However, someone, or some group (me, maybe some conspirators, friends, followers, whatever) created an "evil" intention and then executed on it. Certainly, the intention was created out of the world and its condition, something to which every single one of us contributes. What are we? We are pieces of the physical universe capable of creating and executing on intentions. With that capability comes responsibility. Every individual has the responsibility to mind the intentions they create and on which they act, regardless of everyone and everything else.

In view of all of us having (and accepting) responsibility, let's confront the issue of mass murder. Lord Acton wrote to a Bishop in 1887 that "Power tends to corrupt..." and corruption is a violation of the trust we put in others. Putting trust in others can be overdone, and I think that's what's going on. How do we measure the right amount of trust to put in our leaders, should we choose to have leaders? With light, that's how. Exposure and knowledge and work to establish an understanding of what's so is how we can know how much to trust.

What Ralph shared with us had this at its core: " full transparency, disclosure. Govt accountability. Public Right to Know. " What Brian shared has this at its core: " we're all completely fucked by our own greed, avarice and stupidity, ". I can do something - several things, actually - about both of these things, and it turns out it's the same set of things:

Speak up
Respect people
Recognize my own fallibility
See from the perspectives of others
Keep others informed about what I have to offer
Be honest and trade honestly and in good faith
Maintain my ability for self-defense
Protect what is valuable
Pay attention

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Bitcoin Dealer Archive (COMPLETE)

First off, you may be here because you've already been to some place on the Internet where you found someone (me!) with whom to trade bitcoin. You might not know of the other places where I have ads letting people know that I can buy or sell bitcoin. I can also buy or sell Dash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, and EOS. I have ads on the following platforms:

~~localbitcoins (scroll to the bottom to see my ads)~~
~~paxful~~
~~localmonero which also handles bitcoin as AgoraDesk~~
~~localethereum~~
~~Wall of Coins (Cash deposit or Cash by Mail)~~

Mailchimp provides an archive of my newsletters (sign up here), but it only has the most recent twenty posts. Below is a usually-complete list for those who would like to start at the beginning, as I recommend. The latest few newsletters might not be here yet, but that second link to the latest twenty has them.

CANARY: Since 6/9/2024, I have been under close scrutiny from the feds. I posted six parts of what turned out to be a 10-part narrative of my adventure in legal land. If you'd like the rest, please get in touch with me.

CAVEAT: There is no way to alter the content of these newsletters (aside from violating Mailchimp's ToS, which I'm not willing to do and don't know how to do anyway), so be aware that some of what they say is out of date. For example, "Newsletter Meetup" mentions a meetup that no longer exists.

Thanks to my friend Candy for showing me that the Mailchimp Archive link does NOT provide a full archive. I submitted feedback to Mailchimp about this, so hopefully they will fix it soon. Meanwhile, I constructed the list above by logging into Mailchimp and copying the "page source" of my "Campaigns" page after I clicked the "Load More" button to make sure all my campaigns were listed. I used a text editor to remove all the lines that didn't contain this:
id="dijit_form_CheckBox_{X}" value="{HEX}"
... where {X} is a number and {HEX} is a hexadecimal number. My Regex in Textpad was:
^.*[^0-9]([0-9]+" value="[0-9a-f]+").*$
Next, I copied those lines into Excel and turned them into links with an Excel formula that I've lost. If you'd like help getting the titles for your own archive, leave a reply and I'll see what I can do. I hope these instructions help others who followed the same rabbit hole trying to find a complete list of archived newsletters on Mailchimp's site.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Disqus censored me :-(

I love Disqus, but I left a comment on their post about 973 Disqus commenters and they removed it. Thankfully, it's still in my profile, so I figured I'd post it here because I like the idea so much:

AI has gotten very good at finding "similar input" and I would like to see Disqus provide commenters with a way to "Fit your comment into 25 words or less for our AI matcher to see if we can 'automagically' strengthen your input with that of others, and lead you all to others who have similar input." It would be helpful all around to see automation recognize and point out to a publisher (and their audience) when they do something especially good or bad.
For example, for this comment, I'd write "Use comment similarity to highlight shared sentiment and connect those who share it."
I believe that some sites do not show comments by default, but require the user to click to view them. I think this is a dirty trick used by publishers who realize that comments destroy the power of their propaganda. It would be nice to see some research into whether there is any correlation between showing comments by default and reader satisfaction with various aspects of what a publisher does.
For this second part of my comment, my 25-words-or-less version is: "Research correlation between reader satisfaction and requiring a click to see comments."

Since they removed it from the article, I copied it and sent it to Automattic, the makers of wordpress plugins IntenseDebate and Akismet among others.

