2022-02-16

Cool

• Hundreds of birds suddenly drop from the sky

  • The middle of the flock is a bad place to be, when the flock slams into the ground at full speed. Can't help but see similarities to human politics here.

• NIMBY Rails on Steam

  Design and play on a fully detailed real world map with 1cm resolution. A rail link from Lisbon to Shanghai? Anchorage to Buenos Aires? Cape Town to Rabat? Why not!

Worthy

• AI makes animists of us all - by Erik Hoel

  My credit card now has a kami. Such new technological kamis are, just like the ancient ones, fickle; sometimes blessing us, sometimes hindering us, and all we as unwilling animists can do is a modern ritual to the inarticulate fey creatures that control our inboxes and our mortgages and our insurance rates.

• How much do construction costs matter? Some factors that affect the price of housing

etc

• Trudeau Reorganizes Canada into the First Galactic Empire

• U.S. clears way for automakers to install smart headlights

  • US approves new headlights that won’t blind oncoming drivers

• Interview: Alec Stapp and Caleb Watney of the Institute for Progress

• U.S. detects highly lethal bird flu in Tyson Foods chickens

Horseshit

• Zuckerberg explains to Facebook staff they are now to be known as “Metamates”

• The Harebrained Scheme to Turn Magic: The Gathering Cards into NFTs

• 74% of ransomware revenue goes to Russia-linked hackers

• UN reports that millions of dollars in stolen crypto have gone towards funding North Korean missile program

• Sandy Hook families, Remington reached a 'historic' settlement. What's next?

• Money That Won Melania Trump NFT Came from Melania Trump Wallet

  • Analyzing the Bizarre Sale of Melania Trump’s $170k NFT

• The Hummer EV’s battery weighs more than a Honda Civic

celebrity gossip

• Prince Andrew’s Deal With Virginia Giuffre Leaves Many Questions

• Sarah Palin loses defamation case against 'The New York Times'

• Chris Cuomo fired after CNN learned of alleged sex attack during office 'lunch': report

Obit

• Multiple sources are reporting the death at age 74 of P.J. O’Rourke

  • PJ O’Rourke, writer and humorist, dies aged 74

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing

• Americans’ Trust in Scientists, Other Groups Declines

• Caitlin Johnstone: Just Run the News Media Out of Langley – Consortium News

Freedom Convoy

• Maher: Truckers "Not Wrong" To Be "Pissed Off" At The Elites Corrupting The System, Trudeau Sounds Like Hitler | Video | RealClearPolitics

• 'Battle of Billings Bridge' attracts 100s of volunteers, traps convoy for hours

  There were enough volunteers to corral about 35 vehicles in the convoy, mostly pickup trucks. Local traffic was waved through.

• Ask HN: Why is Twitter allowing hacked material and doxing of GiveSendGo info? | Hacker News

• Saunas, haircuts, hot meals: Ottawa protesters set up for the long haul

• What the left can learn from the trucker protest

• Ottawa's "Freedom Convoy" Protesters Dig In As Canadian Government Suffers 'Alex Jones' Moment | ZeroHedge

  "What is driving this movement is a very small, organized group that is driven by an ideology to overthrow the government through whatever means they may wish to use,”

• Canadian Hacker Takes Credit for GiveSendGo Hack

• Ottawa police warn ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters to ‘Leave the area now,’ authorities eye ‘no-go’ zones.

• Anti-Protest Law Sweeps Across Canada Financial Sector

COVID / VaxCult

• "Out of nowhere, lots of traction" -- nakedcapitalism.com: Our Statement — Children, COVID, and the urgency of normal

• Canada eases Covid-19 testing rules for vaccinated travelers

• 1400 New York City workers fired over vaccine mandate

• Why is Canada's Covid death rate so much lower than US?

• Omicron wave was brutal on kids; hospitalization rates 4X higher than delta’s

• The Remdesivir Riddle

  why is a drug that costs more than $2000 per treatment, which is associated with kidney failure, being given at a time that reason, and research, tells us it can’t have much of an effect?

