2024-08-08

etc

• Indigo allows women to avoid booking seats next to men on flights

• Dog starts a house fire in Oklahoma after chewing through a lithium-ion battery

• How French Drains Work — Practical Engineering

  • HN comments

Horseshit

• Dragon Dragon, Quite Contrary! – Mad Genius Club

  What’s weird in all this, Cedar isn’t even in any sense one of the troublemakers, except for hanging out in this corner with the scum and villainy that is us. Surely no one could be so petty as to blacklist her just because she posts at MGC, right? So I thought to myself, I thought… I’m sure they have an excellent explanation. A completely fair and aboveboard one. I’m sure the only reason they haven’t answered is that they are so busy with more important things. But I know a lot of people are seething over this, and before we assume the worst about the Dragon awards, they should be given a full opportunity to explain themselves on the disappearance of Cedar from the ballot. Every possible chance, in fact.

• How the super-rich are building their luxury 'safe house' bunkers

• Pet owners have seen this Cats appear to grieve death of fellow pets – even dogs, study finds

• The universe suddenly hates satire - by Erik Hoel

  Consider satire during the Bush years: that was easy! George standing under the waving MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner in a flight suit. A golden age of satire, its halcyon days. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were so popular at the time precisely because satire was so easy, so applicable. Now, satire, real deep cutting satire, is basically the hardest thing to pull off in the world. Trump, for instance, at first seems so deeply susceptible to satire, and yet actually he cannot be satirized, because no one is more Trump than Trump and nothing can ever be more Trump than Trump. He maxes out the Trump-o-meter, and you can’t go past it any more than you can go faster than the speed of light, and a bunch of stuff is like that now.

  To be clear, the death of satire doesn’t mean outcomes won’t be funny. Oh, they are going to be funny. And probably very sad too. It also does not mean that people cannot find many, very many, things to make fun of in culture, be it on one side of the political aisle or another. But “making fun of” or “dunking on” (the majority of humor now) is actually different than real satire, deep satire; that’s supposed to be a quick cut with a blade so fine it takes a long time to even notice the wound. Some never do, until they keel over. That blade is what is being dulled, destined to become just a rubber sword waved around ridiculously.

  To be a sovereign individual now-a-days usually requires being shameless, for shame is the main weapon of the mob. But a funny side effect is that you cannot satirize the shameless. The shameless are immune to it. I’m rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you. Our culture is being filled up with exaggerated caricatures because they are the only ones who can combat the tidal surges of opinion and sentiment and resentment that is the mob-based starting thesis of our century. Expect more of that.

• ESR on UBI

  All you would-be social engineers continually trip over your own blindness about second-order consequences. Especially the second order consequences that come from the fact that the people you are trying to help, or nudge, don't want what you want. They want what they want, and they don't care about your clever planning except to the extent they can exploit it to pursue their own desires.

• Humanity is failing one of its greatest moral tests

• After 190 bodies found rotting, funeral home owners ordered to pay $950M

Musk

• Elon Musk says Tesla is an AI company now. Here’s how plausible that is.

• Elon Musk says U.K. civil war 'inevitable.' The British beg to differ.

• Elon Musk suing the mods of Cyberstuck for libel

• Florida's Space Coast Braces for Impact–From Elon Musk

• Judge advances Twitter investor suit against Elon Musk to discovery

• Elon Musk is opening another school. Expect a un-woke curriculum

• Musk stirs UK divisions, sparks calls for faster rollout of online safety laws

• Elon Musk is being ridiculous. Companies are free to choose where to advertise

• What is Elon Musk's game plan?

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Driver dies after Tesla Cybertruck slams into culvert

  • First Tesla Cybertruck Crash Kills Driver in Baytown Area

• Ask HN: Why dont we have more Remote Controlled Driving Cars?

• EV Revolution Stalls, Leaving Metal Markets in Limbo

• Waymo ride runs into high-speed sideshow

• We Downloaded More Torque and New Features for Our Kia EV9. Was It Worth the Cost?

