2021-08-05

Worthy

• The human ear detects half a millisecond delay in sound | Aalto University

• Status Madness Starves Religion

• The Most Important Act of the Last Two Decades?

  Project Bioshield created the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). In other words, prior to 2004 the FDA had no clear legislative authority to authorize an unapproved vaccine, drug or device.

  • in other words "unplugging bureaucracy"

etc

• How giraffes deal with sky-high blood pressure - BBC Future

  • Giraffes have been misunderstood and are just as socially complex as elephants

• Radio was the original overhyped technology. | Racket

• International Space Station actually spun one-and-a-half times by errant Russian module's thrusters • The Register

• At least 10 dead after van carrying migrants crashes in Texas

Horseshit

• Tesla Owner Billed over $14,000 for Accidental Full Self-Driving Purchase

  Writing on Twitter, Preuss notes "If you double click the shift panel twice and accidentally engage the auto-pilot in Model 3, Tesla will automatically charge you $14100 if you didn't previously purchase auto-pilot."

• Fair algorithms for selecting citizens’ assemblies

• Disney's Star Wars hotel stays will cost at least $4,809

• It’s hard to be a moral person. Technology is making it harder

• To Stop a Pandemic in Its Tracks, Coordinate Across Borders

celebrity gossip

• Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Already Sucks

• "LIAR!" Twitter Brawl Erupts Between Taleb & Snowden Over Cyberbullying Accusations | ZeroHedge

• Facebook executive helped Cuomo smear sex-harassment accuser: AG report

  + [Time’s Up Founder Helped Cuomo Team Smear Governor’s Accuser:
  Anti-sexual harassment group worked with Cuomo aides to discredit
  Lindsey
  Boylan.](https://freebeacon.com/democrats/times-up-founder-helped-cuomo-team-smear-governors-accuser/)
  

  • Some fun in this thread: Facebook executive helped Cuomo smear sex-harassment accuser: AG report | Hacker News

    Facebook is large enough to afford professional lobbyists and consulting firms if they need political access. They don’t need to give executive level positions to former employees of a governor’s communications team to get access.

    and

    Fortunately, it takes due process to “cancel” a holder of public office. Part of that involves verifying claims.

• Democrats say Cuomo must resign. He’s refusing. What now?

• Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship

• Bill Gates says it was a "huge mistake" to spend time with Epstein

• Google Co-Founder Larry Page Allowed into New Zealand Despite Closed Border

• Watch: AOC Masks-Up For Photo Op With Crowd Of Leftists, Then Removes It Again Immediately | ZeroHedge

• Dallas Oberholzer: the 46-year-old Olympic skateboarder who fended off a jaguar

Obit

• AFL-CIO PRESIDENT RICHARD TRUMKA DEAD AT 72, SOURCES SAY

Culture War / Re segregation / Identdoctrination

• Hilarious Doctor Creates "Conspiracy Theory" That Convinces An Anti-Vaxxer To Vaccinate Her Child | IFLScience

  • Engaging with people as if they had a right to make their own decisions is a good idea. Do more of that.

• Anarchists and the Roots of Wokeism | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

• To Save America, Run for School Board

• Professor suggests it should be a federal hate crime to criticize Fauci and other government-funded scientists | The College Fix

Media / Many Ministries of Truths / Censorship

• Vaccine Success, Media Misery: Is Good News Taboo in the Trump Age? - by Matt Taibbi - TK News by Matt Taibbi

• “Free speech is dying and woke Google is helping to dig its grave”

TechSuck

• Amazon postpones return to office until January 2022

• Why Facebook’s claims about the Ad Observer are wrong

• Apple enabling client-side CSAM scanning on iPhone tomorrow | Hacker News

  I’ve had independent confirmation from multiple people that Apple is releasing a client-side tool for CSAM scanning tomorrow. This is a really bad idea. These tools will allow Apple to scan your iPhone photos for photos that match a specific perceptual hash, and report them to Apple servers if too many appear

  + [Apple plans to scan US iPhones for child abuse
  imagery](https://www.ft.com/content/14440f81-d405-452f-97e2-a81458f5411f)
  

  • Apple will scan local storage photos on iPhones for child abuse images

  • 'Privacy Company' Apple Plans To Monitor All US iPhones For Evidence Of Child Porn

  One academic who was offered a preview of the software explained why this could create serious privacy risks. Apple has gotten a lot of positive press for its commitment to user privacy - remember when it refused to crack an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters?

• Amazon’s drone delivery team ‘collapsing,’ losing over 100 workers

• Google fired 80 employees for abusing user data and spying on people

• CenturyLink selling copper network in 20 states instead of installing fiber | Ars Technica

Economicon

• Bad Blood at the FTC - Truth on the Market Truth on the Market

  The FTC, however, is trying to block it. In late March, the commission brought an action claiming that the merger would violate Section 7 of the Clayton Act by substantially reducing competition in a line of commerce.

  • er; the FTC actually doing something to block a merger? That seems new.

