2021-09-17

Cool

• People's Heartbeats Synchronize When They're Captivated by the Same Story

Worthy

• Scott Gottlieb’s Uncontrolled Spread

  In a jaw-dropping section, Dr. Gottlieb writes that “companies seeking to make the test kits described extended negotiations with the CDC that stretched for weeks as the agency made sure that the contracts protected its inventions.” When every day of delay could mean thousands of lives lost down the line, the CDC was dickering over test royalties.

  In the early months of the pandemic the CDC impeded private firms from developing their own tests and demanded that all testing be run through its labs even as its own test failed miserably and its own labs had no hope of scaling up to deal with the levels of testing needed. Moreover, the author notes, because its own labs couldn’t scale, the CDC played down the necessity of widespread testing and took “deliberate steps to enforce guidelines that would make sure it didn’t receive more samples than its single lab could handle.”

• A $795M analogy: Locast, broadcast copyright, and the fall of big antenna

  The good news is: copyright is not a right, and intellectual property is not property. That is to say, copyright holders don’t have any natural rights in the Lockean sense. Instead, copyright is consequentialist — an incentive to enrich the public, “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.” This is an interpretation the supreme court has historically stuck by:

  The immediate effect of our copyright law is to secure a fair return for an 'author's' creative labor. But the ultimate aim is, by this incentive, to stimulate artistic creativity for the general public good. The sole interest of the United States and the primary object in conferring the monopoly lie in the general benefits derived by the public from the labors of authors.

• Entertaining, at least Civil War? - by Dan Scott - Meanderings Of a Common Man

etc

• European Energy Prices set Records – Watts Up With That?

Horseshit

• Studies have found genetic variants that correlate with going further in school

• It Has Come to this: Subscription Tacos

celebrity gossip

• Wall Street Influencers Are Making $500k, Topping Even Bankers

• Netanyahu reportedly offered lucrative Oracle board seat by Larry Ellison

• The extraordinary life of the US’s most radical activist

  • Pauli Murray - Wikipedia

Culture War / Re segregation / Identdoctrination

• Can there be a winner in the culture wars?

• NYC's Demand That Diplomats Follow Vaccine Mandate Creates Uproar At UN

• Labeling The Founding Documents ‘Offensive’ Is Just The Beginning Of The National Archives’ Spiteful Plans.

• Brown suspends in-person gatherings despite nearly 98% vaccination rate, no COVID outbreak.

• New York superintendent and CRT advocate ousted by school board, parents.

• The Problem With Callout Culture: There Is No Mechanism For Forgiveness - by Joan Westenberg 🌈 - Pizza Party

• ‘Science,’ They Said › American Greatness

  Science is dying; superstition disguised as morality is returning. And we all will soon become poorer, angrier and more divided.

• Vaccine Mandates Crash into America’s ‘Don’t Tell Me What to Do’ State

• What Is Betadine? Why Anti-Vaxxers Are Promoting Gargling with Iodine - Rolling Stone

• Why investing in libraries is a climate justice issue

• Republican senator demands National Archives stop putting warning labels on founding documents

• Rapid Increase in Ivermectin Prescriptions and Reports of Severe Illness Associated with Use of Products Containing Ivermectin to Prevent or Treat COVID-19

  • CDC: Do not prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID-19

  • comment:

  The headline is wrong; see above. They then quote the CDC: “Educate patients about the risks of using ivermectin without a prescription or misusing ivermectin formulations meant for external use or ivermectin-containing products formulated for veterinary use.” Do you see “do not prescribe” there? No? Good.

• Campus Reform | EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Tech syllabus apologizes for instructor's White skin

• English Touring Opera drops 14 white musicians

• Facebook Hobbled Mark Zuckerberg’s Bid to Get America Vaccinated

• Vaccine Mandates Can’t Stop Covid’s Spread

Media / Many Ministries of Truths / Censorship

• Unhinged Newsmax Host Cuts Off and Yells at Veteran for Mildly Criticizing Trump

• Facebook bans German anti-lockdown accounts under new ‘social harm’ policy

  • Facebook terminates ca. 150 accounts of Germany's largest Covid skeptic movement

• Troll farms reached 140M Americans a month on Facebook before election

  • Facebook forced troll farm content on over 40% of all Americans each month

• Facebook’s new commitments on climate misinformation miss the point

  “Facebook knows the super-spreaders of climate disinformation and should put an end to their repetitive lies,” Michael Khoo, co-chair of the climate disinformation coalition at the nonprofit Friends of the Earth (FOE), said in a statement today. “

  • The scope for honest disagreement is contracting every day. First there was a Revealed Truth about COVID, then the election results, now climate change...Isn't it great that we've finally eliminated all our ignorance on these topics and precluded any need for debate? Life was so darned confusing when we had to decide what was right for ourselves.

