Fugaku demonstrates the effectiveness of mask wearing and good ventilation in buildings

It’s Wednesday and there are a few topics that caught my attention this week as well as some announcements. And to finish we have some great music.

Big computing

Fugaku or 富嶽 is the alternative name for Mount Fuji in Japan, that marvellous natural creation that rises south of Tokyo.

Fugaku is also one of the fastest supercomputers in the world and is housed at the – Kokuritsu Kenkyū Kaihatsu Hōjin Rikagaku Kenkyūsho (国立研究開発法人理化学研究所) (popularly known as the Riken Center for Computational Science or just 理研) – which is a national scientific research institute located in Kobe, Japan.

The technical aspects of the machine are quite breathtaking – in that it fuses together 158, 976 single CPUs and lots of other extravagantly specified things.

The full technical details are available here – About Fugaku.

I caught up with a long-time friend at Haneda airport last Friday evening and we mused about how our first computers were the Sinclair – ZX81 0 which had 1kb of RAM, and one 3.25 MHz CPU, and we thought it was tops.

Each of the CPUs on Fugaku runs at 2.2 GHz clock speed and its total memory is 4.85 PiB.

PiB stands for pebibyte and one of them equals 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes.

You can calculate how our initial computers compared.

The Japan Times article (November 20, 2024) – Japan’s Fugaku supercomputer takes top spot in two rankings for 10th time – reported that Fugaku has been ranked at the top of supercomputers on two global rankings.

But why I have been interested in Fugaku, other than I am generally interested in technical matters, is that since 2020 it has been used to crunch very large data sets assessing whether mask wearing is an effective way to stop the spread of respiratory illnesses like RSV, Covid-19, common colds, etc.

Early on in the pandemic (January 13, 2021), Riken, put out the results of the initial research – Simulations on Fugaku confirm benefit of masks and ventilation.

They have proceeded to publish detailed research output (including excellent videos) at – “COVID-19: Wear Mask & Ventilate” said Fugaku.

Their research includes millions of simulations with “added experimental verification”:

Among the research is a detailed simulation study of droplets & aerosols that are the cause of transmission of COVID-19. These simulations include detailed studies of masks and shields, how the droplets and aerosols can spread, and how their spread can be mitigated in numerous societal situations such as offices & classrooms, restaurants & theaters, and public transportations such as taxis and airplanes.

The people at Riken are as good as it gets.

They have found rather definitively that;

Masks and face shields are effective to a certain extent in (1) blocking the spreads of droplets and aerosols, and (2) preventing the person from inhaling the droplets.

However, even with masks & shields, a certain amount of viral aerosol still spread, either through the materials or the gap between the mask/shield and the face and contaminate the air for a long time. Thus, ventilation is also key.

I fully accept the science involved as it is based on rigorous techniques and benefits from the processing power of Fugaku.

The relevance of the research is that building design is very important in preventing the spread of these viruses.

But individuals can also minimise the spread by wearing proper masks.

I consider that a no-brainer.

I also consider that a socially responsible thing to do in relation to the way we relate to our fellow citizens.

I am now back in the land of virtually zero mask wearing and it is very disappointing relative to the practice common in Japan.

So, I now stand out as a minority of one usually.

Rising Tide People’s Blockade

I am in Newcastle tonight and will be speaking at the Public Forum at the Blockade Camp, which Rising Tide have created on the foreshore of Newcastle Harbour.

The port of Newcastle is the largest coal export port in the world.

Here is the promotional brochure.

It will be interesting and I plan to make three major points:

1. The belief that a tax on coal export companies is necessary to fund a Just Transition with new jobs is a major misperception and reflects a common misunderstanding among progressive activists that the national government, which issues the currency that we use, is somehow financially constrained and dependent on private taxes to fund useful things.

2. The use of a tax mechanism is just playing into the neoliberal market paradigm – that all reallocations must be driven by market incentives.

Market systems work on ‘dollar votes’ and they rarely produce outcomes that are consistent with promoting the well-being of the many.

Further, in this context, they are accompanied by ‘carbon offset’ schemes, which are perverted by big corporations, and, as we have witnessed, see these corporations muscle in on traditional communities around the world and undermine sustainable and traditional culture and activity.

Meanwhile the pollution continues in the source country.

Why progressives opt to promote market-based solutions – the epitome of neoliberalism – is beyond me.

