2024-07-23
Horseshit
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Mass killer Louis van Schoor tells BBC of police collusion
A convicted South African murderer who shot dead dozens of black men during apartheid has told the BBC the police sanctioned his violence. Louis van Schoor says others should share the blame for the killings he carried out as a security guard. Every killing between 1986 and 1989 was reported to the police by Van Schoor himself.
Despite killing at least 39 people, he was only convicted of seven murders. He would go on to serve just 12 years in prison. His other 32 killings are still classified as “justifiable homicides” by the police. Apartheid-era laws gave people the right to use lethal force against intruders if they resisted arrest or fled once caught.
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Artificial intelligence isn't a good argument for basic income
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Sam Altman's basic-income study is out. Here's what it found
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A Few Indisputable Points About Poptimism and Then I Give Up
NPR says “This summer's music charts are dominated by pop girl underdogs.” Underdogs cannot dominate! Definitionally! If they are dominating, they are not underdogs! This is the modern hell of crybullying, the person who tells you that you're oppressing them while they’re busy mashing your face into the asphalt.
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Hugo Awards Disqualification Statement – Locus Online
we have concluded that at least 377 votes have been cast fraudulently, of a total of 3,813 final ballot votes that we received. We have therefore disqualified those 377 votes from the final vote tally. This decision is not one made lightly, but we are duty bound as the Hugo Administrators to protect the Hugo Awards and to act against fraud. No other votes have been disallowed. The only votes disallowed are those which we have positively identified as not cast by natural persons.
We recognise that after the Hugo voting in 2023, many in the community will, understandably, have questions about this. Unfortunately, our ability to answer is very limited, due to our responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of the ballot and data protection regulations. There are proposals to institute a system of independent audit for Hugo votes. But at present such a system does not exist, therefore the raw 2024 voting data cannot and will not be shared outside the Glasgow 2024 Hugo team.
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Southwest flight flew just 150 feet above the ground, tracking data shows
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Delta Airlines taking steps to 'make it right' for customers
Musk
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By endorsing Trump, Elon Musk is gambling with Tesla’s future - The Verge
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Elon Musk Accused of Election Interference by Blocking Kamala Harris Followers on X
Following Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign announcement, users on Elon Musk’s platform, X (formerly Twitter), discovered they were unable to follow the vice president’s political campaign account. Attempts to follow @KamalaHQ, Harris’s official rapid response page, resulted in an error message stating “something went wrong” or that users had reached their follow limit, preventing them from following any more accounts. Musk responded by posting a screenshot of the error message accompanied by a gloating remark: “Sure did.” The use of follow limits typically prevents spam, but in this case, it appears the restriction is specifically targeting the Harris campaign account, rather than the users themselves.
When users went to follow @KamalaHQ, the official rapid response page for Harris’s campaign, they were greeted with a message that said they had reached their “limit” and could not follow any more accounts at this time. This message usually is deployed to prevent spam or “rate limiting,” for instance if one account is following hundreds of others. But it seems that the Harris account is the one being limited, rather than the users’. An initial search for KamalaHQ on The New Republic’s X account also found that the campaign account is limited. The campaign account showed up in repeated subsequent searches, seeming to suggest the issue is being resolved.
Electric / Self Driving cars
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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UK watchdog accuses Apple of failing to report sexual images of children
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EU tells Meta to address consumer fears over 'pay for privacy'
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Oracle pays $115M, agrees not to capture personal details after 2yr class action
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Apple Tries to Rein in Hollywood Spending After Years of Losses
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Imperfect, Linux-powered, DIY smart TV is the embodiment of ad fatigue
ClownStrike
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Global IT outage shows dangers of cashless society, campaigners say.
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Also, your AI safety plan needs to take into account that this was the level of security mindset and caution at CrowdStrike, despite CrowdStrike having this level of access and being explicitly in the security mindset business, and that they were given this level of access to billions of computers, and that their stock was only down 11% on the day so they probably keep most of that access and we aren’t going to fine them out of existence either.
