2024-07-05
Worthy
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Speech on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
A spring will cease to flow if its source be dried up; a tree will wither if its roots be destroyed. In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.
We are too prone to overlook another conclusion. Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.
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In Defense of Fireworks - Hugo Schwyzer
At the heart of what it means to be human is to do what we can to keep the night at bay. Our ancestors lit fires to keep warm, to cook food, to keep away savage beasts, but above all else, to feel less afraid of an otherwise unlit world. When we wave our sparklers and shoot off our bottle rockets, we are not mere selfish vandals. We are lighting beacons, symbolizing not just a particular American freedom but an ancient defiance of the darkness. In Beowulf, the shield Danes lit torches in the mead hall to better brave Grendel and his fearsome mama. In America, we shoot off fleeting pyrotechnics for more or less the same reason. We’re gonna kick the darkness until it bleeds daylight.
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Research discovers hippos' ability to become airborne
A new study from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) into the movement and gaits of hippopotamuses on land has found that while they almost exclusively trot, the fastest-moving hippos become airborne for substantial periods of time.
Horseshit
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How Did Silicon Valley Turn into a Creepy Cult?
I should have noticed when tech leaders started talking about attaining immortality and resettling on Mars. It’s easy to ignore crackpots like that, or pity them—because they live in delusion and still end up dead here on planet Earth. But previously it was some looney, a cult believer, or Ted Williams’ kids. Now it’s the billionaires who run the world who have the craziest schemes.
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Former Boeing inspector alleges 'scrap' parts ended up on assembly lines
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Jeremy Clarksons new venture exposes the demise of the great British pub
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Forget privacy, young internet users want to be tracked
A quick poll of friends found that those who were, like me, in their 40s and older either had no idea they could use their phone in this way or had relatively little interest in doing so. As one put it: the thought of appearing as a dot on someone else’s map has echoes of dystopian devices implanted into unwilling arms. But friends a decade or so younger all seem to be tracking one another with abandon. My 29-year-old cousin has the location of his girlfriend as the lockscreen on his phone. Neither finds the idea of monitoring or being monitored in this way unnerving. They say it makes them feel safer. This is not because they are blind to the importance of online privacy. It is because they are realistic about the privacy that is available. They know that if you own a smartphone and don’t want to disable useful things like maps then your location is already being watched. If app creators, smartphone makers and ad companies are already tracking your location then why not share the information with people you know?
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How Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom of Speech” Painting Went Viral - The New York Times
The oil painting, which shows a man dressed in work wear standing and poised to speak amid a crowd of men in suits, is part of a series by Rockwell inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address arguing for U.S. involvement in World War II. In his remarks, the president outlined four universal freedoms that Americans should fight to guarantee for all: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.
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Human history in the very long run - by Matthew Yglesias
Our species is about 300,000 years old, and farming and towns started about 12,000 years ago. The vast majority of the history of human technology unfolded before the existence of our species, and the vast majority of our species’ existence was prior to permanent settlements.
If you did go all the way back, you’d find that the neolithic revolution — when people turned to agriculture — was also a big deal. The problem is that, as Jared Diamond and now many other scholars seem to agree, agriculture made living standards lower rather than higher. Or if you want to be fussy about it, you can agree with James Scott that the problem was not agriculture per se but grain.
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The dangers of sneezing–from ejected bowels to torn windpipes
Electric / Self Driving cars
celebrity gossip
Musk
Trump / War against the Right / Jan6
Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp
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Mpox Has Infected Nearly 100,000 People. Here’s What You Need to Know.
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(2022) Smallpox/Monkeypox Vaccine Information Statement | CDC
Smallpox/monkeypox vaccine (JYNNEOS™) can help protect against smallpox, monkeypox, and other diseases caused by orthopoxviruses, including vaccinia virus.
- Is there any other available vaccine that advertises any protection from smallpox?
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
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(May 2024) Report on NixOS Governance Discussions - by Chris McDonough
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right now, where we live, the only way to “eliminate undesirable genetic traits” in a population is to kill or sterilize the carriers. And I’m again, no matter how crazy you think this might be, going to tell you that killing people for their own good is one of the greatest evils ever. Because it’s never for their own good, but for the interests and pleasure of those doing the killing. This is then wrapped and disguised in altruism.
You can’t know whether someone is perfectly happy with the quality of life that seems terrible to you. And you can’t judge whether someone with some kind of genetic defect will make a positive contribution in the world. (Even complete morons might make someone else smile. Heaven knows we keep dogs and cats who can’t talk and are very dumb compared even to human toddlers, because keeping them and looking after them makes us happy.) If you have to dressed killing someone as “for their own good” you know d*mn well it’s a bad thing. And the question is always always always “where does it stop?” I have perfect empathy with people who care for people at the end of their life and who think it would be best to spare horrible suffering for a few more hours or days or months, since the end seems inevitable. I’d even trust a few people, personally known to me to make that decision for me personally and if I had no other qualms about it (I do. They’re private and none of your business.) We watched my FIL unable to communicate, move, anything for the months it took him to die, and it certainly isn’t how I’d prefer to go.