• U.S. ‘excess deaths’ during pandemic surpassed 1M, with Covid killing most

• Covid-19: Cuba will request WHO approval for homegrown vaccine

• Ground Truths on Prior Covid - by Eric Topol

  The CDC has been completely unwilling to recognize confirmed Prior Covid as equivalent to at least 1-dose or 2-doses of vaccines. While mandates worked to increase the number of people who got vaccinated in the United States, they have augmented the divisiveness among those with Prior Covid who rightfully believe they have immunity.

  Now it appears Prior Covid induced immunity is not holding up nearly as well as previously, and makes the case for at least 1-shot of a vaccine.

• Judge blocks Michelle Wu’s Boston employee vaccine mandate, orders injunction.

• FDA Executive Officer on Hidden Camera Reveals Future COVID Policy: ‘Biden Wants To Inoculate As Many People As Possible. . . Have to Get an Annual Shot.’

  • "A Recurring Fountain Of Revenue": FDA Exec Admits Biden Planning Annual Shots, Including Toddlers | ZeroHedge

• When moms get vaccinated during pregnancy, babies get protection too

• US Disney resorts lift mask requirements for vaccinated guests

• BioNTech Unveils Mobile Covid-19 Vaccine Factories for Developing World

• The looming threat of long financial Covid

• ‘I trust my drug dealer more than I trust this vaccine’

• EU investigates reports of menstrual disorders after mRNA COVID shots

• CDC expected to update mask guidance as early as next week

  “Senior administration officials have asked Walensky to provide an update on masks before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 1, one of the people said.”

• Multiple spillovers from humans and onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer

• The Omicron Wave Is Receding But the Pandemic Is Far From Over

• Is it time to live with Covid-19? Some scientists warn of ‘endemic delusion’

• Lockdown Debate Skewed, Scientists Shunned on Social Media

• mRNA vaccine-induced antibodies more effective than natural immunity vs. Covid

• The Pandemic Brain: neuroinflammation in non-infected during Covid-19 pandemic

• Nation Prepares To Celebrate 2nd Anniversary Of Two Weeks To Flatten The Curve

Culture War / Tribal / Re segregation

• Faster Internet Displaces Social Capital

  following broadband take-up, civic and political engagement systematically declines with increasing speed of Internet connection. Time-consuming activities oriented to the pursuit of collective welfare, such as engagement in associations, suffer the most from broadband penetration, while relationships with family and friends are less affected.

• White Privilege: The Great Lie

• ‘Mental illness is not a joke’: London gallery under fire for Van Gogh gifts | The Courtauld Institute of Art | The Guardian

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• In Landslide, San Francisco Forces Out 3 Board of Education Members

  • S.F. school board recall: Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga ousted

• No One Cared About My Spreadsheets - Econlib

  Since the 2018 publication of The Case Against Education, precisely zero people have emailed me about those spreadsheets. The book enjoyed massive media attention. My results were ultra-contrarian: my preferred estimate of the Social Return to Education is negative for almost every demographic. I loudly used these results to call for massive cuts in education spending. Yet since the book’s publication, no one has bothered to challenge my math. Not publicly. Not privately. No one cared about my spreadsheets.

  • On Bryan Caplan's spreadsheets

  It's almost impossible to take someone seriously who says that they care so much about the accuracy of their results when they're calculating this intricately in Excel. If you really care about maintaining a complicated set of data relationships, you write readable, testable code somewhere.

