2024-02-15
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(Jan 2023) An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar
Since their discovery ~150 years ago, the purpose or meaning of European Upper Palaeolithic non-figurative signs has eluded researchers. Despite this, specialists assume that they were notational in some way. Using a database of images spanning the European Upper Palaeolithic, we suggest how three of the most frequently occurring signs—the line <|>, the dot <•>, and the
—functioned as units of communication. We demonstrate that when found in close association with images of animals the line <|> and dot <•> constitute numbers denoting months, and form constituent parts of a local phenological/meteorological calendar beginning in spring and recording time from this point in lunar months. We also demonstrate that the sign, one of the most frequently occurring signs in Palaeolithic non-figurative art, has the meaning . The position of the within a sequence of marks denotes month of parturition, an ordinal representation of number in contrast to the cardinal representation used in tallies. Our data indicate that the purpose of this system of associating animals with calendar information was to record and convey seasonal behavioural information about specific prey taxa in the geographical regions of concern. -
Love And Liberty - by Scott Alexander - Astral Codex Ten
The most fragile thing in the world is a social consensus in favor of freedom. Thirty years ago, it sounded horrifying and dystopian to think that the government could monitor everyone’s phone calls and read their emails. Now the government does this all the time, and if you don’t like it you’re soft on terror, or far-right extremism, or whatever it’s bad to be soft on this year. The basic libertarian experience is to go to sleep confident that some freedom is rock-hard and universally-agreed upon, only to wake up the next morning and find that every newspaper in the country has simultaneously declared it Problematic. All your friends agree it’s Problematic. If you ask them “But just yesterday, didn’t you say that if that freedom was ever taken away, life wouldn’t be worth living?”, they just sort of go glassy-eyed and say that you’re being soft on the thing it’s bad to be soft on. This process came for everything your grandparents held dear, it’s coming for everything you hold dear, and it will come for everything your children hold dear. Except, maybe, love.
Horseshit
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Tech Billionaires' Plan for New California City Doesn't Include Local Government
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Florida Cop Empties His Gun, Runs for Cover After Acorn Falls on Car
In body cam footage shared across social media, the officer was seen jumping to the ground and shouted “shots fired” after the acorn strikes the roof of his car. He then turned and emptied every bullet from his gun, each aimed squarely at his squad car. While Hernandez fired on the car, Marquis Jackson, who was accused of stealing his girlfriend’s car, was in the back of the police cruiser. Officers had searched, handcuffed and loaded the accused into the back of the police car and, despite being cuffed, it was Jackson that the officer thought was shooting at him. Believing that Hernandez was under fire from Jackson, sergeant Beth Roberts then also fired her weapon.
The report into the incident found that the sound of an acorn isn’t enough to warrant Hernandez to open fire on a car. During the course of the investigation into the shooting, deputy Herandez resigned from the force.
- guy does a Shatner roll, first thing.
Electric / Self Driving cars
celebrity gossip
Obit
Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering
Musk
Trump / War against the Right / Jan6
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
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Dodging the 13th Amendment - Don Surber
“Hillenbrand said she feels like she has her own personal chef as Wildande loves cooking. In fact, her goal is to open a restaurant.” Her own personal chef!
Two centuries ago, Democrats took into their plantations refugees from the kingdoms of Ghana and Dahomey, where they had served as slaves. In America, they taught them to farm and grow cotton.
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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U.S. Internet Leaked Years of Internal, Customer Emails – Krebs on Security
- Open HTTP server over the mail spool directory for all customers
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
Economicon / Business / Finance
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Uber unveils maiden $7B share buyback after first profitable year
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Real Estate Lenders Confront Falling US Commercial Property Prices - Bloomberg
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Nvidia outstrips Alphabet as third largest US company by market value
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Morgan Stanley Is Laying Off Several Hundred in Wealth-Management Division
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Cisco says it's cutting 5% of global workforce, amounting to over 4k jobs
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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FBI reveals SEC 702 foiled terror plot as Congress debates overhaul
In the terrorist case, the FBI official said the ability to search the Section 702 database without a court order showed that a person located inside the U.S. was in regular contact with an unspecified foreign terrorist group, had acquired the means to conduct an attack and had already identified specific targets in the U.S. The FBI foiled the plot roughly 30 days after first uncovering it, the official said.
Those searches were also key to unraveling a foreign adversary’s efforts to illicitly acquire technology that can be used in biological weapons production. And in a third case, they revealed that the subject of one national security investigation was actively communicating with multiple foreign intelligence suspects tracked by other bureau field offices — a discovery the FBI feels could have been blown if it had resorted to slower, more overt investigative tools, like a warrant. On Wednesday, the House Rules Committee will consider a compromise bill to update and renew Section 702. Lawmakers are then expected to vote on an amendment on the court order proviso if it gets sent to the House floor, potentially Thursday or Friday.
The FBI official argued the bureau almost definitely could not have recreated its success in any of the three cases even if a court order mandate included an exception for national security matters — an idea that is popular among privacy advocates.In the terrorism case, for example, the official said the searches were what revealed an attack was imminent in the first place.
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Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee Calls for a $50 Minimum Wage in California
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
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Trump’s threat to let Putin invade NATO countries
Long-time MR readers will know I am not fond of Trump, either as a president or otherwise. (And I am very fond of NATO.) But on this issue I think he is basically correct. Yes, I know all about backlash effects. But so many NATO members do not keep up serious defense capabilities. And for decades none of our jawboning has worked.
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US congressional intelligence chair warns of serious national security threat
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House Intel Chairman announces 'serious national security threat
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U.S. Has New Intelligence About Russia’s Nuclear Capabilities - The New York Times
The United States has informed Congress and its allies in Europe of new intelligence about Russian nuclear capabilities that could pose an international threat, according to officials briefed on the matter.Officials said that the new intelligence was serious — but that the capability was still under development, and Russia had not deployed it. Consequently, it did not pose an urgent threat to the United States, Ukraine or America’s European allies, they said. The information is highly classified, and officials said it could not be declassified without cutting off its source.
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World
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Old Paris balconies 'pose risk to crowds watching Olympics opening ceremony'
Paris authorities are debating whether to order an inspection of the balconies and balustrades of thousands of buildings lining the River Seine amid warnings they could collapse under the weight of spectators watching the Olympics opening ceremony this summer.
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Paris court halves ex-French president Sarkozy 2012 campaign financing sentence
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Canadian federal government will stop investing in new road infrastructure
Guilbeault said Tuesday the government will be there to support provinces paying for maintenance but Ottawa has decided that the existing road infrastructure "is perfectly adequate to respond to the needs we have." "There will be no more envelopes from the federal government to enlarge the road network," Guilbeault said, according to quotes published in the Montreal Gazette.
Guilbeault said the federal government is intent on moving people out of their cars and into public transportation, which the government has spent billions to build. The federal government also wants to encourage "active transportation," which means getting people to walk and cycle.
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South Africa Faces Most Severe Nationwide Power Cuts in Months.
Iran / Houthi / Red Sea / Mediterranean
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
Health / Medicine
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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What made Earth a giant snowball 700M years ago? Scientists have an answer
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Carbon capture tech a 'complete falsehood', says Fortescue Metals chairman
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Scientists Resort to Once-Unthinkable Solutions to Cool the Planet - WSJ
Dumping chemicals in the ocean? Spraying saltwater into clouds? Injecting reflective particles into the sky? Scientists are resorting to once unthinkable techniques to cool the planet because global efforts to check greenhouse gas emissions are failing.