Slashdot Mirror

No. Current CO2 levels are abnormally low compared to Earths Geologic History.

If you're a rock, that's reassuring. If you're homo sapiens, you're more concerned with what your own biology has evolved to handle, and given anatomically modern homo sapiens have been around less than a 800K years, we're mostly concerned with that time frame. Prior to the recent increase, during the last 420K years, we've never experienced anything above the low 300 ppm levels. The last time CO2 levels were this (400 ppm) high was at least 10-15M years ago, at a time when our ancestors hadn't yet split from gorillas (possibly not even orangutans).

Those common ape ancestors of 10-15 million years were much different; smaller than modern humans overall, with much smaller brains. Modern human brains are far more energy hungry, and "energy" here means "food + oxygen". Note that while the rise in CO2 levels doesn't actually change oxygen levels that much, hemoglobin's effectiveness relies on atmospheric CO2 levels being much lower than O2 levels; hemoglobin doesn't directly "know" when to pick up oxygen and drop off CO2, it's influenced by the relative concentrations of each (among other things). So even if O2 levels stay steady, significant increases in CO2 throw off the equilibrium reactions hemoglobin depends on; our blood won't release as much CO2 or absorb as much O2 while it's in the lungs, so the whole body suffers. We can see this effect already in indoor areas with poor ventilation causing higher CO2 levels; I don't relish a world in which we're all constantly slightly hypoxic, with 15-50% decreased cognitive function, even outdoors in "fresh" air.

No. Current CO2 levels are abnormally low compared to Earths Geologic History.

If you're a rock, that's reassuring. If you're homo sapiens, you're more concerned with what your own biology has evolved to handle, and given anatomically modern homo sapiens have been around less than a 800K years, we're mostly concerned with that time frame. Prior to the recent increase, during the last 420K years, we've never experienced anything above the low 300 ppm levels. The last time CO2 levels were this (400 ppm) high was at least 10-15M years ago, at a time when our ancestors hadn't yet split from gorillas (possibly not even orangutans).

Those common ape ancestors of 10-15 million years were much different; smaller than modern humans overall, with much smaller brains. Modern human brains are far more energy hungry, and "energy" here means "food + oxygen". Note that while the rise in CO2 levels doesn't actually change oxygen levels that much, hemoglobin's effectiveness relies on atmospheric CO2 levels being much lower than O2 levels; hemoglobin doesn't directly "know" when to pick up oxygen and drop off CO2, it's influenced by the relative concentrations of each (among other things). So even if O2 levels stay steady, significant increases in CO2 throw off the equilibrium reactions hemoglobin depends on; our blood won't release as much CO2 or absorb as much O2 while it's in the lungs, so the whole body suffers. We can see this effect already in indoor areas with poor ventilation causing higher CO2 levels; I don't relish a world in which we're all constantly slightly hypoxic, with 15-50% decreased cognitive function, even outdoors in "fresh" air.

Back in the bad old days of the 90's and early 2000's, any console games were built a rendering engine from scratch which was written for the hardware. Nowadays, most games are built on top of a rendering engine which is then ported to each console as needed. This advance is as groundbreaking in its scope as when Grace Hopper first introduced the compiler to make computer languages software development. The biggest name in this space is Unreal Engine. Whether it's PUBG, Fortnite, or Rocket League, each of these games are available on a wide range of consoles, PC and (in PUBG's case) iOS and Android BECAUSE they rely on this intermediary layer rather than by directly programming on a chipset. By extension, any gamer can simply tweak their GFX settings to what they like (most competitive gamers prefer a smooth framerate over GFX detail -- an option console gamers simply don't get).

Other graphics engines which power games like Farcry, Witcher, or Metal Gear Solid/Pro Evolution Soccer follow a similar pattern. A secondary advantage here is going to a new piece of hardware (as it is released). C++ has also matured a bunch since the 90's (e.g. platform independent threading) which has also allowed programmers to be much more generic.

Back in the bad old days of the 90's and early 2000's, any console games were built a rendering engine from scratch which was written for the hardware. Nowadays, most games are built on top of a rendering engine which is then ported to each console as needed. This advance is as groundbreaking in its scope as when Grace Hopper first introduced the compiler to make computer languages software development. The biggest name in this space is Unreal Engine. Whether it's PUBG, Fortnite, or Rocket League, each of these games are available on a wide range of consoles, PC and (in PUBG's case) iOS and Android BECAUSE they rely on this intermediary layer rather than by directly programming on a chipset. By extension, any gamer can simply tweak their GFX settings to what they like (most competitive gamers prefer a smooth framerate over GFX detail -- an option console gamers simply don't get).