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Never underestimate RNA: how a molecule went from bit player to star of the show

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• 70% of new NPM packages in last 6 months were spam

• Disney Posts First-Ever Streaming Profit

• Google kills Chromecast, replaces it with Apple TV and Roku Ultra competitor

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Three month suspension for a Core Developer - Committers - Discussions on Python.org

  The user showed these repeated violations of the following behaviors expected by the Code of Conduct:

  • Defending “reverse racism” and “reverse sexism”, concepts not backed by empirical evidence, which could be seen as deliberate intimidation or creating an exclusionary environment.
  • Using potentially offensive language or slurs, in one case even calling an SNL skit from the 1970s using the same slur “genuinely funny”, which shows a lack of empathy towards other community members.
  • Dismissing unacceptable behavior of others as a “neurodivergent” trait, which is problematic because it creates a stereotype that neurodivergent people are hard to interact with and need special treatment.

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Boeing and NASA Tussle over Plan to Bring Starliner Astronauts Home

• NASA has had to reschedule the next SpaceX flight to the ISS because the Boeing Starliner is still stuck there.

• Starliner astronauts have been in space more than 60 days with no end in sight

• SpaceX mission to space station delayed as Boeing tries to bring astronauts home

Crypto con games

• Morgan Stanley tells wealth advisors they can pitch Bitcoin ETFs

Economicon / Business / Finance

• How far will home equity loan rates drop after a Fed rate cut?

• Dell to layoff 10% of workforce in pivot to AI

• Costco membership scanners coming to clubs in sharing crackdown

• Techstars is laying off 17%, ending its J.P. Morgan-backed programs

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Tribal Nations Are Reclaiming Oklahoma

• First USGS Supercomputer Decommissioning makes way for Successors | U.S. Geological Survey

• RFK Jr will not be charged for dumping dead bear in Central Park 10 years ago

Harris / TBA 2024 / Democrats Demonstrate "Our Democracy"

• First Indigenous Female U.S. Governor Will Take Power if Harris Wins

• Who is Gwen Walz? She could be next second lady

  • Who Is Gwen Walz, the Wife of Tim Walz?

  • Who is Gwen Walz, Minnesota's first lady and wife of VP candidate Tim Walz?

• The self-proclaimed GOAT of cybersquatting owns HarrisWalz.com, at least for now

• "Mastodon for Harris" Is a Success Story for Fediverse Activism

Trump / Right / Jan6

• Whistleblower's damning claim about lead agent in Trump rally incident | Daily Mail Online

  A whistleblower is claiming that the lead Secret Service agent in charge of Donald Trump 's deadly Butler, Pennsylvania , rally was 'inexperienced' and 'failed to implement appropriate security protocols.' A separate whistleblower told Hawley that the same lead site agent 'personally made decisions that likely compromised the overall security of the event.' 'The site agent, the lead agent, was known to the Trump campaign to be inexperienced, to be ineffectual, to be, frankly, incompetent at their job,' Hawley told Fox News' Jesse Watters Monday evening. 'I'm also told by whistleblowers that on that day, she was not enforcing the normal security protocols.'

• Supreme Court Rejects Missouri's Attempt to Sue New York Over Trump Prosecution

• Ex-Trump attorney to cooperate in Arizona fake electors case, charges to be dropped

  Former President Donald Trump's campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with Rudy Giuliani, will cooperate with Arizona prosecutors in exchange for charges being dropped against her in a fake electors case, the state attorney general's office announced Monday. Last year, Ellis was charged in Georgia after she appeared with Giuliani at a December 2020 hearing hosted by state Republican lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol during which false allegations of election fraud were made. She had pleaded guilty in October to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. The cooperation agreement signed by Ellis in the Arizona case requires her to provide truthful information to the Attorney General's Office and testify honestly in proceedings in any state or federal court. Prosecutors can withdraw from the deal and refile charges if Ellis violates the agreement. Prosecutors have already asked a court to dismiss the Arizona charges against Ellis. It wasn't immediately clear if a judge had yet approved the request.

  While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors say Ellis made false claims of widespread election fraud in the state and six others, encouraged the Arizona Legislature to change the outcome of the election and encouraged then-Vice President Mike Pence to accept Arizona's fake elector votes.

  • Ex-Trump Lackey Jenna Ellis Flips to Help Arizona Prosecutors in 2020 Election Case

• Influencer gives Trump a Tesla, a Rolex … and a campaign finance violation?

