2024-04-06

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• A Tantalizing 'Hint' That Astronomers Got Dark Energy All Wrong

• Mars may not have had liquid water long enough for life to form

• Baltimore Bridge Collapse: US Army Corps Of Engineers Says Channel Fully Reopen By End Of May

  • US Army Corps of Engineers develops tentative timeline to reopen Fort McHenry Channel following Key Bridge collapse | Article | The United States Army

  After detailed studies and engineering assessments by local, state and federal organizations, in collaboration with industry partners, USACE expects to open a limited access channel 280 feet wide and 35 feet deep, to the Port of Baltimore within the next four weeks — by the end of April. This channel would support one-way traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore for barge container service and some roll on/roll off vessels that move automobiles and farm equipment to and from the port.

• NYC just had an earthquake

  • M 4.7 - 7 km NNE of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey

  • 4.8 magnitude earthquake hits NJ, shaking felt across Northeast including Philly

  • New York City shakes as 4.8 magnitude earthquake hits US north-east

• Expert explains why earthquake preparedness is lacking in North America

• Transporting Giraffes Is as Strange and Risky as It Looks

• The eclipse chasers: Travelling the world for their astronomical hobby

Horseshit

• Industrial Revolution began in 17th not 18th century, say academics

• Homeowner Baffled After Washing Machine Uses 3.6GB of Internet Data a Day

• St. Jude Hoards Billions While Many of Its Families Drain Their Savings

• Can TikToks reduce gun violence?

• Scientists still baffled from giant human skeletons up to 10 feet tall decades after initial discovery.

• Opinion | Technology Hates Me - The New York Times

  Gizmos that were working for me one minute stopped working the next. I want my technology to have many capacities, but free will is not among them.

• The U.S. would be insane to go it alone on trade and manufacturing

Boeing

• Boeing awards outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun a 45% pay rise

Electric / Self Driving cars

• China is betting on battery swaps to tackle EV chargers shortage

• Ford to delay all-electric SUV, truck to focus on offering hybrid vehicles across its lineup by 2030.

• Elon Musk tries to get other car manufacturers to license self driving

celebrity gossip

• Hacked - The Perry Bible Fellowship

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• China Is Targeting U.S. Voters and Taiwan with AI-Powered Disinformation

  The Chinese-linked campaigns laundered false information through fake accounts on social-media platforms, seeking to identify divisive domestic political issues and potentially influence elections. The tactics identified in a new cyber-threat report published Friday by Microsoft are among the first uncovered that directly tie the use of generative AI tools to a covert state-sponsored online influence operation against foreign voters. They also demonstrate more-advanced methods than previously seen.

• China Tests US Voter Fault Lines with AI Content

Musk

• Musk boosts pay to prevent OpenAI poaching: 'Craziest talent war I've ever seen'

• Elon Musk shares "false" allegation of voting fraud by "illegals"

• Noted Tesla bear says Musk’s EV maker could ‘go bust’ and stock is worth $14.

• Elon Musk is elevating the global extreme right

  Musk’s shifting preferences away from Ukraine and toward Russia are indicative of a larger shift in his politics where he’s not only been speaking out in favor of right-wing issues and echoing conspiracy theories around topics like immigration and gender, but actively seeking to build an alliance with likeminded political movements the world over. In some cases, there’s a business incentive to what Musk is doing, but it’s become increasingly clear that the relationships he’s forging are not just about getting preferential access for his companies; they're about creating a world where the political agenda he champions on Twitter is the policy of governments around the world.

• Tesla reportedly drops plan to build $25,000 EV

• Posts About Broken Cybertrucks Fill Tesla Owners' Forums

• X pushed a fake headline about Iran attacking Israel. AI chatbot Grok made it up

Trump / War against the Right / Jan6

• Florida brothers plead guilty in NYC to $22M Trump Media insider trading scheme

• Trump Spoke Recently With Saudi Leader - The New York Times

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Neo-Utilitarians Are Utter Philistines

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Some Colleges Will Soon Charge $100,000 a Year. How Did This Happen? - The New York Times

  One letter to a newly admitted Vanderbilt University engineering student showed an all-in price — room, board, personal expenses, a high-octane laptop — of $98,426. A student making three trips home to Los Angeles or London from the Nashville campus during the year could hit six figures. This eye-popping sum is an anomaly. Only a tiny fraction of college-going students will pay anything close to this anytime soon, and about 35 percent of Vanderbilt students — those who get neither need-based nor merit aid — pay the full list price.

