2024-01-12

etc

• Fruit Stripe gum has been discontinued after 54 years

  Ferrara Candy Company is discontinuing Fruit Stripe Gum, which has been tickling taste buds since 1969. “We have made the difficult decision to sunset Fruit Stripe Gum, but consumers may still be able to find product at select retailers nationwide,”

  • ‘My Childhood Just Died’: Fruit Stripe Gum Discontinued After 60 Years | The Daily Caller

Horseshit

• New interpretations of the Cerne Abbas Giant

• Hertz to Sell 20k EVs in Shift Back to Gas-Powered Cars

  • Hertz is selling 20k EVs and replacing them with gas cars

  • Car rental firm Hertz to sell 20k EVs for gas powered vehicles

  • Hertz selling 20k EVs, will replace with gas-powered vehicles

• Greenland startup begins shipping glacier ice to cocktail bars in the UAE

• The Barcode Engineered Its Own Downfall

• The Retirement Crisis That Wasn’t.

• War in Europe is more than 5k years old – new research

• It’s the World’s Biggest Election Year. Is Democracy Good for Climate Change?

• Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral | Hacker News

celebrity gossip

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman marries his boyfriend in an intimate Hawaiian ceremony

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Getting free speech wrong - Don Surber

• Substack Realizes It Doesn't Want to Help Literal Nazis Make Money After All

• Substack wants to have its cake and eat it too

  I’ll say it again, Substack already moderates, and while they thinks some things are worth banning from their platform, they think Nazis aren’t as bad and are welcome to stay. That’s entirely Substack’s right as a company and clearly that stance appeals to some people, but it doesn’t appeal to everyone, and you should feel totally reasonable not wanting to use a social platform that goes, “we’re actually okay with the Nazis sticking around.”

• Scandalous Indoctrination: Inside a Kings College Counter-Terrorism Course for UK Civil Servants

  The lecturer further argued that Douglas Murray and Joe Rogan are both examples of the far right. ‘To what extent should Joe Rogan and Douglas Murray be suppressed?’ he asked. ‘They have millions of followers. To de-platform them would cause issues.’ Concluding his talk, the lecturer told a room full of government professionals, ‘so, society needs to find other ways to suppress them.’

• US judge blocks Ohio Republicans' "troublingly vague" social media law

Musk

• Elon Musk Extends Support to Internet Archive Despite the Differences

• Tesla puts German factory production on hold as Red Sea attacks continue

Trump / War against the Right / Jan6

• Whoopi Goldberg Warns That If Elected Again Donald Trump Will 'Disappear' Journalists And 'Gay Folks' – OutKick

• Former MSNBC Host Chris Matthews: Democrats Need to Vote to Beat ‘Rural People, Their Craziness About the Cult.’

• Trump Ends His Fraud Trial By Lashing Out at the Judge—Again

  • Trump lashes out during closing arguments of fraud trial

  • Trump Assails Prosecutor, Judge at Business Fraud Trial

  • ‘Control Your Client’

  • Trump Launches Into Beserk Tirade in Fraud Trial—as Judge Tells Him to Shut Up

  • Barred from giving a closing argument, Trump speaks briefly at his New York civil fraud

  • Why Trump's request to give his own closing argument in New York fraud trial was rejected

• Judge in Trump Civil Fraud Trial Targeted in Swatting Incident

• Trump’s New York Civil Trial Is Only One Aspect of His Massive Fraud

• Trump Seemingly Agrees With Idea Prez Can Assassinate Rivals Scot-Free

• Ramaswamy backs Trump before Supreme Court in 14th Amendment case

• Republican on Maryland elections board resigns after Jan. 6 arrest

  • Maryland Elections Official Arrested in Jan. 6 Attack on Capitol

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Fauci Admits Social Distancing Wasn’t Scientific and the Wuhan Lab Leak Wasn’t a Conspiracy Theory.

• There's a Huge Covid Surge and Nobody Is Talking About It

• America Is Having a Senior Moment on Vaccines

  Health experts have been warning that COVID-era politics and the spread of anti-vaxxer lies have brought us to the brink of public-health catastrophe—that a Great Collapse of Vaccination Rates is nigh. This hasn’t come to pass. In spite of deep concerns about a generation of young parents who might soon give up on immunizations altogether

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Cowen reviews "Sound of Freedom"

• Secret tunnel to synagogue in New York

  • New York synagogue with illegal tunnel receives emergency work orders

  • Who was the revered rabbi whose New York synagogue was the scene of a brawl over an illegal tunnel?

