2024-01-25

etc

• Single word inscribed on iron knife is oldest writing ever found in Denmark

• Families Speak After Men Found Dead in Backyard After Chiefs Game

• Researchers find signs of intelligence among jumping spiders

  • HN comments

Horseshit

• "Zoomtowns" Mid-sized cities are struggling with growing pains

• Alaska CEO: We found many loose bolts on our Max planes

  • HN comments

  • Alaska Airlines finds many loose bolts on its Boeings as United questions orders

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

  • FAA investigating after Delta Boeing plane loses front nose wheel before takeoff

• Why China Could Surprise the World by Being the First Country to Adopt UBI

• Ex-CNNer Chris Cillizza Community Noted AND Ratioed After Denying Biden Ever Said This – Twitchy

  After being reminded that "learn to code" can go both ways, Cillizza denied that the media or Biden ever said any such thing. Biden never said "learn to code"; because he said "learn to program" instead. this might be the hackiest of hackery from a "reporter" who once said journalists never root for a side.

  • (2015) Can You Teach a Coal Miner to Code? | WIRED

  • (2016) From Coal To Code: A New Path For Laid-Off Miners In Kentucky : All Tech Considered : NPR

  • (2016) This couple teaches laid-off coal miners in PA how to code | PBS News Weekend

  • (2016) Coal miners become computer coders

  • (2017) Turning Coal Miners Into Coders--And Preventing A Brain Drain

  • (2017) Laid Off Coal Miners Trained To Write Computer Codes, A Ticket To Top Wages - CBS Pittsburgh

  • Reminds me of how "#MeToo" and ""#BelieveAllWomen" became "this has always been right wing propaganda" after a year or so.

• This is how the Hugo Awards publicity works now Science fiction awards held in China under fire for excluding authors

• Dogs’ favorite TV: shows with other dogs, nature docs.

• Three technology trends shaping 2024's elections

• Our vehicles got bigger, so why are we parking them in little spaces?

• The Frenzy About the Weirdest Continent That Never Existed

• America’s richest 1% and Ivy Leaguers say the rest of the country has TOO much personal freedom and want to ration food and electricity, shocking poll finds.

• The Suburbs Have Become a Ponzi Scheme

• CA bill to require all new cars to prevent them from going 10mph over speedlimit

  • CA wants to stop cars from going more than 10 MPH over speed limits

• Chinese man 'runs entire marathon in just three and a half hours whilst chain smoking'

• Chat Control. Who pays when a private joke ends with an F18 escorting your plane

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Toyota's chairman doubles down on EV skepticism, adoption will peak at just 30%

celebrity gossip

• Zuckerberg Spent $187M Buying 1600 Acres of Hawaii and Now Is Building a Bunker

• Martin Shkreli ban from pharmaceutical industry upheld by US court

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Yes, the last 10 years have been worse for free speech

• Bluesky CEO confronts content moderation in the fediverse | TechCrunch

  Mastodon faced such an issue in 2019, when the far-right, Nazi-friendly social network Gab migrated to its servers after being kicked off of GoDaddy. Mastodon’s founder condemned Gab, but said at the time that decentralization prevented him from actually taking action

  “Unfortunately, you can’t turn a Nazi into not a Nazi. But we can limit the impact of the Nazis,” Masnick said. “Let’s limit their ability to wreak havoc. I think that leads to a better place in the long run.”

Musk

• Tesla plans to build new electric vehicles in mid-2025

• Tesla hacked, 24 zero-days demoed at Pwn2Own Automotive 2024

• Customers discover 'fatal' design flaw in Tesla's Cybertruck

• Musk: Chinese EV firms will 'demolish' rivals without trade barriers

• Tesla Makes It Harder for Investors to Ignore Its Problems - WSJ

Trump / War against the Right / Jan6

• Trump warns he will blacklist Nikki Haley campaign donors

  • Trump threatens to blacklist Haley donors

  • Trump is clearly annoyed by Nikki Haley's decision to stay in the presidential race

  • Trump Warns All New Haley Donors: You’re ‘Permanently Barred From the MAGA Camp’

  • Trump rants that anyone who contributes to Nikki Haley will be barred from MAGA camp

  • Trump warns Haley donors will be 'permanently barred from the MAGA camp'

• Trump Rages at ‘RINO’ Kayleigh McEnany: ‘Save Your Advice for Nikki!’

