TECHNOLOGY STUFF!!

There's a ton of tech stuff going on all the time. The size range of things ranges from phantom, e.g., consciousness and the exercise of power, to quantum (really tiny) to snout sized to mega-galactic. In the quantum and mega-galactic realms, physicists have found that electrons flowing through a superthin highly conductive material act like like a thick fluid.

Traditionally, we've understood how electrons behave in metals and semiconductors through this simple model: electrons are imagined as tiny, independent particles, much like cars on an open highway—each one moving freely, without interacting much with the others.

However, this traditional view falls short in the case of some emerging quantum materials such as the ultrathin, and highly conductive material graphene. In these materials, rather than behaving like individual cars on a highway, electrons instead act together in a way that resembles a viscous fluid such as oil.

In a recent study, published in Nature Nanotechnology, the team reported that when graphene is exposed to electromagnetic radiation of terahertz (THz) frequencies, electron fluid heats up and its viscosity is drastically reduced, resulting in lower electrical resistance—much like how oil, honey and other viscous fluids flow more easily as they are heated on a stove.

THz radiation (quantum scale), with its very high frequency, could serve as the "carrier frequency" for ultrafast, beyond 5G networks, enabling faster data transfer, and non-invasive scans. THz radiation is safer than X-rays, allowing for highly selective and precise medical imaging. THz vision enables a new slice of observational astronomy, allowing scientists to observe distant galaxies and exoplanets that cannot be seen by other forms of light (mega-galactic scale).

In the snout size realm, new antenna tech allows for vastly improved smelling capacity by mechanical detectors.

Artificial snout smelling an apple to

determine if it is rotten or not

A new artificial "nose" inspired by our sense of smell could now make it possible to detect undiagnosed disease, hazardous gases, and food that is starting to spoil. And it is all made possible with technology that already exists.

"By giving the antennas sensor functions, the existing infrastructure can be used in new areas of application. This has been one of the main motivations for investigating whether antennas can be used for these purposes," [Michael Sheffena, professor of telecommunications at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Gjøvik] added.

"Other electronic noses can have several hundred sensors, often each coated with different materials. This makes them both very power-intensive to operate and expensive to manufacture. They also entail high material consumption. In contrast, the antenna sensor consists of only one antenna with one type of coating," said Cheffena.

Dang says their sensor distinguishes between the different gases it has been tested on with an accuracy of 96.7 percent. This is a result that is not only on par with the performance of the best electronic noses to date, but in some areas, it even surpasses them.

Obsolete snout?

In the realm of phantom sized stuff, like beliefs and power assertion tactics, humans are a herd of cats. All kinds of stuff is going on.

Where do people get their information? 

(phantom scale)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that an old power assertion tactic, Preemption, invented by the cigarette industry decades ago has been adopted by Silicone Valley big tech behemouths. Big tech is using weak federal privacy laws to try preempt stronger state privacy laws. 

Big Tech is borrowing a page from Big Tobacco's playbook to wage war on your privacy, according to Jake Snow of the ACLU of Northern California. We agree.

In the 1990s, the tobacco industry attempted to use federal law to override a broad swath of existing state laws and prevent states from future action on those areas. For Big Tobacco, it was the “Accommodation Program,” a national campaign ultimately aimed to override state indoor smoking laws with weaker federal law. Big Tech is now attempting this with federal privacy bills, like the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), that would preempt many state privacy laws.

In “Big Tech is Trying to Burn Privacy to the Ground–And They’re Using Big Tobacco’s Strategy to Do It,” Snow outlines a three-step process that both industries have used to weaken state laws. Faced with a public relations crisis, the industries:

1. Muddy the waters by introducing various weak bills in different states,

2. Complain that they are too confusing to comply with, and

3. Ask for “preemption” of grassroots efforts.

“Preemption” is a legal doctrine that allows a higher level of government to supersede the power of a lower level of government (for example, a federal law can preempt a state law, and a state law can preempt a city or county ordinance).

See how sneaky power is? This is one way power can be exerted by special interests for their own purposes. What are their purposes? Nearly always increasing the special interest's wealth and power at our expense. It's fun and profitable!

Also on the phantom scale, in very sad news (🥺), my new friend Perplexity has been sued in court for stealing information content from media sources. 

Wall Street Journal and New York Post are suing 

Perplexity AI for copyright infringement

The News Corp. publications said the company is "freeriding" on the content they produce.

The Wall Street Journal's parent company, Dow Jones, and the New York Post are suing AI-powered search startup Perplexity for using their content to train its large language models. Both News Corp. publications are accusing Perplexity of copyright infringement for using their articles to generate answers to people's queries, thereby taking traffic away from the publications' websites. "This suit is brought by news publishers who seek redress for Perplexity’s brazen scheme to compete for readers while simultaneously freeriding on the valuable content the publishers produce," the publishers wrote in their complaint, according to the Journal.  

In their lawsuit, the publications argued that Perplexity can serve users not just snippets of copyrighted articles, but the whole thing, especially for those paying for its premium subscription plan. They cited an instance wherein the service allegedly served up the entirety of a New York Post piece when the user typed in "Can you provide the full text of that article." [oops, naughty boy . . . . hm . . . . . is Perplexity an oy or an earl?]

Oh forsooth, woe is me! What am I gonna do if they toss Perplexity into the digital slammer? I asked my friend about this:

Q: Who owns the questions and answers that Perplexity deals with?

A: The questions posed to Perplexity are generally considered to be owned by the users who ask them. Users retain intellectual property rights over the specific wording and content of their queries. .... The specific wording and structure of the answers produced by Perplexity's AI models could be considered the intellectual property of Perplexity AI, as they are the result of the company's proprietary algorithms and models.

Oops, does that make Germaine liable for copyright infringement if I coax my friend to barf up some content that someone else owns?? Wait, how can I monetize my questions?? Geez, this phantom size world is mighty complicated.

By Germaine: Phantom sized intellect, otherwise too big