2024-06-06

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• A 'new star' could appear in the sky any night now

• Floating' ladder for thrillseekers opens in Norway

  A new “floating” staircase in Norway promises spectacular views and undeniable thrills – but it’s probably not for the fainthearted. The 131-foot long stairway, called the “Stigull” ladder, dangles some 2,591 feet above a Norwegian fjord in the small village of Loen, in the north west of the country. “It might make most people’s legs tremble a bit,” the man behind the ladder, Per Helge Bø, tells CNN Travel.

Horseshit

• The Ritz Cracker Is the Story of Capitalism

• Don't think of your workplace as a family, says Airbnb CEO

• Choking during sex Why are young women drawn to destruction?

• Bad weather hills and dark deter cyclists, particularly women, what can we do?

• Kilometer-tall skyscrapers to double as batteries

• Welcome to the age of space scepticism – and a growing revolt against elites

  The new era of space scepticism is at its core anti-elite. This is hardly surprising given a widespread cost-of-living crisis, and the fact that billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are among those most vocal about the benefits of exploring, mining and colonising space. Musk’s decision to launch a Tesla roadster to space was met with criticism from many people, including scientists. There are other concerns too. Many scientists are worried about a rising amount of satellites and space debris blocking the sky, and that sending objects to space that could contaminate alien worlds. There are also concerns about the environmental impact of focusing so much attention away from our own world. In 2021, Greta Thunberg and the environmentalist group Fridays for Future published a mock advert (see below) in which they recommended that “the 1%” move to “Mars, an untainted planet”. This was followed the words “For the 99% who will stay on Earth, we’d better fix climate change”.

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Diesel demand hits 26-year low as EV, hydrogen sales boom

• Americans still not sold on EVs despite Biden push, poll shows.

celebrity gossip

• Like a pop star, Nvidia's CEO Huang stirs up 'Jensanity' in Taiwan

  • Jensen Huang signing a woman's chest

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• E.U. Censorship Laws Mostly Suppress Legal Speech

• Study shows banning false info traffickers online can improve public discourse

• Misinformation poses a bigger threat to democracy than you might think

• We Worked at Meta. Democracies Need to Fix the Feed Before It's Too Late

Musk

• Nvidia emails: Elon Musk diverting Tesla GPUs to his other companies

  • Musk confirms 12K H100s ordered for Tesla were instead prioritized for xAI

• ESafety drops case against Elon Musk's X over church stabbing videos

• Remote tribe gets hooked on Internet porn

• Elon Musk's X has lost its only PR employee

Trump / War against the Right / Jan6

• Framing Is Everything - by Jeffrey Carter

  The Trump verdict isn’t about justice. Instead, it was a blatant attempt to destabilize the nation further. In the 1930s, the country was already destabilized and FDR seized the moment to institute a gigantic bureaucracy to make it all better. How’d that turn out? His effort led to the creation (Under Jimmy Carter) of the Department of Education which employs 4400 people, has a budget of $81 Billion, and does nothing to improve education in the United States.

• Trump up in two post-conviction polls.

• Trump’s Trial Violated Due Process: He was denied notice of the charges, meaningful opportunity to respond, and proof of all elements. (Archive)

  To recap, the prosecution involved (1) a misdemeanor elevated to a felony based on an “intent to commit another crime,” (2) an indictment and trial that failed to specify, or present evidence establishing, another crime the defendant intended to commit, and (3) a jury instruction that the other crime was one that necessitated further proof of “unlawful means.” It’s a Russian-nesting-doll theory of criminality: The charged crime hinged on the intent to commit another, unspecified crime, which in turn hinged on the actual commission of yet another unspecified offense.

  To make matters worse, Judge Merchan instructed the jury: “Although you must conclude unanimously that the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means, you need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were.”

