2021-10-27

Cool

• Giant, free index to world's research papers released online

• DIY Acoustic Camera using UMA-16 - by Michael Navat

Worthy

• Why I Miss Working in the Crappiest Places - by Mad Ned - The Mad Ned Memo

  if you are starting a company or moving one, consider the crappy building. Save some money on the lease at least, just in case no one decides to come back. And for those who do return, there are stimulating activities, like cutting wheels off chairs and dodging monstrous insects from above!

etc

• FTC Report Finds Annual Cigarette Sales Increased for the First Time in 20 Years

• $1.5B lithium deposit discovered in Maine; excavating it poses a legal challenge

• Hubble telescope back in safe mode over 'synchronization issues'

• Human diets are becoming less diverse, a new book warns

• Is Scientific Progress Waning?

Horseshit

• Judaism thrives on new tech. That doesn’t mean Impossible Pork should be kosher

• Homebuilder hopes 3D printing will solve worker shortages, tests in 100 homes

• Inside Realms of Ruin, YA novelists' failed NFT project

• Economist cover auction NFT raises nearly $422,000 (99.9 ETH) for charity

• Photoshop will get a ‘prepare as NFT’ option soon

• Enough Strawberries in a Kellogg’s Strawberry Pop-Tart? A Court Might Decide

  • Law Firm Sues Kellogg for Not Enough Strawberries in Pop-Tarts

• A photographer and artist walk into a fake news factory

• How the US pursuit of Assange is a distraction from impunity for war crimes

• Missouri Woman Sues GEICO After Contracting STD During Sex in Car Insured by Company

celebrity gossip

• Tech billionaires making battlefields of English country estates

• How the US Has Misled UK Courts on Assange’s Health

  + [Julian Assange: US Pursues Extradition at UK High
  Court](https://www.dw.com/en/julian-assange-us-pursues-extradition-at-uk-high-court/a-59635442)
  

  • WikiLeaks' Assange should be extradited, U.S. lawyers tell U.K. court

• Sci-Fi Icon Neal Stephenson Finally Takes on Global Warming

COVID / VaxCult

• FDA advisory panel recommends Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine be authorized for children

  • FDA panel recommends Pfizer’s low-dose Covid vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11

• 25% to 40% of Tech workers could lose jobs due to vaccine requirements

• Hundreds rally in Fergus Falls for recently fired surgeon.

  While it is not clear why Dr. Horak is no longer with the hospital, some speculate that it has to do with statements he made earlier this month at the Fergus Falls school board meeting, where he spoke out against their mask mandate.

• Will the pandemic fade into an ordinary disease like the flu?

• Covid-19 and deaths in older Canadians

• Covid vaccine profits mint 9 new pharma billionaires

• Are Vaccine Boosters Widely Needed? Some Federal Advisers Have Misgivings. “In our hearts, I think people don’t quite agree with this notion of a booster dose,” said one leading vaccine expert.

• Covid access pass QR code issued for Adolf Hitler; Ministry investigating

• Tracking the FDA advisory panel meeting on Covid-19 vaccines for kids

• Why do some people delay getting vaccinated or pretend Covid doesn’t exist?

• Brazil’s Bolsonaro accused of crimes against humanity over Covid

• (PDF) Technical Specifications for EU Digital Covid Certificates

• Subsidising the Spread of Covid-19: Evidence from the UK’S Eat-Out Scheme

• Doesn't appear to mention the recent NIH re-definition The shifting sands of ‘gain-of-function’ research

  For example, her lab has made mouse viruses that are more harmful to mice than the originals. If only mice are at risk, should it be deemed GOF? And would it be worrying? The answer is generally no. Morrison’s experiments, and many others like them, pose little threat to humans. GOF research starts to ring alarm bells when it involves dangerous human pathogens, such as those on the US government’s ‘select agents’ list, which includes Ebola virus and the bacteria responsible for anthrax and botulism. Other major concerns are ‘pathogens of pandemic potential’ (PPP) such as influenza viruses and coronaviruses. “For the most part, we’re worried about respiratory viruses because those are the ones that transmit the best,” says Michael Imperiale, a virologist at the University of Michigan Medical School. GOF studies with those viruses are “a really tiny part” of virology, he adds.

