2021-03-26

Important

• Congress, in a Five-Hour Hearing, Demands Tech CEOs Censor the Internet Even More Aggressively - Glenn Greenwald

  Words cannot convey how chilling and authoritarian this all is: watching government officials, hour after hour, demand censorship of political speech and threaten punishment for failures to obey. As I detailed last month, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the state violates the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee when they coerce private actors to censor for them — exactly the tyrannical goal to which these hearings are singularly devoted.

  We are taught from childhood that a defining hallmark of repressive regimes is that political officials wield power to silence ideas and people they dislike, and that, conversely, what makes the U.S. a “free” society is the guarantee that American leaders are barred from doing so. It is impossible to reconcile that claim with what happened in that House hearing room over the course of five hours on Thursday.

Cool

• OneWeb sends up 36 broadband internet satellites

• WOW. Actual reporting and on technical details of FreeBSD Kernel code Buffer overruns, license violations, and bad code: FreeBSD 13’s close call | Ars Technica

  "I didn't even want to do this work," Macy eventually told us. "I was burned out, spent many months with post-COVID syndrome... I'd suffered through years of verbal abuse from non-doers and semi-non-doers in the project whose one big one up on me is that they aren't felons. I jumped at the opportunity to leave the project in December... I just felt a moral obligation to get [the WireGuard port] over the finish line. So you'll have to forgive me if my final efforts were a bit half-hearted."

  • from Mar 24th: WireGuard bounces off FreeBSD—for now (LWN.net)

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

  • today it caught on HN: Apt Encounters of the Third Kind | Hacker News

  • Igor Bogdanov on Twitter: "@DerekAlldritt I think he had some suspicions, but he is denying that vehemently😉" / Twitter

Worthy

• Toward A Bayesian Theory Of Willpower - Astral Codex Ten

• What You Can Learn From Old Hard Drive Adverts - Marc's Blog

• Sinister: Why Microsoft wants Discord - The Verge

• Greenwald: CNN's Defense Of Chris Cuomo's Special COVID Privileges Is Grotesque | ZeroHedge

etc

• Trains Collide In Egypt, Killing At least 32

• Owner of stranded Suez Canal ship aims to free vessel on Saturday

  + [Suez Canal Crisis Morphs Into Global Supply Chain Wrecking Ball 
  |
  ZeroHedge](https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/suez-canal-crisis-morphs-global-supply-chain-wrecking-ball)
  

  • Titanic Traffic Jam of Cargo Ships Growing Around Blocked Suez Canal Can Be Seen From Space

  • Forever Given – dating app for people stuck in the Suez Canal

• LA Cops Attacked With "Rocks, Bottles, And Smoke Bombs" While Trying To Clear Out Homeless Camp

• Colorado shooting suspect moved to different jail over 'safety concerns and threats'

• Tony Hsieh Bankrolled His Followers. In Return, They Enabled His Risky Lifestyle

• Towns Reel as Banks Close Branches at Record Pace

Horseshit

• from discussion of Down's Syndrome: At Home with Down Syndrome (2008) | Hacker News

  (People with Downs I'd met) were amongst the most ... witty people

  We have to be careful about praising the disabled like this, because we risk being condescending.

  ... because of course no such praise of the disabled could possibly be sincere, right? It must be pity based mockery!

• After crime plummeted in 2020, Baltimore will stop drug, sex prosecutions

• Introducing You to 'Airport Culture', Gen Z's New Favourite Pastime

• FBI Warns Imminent Deepfake Attacks “Almost Certain”

• No, Really, Are We Rome?

• Tesla ordered to have Elon Musk delete anti-union tweet

  • Tesla Is Ordered to Rehire Worker, Make Musk Delete Tweet

Media / Ministry of Truthy

• YouTube demonetizes David Dobrik’s channels over sexual assault allegations

• What’s Behind the Fight over Section 230

• Three times Mark Zuckerberg misled Congress about extremism and misinformation

• Fox News guest predicts on Tucker Carlson's show that GOP will "pick a fascist" to lead the ...

• I’m Not Convinced The David Dobrik Scandal Will Change Anything About YouTube Culture

Identity Politics / Race Baiting / Re segregation

• Many QAnon followers report having mental health diagnoses

• Biden administration blasts Trump for only granting 0.1% of COVID-19 relief funds to Black ...

• Man arrested by Boise police for defacing Lincoln statue.

• Redfin decried redlining and then did it

• School says asking male students to 'apologise for their gender' was wrong

TechSuck

• Facebook sets reopening date for SF offices, with no free food and transit

• CNA suffers sophisticated cybersecurity attack

  On March 21, 2021, CNA determined that it sustained a sophisticated cybersecurity attack. The attack caused a network disruption and impacted certain CNA systems, including corporate email. Upon learning of the incident, we immediately engaged a team of third-party forensic experts to investigate and determine the full scope of this incident, which is ongoing. We have alerted law enforcement and will be cooperating with them as they conduct their own investigation. Out of an abundance of caution, we have disconnected our systems from our network, which continue to function. We’ve notified employees and provided workarounds where possible to ensure they can continue operating and serving the needs of our insureds and policyholders to the best of their ability.

