2022-09-26

etc

• Jupiter to Reach Opposition, Closest Approach to Earth in 59 Years

• NASA spacecraft lining up to smash into an asteroid

• Solving Scurvy - by Philo - MD&A

• Meritocracy is Vital - by Jeff Maurer - I Might Be Wrong

  We live in a world where environmental factors lead to unequal aptitudes, but what if we just pretended that we didn’t? What if we made believe as if everyone is equally good at everything? Maybe we can eschew the painful, generations-long project of creating a society with more-equal access and just engineer results that make us feel good now. And we can undertake this project despite the fact that it requires huge amounts of race and gender-based discrimination. Amazingly, this argument has gained purchase on the left. I consider this a stunning upset; it’s as if MADD decided that actually, a Corona with lime is delicious and refreshing, so feel free to throw a few back before you get behind the wheel.

  There is both an individual and a societal benefit to meritocracy. On an individual level, we’re afforded the right to be judged according to our ability to do some specific thing, and not according to arbitrary factors, worst of all factors that are decided by birth. This lets us focus on areas where we show aptitude. On a societal level, we benefit from products and organizations that are as good as they can be. Is it a perfect system? No — in a perfect system, an all-knowing being would reward people in exact proportion to their moral worth. This is how most religions conceive of heaven. And that sounds great, and I hope it exists somewhere, but on Earth, we typically have to settle for “best available”, and I think that meritocracy is the best available system that we have.

Horseshit

• (2020) The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look

• For Mormons, a perfect lawn is a godly act. The drought is catching up with them

• Traffic is coming back to downtowns across America

• It's Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E

celebrity gossip

• Putin grants Russian citizenship to former US security contractor Edward Snowden

  • Putin grants Russian citizenship to Edward Snowden | Hacker News

  • Edward Snowden Is Granted Russian Citizenship

  • Putin has granted Russian citizenship to Edward Snowden, in time for the draft

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Rape posts every half-hour found on online incel forum

• Thoughts on Internet Content Moderation from Hours Modding Volokh Conspiracy

• PayPal could be banned from blocking accounts for political reasons

• Bill Gates says political polarization could lead to a civil war

  • HN comments

• UK Royals Force News Sites to Delete Embarrassing Video Clips

• “Dangerous messaging around a recent SIDS study”: This time, don’t blame the news media. | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

Musk

• Starlink now over 1M user terminals manufactured

Trump / War against the Right / Jan6

• FBI whistleblower says SWAT teams being misused, J6 defendants' rights trampled | Just The News

• Facebook ‘silencing’ activity related to FBI whistleblower Steve Friend

• Did the FBI Finally Go Too Far? - American Thinker

Pestilence / Pox / COVID / VaxCult

• Covid-19 Linked with Substantial Increase in Type 1 Diabetes in Children

• Pfizer submits application for EUA for bivalent Covid booster in 5-11 year olds

• Canada ends vaccine entry rules, makes ArriveCan optional

Culture War / Tribal / Re segregation

• Sundance Liked Her Documentary, ‘Jihad Rehab,’ Until Muslim Critics Didn’t

• Young men feel the most threatened by advances in women's rights

• How to Hit Back: The desperate, confused, righteous campaign to stop Asian hate

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Girls Who Code book series banned in some US classrooms

  • “Girls Who Code” founder speaks out after school district bans her books

• Loan ‘forgiveness’ means more money wasted on useless degrees

Media / ShowBiz / Advertising

• 3x new books added to the Pirate Library Mirror | Hacker News

• The unmagicking of Disney - by Marion Teniade

  once you say it has to look “realistic,” you lose the ability to draw a lioness eyefucking her childhood bestie, and now all you have is Animal Planet But They Mouths Move. No art. No magic.

  • HN comments

TechSuck

• Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used | Hacker News

• Nvidia In the Valley – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

• Turns are Better than Radians - by Casey Muratori

  • HN comments

• Zen4's AVX512 Teardown | Hacker News

  we live in a very strange world now. AMD has AVX512, but Intel does not for mainstream... If you told me this a few years ago, I'd have looked at you funny. But here we are... Despite the "double-pumping", Zen4's AVX512 is not only competitive with Intel's, it outright beats it in many ways.

Crypto con games

• Interpol issues red notice for Terra founder Do Kwon

Economicon / Business / Finance

• What is the Fed Doing?

• New York City’s Empty Offices Reveal a Global Property Dilemma

  • HN comments

• Amazon walking back raises after internal bug miscalculated compensation | Hacker News

• Rents Drop for First Time in Two Years After Climbing to Records

• LinkedIn Ran Social Experiments on 20M Users over 5 Years, Impacting Livelihoods

  • HN comments

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Political instincts clash with party lines

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Once nicknamed ‘Murderapolis,’ the city that became the center of the ‘Defund the Police’ movement is grappling with heightened violent crime

• FBI misled judge who signed warrant for Beverly Hills seizure of $86 million in cash.

• SEC Charges in Schemes Resulting in a NJ Deli with a $100M Valuation

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• China is not a military threat

World

• Meloni's Right-Wing Alliance Wins Clear Majority In Italian Elections

  • EU’s von der Leyen delivers veiled warning to Italy’s right wing

  • Italy's right wing, led by Meloni, wins election, exit polls say

  • HN comments

  • Italian far right set to take power with Meloni first female PM

  • Right-Wing Coalition Wins in Italy, American Press Loses Its Mind – RedState

• Sterling collapses as investors fly into dollars

  • HN comments

  • Sterling hits record low against the dollar, as Asia-Pac currencies also weaken

  • HN comments

  • British pound plummets to record low against the dollar

• In China, home buyers occupy their 'rotting', unfinished properties

• Xi Jinping: Under House Arrest?

• The Exiled Dissident Fuelling the Hijab Protests in Iran

• Lights out, ovens off: Europe preps for winter energy crisis

• Iranian Universities, including Sharif University of Technology, go on strike

• Yuan Plunge Nears 14-Year Low Inviting Aggressive PBOC Pushback

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Kyiv’s western allies boost nuclear deterrence after Putin’s threats

• The West is testing out a lot of shiny new military tech in Ukraine

• US warnings against Putin's nuclear threats mark a sobering moment for the world

• Thirteen Dead and 21 wounded in Russia school shooting

• Ukraine warns allies of Russian plans to escalate cyberattacks

• Ukrainian Territories To Be Absorbed Into Russia By Week's End: Lawmaker

• Russia: Man shoots officer drafting residents for war in Ukraine

Health / Medicine

• The Risks of Having an Older Father

• 87% less expensive cervical cancer vaccine

• Can anyone help with this nightmare?

  The hospital bills racked up by my Stepdad before he died were just under $450k. The hospital placed a lien against his estate for this entire amount. I called 2 different attorneys, and both said that this was legal, and neither of them believed that they could get the payoff balance reduced by more than 50%, and 50% would be the very best.

• The terrifying flesh-eating drug meant for horses that is now hitting the streets of America.

• A Cancer-Fighting Version of Herpes Shows Promise in Early Human Trial

• Smart Pills Can Tell Your Doctor That You’ve Taken Them | Hackaday

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Offshore Wind 125 Times Better for Taxpayers Compared to Oil and Gas

• Are heat pumps the key to accelerating the energy transition?