2024-02-06
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(2008) Gin, Television, and Social Surplus
If I had to pick the critical technology for the 20th century, the bit of social lubricant without which the wheels would've come off the whole enterprise, I'd say it was the sitcom. Starting with the Second World War a whole series of things happened--rising GDP per capita, rising educational attainment, rising life expectancy and, critically, a rising number of people who were working five-day work weeks. For the first time, society forced onto an enormous number of its citizens the requirement to manage something they had never had to manage before -- free time. And what did we do with that free time? Well, mostly we spent it watching TV.
Did you ever see that episode of Gilligan's Island where they almost get off the island and then Gilligan messes up and then they don't? I saw that one. I saw that one a lot when I was growing up. And every half-hour that I watched that was a half an hour I wasn't posting at my blog or editing Wikipedia or contributing to a mailing list. Now I had an ironclad excuse for not doing those things, which is none of those things existed then. I was forced into the channel of media the way it was because it was the only option. Now it's not, and that's the big surprise. However lousy it is to sit in your basement and pretend to be an elf, I can tell you from personal experience it's worse to sit in your basement and try to figure if Ginger or Mary Ann is cuter.
And I'm willing to raise that to a general principle. It's better to do something than to do nothing. Even lolcats, even cute pictures of kittens made even cuter with the addition of cute captions, hold out an invitation to participation. When you see a lolcat, one of the things it says to the viewer is, "If you have some sans-serif fonts on your computer, you can play this game, too." And that's message -- I can do that, too -- is a big change.
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Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll
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Family finds an SOS note on a drone, saves photographer stuck in snow
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'Incredibly rare' discovery reveals bedbugs came to Britain with the Romans
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We've won the war on "Teen Pregnancy" Some good news about America’s fertility problem
Postponing parenthood will lower the current fertility rate, but perhaps only temporarily. It will be several decades before the data can show whether these might-have-been teenage mothers are putting off babymaking altogether, or simply delaying it.
Horseshit
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Inside Berlin’s Cybrothel, the world’s first AI brothel using virtual reality sex dolls.
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Cable Companies, Automakers Try to Derail FTC, FCC Quest to Kill Misleading Fees
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Bathing should be a right in 21st-century cities
Now, with little public investments in bathing, even modest shared bath options – including a Russian-style sauna in Brooklyn, or a Korean spa in Flushing, Queens – cost more than $40 per visit. And the newest spaces come with even heftier entrance fees, along with ice baths, whirlpools, marble-clad hammams, weight-loss treatments, lymphatic drainage massages, pilates instruction and more.
How do we reclaim the right to bathe? In New York, for me, it would look like free shuttle bus services to every public beach; doubling the number of free outdoor public pools and free year-round indoor public pools; retrofitting existing recreation centres and pools, and significantly increasing their maintenance budgets. It could mean investing tax dollars and providing subsidies or, at a minimum, tax write-offs to small businesses to build backyard neighbourhood health centres that offer access to small pools, hot tubs and steam rooms that are equitably distributed throughout the city, centring both social and environmental sustainability. While these would ideally be free, low-cost access could also be provided on a sliding scale, or through affordable healthcare plans or even specific opening hours for the local community. Given the magnitude of its benefits, a reimagining of public bathing infrastructure would be a relatively easy intervention.
- but muh mask mandates! Presumably these will be "adult only" spaces? To prevent the kinds of problems NY and other cities have had with people watching children in playgrounds and similar? In my quite rural area, that has a cultural pride in "government dis-involvement", we can't have a pool in the yard without it has a serious fence and other "liability shield" stuff. What's the liability legalese look like for public baths today? "caught chlamydia from the cheap seats" suits incoming shortly after opening, I'd guess.
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Idiots are already driving on Tesla Autopilot with Apple Vision Pro on their faces
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Beware of scammers sending live couriers to liquidate victims' life savings
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Will Satellite Megaconstellations Weaken Earth's Magnetic Field?
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see also: Project West Ford - Wikipedia
The goal of the project was to place a ring of 480,000,000 copper dipole antennas in orbit to facilitate global radio communication. The needles were placed in medium Earth orbit at an altitude of between 3,500 and 3,800 kilometres (2,200–2,400 mi) at inclinations of 96 and 87 degrees. The project was eventually successful with the 9 May 1963 launch
Electric / Self Driving cars
celebrity gossip
Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering
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Slavitt’s lawyers told the House Judiciary Committee last Wednesday he would ignore a subpoena ordering him to testify under oath to the committee that day because he “had received a letter from the White House instructing him not to appear.”
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Amazon Bowed to White House Pressure to Suppress Books Skeptical of COVID-19 Vaccines
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Permission to Speak – Helen Dale
Cancel culture is not only real. It’s pervasive, now part of the developed world’s standard political toolkit. Individuals and corporate entities are in its crosshairs everywhere, depending on who’s sitting closest to the YOU’RE FIRED lever. Meanwhile, the rest of us are coming to depend on the courts to let us know when and how we should speak.
Musk
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"This explains why there are so few deportations, as every deportation is a lost vote," adding, "As happened this week, you can literally assault police officers in broad daylight in New York, be released with no bail, give everyone the finger and still not be deported!!"
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
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Dozens of protesters against ‘Gaza genocide’ arrested in Pennsylvania
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First National Bank of Pennsylvania pays $13.5M to settle N.C. redlining claims
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
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(Jan 2024) The Misguided War on the SAT - The New York Times
After the Covid pandemic made it difficult for high school students to take the SAT and ACT, dozens of selective colleges dropped their requirement that applicants do so. Colleges described the move as temporary, but nearly all have since stuck to a test-optional policy. It reflects a backlash against standardized tests that began long before the pandemic, and many people have hailed the change as a victory for equity in higher education. Now, though, a growing number of experts and university administrators wonder whether the switch has been a mistake. Research has increasingly shown that standardized test scores contain real information, helping to predict college grades, chances of graduation and post-college success.