  • Nearby buildings compromised by Brooklyn synagogue tunnel, officials say

• The Weaponization of Caste in America

• African Catholic Bishops Reject Vatican's Same-Sex Blessings

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Border-Jumpers Are Pushing American Kids Out Of School All Across The Country.

• Opinion: Why pushing STEM majors is turning out to be a terrible investment

• Tennessee after-school Satan club holds first meeting despite protests

• Education Dept. fast-tracks forgiveness for borrowers with smaller student loans

  • Biden announces fresh wave of early student debt cancellation for some borrowers

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Voice Actors Say Union's 'Ethical' AI Deal Is Bad for Humans

• Outlook is Microsoft's new data collection service

  • HN comments

• U.S. Embassy Warns Americans About Dating Apps in Colombia After Suspicious Deaths

  • Eight 'suspicious' US deaths in Colombia linked to dating apps

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• 3yr old; better than nothing: Unofficial archive of IRC quotes from bash.org

• SRAM's Role in Emerging Memories

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• (Nov 2023) The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit

  • HN comments

• US companies and Chinese experts engaged in secret diplomacy on AI safety

• AI Threatens to Crush News Outlets. Lawmakers Signal Change Ahead

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• SpaceX targeting February for Starship’s 3rd flight test.

• NASA Removes Last Two Fasteners to Access Historic Bennu Asteroid Sample

  • NASA cracks open trove of rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu after months

Crypto con games

• Democrats Dissent On SEC Spot Bitcoin Approval, Gensler Distances Himself From 'Terrorist-Financing' Crypto | ZeroHedge

• Bitcoin (BTC) Volume Jumps as First US Spot ETFs Begin Trading - Bloomberg

  Daily trading volume for Bitcoin across cryptocurrency exchanges reached $52 billion as of 7.15 a.m. in New York on Thursday, according to data from CoinGecko. Bitcoin’s price advanced as much as 3.8% to reach an intraday high of $47,705 on Thursday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg,

• Former FTX Customers Complain About Losing Out on Rise in Crypto

• BlackRock, Fidelity early winners in Bitcoin ETF

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Thursday’s inflation report could challenge the market outlook for big Fed rate cuts.

  • US inflation increased more than expected in December- 3.4% YoY

  • Consumer prices rose 0.3% in December, higher than expected.

  • Headline CPI Hotter Than Expected In December, Food Costs Hit Record High

  • Rising shelter costs contribute to December inflation bump

  • Inflation is up. Here's what savers should do now.

  • US inflation picks up more than expected in December

  • New inflation data suggests the Fed won’t cut interest rates anytime soon

  • As car insurance continues to rise, U.S. inflation ticks up in December

• Americans Begin to Believe Inflation Is Cooling - WSJ

  core prices, which exclude often volatile food and energy items in an effort to better capture inflation’s underlying trend, were up 3.9% from a year earlier—the first time they have risen less than 4% since May 2021. The cooling trend seems likely to continue. One reason why is that the Labor Department’s measure of housing costs for both owners and renters is derived from rents, but it significantly lags behind what is happening with rents on newly signed leases.

  If workers believe that high inflation is here to stay, for example, they will agitate for wage increases above and beyond the price increases they have already seen. Similarly, businesses will raise prices in an effort to head off the margin squeeze they expect. And so inflation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Americans are expecting less inflation, it becomes more reasonable to expect the Fed to cut rates.

• Jim Cramer says the market needs a solid earnings season after Thursday's hotter-than-expected inflation numbers

• New survey shows workers willing to take 20% pay cut for work/life balance

• Circle confidentially files for IPO following banner year for crypto stocks

• Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

• Amid layoffs, 87% employers currently hiring foreign nationals in the US

• Discord is laying off 17 percent of employees

  • Discord Cuts 17% of Workers in Latest Tech Layoffs

• Amazon cuts 5% of Audible division's workforce

• Google confirms it just laid off around a thousand employees

  • Google lays off Bay Area workers, closes Mtn View child care center

    • HN comments

• Pixar to undergo 20% layoffs in 2024

• Cloudflare lays off new hires | Hacker News

• 93% of U.S. households' stock market wealth is held by the top 10%

• BlackRock cuts Byju's valuation by 95% to $1B

• Oil prices jump 4% after U.S., Britain strike Iran-backed Houthis

  • Oil Jumps Following Airstrikes on Houthi Rebels in Yemen

• Metals Rise After U.S. Data Shows Inflation Edged Up

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Biden Tweet: Trump exhausted every legal avenue available to him to overturn the election

  • So... All the prosecutions of Trump are for actions that were legal?

• Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and Abby Cox set to endorse Nikki Haley for president | KSL.com

• WATCH: Vivek Puts Media on the Spot With Stunning Questions, Their Response Should Concern Us All – RedState

• How Presidential Debates Became Unwatchable. An Analysis

• Feds to Highway Signs: You Have Two Years to Stop Being Funny

• Biden is Too Damn Dumb to Realize He JUST Campaigned for Trump

• Hunter Biden Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Tax Charges

• Congress approves resolution against Biden EV charger plans

• Doocy Asks Jean-Pierre Why Biden Has ‘Been Kept From Public View’ For Multiple Days | The Daily Caller

• It's rare for Republicans to back Biden, because its rare for Biden to do something that's not wrong. In rare move top Republicans back Biden's airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen: 'overdue but welcome'

• Biden says Yemen airstrikes were "direct response" to Red Sea attacks

  • Read Biden’s Full Statement on the Strikes in Yemen

• White House not commenting on Hunter Biden's appearances in court, Congress

  • Breaking down Hunter Biden's arraignment on federal tax charges

  • Hunter Biden Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Tax Charges

  • Hunter Biden Pleads Not Guilty to Tax Charges in L.A. Federal Court

  • Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to federal tax charges

  • Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to criminal tax charges

  • Hunter Biden to face federal arraignment on tax charges

• Fear and Chaos in the House GOP: Speaker Mike Johnson at a Crossroads

  • Hard-line Republicans push Speaker Johnson to abandon spending deal

  • Speaker Johnson Facing Same Threats as McCarthy

  • Far-Right Republicans Are Already Talking About Ousting Mike Johnson

  • GOP Holdouts Ousted Kevin McCarthy. Now Mike Johnson Feels the Heat.

  • Hard-right Republicans pressure Johnson to back out of bipartisan spending deal

  • Johnson flails as Republicans demand consequences for conservative hijacking

• Schumer pushes stopgap bill to avert shutdown next week

  • Schumer pursuing temporary funding bill to avoid government shutdown

• Chris Christie Has One Move Left That May Save Us From Trump

  • Not so grown up: Chris Christie's cranky exit

• Democratic Super PAC To Spend $200 Million Targeting Women Swing Voters

• Republicans make wild claims about the dangers of immigration. Here’s the truth | Robert Reich

  • Calmes: When immigrants are demonized, the U.S. betrays its ideals — and economic reality

• Texas seizes control of city park on the Rio Grande

  • Texas governor seizes public park on border to counter illegal immigration

• The Memo: DeSantis shows signs of life in final sprint to Iowa caucuses

• The Memo: DeSantis shows signs of life in final sprint to Iowa caucuses

• Larry Hogan steps down from No Labels leadership

  • Larry Hogan Steps Down From No Labels, Raising Question Of Potential 2024 Bid

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• US School Shooter Emergency Plans Exposed in a Highly Sensitive Database Leak

• A geofence warrant typo cast a location dragnet spanning two miles over SF

• AI discovers that not every fingerprint is unique

  • Known and reported by "conspiracy theorists," for years. Rub a little "AI, the All-Knowing" on it, and it can be fact?

• Feds charge eBay over harrassment campaign; company to pay $3M

  Online retailer eBay Inc. will pay a $3 million fine to resolve criminal charges over a harassment campaign waged by employees who sent live spiders, cockroaches and other disturbing items to the home of a Massachusetts couple, according to court papers filed Thursday.

  • Victim Impact Statement in United States of America vs eBay Inc.

  In the interest of disclosure, we and Steiner Associates, LLC, the publisher of EcommerceBytes, filed a civil lawsuit against eBay and its former employees, with a trial date scheduled for March 3, 2025.

  • eBay to Pay $3M for Employees Sending Live Cockroaches, Fetal Pig to Bloggers

  • Executives at eBay sent live spiders and cockroaches to critical bloggers

    • HN comments

  • eBay agrees to $3M fine over couple's harassment case, civil suit continues

  • HN comments

  • eBay to Cough Up $3M for Cockroach-Delivery Harassment Campaign Against Critics

• An Ohio woman who had a miscarriage at home won't face criminal charges, a grand jury ruled

• Maine 'jihadist' pleads guilty to New Year's Eve 2022 machete attack near Times Square

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Army Sees Sharp Decline in White Recruits | Military.com

• At-Sea Billet Gaps Rise to 22,000 for E1-E4 Sailors, CNP Says.

