2024-11-06

human and stellar scale condensation, advocacy reduction, wood satellite, Boeing unstruck, old folks homes, some election stuff, FBI dupe arrested, Russian fake bomb threats, more moles, worm worries

etc

• New York State to get new $825M semiconductor R&D facility

• Failure Analysis of the Arecibo 305 Meter Telescope Collapse

• Why Are Cooling Towers Shaped Like That? — Practical Engineering

• Vega’s Puzzling Disk | Centauri Dreams

Horseshit

• Inspired by social media, Gen Z is increasingly drawn to the skilled trades

• First woman to die in 'suicide pod' may have been strangled to death: report

• Couple plans to return to US after dream life in France became a 'nightmare'

• Who Says You Can't Live Off the Grid in Manhattan?

• Volvo Makes a $115K Minivan, and It’s Worth Every Penny.

• Computer-assisted wagering became horse racing's insider trading

Obit

• Murray McCory, 80, Dies; JanSport Founder Created the School Backpack (Archive)

  By the mid-1980s JanSport bags were ubiquitous in high schools as well. Other companies joined in — L.L. Bean was quick to follow — but for millions of students, JanSport was synonymous with school.

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• India issues notice to Wikipedia over concerns of bias

• Echo chamber formation sharpened by priority users

Musk

• Musk now says it's 'pointless' to build a $25,000 Tesla for human drivers

• Elon Musk's misleading statements viewed more than 2B times on X

• The hyperloop lives on as a 1/12th scale model in Switzerland

• Musk and X are epicenter of US election misinformation, experts say

• X Is a White-Supremacist Site - The Atlantic

  X has always had a Nazi problem. I’ve covered the site, formerly known as Twitter, for more than a decade and reported extensively on its harassment problems, its verification (and then de-verification) of a white nationalist, and the glut of anti-Semitic hatred that roiled the platform in 2016. But something is different today. Heaps of unfiltered posts that plainly celebrate racism, anti-Semitism, and outright Nazism are easily accessible and possibly even promoted by the site’s algorithms. All the while, Elon Musk—a far-right activist and the site’s owner, who is campaigning for and giving away millions to help elect Donald Trump—amplifies horrendous conspiracy theories about voter fraud, migrants run amok, and the idea that Jewish people hate white people. Twitter was always bad if you knew where to look, but because of Musk, X is far worse. (X and Musk did not respond to requests for comment for this article.) It takes little effort to find neo-Nazi accounts that have built up substantial audiences on X. “Thank you all for 7K,” one white-nationalist meme account posted on October 17, complete with a heil-Hitler emoji reference. One week later, the account, which mostly posts old clips of Hitler speeches and content about how “Hitler was right,” celebrated 14,000 followers. One post, a black-and-white video of Nazis goose-stepping, has more than 187,000 views. Another racist and anti-Semitic video about Jewish women and Black men—clearly AI-generated—has more than 306,000 views. It was also posted in late October.

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Strict Electric Mandates Failed Washington

• Driving the biggest, least-efficient electric car: The Hummer EV SUV

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• University of Oregon to offer ‘election week therapy’ featuring dogs, goats, and even ducks.

• Report finds 'shocking and dispiriting' fall in children reading for pleasure

• The Nearly 400 Books Wilson County Has Banned from Its Schools

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Nintendo profit plunges 69% as it cuts forecast

• Prime Video's new feature uses generative AI to recap what you're watching

• Why GM is ditching Apple CarPlay, with software boss Baris Cetinok

• AT&T (Again) Caught Cheating Federal Subsidy Program for Poor People

• 'Maybe 20 people left at BioWare' who know how their Dragon Age engine works

• First time ever, AMD outsells Intel in the datacenter space

• Mozilla Foundation lays off 30% staff, drops advocacy division

  • Mozilla is eliminating its advocacy division

  While Mozilla is best known for its Firefox web browser, the Mozilla Foundation — the parent of the Mozilla Corporation — describes itself as standing up “for the health of the internet.” With its advocacy and global programs divisions gone, its impact may be lessened going forward. “Fighting for a free and open internet will always be core to our mission, and advocacy continues to be a critical tool in that work. We’re revisiting how we pursue that work, not stopping it,” Brandon Borrman, the Mozilla Foundation’s communications chief, said in an email to The Verge. Borrman declined to confirm exactly how many people were laid off, but said it was about “30% of the current team.”