• Despite Zuck's attempts, Facebook a “cesspool of Covid misinformation”

• Bill Maher scolds liberal media for ‘scaring the s–t out of people’ over Covid

• Hong Kong Forces Tiananmen Vigil Group to Delete Online Presence

• Facebook 'We created the machine and can't control the machine'

TechSuck

• "I helped draft the CoC" Peter Bourgon: I have been permanently banned from all Golang community spaces

• AMD: We Stand Ready to Make Arm Chips

• Mailchimp founders promised to never sell, withheld equity, then sold for $12B

• Apple and Google have deleted the Navalny app from their store (RU)

  • Google and Apple Remove App Aimed at Spurring Protest Voting in Russia

• Amazon closes 3k Chinese-brand online stores in campaign against fake reviews

Economicon

• 'private-equity titans' tapped billions in federal Covid relief

• Enraged Evergrande Investors Go Full Pitchfork, Hold Management Hostage In Company Offices

• Renting a car will be a pain until at least 2022

• 750k US households could be evicted across the US before the end of the year

• Why a record number of container ships are backed up off the coast of California

Poilitcks

• The role of physical threats in Trump’s domination of the GOP

• Hillsborough GOP member death from Covid-19 causes financial problems for party

• Gates Foundation Was Major Donor to Pro-Biden ‘Dark Money’ Network – Sludge

• Biden Administration Blocking Flu Manchu Monoclonal Antibody Supplies To Red States? « Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog

• Border Patrol to Shut Down All Sector Checkpoints as Bridge Camp Swells to 10K

  + [FAA Grounds All Drones Near Texas Bridge As Biden Admin Tries To
  Hide Latest Border Catastrophe |
  ZeroHedge](https://www.zerohedge.com/political/faa-grounds-all-drones-near-texas-bridge-biden-admin-tries-hide-latest-border-catastrophe)
  

  • Thousands of Migrants in Limbo Under Texas Bridge

• How the Epik hack reveals every secret the far-right tried to hide

  Analysis of the data by the Daily Dot revealed the names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of those who registered web domains for a range of sites related to everything from the QAnon conspiracy theory to forums for supporters of former President Donald Trump. The data was also verified on Wednesday evening by the Record.

  “They are fully compromised end-to-end,” they said. “Maybe the worst I’ve ever seen in my 20-year career.” The engineer pointed the Daily Dot to what they described as Epik’s “entire primary database,” which contains hosting account usernames and passwords, SSH keys, and even some credit card numbers—all stored in plaintext.

• US Capitol attack like 9/11 but an assault from within, says Pelosi

Crime / Police

• Alex Murdaugh Surrenders After Trying to Fake His Own Killing: Latest Updates

• Special counsel Durham's probe into origins of Trump-Russia investigation nears end

• 100 National Guard troops are on standby to support Capitol Police during ...

Security / Militaria

• Pentagon Acknowledges Aug. 29 Drone Strike in Afghanistan Was Tragic Mistake

  + [US admits Kabul drone strike killed
  civilians](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58604655)
  

  • US military admits it killed 10 civilians in Kabul airstrike

• C-130s Operate From A Wyoming Highway To Train To Fight Against A Major Adversary

World

• New Zealand cricket team abandon Pakistan tour after 'government security alert'

• In Afghanistan, Music and Musicians Go Silent as Taliban Takes Over – Deadline

• France calls killing of ISIS leader behind deaths of 4 U.S. soldiers big victory

Health / Medicine / COVID

• FDA panel rejects plan to administer Pfizer’s booster doses to general public

  • As the FDA vaccine panel considers boosters, experts present conflicting data

• Israel data shows third Covid shot restores protection from infection to 95%

• More than half of Britons suffering from long Covid might not have it

• Countries that are opening up and living with Covid

• Did the coronavirus jump from animals to people twice?

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Democrats call on oil companies to testify on climate disinformation

• maybe it wasn't the Primatine mist that caused it? The ozone hole over the South Pole is now bigger than Antarctica

• Climate Change Saves More Lives Than You’d Think

• Only one country in the world has plan that will mitigate climate change by 2030

• Governments falling woefully short of Paris climate pledges

• The compound impact of extreme weather events and COVID-19: An update of the number of people affected and a look at the humanitarian implications in selected contexts - World | ReliefWeb

  The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting impact on climate risks. Governments need to commit to investing in community adaptation, anticipation systems and local actors. “The massive spending in COVID-19 recovery proves that governments can act fast and drastically in the face of global threats. It is time to turn words into action and devote the same energy to the climate crisis. Every day, we are witnessing the impact of human-made climate change. The climate crisis is here, and we need to act now,” Rocca said.

• Australian bush fires belched out immense quantity of carbon

• “The world is on a catastrophic pathway to 2.7C-degrees of heating”