2022-01-28

Worthy

• A corrected history of mRNA vaccines

• Yanis Varoufakis on Crypto & the Left, and Techno-Feudalism

  Technofeudalism is a new system in which the techno-lords are extracting a new power to make the rest of us do things on their behalf. This new power comes from investing in a new form of capital (command capital) that allows them to amass a new type of value (command value) which, in turn, grants them the opportunity to extract surplus value from (i) vassal-capitalists, (ii) the precariat, and (iii) everyone using their platforms to produce on their behalf, unconsciously, even more command capital.

etc

• US Population Growth Has Nearly Flatlined

• A house with a "luxury" underground bunker is on sale in Las Vegas for $5.9 million.

• Secret Acres: Foreign-owned agricultural land inaccurately tracked by government

• Major Bridge Collapses in Pittsburgh

  Only minor injuries were reported Friday when a bridge carrying Forbes Avenue over Fern Hollow Creek near Pittsburgh’s Frick Park collapsed, sending a Port Authority bus and several other vehicles into a ravine below, authorities said.

  The bridge was built in 1970 and is 447 feet long. The most recent PennDOT report classifies the bridge as in “poor condition.”

  • Pittsburgh Bridge Collapses Hours Before Biden Visit | ZeroHedge

  Just hours before President Joe Biden’s scheduled speech in Pittsburgh about the historic $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan,

  • 'A boom, then a monster sound': 10 hurt after bridge over Pittsburgh's Frick Park collapses | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Horseshit

• Flying taxis are lining up for certification

• Fight Club author praises Chinese cut of film: ‘Super wonderful’

• Malls adding apartments to offset dwindling numbers of shoppers

• More Than 80% of NFTs Created for Free on OpenSea Are Fraud or Spam

celebrity gossip

• Elon Musk: If you scare people enough, they will demand removal of freedom

COVID / VaxCult

• China destroyed early samples of the novel coronavirus

• (Jan 11) SARS-CoV-2 origins leaked in DARPA report

• Chinese Scientists From Wuhan Discover "Potentially Deadly" New Strain Of Coronavirus | ZeroHedge

• Nearly 40 percent of all Illinois COVID deaths in the last month are breakthroughs. What gives? – Wirepoints Quickpoint | Wirepoints

• Attention to Covid-19 news increased slightly amid omicron surge

• Ivermectin Prophylaxis Used for Covid-19

• Simple numbers every government should use to fight anti-vaccine misinformation

• Africa may have reached the pandemic's holy grail

• Neo-CoV, a close relative of MERS-CoV (35% fatality rate) discovered

• China’s zero-Covid strategy: what happens next?

• Some Americans are hesitant about Covid vaccines. But they’re all-in on unproven treatments

• A cocoon of vaccination provides 'substantial' protection for unvaccinated kids, studies find

• Beijing steps up Covid control measures

• Taiwan invents chip able to identify asymptomatic Covid cases rapidly

• Why the Free Covid Test Website Wasn't a Dumpster Fire

• Effectiveness of a Third Dose of Vaccines in Preventing Covid-19 Hospitalization

• Ask HN: My tattoo artist made comment about the Covid vaccine that confused me | Hacker News

  I've been getting some of my sleeve expanded and I was in session yesterday, after a couple of hours I said it's crazy how little I'm bleeding on this one, and the tattoo artist said "yah, since the vaccine people don't bleed the same way anymore" and shrugged. I couldn't ask anything else about it because I got a pit in my stomach and waited till the end of the session and then dove in, the artist is young college age and has a group with other young tattoo artist, and they were laughing in it about how accurately they can nail how many doses people have had and when (including me) by how their skin and blood reacts to the tattoo.

  Am I right to feel a bit weird about this?

• New questions about whether children should wear masks in school

• Rapid immune response in children protects them from Covid-19

• Coronavirus, Conspiracy, and Coping with Death

  I recognize this anger as a flaw in myself, but I think it’s hardly something I’m alone in experiencing. It is the reason why places like r/HermanCainAwards and SorryAntiVaxxers can thrive and exist. It is the reason why people used to line up to watch public executions. While the virus itself is the one responsible for the tectonic shifts we’ve all had to make in our lives, the people that blatantly disregard safeguards to stop the spread make suitable proxies for punishment. When we’re able to agree that an individual is somehow getting their comeuppance, we have fewer qualms regarding their loss.

• Marine Corps Nears 400 Separations Over COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal.

• Cheap (but reliable) smartphone-based Covid test kit

• Long Covid symptoms and duration in kids – a nationwide cohort study

• Let Kids Take Their Masks Off After the Omicron Surge

• Omicron, its mutations, and antibody response

• Denmark welcomes 'the life we knew before' and scraps Covid-19 restrictions

Culture War / Re segregation / Faith Fights

• New poll shows Americans’ trust in science is now deeply polarized.

