2021-02-01

Cool

• "It's dead Jim." Ia64: Mark Architecture as Orphaned

  • HN had comments explaining the "Star Trek" reference.

• Press Release - VideoLAN is 20 years old! - VideoLAN

Worthy

• Sirius XM Satellite Failure A Reminder That Space Is Risky (And That Satellite Insurance Is A Thing) | Hackaday

• In Praise of Stairs

• Children Should Be Outside for 4-6 Hours Every Day — 1000 Hours Outside

  • Great idea. And we should make the public schools do it, too. cuz then its not us torturing our children, its "for the greater good" (cue "Shawn of the Dead" meme)

• Patrick Byrne ... the stories he has are nuts, but they might be true How DJT Lost the White House, Chapter 3: Crashing the White House (December 18) – Deep Capture

  Trump turned, knowing I was correct. He indicated one of the other lawyers, said, “Did you know that this is his last day? He is going to work up the street for a law firm, getting paid 10 times what I can pay him here.” He continued wistfully, “Pat, can you imagine what I could have gotten done here, if I had not been fighting my own people?”

  Trump sighed, and wearily said to Cipollone, “You know Pat? A few minutes ago you said that I can do it just by saying it. Well…. OK. I have decided, now I’m saying it. ‘Sidney Powell is hereby appointed as White House Special Counsel’. There, that’s it.”

  “She needs a clearance!” interjected one of the other lawyers. “It’ll take months to get her a clearance!”

  Flynn spoke up in disbelief. Even I knew how frivolous that objection was. “Mr. President,” Flynn said, “you can do the same thing with a clearance. You can grant any clearance you want, on the spot, verbally.”

  Sadly and defiantly, President Trump looked at his three lawyers and said, “I hereby grant Sidney Powell a Top Secret security clearance.”

  We all had a terrible sinking feeling, and by Monday or Tuesday, we learned that Sidney’s “White House Special Counsel” position was not going through. The plan we had discussed so extensively in the White House, the one that got an answer within a few days days (and depending upon the evidence adduced either permitted the peaceful transition of power without a civil war being called for, or justified more extensive federal involvement that would get to the bottom of what the intent of the People truly was), that plan…. had been called off.

  • How DJT Lost the White House, Chapter 1: All the President’s Teams (11/3 – 12/17)

  • How DJT Lost the White House, Chapter 2: Was there Foreign Interference in this Election? You Make the Call.

etc

• The Right to Repair Movement Is Poised to Explode in 2021

• Democratic senators will push to pass pot reform bill this year

• Scientists fear pandemic's 'hyper hygiene' could have long-term health impacts

• Smithsonian Zoo pandas play in Washington DC snow

• Oregon becomes 1st state to decriminalize cocaine, heroin, meth, other drugs

  • Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

• wait.. the Atlantic says we're not all gonna die tomorrow? Inevitable Planetary Doom Has Been Exaggerated

• Mars Life? 20 Years Later, Debate Over Meteorite Continues | Space

• Obesity may exacerbate the effects of Alzheimer’s disease

• The "wicking" type; we tried one and it really did suck this bad What’s Wrong With The Honeywell Humidifier? | by Angela Lashbrook | Jan, 2021 | Medium

• Duckweed Research catches up to world's fastest-growing plant

• Social penumbras predict political attitudes « Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

• New Documents Suggest J. Edgar Hoover Was Involved in Fred Hampton’s Murder

• Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2021)

  + [Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (February
  2021)](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25989762)
  

  • Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (February 2021) | Hacker News

Horseshit

• GameStop and the Truth Wars | City Journal

  The Reddit traders—the mob—do not seem to have any philosophy of valuation. Does that make them immoral? Some, hilariously, have argued precisely that on network television. Albert Edwards, a global strategist at Société Générale, said that the Federal Reserve “should hang its head in shame” for having presided over scenes of “a retail mob feasting off each hedge fund kill.” Does this make the retailers naïve? Maybe, though many increased their net worth from $50,000 to $20 million or $30 million. What it really shows is that they understand the secret of modern capitalism—a secret that until now has been reserved for a happy few.