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Anti-Zionist David Miller Ruled Wrongfully Dismissed from University of Bristol
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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Our findings show that liberal articles tend to remain longer on the NYT homepage, while conservative ones persist on the WSJ. Further analysis into articles’ transition to print and podcasts suggests that increased competition may reduce media bias,
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Iconic? I'd barely heard of it: How Condé Nast bought and destroyed America's iconic music publication
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Reddit Revenue Rises 20% Ahead of IPO, but It Isn't Profitable Yet
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Oversight Board rebukes Meta's policies after altered Biden video spreads
TechSuck / Geek Bait
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
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"It's a terrible thing that we made"
My job writing software is like making kerosene lamps in the same year Edison announced his lightbulb. It's too late, I think. Human achievement is over.
Crypto con games
Economicon / Business / Finance
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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Biden’s team bracing for special counsel’s report on classified docs.
- Biden has defended storing documents from his vice presidency in his garage, saying: "By the way, my Corvette is in a locked garage, so it's not like they're sitting out on the street."
- Any photos of those storage practices could cause a political storm similar to what happened after the release of photos of Trump storing documents at Mar-a-Lago, including in a bathroom.
- Trump, who resisted the U.S. government's efforts to retrieve the documents, faces 40 criminal counts in the case including obstruction of justice and willful retention of national defense information.
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Senate Republicans threaten to block border security bill they negotiated
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Nevada primary: Biden focuses on Black and Latino voters as GOP scheme helps Trump
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Nikki Haley Asks For Secret Service Protection After ‘Multiple Issues'
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House Republicans to hold a vote to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
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FAA Chief Plans to Pledge ‘More Boots on the Ground’ at Plane Factories
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Biden Would Veto GOP-Backed Standalone Bill for Aid to Israel, White House Says
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Joe Biden Recalls 2021 Chat With French President Who Died In 1996
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Rep. Lauren Boebert Files Restraining Order Against Ex-Husband
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Nancy Mace’s Entire Staff Ditched Her Because of How Toxic She Is
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
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NYPD retires robot from Times Square subway after six months
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Judge rejects Daniel Penny's bid to dismiss charge in NYC subway chokehold death - ABC News
Penny's case will return to court on March 20. The trial will occur no earlier than the fall, the judge said.
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San Francisco police station burglarized in Fillmore District
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
World
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Is Ethiopia’s disintegration an inevitable and necessary evil? - Ethiopia Insight
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RAF Typhoons Intercept Scandinavian Airlines Plane Headed to Manchester Airport
The plane 'lost communications' on the way to Manchester, a spokesperson for the airport confirmed. The Typhoons were deployed to escort it to a safe landing as is 'standard procedures'.
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Bukele Wins in Landslide Election in El Salvador, Drawing Worries of Authoritarian Rule
Iran / Houthi / Red Sea / Mediterranean
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Iran issues warning about suspected spy ships in the Mideast after new US strikes hit Yemen.
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What Business Leaders Are Saying About the Red Sea Attacks - The New York Times
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Dozens in Jordan targeted by authorities using NSO spyware, report finds
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Houthi Rebels Fire Missiles At Two Ships As Red Sea Crisis Rages On
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U.S. Central Command conducts self-defense strike in Yemen as U.N. questions daily attacks
Israel
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
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There are still many months to go before the US presidential election. But Donald Trump is already having a deeply malign effect on American foreign policy. At Trump’s behest, Republicans in Congress are blocking military aid for Ukraine. Although the US Senate may agree an aid package this week, Republicans in the House of Representatives remain completely intransigent. As a result, it seems increasingly unlikely that military aid for Ukraine will get through Congress in the coming months — or even this year.
China
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A U.S. Embassy Wanted to Talk About Giraffes. Chinese Investors Had Other Ideas. - WSJ
“The performance of the stock market reflects that of the economy,” said one comment from Hunan province, according to the location display on Weibo, one of China’s largest social-media platforms. The commenter specifically addressed the U.S. Embassy: “I believe your economy is the one that is stable and improving.”
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Where there's a will, there's a way to get US chips into China
Health / Medicine
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Lurie Children's Hospital back to pen and paper after cyberattack
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A puzzling illness paralyzed US kids every other year–until it didn't
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10 technologies that won't exist in 5 years
Why won’t we have more of these tools in 5 years? I’ve worked in science funding for the last 5 years. I now have a sense of where the money goes, and how long things take on a default development path even when they do get funded. We are not on track.
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Eli Lilly results blow past estimates on strong Zepbound launch, surging Mounjaro revenue
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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Food from urban agriculture has 6x carbon footprint, study shows
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In Bangladesh, sunflower grows where other crops don't amid increasing salinity
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USA Has Big Plans for Wind Energy–But an Obscure 1920s Law Is Getting in the Way (Archive)
Also known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, the Jones Act requires anyone transporting goods from one point in the United States to another to use an American ship. And by a modern interpretation of the old law, an offshore turbine counts as a point in the United States. The trouble is, the United States doesn’t have any WTIVs ( wind turbine installation vessel). And without the appropriate equipment, the country’s offshore wind efforts are being plagued by the need for repeated, smaller-capacity barge trips that have added costs to projects already beset by financial difficulties.
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Currently stable parts of East Antarctica may be closer to melting than realized
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The world has warmed 1.5 °C, according to 300-year-old sponges
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We've Already Seen Category 6 Hurricanes–Now Scientists Want to Make It Official
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A famous climate scientist is in court, with big stakes for attacks on science
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California storms ease leaving threat of more flooding and possible landslides