2023-12-13

Worthy

• I don't want my daughter to be successful.

  At schools, they teach children to "behave" – That is fundamentally wrong. Every child has their own uniqueness; they add new colors to this world and can enhance it with their spark. It's not the teacher's fault; they have an impossible job. It's a system-level problem.

  What schools are really doing is indoctrinating children, dimming their spark, converting their uniqueness into conformity, and turning their vibrant colors into grey, leaving them no choice but to conform to the existing systems. Schools are turning into factories of conformity.

etc

• Extremely rare bird captured on film | University of Otago

  John Murillo pointed out a wild Green Honeycreeper with distinct half green, or female, and half blue, male, plumage. “Many birdwatchers could go their whole lives and not see a bilateral gynandromorph in any species of bird.

• Mutual Admiration Societies - by Robin Hanson

  Recently I talked at an event for an investment fund that specializes in startups run by high school and college age kids. They told me that they prefer these to be STEM-type startups, as kids with other-type startup ideas tend more often to be crooks.

• You can't hear it, but this sound can reveal that a tornado is on its way

  • (1976) How to detect tornados using your TV - The Straight Dope

  • not today's TV's; alas. Perhaps an SDR application could be coded up? or already has been?

Horseshit

• San Francisco tech CEO Christian Lanng accused of forcing assistant to sign ‘slave contract,’ sexual torture.

• Nearly a million non-profit donors' details left exposed in unsecured database

• Why It Took 17 Years to Build 49 Housing Units in Los Angeles

• A Weighty Economics Puzzle

  Eli Lilly stock fell when investors learned that to keep the weight off patients would have to continue to take Zepbound for life.

  • It fell 1% and is still up 50%+ for the year.

celebrity gossip

• How Reagan and US agencies made Murdoch a king

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Ready To Rumble: Lawsuits Against Censorship-Industrial Complex Heat Up After Musk Kicks Open The Floodgates | ZeroHedge

Musk

• (PDF) FCC Reaffirms Rejection of Nearly $900M Subsidy to Starlink

  • Starlink loses out on $886M in rural broadband subsidies

  • FCC Rejects $900 Million Subsidy For SpaceX Amid Concerns Of Gov't Weaponization | ZeroHedge

  • Starlink is sending most of the traffic right back down to a ground station close to the users. They are not a long large pipe themselves; they depend on bandwidth being available terrestrially in an area already. So this may well be justified. I doubt they'd have cared to scrutinize the details so finely before Musk's attitude errors, however.

  • Perhaps there is more to the story. This FCC Comissioner says there is: After he acquired Twitter, Biden gave agencies the green light to go after Musk

  • (PDF) Dissenting Statement of Brendan Carr

    FCC law does not require Starlink to provide high-speed Internet service to even a single location today. As noted above, the first FCC milestone does not kick in until the end of 2025. Indeed, the FCC did not require -- and has never required -- any other award winner to show that it met its service obligation years ahead of time.

    To the extent the Commission is intending to say that the agency does not believe, standing here today, that Starlink is reasonably capable of meeting its year end 2025 obligation by year end 2025, the agency’s position fares no better.

    If the FCC were to apply this novel Starlink speed test standard to any of the other 2020 awardees, it would show that those entities are not reasonably capable of meeting their 2025 obligations either because they have not built out to those areas yet. Applying a speed test to those providers would show speeds of 0/0 Mbps

• Tesla Cybertruck had to be rescued after falling off an off-road trail

  extremely responsive all-wheel-drive system

  • that doesn't appear to be working anything close to properly in this video

• Tesla Recalls 2M Cars to Fix Autopilot Safety Flaws

  • Tesla to Recall More Than Two Million Vehicles over Autopilot Safety Concerns

  • Tesla Is Recalling Nearly All Vehicles Sold in US to Fix an Autopilot Fault

  • Tesla recalls every car with Autopilot as feds say it's too easily misused

• Apple Is Holding the Final Nail for X’s Coffin

• Tesla Says It's Not Fraud, It's Free Speech

• noyb files complaint against X over client-side scanning ads

• Elon Musk hits back at critics with impressive new Tesla Bot video

• Swedish labour union to stop collecting Tesla waste

• X outage breaks all outgoing links, again

• Pedestrians, already dying at record levels, now face Elon Musk's Cybertruck

• Elon Musk Is Planning a New University in Austin

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• What to Know About the Latest Covid Wave in New York City

• Why Are So Many Americans Dying Early?

  • HN comments

• (May 2023) Viral headline twists study about ventilators and COVID-19 deaths | AP News

  it’s a mischaracterization to say that the ventilators are responsible for the deaths, Singer said, likening the circumstances to a patient in a severe car crash who dies despite surgery attempts; it’s the car crash that’s ultimately the cause of death.

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• The Names of Neo-Nazi Music Fans Just Got Leaked

  While the site offered a wide range of neo-Nazi music, clothing, and paraphernalia, its customers learned last week one thing they didn’t offer was infosec. This tough lesson was taught by AFA Sweden, a group of Stockholm-based anti-fascists, who ruined thousands of the site customers' holidays by releasing Midgård’s customer register.

