2021-09-15

Cool

• Saudi Arabia camel carvings dated to prehistoric era - BBC News

etc

• Aeroplankton: The atmospheric analogue to oceanic plankton

• Psychologists Are Learning What Religion Has Known for Years

• Futarchy: Robin Hanson on How Prediction Markets Can Take over the World - by Richard Hanania - Richard Hanania's Newsletter

Horseshit

• (Dec 2020) Buy Every American an Electric Moped

• Avi Loeb book PR The astronomy world is quarreling over whether 'Oumuamua was an alien craft

• Plant-based meat company vandalizes the bacon Wikipedia article

celebrity gossip

• 'Concerned Citizen'at Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes Trial Turns Out to Be Family

• Thiel Gamed Silicon Valley, Trump, and Democracy to Make Billions, Tax-Free

  • Press Sours on Former Darling Thiel in Revenge for Trump Support, Other Heresies

• Fauci-Email

• Trinidad Government: We’ve Probed Nicki Minaj’s Swollen Testicles Claim and It’s Bullshit

Obit

• Conservative radio host who swore off Covid-19 vaccine dies aft contractng virus

Culture War / Re segregation / Identdoctrination

• Walkability and the Culture Wars

• Transgender People Are at Elevated Risk for Chronic Conditions

• Why doesn’t natural immunity count in the US?

  • HN thread

• Judge blocks medical worker vaccine mandate in NY state

• Unvaccinated Covid patients cost the U.S. health system billions of dollars

• (Aug 21 2021) Are Government Vaccine mandates creating a healthcare crisis? - by TamiCam - TamiCam’s Newsletter

• Medicate and Punish: For Boys, Schools Have Little to Offer

• How the US made affordable homes illegal - Vox

  According to one estimate, we are now facing a shortage of nearly 4 million homes in the United States. And the primary reason for that shortage? Exclusionary zoning. These rules have a dark history in the United States as a tool of racial and economic segregation, used explicitly to keep certain races, religions, and nationalities out of certain neighborhoods. And while the explicit racism has been wiped from the legal text, the effect of many of these rules remains the same: to keep affordable housing, and the people who need it, away from the wealthiest Americans.

• Texas hospital faces closure due to vaccine mandate, CEO says

Media / Many Ministries of Truths / Censorship

• Disney+ is killing the blockbuster movie with its identikit mega-hits

• Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead

• YouTube removes St. Louis Council meeting recording over Covid-19 misinformation

• Adam Schiff, Elizabeth Warren Ask Amazon to Curtail COVID Misinformation

TechSuck

• Apple blocked the FlickType Watch keyboard then announced a clone of it

• Apple CPU Gains Grind To A Halt And The Future Looks Dim As The Impact From The CPU Engineer Exodus To Nuvia And Rivos Starts To Bleed In - by Dylan Patel - SemiAnalysis

• Once valued at $4B, Clubhouse now ranks 45 on App Store in social media

• Anonymous leaks gigabytes of data from alt-right web host Epik

• Walgreens’ sloppy Covid-19 test registration system exposed patient data

Economicon

• Evergrande threatens wider Chinese real estate market

  + [China's "Lehman Moment" Arrives On 13th Anniversary Of Lehman
  Bankruptcy: Beijing Tells Banks Evergrande Won't Pay Interest |
  ZeroHedge](https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chinas-lehman-moment-arrives-13th-anniversary-lehman-bankruptcy-beijing-tells-banks)
  

  • China property giant Evergrande admits debt crisis as protesters besiege HQ

  • China’s property market runs out of steam as millions demand their money back

• OpenSea product chief accused of flipping NFTs with insider information

• HSBC exits US mass market retail banking

• Robinhood Is Going on a College Tour to Recruit New Customers

• The Gift Card Economics Edition - by Colin Nagy - Why is this interesting?

  So, simply put, Starbucks has $1.6 billion dollars in free “loans” from consumers that like to make sure their balances are topped up for that Pumpkin Spice Latte drive-through visit.

