2024-04-23
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A flat map with the least error possible: The Gott-Goldberg-Vanderbei projection
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Daily coffee consumption at 20-year high, up nearly 40%
NCA’s Spring 2024 National Coffee Data Trends (NCDT) report reveals that 67% of American adults had coffee in the past day (more than any other beverage, including tap or bottled water), compared to 49% in 2004. 75% of American adults have had coffee in the past week, up by 4% since the Spring 2023 NCDT.
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Who Warns Of Warners? - by Robin Hanson - Overcoming Bias
as our cultural elites are now dominated by non-conservatives, such movies are now really just our usual cultural authorities warning against trusting rebels who defy their cultural dominance. They are not really warning against trusting dominant cultural authorities. Any movies that do this must be pretty far out into the long tail of niche products. But they might be the warnings we really need.
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The Demagoguery of Emperor Hirohito - by Bryan Caplan
We should be mindful of the ubiquity of absurd political lies, and reflect deeply on the cross-cultural power of demagoguery. While politicians can lie for the greater good, the abundance of pretty political lies is a strong reason to embrace the maxims, “That government is best which governs least” and “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” Economics teaches valuable lessons about whether government can improve the world, but political psychology teaches us the even more valuable lesson that even if government can improve the world, it habitually does the opposite.
Horseshit
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Physicists Think the Infinite Size of the Multiverse Could Be Infinitely Bigger
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Many in Gen Z ditch colleges for trade schools. Meet the 'toolbelt generation'
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California is grappling with a growing problem: Too much solar - The Washington Post
As electricity prices go negative, the Golden State is struggling to offload a glut of solar power
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UK aviation supplier lifts lid on plan to turn human waste into fuel
Electric / Self Driving cars
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How Amazon Became the Largest Private EV Charging Operator in the US
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Why are groups of university students modifying Cadillac Lyriq EVs?
One of the organization's goals is to challenge teams to "identify and address specific challenges with equity in the future of mobility through the application of innovative hardware and software solutions" while working with underserved populations. Through this process, the student-run teams are discovering untapped potential for future EV development and finding solutions that could help local and national communities.
Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering
Musk
Trump / War against the Right / Jan6
Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
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Sheetz convenience store chain hit with discrimination lawsuit | AP News
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Sheetz is REQUIRED to hire felons even if it doesn’t want to
Martin Luther King looked forward to the day that his children could be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. Alas, the content of our character (as revealed by our criminal record) is off limits in hiring. But hiring by the color of our skin is considered virtuous. Weren’t we supposed to have made a lot more progress on this by now?
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Diversity Goals Are Disappearing from Companies' Annual Reports
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A White author calculated just how much racism has benefited her
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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North Koreans Animated Amazon and Max Shows, Researchers Say
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Paying for it doesn’t make it a market
This means that we can divide the platform economy into "capitalists" who sell you things, and "surveillance capitalists" who use surveillance data to control your mind, then sell your compulsive use of their products to their cherished customers, the advertisers. All this leads to an inexorable conclusion: unless we pay for things with money, we are doomed. Any attempt to pay with attention will end in a free-for-all where the platforms use their Big Data mind-control rays to drain us of all our attention. It is only when we pay with money that we can dicker over price and arrive at a fair and freely chosen offer.
This theory is great for tech companies: it elevates giving them money to a democracy-preserving virtue. It reframes handing your cash over to a multi-trillion dollar tech monopolist as good civics. It's easy to see why those tech giants would like that story, but boy, are you a sap if you but it.
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Discord CEO Jason Citron makes the case for a smaller, more private internet
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Windows 10 users to be hit with prompts asking them to create an online account
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Home Assistant has a new foundation and a goal to become a consumer brand
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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Read floppy disks and CD-ROMs with Raspberry Pi 5
if the documentation and licence agreements that accompany a commercial floppy disk do not allow you to copy it, it is safest to assume that you are not allowed to do so. Those that do not allow you to make copies often include copy protection that will prevent you from doing so, and it is illegal in the UK to circumvent this. While some disks were made for reproduction, unless there’s an obvious licence allowing you to, the old rule holds: don’t copy that floppy.
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Wireless Charging: Trading Efficiency for Convenience
Wired charging is the most efficient way to charge anything and that is an indisputable fact. We can also show that though wireless charging is inefficient, there are grades of inefficiency among wireless chargers too. Qi2 and MagSafe chargers clearly offer the best efficiency while the first generation Qi chargers and poorly designed products can consume more than twice as much power as a wired charging setup.
Tesla’s Wireless Charging Platform deserves special mention for their dumpster fire of a design. This charger has the singular honor of being ludicrously power hungry when not being used and absurdly inefficient no matter how you place your phone on the stand.
Our tests also suggest that your battery may be better off kicking the wireless habit.
