2023-02-22

Worthy

• The View From The Top - The Ivy Exile

  Again and again I’d hear how we—the global meritocracy—would’ve solved poverty and inequality and climate change long before if not for evil saboteurs. We were enlightened administrators of the rational future, civilizing braying savages for their own good. Feelings in our collective gut amounted to the sum of human wisdom: we’d read the New York Times and realize of course we’d always known.

  Amongst an increasingly international crowd, Americans tended to be intensely jealous of peers from the European Union and especially China, where elite experts had more latitude to dispense with troublemakers. Due to stupid separation of powers in our obsolete constitution we in the U.S. were prevented from fixing things by neo-Nazis out in flyover country.

etc

• Russia is launching a mission to give stranded ISS crew members a ride home

• NASA Mars orbiter reveals China’s Zhurong rover has not moved for months

• Most young men are single. Most young women are not

• Japan baffled by iron ball washed up on beach

• Mid February Fireballs – Three different meteorite falls recovered in three days

Horseshit

• Soylent Acquired by Starco Brands | Hacker News

• 'Buy Nothing' Groups Bring Locals Together and Tear Them Apart

Musk

• Twitter will open source algorithm next week

• Russian propagandists said to buy Twitter blue-check verifications

• SpaceX adjusts Starlink monthly pricing for customers based on service capacity

Pestilence / Pox / COVID / VaxCult

• Study: Even 1 Covid shot can lower heart attack, stroke risk

• NYT: The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned? Archive link

• The Science Blesses ‘Natural Immunity’ for COVID

Culture War / Tribal / Re segregation

• 'South Park's 'brutally honest take' on trans rights, abortion

• Seattle becomes first US city to ban caste-based discrimination

TechSuck

• Reverse-engineering the interrupt circuitry in the Intel 8086 processor

Economicon / Business / Finance

• McKinsey likely to lay off nearly 2k employees in biggest job cuts round

• “Now hiring non-stupid people.” Controversial sign at Ohio pizzeria draws social media attention

• Intel cuts dividend by 66% in bid for “improved financial flexibility”

• NPR says it's cutting jobs by 10% as ad revenue drops

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• We Don’t Need A ‘National Divorce,’ We Need More Federalism.

• Supreme Court Declines to Hear Wikimedia’s Challenge to NSA Mass Surveillance

  • HN comments

• Two women mistakenly issued the same Social Security number

• NLRB Rules That Employers Can't Require Laid-Off Staff to Waive Labor Law Rights

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• SEC Charges the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

  • HN comments

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Selfie of U-2 Pilot Flying Alongside Chinese Spy Balloon Leaks

  • THE U-2 AND BALLOONS – SOME HISTORY, AND SOME THOUGHTS | Dragon Lady Today

World

• UN Inspectors Find Weapons-Grade Uranium at Iran Nuke Site.

• Putin says Xi to visit Russia, ties reaching 'new frontiers'

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Study Finds Zero Loss of Antarctica Sea Ice – But BBC Spins as ‘New Record Low.’

• France goes 31 days without rainfall, unprecedented in winter

• Prolonged low tides see smaller canals dry up in Venice

• Parched California Misses a Chance to Store More Rain

• A Lost Hiker’s SOS Signal Sparked a Wildfire. Now He Must Pay $300k