• Kids Today Don't Want to Drive, and I'll Never Understand It

  They tell me that, since Uber and other ride-sharing apps came along, they can get where they want to go without the hassle of owning or driving a car. “Why spend the money keeping a car, when you can focus on where you want to go?”

• "Recency Bias" In politics and economics, too many predictions overweight the recent past

• The Next Global Order Will Challenge Western Values

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• A Washington school board votes to drop To Kill a Mockingbird from reading list

• A Tennessee school board removed the graphic novel 'Maus,' about the Holocaust

  • (Video) 'Maus' author reacts to his book being pulled from curriculum

Media / ShowBiz / Censorship

• US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy suggests Joe Rogan should be censored

• CNN In Meltdown Mode Over Biden-Ukraine Phone Call Fiasco | ZeroHedge

• Avoiding Conflicts on Social Media Might Make Things Worse

• Amazon has disbanded the Twitter army it paid to tweet about how great Amazon is

TechSuck

• If Looks Could Kill

• Microsoft fends off record-breaking 3.47 Tbps DDoS attack

• Old Man Yells at Cloud — Pixel Envy

  It is the combination of these changes, delivered through automatic software updates, that compelled me to write about this in more detail. Much of the software I use is now delivered through a service-based model, where I have no control over which version I am using. There are clear benefits, like reduced version incompatibility and guaranteed security fixes, but it comes at the cost of user control. Sometimes, that means my workflow will get interrupted by a change I did not explicitly request, and that will mean spending a great deal of time adjusting. If it were only in one or two applications — and only sometimes — this would bug me less, but it is the new standard, and I am increasingly frustrated by it.

Economicon / Business / Finance

• The Federal Reserve Is Popping the 'Everything Bubble'

• Robinhood posts $423M net loss, shares sink after hours

• Experian’s industry-first buy now, pay later bureau

• ECB Wipes 45% Off Home Prices in Harshest Bank Climate Test

• These companies decided to go fully remote -- permanently

• The tech sell-off has some venture capitalists worried

• U.S. employers spent 4% more on compensation last year

• What Happens to Amazon Returns

• Key Fed inflation gauge rises 4.9% from a year ago, fastest gain since 1983

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• FCC revokes the ability of China Unicom to operate in the U.S.

• The IRS Should Stop Using Facial Recognition

• Protect Tennessee's growing tech companies by standing up to bullies like Apple

• Meet Willow, the Bidens' new, very presidential-looking cat

• Rep. Cori Bush's parked car struck by bullets — but luckily she wasn't in it at the time

• Chinese elite have paid some $31M to Hunter and the Bidens

• Pennsylvania court strikes down expansive mail-in voting law

  • Donald Trump Praises 'Big News' After Pa. Mail-In Voting Deemed Unconstitutional

• ReleaseTheTranscript Trends After Biden-Ukraine Phone Call Malarkey | ZeroHedge

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• What Did Clinton Know and When Did She Know It? The Russiagate Evidence Builds

• Bankers' rate 'rigging' not criminal, says US

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Iranian Hackers Posed As "Proud Boys" During 2020 Election Disinformation Campaign, FBI Says | ZeroHedge

• Navigating Russia/Ukraine Warmongering Disinformation | naked capitalism

• The Army's Infantry Squad Vehicle is a pile of junk

• A Chinese Satellite Just Grappled Another and Pulled It Out of Orbit

  The unusual maneuver was observed by telescopes belonging to commercial space awareness firm Exoanalytic Solutions. During a webinar hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) this week, Exoanalytic Solutions’ Brien Flewelling said the SJ-21 satellite “appears to be functioning as a space tug.” Space Command did not respond to a request for comment, Breaking Defense reports.

• Hacktivism and State-Sponsored Knock-Offs | Attributing Deceptive Hack-and-Leak Operations - SentinelOne

• The empire returns: Russia, Ukraine and the long shadow of the Soviet Union

World

• “Dutch reach” car door opening method becomes law in the UK

• China’s middle class is developing a taste for high-end meat, sending imports surging

• Ex-government workers mine for salvation in Afghan mountains

• Protests flare across Poland after death of young mother denied an abortion

• North Korea Finds Its Missile Tests Have Lost Their Shock Value

Health / Medicine

• Vitamin D and fish oil supplements may help prevent autoimmune disease

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Particulate pollution is killing older Americans, even at legal levels

• U.S. judge annuls Gulf of Mexico oil auction over climate impact

• West accused of ‘climate hypocrisy’ as emissions dwarf those of poor countries

• US Forest Service plans to thin and burn millions of acres to mitigate wildfires