  • someone says "ransomware", not this.
• 1. WSJ. They Just Wanted Their Couches. An Accidental Reply-All Email Storm Followed

• Amazon argues it’s not liable for product that severely injured toddler | Ars Technica

• Only Google is really allowed to crawl the web

  • Only Google is really allowed to crawl the web | Hacker News

• Google’s top security teams unilaterally shut down a counterterrorism operation

  • comment:

  Imagine the headline had Google made the opposite decision: "Google suppresses disclosure of zero day security vulnerability under active Five Eyes exploitation".

• It doesn't work | Frank DENIS random thoughts.

• Update on work to improve governance at the FSF — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software

  FSF president Geoffrey Knauth announced, "I commit myself to resign as an FSF officer, director, and voting member as soon as there is a clear path for new leadership assuring continuity of the FSF’s mission and compliance with fiduciary requirements."

• 2003, In Praise of Richard Stallman

• Red Hat Suspends Funding to the Free Software Foundation | Hacker News

Economicon

• Ford Idles F-150 plant due to chip shortages

• Is A Massive Fund Liquidating Stocks? | ZeroHedge

• Global shipping was in chaos even before the Suez Blockage

• Kentucky governor signs crypto mining tax, clean energy incentives into law

• Jeff Bezos-backed accounting startup hits $1.2B valuation after new round

• Money no object as governments race to build chip arsenals

• Amazon faces new lawsuit alleging it fixed book prices

  • at variance with the rest of the industry, which is why they're in trouble. If they'd just colluded properly to defraud consumers then it would be ok.

• YC Reject, Neighbor Storage, just secured a record $53M in Series B funding

• The United States Revives the Production of Rare Earths

• WeWork Agrees to SPAC Deal That Would Take Startup Public

  + [WeWork to Become Publicly Traded via SPAC Merger with BowX
  Acquisition
  Corp](https://www.wework.com/ideas/newsroom-landing-page/newsroom/posts/wework-to-become-publicly-traded-via-spac-merger-with-bowx-acquisition-corp)
  

  • WeWork agrees $9B SPAC merger to finally get stock market listing

• Volkswagen to seek diesel damages from former chief Martin Winterkorn

• The Crisis of Venture Capital: America’s Broken Startup System

Poilitcks

• Dominion files $1.6B lawsuit against Fox News for defamation

• Sen Warren: "fight to break up Big Tech so you're not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets"

• Media Fact-Checkers Silent as Nancy Pelosi Falsely Claims She Can Unseat 'Any Member of Congress' She Wants – PJ Media

  On Thursday, Pelosi, justifying her efforts, said, “If I wanted to be unfair, I wouldn’t have seated the Republican from Iowa, because that was my right on the opening day. I would have just said, ‘You’re not seated,’ and that would have been my right, as Speaker, to do.”

Security / Militaria

• DHS Preparing to Use Private Contractors to "Scour Public Data and Social Media" To Compile Dissident Citizens for Watch List and No Fly Lists - The Last Refuge

• Trump says Capitol rioters posed 'zero threat'

• Prosecutors Are Accusing A Member Of The Oath Keepers Of Lying About His Paramilitary Training

• Zuckerberg Acknowledges Content Related to Capitol Riot Was Posted on Facebook

• Lawmakers Grill Tech C.E.O.s on Capitol Riot, Getting Few Direct Answers

• Parler Says It Informed FBI of Violent Content Before Capitol Riot: Social-media platform tells House committee it has been unfairly targeted by Big Tech.

  • Parler Destroys the Big Tech Narrative on the Capitol Riot – PJ Media

• The F-35 may be unsalvageable

World

• Iran’s Rulers Silent on Uncertain Electoral Fate of Israel’s PM Netanyahu

• Xinjiang cotton: Western clothes brands vanish as backlash grows

• China Makes It a Crime to Question Military Casualties on the Internet

• US primacy is a self-fulfilling threat generator

• Is the U.S. joining the "rules-based world" — at least when it comes to Afghanistan?

  • We Can’t Abandon the Afghans Who Helped Us

• Houthis launch attacks on Saudi oil facilities, military sites

  • Power-sharing is the only way to end the war in Yemen – if the US supports it

• Ethiopian Prime Minister says Eritrea will withdraw troops from ...

Health / Medicine / COVID

• Norway keeps AstraZeneca vaccine on hold for another three weeks

• Former CDC Director Says COVID-19 Escaped From Wuhan Lab | ZeroHedge

  • Same rat bastard who told Congress that the CDC was totally on top of everything and nothing could possibly be handled any better, last year at the beginning of Pandemic Panic

  • Redfield says, citing no clear evidence, he thinks the likely origin of the pandemic is a lab in China. Trump's Covid team spoke with ...

• Rutgers to require Covid-19 vaccination for students this fall

• The preservative TBHQ in popular foods may harm the immune system

• Too Much High-Intensity Exercise May Be Bad for Your Health

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• EPA sued over streptomycin use on citrus trees

• “Pure Green Energy” Aussie billionaire commits to 1000GW clean energy capacity

• Climate Change Risks Surge in Companies’ Annual Reports to SEC

• Russia Sees Record High Average Temperatures in 2020

• Sir David Attenborough Backs New Tech That Can Recycle All Plastics

• Direct observations confirm humans are throwing Earth energy budget off balance

• Assisting evolution: how much should we help species adapt?

• The scientists releasing cats in Australia - BBC Future

  It may no longer be enough to protect species like Australia's marsupials from predators – we may have to assist in their evolution if they are to survive the 21st Century.

Obit

• Author of many favorite children's books, at 104. Beverly Cleary has died

• Larry McMurtry Dies at 84