2024-03-09
etc
Horseshit
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It is forbidden to talk about violence at the Chaos Computer Club
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Court reserves decision on whether thumbs-up emoji can lock in $82K contract
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Gaslighting, Narcissist, and More Psychology Terms You're Misusing
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The 160-year mystery of Europe's Ice Age 'queens'
This is the 160-year enigma of the Venus figurines. Who made them, and why? Are they miniature "mother" goddesses, tangible embodiments of female fecundity? Or could they simply be Palaeolithic pin-ups, the first women to be objectified – both literally and figuratively?
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Nine Species of Human Once Walked Earth. Now There’s Just One. Did We Kill The Rest?
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Southwest defends new seat redesign after social media backlash.
Electric / Self Driving cars
celebrity gossip
Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering
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America Enters the Samizdat Era - by Matt Taibbi
I had the privilege (misfortune?) of seeing how presidential campaign journalism worked before the Internet took over. Politicians needed the mainstream press to reach high office. Sitting among the traveling press on campaigns of people like John Kerry and Barack Obama, I heard how campaign reporters talked, how they thought of their jobs. They were fiercely protective of their gatekeeping role, which gave them enormous power. If reporters didn’t think a candidate was good enough for them — if he was too “kooky” like Ron Paul, too “elfin” like Dennis Kucinich, or too “lazy” as just a handful of influential reporters decided about Fred Thompson — the “Boys on the Bus” would snort and trade cutting remarks in riffing sessions before and after events. Campaigns would be elevated or die in these moments. I thought it was crazy, and said so in print, which made me a pariah, and I never thought it would end.
Then Trump came along and destroyed the whole system with one stroke, getting elected in spite of the blunt disapproval of media. His single Twitter account allowed him to bypass the press and speak to people directly. When that worked, and similar episodes like Brexit caused panic abroad, governments decided to take the anarchic potential of the Internet and turn it on its head. What was something like the “Self-publish” culture of the Soviet Union suddenly became, as we saw in the Twitter Files, an instrument of surveillance and social control.
Jay, Miranda, and I all share a connection to the same story. When Miranda published her blockbuster New York Post exposé of October 14, 2020, “Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad,” Internet platforms Twitter and Facebook experimented for the first time with disappearing a major political story in the middle of an election year. Not only did both platforms suppress the story, but as I later found in internal correspondence, Twitter used tools previously reserved for child pornography to prevent individuals from sharing the story in direct messages — the digital version of a Cheka agent intercepting that copy of a Solzhenitsyn or Voinovich story before one person could hand it to another.
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Spate of Mock News Sites with Russian Ties Pop Up in U.S. (Archive)
Into the depleted field of journalism in America, a handful of websites have appeared in recent weeks with names suggesting a focus on news close to home: D.C. Weekly, the New York News Daily, the Chicago Chronicle and a newer sister publication, the Miami Chronicle. In fact, they are not local news organizations at all. They are Russian creations, researchers and government officials say, meant to mimic actual news organizations to push Kremlin propaganda by interspersing it among an at-times odd mix of stories about crime, politics and culture.
The Miami Chronicle’s website first appeared on Feb. 26. Its tagline falsely claims to have delivered “the Florida News since 1937.” Amid some true reports, the site published a story last week about a “leaked audio recording” of Victoria Nuland, the U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, discussing a shift in American support for Russia’s beleaguered opposition after the death of the Russian dissident Aleksei A. Navalny. The recording is a crude fake, according to administration officials who would speak only anonymously to discuss intelligence matters. The campaign, the experts and officials say, appears to involve remnants of the media empire once controlled by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a former associate of President Vladimir V. Putin whose troll factory, the Internet Research Agency, interfered in the 2016 presidential election between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
All the outlets use the same WordPress software to build the sites and, as a result, have similar designs. ... In other ways, the websites are poorly constructed, even incomplete in parts. The “about” page for the Miami Chronicle, for example, is filled with Lorem ipsum, the Latin-based dummy text. Some of images on the site have file names from the original Russian. (None of the sites post working contact information.) The purpose is not to fool a discerning reader into diving deeper into the website, let alone subscribing, Mr. Linvill said. The goal instead is to lend an aura of credibility to posts on social media spreading the disinformation.
