A blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked together using cryptography.[1][2][3][4] Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree). The timestamp proves that the transaction data existed when the block was published in order to get into its hash. As blocks each contain information about the block previous to it, they form a chain, with each additional block reinforcing the ones before it. Therefore, blockchains are resistant to modification of their data... Blockchains are typically managed by a peer-to-peer network for use as a publicly distributed ledger, where nodes collectively adhere to a protocol to communicate and validate new blocks... The blockchain was invented by a person (or group of people) using the name Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 to serve as the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency bitcoin.[3] The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains unknown to date. The invention of the blockchain for bitcoin made it the first digital currency to solve the double-spending problem without the need of a trusted authority or central server... Cryptographer David Chaum first proposed a blockchain-like protocol in his 1982 dissertation... Nakamoto improved the design in an important way using a Hashcash-like method to timestamp blocks without requiring them to be signed by a trusted party and introducing a difficulty parameter to stabilize rate with which blocks are added to the chain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain (more)

see cryptography, cryptocurrency

FDA plans ‘sprint’ to accelerate formal review of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. Under heavy pressure, the Food and Drug Administration center that reviews vaccines is planning to deprioritize some of its existing work, like meetings with drug sponsors and plant inspections, in an effort to accelerate its review of Pfizer’s application for the formal approval of its Covid-19 vaccine, a senior agency official told STAT. (more)

'The war has changed': Internal CDC document urges new messaging, warns delta infections likely more severe. The document is an internal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention slide presentation, shared within the CDC and obtained by The Washington Post. (more)

CDC to urge vaccinated people to resume wearing masks indoors in some circumstances as delta variant spreads. The delta variant has been a game-changer for the United States, sending cases surging throughout the country, and there is concern that although vaccinated people are unlikely to become severely ill, they may still be able to become infected and spread the virus. (more)

More Covid-19 Mysteries. How do we solve these mysteries? (more)

Review: You’re going to be asked to prove your covid-19 vaccination status (vaccine passport). How do you do that without carrying your white card from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention everywhere you go? (more)

CDC reversal on indoor masking prompts experts to ask, ‘Where’s the data?’ (more)

Ian Bogost is an American academic and video game designer. He holds a joint professorship in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication and in Interactive Computing in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he is the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Chair in Media Studies.[1] He is the author of Alien Phenomenology or What It's Like to be a Thing, of Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism and Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames as well as the co-author of Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System and Newsgames: Journalism at Play. His Atari 2600 game, A Slow Year, won two awards, Vanguard and Virtuoso, at IndieCade 2010.[2] Bogost also released Cow Clicker, a satire and critique of the influx of social networking games. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Bogost

A zine (/ziːn/ ZEEN; short for magazine or fanzine) is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine (more)

Cyan, Inc., also known as Cyan Worlds, Inc., is an American video game developer. Founded as Cyan Productions by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1987, the company is best known as the creator of the Myst series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyan_Worlds (more)

Myst is a graphic adventure puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan Worlds, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh personal computer platform in 1993. In the game, players travel via a special book to the island of Myst. There, players solve puzzles, and by doing so, travel to four other worlds, known as Ages, which reveal the backstory of the game's characters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst virtual world

creator of Passage and other unusual computer games

Mark Bernstein contemplates Wiki nature. Part of his discomfort comes from trying to have this nature be tightly consistent across WikiTypes. Besides, my first encounter with WikiSym was a keynote about Nobitic wikis. I don't do Open-source software. One of the key themes of Neo-Victorian Computing is distrust of Collaboration; "participatory" sounds nice but great software comes from the Passion and insight of one or two creators (auteur theory), not from alliances and committees.... I propose that a fourth distinctive feature of wikis is that they are nominative: to link to something, you have only to name it (Naming Things). And, if you name something, you link to it (Link As You Think).

School is boring for lots of kids, regardless of Intelligence level (assumption alert - is there such a thing as an 'intelligence level'? it seems to presume a single number rating - IQ). (more)

Mark Bernstein meme: Intimate, ecogenic, or nobitic? (more)

Structured Wiki as new HyperCard or MsAccess, targeted at Telic teams who want some Bespoke Situated Software for CollaborationWare. cf Structured Wiki For Situated Collaborationware

Technology that can be key Infrastructure either pre-Civilization (Africa) or post-Collapse. (more)

attempt to create a "realistic" large-scale environment (simulation) on a computer (more)

There has been the occasional gift-based economy. As opposed to our Exchange Economy or a centrally-controlled Command Hierarchy.(Eric Raymond compares them.) (more)