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Crashes and Competition – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The real issue, though, is more fundamental: erroneous configuration files in userspace crash a program, but they don’t crash the computer; CrowdStrike, though, doesn’t run in userspace: it runs in kernel space, which means its bugs crash the entire computer — 8 million of them, according to Microsoft. Apple and Linux were not impacted, for a very obvious reason: both have long since locked out 3rd-party software from kernel space. Microsoft, though, despite having tried to do just that in the 2000s, has its hands tied; from the Wall Street Journal:
A Microsoft spokesman said it cannot legally wall off its operating system in the same way Apple does because of an understanding it reached with the European Commission following a complaint. In 2009, Microsoft agreed it would give makers of security software the same level of access to Windows that Microsoft gets.
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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Gnome Ousts Elected Board Member in Secret and Tells Nobody for 2 Months
If I were a voting member of the GNOME Foundation, I would find this all deeply troubling. If the GNOME Foundation can get rid of undesirable board members -- 100% in secret, without ever giving justification... and not even telling GNOME voters that they did it for multiple months -- then that means GNOME Members have absolutely no power within the Foundation. Their votes simply do not matter.
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
Crypto con games
Economicon / Business / Finance
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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First congressional Democrat calls for Secret Service director to resign.
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Rent control is not the answer
I don’t know exactly how this idea came together, but looking at the outputs, it seems like the kind of thing that happens when someone says, “Let’s do rent control!” and then a bunch of people who know that rent control is a bad idea craft a policy that is so limited across so many dimensions that it won’t actually do any harm. But this then leaves you with the question of why the White House would want to court the impression that their housing policy is being designed by leftist ideologues, when in fact it’s run by smart supply-siders.
TBA 2024 / Democrats Demonstrate "Our Democracy"
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Democratic donors express early elation at Harris’ potential ascension | CNN Politics
After weeks of turmoil over the future of the Democratic ticket, Kessler said the campaign donors he’s courted as a bundler for Biden’s campaign are turning their full attention to Harris and committing to work on her behalf. “They’re really excited, and they are all in,” he said. Matt Gorman, a longtime Democratic fundraiser, told CNN, “My phone’s been ringing off the hook.” Gorman said that while he deeply respects Biden, he feels it’s “incumbent” upon him to support the decision that’s been made and “back up Harris.”
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Harris: 'We are deeply grateful' for Biden's service - POLITICO
In her first remarks since Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and endorsed her, Vice President Kamala Harris praised the president’s “unmatched” legacy. “In one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who served two terms in office,” Harris said. She praised him for his “honesty, his integrity, his commitment to his faith and his family, his big heart and his deep love of the country,” and said “we are deeply grateful for his service to the nation.” Harris spoke on the South Lawn of the White House for a celebration of NCAA championship teams, filling in for Biden as he recovers from Covid.
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Buttigieg endorses Harris as Dems privately float him for VP - Live Updates - POLITICO
By Sunday, Buttigieg was trending as a possible running mate for Harris. “Any convo about the ticket has to include someone like Pete,” said a former Biden White House official. “The Vance takedown video from Friday is exhibit A of how he is our party’s best communicator. He also has the background and experience it takes and was vetted in the 2020 race.” One of the most scrutinized relational dynamics of the Biden administration has been Harris’ relationship with the transportation secretary. Buttigieg helped Harris prepare for her vice presidential debate in 2020 against his fellow Midwesterner Mike Pence.
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In Silicon Valley, Democrats Are Invigorated by Biden’s Withdrawal - The New York Times
that reluctance to speak up changed when Mr. Biden announced on Sunday that he would drop out of the presidential race, paving the way for a new Democratic ticket. Across the tech industry, the floodgates immediately reopened. “People are fired up,” said Nihal Mehta, an investor at Eniac Ventures, a New York venture capital firm, pointing to an outpouring of excitement online and in group chats around the industry. Tech executives and investors said they were invigorated by the change. “It’s democracy time, people,” Roy Bahat, an investor at Bloomberg Beta, posted on LinkedIn. Aaron Levie, the chief executive of Box, a cloud storage company, wrote on X that Mr. Biden had shown “amazing leadership,” adding, “Now let’s go!”
