Nothing like cracking the recommended text to see how things
work 😉
https://www.lua.org/pil/16.html
Am learning Lua on the Love interpreter:
So, essentially, we have created a class of account objects using Lua arrays:
The fact that we are using self terminology - and a colon to declare functions -
means we can add accounts easily:
source: le Figaro
Translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise
LE FIGARO. - What do bars and restaurants represent for the French?
Gael BRULÉ. - They are the backbone of our society. We socialize there, we build our relationships. In cities as well as in the countryside, these businesses always occupy a strategic place: at the corner of streets and boulevards, or on the square of a village. They are central places because they structure everyday life. The meals themselves are already of particular importance for the French: in my book, I compare the number of minutes spent at the table in France with that of other European countries, and we are unsurprisingly in first place .
Is a restaurant meal really that different from a meal at home, alone or with friends?
At home, we are reclusive with family or closest friends. We consolidate what we call, in sociology, our strong links. At the restaurant, we forge our weak ties, since we feed on the views of each other, strangers, and we feed on the surrounding discussions. So we have the impression of being part of a whole, of constructing, in a way, society. This is also why the French are so numerous to go to the bistro alone.
Does the persistence of sanitary restrictions risk killing our relationship with terraces and at the counter?
There is a significant risk, indeed. A year of confinement can make a lasting impression on us. To what extent, on the other hand, I do not know: will we almost no longer go to closed places? Will there be fewer of us? Are we going to lose the “ melee ” effect at the bar? We can draw a parallel with the arrival of smartphones, which has changed the way we consume, communicate, and present ourselves to others. Each era brings its share of changes, and I have always been fascinated by the ability of humans to accept as normal what would have been inconceivable a few years earlier. I am indeed afraid that health restrictions will multiply the existence of small physical islands, connected by digital means.
So nw I m keeping track of the positions of my balls.
Just need to use the 'pro' way to do this using tables...
Love2d lua seems to use the power of contradiction to pause the
game on keypressed. Below, the same code structure pauses - and
restarts - the game in similar fashion.
* * *
https://www.wired.com/story/impeachment-deplatforming-not-enough/
The underlying assumption to this piece seems to be
that conservatives are non city dwellers more or less out-of-touch
with reality. And this has reached problematic proportions. Ahem, really!?
Not sure this avuncular appoach is really the most dispassionate.
One element I have noticed is how difficult to understand some
political figures are to the young given just how large the age gap
has gotten. Friend JJ below - a Canadian - is a well-respected vlogger
whom even I listen to for some insight. And the comments are great!
Did you know that Bill Clinton,George Bush jr and Donald Trump were
all born in 1946, in a sequence of summer months. D. Trump, born in June,
is the eldest. Long story short, they are all first-wave baby boomers...Ew....
Joe Biden, born in 1942, is even older than that: he is from the Silent
Generation (1930 - 1945). Does that help?
Yep! Never forget your first!
France's Sanofi - like Canada's Medicago - is hard at work on
a recombinant vaccine for Covid-19 ie one that injects the Spike
protein, and nothing else. They are also making a contribution to
Europe's vaccination effort by mass-producing the Pfizer-BioNT
vaccine in their faciities for distribution in the EU. Nice idea...
One changes the setColor parameters for each element on the page:
The clear functions overides everything that has come before:
Here's a twist: children in schools and even daycare are not
catching colds, nor bringing them home to the family. Shows that
Quebecers are indeed following recommendations on hygiene.
To the point where some are worried their immune systems are not
building up needed immunity.
"We'll need to go back to sniffles for the young eventually..."
Votre enfant n'a plus le rhume : des mesures efficaces, mais des effets pervers (msn.com)
source: Journal de Montreal/AFP
Monday, January 25 2021 08:24
translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise
Without ever naming the United States, Xi has positionned himself as a defender of multilateralism and globalization, as he had already done in this same forum four years ago, just before the coming to power of Donald Trump.
Less than a week after Joe Biden's arrival at the White House, the Beijing strongman appeared to warn the latter against a continuation of the China policy of his predecessor which had made China America's number one rival, especially at the commercial and technological levels.
The Communist regime fears in particular that Joe Biden may want to unite the Western countries in a common front of opposition.
"Building clans or starting a new cold war, rejecting, threatening or intimidating others, enforcing decoupling, disrupting supply chains or sanctions in order to cause isolation will only push the world into division and even confrontation, ”Xi Jinping warned. "And such confrontation would be a dead end."
The virus mutations problem:
The view from an English expert:
source: both of the above are from Der Spiegel
* * *
New haircut.