• Minuteman III Missiles Are Too Old to Upgrade Anymore, STRATCOM Chief Says | Military.com

  "We can't do it at all. ... That thing is so old that, in some cases, the drawings don't exist anymore [to guide upgrades]," Richard said in a Zoom conference sponsored by the Defense Writers Group. Where the drawings do exist, "they're like six generations behind the industry standard," he said, adding that there are also no technicians who fully understand them. "They're not alive anymore."

• Dutch Engineer Used Water Pump to Get Billion-Dollar Stuxnet Malware Into Iranian Nuclear Facility: Report - SecurityWeek

  Stuxnet, whose existence came to light in 2010, is widely believed to be the work of the United States and Israel, its goal being to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program by compromising industrial control systems (ICS) associated with nuclear centrifuges. De Volkskrant’s investigation, ... found that the AIVD, the Dutch equivalent of the CIA, recruited Erik van Sabben, in 2005 after American and Israeli intelligence agencies asked their Dutch counterpart for help.

  Van Sabben was described as perfect for the job: a technical background, doing business in Iran, married to an Iranian woman.

  It’s believed that the Stuxnet malware was planted on a water pump that the Dutch national installed in the nuclear complex in Natanz, which he had infiltrated. It’s unclear if Van Sabben knew exactly what he was doing, but his family said he appeared to have panicked at around the time of the Stuxnet attack. Van Sabben passed away in the United Arab Emirates two weeks after the Stuxnet attack as a result of a motorcycle accident.

  • HN comments

• US to sell missiles to Kosovo for its 'territorial integrity'

• Russia Requests UN Security Council Meeting After US, Britain Strike Yemen

• Blinken Cites Progress After Middle East Tour, but New Tensions Emerge

  • Blinken Talks a Grand Vision for Mideast Peace but Hits a Wall in Israel

World

• German Farmer Protests Painted as “Far Right” Activism by Out-of-Touch Politicians and Media.

• A TV Show Forced Britain's Devastating Post Office Scandal into the Light

  • Post Office used jail threat to persuade accused to keep quiet about Horizon

• Understanding the impact of organised gang attacks in Ecuador

  • Americans say their families in Ecuador are trapped by fear amid the war on drug gangs

  • Cocaine, cartels, and corruption: The crisis in Ecuador, explained

• Energy Independence would be a good thing, I say. Germany to focus more on coal, as alternative to LNG

• Argentina inflation surges past 200%, hitting highest level in decades

• UN Decries Taliban Crackdown on Women for Alleged Dress Code Violations

  • UN ‘concerned’ Taliban detaining Afghan women for dress code violations

Iran / Houthi / Red Sea / Mediterranean

• Iran Hijacks Oil Tanker In Gulf Of Oman | ZeroHedge

  Iranian naval forces, acting under a court order, seized Marshall Islands-flagged tanker "St Nikolas," Bloomberg reports, citing Iran's semi-official Tasnim agency reports. The report said St Nikolas is a "US oil tanker."

  • Iran seizes oil tanker in Gulf of Oman

• Biden’s Refusal to Designate Houthis As Terrorists Sparks Blowback From Military Leaders.

• UK, US Preparing To Carry Out Offensive Strikes On Yemen's Houthis: Reports (Archive)

  Chatter and rumors are growing on reports that the Western coalition is cobbling together a plan to go on the offensive against continuing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea... "If approved in the emergency UK cabinet meeting tonight, the military action will be in partnership with the US against Houthi forces in Yemen," journalist Halah Jaber, formerly of the Sunday Times, has reported on X. Additionally, al-Arabiya has reported Thursday afternoon that the US military is "stepping up its contingency plans for a response to Yemen's Houthis in the near future" while also noting that Washington's "multiple warnings" have failed to stop the attacks.

• US and UK prepare to launch strikes against Houthis in Yemen (Archive)

  Western defence sources indicated preparations were intensifying on Thursday in response to a Houthi attack of 21 missiles and drones aimed at US and UK warships on Tuesday night, although its scale and timing remain secret. Asked about potential US strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, the national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said: “I’m not going to telegraph our punches one way or another here. We’re gonna do what we have to do, to counter and defeat these threats that the Houthis keep throwing up on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.”

• UK, US expected to launch strikes against Houthis 'within hours' -Times | Reuters

• UK and US strikes against Houthis under way in Yemen, say US officials

• US, British militaries launch strike against Iran backed Houthis

• US, UK launch large-scale strikes against Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen

• US, allies attack Houthi targets in Yemen in response to missile barrages in the Red Sea - POLITICO

  The United States and its allies on Thursday launched air and missile strikes at Houthi rebel targets across Yemen after the Iran-backed militia staged multiple drone and missile attacks on ships traversing the Red Sea. The joint assault, which involved U.S. aircraft, ships and submarines, came after the Houthis ignored weeks of warnings by Washington and its allies to stop their attacks on vessels in the commercially important waterway. The U.S. and the U.K., with support from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Bahrain, conducted the strikes.