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So Just Literally No Democratic Process From the Democrats.
No one is going to defend democracy on its own terms, let alone as a means to choose the actual most popular candidate. The party is a joke and media coverage of the party is a joke, and no one within either is going to spoil the fun by pointing any of this out. I hope to God Trump doesn’t win, but the Democrats deserve to lose. They richly, richly deserve to lose. And since I’m hoping to God that Harris wins, I’m also necessarily hoping to God that the party never has any reason to question its destructive addiction to elite rule. When will Democratic voters actually get to determine the direction of their party, the way those lunatics in the GOP actually determine the direction of theirs? Probably never.
Biden Inc
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Joe must resign as president now: Incompetent Biden puts the world in grave danger.
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Biden’s Brother Says They Will “Enjoy Whatever Time We Have Left” - modernity
“I’m incredibly proud of my brother. Selfishly I will have him back to enjoy whatever time we have left,” Frank Biden told CBS, making it sound like Biden doesn’t have long left to live. The CBS anchor was surprised that Frank Biden said this because the White House is still bluntly denying age or health has anything to do with it. This entire debacle has some asking if Biden is even still alive.
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comments:
- July 20th will now be known as the Night Of The Pudding Cup Coup.
- Night of the Long Spoons?
- He broke up with us over Twitter!
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Dems Pull Off Successful Insurrection | Babylon Bee
According to sources, Democratic party elites have worked tirelessly to overthrow the candidate chosen by voters, using everything from donation boycotts to blackmail. "It took everything we have, but we have deposed the democratically elected candidate of our party," said former President Obama proudly. "Democracy has been saved."
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Doctor: President Joe Biden's COVID-19 symptoms 'almost resolved completely'
President Biden’s COVID-19 symptoms are nearly resolved, his doctor said Monday. The president took his 10th dose of Paxlovid on Monday morning and his doctor, Kevin O’Connor, said in a letter that “his symptoms have almost resolved completely.” O’Connor on Monday reiterated that Biden “continues to perform all of his presidential duties” while he is in Rehoboth and that he will keep the White House updated on changes to the president’s condition.
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In the national address he plans to give later this week, he needs to remind himself and the American public just how miraculous and sacred the presidency is as an office of service over leadership. He needs to pivot from resigning his position to a rallying cry of civic duty and political purpose. There is even a blueprint for spinning such straw into gold: George Washington’s celebrated Farewell Address, when he decided in 1796 that two terms in office were enough, and more importantly, that no president should ever pretend that America depends on their charms or insights or talents.
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Biden cancels nine trips, extends Delaware stay after dropping out of 2024 race.
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Slurring, raspy Biden calls in to Kamala Harris’ first visit to campaign headquarters: ‘I love you!’
Trump / Right / Jan6
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Trump wins round in libel suit against Pulitzer Prize Board over Russia stories.
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Can J.D. Vance's Populist Crusade Succeed?
So why did Trump pick this guy? It turns out, it was Don Trump Jr., and populist advisors like Tucker Carlson, who persuaded Trump to bet on Vance years ago. In 2022, Trump rescued Vance’s Senate primary campaign in a crowded field with an endorsement; a year or so later, Vance arranged Trump’s visit to East Palestine in Ohio, where a derailment of a toxic chemical-laden train caused a crisis. That visit helped resurrect Trump’s campaign. Politico reported that Trump said to his son and aides on the plane about Vance, “This guy is turning out to be fucking incredible.”
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Can Kamala Harris beat Trump? Here’s what polls say. - The Washington Post
In a Washington Post average of 11 post-debate polls, Trump edged out Harris by 1.5 percentage points, only slightly less than his 1.9-point lead over Biden in the same polls.
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In this report on cell phone location (presumably from publicly-sourced advertising data, which should terrify you), the Heritage Foundation claims one device that regularly visited the Crooks home was tracked to DC near an FBI office. Also strange was the fact that a device linked to the Crooks home had visited Butler twice in the week or so before the shooting (an hour and twenty minute drive).