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Hundreds of Code libraries posted to NPM try to install malware on dev machines

  • Ongoing typosquatting campaign impersonates popular NPM packages

• Arm PC Base System Architecture 1.0

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• OpenAI's o1 model leaked on Friday

• Nuclear-Power Companies Hit by U.S. Regulator's Rejection of Amazon-Talen Deal

• Meta's plan for nuclear datacenter reportedly undone by bees

• Google is now watermarking its AI-generated text

• AI-generated images threaten science

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Rocket Lab confirms plan to bid for Pentagon contracts with new medium rocket

• World's First Wooden Satellite Heads to Space in Mars Exploration Test

  • The first wooden satellite launched into space

• After 31 cargo missions, NASA finds Dragon still has some new tricks

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Intel CEO complains after investing $30B but receiving zero CHIPS Act funding

• Boeing union ends strike after contract vote

  • Boeing Union Votes to End Strike

  • Boeing factory workers vote to accept contract and end more than 7-week strike

  • Boeing machinists end strike with 38% wage increases

  • Boeing Ends Crippling Strike as Workers Accept Latest Offer

  • Boeing Union Approves New Contract, Ending Costly Strike

• The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56

  • Average age of first-time homebuyers is 38, an all-time high

• Toyota to post first profit drop in 2 years as demand cools after big run

• Constellation Energy, nuclear stocks plummet after regulators block Amazon power deal.

• The Nearly 400 Books Wilson County Has Banned from Its Schools

• Apple warns investors future products may never be as profitable as iPhone

• Nvidia passes Apple as most valuable company

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Election results:

  • Politico
  • NBC
  • NPR
  • BBC News
  • CNN
  • New York Times
  • RealClearPolling

• The Antitrust Revolution

• House Speaker walks back plan to repeal CHIPS Act

• Freaked-Out Politicians Are Obsessed with a Book About the Aftermath of the Civil War - POLITICO

  Grinspan’s book has quietly become something of a cult favorite with lawmakers also eager to understand this new, convulsive era of politics — and what can be done to tame it. Former Senator Roy Blunt gave copies to each of his Republican colleagues when he retired in 2023, Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) invited Grinspan to his office to discuss the book and Representative Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who memorably helped clean up the Capitol after the Jan. 6 riot, also sought out the author.

• After Supreme Court Win, NCLA Convinces District Court to Vacate ATF’s Unlawful Bump-Stock Ban.

• Georgia Officials Report Russian-Origin Bomb Threat Hoaxes at Polling Spots

• The Biggest Clue That the Supreme Court Has Lost Touch with Reality

  with the Supreme Court and factuality, apropos of this coming election, one thing that worries me is that their lack of contact with factuality has to do with their own social positioning. I think at least five or six of them are in a world where they have a very narrow set of social contacts with America, let alone the outside world, and their notion of reality and normality is highly constrained, sociologically.