• Federal stimulus measures reduced poverty in 2020, Census Bureau reports

• High Steel Prices Have Manufacturers Scrounging for Supplies

Poilitcks

• More Than Half Of US States Vow To Fight Biden's Vaccine Mandate

• The Roberts Court Is Dying. Here’s What Comes Next

• How Dan Quayle saved democracy. Yes, really.

  • Dan Quayle Convinced Mike Pence To Ignore Trump's Decertification Pleas: Book

• Milley Responds, Claims Usurping Presidential Power To Give Enemy Advance Notice Just Part Of 'Regular Communications' | ZeroHedge

• By exposing security problems: Bizarre story of how Q-Anon created a real election security issue

  “This is part of the effect and perpetuation of the Big Lie,” she added.

  • I can agree with that, just not in the sense they meant. These stories are weaponized bullshit; they're throwing rocks at the kids pointing out the Emperor's bare arse.

• California, You Blew It Again – Issues & Insights

  • LA Times celebrates Gavin Newsom's recall win over 'extremist, intolerant' Larry Elder: 'A ...

    • Gavin Newsom: A Vote for Larry Elder is a Vote Against ‘Diversity’ and ‘Racial Justice.’

  • Mountain of Money Fuels Newsom’s Surge to Recall Election Finish Line

• Half agree: Jan. 6 suspects are 'political prisoners' | Washington Examiner

• More Republicans call on Biden to designate Taliban as terrorist group

Crime / Police

• US lawyer arranged his murder so son would receive life insurance, say police

• Judge declares mistrial for Backpage.com founders, says government tainted jury

• FBI fires Michael Langeman, lead agent on failed Nassar investigation

  • Simone Biles, FBI director testify at Senate hearing on Larry Nassar investigation

Security / Militaria

• Watch: Rand Paul Grills Sec. Blinken: "You'd Think You'd Know Before You Off Someone With A Predator Drone" | ZeroHedge

• Three ex-US intelligence officers admit hacking for UAE

  • see also Darknet Diaries Podcast ep 47

  Synopsis is that the UAE hires ex-NSA employees as "penetration testers" and when they enter the country for cybersecurity work, some are pulled aside to be briefed to an opportunity called "Project Raven" to assist UAE Emirati intelligence with targeting, allegedly in the interest of counter-terrorism. The thing is, only Emiratis have "hands on keyboard" while the US engineers sit beside them and guide them, which supposedly dodges any legal concerns. Those who Jack interviewed decided to leave Project Raven when it became clear they were targeting dissidents, human rights activists, and later, Americans. As you might imagine, ex-NSA employees who target US citizens for a foreign government are breaking the law. I do wonder if it's these ex-Project Raven engineers that have led prosecutors down the road to where we are now.

World

• China is purging celebrities and tech billionaires

• North Korean missiles land in Japan EEZ as nuclear threat grows

• Ransomware encrypts South Africa's entire Dept of Justice network

Health / Medicine / COVID

• Non-Covid patients are paying a price as the delta variant overwhelms hospitals

• FDA staff declines to take stance on Pfizer’s Covid booster shots

• Gorillas At Atlanta's Zoo Have Contracted COVID, Probably From A Zoo Worker

• (PDF) Pfizer Presentation on Vaccines Efficacy to FDA

• Biden administration moves to stave off shortage of monoclonal antibodies

• Clinical Trial: No clinical benefit was observed from the use of remdesivir

• Recent Ebola outbreak emerged from someone infected 5 years earlier

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Young People Are Anxious About Climate Change, Say Governments Are Failing Them

• Maersk CEO Says Construction of Fossil Fueled Ships Should Be Banned

• Scientists Say They Could Bring Back Woolly Mammoths. But Maybe They Shouldn't

• In a first, New York passes law banning new fossil fuel vehicle sales after 2034

• Europe’s Climate Lesson for America. As wind power flags, energy prices soar

• Congress Is Debating Biggest Climate Change Bill Ever. Here's What's at Stake

• Globally, climate change drives a willingness to change lifestyles

• Australian bandicoot brought back from brink of extinction