Saturday, May 20, 2017

EFF's out-of-date Secure Messaging Scorecard

This is an open letter to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Dear EFF,

At https://www.eff.org/node/82654 you wrote "you should not use this scorecard to evaluate the security of any of the listed tools, as many of them have been changed since the scorecard was last updated" but you also wrote "Updates will be made if the listees or others inform us of changes or inaccuracies."

I suppose this has been happening ("the listees or others inform us of changes or inaccuracies") and you have not stood by your promise to make updates accordingly. This seems to me to be one example of "security vulnerabilities ONLY in EFF software or systems," and so I am reporting it here. There are people relying on the information at https://www.eff.org/node/82654 to maintain their messaging apps in a secure fashion, and EFF has apparently dropped the ball.

Is this because we didn't donate enough? Can you send me a list of the "changes or inaccuracies" that have been reported by listees or others and give me a chance to raise the money it would take to incorporate those changes and inaccuracies into the page there?

Thank you for your work. I am committed to helping excellent organizations such as yours follow through on their promises.

Friday, May 19, 2017

My Ten-Day Water Fast

Yes, I fasted for 10 days. "What will-power!" someone said. Thanks! There is a thing called "orthorexia" about which Timberline Knolls says:

An orthorexic may avoid numerous foods, including those made with:

Artificial colors, flavors or preservatives

Pesticides or genetic modification

Fat, sugar or salt

Animal or dairy products

Other ingredients considered to be unhealthy

Well, yeah, what intelligent person wouldn't? I suppose the modern way is to pathologize everything that is different. Despite this silly main "symptom" of orthorexia, the fact is that it is hard to eat healthy, and my ken was to eat a lot less, so I welcomed my friend's suggestion to follow his fruitarian diet. And now that I read a little more about orthorexia, I'm not worried about it.
About three weeks into eating only fruit (and a little bit of veggies, but not much), I had a blood test because I have essential thrombocythemia, a disease in which the megakaryoctyes that make platelets make too many of them. Do I have a normal number of over-productive cells or too many normal cells? I think the latter, because my oncologist (yes, ET is a mild form of cancer) confirmed his suspected diagnosis with a blood smear from the marrow in my hip. In the smear, I think he told me, he found more megakaryocytes than there should be.
After he punched a hole in the back of my pelvis, I drove home with a bandaid on my butt. On the way I got a ticket for not stopping fully at a red light when I was turning right. At the court appearance, they asked me to sign something and I stupidly agreed. Don't cooperate with people who demand that you sign things. Scream instead that you're being coerced. Sorry for the diversion. I think it's here for a reason, but I can't find it yet. Maybe someday.
I actually have been getting a blood test about once a month for almost two years to make sure my platelet count doesn't go too high. Dr. Yeh gave me a prescription for hydroxyurea, also known as "Hu". Hu is the same molecule as urea - yes the stuff in our pee - except that Hu has an OH- ion where urea has a H+ ion. It's a carbon bond. They can pull that kind of crap, the little buggers.
The first test before I started eating only fruit showed my platelet count at 553. It was about a week later that I stopped eating animal products and most veggies - so fruit only. About two weeks later I had another test and the number was 503. I concluded that meat contributes to me having too many platelets. Two weeks after that, I had another test and the number was 419! On that same day, I scrambled myself four eggs and some cheese in an omelet to celebrate. I ate half of it for breakfast. Then I went to see Dr. Yeh because I was considering doing a water-only fast.
My fruitarian friend gave me a book called Fasting and Eating for Health by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Clearly, it inspired me. Dr. Fuhrman wrote in that book about what the body does when it doesn't have to spend any energy on digestion. One of those things is to metabolize extra cells that are not needed. I thought maybe whatever biological calculation had evolved might recognize my extra megakaryocytes as such edible extras.
I told Dr. Yeh about the book and that it recommended a 14-day fast under the supervision of a doctor - for people with chronic medical problems like diabetes, arthritis, obesity, high blood pressure, etc.Dr. Yeh said 14 days was too long and even ten was too long. I pointed out that Dr. Fuhrman suggested that fasting patients taper off all their medications, but Dr. Yeh told me to keep taking hydroxyurea. We agreed that I'd stay on the Hu and fast for five days and then get another blood test to see how I'm doing. He'd then have the chance to call me and convince me to break my fast.
When I got home, I ate the last half of my omelet and finished my raw milk, and stopped eating.
Five days later, I got another blood test and found that five days of consuming nothing but water reversed the trend in my platelet count. It was back up to 476. My best guess is that since the body begins getting rid of toxins (like Hu) when you stop giving it food to digest, the Hu was having less and less effect on my bone marrow. I have not yet discussed this with Dr. Yeh, and I think my next test is in a week or two.
My blood tests measure lots of things, and since I started taking Hu, many of them have been a little lower than normal (White blood cell count, red blood cell count, hemoglobin, etc.). All those levels improved after five days of consuming only water. I patiently waited for a call from Dr. Yeh to see if I should break my fast. The nurse called instead and said my platelet count looked fine. I asked her if she knew I was fasting and she didn't. We discussed the book and she thanked me for the information. I asked her to let Dr. Yeh know that I'd be consuming only water for another five days.
I broke my fast with a bit of watermelon about 8 hours early. I also had a little blueberry cream custard at a voluntaryist meetup, and mostly fruit after that.
I had a plan to eat meat and everything else I want only on Tuesdays because that is the day of my weekly dinner with some friends. The rest of the time, my plan was to eat just fruit. Then I had a dream. I went to bed late, so in the morning I was sleeping in, and that usually gives me some dreams.
I met someone for a business deal outside my house. That was peculiar because I usually meet people for business in more public places. He came in a truck and had his son with him. He suggested that we go to the bank because he needed to get some cash there, so I walked to the passenger side and got in. He set the vehicle moving, but was no longer in it. I was kind of alarmed and curious, so I looked over at the driver's seat to confirm that it was empty and there was his son, driving.
The son drove us straight where the road turned left, right up onto someone's porch and nearly hit their front door before finally turning. I woke up from the adrenaline rush. I was prepared for another dream-crash and tried to go back to sleep so I could dream lucidly. It worked!
My dream picked up where it had left off, and we were now driving up the hill that came after that left turn. It leads to a T intersection. I braced myself for more bad driving and looked forward to the exciting crash in my dream. He was headed for a shrubbery across the street, and once again, wasn't going to turn in time. Though I was prepared, the adrenaline rush woke me up. Perhaps it was also an epiphany of sorts that helped awaken me. Someone, I deduced, had taken me too far, and my brain said that twice. In a row.
During the previous few days, I had spoken with two friends who were both fruitarians, though perhaps not very strictly. Fuhrman's book pointed out that the human body is capable of making everything it needs without eating anything but fruit. He still recommended grains and legumes and one other thing I can't remember. A third friend pointed out that while the body can make all that other stuff, it doesn't have to; we can just eat animal products that already contain it.
A fourth friend related to me that one of her friends had done a long-term fast and it aged him in a way from which he never fully recovered. I very strongly believe that the dream was my body telling me to eat more than just fruit, and I've listened. I've been meditating for ten minutes a day for a few months, and my body and I have had some interesting discussions about trusting each other.
I stopped eating bread a few months before I started this whole fruitarian thing, and that made me lose about ten pounds. Before my fast, I lost another five while eating only fruit, and then ten more during the fast. I'm gaining it back slowly, on purpose. I am a bit too thin now, but, thanks to mild orthorexia, I will expand myself in healthy ways.