• Florida now has America's lowest Covid rate

• CDC adds mental illness to high-risk Covid list

• Are We in a Pseudopandemic? - by Daniel Pinchbeck - Daniel Pinchbeck’s Newsletter

• Researchers create mirror-image peptides that can neutralize SARS-CoV-2

Culture War / Re segregation / Identdoctrination

• The Death Of Marriage Proves Social Conservatives Were Right About Sex

• 'We're being pressured into sex by some trans women'

• Imperial College told to remove bust of slavery abolitionist because he ‘might now be called racist’

• U.S. issues its first passport with 'X' gender marker

Edumacationalizing

• Loudoun County Students Walk Out of Class in Protest

• 34% of white college students lied about their race to improve admission chance

• Missouri School Boards Association WITHDRAWS from NSBA Over 'Domestic Terrorists' Letter - National File

• Ohio School Board Association Blasts National Group For Labeling ‘Parents As Domestic Terrorists,’ Pulls Membership | The Daily Wire

Media / Many Ministries of Truths / Censorship

• Non-mainstream news sites erode people’s interest in politics

• Top News Organizations Run Huawei-Sponsored Puff Pieces

  Since July, Reuters has published two sponsored articles touting Huawei's investments in the United Kingdom. The Journal has published 14 sponsored articles since last year, while Wired has hosted virtual events sponsored by the tech giant. Politico ran pro-Huawei content last year. The articles disclose that Huawei sponsors the content, though the company's ties to the Chinese government may not be apparent to readers.

• "A living hell": ABC features family trapped in Afghanistan ... from India? – HotAir

• HN thread on: Too big to cover alone: Newsrooms team up | Hacker News

  • Those that don't assume a monolithic Ministry of Truth think it'd be a good idea to have one. And some "is this a good idea?" and "what happened to Trump/Russia?"

• Ubisoft harasses Far Cry 6 players for not playing enough

• We've gone from broken news to phantom news - by Matt Ruby - The Rubesletter by Matt Ruby (of Vooza) | Sent every Tuesday

  Of course, there have always been National Enquirer-type publications floating crap, but the weird thing now is how social media elevates these rumors into zeitgeisty topics that everyone’s commenting on. Being 1st isn't enough anymore, now we need to be -1st. And by the time the truth catches up, we’ve already moved on to the next juicy fauxclusive. It’s the logical progression in tech’s race to the bottom of our brain stems.

• Wikipedia formally censors The Grayzone as regime-change advocates monopolize editing | MR Online

Facebook

• Fix Facebook by Making It More Like Google+

• Facebook's metaverse spending will top $10B this year

• (Oct 20) Maybe we need a moral panic about Facebook

• Federal Trade Commission Scrutinizing Facebook Disclosures

• Facebook's New CTO Andrew Bosworth Is the Man Building the Metaverse

• Facebook Is Bad. Fixing It Rashly Could Make It Much Worse

• EU antitrust official Vestager: We must act now against Facebook

• The Facebook Papers

• The Facebook papers: why Mark Zuckerberg won't be held accountable

• America 'on fire': Facebook watched as Trump ignited hate

TechSuck

• US revokes licence of top Chinese telecoms company

• Private keys used to sign EU Digital Covid Certificate might have been leaked

• ‘Conditioning an entire society’: the rise of biometric data technology

• Did I just fall back in time 20 years?

