Would this be impacted by bit rot? Like if there is a storage issue over many years (as I understand there pretty much always is, eventually) would the hash then return as invalid?

Interesting software, and an important issue to tackle. Also, I think its harder than it might seem at first.

I was not clear- when I wrote "people" I was thinking of people, often in Hawaii and who very much know the history of the state, who advocate for independence or sovereignty from the USA. They very much know about the vote, but its not mentioned. I should have specified which people I meant.

Having written that, my experience is that most Americans are quite ignorant of Hawaiian history: The overthrow of the Hawaiian government, its time as a territory and how large sugar companies dominated life there for decades, the plantation system, and the way the USA initially colonized the state. They likely do not know about the vote. People from further afield- well, they usually are on the same boat at best or know even less. This is understandable, its a small place in the middle of a large ocean.

Anyway, I hope these bits and thoughts are helpful to those interested in learning more. On the telescope itself- I can understand both sides of the argument. But on balance I think Hawaii (and Hawaii Island specifically) loses more than it gains by blocking the instrument. I'm a scientist, so that opinion is surely influenced by my profession, but something I observe is relatively few opportunities for economic or social self-determination in Hawaii- especially outside of Oahu; to me the telescope also represents diversitifaction away from tourism and military (both of which have known issues for locals). Folks in Hawaii tend to be against anything that is a change, but the status quo is not great for them, or improving on its own. Just my informed opinion.

The first two I believe are accurate based on my reading of history, but I would argue a bit with the last. There was a vote to join the union in 1959 and registered voters turned out in record numbers and the vote was overwhelmingly approved ('at least' 93% in favor).

Now, you could quite reasonably argue that if the aforementioned annexation had not occurred then the make up of the population of Hawaii might look different, and so in 1959 no plebiscite would happen, etc. But, it always surprises me how often people ignore the 'inconvenient' fact of the vote.

For me, the vote does not right the wrongs that very much happened in the 19th century and early 20th in Hawaii, but it is an important fact of the on-the-ground reality of the islands from 1959 to today. Remember that there was the real possibility another power would take the islands- the Captain Paulet did this for the British crown at one point. Japan might also have done it. So, I don't know that a fully independent Hawaii had a good chance of surviving the 19th century. As David Malo wrote, "“If a big wave comes in, large fishes will come from the dark ocean from a place unseen, and when they see the small fishes of the shallows, they will devour them; (...) Likewise, the ships of the white man have come, and knowledgeable people have arrived from powerful countries which you have never seen before. They know our people are few in number and living in a small country; they will eat us up. " This was especially the case in the 19th century when Malo was writing, and sadly our species seems to be tending back in that direction again after a pause.

Finally, its also important to consider what life might be like for Hawaiians and Hawaii residents if the Alii had stayed in place with their Kapu system. Not all of that was very pretty, but that's another thing few are interested in discussing.

At first I was unsure if you were referring to the "AIs" of some of the people surrounding them -like boosters, financiers, CEOs, marketers... I think lack of judgement abounds when it comes to AI, so maybe the comment applies to both the producers and the product.

You make a critical point: Borders are legally different than areas in the interior of the country in terms of what law enforcement can do. Special rules apply- and the CPB officer has unusually wide discretion to decide to block, investigate, arrest, or generally make your life difficult. I recall seeing that electronic device searches without warrants are allowed by law at the border, the CBP website confirms this. Rules are very similar in many other countries, in my experience.

Bottom line: Border areas are special in terms of CPB authority (they have much more than usual). Personally I am especially careful at borders, and would not pull any stunts for kicks (though of course I am not saying that's what happened here).

Well, if you need a new EV, I have some Good news! As far as I know this is the only "unconnected" vehicle on the market (I could be wrong). We will see how it sells...

If they do, it would not be the first time the world witnessed such a thing...

I think McClatchy's management's approach is exactly the wrong direction for their organization with the advent of AI. There is a good possibility that in an infinite ocean of machine-generated text of unverifiable information, there will be a market for human-generated news that has a known provenance and is known to be "reliable". They could charge for that, even. I think they would do better to market that rather than chase the slopwagon, as I think there that have exactly 0 advantage over other players in the slop arena- but many legacy costs.

I ran a similar experiment on x from January to about April last year. It helped explain some things to me, like why some folks are reacting to events as they do. But in the end the content was so horrible (and, I strongly suspected, fake), that I closed my account. I hope not everyone's feeds are as toxic as mine became in short order.

Now, on topic of TFA- can I reverse some of my age issues by taking a /. detox for 2 weeks? Its been a constant in my life for about 25 years now, maybe a break would be good!

jk, I could never leave!

Interesting site, thank you! I personally fell on the lower left in my personal score (ec=-2.88&soc=-3.49).

I agree with you, I think there is a strong migration to the upper right. Its not just the US, either. I don't know that a single factor accounts for it, but I do feel that the migration to that quadrant (and extremes in general, along various axes, that I have seen in my life time) is a worrying trend. Of course, societies have all been through cycles of this before, but it is usually painful. I appreciated Jon Grinspan's "Age of actinomy..." in this regard. The US has certainly been here before. And found its way out (at least that time). I recommend it if you are interested in the topic of political tribalism and extremes.

I was also surprised by this. You can read up about the method they use here. See also my reply upthread.

You can read about the methodology they used in detail. While I agree that "media bias ratings are not simple to do, I don;t believe they are impossible or that they need to be subjective. I am not affiliated with AllSides in any way, but I think they have a rigorous methodology.

Yup. And if you are a visual person, here is a chart showing changes in quantified media outlet bias over some years, It's a shame I was not able to find an updated one, but the picture is pretty clear.

Yes, indeed. I add another important one folks often forget: "Do you like to eat?". Agriculture runs on fertilizer and diesel fuel for the machines. Fully agree with your hope for the future, but it is a long road.

Relevant, I think: A recent blog post positing that AI worms might come soon. I suspect this could be the other side of the coin from using AI agents to find vulnerabilities.