2021-03-25

Cool

• APT Encounters of the Third Kind - Igor’s Blog

• How Fast Is The Universe Expanding? The Riddle Of Two Values For The Hubble Constant | Hackaday

• We Found Ford's Incredible Turbine-Powered Semi-Truck 'Big Red' That's Been Lost for Decades

• Mars mission: NASA prepares its Ingenuity helicopter for first flight

Worthy

• More Antifragile, Diversity Libertarianism, And Corporate Censorship - Astral Codex Ten

• NDA #3 – Minded – Mark O'Neill

• What Data Can’t Do  | The New Yorker

etc

• Suez Canal suspends traffic as ship stuck like 'beached whale' | Reuters

  A container ship blocking the Suez Canal like a “beached whale” sent new shockwaves through global trade on Thursday as officials stopped all ships entering the channel and the salvage company said it may take weeks to free.

  Roughly 30% of the world’s shipping container volume transits through the 193 km (120 miles) Suez Canal daily, and about 12% of total global trade of all goods.

  + [Suez Canal Container Ship Crash Is A "Worst-Case Scenario" For
  Global Trade |
  ZeroHedge](https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/suez-canal-container-ship-crash-worst-case-scenario-global-trade)
  

  • Tanker Rates Rise As Global Shippers Scramble To Reroute Ships Around Africa | ZeroHedge

  • Suez Canal blockage is delaying an estimated $400M an hour in goods

  • What the Suez Canal accident means to the tanker business

• Operation Warp Speed's Slaoui Ousted From Medical Company Board Over Misconduct Claim

• Pope orders salary cuts for cardinals and clerics to save jobs of employees

• Science relies on constructive criticism. How to keep it useful and respectful

• Self-compassion is not self-indulgence: here’s how to try it | Psyche Ideas

• Man arrested at Atlanta grocery with 6 guns, body armor, police say

• Facial recognition beats the Covid-mask challenge

  • (Jan 2021) Airport Screening While Wearing Masks?

• US Postal Service 10 Year Plan to Fix Its Problems

Horseshit

• Does a case of top-notch Bordeaux taste different after being in Space?

• MyFitnessPal feature to determine calories from photos of meals

• I Have Come to Bury Ayn Rand - Issue 98: Mind - Nautilus

  A prominent evolutionary biologist slays the beast of Individualism.

• Man Demanded His Final Paycheck. The Auto Shop Delivered 91,500 Greasy Pennies

• Colorado is 1 of 4 states that allow firearms with mental illness

• Majority of Commuters Say They Only Feel Safe in Single-Occupancy Vehicles

• School Calls Child Services on Mom Who Was 7 Minutes Late to Pick Up Her 10-Year-Old Son – Reason.com

• Planting false memories in people's minds and then erasing them

• As more artists turn their attention to NFTs, so, likely, do money launderers

Media / Ministry of Truthy

• Facebook, Google and Twitter CEOs face disinformation grilling in Congress- live

• 16 Times Conservatives Tried To Cancel Things, Even Though They Pretend To Hate "Cancel Culture"

  Remember when conservatives canceled french fries?

• The mess at Medium - The Verge

• Godaddy is directly advertising on Steve Bannon's new outlet Real Americas Voice

• Former Fed Prosecutor Seeks Pledge From “Every Business In America” That 2020 Election Was “Accurate”

  “The 2020 presidential election was free and fair, and produced accurate, reliable results,” reads the explanation behind the “Democracy Pledge” that Glenn Kirschner hopes to put before “every company in the country” in the coming months. “Those who sought to undermine or otherwise refused to acknowledge these results, share responsibility for the civil unrest after the election, culminating in violence at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”

• 12 People are behind most of the anti-vaxxer disinformation on social media

  • The Disinformation Dozen | Center for Countering Digital Hate

• Bernie Sanders says censorship of former President Trump makes him uncomfortable

• On Google Podcasts, a Buffet of Hate

• Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admits website contributed to Capitol riots

Identity Politics / Race Baiting / Re segregation

• My Asian Parents Still Won’t Talk About the Racism They’ve Faced

• Colorado baker calls gender transition cake case 'a trap'

• White headmaster who made Black student kneel resigns

• A First: US Senate Confirms Transgender Doctor for Key Post

  • J Edgar Hoover don't count?