“This is absolutely a prelude to the kind of interference we will see in the election cycle,” Mr. Linvill (a co-director at Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub) said. “It’s cheap, highly targeted and obviously effective.”
Musk
Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp
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People Who Received Ivermectin Were Better Off, Study Finds | ZeroHedge
People who received ivermectin were also less likely to be hospitalized or die, with 1.6 percent of ivermectin recipients being hospitalized or dying versus 4 percent of the comparison group, which received typical care, which in the UK is largely focused on managing symptoms. Ivermectin recipients also enjoyed a reduction of severe symptoms and sustained recovery, according to the study.
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
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The job more parents are taking to get a discount on their kids' college tuition
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TikToker reveals why post-grads are 'struggling' to find a job
"The Gen Z I've spoken to… many of them are very much willing to go into an office or work hybrid. The issue that I'm seeing, Sandra, is that they are going through tons and tons of interviews, and they are getting ghosted over and over and over again," the social media star said earlier this week. "They are applying. They're getting interviews, some of them as many as seven interviews. And then they are never hearing back from the job. They have no clue," she said.
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Study finds that we could lose science if publishers go bankrupt
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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the fourth level of programming is the true understanding of parallel programming. We'll leave that for another time.
- Isn't that work already underway by others? Seems it should be...
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late 1980s, Telenet offered a service called PC Pursuit. For a flat monthly fee, customers could dial into the Telenet network in one city, then dial out on the modems in another city to access bulletin board systems and other services. PC Pursuit was popular among computer hobbyists because it sidestepped long-distance charges.
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
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OpenAI Had to Raise Funding Because Musk 'Reneged,' Khosla Says
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Research shows survey participants duped by AI-generated images 40% of the time
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Albania to speed up EU accession using ChatGPT – Euractiv
The model to be used by the Albanian government will translate into Albanian and provide a detailed overview of what and where changes need to be made to local legislation to align with EU rules. It will also provide an analysis of the impact of all measures and changes, which usually require many experts and a lot of time.
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'We definitely messed up': why did Google's AI make offensive historical images?
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
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Reentry of International Space Station Batteries into Earth's Atmosphere
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(PDF) Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena
AARO researched and interviewed numerous people, programs, and leads. It has determined that modern allegations that the USG is hiding off-world technology and beings largely originate from the same group of individuals who have ties to the cancelled AAWSAP/AATIP program and a private sector organization’s paranormal research efforts. These individuals have worked with each other consistently in various UAP-related efforts.
A new congressionally mandated Pentagon report found no evidence that the government was covering up knowledge of extraterrestrial technology and said there was no evidence that any U.F.O. sightings represented alien visitation to Earth.
The report also challenges the accounts of whistle-blowers and former government officials who have said the United States is hiding evidence of aliens or extraterrestrial material from the public. The Pentagon, treading gently and writing with precise language, concludes that declining public trust in government and the speed in which misinformation now spreads has made it more difficult to rebut claims of extraterrestrial visits.
The Pentagon also looked into classified and sensitive government programs that whistle-blowers have suggested were involved with examining captured alien spacecraft. The Pentagon concluded that while “many of these programs represent authentic, current and former sensitive, national security programs,” none of them were involved with capturing or reverse engineering extraterrestrial technology.
Economicon / Business / Finance
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Americans are having sex to save on monthly heating bills
It found that 46% of the 1,000 Americans surveyed are struggling to afford their bills. Roughly 25% pile on extra clothing, while 35% are forced to choose between heat and groceries. To keep themselves toasty, 5% are getting hot and heavy between the sheets — and 2% are getting drunk, according to the report.