  The strikes targeted radar systems, as well as storage and launch sites for drones, cruise and ballistic missiles across “a large area of Yemen,” according to a Defense Department official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the operation ahead of the announcement. The targets were chosen “to degrade the Houthi ability to continue endangering mariners in the Red Sea.” No civilians were assessed to be present at the sites, the official said.

  Iran itself signaled it could get more directly involved in the conflict at sea on Thursday, when an Iranian navy ship unlawfully seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker while it was transiting the Gulf of Oman. The Iranian crew boarded and took control of the vessel, forcing it to change course toward Iranian territory, the Pentagon said. Its status is now unknown.

  Thursday’s strike marks yet another attack by the U.S. on Iranian proxies since the war in Gaza broke out, and it raises questions about how much further the administration is willing to go to deter future assaults on U.S. troops and international commercial freighters.

• Maersk Boss Warns Red Sea Chaos Could Last Months | ZeroHedge

• US and UK launch strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen

• U.S., U.K. strike Houthi targets in Yemen in response to Red Sea attacks

• By bombing Yemen, the west risks repeating its own mistakes | Mohamad Bazzi

• Israel-Hamas War: Houthis Vow to Respond After U.S. Leads Strikes in Yemen

• U.S.-Led Yemen Strikes Heighten Risk of Broader Middle East Conflict

• US, Britain Blast Houthi Targets in Yemen, Killing at Least 5 Fighters

• Who Are the Houthis and Why Did the US and UK Launch Strikes on Them?

• CENTCOM releases statement after Houthi attack in Yemen: 'Illegal and dangerous actions will not be tolerated'

• A single night of strikes against Houthi militants won't be enough to deter Red Sea attacks

• U.S.-Led Coalition Ends Its Game of Wait-and-See by Bombarding Houthi Rebels

• Any US attack on Yemen’s Houthis will ‘not go without response’

Israel

• Israeli hostage, 19, appears wounded in Hamas video with blood on her face as her dad fears the worst.

• IDF says intel shows two journalists slain in Gaza strike were terror group members | The Times of Israel

• Israel defends its war in Gaza in genocide case at the U.N.'s highest court

  • Israel defends itself at the U.N.'s top court against allegations of genocide

• Israel and Hezbollah Could Stumble Into a War Neither Wants

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• From Russia with Love for Christmas: Jamming Baltic GPS

• Hey wait! This was "Russian misinformation when it was first reported last year, wasn't it? US did not properly track more than $1B worth of weapons sent to Ukraine

China

• China likely now top car exporter, overtaking Japan

  • An influx of Chinese cars is terrifying the West

  • HN comments

• Chinese company's rocket debut makes waves by launching from the sea

• China Has New Full-Scale Target of America's Ford Supercarrier

• How Corruption Hollowed Out China’s Military.

• Taiwan Party, Reviled by China, Battles to Prove Its Staying Power

• China's Consumer Prices Fell for a Third Straight Month in December

• China posts higher-than-expected exports growth in December

Health / Medicine

• The Fertility Crisis – There Is No Cure In A Free Country.

  The fertility rate has declined not because of house prices, childcare or anything else so amenable to public policy. It’s happened because of that social glory of this past century, the economic emancipation of women. Fewer dead kids, more things to do in this life, both mean fewer births. And that’s it, that’s the whole and complete of it. We’ll also not change it without reversing that grand and glorious change.

  Should we do so? No, of course not. The liberal aim is to maximise free choice. That each individual gets to maximise their own personal utility absent significant third party costs. So, we’ve spent this last century finally freeing half the species. Great! The society that results, an ageing population, a falling fertility rate, they’ve just things we have to suck up and deal with. For they are the results of that freedom and who the fuck are you to tell people how they should live their lives?

• The over 150-year mystery of why urine is yellow has been cracked: study

• Majority of debtors to US hospitals now people with health insurance

• Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy show no link with suicide, FDA says

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Oceans break heat records five years in a row

• What can I do as a Software Developer to help with the climate crisis?

• "Record snowpacks" last year is no longer a thing Climate Change Behind Sharp Drop in Snowpack Since 1980s

• We got too accustomed to peaceful seas: Say goodbye to the global ‘conveyor belt.’

• World Trying to Quit Fossil Fuels Gets Flood of Gas Instead

• Missing Profits May Be a Problem for the Green Transition