• Kamala Harris touting girls' empowerment with Bill Clinton is a bad joke

• Oakland will give low-income families of color $500 per month

  • Oakland launches guaranteed pay plan for low-income people

  Oakland’s project is significant because it is one of the largest efforts in the U.S. so far, targeting up to 600 families. And it is the first program to limit participation strictly to Black, Indigenous and people of color communities.

  “Guaranteed income has been a goal of the Black Panther platform since its founding,” said Jesús Gerena, CEO of Family Independence Initiative, which is partnering with the program in Oakland. “Direct investment in the community in response to systemic injustices isn’t new.”

• Facebook is autogenerating pages for white supremacists

TechSuck

• Ruby off the Rails: Code library yanked over license blunder, sparks chaos for half a million projects • The Register

• Engineer reports data leak to nonprofit, hears from the police

• Microsoft products dropping support for Internet Explorer 11

• Facebook’s purchase of Giphy raises competition concerns

• Resentful employee deletes 1,200 Microsoft Office 365 accounts, gets prison

• Microsoft’s Ion Digital ID Network Is Live on Bitcoin

• Amazon’s denial of workers peeing in bottles sparks questions and backlash

• “Free Software”: An idea whose time has passed | by Robert M. Lefkowitz | Mar, 2021 | Medium

• Introducing: Funds for Open Source.

  Supporting an Ethereum ecosystem with the OASIS Baseline Protocol

  • comment:

  Hi Chris! Open Collective Inc. is a for profit company, we develop and run the open collective platform, opencollective.com The Open Source Collective is a non profit, a 501c6 that gives fiscal sponsorship to projects so they can receive project directed funding. The value prop is having both the platform to receive and disburse funds transparently and the non profit that holds the funds, does compliance, reports taxes, etc.

RMS / FSF Cancellation

• Good overview of the original Sept 2019 bullshit: Low grade "journalists" and internet mob attack RMS with lies. In-depth review.

• Preliminary board statement on FSF governance — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software

• “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

• Red Hat statement about Richard Stallman’s return to the Free Software Foundation board

• General Resolution: Statement regarding Richard Stallman's readmission to the FSF board

  The Debian Project co-signs the statement regarding Richard Stallman's readmission to the FSF board seen at https://github.com/rms-open-letter/rms-open-letter.github.io/blob/main/index.md.

• Possible organised pro-Stallman campaign from Russia

• The truth about Richard M. Stallman | rms

• How come this GitHub repo with more PRs and stars is not trending on GitHub?

• "An Open letter in support of Richard M. Stallman" Reaches 2000 Signatories - LinuxReviews

Economicon

• GM temporarily shutters Missouri plant amid semiconductor chip shortage

• U.S. regulator opens inquiry into Wall Street's blank check IPO frenzy - sources | Reuters

• Larry Summers Sees ‘Least Responsible’ Fiscal Policy in 40 Years

• Biggest Bitcoin Fund Sinks to Record Discount as Mania Cools

• In 2020 the ultra-rich got richer. Now they're bracing for the backlash

• Gorillas, the on-demand grocery delivery startup, ‘surpasses’ $1B valuation

Poilitcks

• (Oct 2020) Fact check: Robert Byrd, eulogized by Joe Biden at funeral, was not KKK Grand Wizard  | Reuters

  Biden did deliver a eulogy for Byrd on July 2, 2010. A video of the speech can be found  here  and a transcript can be found here  here  .  