• Target rolls out debt-free college degrees to woo retail workers

• Citi says buy now, pay later not a ‘fad’ as it joins the stampede

• Ethereum just activated its ‘London’ hard fork, and it’s a big deal

  • Ethereum Surges After Completing 'London' Hard-Fork On Path To "Ultrasound Money"

Poilitcks

• "They Can't Arrest Us All" - Sen. Rand Paul Urges Americans To "Resist" Pelosi & The Petty Tyrants | ZeroHedge

• Biden seeks to boost fuel economy to thwart Trump rollback

• Congress Could Mandate Anti–Drunk Driving Technology in New Cars

• While they scare you with “variants,” Congress wants to make dietary supplements prescription only – TAKE ACTION NOW

• Landlords, Real Estate Groups Ask Judge To Block CDC's New Eviction Moratorium

• Major Tea Party Group Was Backed by Billionaire Donors, Hacked Documents Reveal

Crime / Police

• Lawyer: Capitol Cop Who Shot Ashli Babbitt 'Ambushed' Her on Jan. 6 Without Warning | RealClearInvestigations

• Officials put the wrong man in a mental facility for 2 years

• Wasn't this one of the background nes stories in "Starship Troopers?" Woman leans out of car, holds AK-47 in San Francisco | KRON4

• Police Recruiting Ad Lists “Qualified Immunity” as “Unique Benefit” – Reason.com

Security / Militaria

• Intel agencies scour data from Wuhan lab in Covid origins hunt

• (PDF) The Origins of Covid-19: An Investigation of the Wuhan Institute of Virology

  Based on the material collected and analyzed by the Committee Minority Staff, the preponderance of evidence suggests SARS-CoV-2 was accidentally released from a Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory sometime prior to September 12, 2019. The virus, or the viral sequence that was genetically manipulated, was likely collected in a cave in Yunnan province, PRC, between 2012 and2015. Researchers at the WIV, officials within the CCP, and potentially American citizens directly engaged in efforts to obfuscate information related to the origins of the virus and to suppress public debate of a possible lab leak.

World

• China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor

• South Africa’s telecoms industry force ISPs to have at least 30% black ownership

• Australia to prevent citizens ordinarily resident overseas from leaving

• Taliban Rampage Puts Afghan Journalists in Crosshairs

Health / Medicine / COVID

• Is CDC trying to deter vaccine-hesitant from getting jabbed?

• 94% of English adults have Covid antibodies, ONS data shows

  • https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthan...

• WHO chief urges wealthy nations to pause COVID-19 vaccine boosters.

• Moderna Recommends Covid-19 Vaccine Booster to Protect Against New Variants

• Level of Covid in Houston's wastewater is 320% more than 2020's benchmark level

• White House Defies WHO With Plans To Start Doling Out Booster Shots | ZeroHedge

  • Ignoring WHO call, major nations stick to vaccine booster plans

• (Video) 'They couldn't take it anymore': Hospital exec says employees are walking off

  • The HN thread: 'They couldn't take it anymore': Hospital exec says employees are walking off | Hacker News

  • Staffing shortages building over the pandemic are making nurses hate the hospital administrations even more than before. Many were furloughed or laid off 6-12 months ago, and are now asked to work mandatory overtime with ridiculously unsafe nurse:patient ratios.

  • ... all while traveling contract nurses and providers are being utilized by the hospitals at a pay rate 3-4 times what staff are paid. Many nurses are leaving their jobs that pay $30/hour to take a traveling assignment at $90+/hour. These people are working side by side, there's disdain towards the travelers, but who cares they're making bank.

• Kids Who Had Mild/Asymptomatic COVID Still Have Antibodies Months Later | ZeroHedge

• Mask Mandate Reinstated in San Francisco—as Daily COVID Deaths Hit Zero - Foundation for Economic Education

• Suspicions hover over COVID-19 origins search in US - Global Times

  The Chinese health authority rejected WHO's Phase-II COVID-19 origins study in mid-July, calling it lacking respect to common sense and being arrogant to science amid rising politicized moves of the US government on the matter, as the WHO's plan was proposed when the US-led West intensified the politics-driven conspiracy about a "lab leak" theory and exerted political pressure on international scientists to give up their scientific position on the origins issue.

• Who Are the Unvaccinated in America? There’s No One Answer

• NYC to mandate proof of vaccination for many indoor settings | Hacker News

• Eradication of Covid Is a Dangerous and Expensive Fantasy

• Coronavirus Diaries: I Was Part of the July Fourth Provincetown “Breakthrough”

• If you’re vaccinated, risk from the Delta variant is probably long-haul Covid

• Can I get ‘long Covid’ if I’m infected after vaccination?

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• NOAA's updated hurricane outlook calls for even more storms in 2021

• US forest fires threaten carbon offsets as company-linked trees burn

• Fires and floods: can science link extreme weather to climate change?

• Pro-fossil fuel Facebook ads were viewed 431M times – in one year

• Flurry of emissions pledges still not enough to meet global climate goals

• Second Hottest July in Europe on Record, Third Warmest July on Record Globally

• Years of fighting every wildfire helped fuel the Western megafires of today

• 2020 heat wave revealed new source of Arctic methane emissions: study

• Climate crisis: Scientists spot warning signs of Gulf Stream collapse

  • Observation-based early-warning signals for a collapse of the Gulf Stream