2022-08-25

etc

• Life is good in America, even by EU standards

• How landline telephones became a must-have in old San Francisco

• The Four Dirty C-Words of the Internet - Paul Jun

  • HN comments

• Ancient frogs in mass grave died from too much sex – new research

• Orcas Are Breaking Rudders Off Boats in Europe

• Former NASA official on trying to stop SLS

  I think a test flight is just that, it's a test flight. This happy talk of it being completed—just look at the language, the celebration, NASA's planning, and so forth for the launch. There is not another test flight planned if this doesn't go perfectly. So then what? You're going to put people on one in two years if the first one didn't go well? I just have never heard anyone talk about that plan.

• If Michael Jordan Played in Today's NBA, He'd Enjoy the Benefits of Modernity

• NASA’s Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide in Exoplanet Atmosphere

• Effective altruism as a tower of assumptions | Hacker News

• Voyager 1 marks 10 years in interstellar space.

Horseshit

• America’s Affordable Housing Problem - by Coby Lefkowitz

  • HN comments

• Things people blamed on bicycles | Hacker News

• I’m living in a house-share at 65 – there are a lot of people in the UK like me

• Samsung develops 'reinvented toilet' with Gates Foundation

• Scorpion venom 'fetches $10M a litre', but is it a fool's gold rush?

• Billboards in LA and SF warn against moving to Texas by invoking Uvalde shooting

• The end of the manual transmission is near?

  • HN comments

• The Latest Innovation in Beer Is Water in a Can

• Too many Americans live in places built for cars – not for human connection

• The Revival of Stoicism

celebrity gossip

• John McAfee faked his death and is ‘still alive’

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Google Finds ‘Inoculating’ People Against Misinformation Helps Blunt Its Power

  • See also: "Plannedemic" and Bill Gates. The denials on that one preceded the actual conspiracy theories.

  • Google to run ads “educating” users about “fake news”

• As Streamer Flees, Pressure Mounts on Cloudflare to Stop Protecting Kiwi Farms

• Facebook, Twitter and Others Remove Pro-U.S. Influence Campaign

  • Meta Removes Fake Accounts Tied to Pro-US Influence Campaign

  • Meta, Twitter bust ‘deceptive’ pro-US influence campaign: report

• Social media boycott of Goya did not harm sales

• ZeroHedge Suspended Again By Twitter For Reporting Facts

• Why Big Tech’s purge of ‘alpha male’ influencer Andrew Tate is disturbing

Gun control / Mass Shooting

• FBI, DHS warns threat of copycat mass shooters growing online

Abortion

• Yelp begins labeling, throttling the reach of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers

• Is anyone else is even talking about a "total abortion ban?" Pregnancy-Related Mortality Impact of a Total Abortion Ban in the US

Musk

• Twitter staff exodus accelerates amid Musk battle, whistleblower complaint

• Whistleblower Report Confirms Twitter’s Legal Argument, Pretends to Support Musk

• Twitter executives push back against whistle-blower complaint

• Elon Musk Tells Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta Tester to Stop Complaining

• Twitter Whistleblower “Mudge” to Testify Before U.S. Congress

• The Peiter Zatko Case: How We Broke Whistleblowing

• Twitter Comes Under Washington Spotlight with Whistleblower Complaint

• Tesla demands removal of video of cars hitting child-size mannequins

Trump / War against the Right / Jan6

• Biden White House Directly Facilitated FBI Mar-A-Lago Raid | ZeroHedge

• Biden White House facilitated DOJ's criminal probe against Trump, scuttled privilege claims: memos | Just The News

• Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She Was 'Swatted' At Georgia Home

• Tea Party seeks removal of anti-Trump raid judge.

Pestilence / Pox / COVID / VaxCult

• Americans are highly vaccinated against polio. Here’s why it could still spread.

• Over 2M Americans Aren't Working Due to Long Covid

• Pfizer Covid pill showed no benefit in adults under 65, study finds

• SARS-CoV-2 has evolved an incubation time more like seasonal coronaviruses

• everyone is changing jerseys. now what? - by el gato malo

  post mid-terms, “this was all trump’s fault” is going to become the grand unifier of the lockdown left. politics was the predictor of lockdown, in person schooling, drops in employment, mask and vaxx rules, and nearly every other covid response. none of it worked and the damage was vast. this leaves the more zealous of “team donkey” in a tough spot and when you’re in a tough spot, you go with what you know and if there is one thing this gang knows, it’s “always accuse the other side of that which you are doing.”