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US Jobless Rate Hits Two-Year High Even as Hiring Stays Strong (Archive)
Nonfarm payrolls advanced 275,000 last month following a combined 167,000 downward revision to the prior two months, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed Friday. The unemployment rate rose to 3.9% and wage gains slowed. The report illustrates a labor market that is gradually downshifting, with more moderate job and pay gains that suggest the economy will keep expanding without much risk of a reacceleration in inflation. Such a combination gives room for Federal Reserve policymakers to lower interest rates this year.
while February was a strong print, it's just a placeholder until next month's downward revision: that's because January's blowout 353K print was revised sharply lower to just 229K, down by a whopping 35%. ... the divergence between Payrolls and Employment extended as more people are forced to take on more than one job. ... Taking a closer look at the job composition, we find that in February job gains occurred in health care, in government, in food services and drinking places, in social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing.
Some context: after last month's record 4-sigma beat, today's print was "only" 3 sigma higher than estimates. Needless to say, two multiple sigma beats in a row used to only happen in the USSR... and now in the US, apparently.
To put it bluntly, the BLS is spitting straight up lies and propaganda. One friend actually did the math and the chances of the last year’s events on job reports happening by chance (assuming a 50/50 chance of revising upward or downward) are 0.00042%. (The answer to everything is the BLS is lying). It’s also very clear the BLS is lying since we get jobs from ADP, an actual payroll company, too and they’ve showed a significant downward trend in new job creation while the BLS has shown the opposite.
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Family offices have tripled since 2019, creating a new gold rush on Wall Street
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Uber must pay wheelchair user $35,000, provide accessible rides
Uber Canada has been ordered to pay $35,000 to a man who uses a wheelchair after the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal found he was discriminated against because of his disability. The ride-hailing app was also ordered to offer those with disabilities accessible rides according to the ruling this week.
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BowFlex files for bankruptcy amid declining interest in cardio equipment
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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After ruling that embryos are children, Ala. hastily enacts IVF protections
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Tl;dw: Biden's Speech tonight ... + Fund Ukraine. + Trump is threat to democracy and America itself. + Abortion is good. + American Economy is stronger than ever. + Inflation wasn't Biden's fault. + Illegals are Americans too. + Republicans are responsible for the border crisis. + Trump is bad. + Biden stands with trans-children. + J6 was the worst insurrection since the Civil War.
Tucker Carlson's response sums it all up perfectly: "that was possibly the darkest, most un-American speech given by an American president. It wasn't a speech, it was a rant..."
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Biden Calls for Ban on AI Voice Impersonations in State of the Union
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A 1-Word Talking Point for Biden’s SOTU Has Gone Out and the Media’s RUNNING With It
Biden is now calling on Congress to provide a one-year tax credit of up to $10,000 to middle-class families who sell their starter home—a home below the median home price of the area where it is located—to another owner or occupant. The White House said that this proposal could help nearly 3 million American families. On Friday, Biden's announcement on the tax credit was met with a standing ovation and roaring applause by Democratic lawmakers, while about half of the House stayed seated.
"My administration is also eliminating title insurance on federally backed mortgages," Biden told lawmakers on Friday. "When you refinance your home, you can save $1,000 or more as a consequence."
After shouting at Biden, Nikoui was cooperative as US Capitol Police officers asked him to leave and escorted him from the chamber. He was handcuffed and arrested on a misdemeanor District of Columbia charge.
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Opinion | The President’s Sole Authority Over Nuclear Weapons Is Dangerous - The New York Times
In the United States, it’s up to one person to decide whether the world becomes engulfed in nuclear war. Only the president has the authority to launch any of the roughly 3,700 nuclear weapons in the American stockpile, an arsenal capable of destroying all human life many times over. And that authority is absolute: No other person in the U.S. government serves as a check or balance once he or she decides to go nuclear. There is no requirement to consult Congress, to run the idea by the defense secretary or to ask the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for his or her opinion. That means the American president is charged with the physical safety not only of some 334 million Americans but also of millions of people in other countries who, out of necessity, must rely upon his or her prudence and steady nerves to make a decision that could alter the course of human history.
No other aspect of U.S. military power is legally conducted this way. Authorizing drone strikes on terrorism suspects, for instance, requires approvals up and down the chain of command, from a commander in the field to the general overseeing the region to the defense secretary to the president. Larger operations, like a ground invasion of another country, require the president to ask Congress for a formal declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force.