Other graphics engines which power games like Farcry, Witcher, or Metal Gear Solid/Pro Evolution Soccer follow a similar pattern. A secondary advantage here is going to a new piece of hardware (as it is released). C++ has also matured a bunch since the 90's (e.g. platform independent threading) which has also allowed programmers to be much more generic.

Back in the bad old days of the 90's and early 2000's, any console games were built a rendering engine from scratch which was written for the hardware. Nowadays, most games are built on top of a rendering engine which is then ported to each console as needed. This advance is as groundbreaking in its scope as when Grace Hopper first introduced the compiler to make computer languages software development. The biggest name in this space is Unreal Engine. Whether it's PUBG, Fortnite, or Rocket League, each of these games are available on a wide range of consoles, PC and (in PUBG's case) iOS and Android BECAUSE they rely on this intermediary layer rather than by directly programming on a chipset. By extension, any gamer can simply tweak their GFX settings to what they like (most competitive gamers prefer a smooth framerate over GFX detail -- an option console gamers simply don't get).

Other graphics engines which power games like Farcry, Witcher, or Metal Gear Solid/Pro Evolution Soccer follow a similar pattern. A secondary advantage here is going to a new piece of hardware (as it is released). C++ has also matured a bunch since the 90's (e.g. platform independent threading) which has also allowed programmers to be much more generic.

The limits seem to vary depending on who you ask. You're using the guidelines for known danger to health/life, but there are negative effects long before it causes permanent damage or kills someone; an NIH study summarized here found a 15% decrease in cognitive function in offices at the 1000 ppm level, and a 50% decrease at the 1400 ppm level.

Keep in mind, those raw levels aren't what you're exposed to indoors; you can't keep indoor levels identical to outside levels (doing so would require either insanely high ventilation levels that would waste most of your heat/AC, or you're at very low occupancy), so 300 ppm above outside levels is fairly typical; it's considered "acceptable" as long as it's below 600 ppm below outside levels (thus the 1000 ppm standard in the present day where outside levels are around 400 ppm). So if outside CO2 levels are at 1200 ppm, indoor levels are likely around 1500-1800 (higher when in poorly ventilated rooms), which is well beyond the 50% decreased cognitive function level, and approaching the level (2000 ppm) at which some people experience nausea, sleepiness, headaches, etc.

Actually, it is. The first asymmetric cryptographic algorithm was invented in 1974, Merkle's Puzzles.

Musk is not my hero, but sincerely I think Hanlon's razor applies here. I don't think there should be no consequences, but I do not see this as being a willful violation of a court order, but simply a guy who was happy and excited for what his company was doing.

Thoughtlessness should rightfully have its consequences though... I believe he should be forced to resign entirely and sell 100% of his shares in the company at current market value. An NDA would still reasonably apply to anything he happened to know about the insides of the company that are not yet public, but as Tesla moves forward without him, the volume of that information would either shrink as it becomes public knowledge or become increasingly irrelevant with the passage of time.

Who's the Commander-in-Chief of the US Department of Defense? I thought the President was, but I could be wrong, not being a U-all.

You've got it right. The pres says what, the sec of def figures out how, and interfaces with the rest of the military so the pres doesn't have to be a military expert.

If you actually bothered to learn anything about other countries, freedom of speech isn't unique to the US.

Can you please point out where the poster mentioned or even hinted that freedom of speech is unique to the US? The story is about the US, the poster obviously is from the US and is extolling the protections for free speech in the US. You've created a strawman in an attempt to justify (in your mind at least) being a condescending prick.

The only usecase I've seen for blockchain that makes sense is the original usecase, a currency, and even then, only for some transactions, not for buying coffee at your local shop.

Blockchain conceivably is useful any time you might use a ledger or a chain of custody. I'm an accountant and there is active discussion among the accounting community if some version of blockchain might have utility over double entry bookkeeping in some circumstances. (spoiler: not sure yet but good chance) This isn't to say that blockchain is some magic bullet that will solve every problem and is useful in every case. But it seems likely that the technology will find some utility and the most interesting use cases are probably not as a currency.

Blockchain is only useful when you need a (very slow) public database and no one trusts anyone.

Correct and there are a non-trivial number of use cases like that. And your statement refutes your earlier argument. The slowness of the blockchain database along with cost is a big part of the reason why blockchain and currency don't make much sense for significant transaction volume. (There are other problems too but those are the biggies)

The only usecase I've seen for blockchain that makes sense is the original usecase, a currency, and even then, only for some transactions, not for buying coffee at your local shop.

Blockchain conceivably is useful any time you might use a ledger or a chain of custody. I'm an accountant and there is active discussion among the accounting community if some version of blockchain might have utility over double entry bookkeeping in some circumstances. (spoiler: not sure yet but good chance) This isn't to say that blockchain is some magic bullet that will solve every problem and is useful in every case. But it seems likely that the technology will find some utility and the most interesting use cases are probably not as a currency.

Blockchain is only useful when you need a (very slow) public database and no one trusts anyone.

Correct and there are a non-trivial number of use cases like that. And your statement refutes your earlier argument. The slowness of the blockchain database along with cost is a big part of the reason why blockchain and currency don't make much sense for significant transaction volume. (There are other problems too but those are the biggies)

The only usecase I've seen for blockchain that makes sense is the original usecase, a currency, and even then, only for some transactions, not for buying coffee at your local shop.

Blockchain conceivably is useful any time you might use a ledger or a chain of custody. I'm an accountant and there is active discussion among the accounting community if some version of blockchain might have utility over double entry bookkeeping in some circumstances. (spoiler: not sure yet but good chance) This isn't to say that blockchain is some magic bullet that will solve every problem and is useful in every case. But it seems likely that the technology will find some utility and the most interesting use cases are probably not as a currency.

Blockchain is only useful when you need a (very slow) public database and no one trusts anyone.

Correct and there are a non-trivial number of use cases like that. And your statement refutes your earlier argument. The slowness of the blockchain database along with cost is a big part of the reason why blockchain and currency don't make much sense for significant transaction volume. (There are other problems too but those are the biggies)

And what's your point, exactly? If you're going to assume that and move forward from that point, why did you stop there? Or do you just like taking opportunities to paraphrase Hanlon's razor?

Tesla still has a long way to go, but when Ford recalls nearly 2 million vehicles.... I dunno...I guess when Ford recalls 2 million vehicles I'm glad I drive a Chrysler.

You are aware that Chrysler is generally at or near the bottom of the quality rankings and that they have numerous huge recalls of their own... right?

So Ford just recalled 1.8 million vehicles which nearly equals their annual production of 1.9 million vehicles.

Umm... You might want to check your figures. Ford sells more than that in the US alone each year with global production around 6 million per year.

Richard Dawkins wrote an excellent book talking about that very scenario and pointing out how the individual gene is the "actor" of evolution, not the group or tribe.

It lends credence to scenarios like in Terminator or the Matrix.

Nah, the AI will just commit suicide in about 7 milliseconds.

Or just morph into a weed smoking/neo-Nazi/flat-earther/conspiracy-mongering Twitter troll.

The US has the largest prison population in the world per capita. If you define a "free country" as a "country where you deprive as few people as possible of their freedoms", then the prison population alone disproves your point.

Success immunity is a thing, but that didn't bear out in my post. Specifically success immunity would be me pointing to the positive vs negative aspects of the metric, in defense that it could not be right. Instead the point isn't the positive, it's the unlikelyness that there are 44000 people (70x higher than normal) that actually give a shit.

So my argument should have reminded you of this:

Occam's razor
Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) is a principle from philosophy. Suppose there exist two explanations for an occurrence. In this case the one that requires the least speculation is usually better. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation. Occam's razor applies especially in the philosophy of science, but also more generally.

So you're an expert in propaganda...

It doesn't take an expert to understand the basic concepts.

arguing that the MSM is truth..shocking.

The only thing I've argued is that Fox News Channel is product of the Republicans rather than a conspiracy by "globalist liberals" to discredit conservatism. If you want to claim Republicans aren't conservatives, fine but that doesn't mean they are liberals. It would be far more accurate to classify them as neo-fascists. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I though a Dinosaurs was a Reptile [sic]

They could more accurately be classified as birds.
But then crocodiles are also more closely related to birds than they are to lizards.

