2023-12-30

Worthy

• "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

  When it was formed in 1901, it was by far the largest company in the world, and produced nearly 2/3rds of American steel. Today, it makes just 12% of American steel, around a third of the steel that it made in 1955, and employs around the same number of people as online pet retailer Chewy.

  US Steel’s enormous size made it unwieldy and difficult to manage. It took time for information to filter up through the many layers of management between the factory floor and company leadership, and to get all of the disparate operations of the company moving in the same direction. This, on top of the fundamental conservative culture created by Gary, and the lack of top management talent as former Carnegie executives abandoned the company, caused US Steel to steadily lose market share to its more agile rivals.

  The American steel industry responded to the rise of foreign producers not by trying to improve their operations, but by demanding government protection from “unfair” foreign trade practices. In 1968, steel producers in Japan and Europe, at the behest of President Lyndon Johnson, agreed to artificially restrict their steel exports to the US. This was intended to give US producers “breathing room” to modernize their facilities and improve operations, though this didn’t occur (in fact, capital investment by American steelmakers declined after the agreements). And though pressure had been temporarily removed, things were about to get much worse for US Steel and the American steel industry.

  Arguably, US Steel has been a disappointment since the day it was formed. It was created as a fundamentally conservative reaction to the vicissitudes of the steel industry, and this guided its early years and shaped its culture. The economies of scale it achieved were never passed on to the consumer, and instead it used its size to bully other steelmakers and extract money from consumers. When this stopped working, it used its political influence to prevent consumers from buying low-cost foreign steel. Improving the efficiency of its operations was something it did as a last resort when left with no other options.

  • HN comment

etc

• Arkansas man finds 4.87 carat diamond in Crater of Diamonds State Park

• House where 4 University of Idaho students were killed is demolished

• Earth's core wobbles every 8.5 years, new study suggests

• New Jersey Will See More Than $1B in Marijuana Sales in 2024

Horseshit

• Scientists Think We've Officially Entered the 'Lunar Anthropocene'

• You've just been fucked by psyops | Hacker News

• ‘Parental Rights’ Mom Accused of Slugging Kid at Boozy Teen Party She Hosted

• California's Aristocracy of Lunatics

• Boeing urges airlines to inspect 787 Max planes for possible loose bolts

• They're Paid Billions to Root Out Child Labor in the U.S. Why Do They Fail?

• Walmart vendor recalls high-powered magnetic balls due to ingestion hazard.

• Why the Noise of L.A. Helicopters Never Stops

• The Secret Foreign Roots of Tech Titans' New California City

• Record traffic on NYC crossings as congestion pricing nears

• Electric Mandates Have California Truckers Charging Overtime

celebrity gossip

• Gypsy Rose Blanchard picked up from prison in husband's car with a 'Hitman' Hart license plate

• Pierce Brosnan accused of trespassing in Yellowstone National Park

• Cher files for conservatorship for son Elijah

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Disinformation specialist Joan Donovan speaks out on separation from Harvard Archive

  The scorching, 123-page account, which Donovan posted to X, formerly Twitter, was previously released roughly three weeks ago as part of the the well-known scholar’s 248-page whistle-blower complaint demanding “an urgent and impartial investigation” into allegations of improper donor influence at the Kennedy School.

• ‘It’s like martial law' – Poland's pro-EU government seizes public news channels with massive police raid

• Ask HN: Nafarious "influencers" and bad actors on HN? | Hacker News

• A Free and Open Internet Is a Threat to the Establishment | Mises Wire

• Cybergeddon: ISP-level de-platforming

  • Joshua Moon runs a controversial online forum Kiwi Farms, which is the target of extreme and escalating online censorship.
  • Hurricane Electric has blocked network traffic from IPs associated owned by Joshua Moon, impacting IngocNet’s services in Washington.

• Are You in an Anti-Free Speech State? We Now Have The Definitive List – JONATHAN TURLEY

  California has long sought to impose speech limits on doctors, businesses, and citizens to silence opposing viewpoints. However, 23 Democrat-led states joined this ignoble effort in signing on to the brief of California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The brief lauds past efforts of these states to combat “harmful content” on the Internet and to protect the public from “misleading information” through partnerships with social media companies.

Musk

• Cybertruck Crash

  • First reported Tesla Cybertruck accident results in only 'minor' injury

Trump / War against the Right / Jan6

• Colorado puts Trump back on 2024 GOP primary ballot while ruling is appealed.