  Peter Smith, a researcher and journalist with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CANH) is currently investigating the Canadian names included in the leak. Smith told VICE News leaks like this are important to understand the global nature of the far-right.

  “This together with our regular work and the other leaks show that you can never expect to be anonymous in the Swedish fascist movement. Even if you don't have any indication that we are aware of you, we most likely are,” they wrote. “Even if you have never been caught on camera. It is better to contact us if you want to move on with your life than hope that we forget, because we never forget.”

  • Everybody who said "doxxing is bad" in regards to the students who had their "sign onto public statements" become a little more public than they wanted last month, will surely be leaping to point out how much worse this case is.

• Unpalatable reality about antisemitism at Harvard

• Syracuse ‘Pro-Palestine’ Students Protest Jerry Seinfeld, Who is Jewish, Comedy Show

• Tal Broda Head of Research Platform at OpenAI Calls for Palestinian Genocide

• America First Legal pushes for inquiry into 'systemic discrimination' at IBM

  • 'Obviously Illegal:' Musk Slams IBM Chief Krishna over Leaked Diversity Video

  • IBM Slapped With Federal Civil Rights Complaint After Racist CEO's "Obviously Illegal" Hiring Practices Leak

• Boston City Hall roiled by email party invitation for ‘electeds of color’ sent to all.

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Racial Discrimination at the University of Washington | City Journal

• Lawmakers introduce bipartisan resolution condemning college presidents' response to antisemitism

  The resolution, first obtained by NBC News, is authored by House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.; the three other lead sponsors are Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and two Jewish American Democrats, Problem Solvers Caucus Co-Chair Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida.

  • the latter two are affiliated with the Democratic Party, but apparently their Jewish heritage is more relevant?

• Niall Ferguson on the parallels between academia in 1920-30s Germany and 2020 USA.

  • Niall Ferguson: The Treason of the Intellectuals | The Free Press

• More than 10k research papers were retracted in 2023 – a new record

• Why Educational Institutions Should Use and Teach Free Software

• Cheating Fears over Chatbots Were Overblown, New Research Suggests

• (2017) Something Was Wrong | Don't Worry About the Vase

  A full four adults, myself included, were trying to get my son to join this circle. He was failing the test. We were failing the test. He needed to join! Or else! Things! His future! The alpha quadrant! I heard myself talking. I said “Join the circle. Don’t you want to bow to social pressure?”

  Out loud. I said that out loud. The other adults did not react. They somehow seemed amused. No funny looks. The other kids didn’t notice. They weren’t listening. No curiosity. There were lots of strange people there and they didn’t notice. In order to sit in a circle.

  “It felt like… this is where children’s souls go to die.”

Entertainment / ShowBiz / Advertising

• What we watched: Netflix releases global viewing figures

• GM Says It's Ditching Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for Your Safety

• What Will Enter the Public Domain in 2024? | Hacker News

• Netflix Takes Data Transparency Step, Releasing Viewing Numbers for 18k Titles

• Tucker Carlson's streaming service goes live, charges $9 per month

• Google Promises Unlimited Storage; Cancels; Tells Journalist Life's Work Deleted

  • HN comments

• Days of Google's Unchecked Dominance May Be Over

• Author loses book deal: accused of trying to sabotage reviews of other authors

• Remember What Spotify Did to the Music Industry? Books Are Next

• The Times Publishes Its 60k Issue

• Mark Zuckerburg: Threads accounts will be available on Mastodon

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• New lua-l hosted at Google Groups

  After 20 years of providing unfailing, kind, generous, flexible, and efficient support to key internet presence for the Lua community, Pepperfish is closing down at the end of this year. We are extremely grateful to Pepperfish for their wonderful support. A new host for lua.org will be announced soon.

• Study shows 38% of Java apps still affected by Log4j vulnerability log4shell

• Linux 6.6.6

• Ask HN: What apps have you created for your own use? | Hacker News

• Radio Station WWV: All Time, All The Time | Hackaday

• Polish Hackers that repaired DRM trains threatened by train company

  • HN comments

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• AI's big rift is like a religious schism, says Henry Farrell

• AI’s big rift is like a religious schism

  • HN comments

• Using A.I. To Talk to the Dead

• An 'AI' fast food drive-thru is mostly just human workers in the Philippines

• Google admits Gemini demo was staged

• Meet Ashley, the first AI-powered political campaign caller

• OpenAI's nonprofit arm showed revenue of $45,000 last year

• Most companies using AI are 'lighting money on fire,' says Matthew Prince

  • HN comments

• Meta's AI for Ray-Ban smart glasses can identify objects and translate languages

• Hopefully, AI will create a perpetual housing crisis - Market Urbanism

  • Construction won’t be much affected by AI.
  • Consumers will be richer and spend a bigger share of their incomes on housing.