Media / ShowBiz / Advertising

• The rich niche - by Brian Morrissey - The Rebooting

• "Otter", auto-transcription apps My journey down the rabbit hole of every journalist’s favorite app - POLITICO

TechSuck

• Akamai to Acquire Linode

• Google Search Is Dying | Hacker News

• AMD's Market Cap Surpasses Intel for the First Time in History

• Newegg has a bit of a scandal on its hands | Hacker News

• Never use text pixelation to redact sensitive information | Hacker News

Economicon / Business / Finance

• TikTok Sale to Oracle, Walmart Is Shelved as Biden Reviews Security

• Wholesale prices jump 9.7% in January

• ‘Survival mode’: Inflation falls hardest on low-income Americans

• Tech companies face a fresh crisis: Hiring

• The pandemic is giving Americans an economics crash course

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• President Biden Delivers Remarks On Russia, Ukraine | ZeroHedge

• Media Vapors: How Special Counsel John Durham Has Triggered a Media Meltdown – JONATHAN TURLEY

  There is no way to cover this story without many admitting that it facilitated a false narrative created by the Clinton campaign, including attacking those who suggested that the Clinton campaign would ever engage in such disreputable conduct.

  + [Is John Durham Deliberately Stoking Right-Wing Conspiracy
  Theories?](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/02/is-john-durham-deliberately-stoking-right-wing-conspiracy-theories/)
  

  • The unstated scandal: The CIA collected info on President Trump

  • Did rogue techies spy on the president? - by Robert Graham

  • No spying on Trump? 35 times Big Media lied | Washington Examiner

  • The Lure of the Fan-Service Scandal

• Capitol attack investigators target Trump circle over fake elector ploy

• FCC Approves Plan to Open Apartment, Condo Buildings to Broadband Competition

• I reject both parties’ ideas of Americanism. And I’m not the only one

• Biden orders release of Trump White House logs to Congress

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Too weird to check: Attempted assassin in mayoral shooting a gun-control activist? – HotAir

• A first for Sandy Hook families: Remington gunmaker must pay $75 million

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• With North Korea talks stalled, some wonder: What if we tried something different?

• Putin's Motives Pose a Challenge for U.S. Intelligence Agencies

• Biden’s Afghanistan Counsel Left the White House in January. Now He’s Poised to Reap Financial Windfall From Billions in Seized Assets

• Dystopian robot dog is the latest in history of US-Mexico border surveillance

Ukraine

• Biden says US has 'not verified' reports Russia has withdrawn troops from near Ukraine

• NATO - News: Ukraine requests international assistance for large-scale emergencies of various nature, 15-Feb.-2022

  Last updated: 15 Feb. 2022 18:52

  The State Emergency Service of Ukraine is preparing for large-scale emergencies of various nature that can affect its civilian population. In accordance with the procedures at reference, the EADRCC has received on 15 February 2022, a request for international assistance by Ukraine.

  • (PDF) EADRCC REQUESTFOR INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE

• Russia Says Troops Withdraw From Crimea but U.S. Warns Ukraine Invasion Still Possible

• US hasn’t verified Russian pullback of troops near Ukraine

• Russian parliament to discuss draft bills on Donbass recognition

• The Nazis Globalist Liberals Prefer to Ignore - The American Conservative

• Russia Says Troops Near Ukraine Will Return To Normal Positions In 3 To 4 Weeks | ZeroHedge

• Ukrainian ambassador to Japan poses as Samurai in message to Russia - The Week

• Stocks, Bond Yields Tumble As Blinken Says 'No Evidence Of Russian Pullback' | ZeroHedge

• Ukraine's national news agency: Ukrinform: “The new version of the Inglourious Basterds is found”

• Russia Mocks US, Requests 'Full List Of Ukraine Invasion Dates' For Year Ahead | ZeroHedge

• Ukraine Ally Says Russian Attack Now Highly Unlikely – Summit News

• No sign of Russian de-escalation, NATO chief says

World

• Iraq’s Security Forces Overrun by Iranian-Backed Militants.

• Honduran Police Arrest Former President at US Request

• Russia is trying to build its own great firewall

• Brazil’s expected soy crop losses already a modern era record

• China continues its labour abuse practices against Uighurs: UN

• Astronauts in Europe ask for their own independent crew spacecraft

• Russian Gas Threat in Europe

Health / Medicine

• Their Bionic Eyes Are Now Obsolete and Unsupported - IEEE Spectrum

• Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Coastal Sea Levels in U.S. to Rise a Foot by 2050, Study Confirms

• Pollution causing more deaths than Covid, action needed, U.N. expert says