2022-01-14

"Dunking" is the word of the week; mostly in reference to twitter.

etc

• Four years and 20k potatoes later, this man has a PhD in mashed potatoes

• Why this town requires residents to remove their appendix to live there

Horseshit

• Londoners told to reduce physical activity today due to pollution

• Coroner cautions practising Wim Hof breathing method underwater after man drowns

• Noisy and Unsafe: Stop Fetishizing Old Homes

• Which States Are the Freest?

celebrity gossip

• Governor Newsom rejects parole for Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of assassinating RFK

• Ghislaine Maxwell juror 'wrongly told court he was NOT a sexual assault victim', it's revealed | Daily Mail Online

COVID / VaxCult

• The Moderna vaccine can cause immune-mediated hepatitis

• Omicron wave prompts media to rethink which data to report

• The ‘Mother of All’ Supply Shocks Lurks in China’s Covid Crackdowns

• Immunological dysfunction persists for 8 months after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection

• Face masks make people look more attractive, study finds

  • Medical masks increase facial attractiveness more than other face coverings

• Understanding the characteristics of Covid-19 misinformation communities

• Are the vaccines doomed, or are we?

  preliminary evidence for negative vaccine efficacy against Omicron every day grows more abundant. There was also evidence of negative efficacy against Delta; the effect was merely less pronounced and took longer to emerge. Omicron, which has immune escape properties, simply gets further into negative efficacy, faster.

  Every day that Corona does not go away in heavily vaccinated populations, is a day that the vaccines are further discredited. As the absurdities continue, the risk emerges that our mRNA vaccines will begin to pollute in the minds of many the broader notion of vaccination, and there are powerful people who don’t want that to happen – people with political power, who are not just internet crazies like me.

• CES unable to confirm Covid-19 cases after 70 S.Korean nationals test positive

• Ontario: Self-harm or Overdose Among Adolescents Down 25 % during pandemic

• UK Now Reports Myocarditis Stratified by Age and Sex After Vaccine or SARS-COV-2

  Yes, sorry to break it to you, vaccines can have risks of myocarditis EXCEEDING risks of myocarditis from infection.

  Boosting 16-40 yo men might not be in their best interest (it might be net detrimental). We simply do not know with confidence. If it is revealed that it is not in their best interest, this administration will have dropped a nuclear bomb on vaccine confidence for 20 years. God help us all.

• Mexico Removes All COVID-19 Entry Requirements Including Health Form

• Why omicron had experts worried from the start

• Genetic link to increased risk of death from Covid

• California county bans large gatherings and asks residents to shelter in place to stop the spread of Omicron variant

• Evil Clown: Ronald McDonald House Evicting Unvaxxed Kids With Leukemia – PJ Media

• Debunking the idea that viruses always evolve to become less virulent

• Calling Omicron ‘Mild’ Is Wishful Thinking

• COVID vaccines safely protect pregnant people: the data are in

• ‘We’re all frustrated’ on COVID: Biden to boost test availability and send military to help hospitals

• Covid Scotland: Case rates lowest in unvaccinated

• Biden Urges Businesses To ‘Institute Vaccination Requirements’ After Supreme Court Blow | The Daily Wire

• Omicron's not the last variant we'll see. Will the next one be bad?

• Covid variant siblings show different levels of virulence

• Italian police object to being sent pink face masks to wear on duty

• From Tennis Hero to Anti-Vaxxer Idol

• South African study suggests Omicron less severe even for unvaccinated

• What’s going on with Covid deaths data?

Vax Mandont

• Supreme Court blocks Biden's vaccine-or-test mandate for large private companies

• U.S. Supreme Court blocks Biden vaccine-or-test policy for large businesses

• Supreme Court blocks federal mandate for private workers to vaccinate or test

Culture War / Re segregation / Faith Fights

• Microsoft Word introduces new "woke" feature to monitor your language | Not the Bee

• Our Rolling Civil War | naked capitalism

  The Left will only take power by taking to the streets if (a) a determined leader emerges (a Sanders who won’t hand his sword to the next Joe Biden), and (b) once in office, that person cleans out and completely reforms the professional Democratic Party — or replaces it.

• Turns Out Schrödinger, the Father of Quantum Physics, Was a Pedophile

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years

  • HN thread

• Navient to Cancel 66,000 Student Loan =$1.7B, Resolves Predatory Lending Claims

  • Navient settles predatory student loan claims for $1.85B

TechSuck

• Humble subscription service is dumping Mac, Linux access in 18 days | Ars Technica

• Google calls on government to help secure open source

• How to improve Face ID with a mask, including new Apple Watch Unlock feature

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Worst US inflation since ’82 is huge underestimate - Asia Times

  Shelter accounts for about a third of American household expenditure, and the cost of buying or renting shelter is up nearly 20% over the past year. Yet the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for shelter reported Jan. 12 by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed an increase of just 4.2% over the past year.

• Dogecoin jumps 9% after Elon Musk says its can be used buy Tesla merchandise

  • Tesla starts accepting once-joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin

• Controlled Prices | Phenomenal World

• The End of the “Sick Day”

• Oh my: Retail sales drop 1.9% — in Christmas shopping season.

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• The U.S. Federal Government Deregulates French Dressing

• Inflation, vaccines, voting rights: Biden faces brick walls - CNNPolitics

• A Wisconsin judge rules absentee ballot drop boxes are not allowed

• (2010) America Will Collapse by 2025

• (PDF) Protecting the Integrity of Government Science

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Federal investigators used encrypted Signal messages to charge Oath Keepers

  + (PDF) [DOJ Indictment](https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1462481/download)
  

  • The Feds Just Took the Jan. 6 Cases to a Whole New Level

• US House panel subpoenas social media giants in Jan 6 probe

  • Jan 6 committee subpoenas Meta, Google, Reddit etc. after 'inadequate responses'

• Crime city: Philadelphia police just published instructional guide on how to survive carjackings.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• US claims Russia planning ‘false-flag’ operation to justify Ukraine invasion

World

• MI5 warning over 'Chinese agent' in Parliament

• New Brunswick gov halts meetings over unknown neurological illness

• Cyberattack hits Ukrainian government websites amid Russia tensions

• UK economy above pre-Covid levels in November

Health / Medicine

• Epstein-Barr Virus Found to Trigger Multiple Sclerosis

  + [Analysis reveals high prevalence of Epstein-Barr virus associated
  with MS](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abj8222)
  

  • Hydroxychloroquine for Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis

• Red Cross declares first-ever national blood crisis

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Manipulating the Climate: The Geopolitical Risks

• Climate POLICY New chief scientist wants NASA to be about climate science