The problem is every time we grant anyone, be it government, caretakers or institutions the right to make that decision and determine that “the end is inevitable, why not shorten the suffering” it always ends up in the excesses of the MAID program in Canada. Not sometimes. ALWAYS. We now have a long history of places that have allowed people to die to escape suffering (which more or less translates to persuading people to die so other people can stop suffering) and it always ends up in killing people deemed to have “lives unworthy of living” including the handicapped and depressed teenagers.
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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More manipulation of OctoPrint's anonymous usage stats
To quote Kenneth’s own blog post on the matter:
I created a script to manipulate the OctoPrint stats to boost the ranking of Obico for OctoPrint plugin, probably back in 2022, after having some suspicion that [OctoEverywhere] was doing that.
To be honest, that left me speechless. Instead of approaching me with their suspicions back then and saving myself and the community a lot of work and headache now, Obico decided to play the same game and manipulate the stats themselves, and even kept doing that after I had already discovered the manipulation in favor of OctoEverywhere. I’m glad that they finally came clean, but I can’t put into words the disappointment, betrayal and also anger I feel.
Even though it costs me, I’ve dropped Obico as a Sponsor over this. I cannot in good conscience prominently advertise for a company that has been manipulating the stats of my project for their own personal gain and through that caused damage to the project and the community.
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Microsoft's Midnight Blizzard source code breach also impacted federal agencies
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Discrepancies in the delivery of political ads on Facebook and Instagram
TechSuck / Geek Bait
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
Economicon / Business / Finance
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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THE PRESIDENTIAL debate was awful for Joe Biden, but the cover-up has been worse. It was agony to watch a befuddled old man struggling to recall words and facts. His inability to land an argument against a weak opponent was dispiriting. But the operation by his campaign to deny what tens of millions of Americans saw with their own eyes is more toxic than either, because its dishonesty provokes contempt. The effect has been to put the White House within Donald Trump’s grasp. Fresh polls have found that voters in the states Mr Biden must win have moved against him. His lead may be in danger even in once-safe states such as Virginia, Minnesota and New Mexico. Mr Biden deserves to be remembered for his accomplishments and his decency rather than his decline. So it is right that the first senior Democrats have begun to call openly for him to step aside. However, their public expressions are nothing compared with the building wave of private dismay. More of them urgently need to face up to the fact that if they do not speak out now, Mr Trump will win. In order to bring about the political renewal that America now so clearly needs, they must call for change. It is not too late.
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It’s Time For The Biden Campaign To Embrace AI
The stakes of the 2024 presidential election cannot be overstated. With Donald Trump promising to act as a dictator “on day one,” it is not hyperbolic to say the future of American democracy hangs in the balance. Against this backdrop, the Biden campaign faces a critical challenge: conveying a strong and effective image of President Joe Biden to a population and media ecosystem increasingly focused on optics over substance. Given the president’s concerning performance last week, it’s time for the Biden campaign to consider leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to effectively reach the voting public.
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Opinion | What Biden might say, should he choose to end his reelection bid - The Washington Post
A large part of me still wants to stay in the fight. But, at this moment, the nation needs something I cannot provide: a leader with the energy to run a vigorous campaign and then to work for America, at all hours, for the next four years.
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In January 2023, as the old Chief Of Staff was leaving, it would be no surprise that President Biden would call on Zients, the hired Gun, again. Biden could use someone who knew the bureaucracy and had contacts on Wall Street and Social Media. When James O’Keeffe broke the story a year ago that Zients was the second most powerful man in Washington and that a Zients subordinate claimed that Biden repeats everything Zients says, it might have seemed an overstatement. But it would come as no surprise to the careful observer. Zients has been doing that for a long time, both inside and outside government.
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Michelle Obama leads all potential Biden replacements, would beat Trump by double digits: poll
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ABC moves up Biden interview to Friday
Biden is set to speak to anchor George Stephanopoulos early Friday, with the Disney-owned network originally saying it planned to release the taped interview in dribs and drabs before showing the full thing on Sunday. Now, the entire pre-taped interview will air as a primetime special at 8 p.m. on Friday. A preview of the interview will be released earlier on “World News Tonight with David Muir,” with airs at 6:30 p.m.
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
World
China
Health / Medicine
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Coffee, eggs and white rice linked to higher levels of PFAS in human body
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Cristiano Ronaldo and the importance of controlling your heart rate
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Rare form of eye stroke that causes blindness now linked to Ozempic and Wegovy
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Study measuring toxic metals in tampons shows arsenic, lead, other contaminants
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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Oldest inhabited termite mounds have been active for 34,000 years
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Firework displays will mark 4 July in the US, and air quality will suffer
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White-tailed eagles: Footage reveals 'miracle chick' in flight
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To save spotted owls, US officials will kill hundreds of thousands of other owls
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Fibreglass from boats found in marine food chain for first time
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The Last Wild Horses Are Finally Returning to Their Natural Habitat