  Byrd was not a grand wizard of the Klan. Byrd was unanimously named “exalted cyclops”, which meant that Byrd was the top officer in the local klan. The responsibilities for this role included leading meetings and initiating incoming members

• U.S. Supreme Court widens ability to sue police for excessive force

  • Supreme Court expands 'seizure' meaning under 4th Amendment - Los Angeles Times

• Joe Biden Confirms Plan To Run In 2024 & Gut Filibuster During 62 Minute First Solo Presser | ZeroHedge

  Biden said his “expectation” is that he will run again in 2024, with Kamala Harris as his expected running mate. He demurred on whether he thinks Donald Trump will be his opponent, saying he’s not even sure if there’ll be a Republican Party.

• VP Kamala straight up refuses to salute the military outside Air Force One and Two. Watch these videos. What the heck? | Not the Bee

• Supreme Court Mulls Whether Police Can Enter Home Without Warrant to Save a Life

• Biden picks VP Harris to lead response to situation at US southern border | WAVY.com

• Major Back at White House After Minor Run-in With Secret Service Agent

  • WH says first dogs Champ and Major have returned

• What experience tells us about deficit spending and social movements

• Democrats Begin Push for Biggest Expansion of Voting Since 1960s

• Georgia House passes sweeping bill that would restrict voting ...

• FEC greenlights campaign spending for bodyguards

• Federal Bump Stock Ban Blocked by Divided Appeals Court

  The federal ban on bump stocks—devices that increase the rate of fire for semiautomatic weapons—is likely unlawful and must be put on hold, a divided Sixth Circuit said Thursday.

Security / Militaria

• Oath Keepers’ Best New Hope Is a Lawyer Who Cites ‘Lord of the Rings’

• News outlets ask for access to Sicknick assault videos shown in court

• Judge bans capital riot suspect from internet

• Biden To Stay In Afghanistan Beyond May 1st Agreement Despite Pentagon Saying "We're Ready"

• A Marine F-35B Fighter Jet Accidentally Shot Itself With Its Own Gun Pod

World

• Reports: North Korea launches two ballistic missiles into Sea of Japan

  • Japan protests ‘East Sea’ reference after North Korea missile launch

• Bolivian president says Elon Musk's tweet sparked the 2019 coup

• "Iranian Missile" Fired On Israeli Cargo Ship In Arabian Sea: Report | ZeroHedge

• U.S. sanctions companies that back Myanmar military following coup

Health / Medicine / COVID

• Convalescent Plasma Has No Effect on Survival/Disease Course with Severe COVID19

• Weaned on Hollywood endings, Americans now face a messy one

• We Must Start Planning for a Permanent Pandemic

• Pfizer begins Covid vaccine trial on infants and young kids

• "Papers For The Pub": Johnson Shocks By Signaling Support For Vaccine Passport To Enter Pubs

• Herd Immunity Is Near, Despite Fauci’s Denial: His estimate that it’ll take a 70% to 85% vaccination rate ignores those who have already been infected.

• At least 33 states have announced dates when all adults will be eligible for vaccines - here's the list

• Covid: The bus journey that saved hundreds of thousands of lives

• Concussions can be diagnosed through a saliva test, British researchers find

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Bill Gates says world should be back to normal by end-2022

• Scientist Says Plastic Pollution Is Shrinking Penises, Will Make Most Men Infertile by 2045

  • Male genitals are shrinking because of phthalates, warns Dr Shanna Swan

• 'Dimming the sun': $100m geoengineering research programme proposed

• The Paraquat Poisoning Problem

  Unsurprisingly, around the world, people continued to die from drinking paraquat. Suicides and accidental poisonings were reported in China, India, Italy, France, and throughout Africa and South America, according to the Swiss nonprofit Public Eye. In Malaysia, where the pesticide was used to control weeds on rubber plantations, there were 253 deaths in 1986 alone. Paraquat also posed a particular crisis in Japan, where it was used for suicide and, through paraquat-laced drinks put into vending machines, as a murder weapon.

• Climate Chaos: NGOs Name Top Banks Who Put $3.8 Trillion Into Fossil Fuels

Obit

• 'Talladega Nights' alum Houston Tumlin dead at 28

• Jessica Walter Dead: Arrested Development, Archer Actress Was 80