• Trump Throws a New Hampshire Tantrum - WSJ

  After his primary victory he should be trying to unify the GOP. Instead he’s spreading ill will. Mr. Trump, the winner with a projected 54% of the vote, was irritated and nasty. He castigated Ms. Haley as an “impostor” who’d had “a very bad night” and suggested New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has “got to be on something” for supporting her. He closed by snarling, “I don’t get too angry, I get even.” The 19-minute rant made him look like an irate old man, not a confident, happy warrior.

• Trump Could Testify As Trial Set To Resume In His Legal Fight With E. Jean Carroll

• Donald Trump’s Relationship With Lindsey Graham Is About to Go Very Bad

  • Lindsey Graham ‘threw Trump under the bus’ in Georgia case, book says

  • Lindsey Graham 'Threw Trump Under The Bus'

• Maine's Top Court Declines To Weigh In On Trump Ballot Status

  • Maine's top court won't rule on Trump ballot eligibility until Supreme Courts decides CO

  • Maine dismisses appeal of Trump ballot decision

  • Maine's top court dismisses appeal of judge's decision on Trump ballot status

• Pelosi says Trump has ‘cognitive disorders’

  • Nancy Pelosi knocks Trump's 'cognitive disorders,' then confuses Biden with Trump

• Proud Boy Who Called Judge a ‘Clown’ Gets 6-Year Capitol Riot Sentence

  • Defiant Jan. 6 rioter tells judge "you could give me 100 years"

  • Proud Boys member gets six years in prison for Capitol riot after insulting ...

  • Proud Boys Member Sentenced to 6 Years in Prison for Capitol Riot Role

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Religious 'Nones' are now the largest single group in the U.S.

  • HN comments

  • Meet the 'nones': More Americans are religiously unaffiliated. Who are they?

  • More than 1 in 4 U.S. adults identify as religious "nones," data shows

  • Religious 'nones' decline for first time since 2016, Pew study finds

• Why DEI Leaders Are Burning Out – and How Organizations Can Help

• UAW’s Biden Endorsement Sparks Internal Dissent Over Gaza

• Ohio upholds ban on child transgender procedures, overriding governor's veto

  • Ohio Lawmakers Override Veto on Gender Affirming Care Ban For Minors

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Just Bribe Everyone – It's Only the Scientific Record

  every journal publisher and every editor will tell you, if they're being honest, that they have been and are continually being offered bribes. I would be very suspicious if someone tried to act shocked at the question, as if they'd never heard of such a thing. This is the state of scientific publishing in the 2020s, and we have to realize it. What we don't have to do is accept it.

  • HN comments

• Only Candidates of Color Need Apply?

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Forty years ago Apple debuted a computer that changed our world, for good or ill

• Netflix is killing its Basic plan for good – with the UK and Canada first up

  • Netflix Is Doing Great, So It's Killing Off Its Cheapest Ad-Free Plan for Good

• NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

• Jon Stewart returning as part-time host of "The Daily Show" through the election

  • Jon Stewart Returns to ‘The Daily Show’ - WSJ

  • Jon Stewart will return to 'The Daily Show' as a weekly guest host

• NYC first to designate social media as environmental toxin

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• SimSIMD: Hardware-accelerated similarity metrics and distance functions

  • HN comments

• (2022) The 286's internal registers — rep lodsb

• Today in History: January 24 1984, Apple begins selling the Macintosh

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• AI rise will lead to increase in cyberattacks, GCHQ warns

• Tech world won't have long to fall in line when EU signs off on AI Act

  • HN comments

• AI's next fight is over whose values it should hold

• Evaluations are all we need: On analysing talent in LLMs

• OpenAI Scrapped a Promise to Disclose Key Documents to the Public

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Pentagon moves to declassify some secret space programs and technologies

  • HN comments

Crypto con games

• Colorado pastor accused of multimillion dollar crypto scheme

• Michael Lewis’s Blind Side

  By uncritically passing on (his recollection of) Sam’s narrative, Lewis paints a portrait of Sam as singularly motivated by doing the EV-maximizing thing despite the social and emotional costs inflicted on others. But the real Sam in this story is not taking a hit to his reputation in order to maximize expectancy; he’s carelessly burning expectancy in the process of cultivating a reputation for punishing and humiliating his competition. By aggressively asserting an image of himself as a ruthless maximizer, he succeeds at convincing Lewis of it as well.

