Time

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It you use a 32 bit version of Unix, you might run into problems after January 19, 2038 which is 2,147,483,647 seconds after January 1, 1970.

But if you use 64 bit version of Unix, you don’t have to worry as the date won’t roll over for 292 billion years – 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 seconds after January 1, 1970.

The universe is not expected to last for another 292 billion years, so there is generally not much concerned about that date rolling over.

The best estimate for the universe’s lifespan is about 22 billion years remaining, although there is a 95% chance that human beings will be extinct in 7.8 million years with an 20% chance of human extinction by 2100.

While maybe it’s just defensive or because I’ve clicked on the ads of a few fossil fuel companies that oppose any kind of climate action that would negatively impact their business, there seems to be a real uptick on advertising against a climate related tax on fossil fuels

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While maybe it’s just defensive or because I’ve clicked on the ads of a few fossil fuel companies that oppose any kind of climate action that would negatively impact their business, there seems to be a real uptick on advertising against a climate related tax on fossil fuels. Maybe it’s a good time too, as the public’s attention is focused on the news of predicted high heating bills this winter and gas prices that keep hiking at the pump.

I doubt legislators are in any kind of rush to enact taxes on gasoline, especially with prices going up so much lately. It seems like political suicide, although maybe less so in the New York City metropolitan area where so few people fuel their own cars or pay their own heating bills. But still, I can’t see much of a push to hike taxes on energy these days. Maybe it’s just about firing a warning shot, to keep the possibility of fossil fuel taxes off the agenda.

On the whole, I like the idea of enacting fossil fuel taxes as long as other taxes are reduced, so the proposal is revenue neutral. While it wouldn’t set well with progressives, I think it would be good for the economy to cut capital gains taxes to make up for revenue on fossil fuel taxes — and encourage people to invest their money rather then spend it on fossil fuels.

Facebook’s Secret Blacklist of “Dangerous” Groups and People

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Facebook’s Secret Blacklist of “Dangerous” Groups and People

To ward off accusations that it helps terrorists spread propaganda, Facebook has for many years barred users from speaking freely about people and groups it says promote violence.

The restrictions appear to trace back to 2012, when in the face of growing alarm in Congress and the United Nations about online terrorist recruiting, Facebook added to its Community Standards a ban on “organizations with a record of terrorist or violent criminal activity.” This modest rule has since ballooned into what’s known as the Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, a sweeping set of restrictions on what Facebook’s nearly 3 billion users can say about an enormous and ever-growing roster of entities deemed beyond the pale.

In recent years, the policy has been used at a more rapid clip, including against the president of the United States, and taken on almost totemic power at the social network, trotted out to reassure the public whenever paroxysms of violence, from genocide in Myanmar to riots on Capitol Hill, are linked to Facebook. Most recently, following a damning series of Wall Street Journal articles showing the company knew it facilitated myriad offline harms, a Facebook vice president cited the policy as evidence of the company’s diligence in an internal memo obtained by the New York Times.

Shots – Health News : NPR

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Surprise medical bills are the target of a new law. Here’s how it works : Shots – Health News : NPR

Patients are months away from not having to worry about most surprise medical bills — those extra costs that can amount to hundreds or thousands of dollars when people are unknowingly treated by an out-of-network doctor or hospital.

The No Surprises Act — which takes effect Jan. 1 — generally forbids insurers from dropping such bills on patients and, instead, requires health care providers and insurers to work out a deal between themselves.

Some observers have speculated that the law will have the unintended consequence of shifting costs and leading to higher insurance premiums.

Many policy experts told KHN that, in fact, the opposite may happen: It may slightly slow premium growth.

The reason, said Katie Keith, a research faculty member at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, is that a new rule released Sept. 30 by the Biden administration appears to "put a thumb on the scale" to discourage settlements at amounts higher than most insurers generally pay for in-network care.

Inflation Is Painful, But the Fed Shouldn’t Overreact – Discourse

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Inflation Is Painful, But the Fed Shouldn’t Overreact – Discourse

For the past several months, Americans have felt the pain of higher inflation as they spend more on items ranging from food to gasoline to used cars to housing. Many observers wonder whether the inflation is being caused by the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates low and buying up lots of government debt or by supply chain disruptions and other production bottlenecks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. If it’s the former, then the Fed will need to tighten monetary policy to get inflation under control. If it’s the latter, though, the recent uptick in prices will dissipate on its o

NPR

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How a shortage of glass is helping drive inflation higher : NPR

Here's another unexpected example of how supply chains have been upended by the pandemic: Glass bottles used for everything from vinegar to pasta sauces are getting tied up in their own bottlenecks. That's driving prices higher, when you can get the bottles at all.

Just like many other industries struggling to secure supplies, producers of pasta sauce and high-end spirits are seeing the glass used in their humble containers tied up in massive cargo jams, and that's forcing them to either absorb the higher costs or pass them on to consumers.

I am no fan of glass, usually because it's heavy and I'm prone to break it. I try to get everything in paper or plastic (which I can burn), or at least metal cans that can be flattened and saved for the yearly trip to the recycling center. But it's just another problem with inflation that we are facing.