This is a krytron, a high-speed trigger switch historically used in nuclear weaponry to control the timing of detonation circuits. It’s an ultra fast, gas-filled tube that works by using a small electrical trigger to ionize gas inside, which instantly allows a much larger current to flow. The ability to switch high currents almost instantly is what makes it useful in systems where extremely precise timing is critical. Some krytrons contain a small amount of radioactive material (like Nickel-63 or krypton-85) to help the gas ionize more reliably.
Krytrons were developed in the early 1950s and used primarily through the 1970s, especially during the Cold War. In nuclear weapons, they were part of firing circuits that required multiple electrical pulses to occur at almost exactly the same moment. They were also employed in scientific and industrial applications such as pulsed lasers and high-speed photography.
Legally, krytrons are heavily controlled under export regulations like the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). They are legal to own in the U.S., but exporting them internationally without proper authorization is strictly prohibited.☢️
Federal prosecutors just charged an NIH virologist with smuggling biological materials into the United States.
His name is Vincent Munster. He's not a minor scientist. He runs the Virus Ecology Section at one of the government's premier BSL-4 labs.
This is bigger than a customs charge. Thread 🧵
I have been fighting the UK’s censorship regime in American courts for nearly a year.
You see what happened to Cenk and Hasan? They’re doing it to Americans on American soil with their Internet censorship laws.
Where is Congress? Let’s put a stop to this once and for all.
GrapheneOS a retiré tous ses serveurs d’OVHcloud et quitté la France en évoquant des attentes de backdoors dans le chiffrement, des menaces policières/judiciaires etc
Meilleure décision et preuve de fiabilité en partant !
Les vrais risques sont progressifs :
⚠️ Réglementations qui obligent les OS à collecter des données (âge, ID)
⚠️ Durcissement de Google contre les ROM custom
⚠️ Pressions sur les fabricants (Motorola/Lenovo)
Mais @GrapheneOS préfère être interdit dans certains endroits plutôt que de trahir ses principes 🙏
#Privacy
Current status of the fight against foreign censorship regimes: the beast is wounded but dangerous.
Smaller U.S. cos can effectively resist on an individual basis. Larger U.S. firms are largely complying. Fed response to date not enough to end foreign censors' reach into USA.
Well well well
Solana at it again
@sofi created their own stablecoin and minted 99.97% of it on Ethereum, and Solana`s X account proclaims they picked them, when they only minted 0.026% of the total supply on Solana !
That's $100M vs $26k between Ethereum and Solana and they think they were chosen 🤦🏼
your periodic reminder that you can sign legal agreements on @ethereum@base or @arbitrum
encrypt the doc and use pseudonyms
a blockchain signature is *more* legally robust than a docusign signature, and you don't need pay $45/month
https://t.co/qO788TV3En
The longer I follow Ethereum, the more I think its biggest strength is credibility.
❌ Not hype
❌ Not marketing
❌ Not short-term narratives
Credibility built through:
✅ UPTIME
✅ SECURITY
✅ DECENTRALIZATION
✅ DEVELOPER ACTIVTY
✅ YEARS OF REAL ECONOMIC SETTLEMENT
That type of trust compounds slowly.
But it compounds.
ethereum:native
⚠️ Today's browser update (v1.90.128) contains a fix for a Chromium vulnerability that allows websites to plant hidden scripts via the Background Fetch API.
These scripts survive restarts and could be used to track users, run malicious code on their devices, or launch DDoS attacks on others.
You may have already received the automatic Brave update on desktop. If not, you can manually update by visiting 'About Brave' in the browser's settings.
The Android update is waiting on Google Play Store review and should be out soon.
@real_philogy you can either:
- clean it up as you go
- do large scale cleanups periodically
but you *do* have to clean out the slop or else it spirals
even with manual intervention agentic workflows are a massive speed up ime
there is a special place in hell for engineers who write inconsistent APIs
yeah like this `error` is always going to be an http status code. or a fucking string if we feel like it
PICARD: Data, shields up
DATA: Brilliant! Shields can reduce damage we sustain. Not immunity. Not hubris. Just prudence. It's not precaution—it's strategy.
[camera shakes]
WORF: HULL BREACHES ON NINE DECKS
DATA: Here's what happened: you told me to raise shields, and I didn't
PSA: Ledger does not mail you. There is no "Post-Quantum Cryptography Security Update" you complete by scanning a QR code.
Got this letter in the mail today. This is phishing downstream of the 2020 Ledger breach that leaked ~270k customer names, addresses, and phone numbers. The QR goes to a drainer.
If you got one, shred it. Assume every "urgent crypto update" is hostile until proven otherwise.
A Reddit user found out that Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes - on a phone that cost $1,900 - talk about greed..