2021-04-19

Cool

• Check Out This Dramatic Video of a TBM Avenger Ditching Yesterday at Cocoa Beach Airshow. - The Aviationist

• NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity successfully completed first flight

• Basic Music Theory in ~200 Lines of Python | Manohar Vanga

Worthy

• Adversary Drones Are Spying On The U.S. And The Pentagon Acts Like They're UFOs

• Space Propulsion: Separating Fact From Science Fiction | Hackaday

• COGS: How I Bankrupted MoviePass - Napkin Math - Every

  As it turns out, giving away money for free is quite stupid. The company burned through tens of millions of dollars and collapsed by 2019. MoviePass is my favorite business because I, the consumer, happily took the clueless executives’ money for my own personal benefit. It was awesome for me, but it sucked for them.

  Side Note: There is an argument to be made that MoviePass actually wasn’t a terrible idea! If they had been in the funding environment of today there is a chance they could’ve pulled this off.

etc

• On This Day, April 19: Oklahoma City bombing kills 168

• Is This the Most Interesting Idea in All of Science? - Join Activism

• The Dark Forest Hypothesis: An Unsettling Explanation For Why Aliens Haven't Made Contact | IFLScience

Horseshit

• Geico admits fraudsters stole customers’ driver’s license numbers for months

• How product placements may soon be added to classic films - BBC News

• People May Trust Computers More Than Humans

• The Interior Lives of Hoarders

• Campus Reform | Harvard epidemiologist in Chinese dictator hat wants 'accountability' for anti-lockdown academics

• There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing

celebrity gossip

• “Star Waggons”

• Matthew McConaughey, Texas Governor? Voters Seem to Like the Idea.

Obit

• Actor Felix Silla, famously known for his role as Cousin Itt on ‘The Addams Family,’ dies at 84.

• Alma Wahlberg, mother of actors Donnie and Mark, dies at 78

• Walter Mondale Has Died

  + [Walter ‘Fritz’ Mondale Dies at
  93](https://www.wsj.com/articles/walter-fritz-mondale-dies-at-93-vice-president-to-jimmy-carter-was-a-civil-rights-advocate-11618881388)
  

  • Walter F. Mondale, Carter’s vice president who lost White House bid, dies at 93

Culture War / Re segregation / Identdoctrination

• Team Blue Should End Its Unhealthy Obsession With COVID-19 Panic Porn

• Pig’s head left at former home of Derek Chauvin defense witness

• Minnesota National Guard and police team shot at in a drive-by shooting, ...

• 4 officers injured in Sacramento protests

• Man accused of throwing bleach in NYPD officer's face, hurling Molotov cocktail at others

• What 21st-century design looks like: Don Norman and decolonial design

• A Distinctly American Problem, Police Killings, Needs Systematic Investigation

• The United States is at risk of an armed anti-police insurgency

• ICE, CBP ordered to stop using 'alien,' 'assimilation'

• WATCH: Chris Cuomo Says 'White People's Kids' Need to Be Killed for Police Reform to Happen – PJ Media

• CBP Releases Video from Predator Drone Deployed over George Floyd Protests

• Judge in Chauvin trial says Rep. Waters' comments may be grounds for appeal

• How Anarchists Captured Portland

  Rioting has occurred like clockwork, and often anarchist “direct actions” are announced in advance, so the police are never taken by surprise. And yet the city’s officers, under the command of our cartoonishly liberal mayor (who is also our police-commissioner), have stood by and — night after night — allowed the city to descend into chaos. Last September, rioters even targeted the Mayor’s own apartment building, breaking in and setting a fire in the lobby. The Mayor’s response? To announce that he was moving out of the building to keep his neighbours safe, a move any competent parent would recognise invites more terror. The anarchists have gained a strange kind of control over the city in their fight against Nazis and white supremacists they appear to have conjured in a quest to give their anger meaning.

• Trump’s Surprise Witness: Rep. Waters Becomes A Possible Witness Against Her Own Lawsuit – JONATHAN TURLEY

  With rioting continuing in Brooklyn Center, Minn. and around the country, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, went to Minnesota and told the protesters that they “gotta stay on the street” and “get more confrontational.” The statement is ironic since Waters is one of the House members currently suing former President Donald Trump and others for inciting violence on January 6th with his words on the Mall. Waters insists that Trump telling his supporters to go to the Capitol to make their voice heard and “fight” for their votes was actual criminal incitement. Conversely, Waters was speaking after multiple nights of rioting and looting and telling protesters to stay on the streets and get even more confrontational. There was violence after the remarks, including a shooting incident where two National Guard members were injured. Waters has now guaranteed that she could be called as a witness by Trump in his own defense against her own lawsuit.

Media / Many Ministries of Truths / Censorship

• Coalition of human rights and journalist organisations express concerns for free speech - European Digital Rights (EDRi)

  On 25 March, 61 human rights and journalist associations sent a joint letter to Members of the European Parliament, urging them to vote against the proposed Regulation on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online.

• Facebook Vows To Remove Some Anti-George Floyd Content Ahead Of Trial’s Verdict

• Is Facebook Buying Off the New York Times?