There are two main theories that I'm testing regarding essential thrombocythemia. One is that it is precipitated by gluten. The other is that it is precipitated by something commonly found in meat. I lean toward the second, and perhaps, after my next blood test, I'll start eating bread again. I do kind of miss it, but that want gets weaker all the time.

It was my friend Mike who inspired me to read the book, and also to create this post. Thanks Mike! You may have helped me cure my disease.

Update!

I finally had a blood test today (5/31/17) - my first after the fast. My platelet count was 476 on May 2nd. My 10-day fast ended on 5/7. My prescription is for 5.5 grams of Hu each week, but for at least the last two weeks, I've been taking only 4.5. My platelet count is 387 today. Can words convey my joy?

If and when I have established a new dosage and stable platelet count, I might to another 10 day fast to see if the effect of that is more generally a permanent reduction in platelet production (I'd assume through metabolization of the extra megakaryocytes). I am excited. I'm tired too, as I expected to be, because Hu suppresses the normal functioning of bone marrow activity ("myelosuppressant" is what that's called) and (apparently) I've been taking more than I need to.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

A Story I want to Write.

In 2162, humans have evolved a little bit and become capable of very powerful self-defense. The capability can also be used offensively, but that is extremely dangerous because the tech that enables it contains traces of the identity of the person who used it.

The capability is to drain someone of the motivation to live by looking at them and concentrating and ultimately being able to stop their heart without them caring. The tech that enables this is everywhere (cellular technology, perhaps by 2162, cellular will leverage brainwaves), so the person who wishes to drain another of the motivation to live doesn't even need a cell phone as long as someone in the vicinity has one.

In the spirit of Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward" and Beth Cody's repeat of the idea, my story would contain a person from our time who for whatever reason (cryogenics?) is around in 2162. He has questions and finds answers, and those answers are from me, for my audience, as a possible future I see.

Some issues addressed in my story will be:

Why isn't everyone dead, since it so easy to kill someone?
Wouldn't psychopaths have a field day and ruin everything?

This fiction writing exercise will be part of a long term effort on my part to supplement Beth's book with an alternative view that concentrates more on telling a story rather than explaining things, as hers does. I wanted to write it down so I don't forget to do it. Your encouragement and ideas are welcome!