2022-05-05

Cool

• Mechanical Watch – Bartosz Ciechanowski

  • HN comments

Worthy

• Repeal the Foreign Dredge Act of 1906

etc

• Discovery of mysterious drawings could change how scientists look at cave art

• America Must Work Harder for Homegrown Talent

• Ethylene for fun and profit and produce

Horseshit

• Living in a Stranger's Abandoned House Might Be Your Best Rental Option

• Australian official admits Sydney Olympics 2000 were bought

• Obstacle-course racing is close to being named as the new fifth sport in modern pentathlon, replacing equestrianism, in a highly contentious move that opponents warn will plunge the sport deeper into civil war.

celebrity gossip

• Bill Gates on Elon Musk Feud and Jeffrey Epstein Meetings

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• A global tax system is good for the U.S.

• PayPal Has Begun Quietly Shuttering Left-Wing Media Accounts

• A Weird, Stupid Dystopia - by Caitlin Johnstone

• (PDF) Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause

  • HN comments

• Political Biases in Email Spam Filtering Algorithms During US Election 2020

• Trolling Is Taking a Toll on Science Journalism

  We spoke with reporters who said they repeatedly received harassing phone calls from readers. In some cases, scary, accusatory messages would arrive by the hundreds on Twitter, Instagram, and by email. Women appeared to bear the brunt of these attacks. What’s especially discouraging is that science journalists can be subjected to messages that show little, if any, regard for facts.

COVID / VaxCult

• Celebrities And Journalists Are Already Coming Down With COVID After The WHCA Dinner.

• Covid-19 Vaccination–Becoming Part of the New Normal

  Widespread vaccine- and infection-induced immunity, combined with the availability of effective therapeutics, could blunt the effects of future outbreaks. Nonetheless, it is time to accept that the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is the new normal. It will likely circulate globally for the foreseeable future, taking its place alongside other common respiratory viruses such as influenza.

• US reaches one million Covid deaths

• Despite unknowns, FDA officials make the case for annual fall Covid shots

• Corona vaccination: half a million cases with serious side effects (German)

• Covid: World’s true pandemic death toll nearly 15M, says WHO

• Covid 5/5/22: A Lack of Care | Don't Worry About the Vase

  The good news is that most of us can safely ignore the whole thing and get on with our lives. Given the alternatives, ‘government does literal nothing’ is not obviously bad news. If they’d done literal nothing from the start we could well be in a much better spot. Alas, this literal nothing does involve things like preventing children from being vaccinated.

• 14.9M Excess Deaths Associated with the Covid-19 Pandemic

• Transmission of COVID-19 is 1,000 times more likely from air than surfaces.

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• How Risk Aversion Is Killing the Spirit of Scientific Discovery

• ‘I’m not a leak.’ Scientific careers aren’t a ‘pipeline,’: economists | Hacker News

• Stop neglecting Earth science education

Media / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Meta freezes hiring for rest of 2022

• Facebook’s Retirement Plan

• SecureDrop: Safely And Discreetly Share Information With The Washington Post

Musk / Twitter

• Twitter Previews Disinformation Board Notice by Mistake | Hacker News

• Binance Contributes $500M to Twitter Takeover, Ellison $1B, Sequoia $800M

  • Elon Musk secures over $7Bn in funding from investors including Larry Ellison

• Former Facebook, WhatsApp employees lead new push to fix social media

  • HN comments

• Twitter’s decentralized, open-source offshoot just released its first code

• We are joining Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter and investing $400MM into the company

• Elon Musk’s antidepressant tweet puts people at risk

• Bill Gates Claims Musk Buyout Could Make Twitter "Worse"

• Musk Expected To Become Temporary Twitter CEO After Deal Closes

• UK MPs invite Musk to be quizzed on Twitter plans = Authenticate all humans

• Trump quietly ‘encouraged’ Elon Musk to buy Twitter: Truth Social CEO

• Brands should force Twitter to uphold content policies, advocacy groups say

• Elon Musk Hates Ads. Twitter Needs Them. That May Be a Problem

TechSuck

• Starlink adds portability option for an additional $25 per month

  • Starlink Adds Portability Option

Crypto con games

• California moves to embrace cryptocurrency and regulate it

• NFT Market Collapses as Square Enix Sells Tomb Raider to Bet Big on Blockchain

• The NFT Ecosystem Is a Burnout Machine

• The NFT bubble is showing clear signs of bursting

Economicon / Business / Finance

• The Fed raises interest rates by the most in over 20 years to fight inflation

  + [US makes biggest interest rate rise in 22
  years](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61324482)
  