I woke up in the night, and I had realized something
in my sleep, learnt something new. That Vogue cover of
Kamala Harris is actually perfect.
Because there has been a good deal of blowback on it
for Anna Wintour and the Vogue team. Ms Harris is wearing
a black campaign suit and high tops; her smile is sweet and she is
looking racially ambiguous. The internet branded it 'disrespectful'
and a blonde commentator in England found her 'whitewashed'.
So here's the thing: what is the difference between Africa and India
from a climate point of view. The answer: rain, a lot of it, for months
on end. Early migration of people form Ethiopia to India by sea might have
imprisoned them on the continent - the Himalayas are a powerful barrier -
and forced them to adapt to all that rain, deprived them of sunlight, forced
them to take cover. No one in India looks like an African any more. Same thing
for those later arriving to India from Europe. Trapped by the mountains.
And we do know from studies on language that Indo-Europeans are a group.
My-middle-of-the night aha: it was all the work of climate, and not social selection.
Yes, Ms Harris is 'racialized' - the currently acceptable term for not-altogether-European -
with an Indian mother and a Jamaican father. They made her pretty, rather than
powerful, which is fine by me.
The sizzle should be coming from schoolteacher Mrs Biden - can't wait!!
The Pfizer vaccine doesn't become useful until after
14 days from the first jab...
Études sur la COVID-19 | L’efficacité réelle du vaccin Pfizer se précise | La Presse
* * *
More on the possible origins of the virus:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13766270/hunt-for-world-first-covid-patient-wuhan-lab/
A coding moment for me this afternoon: managed to introduce
a flag for the bonus round in Breakout.
Once player enters play state, the flag for bonusRound is set to true.
In the main love.draw function, the bonus symbol appears if
bonusRound is true. Thus, our little quad appears during gameplay
(and not before).
Getting there...
Good thing we're not going anywhere: daily rain turns to
snow at night for the next few days:
⛄☔
source: le Journal de Montreal
author: NICOLAS SAILLANT
Thursday, January 14, 2021 12:00 AM
translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise
The first person vaccinated in Canada, Gisèle Lévesque, still contracted COVID-19 two weeks after receiving her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at CHSLD Saint-Antoine on December 14.
The vaccination of Gisèle Lévesque, 89, had raised a lot of hope in the population. Yet, despite this first dose, Ms. Lévesque contracted the virus, very active in her CHSLD, some time before New Year's Day.
Joined by Le Journal on Wednesday, Ms. Lévesque said, however, she is recovering. "Yes, I'm fine. I am very close to being healed, ”said the woman in isolation now for two weeks.
Difficulty breathing
Without being able to be more precise on the moment of diagnosis, Ms. Lévesque indicated that she felt symptoms just before the turn of the year.
“The symptoms are weakness and difficulty in breathing. I was out of breath, ”she recounts in a very audible voice.
The one who caught the virus about two weeks after her vaccination said she was not afraid and believes that the dose she received helped her fight the disease.
"I think so. It has given me time to make myself the little soldiers who helped me get through it, ”she says.
Immune or not?
If Ms. Lévesque is convinced that the vaccine was beneficial to her, scientists are more careful about the real impact that the vaccine may have had on the lady.
Immunologist Alain Lamarre recalls that studies have shown that the vaccine gradually gained in effectiveness in the first two weeks after the injection.
"It is very likely that she was immune to the severe form of the disease," said the professor from the National Institute for Scientific Research. On the other hand, given the age of the lady, it is also likely that the immunization had not been completed.
D Dr. Gaston de Serres sees more questions than answers in the situation of M me Lévesque, especially because clinical studies have been done on younger and healthy people. "It is possible that she is less well protected given her age," he speculates.
As a scientist, Dr. de Serres will therefore analyze the data on mortality. "The number of deaths is the big issue we are going to be interested in."
As such, the CHSLD Saint-Antoine could be a sad example. An outbreak struck just days before the launch of the vaccination pilot project. Since then, 36 residents have died, some of whom received the vaccine, while 68 cases are still active.
source: le Monde, January 12, 2020
author: Gilles Paris
translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise
...
Pascal: In connection with a previous answer: how to explain that there are not more elected Republican in favor of impeachment? Under the current circumstances, isn't this the perfect opportunity for them to prevent Donald Trump's candidacy in 2024 and to get rid of a personality that is toxic to the GOP [Grand Old Party] for good?