  • Trump Is Back on Colorado’s Primary Ballot—for Now

• CNN: Okay, So, CO Supreme Court Justices Weren't Actually Threatened But They're Still in Danger From You People – HotAir

• Samuel Lazar, Jan. 6 rioter who was sentenced in secret, provided information to authorities - Washington Times

• Maine Secretary of State Determines Trump Ineligible for Primary Ballot Under the 14th Amendment

  • Democrat Secretary Of State Kicks Trump Off Maine Ballot | ZeroHedge

  • Maine’s Top Election Official Erases Trump From 2024 Ballot

• California leaving Trump on its presidential primary ballot

• Maine and Michigan Issue Rulings on Trump and Section 3 Disqualification

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Scientists Still Shoot for the Moon with Patent-Free Covid Drug

• COVID Mask Mandates Return Across US Hospitals | ZeroHedge

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• AMC apologizes after civil rights leader says he was kicked out of screening

• The Southern Poverty Law Center’s New Enemy: Americans Who Accept Biology

• Family testimony reveals new insights into how Hitler became radicalised

  • HN comments

• Effective Altruism (EA) Reckons With Sam Altman, Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg

• Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters swarm Manhattan to call for ceasefire

• 'No Thanks' app calls for boycott of Israel-related products

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• College Boss Fired Over Secret Porn-Star Life May Sue

  • UW-La Crosse Chancellor Fired for Posting Porn Videos of Himself with His Wife

• How Harvard screwed up the tactics on the PR side

• Harvard Academics Were Slamming Scandal-Plagued Claudine Gay Long Before Plagiarism Accusations | ZeroHedge

• Academic paper based on Uyghur genetic data retracted over ethical concerns

Entertainment / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Vinyl sales at 33-year high (nearly six million units in 2023)

• Video game communities rule online discussion. How will Hollywood invest in this?

• 2023 was the year that GPUs stood still

  • HN comments

• Beatles necromancy Owen Hatherley, Studio Trickery — Sidecar

• Social media companies made $11B in US ad revenue from minors

  • HN comments

• Google agrees to settle $5B lawsuit claiming it tracked users

• CBC cancels New Year's Eve broadcast special due to 'financial pressures'

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Electronics Flea Market | Hacker News

• Open Source Liability is Coming | Developers Alliance

  You might be surprised to learn that, as I write, the EU is finalizing rules that will make open-source creators and licensees liable for any user harm their software might cause. The focus for lawmakers is that, like cars and chainsaws, software is complex and can be inherently dangerous. Policymakers believe that consumers are at a disadvantage when things go horribly wrong: how can they prove someone sold them faulty software when they can’t hope to understand how apps work or how they’re created? The solution they’re adopting is to shift the onus to the software and app creators to prove their code didn’t do anything wrong. This will be burdensome but is at least possible if you write and market your own code. But what if you’re just part of a collaborative open source project, give away your app, or if there’s open source code in the product you put on the market? Who gets blamed when open source might be the heart of the problem?

  • HN comments

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Why are the elites suddenly terrified of AI?

  • HN comments

• The News Industry's Uneasy Negotiations with OpenAI

• Truly cool tool: Using Local AI On The Command Line To Rename Images (And More)

• AI-created "virtual influencers" are stealing business from humans

• Previous reports suggest this is an ongoing game of telephone Google likely to layoff 30,000 employees post new AI innovation

  According to a recent report from The Information, Google is considering a substantial workforce reduction, potentially affecting up to 30,000 employees, as part of a strategic move to integrate AI into various aspects of its business processes.

• EU competition chief defends Artificial Intelligence Act after Macron's attack

• One of the oldest newspapers is using AI to reinvent journalism

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• NASA launches mission to intercept 'God of Chaos' asteroid as it nears Earth's orbit

  The agency’s spacecraft OSIRIS-REx — now named the OSIRIS-APEX — has been sent off to study the asteroid Apophis’ extremely close flyby of Earth in 2029, the likes of which “hasn’t happened since the dawn of recorded history,” NASA announced.

• SpaceX successfully launches two rockets hours apart

  • SpaceX launches two rockets – 3 hours apart – to close out a record year

Crypto con games

• Crime Pays: Binance Founder CZ's Net Worth Rose By Almost $25 Billion In 2023 | ZeroHedge

• Judge says Terraform Labs crypto founder Do Kwon violated law

• Sam Bankman-Fried will not face a second trial, prosecutors say

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Raw data: Homelessness is down everywhere except California.

• From FedEx to airlines, companies are starting to lose their pricing power

• US Banks Suffer Trillion-Dollar Deposit Loss In 2023, Small Bank Capitalization Remains Problematic | ZeroHedge

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Nikki Haley says Chris Christie 'obsessed' with Donald Trump

  • Don Lemon Lashes Out at Nikki Haley’s Hypocrisy After Civil War Comments

  • Haley’s Woes Worsen After 9-Year-Old Labels Her the ‘New John Kerry’

  • New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones tweets the North didn’t fight to end slavery in Civil War.

• Chris Christie Responds to Critics By Setting Huge Pile of Money on Fire

• Hillary’s Comeback | Frontpage Mag

• Rashida Tlaib calls Israeli PM Netanyahu 'genocidal maniac,' takes shot at fellow Dems who back him

• Judge Hands Georgia GOP a Massive Win With Map Ruling

• Democracy Dies in Daylight: Eight years ago the Washington Post pledged to save democracy, but now argues we need to be saved from it.