  • Fed lifts rates by half point, starts balance sheet reduction June 1

  • Stocks, Bonds, Gold, & Crypto Rip After Powell Takes 75bps Hike 'Off The Table' | ZeroHedge

  • Rrrrrrb: Quantitative Tightening Begins June 1, Capped Initially At $47.5BN And Growing To $95BN | ZeroHedge

• Introducing Stock Lending at Robinhood

• Shell profits nearly triple as oil prices surge

• Boohoo tumbles as reality of online clothes shopping hits home

• World's Largest Fertilizer Company Warns Crop Nutrient Disruptions Through 2023  | ZeroHedge

• 'That Doesn’t Feel Like $150 Worth of Groceries'

• (PDF) US sees largest productivity drop since 1947

  Nonfarm business sector labor productivity decreased 7.5 percent in the first quarter of 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, as output decreased 2.4 percent and hours worked increased 5.5 percent. This is the largest decline in quarterly productivity since the third quarter of 1947, when the measure decreased 11.7 percent.

• Boeing Plans to Move Headquarters to Arlington, VA., From Chicago

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Nonprofit Gets No-Bid U.S. Contract after Hiring Biden Official, $17 Mil in Unused Hotels for Migrants.

• Biden Begins Buying Back Oil To Refill Strategic Reserve... Will Send Gas Prices Back To Record Highs | ZeroHedge

Supreme Abortion

• The Irrational, Misguided Discourse Surrounding Supreme Court Controversies

• Anarchist Collective Shares Instructions to Make DIY Abortion Pills

  besides being used to medically induce abortions, misoprostol is also used to treat ulcers in horses. This makes misoprostol powder relatively easy to acquire from veterinary sources. (This is reminiscent of ivermectin,

• White House Refuses to Condemn ‘Egregious’ Leak at the Supreme Court

• Threats Force Justice Alito to Cancel Public Appearance.

• Location Data Firm Provides Heat Maps of Where Abortion Clinic Visitors Live

• Biden once voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, saying women do not have ‘sole right’ to choose

• Losing the People? Then Change the Rules › American Greatness

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• John Durham Secures a Big Victory Against Hillary for America and Fusion GPS – RedState

• Another judge rips Wisconsin 2020 election investigator for destroying records.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Newly Released Documents Shed Fresh Light on NATO's Eastward Expansion

• Sweden, Finland Win U.S. Security Aid Pledge on Road to NATO

• Declassified memo 'confirms' direct connection between Saudi government and 9/11

World

• Macron rebrands party as Renaissance to fight parliamentary elections

• Xinjian cotton found in Adidas, Pumas, and Hugo Boss tops, researchers say

Health / Medicine

• Ingredient in Cough Syrup Could Work as an Antidepressant: Works Like Ketamine

• A Social Analgesic? Acetaminophen (Tylenol) Reduces Positive Empathy

• The U.S. birth rate is bouncing back from the pandemic

• Faecal transplants reverse hallmarks of ageing

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Companies blame you for climate change

• Flying insects splatting on cars have dropped by 60 per cent in UK

• Carbon Dioxide Fertilization Greening Earth, Study Finds

• Climate sceptic thinktank received funding from fossil fuel interests

• Companies confront a new climate challenge: home offices

Ukraine War

• U.S. Intelligence Is Helping Ukraine Kill Russian Generals, Officials Say

  • US Intelligence Has Helped Kill Multiple Russian Generals In Ukraine

• People’s Republic of China Efforts to Amplify the Kremlin’s Voice on Ukraine

etc

• “Russian troops held me captive at gunpoint for two weeks in Ukraine.”

• Gazprom set the Russian invasion of Ukraine in motion

• Russia Just Lost Its Most Advanced Operational Tank in Ukraine

• Russia’s Attack on Ukraine Is a Case Study in Bad Strategy