• Polymarket Paid US Social Media Influencers for Election Content

• Voters could make recreational weed legal in a majority of U.S. states

Harris / Democrats

• Their customers are ActBlue Isn't Selling Your Data

• Misleading 'pro-Harris' texts are bombarding swing state voters

Biden Inc

• The Inflation Reduction Act: A Looming Political Earthquake | City Journal

• President Biden Won’t Attend Kamala’s Election Night Watch Party

Trump / Right / Jan6

• The "Fundamental Transformation of Our Country" -- Gutting Historical Norms of Governance

  Almost every argument that I see Democrats and their allies make against Trump and Vance is a classic case of projection. You could write a book on it and someday someone will. It has been going on for years. Trump was colluding with Russia, at the exact time that the Hillary Clinton campaign was literally colluding with Russians to create to create the phony Trump-Russia dossier. Similarly, Democrats and their allies in the ancien régime media have been warning us that electing Trump would be the end of America as we know it. He is a Fascist and a Nazi. Anyone who supports him is “garbage.” Those who attend his rallies are no different than Nazi brown shirts of the 1930’s. To convince us of this, they tell us that Trump has made no secret of his intent to become a dictator on Day 1. And he would shred the Constitution. I would say it is all just a continuation of their projection. My Brit friends might put it more descriptively: It is “bollocks.”

• Musk to Spend Election Night With Trump at Mar-a-Lago - The New York Times

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Man arrested for attempting to destroy Nashville power site

  Skyler Philippi, 24, of Columbia, Tennessee, was arrested by federal agents and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy an energy facility. “As charged, Skyler Philippi believed he was moments away from launching an attack on a Nashville energy facility to further his violent white supremacist ideology -- but the FBI had already compromised his plot,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.

  • FBI thwarts man’s alleged plan to attack Nashville power grid with explosive-laden drone

• Washington courts grapple with statewide outage after 'unauthorized activity'

• FBI Statement on Bomb Threats to Polling Locations

  The FBI is aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains. None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Tab crash reporter

• US soldier injured earlier this year on Gaza pier mission has died | CNN Politics

  23-year-old Sgt. Quandarius Davon Stanley, was one of three US service members injured in non-combat incidents during the mission, though two were immediately returned to duty after suffering minor injuries. He was assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), out of Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. Stanley was recently medically retired by his unit because his injuries meant he would be unable to continue military service, a defense official said. He died on October 31. “Stanley was injured while supporting the mission that delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza in May 2024 and was receiving treatment in long-term care medical center,” Capt. Shkeila Milford-Glover, a spokesman for the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, said Monday.

  It’s unclear how exactly Stanley was injured, though officials have emphasized that it was not combat related. Stanley’s injury — as well as the minor injuries of the two other troops — were first confirmed by Vice Adm. Bradley Cooper, deputy commander of US Central Command, who told reporters in May one individual was “undergoing care at an Israeli local hospital. He was injured out on a ship at sea.” Stanley was transferred back to the US for treatment at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, in June.

• Another Suspected Iranian Mole Unmasked Inside the Biden Administration

  How many Iranian moles are operating in the upper echelons of the Biden-Harris administration? Officially, nobody knows, while nobody in the legacy media will ask. Counterintelligence experts in Washington, DC, do ask, that’s their job, albeit in hushed tones. Counterspies inside the Beltway tell me that another suspected Friend of Tehran recently was unmasked, and the implications of this case are deeply alarming for U.S. national security. His name is Lawrence W.K. Casselle, and he’s one of the top officials in the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. Although little known to the public, DSS are Foggy Bottom’s cops, the federal agents who guard American diplomats abroad as well as foreign government dignitaries when they visit the U.S. Importantly, DSS also provides counterintelligence oversight to the State Dept.

  Casselle was then promoted to be DSS regional director for the Near East (2023-24), including elevation to the Senior Foreign Service (State’s version of the Senior Executive Service for diplomats, equivalent to general officer rank in the military), to be moved up to Deputy Assistant Director of DSS in May of this year. Then, everything fell apart for this Foggy Bottom high-flyer. Casselle this summer came under suspicion for his ties to Tehran. When he was serving in the Middle East, apparently during his tour in Baghdad, Casselle became close with a foreign woman. They developed a romantic relationship, IC insiders tell me, and Casselle used his powerful job and State Dept. connections to help his new friend. Inconveniently, his paramour turned out to be an operative for Iranian intelligence. How compromised Casselle is by this scandal isn’t yet known. IC counterspies tell me that they are trying to establish how close to Tehran Casselle got during his close relationship with that Iranian spy, but the State Dept. isn’t cooperating energetically with the counterintelligence investigation. If one of Foggy Bottom’s rising stars turns out to be an Iranian mole, the embarrassment to the department will be serious. Casselle’s superiors want this mess to simply go away.

