2021-04-16

Cool

• Dietary Cocoa Improves Health of Obese Mice

• Defense Department confirms leaked video of unidentified aerial phenomena real

• 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight

• RFC114, Apr 16 1971 FTP is 50 years old

• NASA Picks SpaceX to Land Next Americans on Moon

  • SpaceX wins contract to develop spacecraft to land astronauts on the moon

Worthy

• Detergent DRM Defeated On Diminutive Dishwasher

• Why has nuclear power been a flop?

• Journalists, Learning They Spread a CIA Fraud About Russia, Instantly Embrace a New One - Glenn Greenwald

  When the CIA or related security state agencies tell American journalists to believe something, we obey unquestioningly, and as a result, whatever assertions are spread by these agencies, no matter how bereft of evidence or shielded by accountability-free anonymity, they instantly transform, in our government-worshipping worldview, into a proven fact — gospel — never to be questioned but only affirmed and then repeated and spread as far and wide as possible.

  That has been the dynamic driving the relationship between the corporate press and the CIA for decades, throughout the Cold War and then into the post-9/11 War on Terror and invasion of Iraq. But it has become so much more extreme in the Trump era. As the CIA became one of the leading anti-Trump #Resistance factions — a key player in domestic politics to subvert the presidency of the 45th President regarded by media figures as a Hitler-type menace — the bond between the corporate press and the intelligence community deepened more than ever. It is not an exaggeration to call it a merger: so much so that a parade of former security state officials from the CIA, NSA, FBI, DHS and others was hired by these news outlets to deliver the news. The partnership was no longer clandestine but official, out in the open, and proud.

  and

  What made this admission particularly bizarre — aside from rendering weeks of decrees from media figures and politicians humiliatingly reckless and baseless — is that the Biden administration continued to assert this claim as truth as recently as Thursday. When announcing new sanctions aimed at Moscow and diplomatic expulsions of Russian diplomats — primarily in response to allegations of Russian hacking — the White House said “it was responding to reports that Russia encouraged Taliban fighters to injure or kill coalition forces in Afghanistan.”

  and

  These are not journalists. They are obsequious spokespeople for the CIA and other official authorities. Even when they learn that they deceived millions of people by uncritically repeating a story that the CIA told them was true, they will — on the very same day that they learn they did this — do exactly the same thing, this time with a one-paragraph Treasury Department Press Release. These are agents of disinformation: state media. And when they speak, you should listen to them with the knowledge of what they really are, and treat them accordingly.

etc

• Authorities have yet to positively identify Indianapolis shooting suspect; FBI says premature to speculate on motive

  • 8 Killed In Shooting Rampage At Indianapolis FedEx Facility

• The US has reported at least 45 mass shootings in the last month

• How sex surrogates are helping injured Israeli soldiers - BBC News

• BBC - Travel - The US' lost, ancient megacity

• Missing hiker found after man using computer at home pinpoints his location

• The Untold Story of the Teen Hackers Who Transformed the Early Internet

• Couples say this new bedroom trend is saving their marriage

• 'Fear ageism, not aging': How an ageist society is failing its elders

• Indonesia arrests hackers over $60M U.S. Covid-19 scam

• Working the Challenge: Two Paths to First Flight on Mars

Horseshit

• Largest card grading service halts submissions

• Striking Telecom Workers Are Building a Community-Owned ISP

  For more than four years, New York City area unionized employees of Charter Communications have been on strike, waiting for the company to budge in contract negotiations. In their free time, they’ve been building a worker-owned ISP of their own, with a focus on expanding affordable access during the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Weed Absolutely Wrecks Your Vision, According to New Research

• The boba crisis is a perfect opportunity to try the superior tea topping: cheese

• Dog-bite Britain: the problem with the pandemic puppy explosion

• M&S begins legal action against Aldi over Colin the Caterpillar cake - BBC News

• Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants in historic application cycle

celebrity gossip

• Ex-California mayor who advocated for defunding police arrested for child sex crimes | The Post Millennial

• Debunking False Accusations Against Richard Stallman

  • At last, someone who will admit the GPL is the issue It's time to say goodbye to the GPL — Martin Kleppmann’s blog

Obit

• Helen McCrory: Peaky Blinders actress dies aged 52, husband Damian Lewis says

Culture War / Re segregation / Identdoctrination

• US police and public officials donated to Kyle Rittenhouse, data breach reveals

• Let’s Talk About Free Speech | City Journal

• The Social Construction of Racism in the United States

• Feeding Hate with Video: A Former Alt-Right YouTuber Explains His Methods

• 'Hillbilly Elegy' author quits board after controversial tweets

• In secret Facebook groups, America's best warriors share racist jabs, lies about 2020, even QAnon theories

• Simon & Schuster pulls out of book by Jonathan Mattingly, cop involved in Breonna Taylor raid

• Top 7 Most Ridiculous Hate Crime Hoaxes - Revolver

• Racist Computer Engineering Words: Master, Slave and the Fight over Offense

Media / Many Ministries of Truths / Censorship

• CBS News Edited Police Body Cam Video To Mask Teen Holding A Gun Before He Was Fatally Shot

• J&J Vaccine Pause Creates 'Perfect Storm' For Misinformation : NPR

• CA podcaster gets visit from police after ‘lightly’ criticizing AOC on Twitter

  A left-wing, anti-war activist says he was left “shaken” after two police officers came to his apartment in California last week, accusing him of threatening Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter.

• Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe’s Twitter suspended after CNN exposé

  • Project Veritas Banned from Twitter

• Facebook Prevents Sharing of New York Post Black Lives Matter Story

• Facebook oversight board extends timeline to decide on Trump ban

TechSuck

• Why does Amazon hate its most enthusiastic smart home fans?  - The Verge

• Did Someone at the Commerce Dept. Find a SolarWinds Backdoor in Aug. 2020?

• Google's Project Zero will wait longer before disclosing security flaws

• Firefox 88 to Disable FTP Next Week with Full Removal Set for June

  • Built-in FTP implementation to be removed in Firefox 90

• The Dire Possibility of Cyberattacks on Weapons Systems

• No More Nanometers – It’s Time for New Node Naming

• Facebook removed fake accounts in India until it saw BJP politician was involved

• Google misled consumers about the collection and use of location data

• High Court patent battle over Facebook Live and 'walkie talkie' tech

• TSMC suspends part of mature-node chip production due to power outage

  • TSMC Boosts Capital Budget Again, to $30B

Economicon

• S&P 500 Rises After Hitting Record

• What’s at Stake in the U.S. Case Against a Crypto Rebel

• Where did the $12 trillion of covid spending go? - Machine Learning Everything

• Dogecoin spikes 300% in a week, stoking fears of a cryptocurrency bubble

  + [Who Let the Doge Out? The Cryptocurrency Is as Nutty and Joyful
  as
  Ever](https://www.wired.com/story/dogecoin-bitcoin-influencers-nutty-cryptocurrency/)
  

  • Dogecoin has risen 400 percent in the last week because why not

  • EasyDNS is now accepting Dogecoin for payments

• Family Offices Targeting 800% Returns with SPAC Economics

• Robinhood: Experiencing issues with crypto trading due to unprecedented volumes

• Regulators Seek to Revoke Robinhood's Massachusetts License

• Skilled workers flee from polluted cities, hampering economic growth

• Bitcoin miners are buying power plants

• ‘It’s a Roller-Coaster Ride’: Global Chip Shortage Is Making Industries Sweat

• Elon Musk's SpaceX raises $1.16B in equity financing

• Citibank to shut retail banking operations in 13 countries

• A Crisis of Long-Term Unemployment Is Looming in the U.S.

• SBA executives ‘beyond doubt’ that teleworking employees are more productive

Poilitcks

• U.S. House committee approves blueprint for Big Tech crackdown

• The Washington state legislature has voted to end limits on municipal broadband

• U.S. Officials Walk Back Claim that Russia Paid Bounties – PJ Media

• Biden Sanctions Russia for Cyber Espionage While Remaining Silent over Israeli Cyberattack on ...

  • US government strikes back at Kremlin for SolarWinds hack campaign

• Biden hosts Japan’s Suga as first foreign leader at the White House

Security / Militaria

• (PDF) US Intelligence Annual Threat Assessment (2021)

• Beijing Is Out to Convince the World That Taiwan Is Not Worth Dying For

World

• Raul Castro Steps Down

• Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies to purchase goods and services

• New Zealand to ban sales of cigarettes to anyone born after 2004

• German constitutional court strikes down Berlin rent cap

• Modi's structural reforms enter climax as vested interests dig in

• Pakistan blocks social media access after violent anti-France protests

Health / Medicine / COVID

• Covid-19 spreads through air, long distance

• Dr. Scott Gottlieb explains why he believes Covid won’t be eradicated in U.S.

• J&J privately asked rival vaccine makers to probe clotting risks

• Why Are So Many Babies Dying of Covid in Brazil?

• People will likely need a booster shot of Pfizer's vaccine within 12 months

• Indian vaccine maker appeals to Biden to lift embargo on raw material exports

• Did Covid cause remission of an advanced cancer?

• 100 Nobel laureates urge Biden to make COVID-19 vaccines patent-free

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• ‘A poor man’s rainforest’: why we need to stop treating soil like dirt

• America’s Population Growth Looks to Be the Slowest Since 1918

• Ask HN: Bitcoin is an environmental disaster. How/when can it be stopped?

• First GMO Mosquitoes to Be Released in the Florida Keys