Two days after the assault on Congress, the leadership of the Republican Party met in Florida to learn from the electoral cycle which has just ended. Despite the loss of the White House and the Senate, after that of the House of Representatives in 2018, its leader, Ronna McDaniel, chosen by Donald Trump in 2017, was unanimously re-elected and no criticism was leveled against the outgoing president.
The fact that the Republican base, which counts in the primaries, remains faithful to the president constitutes a lock that no dissenter has been able to blow. For four years, the choice was simple: align with Donald Trump or quit politics, with very rare exceptions. This exceptional influence on a hussar bias in 2016 will not disappear instantly. It suffices to consider the journey of an elected official like Lindsey Graham, senator from South Carolina, passed successively from warning against the danger constituted by Donald Trump to resignation, then to active and enthusiastic collaboration, and today to regret.
Matthieu: Isn't the Democrats' agenda to complete the GOP divide and thus ensure a few years of electoral success?
The Republican Party has been divided for decades between a moderate wing, embodied by patrician figures such as George HW Bush or Mitt Romney, and an insurrectionary wing, that of Newt Gingrich and today of the Freedom Caucus (which brings together elected officials from the Tea Party converted to Trumpism). This internal tension is completely indifferent to the Democratic agenda.
It should also be noted that this divide did not prevent electoral success. The Tea Party war against the Republican caciques deemed too complacent with Democrat Barack Obama did not prevent the conquest of the House in 2010 or that of the Senate in 2014. The record number of votes obtained by Donald Trump in the presidential election November 3, 2020, even if he finally lost, risks weighing on the autopsy of the defeat; it will undoubtedly prevent a repudiation of Trumpism, and thus prolong the inconvenient cohabitation between these two factions.
...
2024? : In the event that Trump is impeached, could he stand for re-election in 2024?
It should be noted that a condemnation by the Senate is not automatically followed by a ban on holding public office or running for elected office. In 2019, at the start of the first impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, experts, such as Edward Foley who teaches at Ohio State University, had considered a conviction that would not be accompanied by a ban. to represent himself, to spare the procedure of accusations of being used for political maneuvering.
The Senate votes on the legal consequences of a conviction once it has been established. Unlike this first step, a simple majority suffices, even if the Constitution is not very clear on this point.
Easy/notEasy. I've solved the Breakout assignment problem in
principle ie in pseudocode.
While in the PlayState, there will be a check to see if the PowerUp
state condition has been met (like there is one at present for the
VictoryState). Make it 5 minutes of play! If there is, player goes to
BonusPlayState, which 'sets' two new balls. Player is then returned
to PlayState...
A new mutation of the virus from Japan (originally seen in Brazil) seems
more contagious and resistant to antibodies.
source: CheckNews, from Libération
source: Libération
author: Nina Guérineau de Lamérie , Interim for the United Kingdom -
January 10, 2021
REPORT LONDON
A line of ambulances outside the Royal London Hospital in London, January 9, 2021. Photo Simon Dawson. Reuters
Karen blows on her hot chocolate. Despite the cold, the paramedic is taking a short break in the parking lot of St Georges Hospital in south-west London. A moment of calm before returning to the front line. In the British capital, hospital staff are strained by the coronavirus. The new variant of Covid-19 is now "out of control" , according to the mayor, Sadiq Khan.The rate of hospital beds occupied by infected people is higher than in any other part of England. 7,200 patients are currently hospitalized, 40% more than in April, during the first peak of the pandemic. At King's College London Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the capital, in the south, the number of patients on January 6 exceeded the number of available beds: 977 to 950. On Friday, Sadiq Khan declared a 'Major incident' . A kind of state of emergency which makes it possible to mobilize the entire public service to get out of this crisis. The Metropolitan Police have deployed 75 officers to drive ambulances. Despite these efforts, "hospital beds could be lacking in the next two weeks," he warned.
For its part, the ambulance service must manage around 8,000 daily calls, compared to 5,000 on a typical but busy day, excluding a pandemic. “It's very hard mentally and physically, you never stop. There is no more room in the hospitals, but we continue to bring back patients. Patients who are increasingly younger by the way… ” explains Karen, who has worked for the National Health Service (NHS) for eighteen years, the public health service. To endure the pressure, this mater familias refuses to project herself into the future and takes "the days one by one", she explains. This Saturday afternoon, in an hour, five ambulances and a helicopter brought patients back to St Georges Hospital. Still far from the images broadcast last week on social networks, where ambulances lined up in front of hospitals.
