Cobalt, Ontario
October 31st, 2017Via: Bloomberg:
Ironically, Cobalt, Ontario—population 1,100—was built on silver.
Remnants of a boom that transformed the town more than a century ago are everywhere. A mine headframe still protrudes from the roof of the bookstore, which was previously a grocery. The butcher used to toss unwanted bones down an abandoned 350-foot shaft in the middle of the shop floor and keep meat cool in its lowered mine cage.
While the last silver mines closed almost 30 years ago, a global push for the village’s namesake metal is promising to breathe new life into the sleepy town 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of Toronto. The whitish element (which “blooms” pink when exposed to air) was initially ignored by the area’s prospectors and later mined mainly as a by-product of silver. Now, global demand for cobalt, a component in batteries used to power electric cars for automakers from Tesla Inc. to Volkswagen AG, is changing the game.
Call it a cobalt rush in Cobalt.
“This area’s seen more airborne surveys in the last year than in the last hundred,” said Gino Chitaroni, a local prospector and geologist. “Two years ago, if you had a cobalt property you couldn’t give it away. All of a sudden, within six months, everything changed.”
AMD Ryzen 5 1600X: Owen’s First PC Build
October 30th, 2017This is totally off topic, but I felt like sharing the build in case it helps someone out.
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My oldest son, Owen, is turning ten in November and I planned a new computer build for the occasion. He has been using my ancient, 2008-era Dell Vostro 410 and it’s not up to the job of running his flight simulator software very well. That old Dell is getting passed down to Owen’s younger brother, Reed, and he’ll be thrilled to have it.
Besides flight sims and gaming, Owen has expressed interest in learning to do video and photo editing, so the goal was to try for a solid “do it all” build on a budget. The obvious CPU choice would come from AMD’s Ryzen 5 series because the 6-core 12-thread CPUs, while adequate for mainstream gaming performance, are outstanding low cost rendering chips. He does other tasks like word processing, web browsing (only sites I’ve whitelisted) and Scratch programming, but any old computer can handle that stuff.
As the components started arriving, it became impossible for me to hide what was going on, so we went ahead and had birthday and Christmas gifts early for Owen.
This build turned out so great that I thought I’d share the components, in case anyone out there wants to replicate it.
The machine we built is fine for mainstream gaming, but if you want peak gaming performance at higher resolutions and refresh rates, and plan on running a top end graphics card, you should consider going with Intel’s Coffee Lake platform. Coffee Lake was a paper launch and hardly anyone besides reviewers have been able to get their hands on those chips, but the the balls-to-the-wall option for now is the Core I7-8700K, no doubt about it. If you play video games in front of an audience, or have money to burn, that’s the chip for you—assuming you could buy one, which, as I write this, is pretty much impossible.
The AMD Ryzen 5 series still represents a fantastic value for people looking for a balance of gaming and productivity performance at a low price. The chips are in stock everywhere and there are a ton of motherboards to choose from.
Bonus Parenting Note: As we were building the rig, Owen said that the best part about getting the computer was building it with me. So, if your’re a computer nerd mom or dad, it’s definitely worth building computers with your children if they’re interested. And don’t be afraid to explain the nuts and bolts. I drew a diagram of how dual channel RAM worked and explained why we had to insert the DIMMs in specific slots on the motherboard. Owen took the paper and taped it up next to his rig. He was really fascinated with the fact that higher performance was possible just by knowing which of those slots to use.
If your child wants to build a PC, he or she will probably be interested in all of the details that system builders have to deal with. Show them how fan profiles work in BIOS. Show them how to stress test the CPU, the GPU and the RAM. Show them how to install the OS. You might do cable management and airflow without thinking, but talk it through so your child learns. Ryzen Master is awesome for monitoring temps and testing overclocking scenarios on Ryzen builds. It has a nice looking GUI with gauges and sliders. Owen thought it looked like cockpit instruments.
Don’t know enough to teach your child about building computers? Let them watch videos by Aussie Steve, Hairy Steve (outstanding info, most technical, Hairy Steve for President!), Paul and Jay.
Ok, here’s what we built.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
I had been planning to get the Ryzen 5 1600 and overclocking it because it includes a decent stock cooler, but the factory overclocked 1600X went on sale for $199 so I went with that instead.
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CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper T4
It’s very cheap and mounts to AM4 out of the box. Performance is fine. Besides price, I picked this one mainly because I was sure that it came with the AM4 clip.