  Lewis isn’t the only one who made these mistakes. The characters, narrative, and thrill of experiencing a life in the far tails of normal human experience caused everyone involved — myself included — to overlook the technical details. FTX’s story beguiled not just those inside it, but also investors, journalists, Congress, and countless spectators. A closer eye calculating the flow of money or the expected value of Sam’s trading strategies might have noticed some red flags, but the social and interpersonal dynamics around were just way more captivating.

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Would you take cash to leave a rent-controlled apartment?

• Office mandates don't help companies make more money, study finds

• Microsoft is now a $3T company

• SEC to Impose Tougher Rules on "SPAC"S Blank-Check Deals

• 1 in 3 Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings

  • How much money Americans have in their savings accounts—nearly half have less than $500

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Audio recording reveals the moment that senior Republican figure tried to bribe Kari Lake not to run for Senate | Daily Mail Online

  DeWit, who was chief operating officer on the Trump's 2020 campaign frames it differently. 'Just say, is there a number at which....' he begins. Lake cut in: 'I can be bought? That's what it's about.' 'You can take a pause for a couple of years. You can go right back to what you're doing.'

  • Top Arizona Republican quits over leaked tape offer to Kari Lake

  • Arizona GOP Official Accuses Kari Lake of Blackmail and Quits the Party

  • Leader of Arizona's Republican party resigns after allegedly bribing Kari Lake to pause politics

• IRS Free File is now available for the 2024 filing season

• The White House has a pharmacy – and it was a mess, a new investigation found

  Former White House Medical Unit medical providers told investigators that ineligible White House staff members received controlled substance prescriptions and free specialty care, including surgery, at military facilities. Even though the office was only supposed to cover care for 60 enrolled patients, the office instituted its own policy that effectively let any of the 6,000 people working in or around the White House seek health care services. Those were all inappropriately billed to the Defense Department.

  • One former pharmacy staff member told investigators that a doctor once asked if the staffer could “hook up” someone with a controlled substance “as a parting gift for leaving the White House."
  • The office dispensed controlled medications like Ambien and Provigil without verifying the patient’s identity.
  • It let people grab over-the-counter medicines from open bins.

  • Trump’s White House Pharmacy Handed Out Drugs Like Candy: Report

• Governor Abbott Issues Statement On Texas’ Constitutional Right To Self-Defense.

  • Abbott: Texas Has Constitutional Right To Defend Its Borders From Invasion, Supersedes All Federal Law.

  • Governor Abbott: When, in the Course of Human Events....

• Biden vetoes bipartisan bill protecting US EV industry from China

  • Biden vetoes GOP measure that aimed to block White House policy on foreign content in EV ...

• Palestinians Take Biden to Court

• Fake Biden Robocall Message in New Hampshire Alarms Election Experts

• President Biden easily wins New Hampshire primary as write-in candidate

• Biden, eager for a 2020 rematch in November, is quick to anoint Trump as his 2024 rival

  • Biden's campaign says 2024 GOP primary is over and voters have a 'clear choice'

• New Hampshire Republican primary sees record turnout

  • New Hampshire primary set turnout record with more than 300,000 voting

  • Half Of New Hampshire GOP Primary Voters Identify As Independent, Democrat

  • Democrats Vote For Haley In Desperate Attempt To Derail Trump

• Despite 2 losses, Nikki Haley tries to claim victory thus far in the Republican presidential race

  • GOP strategists say Haley needs 'realistic path' to win primaries after New Hampshire loss to Trump

  • Biden and Trump say GOP primary is over, but Haley disagrees

  • Billionaire Reid Hoffman pauses Nikki Haley funding after her New Hampshire loss to Trump, source says

  • Upbeat Haley vows to press on but prospects against Trump look bleak

  • RNC chair says ‘I don’t see it for Nikki Haley’ as Haley vows to stay in race against Trump - live

  • Did New Hampshire end the GOP presidential primary?