Alongside Karen is Rose (1). The former stretcher bearer opened the trunk of her ambulance, transformed into a small business. There, she offers some cookies and hot drinks to those who, every day and without respite, transport patients with Covid. “I go around hospitals to support them as best I can. Because of the confinement, everything is closed and they never have time to reset. Here they can take five minutes to drink tea and chat. It helps release the pressure , says Rose, a big puffer jacket with the NHS logo on the back. This pandemic is terrible and, above all, it is endless. Everyone is fed up, is tired. People are taking less precautions than before, which is dangerous. ”
Morale in the dumps, extended working hours, at University College Hospital in north London, nurses and doctors are also at their wits' end. Ashleigh cares for three or four patients on oxygen at a time, while usually she looks after only one patient. The nurse must choose between the patients, she confides, overwhelmed, on the BBC: “We are so stressed. We must prioritize patients. This is not the NHS where I started my career. People are calling for help and you have to choose who to help first. We shouldn't have to do that. ” On Friday, 1,325 daily deaths were recorded in the UK, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. In London, one in thirty is infected.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than three million positive cases for Covid-19 have been recorded in the country and 80,868 people have died, according to Public Health England. This is the heaviest toll in Europe.
This surplus of Covid patients has serious consequences. It is becoming more and more difficult to accommodate victims of car accidents or heart attacks, as most of the services are transformed into intensive care units. Hospitals now accommodate less than half of the cancer patients they normally care for, according to NHS England. In April, during the first wave of Covid, field hospitals were set up by the army to relieve congestion in hospitals. But due to a lack of staff - also increasingly affected by the virus - they have still not reopened, despite the dramatic situation in which the British capital finds itself. If last spring, the goal was to welcome patients requiring intensive care, this winter, priority will be given to cancer patients.
Only one hope remains to reduce the pressure on London hospital staff: the vaccination campaign. To date, around 1.5 million people in the UK have received at least a first dose of the Oxford or Pfizer vaccine. On Saturday, it was Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip who were vaccinated by the doctor of the royal family at Windsor Castle. Buckingham Palace insisted on making the royal couple's vaccination public, but declined to say what type of vaccine had been used. The goal is to vaccinate 15 million people across Britain by mid-February, the government said. Health Minister Matt Hancock went further on Sunday, saying all adults over the age of eighteen will be offered the vaccine by fall 2021.
(1) The given name has been changed.
I think of myself - especially as I get older - as a rather Conservative
person in politics. And I know that, professionally, I can be apolitical,
having worked as a federal civil servant. I read, and comment, all across
the spectrum. (The Turner Diaries is a boring book, which projects historical
events - the past - as a SciFi story with race as a protagonist - in the future.)
I have tended to view the Trump years in the US - and now the recent events
in Washington - as being amplified by the omnipresence of media and the various
feedback loops being created. Media are extremely hungry for content, and will
create events where there aren't any. Many European commentators have noted this:
Donald Trump became an outlet even for the mainstream press, which finally
had something to be outraged about. What exactly, one never really found out.
Chunky dude, doesn't drink, likes girls...
But there is an another overlay as well: the creation of storylines, the White House
as a meme which one finds in movies. Where does the President of the Republic of
France live, does anyone have an image of the Elysee palace?! I don't. A French
newspaper noted that 'la démocratie americaine a perdu de sa superbe', American
democracy has lost some of it's shine. Actually, that happened some time ago, at the
movies.
Really, the White House needs a makeover, a replacement. One of the protesters
was bare chested, with a bearskin hat, on a visit to Disneyland. A tragic one...
* * *
A commentator in LaPresse, a Liberal-leaning publication, had an overview
of the politics underlying the current crisis in the US. Found it enlightening:
https://www.lapresse.ca/
Currently circulating on Facebook, this excellent lecture on
vaccines and covid-19. Of particular interest - from 21:00 on -
is a consideration of genetics-based vaccines, and the risks inherent
to their widespread use. Chilling!!
Sweater dresses are being vaunted as the new lockdown chic.
Wearing my new dress for the first time today- over a t-shirt and
leggings - and it is very comfy. A bit of a 'chonky' look but a
promising new way to dress!
A Starburst image (from Sketchpad):
Below, the blend mode formulas from the Love2d documentation!
https://love2d.org/wiki/BlendMode_Formulas
* * *
Yellow with true green, on the left; true green at 50% opacity
on the right:
I start with the greyscale code from the Beginner Tutorial,
and add a blueish shade with just one small change. The blue
channel gets upped by 0.3. Below:
For rendering 2d, the pixel shader re-assigns color
This code asks to use he effect, in the draw function, and the object
is drowned in the effect color.
And not:
