2024-01-24

etc

• Is the emergence of life an expected phase transition in the evolving universe?

  • HN comments

• Robin Hanson on Fertility

Horseshit

• The Bay Area 'diet cult' that fell apart over a chicken pot pie

• The Dark Forest hypothesis is absurd - by Noah Smith

• The Rise of the American Oligarchy – Mother Jones

  When the US targeted Russia’s oligarchs after the invasion of Ukraine, the trail of assets kept leading to our own backyard. Not only had our nation become a haven for shady foreign money, but we were also incubating a familiar class of yacht-owning, industry-dominating, resource-extracting billionaires.

• Ask HN: Could nitrogen leaks during a Texas execution be dangerous?

  seems barely credible that many cubic meters of gas are going to leak, unless the executioners are totally incompetent. Am I missing something?

• Wars and climate crisis keep Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight

• Rolexes are in a spiraling crash as "the bubbles have popped" in collectibles

• Matt Yglesias on the media

  Younger left-wing people are notably more depressed than politically conservative ones, which may be partially selection effect, but I think is driven by the fact that so much progressive messaging about the world is marked by negativity and doomerism. I read a cool story last week out of the Bay Area about how BART brought engineering work for new rolling stock in-house, which wound up delivering the trains under budget and ahead of schedule. That’s an upbeat, positive news story that’s also straightforwardly left-wing in its implications. But that’s not the kind of narrative that gets traction in progressive media spaces, which are dominated by pronouncements about how we live in a late capitalist dystopian hellscape.

  …it’s considered both un-progressive and un-journalistic to talk about good things rather than to expose problems.

• Man Convicted After Fatally Shooting Woman Who Pulled Into Wrong Driveway

• A Boeing passenger jet's nose wheel fell off just before takeoff

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Ford dealership details ‘struggle’ with EV truck as ‘concerns’ mount.

• Bloomberg: Apple targets 2028 release date for its own electric vehicle

  • Apple dials back car's self-driving features and delays launch to 2028

    • HN comments

celebrity gossip

• “Libs of TikTok” Creator Gets a Real Job: Advising School Libraries

  • Top GOP School Official Appoints Woman Behind 'Libs Of TikTok' To Key Position

  • ‘Libs of TikTok’ Creator Now Advising Oklahoma School Libraries

  • Libs of TikTok creator accused of inspiring school bomb threats named to state library board

• UGA X, winningest Georgia Bulldgogs mascot and 'damn good dawg,' dies at 10

• Country Star Chris Young Charged With Assaulting Officer in Nashville

Obit

• Former CBS Sunday Morning host Charles Osgood dies at 91 following battle with dementia

Musk

• Musk lashes out at Biden administration over rural broadband

• Elon Musk responded to claim that something shady helped MrBeast earn $263,000

• After Auschwitz, Elon Musk Goes Full Crazy With New Claim About Holocaust

  if the current state of X (formerly Twitter) is anything to go by, social media could have actually made the Holocaust happen faster. Since Musk took over the social media platform, X has been rife with hate speech. Musk himself is a major source of disinformation and hate speech, particularly antisemitism. He has also let multiple neo-Nazis back onto X, after previous leadership banned them.

Trump / War against the Right / Jan6

• Appeals court declines to reconsider dispute over Trump gag order

• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Photobombed By 'Buffoon'-icorn In Bizarre TV Moment

• Marjorie Taylor Greene Threatens Eradication of Anti-Trump Republicans

• Smiths Guitarist Johnny Marr Fumes at Trump for Using His Song

  • Smiths Guitarist Sharply Shuts Down Trump Playing Band's Songs At Rallies

  • Smiths guitarist rips Trump for using band's music: 'Consider this s‑‑‑ shut right down'

• Rachel Maddow Cuts Into Donald Trump's Victory Speech

  • CNN and MSNBC Forced to Fact Check Error-Riddled Trump Victory Speech

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• U.S., Chinese Researchers Wanted to Engineer Virus Similar to Covid One Year before Pandemic Outbreak, Internal Docs Show

• Covid Didn’t Suddenly Become ‘Deadly’ in April 2020 ⋆ Brownstone Institute

• In Early 2020, A Chinese Source Trusted By FBI Said Covid Leaked From Wuhan Lab, Sources Say

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Biden speech interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters

  • Biden interrupted by protesters more than a dozen times at campaign rally

• Israeli-American chef from Turkish family battles antisemitism, is labeled a 'Nazi' after Oct. 7 terror attack

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• School Choice Is Popular and Increasingly Common: Kids have disappeared from public schools, with most opting for a range of alternatives.