• Netflix Finalizing GameStop Stock Movie Package

• 70% of top “civic” Facebook groups are toxic or violent, report finds

• Bernie's mittens: A lesson for S.F. high school students in subtle white privilege

• Fewer hate groups identified in report that shows online shift

• Dunkin’ employee was fired for giving donuts that gone to waste to the homeless

• 7 taken into custody during Olympia hotel sweep of group demanding pandemic housing

• Dershowitz nominates Kushner, aide for Nobel Peace Prize

  • Black Lives Matter nominated for Nobel peace prize

• Police pepper spray 9-year-old girl in New York

• Chicago Public Schools vows to lock out teachers who don't show up, inching dispute closer toward strike

• Op-ed – No, Mars is not a free planet, no matter what SpaceX says

TechSuck

• Victims of AT&T unlimited-data throttling get only $22 in settlements

• affects "Desktop Client" / possible Chrome & Chromium browser? MP4 video 0-day exploit making the rounds on Discord

• Pip has dropped support for Python 2

  • What’s New In Python 3.10 — Python 3.10.0a4 documentation

• Chrome 89 beta: Google presses on with 'advanced hardware interactions' that Mozilla, Apple see as harmful • The Register

• Ford to use Google Android as the brains behind its vehicles

• Google Stadia Shuts Down Internal Studios, Changing Business Focus

  Said one source familiar with Stadia’s first-party operations, citing another tech giant’s widely publicized failure to create video games: “Google was a terrible place to make games. Imagine Amazon, but under-resourced.”

  • Focusing on Stadia’s future as a platform, and winding down SG&E

• Amazon’s Ring now reportedly partners with 2k US police and fire departments

• Signal, Telegram rendered useless during Myanmar coup – deauth + SMS offline

• Facebook Oversight Reverses Hydroxychloroquine Censorship Decision | ZeroHedge

  Facebook failed to satisfactorily explain why it removed the post, annd that their 'misinformation and imminent harm rule' is too vague - recommending that the company clarify its standards on health misinformation.

• Robinhood’s Staff Fret over Mission After Startup Halted ‘Meme Stock’ Buying

Economicon

• The CEO of Robinhood to testify before a House committee on Feb. 18

• Government ‘Swat Team’ Is Reviewing Past Startup Deals Tied to Chinese Investors

• GameStop shares lose nearly a third of their value on Monday following 400% short-squeeze spike last week

• Dow rises 250 points as market rebounds from worst week since October

• Yes, bitcoin could be the new GameStop

• All eyes on Alphabet's first-ever disclosure of Google Cloud profit | Reuters

• GameStop Short Squeeze: Why the Media Has It Wrong

• GameStop (GME) Stock Short Interest Plummets in Sign Traders Covering Bets - Bloomberg

  Short interest in the video-game retailer plummeted to 39% of free-floating shares, from 114% in mid-January, according to IHS Markit Ltd. data. Data from S3 Partners, another market intelligence firm, showed a similar pattern, with GameStop’s short sales having fallen to about 50% of its total stock available to trade, down from a high of roughly 140% reached earlier this year.

• And Beneath The Chaos, Reddit Likely Just Saved Two Failing Businesses In American Airlines And AMC | ZeroHedge

  This same group of retail traders were likely saving two businesses. AMC and American Airlines, both cash burning entities feeling the hit of the pandemic, will be able to offer fresh stock at inflated prices thanks to the recent run up. This means that both businesses - previously very likely to be slated for a tough 2021, financially - will now instead be more flush with cash coming out of the back end of the global pandemic.

• Gamestop Slides After Short Interest Said To Collapse | ZeroHedge

  High as $383 ... then tumbled as much as 34%, before getting halted after triggering a circuit breaker.

  • 220 and heading down @ 12.30p
  • closed @ 225 and down to 195 after hours trading

• CBO sees rapid growth recovery, labor force returning to pre-pandemic level by 2022

• Goldman sees hedge fund exposures close to records, ongoing sell-off risk after GameStop swings | Reuters

• Robinhood Raises Another $2.4B from shareholders

• Apple is planning to issue dollar-denominated bonds in six-tranche deal

Silver Squoze

• Silver price surges amid investor frenzy — but Reddit users say it isn't them | CBC News

• 3p comment, seems to be the emerging consensus:

  As others have said, the notion that r/wallstreetbets is going after silver is false, fake news put out by Citadel which holds a large interest in SLV specifically.