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• We need a permanent solution for universal broadband access

• FCC to Try Again on Net-Neutrality Rules at April 25 Meeting

• Roku's idea of showing ads on your HDMI inputs seems like an inevitable hell

  a Roku patent that seems to telegraph that the company is planning some heavy advertising tactics for those who purchase Roku TV televisions. The patent centers around the idea of displaying ads on these TVs whenever they’re tuned to an HDMI input that’s paused or idle. Theoretically, this would allow Roku to present ads throughout your whole TV experience — and in places where it’s not viable to do so today. Your PS5, Xbox, Apple TV, or Blu-ray player could become yet another canvas for the company to continue growing its already-lucrative advertising business.

• App Store guidelines now allow game emulators

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• The Xz Issue Isn't About Open Source

• The Rise and Fall of Silicon Graphics

  • HN comments

• AMD to Open Source Micro Engine Scheduler Firmware for Radeon GPUs

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• With little urging, Grok will detail how to make bombs, concoct drugs and worse

• Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Engineers Pinpoint Cause of Voyager 1 Issue, Are Working on Solution

Crypto con games

• SBF Is Going to Prison, but the Fight over Money at FTX Drags On

Economicon / Business / Finance

• The economics of American lotteries

  In the poorest 1% of zip codes that have lottery retailers, the average American adult spends around $600 a year, or nearly 5% of their income, on tickets. That compares with just $150, or 0.15%, for those in the richest 1% of zip codes. In other words, the poorest households spend roughly 30 times more on lotteries than richer ones, as a share of income.

• Samsung to Fortify U.S. Chip Revival by Swelling Its Texas Investment to $44B

• Apple cuts 600 jobs after dropping self-driving car plans

  • Apple lays off over 600 workers in California in first major post-pandemic cut

  • Apple lays off Bay Area workers in first mass cuts since pandemic

  • Apple Laid Off 600 People in Pivot Away from Cars and Watch Displays

• Payroll employment rises by 303K in March; unemployment at 3.8%

  • The U.S. economy rolls on, adds 303,000 jobs in March

  • Job Creators Network Reacts to March Jobs Report - Job Creators Network

  Approximately, half of all jobs created last month came in unproductive government or quasi-government healthcare sectors. Full-time jobs continue to decline, while part-time jobs are on the rise. And average wages are growing slower than inflation again, meaning Americans are suffering declining living standards.

  • Behind Today's Stellar Jobs Print: It Was Literally ALL Part-Time Jobs (And Illegals) | ZeroHedge

• The Market May Have Hit a Real Record, but It Could Be a Problem

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• A TikTok Whistleblower Got DC’s Attention. Do His Claims Add Up? | WIRED

• Minnesota Republicans introduce legislation inspired by chemtrails conspiracy

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• US Officials to Pressure Dutch Government on China Chip Curbs

• The CIA's Most Highly-Trained Spies Weren't Even Human

• Marines Ditch 100-Year-Old Marksmanship Standards.

World

• EU drops sovereignty requirements in cybersecurity certification scheme

• Is the UK preparing for war amid threats of conflict?

Israel

• McDonald's is buying back all of its franchises in Israel

• Top Israeli spy chief exposes his true identity in online security lapse

• Palestinians in Northern Gaza Only Have Access to 245 Calories a Day

• This from people that say the Oct 7 attack was a psyop: Israeli inquiry findings on aid worker killings lack credibility

• Doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Wirecard fugitive helped run Russian spy operations across Europe

  Fugitive Wirecard COO Jan Marsalek used compromised intelligence officials in Vienna to spy on European citizens and plot break-ins and assassinations by elite Russian hit squads. He also obtained a Nato government’s cutting-edge cryptography machine and smuggled stolen senior Austrian civil servants’ phones to Moscow. The allegations — based on new evidence obtained by British intelligence — are contained in an Austrian police warrant for the arrest of a former Austrian police and intelligence official, Egisto Ott. Ott was taken into custody last Friday.

China

• It Only Takes a $7k Debt to End Up Trapped in China

• Xi Jinping's misguided plan to escape economic stagnation

Health / Medicine

• Rare Genetic Variants Are Curiously Connected with Being Left-Handed

• The FDA has approved the first app to help treat depression

• Lab tests show THC potency inflated on retail marijuana in Colorado

• Asthma: Scientists find new cause of lung damage

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Eco-guilt and eco-shame in everyday life: a study of triggers and reactions

• How to avoid a billion climate deaths - The University of Auckland

  Scientists have predicted a billion climate deaths over the coming century – but cutting out or back on fossil fuels and shifting to renewable energy could give our children a future, argues Ralph Cooney

• Backlash against wind and solar projects is real, it's global and it's growing

• EPA warns about danger of weed killer used on farms, golf courses

• Hyper-sexual "zombie cicadas" that are infected with sexually transmitted fungus expected to emerge this year - CBS News