• Columbia clashes with students doused with IDF chemical weapon at Gaza rally

  During a rally on Friday, according to attendees, two individuals sprayed a hazardous chemical that released an odious smell. Dozens of students have reported an array of symptoms, such as burning eyes, nausea, headaches, abdominal and chest pain, and vomiting. The campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine publicizedOpens in a new tab the incident on Saturday morning, identifying the substance as “skunk,” a chemical weapon used by the Israel Defense Forces against Palestinians and one that U.S. police departments have reportedlyOpens in a new tab acquired in the past. SJP also alleged that the assailants have ties to the Israel Defense Forces

  • Columbia students allegedly attacked with chemical during pro-Palestinian rally

  • Columbia Uni bars people accused of spraying pro-Palestine protesters

  • NYPD investigating alleged chemical attack on pro-Palestine Columbia University Students

• Public Education’s Alarming New 4th ‘R’: Reversal of Learning.

• Larry Summers: I have lost confidence in the determination and ability of leadership to maintain Harvard as a place where Jews and Israelis can flourish.

• Opinion | We Need a New Word for ‘Plagiarism’ - The New York Times

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• WWE's 'Raw' is moving to Netflix next year in a major streaming deal

• Netflix is going to take away its cheapest ad-free plan

  • Netflix is preparing investors and users for more price hikes in 2024

  • Netflix is turning into cable TV

• Oscars Silly Awards Ceremony Post

  this is the first year in a long time that, at the time of their nomination, I had already seen all the Best Picture nominees and most of the other nominees for major awards. That’s probably because it’s the first year in a long time that I wanted to see most of the likely nominees in major categories

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Unbloating the Buffers

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Sam Altman's self-serving vision of the future

Crypto con games

• Bitcoin Breaks Below $39k Amid FTX, MtGox Liquidation Chatter | ZeroHedge

  • Lots of people started selling bitcoin after the SEC made it easier to buy

• FTX estate sells majority of GBTC holdings

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Brex cuts 20% of staff amid reports of stalled growth, high burn

• eBay Lays Off 9%

  • eBay to slash about 1,000 roles, or approximately 9% of full-time employees

• LA Times to lay off 20% of newsroom in newspaper's largest staff reduction

  • Los Angeles Times to lay off 20% of newsroom

• For Property Investors, the Price of Homes Is Still Not Right

• Grumbles about passive investing are not entirely wrong

• Customers have soured on self-checkout, says Drexel University

• Homebuyer demand pushes mortgage applications higher, even as interest rates inch up again

• Union Membership Rate At Historic Low Despite Recent Labor Victories

  • Union membership grew last year, but only 10% of U.S. workers belong to a union

  • US unions flexed their muscles last year, but membership rates failed to grow

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Kamala Harris's 'refusal to be a team player' put her at odds with Joe Biden and First Lady Jill during her 'disastrous and comical first years as vice president', new book claims | Daily Mail Online

• Rep Khanna: What it takes for Congress to regulate AI, privacy, and social media

• AP Calls New Hampshire Primary For Trump

  • Trump defeats Haley in New Hampshire to move closer to White House nomination, Edison Research says

  • Former President Trump Wins New Hampshire Republican Primary

• Nine US Governors Call for Action on Immigration Reform

• Hunter Biden’s ‘Sugar Brother’ Spars with GOP-Led Committee

  • New Transcript Blows Up James Comer’s Entire Hunter Biden Argument

  • Here’s why Kevin Morris says he paid Hunter Biden’s back taxes

• US Defense Secretary Makes First Public Appearance, Virtually, Since Hospitalization

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• TX man sues Macy's, Sunglass Hut parent over wrongful facial recognition arrest

• Appeals Court: FBI's Safe-Deposit Box Seizures Violated Fourth Amendment

• Police alert residents of stalkers using Apple AirTags for malicious tracking

• Alabama Is Trying Nitrogen Hypoxia, an Untested Execution Method

  • Alabama Plans to Carry Out the First Execution Using Nitrogen Gas. A Lot Could Go Wrong.