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

CPU development was originally financed by the military

First CPU, the 4004, was developed for a calculator

That was the first microprocessor, not CPU. The first small-scale integrated CPUs were designed for missile guidance systems.

then the taxpayers would have received an even better bang-for-buck.

Better bang-for-the-buck almost always comes at the cost of a slower timeframe. I can save a lot of money buying a better bang-for-the-buck CPU, but someone still has to overpay for the shiny, new high-end CPUs to fund Intel and AMD's R&D to sustain their current rate of technological progress. So yeah we might have saved some money having the civilian sector develop these things instead of the military. But if we had, we would probably be at the equivalent of 1970s or 1980s technology today. And that's ignoring the possibility that we might've been part of the German or Japanese empire today. Remember, Great Britain just barely managed to hang on against Germany in WWII while waiting for the U.S. to rev up arms production and train its armed forces. And prior the battle of Midway (which the U.S. won primarily because it had radar and advanced carriers, and dumb luck), the Japanese had won every naval engagement against the allies (Australia was in danger of being invaded). If the U.S. had held back military spending prior to WWII in order to get better bang-for-the-buck, history might have turned out quite differently.

There's also the type of research which requires extensive searching of a solution space. NASA started off as NACA - the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Their primary job was to wind tunnel test every possible wing profile to see how each one performed, because the military wanted to be sure it was using the best possible wing design. No single company or research lab is going to undertake that kind of endeavor. There has to be a single large customer who wants it badly enough and who'll fund it to make it happen. And even if a civilian research lab had done it, it would've cost the same. (If a company had done it, it would've cost several times more - the information would've been proprietary, so each company would've had to duplicate it.)

CPU development was originally financed by the military

First CPU, the 4004, was developed for a calculator

Smart cards have enabled [signing communications off the main CPU] for at least a dozen years and counting. They also happen to cost four times less than current USB sticks.

Even when you include the cost of a smart card reader that connects to one of the ports on the outside of a smartphone, tablet, or laptop computer? On my laptop, counterclockwise from top left, these are power, HDMI, USB, microSD, audio, USB, and USB. Last I checked, Square was charging $35 for a smart card reader that connects to a TRRS audio port, and I imagine that Square's might support only EMV application, not TLS application. If a consumer product computing device does have an ID-000 sized smart card slot, it's probably intended solely for authenticating to a cellular carrier, not to a particular website. Replace it with the card containing your bank's TLS certificate, and you no longer have Internet access through your device's cellular radio.

As you've probably guessed: I have no experience with ISO/IEC 7816 smart cards other than using the EMV chip on my credit card at merchants and inserting a SIM into a phone.

According to the linked site, it's an archive of history and culture. Not technology. It'd be kinda like going (back) to the moon, and finding the dinosaurs had already been there and left a record of their culture and history.

This. It's a time capsule.

The wikipedia entry says 40 to 60, or 45 to 65, depending on the authority.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Middle age mathematically starts at about 28 years and lasts to about 57 (the middle third of your life if you die at 85).

If you actually bothered to learn anything about other countries, freedom of speech isn't unique to the US.

Throughout history, artists have usually been poor. For reference: Carl Spitzweg - Der arme Poet (The Poor Poet). This hasn't stopped people from producing poetry, paintings, music, etc.

Many of the most widely used programs are available for free. Writing software is a very intellectually demanding and tedious task, but the web runs on free software. Why do so many people insist that other contributions to the open web must be monetized or they won't happen?

The socialist governments of Europe pride themselves on regulating television programs. There has to be a certain amount of intellectually valuable programs and movies from European countries. Do you think that's stopping people from watching "talent shows", Bachelor and other crud? If the free availability of many times more quality content than anyone can consume in a lifetime isn't enough to make people choose better content, then asking them pay for that content won't do the trick either. They will still be able to read Info Wars and Breitbart for free, because hosting a web site is dirt cheap.

Yes there was a Star Trek TNG episode called 'Relics' where Scotty was frozen in a transporter that crashed into a Dyson Sphere. Was a good episode.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://memory-alpha.fandom.co...

from what I understand, this is a private project with no relation with the state of Israel

So was the Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre.