• NIH to terminate EcoHealth Alliance grant

Culture War / Tribal / Re segregation

• Is Lesbian TV Dying?

• Trans prisoner who impregnated two inmates tries to cut off testicles over being misgendered

• Fired for being publicly pro-Palestine, one year later no one is hiring her

• Startup Is Selling Tech to Make Call Center Workers Sound Like White Americans

  • HN comments

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Chicago Public Schools' Radical Agenda Gets Uglier: 'Equity' Video Promotes Looting & Burning

• (Video) Why Colleges Are Becoming Cults

• No One Wants to Be a Law Professor Anymore

• If Everyone Learns to Code, the Value of Knowing How to Code Will Be Destroyed

  When I was at Purdue I was once walking across a quad with a friend of mine, guy from China getting his PhD in Electrical Engineering. They were doing one of those job fair things where big recruiters like Microsoft and the NSA were trying to entice our students to apply. I made some comment about how valuable a Purdue degree must be in those fields, and my friend laughed. “They're all trying to hire the same 50 students,” he said.

• The Humanities Are in Crisis

• SF School Board Facing Lawsuit Threat over Vote to Observe Two Muslim Holidays

• Orthodoxy above all. If your findings run over our Dogma we won't publish them: Science must respect the dignity and rights of all humans

  research may — inadvertently — stigmatize individuals or human groups. It may be discriminatory, racist, sexist, ableist or homophobic. It may provide justification for undermining the human rights of specific groups, simply because of their social characteristics.

  Additionally, we require that all content submitted for publication be respectful of the dignity and rights of individuals and human groups. Researchers are asked to carefully consider the potential implications (including inadvertent consequences) of research on human groups defined by attributes of race, ethnicity, national or social origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, political or other beliefs, age, disease, (dis)ability or other status, to be reflective of their authorial perspective if not part of the group under study, and contextualise their findings to minimize as much as possible potential misuse or risks of harm to the studied groups in the public sphere.

  Finally, authors should use inclusive, respectful, non-stigmatizing language in their submitted manuscripts. Authors should ensure that writing is free from stereotypes or cultural assumptions. We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to attributes such as race, ethnicity, national or social origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, political or other beliefs, age, disease, (dis)ability or other group descriptors unless they are relevant. We advise that authors writing in English follow the guidance on bias-free language provided by the American Psychological Association when preparing their manuscripts for submission.

• White House banning journal paywalls for federally funded research

Media / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Plex imposes password reset after hackers steal data for 15M users

• Due to expiring car and track licences Project CARS 1 and 2 will be delisted

• Pinterest is facing civil rights investigation in California

• British Designer Sues Zazzle, Claiming Brazen Font Theft

• The New Normal: The Coming Tsunami of Fakery

  • HN comments

• My GPT-3 Blog Got 26 Thousand Visitors in 2 Weeks

• How Short Will Songs Get?

TechSuck

• “Pinterest” for Dalle-2 images and prompts

• The Commodore 64 at 40

• Pakistan to Tax Graphics Cards Based on Onboard Memory

• Poorly configured cloud technology makes 5G networks worryingly hackable

  • HN comments

• Security researchers blast CrowdStrike bug disclosure practices

• Starlink is reducing your monthly service fee

• Ask HN: Is it the norm for companies/startups to not give a damn about security?

• Fix it, Fork it, Fuck off | Hacker News

• A Theoretical Justification (2021) | Hacker News

• Nvidia says it built too many GPUs, expect sales while it works on something new

• Beyond the Frame | How the Consumer Computer is Consuming Computing

Crypto con games

• Tether will not freeze Tornado Cash addresses

  • HN comments

• Bitcoin's “Bonnie and Clyde” and how they robbed Bitfinex

• Crypto’s marketing efforts have drawn few new investors

• Is the Ethereum Proof-of-Stake Merge Overhyped?

• Binance exec says scammers made a 'deep fake hologram' of him to fool victims

• DeFi credit scores: Coming soon to a blockchain near you?

