2021-02-05

Cool

• The Psyche mission to a unique metal asteroid between Mars and Jupiter

• The Second Coming of Star Wars The Digital Antiquarian

  it seems most likely that Kenner agreed to pay Lucas and Fox either a 5-percent royalty or a flat $100,000 per year, whichever amount was greater. If Kenner ever failed to pay at least $100,000 in any given year, the arrangement would end immediately. Otherwise, it would go on in perpetuity.

  Those “prequel” films replaced swashbuckling adventure with parliamentary politics, whilst displaying to painful effect Lucas’s limitations as a director and screenwriter. In so thoroughly failing to recapture the magic of what had come before, they have only made memories of the freer, breezier Star Wars of old burn that much brighter in the souls of old-timers like me. LucasArts’s 1990s Star Wars games were among the last great manifestations of that old spirit. The best few of them at least — a group which most certainly includes TIE Fighter — remain well worth savoring today.

Worthy

• Don't Believe the Hype About Hypersonic Missiles

• Original 45-year-old Apple computer with wooden case set to sell for £1.1MM

• The endless browser wars

• Why Did Liberal Elites Ignore a 21st-Century Genocide? | Caylan Ford | Arc Digital

  This marks the final point of departure. In contrast to the relativism of the communist and progressive activists, Falun Gong maintains that there is an objective moral standard, which exists above time or human opinion. What is true remains true, even when it is ignored. The good is still good, even when it is persecuted, scorned, or called vice. And those who persist in seeking these virtues will have their reward, if not in this life then in the next.

etc

• How will 'chipageddon' affect you? - BBC News

• 66 people rescued from ice floes on Wisconsin bay

• 8 bits are enough for a version number... - Linux Kernel Monkey Log

• Corruption Is Inevitable

• How extreme rituals forge intense social bonds | Aeon Essays

• In historic shift, Virginia lawmakers pass marijuana legalization bills

• Sources: High-powered explosives missing, possibly stolen from Southern California military base

  Sources report that approximately 10 pounds of Composition C-4 disappeared during a long training exercise two weeks ago. They also believe the manufactured plastic explosives may have been stolen.

Horseshit

• Mt. Gox demise as told by a Bitcoin insider

  • Mt. Gox demise as told by a Bitcoin insider | Hacker News

• Senate Adopts Ernst Amendment To Not Raise The Minimum Wage During Pandemic | ZeroHedge

• Academic high school is too elite (and Asian) for SF — Joanne Jacobs

• Its not xenophobia and racism to say this now? The Alarming Human Toll of Cheap Stuff ‘Made in China’

• 'Blue Check Homes': an artist fooled thousands

  • He had a big "THIS IS SATIRE" at the bottom of the site...

• Students Punished for ‘Vulgar’ Social Media Posts Are Fighting Back

• NY Times Reporter Rukmini Callimachi Moving to Higher Ed Beat After ‘Caliphate’ Collapse

  Last year, Callimachi came under scrutiny after Shehroze Chaudhry, the central character in her Caliphate podcast, was arrested by Canadian authorities for allegedly concocting a terrorist hoax, spinning a false narrative to Callimachi and others about his involvement with ISIS extremists. The arrest sparked a major internal investigation at the Times, which ultimately retracted much of the reporting and returned awards the podcast had received.

TechSuck

• Chrome 88 update patches a zero-day that is being actively exploited | Engadget

• U.S. Senators propose limiting liability shield for social media platforms

  • Democrats take first stab at reforming Section 230 after Capitol riots

  • Democratic senators' Act strips Section 230 immunity for ads and other content

• Google, Apple cave to Pakistan pressure to take down apps by Ahmadiyya Muslims

  • Comments decrying "anti-blasphemy" laws and still insisting that "election misinformation" is a completely different thing, gotta outlaw that, of course...

• Nevada bill would allow tech companies to create governments

  Zone requirements would include applicants owning at least 78 square miles (202 square kilometers) of undeveloped, uninhabited land within a single county but separate from any city, town or tax increment area. Companies would have at least $250 million and plans to invest an additional $1 billion in their zones over 10 years.

Economicon

• Long-term unemployment is close to a Great Recession record

• The GameStop stock is part of our national pandemic gambling binge

• GameStop mania may not have been the retail trader rebellion, data shows

• GameStop shares fall more than 40% as prominent booster draws inquiry

• 'Coup Attempt' of Reddit's Wallstreetbets Forum Is Averted

• (March 2020) The Long Decline of Global Interest Rates – Berkeley Economic Review

  “global real rates have shown a persistent downward trend over the past five centuries, declining within a corridor of between -0.9 and -1.75 basis points per annum.” Since the Black Death, in short, real interest rates or their equivalents have been plunging inexorably toward zero—a “suprasecular” stagnation.

• (August 2020) Why Does It Matter If Interest Rates Are Below the GDP Growth Rate? - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Unity

• Biden’s Banana Republic – Issues & Insights

• The Democratic Party Has a Fatal Misunderstanding of the QAnon Phenomenon

BidenTime

• Biden cancels Elon Musk's adventures in space - Washington Times

• White House: Biden supports NASA's Artemis program - UPI.com

• Biden Summons Troops To Help With COVID Vaccinations, Expands DPA | ZeroHedge

  • 1,000 U.S. troops to help in COVID-19 vaccinations

  • Pentagon Will Deploy Active Duty Troops To Support COVID-19 Vaccination Sites

• Biden’s announcement on ending US support for the war in Yemen, explained

Trumpoline

• How the Trump pardon process broke down in favor of the rich and well-connected

• Cyber chief Chris Krebs talks about working under Trump

• Democrats indicate they don't need Trump's testimony to make case at impeachment trial

Capitol Riots / Fortification

• Bank of America handed over customer data to feds following Capitol riot

World

• Greta Thunberg Triggers Criminal Investigation In India After Twitter Debacle | ZeroHedge

• Russia Expels Diplomats from 3 Countries, Saying They Attended Navalny Protests

• Three Chinese spies posing as journalists expelled from the UK

• Rich countries block India, South Africa's bid to ban Covid vaccine patents

• Hong Kong unveils national security guidelines for children aged six and above

• After 17 months, India finally restores full 4G coverage in Kashmir

  • New Links | Hacker News

COVID

• America’s Soviet-Style Vaccine Rollout

• Why won't the FDA approve this promising Covid-19 vaccine?

  the Oxford-developed, AstraZeneca-made COVID-19 vaccine: the cheap, refrigerator-friendly, easy-to-transport injection that, so far at least, is 100% successful at keeping people with COVID-19 out of the hospital. The Oxford vaccine has been given to more than a million British citizens, and the EU is now scrambling to find as many doses as it can to compensate for its own slow vaccine rollout.

• Astra Vaccine Equally Effective Against New Variant, Study Shows

Climate

• Study: Climate change increased risk for coronavirus pandemic

• The Terrifying Warning Lurking in the Earth’s Ancient Rock Record

• Twitter thinks ads about climate change are bad. Big Oil's disinfo is fine

Obit

• Christopher Plummer: Star of The Sound of Music dies at 91 - BBC News

  best known for his role as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, has died at the age of 91