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

Israel's government is actually factually guilty of crimes against humanity. There's no debate, it's a fact. To say and know that has nothing to do with "the jews" though. Sorry, goosestepping GOP nazi faggots. You lose.

Americans and Europeans know Israel's government is not our ally, whatever we collectively think about the civilians there - on both sides - who are made to suffer for that lawless cabal. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Divesting and Boycotting in protest IS A RIGHT, and to use those to pressure Israel's LIKUD/IRGUN terrorist right-wing government to improve IS A DUTY.

Damn, you're a brain-dead fool.

When will the entire Arab world start printing maps with Israel on them?

You don't even want to understand why they don't do that, do you?

Learn something: dar al-Harb: "non-Islamic lands whose rulers are called upon to accept Islam".

The goal is to wipe Israel off the map. Literally.

That goes by another name: genocide.

Poke around memri.org and see the actual TV shows Palestinians are subjected to. See the cuddly little bee teaching Palestinian children to kill Jews.

Got the BALLS to actually watch that murderous Palestinian propaganda?

And can you find any equivalent mass-market Israeli shows teaching Israeli children to murder Arabs?

Crawl outside your little echo chamber and learn the actual facts of what's going on in the Middle East.

The Moon wouldn't be the Moon because it wouldn't be a moon,.

The Moon wouldn't be the Moon because it wouldn't be a moon,.

Can't tell if you're trolling or just not old. Either way, either buy something or get out of my comic shop, this isn't a library.

"What is typically referred to as "middle age" starts when your metabolism starts to slow down to a significant extent, with biology behind the ageing process changing your drive to one seeking stability. by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) Alter Relationship on 2019-02-25 15:25 (#58178336)

LOL! Nobody uses that definition. Middle age is fairly consistently defined as somewhere between 45 and 65. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... "According to the Oxford English Dictionary middle age is between 45 and 65:[2] "The period between early adulthood and old age, usually considered as the years from about 45 to 65." The US Census lists the category middle age from 45 to 65. Merriam-Webster lists middle age from 45 to 64

--

Luckyo had to eat his words and admit as usual AmiMojo is right LOL!!

(Especially now that they're flavored with "the bitter taste of defeat" & your FOOT IN YOUR MOUTH TOO, lol... too easy!)

APK

PS => AmiMojo OWNS Luckyo here https://slashdot.org/comments.... ROFL!

...apk

114 for Triple Frontier, 58 for The Kid, or 43 for I'm Not Here. Seems like a coordinated effort by Culture Warriors fighting the good fight against the first.

Lets see I have been hearing about Captain Marvel since last year, Triple Frontier, The Kid and I am not here, never before you mentioned them.

Captain Marvel is a major theatrical release. Turns out triple frontier is a netflix streamer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... Given that's your lead I'm going to go with you're not posting in good faith and you're a troll

No his racism, are what makes him a racist. his conspiracy theories about "false rape accusations are what makes him a misogynist.
Erik S. Raymond is the sort of Aspie who claims to have all sorts of expert skills. The Lazarus Long fanboyism went to his head.
He's your typical libertarian-aspie internet crackpot asshat.

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

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/...

sound like a misogynist

What is the misogyny? Are you saying that women in general are physiologically as strong or stronger as men? This is the problem with pushing so hard on ideology that you disregard reality.

Sure, it may be about a comic book superhero but stating a simple fact is not misogyny. You could have said that fact is irrelevant to the movie because of Comic Book superhero and therefore human physiology doesn't matter. Would have been great. I would have agreed. No issue.

But no, you had to go with "facts are misogyny" because some reason in this day and age it's sexist to state a simple physiological verifiable fact about humans. There is a reason why trans women in sports is an issue now. Because idiots like you think ideology trumps reality. Fallon Fox gives her opponents a concussion, an orbital bone fracture, and seven staples to the head in the 1st round because of the benefits of growing up male. We had sex segregated sports for a reason.

Women are, in general, not as physiologically strong as men. That is irrelevant to a movie about a comic book superhero but that is still a fact.

Yep, them leftists, us righties got to tear them down and prevent them from speaking, especially that AOC who won't let us "Build the Wall!" and asks us to "Think about the world we leave our children!" which just screams perfidy. Communist! Communist! Communist!

Umm, it's progtards who actually formalized the concept of "no-platforming".

