2023-12-16

Worthy

• The Grumpy Economist: Time for a new theory of regulation

  This doesn't fit either the econ 101, benevolent nanny, or regulatory capture view. Fundamentally, regulators have captured the industry, not the other way around. They hold arbitrary discretionary power to impose huge costs or just shut down companies. They use this power to elicit political support from the companies. There is a bit of old Chicago school capture in the deal. Companies get protected markets. But the regulators now don't just want a few three martini lunches and a cozy revolving door to "consultant" jobs. They demand, political support. The regulators are more political ideologues than gently corruptible insiders.

etc

• Shield Walls and Spacing: Hollywood Mobs and Ancient Tactics

• What Will Become of Cities?

Horseshit

• Christmas tree from 1920s Woolworths sells for 'astonishing' price

• Psychiatry Won't Solve Our Mental Health Crisis – Only Politics Can Do That

• Scientists Talk With Whales for First Time in Practice for Meeting Aliens.

• The Last Chevy Camaro Has Been Built

celebrity gossip

• Matthew Perry's Cause of Death Revealed as 'Acute Effects of Ketamine'

• Yishan on Sam Altman's long con to take over Reddit (2015) | Hacker News

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Orf vs. the Memory Hole: "Extreme MAGA Republicans"

• YouTube Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users

• 14 Signs of Totalitarianism - The Take (by Jon Miltimore)

Musk

• Linda Yaccarino's Very Unmerry X Mess

• Netflix Resumes Advertising on X After Elon Musk Controversy

Trump / War against the Right / Jan6

• "He Will Unravel The Institutions Of Our Democracy!": Supercut Of Dramatic Dems Freaking Out Over 'Dictator' Trump | ZeroHedge

• Jury Orders Giuliani to Pay $148M to Election Workers He Defamed

  • Rudy Giuliani must pay more than $148M over false election claims

• Inside the Troll Army Waging Trump’s Online Campaign - The New York Times

• Trump ‘may turn off the internet’ if re-elected, former aide says

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• CDC warns of ‘urgent need’ to increase vaccinations for COVID-19, other respiratory illnesses.

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Plus-size travelers bring new attention to Airlines' 'customer of size' policy

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Harvard College Early Applications Drop 17% from Last Year

• Chicago announces plans to ax high-achieving selective-enrollment high schools

• Ask HN: Is it ethical to "addict" students to learning?

• Will Durant and 100 books to a superior education

• Canadian Medical Schools Asked to Shift From “Medical Expertise” to Anti-Racism and Social Justice Training – JONATHAN TURLEY

Entertainment / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Samsung's Galaxy Buds 3 Pro could offer real-time language translation

• XLights – open source light sequencer and show scheduler

• Location history data in Google Maps will soon be stored on user devices

  • HN comments

• Marketer sparks panic with claims it uses smart devices to eavesdrop on people | Ars Technica

• It's not your imagination. Novels are getting weirder

• Mickey Mouse enters the public domain on January 1

  • Disney about to lose Mickey Mouse copyright control after decades of lobbying

• Google Will Turn Off Cookies for 30M People on January 4

• Newspaper Publishers' Obsession with Link and Snippet Taxes Is Bad for Society

• Adam Mosseri spells out Threads' plans for the Fediverse

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Two interesting XOR circuits inside the Intel 386 processor

  • HN comment

• The Logg Dogg: How A Mysterious Logging Robot Leads Down Twisting Forestry Paths

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• We asked GPT-4 and Chinese rival ERNIE the same questions. Here are the answers

• OpenAI suspends ByteDance's account after it used GPT to train its own AI model

  • HN comments

• It Sure Looks Like Governments Want to Let AI Surveillance Run Wild

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Biggest solar flare in years temporarily disrupts radio signals on Earth

• It's Been 2 Months. Why Can't NASA Open the Asteroid Sample Container?

• China launches mystery reusable spaceplane for third time.

• Congress Orders UFO Records Released but Drops Bid for Broader Disclosure

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Greek-yogurt maker Chobani buys coffee company La Colombe for $900M

• Homelessness reaches highest reported level in the U.S. in 2023

• Nasdaq 100 hits record high after the Fed signals rate cuts

• BangOlufsen says it will defy luxury slowdown as 'rich will only become richer'

  • HN comments

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Senate Staffer Caught Filming Gay Sex Tape In Senate Hearing Room (GRAPHIC) | The Daily Caller

  • some are saying it's this person: ‘Free Palestine!’: Congressman Max Miller Confirms Identity Of Dem Staffer Who Confronted Him Over Israel | The Daily Caller

• $791,000 defamation verdict in Mendocino board game dispute

• New York City: City Council Passes Bill Enabling Tenants to Report Vacant Apartments

• Rehabilitate Nixon

• Think tank tied to tech billionaires played key role in Biden's AI order

• US Government doles out paltry $35M of the $52B CHIPS Act

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Suspects can refuse to provide phone passcodes to police, court rules | Hacker News

• Google moves to end geofence warrants, a surveillance problem it largely created

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Iran rethinks its role as a regional troublemaker

• GE's Breakthrough In 'Detonating' Hypersonic Propulsion Is A Big Deal

  • HN comments

• America Shouldn't Give Up on the World It Made

World

• Japan is a cuddlier friend to South-East Asia than America or China

• Canada is so expensive that some Ukrainian immigrants are leaving

• Ireland could give nature constitutional rights

Israel

• Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd to avoid Red Sea after surge in missile and drone attacks

  • HN comments

• IDF discovers Hamas trove of rigged dolls, children’s backpacks, explosives.

• IDF says it accidentally killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza after mistaking them for Hamas terrorists.

• Elizabeth Warren says "Ban Bitcoin" but it's Israel that funded Hamas

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Where the war in Ukraine is headed

• Watch: Ukraine Politician Throws Hand Grenades In Town Meeting, Wounding 26 | ZeroHedge

  • Ukraine grenade incident: Councillor tosses explosives into meeting

Health / Medicine

• New psychedelic-like drugs: all treatment, no trip?

• epic marketing horseshit Ozempic, weight-loss drug fears settle into longer-term risks for food companies

• Lead Levels in Children's Applesauce May Be Traced to Cinnamon Additive

• Nonalcoholic beer at higher risk for foodborne pathogens, says study

• The case of Kenneth Law and the shadowy world of online suicide kits

• Micro-medical machines like "The Magic Schoolbus" are being developed

• Identical Twins Mystery: When 1 Has Dementia, Both Face a Shorter Life

• How Britain's taste for tea may have been a life saver

  economist Francisca Antman of the University of Colorado, Boulder, makes a convincing case that the explosion of tea as an everyman's drink in late 1700s England saved many lives. This would not have been because of any antioxidants or other substances inherent to the lauded leaf. Instead, the simple practice of boiling water for tea, in an era before people understood that illness could be caused by water-borne pathogens, may have been enough to keep many from an early grave.

• Salmonella Quaker Recalls Granola Bars and Granola Cereals Due to Possible Health Risk

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• The quest to turn basalt dust into a viable climate solution

• Stop Planting Trees, Says Guy Who Inspired World to Plant a Trillion Trees

• How the nutritional value of staple crops dropped by 50% since the 1960s

  • HN comments

• Should I Stop Flying? It’s a Difficult Decision to Make

• Shame about the wildfires. We'll just let the fossil fuel giants off the hook

• 'A matter of survival': India's unstoppable need for air conditioners

• (2020) Thanos was wrong and Malthus was right

• Solar and Wind to Top Coal Power in US for First Time in 2024