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The Mystery Social Media Account Schooling Congress on How to Do Its Job
His tweets have gained renown around the Capitol for their nuanced discussions of arcane congressional rules and history, and for his comfort with correcting longtime lawmakers and Washington journalists alike. His following is only around 4,000, but it’s a well-connected bunch, including congressional chiefs of staff, committee staff directors and other leading insiders. “He’s just a complete parliamentary obsessive and savant, really like no one I’ve ever met, even people in the parliamentarian’s office,” Glassman told POLITICO Magazine.
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Big Mysteries Surround the Predictable Presidential Rematch | RealClearWire
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NIST staffers revolt against expected appointment of Paul Cristiano to NIST
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is facing an internal crisis as staff members and scientists have threatened to resign over the anticipated appointment of Paul Christiano to a crucial, though non-political, position at the agency’s newly-formed US AI Safety Institute (AISI), according to at least two sources with direct knowledge of the situation, who asked to remain anonymous. The appointment of Christiano, which was said to come directly from Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo (NIST is an agency under the US Department of Commerce) has sparked outrage among NIST employees who fear that Christiano’s association with EA and longtermism could compromise the institute’s objectivity and integrity.
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He's the wrong religion.
concerning that he would be in charge of determining AI policy when he was a high-level OpenAI employee for 4 years and presumably has a huge financial interest in their success
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Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
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Can We Just Throw in the Towel on Airport Security Theater Already?
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New York to Deploy National Guard to NYC Subways to Fight Crime - Bloomberg
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Nearly 400 police dogs in Ohio trained in the detection of marijuana will need to be retired because they cannot be reliably retrained. That means any alert they give to the presence of drugs could be challenged in court because they cannot unlearn the smell of cannabis. Brennan and Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania, are the lead sponsors of a bill that would provide each agency with up to $20,000 per dog to offset the cost of acquiring, training and equipping narcotics dogs that don't alert to the smell of marijuana.
- The bill is to pay for replacing the dogs; the existing ones are not getting funding and presumably will be adopted out.
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
World
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Spanish soldiers change gender to gain benefits intended for women
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How many political parties rule Canada? Fun with statistics – Daniel Lemire's blog
Though there are dozens of votes, you can capture 85% of the variance by using only two dimensions with a principal component analysis. In effect, you create two fictional voting events (that are weighted combinations of the votes) that represent most accurately the stances of the various parties. The result demonstrates that four of the Canadian political parties are clustered, meaning that they vote similarly, while one party (the Conservatives) is clearly distinct in its voting patterns.
Iran / Houthi / Red Sea / Mediterranean
Israel
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People killed in Gaza after aid package parachute fails to deploy
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Biden Orders "Emergency Mission" To Build Port In Gaza For Aid Shipments | ZeroHedge
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(Video) 'We have nothing': Children face starvation in Gaza as supplies run out
- I couldn't watch 60sec. Fat parents and "kid died of malnutrition" with more meat than most of the "save the starving children," ads. Rank propaganda.
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
China
Health / Medicine
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Just 2 cans of soda per week is too much – even if you exercise
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Inflatable colon display at Logan Regional Hospital teaches about colon health
Nathan Merriam, the medical director for gastrointestinal and digestive health at Intermountain Health, said that the inflatable display is 12 feet tall and 12 feet wide. The display is a replica of the inside of a colon with different stages of precancerous and cancerous features. The inflatable display is traveling around Utah and Idaho to 23 different hospitals and clinics to educate people about colon health and colonoscopies. Some of the features that the display shows includes normal and cancerous polyps, Crohn’s disease, colorectal cancer and advanced colorectal cancer.
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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Europe shipping banned pesticide linked to child brain damage to Global South
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In Mongolia, a killer winter is ravaging herds and a way of life
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US farmers are turning to solar power as a buffer against volatile crop prices
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Private Indian Firms Look to Build 10 GW of Coal Power Capacity
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California man first to be charged with smuggling greenhouse gases from Mexico