2021-04-14

Cool

• F18 Navy Pilot Uses His iPhone To Take A Picture of UFOs: Pentagon Confirms – Collective Evolution

• Pentagon Confirms 'Pyramid-Shaped' UFO Video Footage Is Authentic

• A Northrop Grumman robot successfully docked to a satellite to extend its life | Space

• Watch: Bright fireball lights up night sky over Florida

• Scott Aaronson Receives 2020 ACM Prize in Computing

  Aaronson helped develop the concept of quantum supremacy, which denotes the milestone that is achieved when a quantum device can solve a problem that no classical computer can solve in a reasonable amount of time. Aaronson established many of the theoretical foundations of quantum supremacy experiments. Such experiments allow scientists to give convincing evidence that quantum computers provide exponential speedups without having to first build a full fault-tolerant quantum computer

  • Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » The ACM Prize thing

    It would understate matters to point out that not everyone has always agreed with everything I’ve said on this blog. I’m ridiculously lucky, and I know it, that even living through this polarized and tumultuous era, I never felt forced to choose between academic success and the freedom to speak my conscience in public under my real name.

• Some lucid dreamers can answer questions and math problems in their sleep

• Gigantic flying pterosaurs had spoked vertebrae to support their 'ridiculously long' necks

Worthy

• Excellent, must read: Societal Donatism

  we need to stop operating under the assumption that excellence in one area also by necessity translates into moral excellence. It should not come as a surprise to us if our heroes indeed appear to have feet of clay. In some cases, this may even make them more human. We might not recognise ourselves in the genius of our heroes, but we can easily recognise ourselves in their flaws! Moreover, we need to be cognisant of the fact that many human endeavours do not require moral excellence. You do not have to be morally excellent to perform well in sports, mathematics, or gardening…

• Transcendent horseshit Strategy in the Artificial Age: Observations From Teaching an AI to Write a U.S. National Security Strategy - War on the Rocks

  As Biden himself notes in the preface to the interim guidance, “under the Biden-Harris Administration, America is back. Diplomacy is back. … But we are not looking back.” History holds a great number of valuable lessons, but the currents of strategic language appear to be forever looking to the future.

etc

• Dear NASA, Fuston Has a Problem . . . With Your Mars Audio!

  • They try out four commercial de-noise packages on Mars audio... Without asking what that sensor actually is or what processing the released data has had already.

• Muslims Mark Ramadan Amid Virus Surge and Renewed Curbs

• Huawei blames US for global chip supply crunch

• Making life kiki for some Boba shortage: the U.S. may soon have no bubbles for tea

• Nolte: Rural Trumpers Already Live in Tolerant Utopia Leftists Want

Horseshit

• GPS is endangered by a misguided FCC decision

  • comment:

  2004 the FCC approved using adjacent spectrum in terrestrial applications cf Ligado Networks - Wikipedia

  Adjacent frequency filtering has existed for decades to make GPS receivers that don't listen to adjacent spectrum, but Garmin, Trimble and other GPS industry heavyweights have spent the intervening 20 years putting out cheap hardware with minimal frequency filtering despite knowing it will cause these devices to work poorly as more radio signals are broadcast

• Military programs aiming to end pandemics forever

• Space Junk Removal Is Not Going Smoothly - Scientific American

• The 'Iron Man' body armour many of us may soon be wearing

• Despite normal spring, Texas electric grid seeks power boost

  • ERCOT Urges Texans To Conserve Power As Another Cold Blast Sparks Grid 'Emergency'

• Just say no: negativity is secret of political tweet success, study finds

celebrity gossip

• New York Times: Matt Gaetz associate has been cooperating with DOJ since last year

• Jon Stewart accuses VA of being 'an obstacle' to burn pits medical care

• RMS Excommunicating a Heretic

  • Stallman and the FSF board issued joint statements concerning his return

Obit

• Bernie Madoff has died

  • Bernie Madoff, mastermind of the nation’s biggest investment fraud, dies at 82

Culture War / Re segregation / Identdoctrination

• Coinbase is a mission focused company (Sep 2020)

• A Nigerian fintech ‘esusu’ founder addressing credit gap for blacks in US

• Zoom Fatigue Worse for Women, Stanford Study Finds

• Comedian John Cleese 'Apologises' For Making "Fun Of White English People" | ZeroHedge

• Latino Programming Language

  • Nothing wrong with the idea, until "Built to fight White Supremacy... By basing a programming language on Spanish instead of English.