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RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3000MHz
This is not the best RAM for Ryzen builds, but it’s easily good enough for our purposes. The reasons I picked this RAM were:
1) It’s relatively cheap, if it’s possible to think of any DDR4 RAM as cheap these days. I paid $162 for this kit.
2) It was in stock on Amazon.
3) It’s capable of decent speeds on Ryzen without much effort. This Corsair kit does 2800MHz in Owen’s rig. It might hit the full 3-grand as BIOS updates come out for the motherboard (see below). Ryzen performance increases substantially with faster RAM, but I wouldn’t go too nuts trying to hit 3200MHz. If you keep an eye out for deals on Amazon with this Corsair Vengeance LPX stuff, sometimes faster kits cost the same or just a few dollars more than the slower kits. The 2133MHz kit was only $15 less than the 3000MHz kit at the time I was buying. Definitely take the faster RAM if it’s not too much more expensive.
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Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B350-F
Fantastic board! Nice looking, too. Mild RGB lighting effects included, plus RGB headers, if you like that sort of thing. You can also turn it off in BIOS.
More on the Corsair RAM with this board. Corsair LPX DDR4 RAM is known for being not-so-great at hitting higher frequencies on Ryzen builds, but I was trying to save money and it was much cheaper than the Samsung based G.skill stuff that’s better with Ryzen. ASUS, however, is pounding out BIOS updates for the B350-F STRIX roughly once per month. While we weren’t able to hit the 2933Mhz it tries to set with the RAM OC Profile1 in the BIOS (it boot loops three times and eventually posts in safe mode), 2800MHz is stable. I tried entering the timings manually to hit 2933Mhz. No dice.
In the U.S., this board currently comes with a $20 rebate. $104 (price on Amazon)- $20 = $84. That’s a great value for a board of this quality.
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Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G3, 80 Plus Gold 650W
Fully modular. With Eco mode on, the fan only comes on when we stress test the system (summer NZ ambient temp 26C). It’s totally silent otherwise. Seven year warranty.
I usually build with Seasonic PSUs, but this EVGA unit was on sale and looked good so I went for it.
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Graphics: ASUS GTX 1060 Dual 3GB OC
Runs everything great at 1080p. Surprisingly quiet at full throttle. I wanted to get Owen the STRIX version to match his board, and because I have a STRIX 980ti, which he has coveted since I got it a couple of years ago, but the FPS gains over the 1060 Dual 3GB card aren’t worth the extra $100+ in my opinion.
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OS Drive: Crucial MX300 525GB SATA Solid State Drive
I’ve been going with Samsung on my last few builds, but Amazon stopped sending the 500GB 850 EVOs to NZ for some reason as I was emptying my wallet.
I haven’t had any problems with Micron/Crucial memory products in over two decades of using them, so I was happy to go back to them for this SSD. Seems fine. Hauls ass.
Media Storage Drive: Seagate 2TB BarraCuda SATA Internal Hard Drive
People still use these? Where are the flying cars and the 10TB m.2 NVME drives for a hundred bucks?
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 100R Silent Edition
Great and cheap case. My only complaint is that cable management under the back panel is pretty tight.
The Hyper T4 cooler easily fits. The heat pipes don’t come past the top of the chassis, and the CPU-side panel is bulged out giving you additional millimeters of wiggle room.
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That’s it! Have a great build!
Robots to Work in 50 Wal-Marts
October 30th, 2017Via: Arkansas Online:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. customers in a few Arkansas stores will soon cross paths with robots roaming the aisles.
The Bentonville company said it will begin using autonomous devices in about 50 stores next month that are programmed to scan store shelves and identify things like out-of-stock items or products incorrectly priced or placed in the wrong spaces.
Nothing to Hide
October 29th, 2017Via: Vimeo:
NOTHING TO HIDE (Oct. 2016) is an independent documentary dealing with surveillance and its acceptance by the general public through the “I have nothing to hide” argument.
DOJ: Billionaire Pharma Owner Fueled the Opioid Epidemic with Bribery Scheme
October 29th, 2017Via: Ars Technica:
The billionaire founder and majority owner of Insys Therapeutics was arrested Thursday on racketeering and fraud charges for an alleged nationwide scheme to push an extremely potent opioid drug containing fentanyl onto patients.
According to the Department of Justice, John Kapoor, 74, of Phoenix, Arizona, used bribes, kickbacks, and other fraudulent practices to get doctors to overprescribe the fentanyl drug, called Subsys. Fentanyl is a highly addictive synthetic opioid that can be up to 100 times more potent than morphine. As such, Subsys is only intended to treat severe pain in cancer patients. But according to the DOJ, many patients receiving Subsys didn’t have cancer.