• Biden challenger Dean Phillips nabs nearly 20% in New Hampshire primary

  • The Internet Comes Together to Mock Dean Phillips’s Dumb Map

• After Early Primary Victories, Republicans in Congress Fall in Line Behind Trump

  • Trump racks up endorsements from Republicans in Congress as any resistance that once existed fades

  • Collins Says She Won’t Endorse Trump Even if He Wins Nomination

  • Collins Says She Won’t Endorse Trump Even if He Wins Nomination

• shocking:

  • UAW President Calls Out ‘Scab’ Donald Trump in Biden Endorsement

  • United Auto Workers endorse Biden

  • Biden wins UAW endorsement, braces for Trump rematch after New Hampshire results

  • United Auto Workers union endorses President Joe Biden

  • United Automobile Workers union endorses Biden for re-election

  • Biden Is Endorsed by United Auto Workers in 2024 Election

  • UAW President Shawn Fain: “Donald Trump Is A Scab!”

  • The UAW endorsed Biden — and panned Republican frontrunner Trump as a 'scab'

  • United Auto Workers endorses Biden's reelection bid

  • Biden Receives U.A.W. Endorsement With Conference Speech

  • United Auto Workers Union Endorses Joe Biden For President

  • United Auto Workers endorses Biden ahead of likely rematch with Trump

  • United Auto Workers union expected to endorse Biden

  • is the media is desperate for "positive" Biden stories?

• Young voters focus more on issues than candidates in 2024 presidential election

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Leniency on Tap for Anti-Trump Leaker of Thousands of Tax Returns | RealClearInvestigations

  Charles Edward Littlejohn, who stole and helped publicize the confidential tax records of Donald Trump and an estimated 7,500 other wealthy Americans, could face little or no jail time when he's sentenced later this month, because the DOJ allowed him to plead guilty to a single felony count. In a new court filing, prosecutors acknowledge the plea deal “does not account for the fact that he leaked thousands of individuals’ tax returns. His [sentencing] range would be the same today if he had leaked only a single return.”

• Forensics Gone Wrong: When DNA Snares the Innocent

  heightened sensitivity can easily create false positives. Analysts are picking up DNA transferred from one person to another by way of an object that both of them have touched, or from one piece of evidence to another by crime scene investigators, lab techs—or when two items jostled against each other in an evidence bag.

  he had his students mimic part of the investigation in Italy. They collected five soda cans from the office of BSU's dean of arts and sciences after lunch and put them in individual evidence bags. Then, without changing gloves, they put five newly bought knives into separate evidence bags. Like the Italians, Hampikian's group looked for DNA at levels below the FBI-recommended minimum. They found DNA from a member of the dean's staff on one of the knife blades. Yet that person had not touched or even been in the same room with the knives.

• Ring steps back from sharing video with police – mostly

• Train Robbery for Amazon Packages? More Common Than You Think

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Army Reveals It Fired Female Commander in Troubled Brigade After Claims of Sexual Assaults on Male Soldiers | Military.com

• America Is About to Withdraw From Syria—and Create a Disaster

  with such a complex regional crisis playing out, it should not come as a surprise that the Biden administration is reconsidering its military priorities in the region. It should be cause for significant concern, however, that this could involve a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. While no definitive decision has been made to leave, four sources within the Defense and State departments said the White House is no longer invested in sustaining a mission that it perceives as unnecessary. Active internal discussions are now underway to determine how and when a withdrawal may take place.

• You've Probably Passed a Nuclear Weapon on the Highway and Didn't Know It

• Biden's lame Houthi 'listing' won't deter the terrorists — or their backer, Iran

• Will Biden ever stand up to Benjamin Netanyahu? Don’t bet on it | Chris McGreal

World

• Dutch Police regularly force people to give up footage from doorbell cameras

• Scottish Farmers Protest New Green “Rewilding” Policies.

• Saudi Arabia opens its first-ever alcohol store

• In U-Turn, Orban Backs Sweden's NATO Bid After 'Overplaying Hand' With Exasperated Allies | ZeroHedge

  • No Urgency’ to OK Sweden’s NATO Bid, Speaker of Hungary’s Parliament Says

• UK: Biggest expansion of nuclear power for 70 years

• Trudeau Government Used Faked Intelligence To Illegally Frame Protesting Truckers As Violent Extremists.