• Facebook Flummoxed by the Town of Bitche, France

• Dunno if they have the solution; buit its a decent statement of some of the problems. News was never meant for social platforms

TechSuck

• Facebook plans to go after Clubhouse

  • Facebook unveils suite of new audio products

• Reddit unveils its Clubhouse clone, Reddit Talk

• Bessemer union officially challenges Amazon warehouse vote

• Nvidia is Now OpenCL 3.0 Conformant

• Elon Musk’s Satellite Internet Project Is Too Risky, Rivals Say

• Apple will let Parler back on the App Store

  + [Apple to Reinstate Parler, the App at Center of Free-Speech
  Debate](https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-to-reinstate-parler-the-app-at-center-of-free-speech-debate-11618849961)
  

  • Apple confirms it will allow Parler to return to App Store

• curl those funny IPv4 addresses | daniel.haxx.se

• Verizon announces Hyper Precise Location service

• Microsoft Edge Adds a 'Kids Mode' Limiting Browsing to 70 Web Sites

• Nvidia's $40 Billion Deal to Buy Arm Under U.K. National Security Investigation

  • Proposed acquisition of ARM Limited by NVIDIA: public interest intervention

• Discord loosens NSFW server ban on iOS

• 'High-level' organiser of FIN7 hacking group sentenced to ten years in prison

• Backdoored developer tool that stole credentials escaped notice for 3 months | Ars Technica

  The Codecov bash uploader contained the backdoor from late January to the beginning of April, developers of the tool said on Thursday. The backdoor caused developer computers to send secret authentication tokens and other sensitive data to a remote site controlled by the hackers.

  + [Codecov hackers breached hundreds of restricted customer sites: sources](https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-cyber-codecov/codecov-hackers-breached-hundreds-of-restricted-customer-sites-sources-idUSL1N2MC2SS)
  

Economicon

• GameStop says CEO George Sherman will resign in July, or maybe sooner

• Prediction: Rising food prices will cause protests and instability

• Bank of England Statement on Central Bank Digital Currency

• In Huge Reversal, China Now Calls Bitcoin "Investment Alternative" After Years Of Crackdowns

• MasterCard is acquiring identity verification company Ekata for $850M

• Everyone Loves the $100M Deli

Poilitcks

• Marjorie Taylor Greene to introduce resolution to expel Maxine Waters

• Boehner said the Capitol riot was 'one of the saddest days' of his life and he would rather set himself 'on fire than run for office again'

• Most in new poll want to end justices' lifetime appointments

• Biden Considering Rule To Cut Nicotine In Cigs; Tobacco Stocks Tumble | ZeroHedge

• U.S. Exposes Hackers’ Helpers to Punish Russian Attacks

Security / Militaria / Crime

• Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who engaged rioters, suffered two strokes and died of natural causes, officials say - The Washington Post

  • Using understatement, the paper added: “The ruling, released Monday, likely will make it difficult for prosecutors to pursue homicide charges in the officer’s death.”

  • The Media Lied Repeatedly About Brian Sicknick Death and They Just Got Caught

  the gruesome story of Sicknick's “murder” was too valuable to allow any questioning. It was weaponized over and over to depict the pro-Trump mob not as just violent but barbaric and murderous, because if Sicknick weren't murdered by them, then nobody was (without Sicknick, the only ones killed were four pro-Trump supporters: two who died of a heart attack, one from an amphetamine overdose, and the other, Ashli Babbitt, who was shot point blank in the neck by Capitol Police despite being unarmed). So crucial was this fairy tale about Sicknick that it made its way into the official record of President Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate, and they had Joe Biden himself recite from the script, even as clear facts mounted proving it was untrue.

• Who Killed Ashli Babbitt by Kurt Schlichter

• Red Flag Law Didn't Prevent Indianapolis Shooter.

• The US has reported at least 50 mass shootings since the Atlanta spa shootings

• US Suffers 3rd Mass Shooting In 24 Hours As 5 Wounded In Louisiana

• Former sheriff's deputy suspected of killing 3 arrested without incident

• 3 dead, 2 wounded in shooting at Wisconsin tavern

  • 'Person of interest' arrested after 3 killed in shooting at Kenosha, Wisconsin, bar

• Suspects arrested, victim identified in Nebraska mall shooting

• 5 Wounded in Rocket Attack on Iraqi Base Hosting US Troops

• The Afghanistan War Is Ending. A Pennsylvania Town Exhales.

World

• FAA Issues New "Flight Risk" Alert Over The Russia-Ukraine Border | ZeroHedge

• Canadian LTE carrier suffers nationwide outage

  • Rogers (one of Canada's largest cellular service providers) was down 12hr

• Russia will face 'consequences' if Navalny dies - US

• Russia expels 20 Czech diplomats in deepening row

• Israel, Greece Sign Record Defense Deal

• Syria to Hold Presidential Vote on May 26

• China: Crimes Against Humanity in Xinjian

• Did China's former Premier just subtly criticize President Xi Jinping?

• ‘Disgusted’: Plans for a breakaway European Super League met with widespread fury

• 'Out of control' fire breaks out in Cape Town's Table Mountain National Park

Health / Medicine / COVID

• State Department to list 80% of countries as 'Do Not Travel'

• New study shows Pfizer’s vaccine can prevent Covid-19 transmission

• British coronavirus variant may have come from dogs, researchers say

• Hurray! All US Adults Are Now Eligible for the COVID Vaccine

• The obscure maths theorem that governs the reliability of Covid testing

• More Than Half Of U.S. Adults Have Gotten At Least One COVID-19 Vaccine Dose

• The Americans Who Still Can’t Get Vaccinated

• Are Outdoor Mask Mandates Still Necessary?

• Do we really still need to wear masks outside?

• Prions Are Going to End the World

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Coalition of big investors pushes banks to defund carbon emitters

• US, China Pledge Urgent Climate Control Measures

• Interstate water wars are heating up along with the climate

• Biden’s climate leadership will be tested at the Earth Day summit

• Washington bans gas cars by 2030 – 5 years sooner than California

• When did "fleece" != "wool" ? Your Fleece’s Dirty Secret: Microplastics – Appalachian Gear Company

• The Chemical Weapon Next Door - Drilled News

  Modified hydrofluoric acid (MHF), used in oil refining, could turn into a flesh-eating vapor cloud if leaked. 400,000 refinery neighbors in LA are at risk.