Dr B Learned Hand @pvsundarb@social.cleverlibre.org

British Columbia is soon to become the first jurisdiction in Canada to make prescription birth control free to its residents.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/free-contraception-bc-explained-1.6764286

Think I've found the first quantitative comparative linguistic study from 1837. 19th century #lexicostatistics

From:
Brown, Nathan. 1837. Comparison of Indo-Chinese languages. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Calcutta). 6. 1023-1038.

Things are negative space.

A hammer isn't a hammer because it hits nails well. Many things hit nails well, many things do that (pipes, wrenches, rocks, tungsten cubes). What makes a hammer a hammer is that it does everything else poorly. It becomes defined by the only remaining thing it's good at.

So if you're looking for what a thing is, check the contours of what is can and can't do. Therein lies it's identity

That Ernest Shackleton, a polar explorer most well known for the Endurance Expedition, when he led his entire crew out of the Antarctic ice after their ship had been crushed, was one of the men who testified at the British inquiry into the Titanic disaster.
https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq26Shackleton01.php

Just got back from the grocery store. Bought a bottle of wine and a young guy came over to check my ID. He noticed I was born in 1948.
"Orvil Wright was still alive in 1948," I informed him.
"No kidding," he said. "The popcorn guy?"

Robert Smalls: "He participated in drafting the constitution of the state in which he had been a slave."

This life of #BlackHistory forged in battle and lawmaking is so full that even a concise bullet-point list of titles and positions alone won't fit in 500 characters. See alt text for the rundown.

Visit Old Salt Blog to read more about a vast inventory of accomplishment delivered in spite of all odds.

https://www.oldsaltblog.com/2023/02/remembering-robert-smalls-former-slave-pilot-of-the-planter-first-black-captain-in-the-us-navy-us-congressman-2/#more-60207

"K. Leroy Irvis became Pennsylvania’s first Black speaker of the House in 1977, and the first Black speaker in any state legislature since reconstruction. We examined how Irvis’  rise to the speaker’s rostrum, which has some striking parallels to today’s state House, could provide lawmakers with a precedent on how to chart a path forward through gridlock, disagreement and confusion."

https://www.cityandstatepa.com/personality/2023/02/making-k-leroy-irvis-nations-first-black-speaker-house/382898/

A recent article by Chinese researchers, has caused quite a buzz in the #quantum world. These researchers claim to have discovered a new #FactoringAlgorithm, which is sublinear in the number of #qubits it requires. Learn more: https://ilphotonics.com/unravelling-the-chinese-factoring-algorithm-is-our-current-encryption-still-safe/

Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !

Still working through white US history.

Q: Why are so many Black folk early adopters of tech like Uber and Amazon? Sometimes this willingness to try new tech early backfires on y'all, like the whole crypto scam. Tech companies don't always love you back. So... why so eager? Is it because of Deltron 3030 and André 3000? 🤔You're... you're going to say racism aren't you?

A: Yep! Racism. And go ahead and add Sears to that list of "technology" companies.

#BlackMastodon

The next time you see a female pilot any female pilot - remember Bessie Coleman, the first African-American/Cherokee Female Aviator.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Coleman

#blackhistory

A man, who was allegedly part of a gang trying to steal money from cash machines by blowing them up, accidentally 'pocket-dialled 999' during one of the raids https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bumbling-attacker-pocket-dialled-999-29111263

Why has audio #AI lagged behind image and text based AI?

I know AI is evil, but I want to hear Eddie Van Halen jamming with Louis Armstrong.

Barbara Walters has reportedly died. This is all the prompting I need to share the factoid that Barbara Walters, Martin Luther King Jr., and Anne Frank were all born in the same year -- something that really shouldn't be surprising, but somehow is.