  • Anonymity No More? Age Checks Come to the Web

  • One Laptop per Child can't bridge the digital divide

• Apple is ready to admit it was wrong about the future of laptops

• Nvidia’s $40B takeover of Arm faces in-depth investigation from EU

Economicon

• Ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles to issue surcharge to ocean carriers

• Energy squeeze will trigger social unrest, Blackstone's Schwarzman says

  • Blackstone CEO: Energy crisis will set off social unrest

• US McDonald's workers strike to protest workplace harassment

• High-purity quartz is key to China’s solar boom, almost all of it is in the US

• Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

• Inflation Isn't Coming, It's Already Here - by Eric Soda - Spilled Coffee

• Buy Thanksgiving turkey, sides while you still can, grocers say.

• Hertz Announces "Partnerships" With Uber And Carvana For Its 100,000 Incoming Teslas Because Why Not | ZeroHedge

  So now Uber drivers can get one step closer to the new world order's ultimate goal of "owning nothing and loving it" by renting their car every day before they go out and take to the roads. We're sure that won't be a hassle. Uber drivers will pay a "preferred weekly rate for unlimited miles in the Hertz EVs, plus expenses for recharging and incidental damage," the report says.

  • Hertz Links Up with Uber to Offer 50k Tesla Rentals

• Doc Searls Weblog · On solving the worldwide shipping crisis

Poilitcks

• Billionaire Tax Faces Likely Constitutional Challenge

  • Senate Democrats unveil a plan for a new tax on billionaires

• Dems quietly scramble to include immigration provision in social spending bill

• Rep. Ilhan Omar blames police for Minneapolis crime problems after advocating for their demise – Law Officer

  “What we must also recognize is that the reduction in policing currently in our city, and the lawlessness that is happening is due to two things,” Omar claimed. “One, the police have chosen to not fulfill their oath of office and to provide the public safety they are owed to the citizens they serve, right? It’s documented. But even before that, it was documented. The Minneapolis Police Department is the most dysfunctional police department, in our state and probably in the country.”

• Billionaire Reid Hoffman apologizes for disinformation in Alabama Senate race

Law / Crime / Police

• How AirTags are being used to find stolen property

Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• U.S. Gen. Mark Milley Likens China’s Hypersonic Weapon Test to ‘Sputnik Moment’

• ‘It Did Circle the Globe’: US Confirms China’s Orbital Hypersonic Test

• Fire, Fire, Fire: How Navy Failures Destroyed the Bonhomme Richard

World

• Rome Airport Readies for Flying Taxis by 2024

• El Salvador removes Bitcoin pricing feature, scalpers were exploiting the system

• ‘We are so divided now’: how China controls thought and speech beyond its border

• China regulator says will step up efforts to build 'civilised internet'

• China’s New Aircraft Carrier Is as Big as It Can Be

  Importantly, the largest new dock is only about 80 meters (268 feet) wide, which is the same as the docket where the Type-003 is being built. The Type-003 itself is also approximately 80m wide (our earlier estimates were slightly narrow as it turned out). This suggests that a) the Type-003 will fit inside the new dock, b) any new carrier cannot be any wider if it too is to fit.

Health / Medicine

• Mono in Childhood and Risk for a Subsequent MS Diagnosis Among Siblings

• Excessive drinking during pandemic leading to spike in liver transplants

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• New poll finds majority in US concerned about climate.

• Issues to watch as world leaders prepare for the Glasgow climate summit

• Kim Stanley Robinson Invited at COP26

• (Video) UN: Climate change will melt all glaciers in Africa in next 20 years

• Stripe is kick-starting market for carbon removal

• World faces disastrous 2.7C temperature rise on current climate plans, UN warns

• The dirty dozen: meet America’s top climate villains

• The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Leaf Blowers

• Four days before hosting COP26, UK halves tax on domestic flights

• The Future Is Bleak. Pondering Pangaea Gives Me Hope

• (Aug 2021) He sold his soul for solar and all he got was a stupid t-shirt - by Michael Estrin - Situation Normal

• Fossil fuels may be responsible for twice as many deaths as first thought