• Cryptocurrency influencers are preying on millennials who found salvation in crypto – Mariano Gappa's Blog

Economicon / Business / Finance

• There’s a ‘perfect storm’ brewing in the family housing market

• Despite flexibility, gig work and insecure income prove harmful to US workers

• EV prices are going in the wrong direction

• eBay acquires TCGplayer: A New Chapter for the Collectibles Community

• PS5 price to increase in select markets due to global economic environment

• Home prices fell, first time in 3 years last month – biggest decline since 2011

• US Employees Say They’re Losing the Upper Hand as Layoffs Mount

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Watch: Biden Announces Student Loan Relief Which Will Mostly Benefit Top Earners | ZeroHedge

  • Three glaring problems with Biden’s $10k student debt cancellation plan

  • IP thread

  • (July 2021) Pelosi says Biden doesn't have authority to cancel student debt

  • The Biden-Harris Administration's Student Debt Relief Plan Explained

    • HN comments

  • Pelosi Does Complete 180 as Biden WH Reveals Where Debt Relief ‘Authority’ Purportedly Comes From

  • Student-Debt cancellation will cost more than $2000 per taxpayer

  • HN comments

  • Biden student loan write-off plan will cost over a trillion dollars, not $300 billion - Liberty Unyielding

  • Biden Announces Student Loan Relief for Borrowers Who Need It Most

  • (PDF) The Secretary's Legal Authority for Debt Cancellation

  • 60% of those with student loans owe less than $40k, while 7% percent owe $100k+

  • If It Sounds Like an Election Year Handout, That’s Because It Is.

  • Legality of student loan plan relies on pandemic, 2003 law

  • (2020, satire) Hard-Working Plumber Looking Forward To Paying For His Neighbor’s Gender Studies Degree

• California air agency to ban sales of gasoline-powered cars by 2035

• Gavin Newsom, the Ron DeSantis of the Left

• Ousted Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones wins House primary

• What Happened to Reducing Inflation?

Hunter

• FBI Officials Instructed Agents Not to Investigate Hunter Biden's Laptop Before 2020 Election

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Biden marks Ukrainian Independence Day with nearly $3B in security assistance

• 2nd Round Of US Airstrikes Over Syria As Militias Fire Rockets On Occupied Gas Fields

  • Pentagon Confirms US Troops Were Wounded In Syria Rocket Attacks

• DoD Announces the Establishment of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office

• U.N. atomic agency chief warns Iran may have dealt the nuclear deal a ‘fatal blow.’

• Why Are We in Ukraine?

World

• Tesla, Nio Suspend EV Charging Services as China Power Cuts Bite

• Cost of living: Brits to ditch home working as heating bills soar

• Togo achieves major feat of eradicating four neglected tropical diseases

• China auto hub Chongqing extends factory power cuts indefinitely

  • China's Chongqing manufacturing hub extends factory power cuts indefinitely

• "End Of Abundance": Macron Warns Of "Major Tipping Point" And "Great Upheaval" As Difficult Winter Approaches

• UK Government Warned Of "Civil Unrest" Over People's Inability To Pay Energy Bills

• Canada Is Euthanizing Its Sick and Poor. Welcome to World of Government Health Care.

• China Agriculture Ministry Emergency Notice: Replant or Switch Crops

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Who Murdered Darya Dugina?

• Putin bets winter gas chokehold will yield peace – on his terms

• Battle for Kyiv: Ukrainian valor, Russian blunders combined to save the capital

• Western sanctions will eventually impair Russia’s economy

• ‘We realized that there’s no way we can return’: Russia’s best and brightest are leaving the country in record numbers. 6 young Russians explain why they left.

Health / Medicine

• UK: Don't go to A&E - UnHerd

• Magic mushrooms’ psilocybin may help heavy drinkers cut back

• Amazon shuts down Amazon Care

• Amazon’s Foray into Primary Care Won’t Be Easy

• Old plasma dilution reduces human biological age: a clinical study

• Oral caffeine metabolite associated with slowed myopia progression in children

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Blood tests reveal gene changes in dolphins after Deepwater Horizon oil spill

• Climate change: six billion people may suffer from water scarcity

• Google change reduces airline emissions calculations

• Aspire completes world’s largest cricket production facility in ON, Canada

• Losing Your Neighborhood to Climate Change Is Sometimes Necessary

• 'dangerous' heat stress to become more common by 2100: study