2021-12-16

Cool

• ExoMars discovers hidden water in Mars’ Grand Canyon

Worthy

• Why 'long rituals' matter - by Richard Fisher

  I was at a dinner recently with a group of longtermists (the effective altruism version) where rituals were discussed. The feeling was that longtermism, as a nascent movement, seems to lack them.

• More power to you

etc

• WKU Students raise more than $13,000 for liquor store leveled by tornado

• 80k Honey Bees Found in Wall of Shower (Also, 100 Pounds of Honey)

• Historic winds rip through the Midwest: More than 500,000 without power, 1 dead in Iowa

• Dodge Is Cancelling the Hemi V8

• JFK Assassination Records – 2021 Additional Documents Release

  • HN thread

• The longest train journey – in 2021

• “It’s not rocket science” and “It’s not brain surgery”—“It’s a walk in the park”: prospective comparative study | The BMJ

• Smartphones Are a New Tax on the Poor

• Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary, 2020 - 2020 A01 Results

• San Francisco exodus isn’t over, according to new migration data

• Focusing sound vibrations precisely can knock over one Lego minifig among many | Ars Technica

Horseshit

• The return of the 10-minute eviction

• CNN analysis: 'Elon Musk reveals how decency is dying'

• The Metaverse (Already) Has a Groping Problem

• New Study Finds That "privilege" Exists In The Animal Kingdom Too

• In 2020, fewer Americans moved, exodus from cities slowed

• How to Know Your Donations Are Doing the Most Good

celebrity gossip

• Elon Musk says dogecoin is better to buy things with than Bitcoin

• Bruce Springsteen Sells Music Catalog in Massive Deal

• Melania Trump launches NFT platform

Obit

• Bell Hooks, Groundbreaking Feminist Thinker, Dies at 69

• Psygnosis (Wipeout, Lemmings etc.) co-founder Ian Hetherington has died

COVID / VaxCult

• We need to develop a vaccine against media scare tactics

• Cornell University reports more than 900 Covid-19 cases this week

• Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant

• Many Omicron cases in fully vaccinated students

• Covid symptoms: 40% of coronavirus cases are asymptomatic, study finds

• Omicron infects 70 times faster but is less severe, study says

• Flu and Covid-19 Cases rising in much of the US

• Omicron overtakes Delta as dominant coronavirus variant in London

• WHO says Omicron spreads faster than any other Variants, now in 77 Countries

• A clue to why Omicron is spreading so quickly

• Omicron found to grow 70 times faster than Delta in bronchial tissue

• Omicron evades Moderna vaccine – Study suggests Boosters help

• Deep dive into South African Omicron data

• Why Paxlovid Is a Just-in-Time Breakthrough – By Eric Topol

• CDC Vaccine advisers revisit Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine recommendation

• Records fall and borders close as world races to get control of Omicron

• Vaccine skeptics in Eastern Europe are having a change of heart

• America Is Not Ready For Omicron

• The Ivermectin arm of UK's Principle trial is “paused due to supply issues”

• The Republican-Democrat COVID Divide | Infection Prevention, Emergency Management, & Safety

  The difference in death rates from Covid-19 between Republican and Democratic counties is becoming even more staggering.

• The British Left Opposes Vaccine Mandates as Anti-Worker and Repressive

  Now that one of the world's most admired leftist icons, Jeremy Corbyn, has not only spoken out but voted against vaccine mandates for health care workers and vaccine passports for the citizenry — joined by labor unions and other leading British leftists — this sham narrative will be harder to maintain. Will the liberal-left now shift to applying to their own leaders one of the most shameful and reputation-crippling titles that can now be bestowed in left-liberal circles: anti-vaxxers? Or will the British Left's principled stance finally force the recognition that long-standing left-wing values of bodily autonomy and anti-authoritarianism are often the grounds for the view that it is long past time to keep increasing the power of the state over our lives and bodies in the name of stopping a disease that will almost certainly be with us into the indefinite future?

• How does Omicron spread so fast? Virus may now be multiplying 70 times quicker

• Highly Vaccinated South Korea Can’t Slow Down Covid-19

• COVID and the holidays - LessWrong

• T Cells Might Be Our Bodies’ Best Shot Against Omicron

• CEOs Of Southwest, American Airlines Question Need For Masks On Planes

• YouTube Censors Bombshell Joe Rogan Interview With Cardiologist Peter McCullough – Summit News

  Texas-based McCullough urged that treatments including ivermectin and monoclonal antibodies are being sidelined in order to “create acceptance for, and then promote, mass vaccination.”

• Evidence does not justify mandatory vaccines – the right to informed choice

• Refugees lack COVID shots because drugmakers fear lawsuits

• The Biden administration has been sidelining vaccine experts

Culture War / Re segregation / Faith Fights

• New Arabian Nights translation to strip away earlier versions’ racism and sexism

• ‘Grassroots’ bot campaigns are coming. Governments don’t have plan to stop them

• Which search engine serves up the most conspiracy theories?

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• For a second straight year, school enrollment is dropping

Media / ShowBiz / Censorship

• The Metaverse via Oculus Is Awkward If You're a Woman. and Beware of Griefers

• That Dana Milbank column is even dumber than you think

• Reddit files to go public

Facebook

• Nearly 50k Facebook users may have been targets of private surveillance

• Incorrectly Deleted from Facebook? Getting Back on Might Take Connections

TechSuck

• Patch fixing critical Log4j 0-day has its own vulnerability that’s under exploit

• Guardians of the Internet: It's a miracle things work at all

• Pony.ai’s permit to test driverless vehicles in CA is suspended after crash

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Fed Officials Accelerate Stimulus Wind Down, Project Three Rate Rises in 2022

  • Fed signals three rate hikes in the cards in 2022 as inflation fight begins

• Bank of England raises interest rates to 0.25%

• H&R Block Sues Block (a.k.a. Square) for Trademark Infringement

• How millions of jobless Americans can afford to ditch work

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• The U.S. military men spreading Trump's baseless fraud claims

• Adam Schiff Gets Caught Doctoring January 6th Text Messages, Exposes His Imbecility in the Process – RedState

• Pelosi defends stock trading by lawmakers. ‘We are a free-market economy’

• DC Bar Restores Convicted FBI Russiagate Forger to ‘Good Standing’ Amid Irregularities and Leniency | RealClearInvestigations

• Democrats resort to blaming business greed for inflation

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• ‘We Can’t Guarantee Your Safety’: Head of LAPD’s Police Officers’ Union Warns

• Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Brothers in arms plotted theft, sale of US Army weaponry

• U.S. adds Chinese lab, undersea cable companies to export ban

World

• China's government expands its use of 'golden shares'

• Russian court accidentally confirmed Russian military presence in Ukraine

• Many Turks can't afford bread and bakers can't afford to make it

• (11.30a CST) Turkish lira collapsing: now at 17.7 vs. Euro

Health / Medicine

• The FDA could permanently lift some restrictions on abortion pills

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Great Britain sized Antarctic Thwaites Glacier heading for dramatic change

• The Millions of tons of carbon emissions that don't officially exist

• India defuses its population bomb: Fertility falls to two children per woman

• We Will Look Back on This Age of Cruelty to Animals in Horror