• Humana accused of using AI to deny care to seniors

• A Lawsuit Brought by Artists Against A.I. Companies Adds New Plaintiffs

• New AI Spam Detection Deployed to Gmail and Open Sourced by Google

• More discussion: Bash one-liners for LLMs | Hacker News

• 2nd Batch of the A16Z Open Source AI Grant

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• More than a year after engine failure, Blue Origin to return to flight

  • Blue Origin sure seems confident it will launch New Glenn in 2024

• Voyager 1 In Trouble As Engineers Scramble To Debug Issue With Flight Data System

Crypto con games

• Coinbase Ex-Manager Convicted of Insider Trading Is Crypto's Latest Legal Hope

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Ford cutting 2024 F-150 Lightning production plans by half

• Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers two weeks before Christmas

• Ernst and Young just laid off 10% of partners in advisory

• Online retailer Zulily sues Amazon for "bullying" behavior

• Why Americans are going hungry despite a strong economy

• Vertical farming company raised $500M, and then it all but disappeared

  • HN comments

• Tired of Tip Requests, Consumers Are Getting Stingy

• Treasury Market Stress: Primary Dealers Taking Up Slack As Foreign Demand Fades.

  During one auction of $20 billion of 30-year notes in November primary dealers had to take up 18% of the supply. Typically, they would account for around 11% of sales. On Monday, the Treasury auctioned $50 billion in three-year notes and $37 billion in 10-year notes. Primary dealers bought upwards of 17% of the supply.

• Rise in US core inflation highlights stubborn price pressures.

• Tidal Cuts over 10% of Staff Amid Austerity Moves by Jack Dorsey's Block

• Etsy plans to lay off 11% of its workforce, or \~225 employees

  • Etsy is laying off 11% of its staff

• Microsoft will overtake Apple as the largest company in '24

• Always educational: The Long Shadow of Checks

  There is a fascinating history of the negotiability of checks, of the deposits at different banks trading at varying (and constantly changing) discounts to par, and of checks being the primary form of paper money for more than a century in the United States. We’ll elide most of it here. Let’s focus on the most boring possible implication of negotiability: your bank should be willing to accept that other bank’s check.

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Hunter Biden seeks dismissal of federal gun charges

• No more drunk driving? US to force carmakers to adopt life-saving tech by 2024

  • US agency takes first step to mandate anti-drunk driving technology

• Intel ‘Experts’ Who Falsely Discredited Hunter Biden Laptop Call To Extend Warrantless Spying On Americans.

  • The Trojan Horse That Would Force Your Barista To Spy on You.

• Supreme Court ready to deal another blow to federal agencies' powers

• 1 in 5 Mail-in Voters Admit Engaging in Election Fraud.

• Defiant Hunter Biden Blows Off Subpoena, Bails on Congressional Testimony

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• S.F. DA Brooke Jenkins says homeless people should be made 'uncomfortable'

• Accused Spy for Cuba Lived the American Dream

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• US compromising with Nvidia over chip sales in China

World

• Taiwanese Pilot Planned CH-47 Defection to China: Reports

• Stonehenge campaigners' last-chance bid to save site from road tunnel

• Opinion | Europe May Be Headed for Something Unthinkable - The New York Times

  Supporters of the bloc tend to see European unity as an end in itself — or to assume that a more powerful European Union, long idealized as a civilizing force in international politics, would automatically benefit the whole world. But as the union unites around defending a threatened European civilization and rejecting nonwhite immigration, we need to think again about whether it truly is a force for good.

• Argentina's new government devalues peso by more than 50%

  • Argentina to devalue peso by over 50% as part of emergency economic reforms

• The “Sovereignty Protection Authority” is harmful and against the rule of law, yet it cannot intimidate independent media - Direkt36

• Did the PRC just annex a chunk of Bhutan?

• Quebec's 'Language Police' Take Aim at Sneaky English Slang

Israel

• Civilian death toll: Israeli and Palestinian fatalities continue to rise

• Israel Starts Pumping Seawater Into Gaza Tunnels, After Russia Warned Against 'War Crime' | ZeroHedge

• Manara (YC W21) student killed with family by Israeli airstrike

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russia has lost 87% of troops it had prior to start of Ukraine war

• Pro-Putin Disinformation Warriors Take War of Aggression to Reddit

Health / Medicine

• Prohibition may have extended life for those born in dry counties

• Smoking Causes Cancer – Probably Overthinking It

• Every homeopathic eye drop should be pulled off the market, FDA says

• Study suggests swift use of antiretrovirals in infected newborns can banish HIV.

• Smoking Linked to Brain Shrinkage, Irreversible Even After Quitting

• Will FDA crackdown on lab tests protect patients–or limit access to care?

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Plant nurseries are exacerbating the climate-driven spread of invasive species

• There Is No 1.5°C Climate Cliff

• California wildfires created toxic Chromium, research finds

• Spain's Malaga Airport smashed December heat record from 1998 by almost 5°C

• Climate talks end on a first-ever call to move away from fossil fuels

  • COP28 Nations Agree for First Time to Transition Away from Fossil Fuels

  • COP28 ends with deal on transition away from fossil fuels

  • Nearly 200 nations reach breakthrough deal to move away from fossil fuels

• Former Department of Energy staffers warn we're doing carbon removal all wrong

• Carbon pricing would raise trillions needed to tackle climate crisis, says IMF

• Climate crisis could cause 10k extra UK deaths a year by 2050