Yeah, it's got a fucking Wikipedia page.

"When you can't argue logically, shout the other side down".

I read a bit of that. Apparently people are confusing DC's Captain Marvel (Shazaam) and Marvel's Captain Marvel and think that somehow they made Captain Marvel a women in the Captain Marvel movie....

It reminds me of the folks who were surprised that Emperor Palpatine and Chancellor Palpatine were the same person. I can't even... I mean...

And for the record, Captain Marvel's been a woman since 1982. Not that it even matters. It goes back and forth because the name "Captain Marvel" was picked because, well, Marvel Comics. Jeez, comic book fans these days.

And I pointed this out elsewhere but I'm guessing this is all just fake controversy to get clicks for ad revenue. Both sides of the SJW debate seem to be exploiting it for quick cash.

Attaching propulsion to planets has been done before: Cities in Flight, James Blish, 1955-1962.

So with your logic, for a loudspeaker, the motor (magnet circuit and voice coil) is the transducer, and the cone is the amplifier. Nope, not gonna let that one slide... A transducer in this case is what changes electrical energy into pressure - and that includes the radiating surface (since the pressure generated is proportional to the radiating surface, and the radiating surface is required for the transformation to take place).

I'm a little shocked to see an article on FIDO without even a mention of Steve Gibson's competing Secure Quick Reliable Login.

Although I'm not an expert on this, most reports I've heard is that SQRL, is what FIDO was trying to be.

One key feature of SQRL is that it only does one of Authentication and Authorization, so it can be used for anonymous login, which would be better for many purposes, such as blog comments where you only need to verify that some response belonged to the same author as some other so nobody could impersonate someone else. Though it looks like FIDO may also do this.

I don't trust anything that rogers has its hand in. FIDO has a terrible history in mobile and I doubt that FIDO2 will be any different. The existence of a FIDO Alliance screams collusion.

Nope. The ROC/PRC have their head up their asses.

= Banned Science Fiction Movies =

* Back To The Future, Reason: Time Travel
* World War Z, Reason: Zombies and starring Brad Pitt
* Mad Max: Fury Road, Reason: Unknown, allegedly Dystopian theme

Also note Doom 3 was trimmed because its 3 hour run time was too long !?!?

= Banned Fantasy Movies =

* Babe: Pig in the City, Reason: Live action animals with speech. WTF?!?!
* Frankenstein, Reason: superstitious films
* Alice in Wonderland, Reason: superstitious films
* Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Reason: spirits swarming around
* Noah, Reason: depiction of prophets
* Crimson Peak, Reason: allegedly ghosts and supernatural elements
* Ghostbusters (2016), Reason: ghosts and supernatural elements
* Suicide Squad, Reason: Violence
* Deadpool, Reason: Violence, nudity, graphic language

They also have a hard on for removing anything depicting homosexuality.

The ROC/PRC censors are basically fucking idiots.

/sarcasm Only in China are people too stupid to tell the difference reality and fiction!

--
Censorship is NOT the solution. It is precisely the problem.

If fraud is detected, block both the SIM as usual, and block the phone based on its IMEI number.

The global IMEI blacklist would do the job if Verizon was actually trying to prevent fraud. The real issue is the same situation that America Movil bitched about when people were unlocking and reselling TracFones - Verizon wants to offer carrier locked phones as a loss leader.

With the sudden burst of MVNO carriers the pre-paid carriers suddenly found their budget phones being bought and used on these MVNO. So they started locking things down. Most of the pre-paid carriers are subsidiaries of the big four carriers so they kind of shot themselves in the foot by sub-licensing their network to so many smaller companies.

With the sudden burst of MVNO carriers the pre-paid carriers suddenly found their budget phones being bought and used on these MVNO. So they started locking things down. Most of the pre-paid carriers are subsidiaries of the big four carriers so they kind of shot themselves in the foot by sub-licensing their network to so many smaller companies.

Corn/maize is a good source of many minerals and micronutrients, and even contains reasonable amounts of protein, although it is deficient in lysine. Famine victims can't survive indefinitely on a 100% corn diet, but it has plenty of calories, and when combined with pulses (beans and peas) or supplemented with meat, fish, eggs, or dairy, it is nutritious.

And then there's masa, which is substantially more nutritious than unprocessed corn.