• 2p, Silver 29.35 (Kitco)

• 2p, shows dealers asking $40+ for silver eagles Physical Premium To Paper Hits Record As Silver Market Tears In Two | ZeroHedge

• The media (CNN, NPR, BBC) are coordinating a lie that Reddit r/WSB buying SLV

• Silver Futures Suffer Sudden Wave Of Selling After Surging Most Since Lehman | ZeroHedge

• 11.30a Silver 29.34 (Kitco)

• a response to the whole fluff ~10a:

If you scan WSB, you'll find a seemingly never-ending string of posts saying, essentially, "don't be distracted by silver, stick with $gme," and yet article after article after article suggests that WSB is focusing on silver now. I don't know what the source of "WSB is focusing on silver now" is, but it is clearly not actual WSB posts.

• Price of silver surges as Reddit traders find new target

  The precious metal was recently trading up about 9 percent at about $29.40 an ounce after rising above $30 for the first time since 2013.

• 12.30a Silver 29.24 (Kitco spot ask price)

Unity

• The Senate Is Playing A Dangerous Game With The 14th Amendment – JONATHAN TURLEY

• False Accusation: The Unfounded Claim that Social Media Companies Censor Conservatives

• Republican lawmakers want to use pro-Trump rioters to undermine peaceful protest

• Pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood refusing State Bar of Georgia order to undergo psychiatric exam

BidenTime

• Here are the executive actions Biden signed so far

• Biden asks Supreme Court to delay oral arguments on border wall and ...

• White House plays down prospects for Biden-GOP meeting on relief bill - The Washington Post

• Critics Called Trump 'Authoritarian,' Now Silent On Biden's Executive Order Spree

• Josh Hawley's attempt to block Biden's Homeland Security nominee shows how little he cares about national ...

Trumpoline

• How America Changed During Trump’s Presidency | Pew Research Center

• Trump just fired his legal team because he is trying to turn his impeachment trial into a circus

• Trump filled political war chest with tens of millions to close 2020

Capitol Riots / Fortification

• Ukraine's President: Capitol riots a 'strong blow' to US democracy

• They stormed the Capitol to overturn the results of an election they didn't vote in - CNN

• Regime Fears the People: Bus Loads of National Guard Still Arriving in DC (VIDEO)

World

• 2021 Myanmar Coup D'état

  • Myanmar Public Figures Speak with VOA After Military Takes Control

  • Aung San Suu Kyi Disgraced Herself Sucking up to the Generals in Myanmar, They Staged a Military Coup Anyway

  • (Linked yesterday too) Myanmar coup: Aung San Suu Kyi detained as military seizes control

• Russian Pipeline Is Germany's Greatest Foreign Policy Embarrassment

• Russia Is ‘Ready’ to Disconnect from Global Internet

• How a Russian Nationalist Named Alexei Navalny Became a Liberal Hero

• Pope Benedict's Vatican plot: Ex-pontiff 'to undo Francis' power move' amid health fears | World | News | Express.co.uk

COVID

• About that claim that “SARS-CoV-2 is not a natural zoonosis but instead is laboratory derived” « Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

  • the thing he's talking about is being heavily pushed by someone, "PR newswire" versions of it, etc. “A Bayesian analysis concludes beyond a reasonable doubt that SARS-CoV-2 is not a natural zoonosis but instead is laboratory derived.” I assumed it to be bullshit based on that, and didnt look at "Bayseian" being used as a magic word.

• Britain Identifies 105 Cases of South African COVID-19 Variant

  • Rhe says this is house to house involuntary scary shit reported by folks she follows

• Vaccine Skepticism Lurks in Town Famous for Syphilis Study

• Rep. Clyburn Pushes OSHA Probe Into COVID-19 Outbreaks at Meatpacking Plants

• FBI: Pharmacist who sought to spoil vaccines also believes Earth is flat

• Kids could see lost earnings during their careers due to Covid lockdowns, British study predicts

  Children in the U.K. could lose £40,000 ($54,897) in earnings over their lifetime as a result of missing half a year in school due to Covid lockdowns.

Climate

• Scientists have taught spinach to send emails and it could warn us about climate change | Living

  Through nanotechnology, engineers at MIT in the US have transformed spinach into sensors capable of detecting explosive materials. These plants are then able to wirelessly relay this information back to the scientists.

Obit

• Screech Dustin Diamond, 'Saved by the Bell' star, dead at 44

• Investigator Jack Palladino Dies From Attempted Mugging Injuries