  • What is nitrogen hypoxia? Alabama poised to use untested execution method

  • A Jury Recommended Life In Prison. Now He’s Set To Be The First Person Executed By Lethal Gas.

  • Alabama calls nitrogen execution method 'humane,' but critics raise doubts

• Michigan mom on trial for son's deadly school massacre raises questions about parent culpability in shootings

  • Jury to Decide if Mother of Michigan School Shooter Is Guilty, Too

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• B-21 Raider Now in Production Just Two Months After First Flight

  • Pentagon OKs B-21 for low-rate production after successful tests

• U.S. Blasts Iran-Linked Groups With Back-to-Back Strikes in Yemen and Iraq

• More Middle East Strikes as First Ukraine Defense Contact Group of New Year Begins

World

• Trudeau's Orwellian Attack On Canadian Truckers Declared Unconstitutional | ZeroHedge

  • Canada’s Act of Emergency Powers to End Truckers’ Protests Was Unjustifiable, Rules Court.

• Post Office set targets for recovering cash from accused in Horizon scandal

• Turkey Backs Sweden's NATO Bid

  • Turkey Approves Sweden's NATO Bid; NATO Head Urges Hungary to Do the Same

• Mexico wins appeal in $10 billion lawsuit against US gunmakers

• Alarming 45-fold rise in measles in Europe - WHO

• He Says His Drug-Fueled Murder Started a Fire That Killed 76

  • Arrest Made in Deadly 2023 Building Fire in Johannesburg

Iran / Houthi / Red Sea / Mediterranean

• U.S. hits Iraq militia sites and anti-ship missiles in Yemen

Israel

• Hamas Leader Abroad Khaled Mashal on October 7 | MEMRI

  First, we have nothing to do with the two-state solution. We reject this notion, because it means you would get a promise for a [Palestinian] state, yet you are required to recognize the legitimacy of the other state, which is the Zionist entity. This is unacceptable. We demand to be liberated, to get rid of the occupation, and to have our independence, and our state. [Israel] is my enemy. It is not my concern.

  the position of Hamas, and the position of the vast majority of the Palestinian people, especially following October 7, I believe that the dream and the hope for Palestine from the River to the Sea, and from the north to the south, has been renewed. This has also become a slogan chanted in the U.S., and in western capital cities, by the American and Western public.

• Hamas Rejects Major Ceasefire Offer Until Israel Withdraws From Gaza

• Chinese narratives on the Israel-Hamas war

  while China seeks to portray itself as a proponent for peace and to signal its alignment with many non-Western states in advocating for the Palestinian cause, it remains reluctant to assume a substantive role in the ongoing conflict.

• Israel kills academics, destroys every university in the Gaza Strip

• UN, UK push Israel on role of two-state solution in ending Gaza war

• Bill Ackman, Neri Oxman Buy Stake in Tel Aviv Stock Exchange

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russian plane carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs crashes, state media says

  • Dozens Killed in Fiery Russian Military Plane Crash

• Russian Missiles Hit Ukrainian Cities Amid Fears Over Air Defenses

  • 6 killed, 69 injured as Russian missiles rain down on Kharkiv, Kyiv and Pavlohrad

  • At least 18 killed in wave of Russian missile attacks on Ukraine

China

• China's population drops for second year, with record low birth rate

• Why China Has Lost Interest in Hollywood Movies

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Urban agriculture's carbon footprint can be worse than that of large farms

• 'Thousand-year storm' leaves San Diego reeling from punishing rainfall, floods

  • A storm unleashes intense flooding in San Diego