  Central to Trudeau’s invocation of the Act was the alleged threat of right-wing extremism and violence, but new documents that podcaster Jeremy Mackenzie obtained through Canada’s freedom of information law show that this drastic measure was based on fabricated intelligence. What’s more, Canada appears to have shared this disinformation with other members of the Five Eyes alliance. Five Eyes includes Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

• Standoff With Unions Tests Argentine President

  • General Strike Grips Argentina as Foes Try to Derail President's Austerity Agenda

  • ‘Traitor’: Thousands strike against Argentina’s President Javier Milei

  • Nationwide Union Strike Tests Milei’s Policies for Argentina

• Erdogan: Turkey, Iran Agree on Need to Avoid Escalating Mideast Tensions

  • Turkey, Iran agree on need for regional stability amid Israel’s war on Gaza

Iran / Houthi / Red Sea / Mediterranean

• Maersk ships in US Navy convoy forced to retreat under Houthi missile attack.

• U.S. ships comes under Houthi attack near Yemen; U.S. military shoots down 2 missiles

• U.S. shoots down Houthi missiles targeting container ships

• The Houthis are still trying to attack ships, but most of the time, they can't get their missiles in the air before ...

• US Military Says It Fended Off Another Houthi Missile Attack

• U.S. Strikes 2 More Targets of the Iran-Backed Houthis in Yemen

• Houthis, defying U.S. strikes, try another attack on U.S.-owned commercial ship

• US Strikes Iranian Proxies in Iraq and Yemen

• US destroyer intercepts Houthi missiles fired at US-owned container ship, official says

• U.S. launches more retaliatory strikes against militias in Iraq, Yemen

• U.S. air strikes hit targets in Iraq and Yemen overnight

• Houthis demand US, UK aid workers leave Yemen within 30 days following 2nd coalition strike

Israel

• US 'Deplores' Israeli Shelling Of UN Shelter In Gaza, Mass Casualties Reported

• U.N. Shelter in Besieged Gaza City Is Struck, and at Least 9 Die

• U.S. 'gravely concerned' after reports of mass casualties in Israeli raids

• U.N. Shelter in Gaza Hit by Israeli Shells Amid Fighting

• U.N.: 12 Palestinians killed, 75 injured in 'horrific' attack on training center in Khan Younis

• Palestinians collecting aid in Gaza flee gunfire

• Hundreds flee further south as Israeli forces advance in Khan Younis

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Eric Schmidt: Ukraine Is Losing the Drone War

• Is Russian President Putin Really Planning to Take Back Alaska?

• UN Security Council to Discuss Russian Military Plane Crash Near Ukraine Border

• Sen Vance memo warns GOP colleagues of ‘systemic failures’ in US aid to Ukraine

China

• China’s Stock-Market Rout Has Become a Political Problem - WSJ

• 'The will of the Chinese people': Beijing's narrative of invading Taiwan

• China’s rapidly dwindling future will shape the world for decades to come.

Health / Medicine

• Some Unintuitive Properties Of Polygenic Disorders

• For some Alzheimer’s patients, vision problems may be an early warning - The Washington Post

• The Healthiest Oils to Cook With, According to Experts - WSJ

• New cancer diagnoses expected to hit record high this year

• Microbiome in semen may have role in fertility.

• The Link Between Birth Control Pills and Sex Drive - The New York Times

  The pill is known for having ushered in a sexual revolution, and yet for some, the cocktail of hormones that prevents pregnancy can also dampen libido. “For a minority of women, oral contraceptive pills can cause very significant sexual dysfunction,” said Dr. Andrew Goldstein, a gynecologist and the former president of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health.

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Satellite reveals previously unknown colonies of emperor penguins in Antarctica

• Can the World Meet the U.N. Climate Summit's Nuclear Goal?

• Agricultural nitrogen pollution is global threat, but circular solutions await

• Dangerous flash flooding is happening in Texas and Louisiana, more rain coming

• Key climate language poorly understood by majority in UK, poll finds

• Asbestos in drinking water: An overlooked health risk?

• Aluminum mining waste could be a source of green steel

• Carbon footprint of homegrown food five times greater than conventional (Archive)

  “The most significant contributor to carbon emissions on the urban agriculture sites we studied was the infrastructure used to grow the food – from raised beds to garden sheds to pathways, these constructions had a lot of carbon invested in their construction.

• EU fossil fuel CO2 emissions hit 60 year low

• Groundwater levels are falling in parts of California and food-growing regions worldwide

  • Groundwater resources are drying up across the globe. New research suggests we can fight the drip

  • Where Groundwater Levels Are Falling, and Rising, Worldwide