  “Nor will it be difficult to find things to charge opponents with,” he wrote. “Think of all the laws now on the books that give the federal government enormous power to surveil people for possible links to terrorism, a dangerously flexible term, not to mention all the usual opportunities to investigate people for alleged tax evasion or violation of foreign agent registration laws.” He also complained about the “whiff of new McCarthyism” from Trump acolytes accusing opponents of being “communist” or tools of China.

  It’s as if Kagan doesn’t remember — or maybe he does — the last eight years of accusing everyone out of line with uniparty orthodoxy of siding with Russia, the overzealous FARA prosecutions of Trump allies like Thomas Barrack and Matthew Grimes, or the constant leaks about how the release of Donald Trump’s tax returns would serve up the long-awaited evidence of collusion. Moreover the line about the possible misuse of the “dangerously flexible term,” terrorism, coming from Robert Kagan — the man who helped lead us into war by conjuring a fictional “scenario” involving Saddam Hussein and terrorists — is enough to make anyone wonder how inflated his fears of dictatorship are.

• San Francisco rapper apologizes for video criticizing Mayor London Breed

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Justice Dept. Threatens to Sue Texas Over Migrant Arrest Law

• New York City mayor seeks to limit migrant bus arrivals

• Mexico taking new steps to help curb migrant crossings, White House says

• US lawmakers targeted by swatting hoaxes in multiple states

• Woman Beaten to Death in Sledgehammer Attack on College Campus

• Every Major Pharmacy Chain Giving Government Warrantless Medical Record Access

  • HN comments

• Homicides in U.S. to drop by record numbers in 2023

  • HN comments

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• New U.S. Oil Field Developments Are A Sign Of Things To Come For Saudi Arabia | OilPrice.com

• U.S. Treasury targets network financing Houthi attacks

  • US Sanctions Money Network Tied to Houthi Blamed for Red Sea Attacks

• Chinese spy balloon used a U.S. internet provider to communicate

• America is unprepared to fight a war on three fronts

• The Expanding Chinese-Intelligence Threat

• US wants to contain China's chip industry. This startup shows it won't be easy

World

• Venezuela plans military exercises in Caribbean as a British warship heads to Guyana

• Electoral reforms proposed by Milei

• Thatcher 'utterly shattered' by MI5 revelations in Spycatcher, files reveal

• Tony Blair ignored warnings from senior colleagues about ID card scheme

• China Steps Up Shale Gas Exploration, Production

• Cocaine bricks washed up on Australian beaches may have been due to king tides

• Saudi Mining Reveals Major 100km Gold Deposit Discovery in the Kingdom

• The year the Australian Dream died

Israel

• “The Times viewed photographs of one woman’s corpse … with dozens of nails driven into her thighs and groin”

• Israel forces are analyzing intelligence windfall gathered since the invasion of Gaza - Washington Times

• Israel’s horrible year started long before October 7

• IDF admits shooting deaths of three Hamas hostages 'could have been prevented'

• Israel Continues Attack on Gaza; Military 'Regrets the Harm' to Civilians

• Israel says improper munitions cause of high death toll in Maghazi attack

• 'Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7 Archive

• More than kin, less than kind: Jews and Palestinians as Canaanite cousins

• Israeli airstrike kills 11 members of Iran’s IRGC in Syria: Sources | Al Arabiya English

  • Iran's IRGC Suffers Single Deadliest Day In Syria As Israel Strikes Damascus Airport | ZeroHedge

• South Africa institutes proceedings against Israel

  • The Republic of South Africa institutes proceedings against the State of Israel and requests the Court to indicate provisional measures

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russia launches what Ukraine is calling the biggest aerial barrage of the war

  • Russia Launches Biggest Long-Range Attack Since Start of War

Health / Medicine

• Death by Doctor May Soon Be Available for the Mentally Ill in Canada.

• Chemicals of "Concern" Found in Philips Breathing Machines

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• When the Sun expands Earth May Not Be Toast

• First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in operation | Hacker News

• How to give your Christmas tree new life or kick it to the curb

• Live Christmas trees affect indoor air chemistry, researchers find

• World Population Up 75 Million This Year, to Top 8 Billion by Start of 2024

  • Census Bureau Projects U.S. and World Populations on New Year's Day

• Huge surf pounds West Coast and Hawaii, flooding some low-lying areas

  • More monster waves will collide with California coast after injuring onlookers

• Strawberry Case Study: What If Farmers Had to Pay for Water?

• Degrowth Can Work

• After a record year of wildfires, will Canada ever be the same again?

• Why these homes in the hottest places don't need AC

• How much CO₂ can the world emit while keeping warming below 1.5°C and 2°C?

• The Foods the World Will Lose to Climate Change

• Is winter, as we know it, dead? Canadians adapt to a mild December

• World will look back at 2023 as year humanity exposed its inability to tackle climate crisis, scientists say | Climate crisis | The Guardian

• Clover Lawns Went from Mainstream to Maligned. Now They're Making a Comeback

• Microwaves heat soil to eliminate pests and help farmers manage soil diseases