Media / Many Ministries of Truths / Censorship

• CNN Director in Project Veritas VIDEO: ‘If it Wasn’t for CNN, I Don’t Know That Trump Would Have Got Voted Out’

• Discord will block NSFW servers on iOS

• Former Trump official Sebastian Gorka banned from YouTube over election conspiracy theories

• YouTube suspends account for linking to a PhD research on WPA2 vulnerability

• You can now appeal for Facebook’s Oversight Board to take down bad posts - The Verge

• China Launches Hotline to Report Online Comments That ‘Distort’ History

• A 23-Year-Old Coder Kept QAnon Online When No One Else Would

TechSuck

• The FBI is remotely hacking hundreds of computers to protect them from Hafnium

  • Effort to disrupt exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities | Hacker News

• The latest DSM update makes btrfs drives unavailable on budget Synology models

• FCC finally starts tackling America's robocall scourge

• Update on beta testing payments in Signal

• Google Maps loses outback Australian town

• The Ransomware Gang Behind One of the Biggest Supply Chain Hacks Ever

• Turkey fines Google for abusing dominant position

Economicon

• $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

• Coinbase CEO to Take Crypto Exchange Public After Bringing Bitcoin to Masses

  + [Coinbase debuts on Nasdaq at 100B $
  valuation](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/14/coinbase-to-debut-on-nasdaq-in-direct-listing.html)
  

  • (Google stock ticker) Coinbase opens at $380, up 60% seconds after opening

• Austin’s Startup Sector Won the Pandemic

• Bitcoin and Dogecoin Prices Soar to Records Ahead of Coinbase Listing

• Dogecoin Is Soaring–Near $.10 for First Time Ever

• Bitcoin is a ‘boon for surveillance’, says former CIA director

Poilitcks

• Clyburn says 'we've got to have police officers' after Tlaib calls for 'no more policing'

• State of the Union? Biden Invited to Address US Congress on April 28

  U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday invited President Joe Biden to address a joint session of Congress on April 28.

  The speech will give Biden an opportunity to give a sales pitch to millions of viewers for his $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, which is the subject of a partisan debate in Congress.

• Elizabeth Warren: Fire Navient And Cancel Student Loans

• Biden to Name Robert Santos to Census Bureau

  If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Santos would be the first person of color to serve as permanent head of the beleaguered agency.

• Nancy Pelosi's Husband Uses Call Options To Buy Microsoft Ahead Of Big Govt Contract | ZeroHedge

• Texas Nonprofit Hires Biden Transition Official - Then Lands Half-Billion Dollar Contract To Manage Border Crisis | ZeroHedge

  • Texas nonprofit got border contract after hiring Biden official

Security / Militaria

• Police Told to Hold Back on Capitol Riot Response, Report Finds

• Biden, Lawmakers Honor US Capitol Police Officer Slain in Car ...

• U.S. plans September Afghan troop withdrawal

  • US Intelligence Raises Concerns About Afghanistan Pullout

• Demonstrators gather for third night after shooting death of Daunte Wright

  • Police Fire Tear-Gas, Flashbangs As Minnesota Riots Enter 3rd Night | ZeroHedge

World

• New Guidelines for U.S. Government Interactions with Taiwan Counterparts

  These new guidelines liberalize guidance on contacts with Taiwan, consistent with our unofficial relations, and provide clarity throughout the Executive Branch on effective implementation of our “one China” policy

• Ukraine Demands "More Weapons, More Money, More Support To Join NATO" From Biden | ZeroHedge

• Ideas | A defamation lawsuit in Singapore sets a dangerous precedent - Rest of World

  In the eyes of many Singaporeans, including myself, getting sued by one of the most powerful men in the country simply for sharing a link on Facebook seems ludicrous, especially since the allegations have already been robustly rebutted through the government’s many platforms and wide reach. In conversations with friends and acquaintances from different backgrounds and walks of life, another common refrain has been: “Why didn’t the prime minister sue the source of the false allegations? Why only pick on Leong Sze Hian?”

• China’s ‘Little Blue Men’ aren’t fishermen, they’re a maritime militia

• UK Cops Break Down Door, Arrest Man For Violating COVID Quarantine Rules | ZeroHedge

• Serbian freelancers protest new taxation law that threatens push into poverty

• US Intelligence Warns China, Russia Determined to Erode Washington's Influence

• With 100 days until the Tokyo Olympics, Japan has vaccinated less than 1% of its population. That's a problem

• Egypt impounds Ever Given ship over $900m Suez Canal compensation bill

• Mass killing in Myanmar has 'clear echoes of Syria,' UN human rights commissioner warns. The parallels are eerie.

• Nuclear Sabotage Could Be What Iran Needed

  • Blackout Hits Iran Nuclear Site in What Appears to Be Israeli Sabotage

Health / Medicine / COVID

• UK Top hospital trust makes Covid jab mandatory for all staff

• The Pandemic's Wrongest Man

• Kati Kariko Helped Shield the World from the Coronavirus

• Welcome to the new colonialism: rich countries sitting on surplus vaccines

• Fake Covid-19 Certificates Hit Airlines, Which Now Have to Police Them

• Denmark to permanently cease using AstraZeneca vaccine

• Once on the Brink of Eradication, Syphilis Is Raging Again

  • Comments running to "This is why I've adopted celibacy / Christian sexual morality looks great now!"

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Bitcoin Mining Operations in China Threaten Climate Goals

• France is giving citizens $3k to get rid of their car and get an ebike

• Company gives trees to customers for Earth Day

• John Kerry Heads to China to Talk Climate

• Japan to Dump Nuclear Wastewater from Fukushima

  • U.S. expresses support for Japan's release of Fukushima nuclear plant water

• We Are Living in a Climate Emergency, and We’re Going to Say So

  • We Are Living in a Climate Emergency, and We’re Going to Say So | Hacker News