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
Economicon / Business / Finance
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New York Stock Exchange tests views on round-the-clock trading
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Bayer is getting rid of bosses and asking staff to ‘self-organize’
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How American politics has infected investing
The hedge fund’s branding is a clue. 1789 Capital was set up last year and named for the year Congress proposed America’s bill of rights. It offers investors the chance to put money into what it says are three key themes: a parallel conservative economy catering to consumers who want to avoid being bombarded with liberal ideas; the shift away from free trade; and firms that have been penalised by the environment, social and governance (ESG) investment trend.
1789 Capital is part of an increasingly important trend: American politics is infecting investing. A gap has opened up between how Democrats and Republicans view the world; many Americans want to express their political identities by any means possible; and others see their money as a way to sway business behaviour. All of this is influencing investment decisions. The amount of money invested in, say, novelty exchange-traded funds (ETFs), such as those tracking the portfolios of certain politicians, is small, but other developments are more significant. Some $13bn has been withdrawn from BlackRock’s accounts, for instance, as red states boycott asset managers that support ESG. A bitterly fought rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will most likely supercharge the trend.
- Interesting spin: the reaction to the "environment, social and governance (ESG) investment trend" is the "infection", and the change. The "ESG trend" itself isn't another example of ideology driven investing to talk about. That's fine. it's just "these people have the wrong ideology".
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Bloomberg, JPMorgan, BlackRock Got Favored Access to Data From BLS Economist.
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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Government Surveillance Keeps Us Safe (Archive)
Getting a FISA court order is bureaucratically cumbersome and would slow down investigations — especially fast-moving cybercases, in which queries have proved especially useful. It would cause agents to miss important connections to national security threats. And because this information has already been lawfully collected and stored, its use in investigation doesn’t require a warrant under the Constitution.
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Supreme Court to Consider How Far Cities Can Police Homelessness
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Hawaii lawmakers take aim at vacation rentals after Lahaina wildfire
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Social media companies refuse to safeguard kids. It's up to lawmakers now
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
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Airport security line cutters are target of first-in-the-nation California bill
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Huge crackdown on parking in San Francisco is about to begin
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Fake Tags Add to Real Chaos on American Roads - The New York Times
Officials are moving to increase enforcement and change laws in response to the rise in counterfeit or expired plates, which exploded during the pandemic.
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
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US Army adds cognitive test to track new soldier brain health
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Windows vulnerability reported by the NSA exploited to install Russian backdoor
Kremlin-backed hackers have been exploiting a critical Microsoft vulnerability for four years in attacks that targeted a vast array of organizations with a previously undocumented backdoor, the software maker disclosed Monday. When Microsoft patched the vulnerability in October 2022—at least two years after it came under attack by the Russian hackers—the company made no mention that it was under active exploitation. As of the time this post went live on Ars, the company’s advisory still made no mention of the in-the-wild targeting. Windows users frequently prioritize the installation of patches based on whether a vulnerability is likely to be exploited in real-world attacks.
World
Israel
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
China
Health / Medicine
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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Europe is the fastest-warming continent, at nearly twice the average global rate
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Hearing the impact of climate change in Okinawa, one bird call at a time
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Carbon Dioxide Levels Have Passed a New Milestone (Archive)
In 2023, global levels of the greenhouse gas rose to 419 parts per million, around 50 percent more than before the Industrial Revolution. That means there are roughly 50 percent more carbon dioxide molecules in the air than there were in 1750.
Not all of these emissions end up in the air. The ocean and land absorb roughly half of the carbon dioxide that humans emit, while the rest stays in the air, said Glen Peters, a senior researcher at the CICERO Center for International Climate Research. That one-half figure is an approximation. It varies from year to year depending on weather conditions and other environmental factors, resulting in the jagged lines you see in the chart above. For example, in a warm and dry year with many wildfires, the land may absorb less carbon dioxide than usual. As the Earth warms further, climate scientists expect the land and the ocean to absorb a smaller share of carbon dioxide emissions, causing a larger share to end up in the air, said Doug McNeall, who studies these effects at Britain’s Met Office.
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BHP says it aims to receive first ammonia-fuelled bulk carrier in 2026
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Want to restore a forest? Give it back to Indigenous peoples who call it home
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NiteróI, the Brazilian city that has been releasing mosquitoes to stop dengue
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Same-Sex Couples Face Higher Climate Change Risks, New UCLA Study Shows | KQED
Same-sex couples have a significant risk of exposure to the adverse effects of climate change — wildfires, floods, smoke-filled skies, drought, etc. — compared to straight couples, according to a new report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law
“San Francisco ranks among the highest in terms of its risk exposure to the effects of climate change,” Shaw said. “The experience of folks living in parts of the city that are more prone to flooding and these sorts of natural disasters is borne out in the data as well.”