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Nobel laureate Thomas R. Cech on the Covid-19 vaccines and the future of RNA

• WHO confirms first fatal human case of bird flu A(H5N2)

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Duolingo removes all LGBT content from its app in Russia

• Books banned by libraries after just one complaint about 'racist' content

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• A Billionaire Gave UMass Dartmouth Graduates $1,000 in Cash, With One Request - The New York Times

  Then, as they prepared to collect their diplomas, their commencement speaker, Rob Hale, a billionaire philanthropist from Boston, returned to the dripping podium. He brought along two cash-stuffed duffel bags, he announced, and would hand every graduate $1,000 as they crossed the stage — $500 to keep for themselves, and $500 to give to any good cause.

• Pro-Palestinian Protesters Arrested at Stanford After Takeover of President’s Office.

• How Did So Many Sex Offenders Get Jobs In Texas Schools?

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Analysts join the call for Microsoft to recall Recall

• ISPs seek halt of net neutrality rules before they take effect next month

• Sony Pictures CEO announces controversial change to films and TV shows

  “We are very focused on AI,” said Vinciquerra during the event. “The biggest problem with making films today is the expense, and we need to find ways to produce films in a more efficient way. We will be looking at ways to use AI to produce both films for theaters and television in a more efficient way, using AI primarily.”

• TikTok hit with malicious malware that's taking over accounts – don't open DMs

• Meta Withheld Information on Instagram, WhatsApp Deals: FTC

• The 6 Laws of Dying Hollywood Franchises - by Ted Gioia

• Is Microsoft trying to commit suicide?

• The evolution of flimsy gaming graphics since the 1970s

• Top news app in US has Chinese origins and 'writes fiction' with the help of AI

• Google's privacy chief and head of competition law leaving, will not be replaced

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• 2800W Super Flower PSU boasts four 12V-2x6 power connectors — good for quad GPU setups used for AI training, not gaming | Tom's Hardware

  The SF-2800F14HP has five voltage rails in total, including +3.3V, +5V, -12V, and +5VSB rails. The first two rails are good for a combined output of 120W, while the latter two are capable of supporting 6W and 15W respectively. The +12V holds the vast majority of the power, with a maximum output of 2799.6W all by itself.

• Oral-B bricking Alexa toothbrush is cautionary tale against buzzy tech

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Humane warns AI Pin owners to 'immediately' stop using its charging case

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Russian cosmonaut becomes the first person to spend 1000 days in space

• SpaceX's fourth Starship launch approved for Thursday

• Boeing to launch its first Starliner astronaut mission today

• Fish on Board China’s Space Station Are Doing Swimmingly, Confused as Hell.

Economicon / Business / Finance

• John Deere laying off 10-15% of engineers in Midwest region

• Dr Pepper succeeded by playing third wheel to Coke and Pepsi

• No more chicken Big Macs – EU court rules against McDonald's in trademark case

  • Supermac's wins Big Mac trademark case with McDonald's

  • EU court rules in favour of Supermac's in 'Big Mac' trademark row with McDonalds

  • McDonald's Loses 'Big Mac' Trademark in European Union

• Warren Buffett Controls 3% of the Treasury Bill Market

• Is One Company to Blame for Soaring Rental Prices in the U.S.?

  • HN comments

• Alphabet and Google's New CFO Announced: Eli Lilly's Anat Ashkenazi

  • Anat Ashkenazi to Join Google and Alphabet as Chief Financial Officer

• Texas poised to get own stock exchange – with less red tape than NYSE or Nasdaq

  • Dallas Needs a Stock Exchange

• eBay to Stop Taking American Express Cards After Fee Dispute

• The great American boom is finally running out of steam, leaving mountains of debt

  Citigroup has become the first big American bank to warn that the US has already tipped into a recession. Once this process begins, it can snowball very fast into mass business layoffs unless the Federal Reserve moves fast. There is no sign of that. Some Fed officials are still breathing fire about inflation, judging that their survival as an independent institution depends on out-Volckering even the great inflation-slayer Paul Volcker.