The DOJ alleges that Kapoor, along with six former executives at Insys, paid doctors and pain clinics in various states to write “large numbers of prescriptions.” The department also alleges that Insys used fraudulent means to get health insurance providers to cover the harmful prescriptions.
Unistellar eVscope
October 28th, 2017I’ve been following their progress for several months leading up to this Kickstarter campaign. If you’re any sort of astronomy nerd, you’ll want to check this out.
I think it would be so much fun for me and my kids to get a tasking request from SETI Institute and go out to set up the instrument to see if we could help.
Via: Unistellar/Kickstarter:
Unistellar’s Enhanced Vision is a patent-pending technology that is based on the accumulation of light over short periods of time using a low light sensor, as well as on our proprietary algorithms of image processing that run on an on-board calculation module. The resulting amplified image is projected at infinite focus into the eye of the observer with 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, creating a genuine and live experience of sky observation. Sensor settings and image processing parameters are automatically adjusted.
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Campaign mode is developed in partnership with SETI Institute to allow every eVscope user to become a citizen scientist. In the case of an upcoming transient event (asteroid flyby, supernova, comets, transits of satellites,…), you will receive an observation request from scientists directly on your smartphone. Coordinates and instructions are wirelessly transferred to the eVscope, which will automatically point the astronomical event and connect the eVscope with a network of thousands of users all contributing to scientific research.
MADRID SEIZES CONTROL OF CATALONIA AFTER INDEPENDENCE DECLARATION
October 27th, 2017Via: AFP:
Spain was plunged into crisis Friday as Madrid seized power from independence-seeking Catalonia, the first curtailment of regional autonomy since the brutal dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
After regional lawmakers voted to declare a Catalan “republic”, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy moved swiftly to dissolve the rebel government and parliament, and called December 21 elections to replace them.
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Observers warned of trouble ahead, with Catalan officials and public servants likely to defy orders from caretaker envoys sent by the central government.
“Tensions are likely to rise significantly over the coming days,” suggested Teneo Intelligence, a risk analysis group.
“Demonstrators might try to prevent the police from removing Catalan ministers from their offices… This increases the risk of violent clashes,” it said in a statement.
DoD Plans Solar-Storm-Based National Blackout Drill During Antifa Protests In November
October 27th, 2017Via: ZeroHedge:
According to The National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL), elements of the US Department of Defense (DOD) will simulate a “communications interoperability” training exercise across the United States on November 04-06. The announcement released on October 24 has not been widely distributed to the media, because the drill is simulating a total grid collapse and could spark public fear.
Related: Communications Interoperability Training with Amateur Radio Community Set
Alphabet’s Waymo Will Test Self-Driving Cars in Snowy Detroit
October 27th, 2017
Via: Bloomberg:
The self-driving cars Google designed are going to the snow — and the seat of the car industry.
Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, the vehicle arm of Google’s parent, announced on Thursday that it will start testing its autonomous Chrysler minivans on roads in the greater Detroit area. Michigan will be the sixth state where Waymo has run its vehicles on public roads. But the region is the first with a winter dominated by snow and ice, the kind of inclement conditions that pose hurdles for vehicle sensors.
“Having lived through fourteen Michigan winters, I’m confident that there are few better places that will prepare our self-driving cars for winter conditions,” John Krafcik, Waymo’s chief executive officer and a former Ford Motor Co. executive, said in a statement. Waymo opened a testing facility in suburban Detroit last year.
The hometown automakers are already there. Ford has tested self-driving cars in the state (including some for pizza delivery). General Motors Co.’s Cruise Automation is experimenting there as well.
Trump Releases Some JFK Files, Blocks Others Under Pressure
October 27th, 2017It’s all just a scam to reinforce the official narrative.
If there ever was anything incriminating on paper, it would have been disappeared decades ago.
Via: Reuters:
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the unveiling of 2,800 documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy but yielded to pressure from the FBI and CIA to block the release of other records to be reviewed further.
Congress had ordered in 1992 that all remaining sealed files pertaining to the investigation into Kennedy’s death should be fully opened to the public through the National Archives in 25 years, by Oct. 26, 2017, except for those the president authorized for further withholding.
Trump had confirmed on Saturday that he would allow for the release of the final batch of once-classified records, amounting to tens of thousands of pages, “subject to the receipt of further information.”
But as the deadline neared, the administration decided at the last minute to stagger the final release over the next 180 days while government agencies studied whether any documents should stay sealed or redacted.