Although the reality is that they are just being channelled into those narratives by the mainstream and that is made easy because (relating to point 1) they fall into the ‘government can run out of money’ framing that the mainstream use to direct public funds to activities that promote the self interest of the elites and away from policies and interventions that promote widespread welfare gains.

Sonme the speakers on the Forum tonight regularly fall into that trap, thinking that they are on top of the debate.

In relation to shutting down the coal export industry, I always consider a rules-based approach to be superior.

That involves the government just announcing a terminating date for the sector after which it closes by law.

3. If we are to advance a sustainable future then it is ‘Jobs and Environment’ rather than ‘Environment or Jobs’.

The climate movement has often fallen into the trap of lecturing communities that depend on mining or forestry (for example) about the need to close these industries.

Sure enough.

But they typically offer no alternative and so the workers reject their epithets.

Until the climate movement embraces the fact that an alternative labour market has to be created in these communities, widespread support will not be forthcoming.

So I will talk about that need and how it might be accomplished through government promotion of new industries and further decentralisation of existing, low carbon industry.

That should fill up my 10 minutes that the organisers have allocated each speaker.

This is a big event and it pits the activist community against the government, the fossil fuel industry and the police who enforce the interests of those bodies.

I applaud the work of Rising Tide which is why I agreed to the invitation to speak tonight.

Migration from Twitter to Bluesky

I joined Twitter in November 2009 to disseminate information about my blog posts and to help build an Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) network.

When I joined, Twitter was interesting and functional and it is the only social media source that I used.

I did avoid the Twitter wars that popped up from time to time and I studied the research on how to best use the medium.

So I have to acknowledge that the original founders were insightful in connecting people in this way around the world.

But times have changed.

Twitter or as it is calling itself X has become a cesspool of nonsense and misinformation.

I don’t know why I now receive all sorts of offensive Tweets ranging from white male supremacy supporters to rabid pro-Israeli promoters.

I still get the Tweets from those that I follow which I learn from.

But the noise has reached unacceptable levels.

Further, when the new owner took over, he immediately locked out other software providers, which meant that the app I had paid to use – Twitteriffic – which lived up to its ‘name’ was immediately made redundant.

Further, the official Twitter app for MacOS has been retired and the replacement, an iOS app, does not work very well on a desktop and is a fairly poor piece of programming anyway.

And finally, when the new US President (elect) decided that the Twitter owner would have an official position in the government administration that would cull important parts of the public bureaucracy in the US, I decided that enough was enough.

I joined Bluesky on invitation in June 2023 and was banking on it achieving critical mass, which would then allow for a seamless migration from Twitter.

I also joined Mastodon with a similar hope.

It has taken until now for Bluesky to become viable in terms of a feasible network of people and I now think Twitter is terminal and Bluesky is the future.

I thank the Bluesky innovators for their work and their perseverance.

My Bluesky address is: @williammitchell.bsky.social

That should be easy to find.

I now have 20.5 thousand people following my Twitter posts and I appreciate the interest all of you have in my work.

Thanks very much.

But on Friday of this week I plan to close my Twitter account for good and I invite each of the 20.5 thousand followers to come across with me.

I notice in the last week some are already coming over as the migration to Bluesky gathers pace for many people.

There are some resources available that help people migrate and find their friends (Thanks to Liz for these tips):

1. https://www.theverge.com/24295933/bluesky-social-network-custom-how-to

2. https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sky-follower-bridge/behhbpbpmailcnfbjagknjngnfdojpko

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_V2PiMgs4c

So please come across and continue to follow my work on Bluesky.

Music – 1971 Gary Burton and Keith Jarrett

This is what I have been listening to while working this morning.

I dug this out of the LP box at home the other day – this is a box among several that I haven’t unpacked from my move last year.

It now functions as a treasure trove where I suddenly remember some track on some album and then have to sift through the many to find it.

This album – Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett – was recorded in 1970 and released in 1971.

I acquired it not long after that from the import shop in Melbourne.

The players are:

1. Keith Jarrett – Piano, Electric piano, Soprano saxophone.

2. Gary Burton – Vibraphone.

3. Sam Brown – Guitar.

4. Steve Swallow – Double bass.

5. Bill Goodwin – Drums.

This song – Moonchild/In Your Quiet PlaceMoonchild/In Your Quiet Place – is track 2 and leaves one in peace.

You can also see Gary Burton in a NPR Tiny Desk Concert – HERE – which demonstrates the mastery he has for the vibes.

That is enough for today!

(c) Copyright 2024 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.