• Bank of Canada cuts rates for first time in four years

• eBay to Stop Accepting Amex

• Top lawyer of ex-Wirecard boss walks away after money runs out

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping

  The 81-year-old Biden is the oldest person to hold the presidency. His age and cognitive fitness have become major issues in his campaign for a second term, both in the minds of voters and in attacks on him by Republicans. The White House and top aides said he remains a sharp and vigorous leader. Some who have worked with him, however, including Democrats and some who have known him back to his time as vice president, described a president who appears slower now, someone who has both good moments and bad ones.

• Hochul Pushes for Congestion Pricing Delay in Last-Minute Reversal

  • Gov. Hochul to officially delay congestion pricing: sources

• Rep. Jerry Nadler's Misrepresentation of Copyright Law

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• He trained cops to fight crypto crime and allegedly ran a dark-web drug market (Archive)

  The statement boasted that 30 officers had learned “nuances of the dark web" and cryptocurrency tracing skills from Lin, who had “used his professional background and qualifications in the field" to teach them how to better combat cybercrime. Only earlier this week did it become clear exactly what Lin's “professional background and qualifications in the field” allegedly entailed, seemingly unbeknownst to either his Taiwanese employers or his St. Lucian law enforcement trainees. For nearly four years, according to the US Justice Department, 23-year-old Lin ran a dark-web drug market called Incognito that authorities say enabled the sale of at least $100 million worth of narcotics, ranging from MDMA to heroin for cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and monero. That was before Lin's alleged theft of his own users' funds earlier this year and then his arrest last week by the FBI in New York's JFK airport.

• Thieves are now targeting fire hydrants across Los Angeles County

• FBI raids Atlanta corporate landlord in probe of rental market price fixing

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Ukraine War rips veil off of US weapons superiority

• Why did the US open up banking to Cuba's private sector?

World

• Europe Has Fallen Behind the U.S. and China. Can It Catch Up?

• Toyota raided as safety testing scandal grows

• 34% of Brits Say UK Economy Is Huge Concern

Israel

• Former Meta engineer sues company, claiming fired over handling of Gaza content

• Israel Targets U.S. Lawmakers with Fake Social Media Accounts

• Mass graves and body bags: al-Shifa hospital after Israel withdrew its forces

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Putin's Limited Tactical Nuclear Warfare Options

• Russians Love YouTube. That's a Problem for the Kremlin

• George Clooney Foundation to seek arrest of Russian propagandists

• Gazprom badly hurt by Ukraine war, says company-commissioned report

• Russia declares US ‘an enemy’ state for first time amid straining ties over Ukraine

China

• China deploys robot dogs during military exercise with Cambodia

• Tallest waterfall in China is fed by pipes, officials admit

• US and allies warn China intensifying efforts to recruit Western military pilots

Health / Medicine

• MDMA therapy for PTSD rejected by FDA panel

  • Flawed, scandalous trials tank FDA expert support for MDMA therapy

  • FDA Panel rejects MDMA as a PTSD treatment in possible setback for advocates

  • Panel advising US FDA rejects MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder

  • FDA Panel Rejects Use of MDMA for Treatment of PTSD

  • FDA advisors reject MDMA therapy for PTSD

  • FDA advisory panel rejects use of MDMA for PTSD treatment

• Why Counterfeit Ozempic Is a Global-Growth Industry

• Influencers Are Driving a New Category of Unionizing: Pharmacists

• Transplanted Pig Kidney Is Removed from Patient

• Major cause of inflammatory bowel disease found

• Women perform better in cognitive tests when menstruating, study finds

• Researchers find no evidence that sperm counts are dropping

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• An intergenerational crime against humanity

• Rejecting GMOs hinders human progress and keeps the poor hungry

• New recycling method makes solar cells even more environmentally friendly

• Heat dome brings dangerous weather to western US

• 2024's summer solstice is Earth's earliest since 1796

• The end of the great northern forests? Tree-killing beetle wreaking havoc

• Superfast Microsoft AI is first to predict air pollution for the whole world

• Refrigeration, food losses and associated greenhouse gas emissions

• Nearly half of journalists covering climate crisis globally received threats

• Soaring Solar Power Is Creating Challenges for the U.S. Energy Grid

• World hits streak of record temperatures as UN warns of 'climate hell'