• US fines GlobalFoundries for shipping chips to sanctioned Chinese firm

• Fisker EVs Hired an IT Spy Who Funneled Millions to N. Korea's Missile Program

  The report from the Danish magazine The Engineer said Fisker was among numerous U.S. automobile companies targeted by a money laundering scheme that funneled more than a staggering $6 million to North Korea's ballistic missile program.

• China Hack Enabled Spying on US Officials, Ensnaring Thousands of Contacts

World

• French govt gives thumbs up to nationalising Atos

  The corporation, which handles key strategic customers such as the French military (including its telephone system) and the nation's large nuclear industry, has been in trouble for over three years now, and has gone through seven CEOs in that time. The government has been considering selling off parts of Atos to fund rebuilding, but has had little success so far.

• Canada Arrests Man Suspected of Hacks of Snowflake Customers

• After SpaceX's requests, Taiwanese suppliers move manufacturing abroad

• Singapore to increase road capacity by GPS tracking vehicles

• Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

• Germany's far right stirs up culture war over Bauhaus legacy

Israel

• Israeli Airstrikes Pummel Syria For A Second Day In A Row | ZeroHedge

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russia Suspected of Plotting to Send Incendiary Devices on U.S.-Bound Planes

• Google Maps 'reveals location' of secret Ukrainian military positions

• Russia Firing Record Number of Shahed-136s at Ukraine

• North Korea Enters Ukraine Fight for First Time, Officials Say

China

• Chinese Air Fryers May Be Spying on Consumers

• Mystery Surrounds Discovery of TSMC Tech Inside Huawei AI Chips

• Chipmaker TSMC hit by Taiwan's soaring energy prices and growing outages

Health / Medicine

• Resolving the Deworming Paradox: Rethinking Deworming Campaigns for Children | Center For Global Development

  However, WHO’s recommendation and health impacts of mass deworming have been questioned in recent years. According to a Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis from 2019, “the current evidence does not support large public health programmes of deworming in low- and middle‐income countries” because of non-significant nutritional health effects. Regular mass deworming “does not appear” to improve three out of four primary outcomes in that meta-analysis, namely height, haemoglobin or cognition (“probably little or no effect”), whereas for weight there is mixed evidence. These findings are broadly in agreement with an independent replication by Campbell Collaboration from 2016. One thing that everyone agrees on is that all infected children should receive deworming treatment. This is obvious because the drugs are known to be effective, safe, and inexpensive. In fact, it’s several times cheaper to administer the drug to a child than to test for worms, which would leave many cases undetected anyway. However, this suggests a paradox in deworming meta-analyses: if infected children benefit from deworming, why would we not find smaller, but still meaningful effects from the mass deworming in the areas where worms are prevalent?

• Drugmaker shut down after black schmutz found in injectable weight-loss drug

  • FDA warns patients, providers not to use Fullerton Wellness compounded drugs

  On August 14, 2024, FDA received a complaint from a patient who noticed a black particulate in a vial of semaglutide distributed by Fullerton Wellness. On September 23, 2024, FDA received information from California regulatory authorities as part of ongoing collaboration between FDA and the state noting deficiencies found at Fullerton Wellness during a state inspection. After the state inspection, Fullerton Wellness voluntarily ceased operations.

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• We should start worrying about bird flu

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Mineral nutrient composition of vegetables, fruits and grains is not declining

• Los Angeles county is suing Pepsi and Coca Cola because bottles.

• Farm pesticides found floating in California air samples; officials say it's OK

• Minnesota map to find out if your home's drinking water comes through lead pipe