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Internet users debate Wikipedia image policy over Trump raised-fist photo
With the discussion comprising approximately 200,000 bytes and the image approximately 18,000 bytes, the discussion is around eleven times the size of the image. Among roughly two hundred comments, many supported retaining the content — but many lacked detailed reasoning, or based their rationales on political views rather than Wikipedia policies, resulting in their dismissal. The discussion was closed by Soni with consensus to keep, because the image eventually met the criteria for retention with the creation of the article that discusses the photograph.
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California's Freedom-Loving, Bible-Thumping Hub of Hard Tech
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
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Taxpayer-Funded Sexual Child Trafficking – by Federal Contractors.
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Shoe prints lead FBI to suspect couple involved in multiple New Mexico wildfires
In a recently unsealed search warrant affidavit, an FBI agent detailed an investigation into 16 suspicious fires on the Mescalero Apache Reservation near Ruidoso, New Mexico. The FBI began the investigation in early May, and several other federal agencies joined last month after the Salt Fire had burned more than 7,000 acres of the reservation's forests. Investigators determined all 16 fires to be "human-caused." The fires occurred from May 3 to June 18 in a 25-square-mile area.
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
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US Navy aviator scores first air-to-air victory by American female fighter pilot | CNN
A US Navy fighter pilot has become the first American woman to score a victory in air-to-air combat, the service has revealed. The female pilot, who was not named in the Navy release, was flying an F/A-18 Super Hornet off the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower as part of Strike Fighter Squadron 32, nicknamed the “Flying Swordsmen.” The aerial victory came against a one-way Houthi attack drone, one of dozens the Yemen-based group has deployed against civilian merchant ships in the Red Sea and nearby waters in reaction to the destruction in Gaza during Israel’s war against Hamas, a release from Carrier Strike Group 2 said. The Swordsmen, one of four strike fighter squadrons that deployed on the Eisenhower, fired more than 20 air-to-air missiles against the Houthi drones during those missions, the Navy said. “During one mission, VFA-32 became home to the first American female pilot to engage and kill an air-to-air contact,” it said. The Eisenhower-led carrier strike group returned to US bases on July 14 after a nine-month deployment, an exceptionally lengthy deployment for a carrier. Normal deployments last about six to eight months.
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
China
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Volt Typhoon was a false flag inside job conspiracy: China • The Register
China has wildly claimed the Volt Typhoon gang, which Five Eyes nations accuse of being a Beijing-backed attacker that targets critical infrastructure, was in fact made up by the US intelligence community. The nation's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center, National Engineering Laboratory for Computer Virus Prevention Technology, and infosec vendor 360 Digital Security Group last week published a report [PDF] on Vault Typhoon titled "Lie to me: A secret Disinformation Campaign targeting US Congress and Taxpayers conducted by US Government agencies."
That title probably tells you plenty of what you need to know about the report, which goes on to claim that everything you have read about Volt Typhoon is the result of a misinformation campaign planned and executed by the NSA, the FBI, and the Departments of Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, and Energy.
Health / Medicine
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Two dead in multistate listeria outbreak linked with sliced deli meat, CDC says
Two people have died, the agency said in an investigation notice, and at least 28 have had to be hospitalized. However, the CDC says the true number of people who are sick is probably higher than what’s been reported because some may have had a milder form of the illness and not been tested for listeria. There’s also a lag time between when an illness happens and when scientists can connect it with an ongoing investigation. Seven illnesses have been reported in New York; six in Maryland; two each in Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey and Virginia; and one each in Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The deaths were reported in Illinois and New Jersey.
Of the 18 people whom state and local public health experts were able to interview, 16 reported eating meats sliced at a deli in the month before they got sick. There are no reports of people getting sick after eating packaged deli meat. It’s not exactly clear what meat is to blame for the listeria in this outbreak, the CDC says. The CDC and the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service are investigating, but no recalls have been issued.
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California medical group treats only homeless patients and makes money