• Trump's Plan for US Bitcoin Stockpile Alarms Forfeiture Experts

• Pakistani national with ties to Iran charged in connection to a foiled assassination plot potentially targeting Trump | CNN Politics

  The Justice Department has charged a Pakistani man who has alleged ties to the Iranian government with seeking to carry out political assassinations, a case that prompted the US government to increase security for former President Donald Trump and other officials, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday. FBI investigators believe that Trump and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot, a US official briefed on the matter said.

  Asif Merchant, 46, is accused of traveling to New York City and working with a hit man to carry out the assassinations in late August or early September, according to charges filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York. Merchant was arrested on July 12 while preparing to leave the United States, prosecutors said, shortly after he met with purported hitmen who he believed would carry the murders but were actually undercover law enforcement officers. He is in federal custody.

• Trump Media and Technology Group Launch of Own CDN

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Prosecutors plan to charge ex-police chief for raid on Kansas newspaper

• Personal Data of 3 Billion People Stolen in Hack, Suit Says

• Atlanta Police Monitoring of 'Cop City' Opponents' Political Activity

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• U.S. personnel injured in suspected rocket attack on Iraq military base

World

• Maduro’s team tries discrediting Venezuelan protesters

• Social media has created a 'perfect storm' for UK's far-right riots

  • Tell HN: If you're living in London, maybe go home a bit early today | Hacker News

  Large scale riots by the far-right are planned, and given the multi-cultural aspect that is the city, it means a lot of places of work are likely targets.

  • which "far right"? The ones that want elected leaders to write laws, or the ones whose laws come from God and include "wimmens' bodies shall not be seen"?

  • Is cocaine driving the British riots? - New Statesman

  The connection between hard drugs and far-right aggro has become a trope of British life. As fires raged and trouble spread across the country, many social media jokers blamed an unholy triumvirate of divorce, Facebook and cocaine. It is by no means a recent phenomenon either. Even Tommy Robinson has been convicted of drug possession. And in a later (deleted) video he was caught boasting about how he “scores” in every city he visits. While nobody is blaming these disturbing displays of racist violence entirely on the white stuff, it seems to be more than just a contributing factor.

  There is also plenty of overlap with that other great vector of British angst: football. Robinson has made no secret about recruiting existing football firms as his foot soldiers, and on the terraces coke use is approaching omnipresence. In 2021, a study conducted by the International Journal of Drug Policy found that around 30 per cent of people polled had seen cocaine at football stadiums. The matter even made it before a parliamentary panel, with Peter Houghton from the Football Safety Officers Association telling MPs that the toilets after one Cambridge United game “looked like a launderette – there was that much powder everywhere”.

Iran / Houthi

• Egypt asks airlines to avoid Iranian airspace on Thursday - The Jerusalem Post

  gypt instructed all of its airlines to avoid Iranian air space for a three-hour period in the early morning on Thursday amid tension between Israel and Iran. The NOTAM, a safety notice provided to pilots on Wednesday, said the instruction would be in effect from 1:00 a.m. until 4:00 a.m. GMT. "All Egyptian carriers shall avoid overflying Tehran (Flight information Region) FIR. No flight plan will be accepted overflying such territory," the notice said, referring to the three-hour period provided.

Israel

• Hezbollah launches drone strikes into Israel

• Israeli airstrike targeting Hezbollah kills 4 in southern Lebanon

China

• Driverless heavy trucks undergo road tests in China

• China will have nearly twice the pets than young children by 2030

Health / Medicine

• Fifth of medicines in Africa may be sub-par or fake, research finds

• HIV-like virus particle could end need for need for lifelong medications

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Deadlier strain of mpox spreads to multiple African countries | Science | AAAS

  • WHO head considering if its an emergency

  (Director-General of the World Health Organization:) I am considering convening an International Health Regulations Emergency Committee to advise me on whether the outbreak of mpox should be declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).

  • As far as I know; the "Mpox" vaccine is the only way for a civilian to receive any prophylactic treatment for smallpox right now. Until it became available there had been no generally available smallpox effective vaccination for a couple decades. Makes me wonder if there's fire under all that smoke.

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• The rise of 'ento-veganism': how eating crickets could help save the world

  • (May 2024) ‘Eat the bugs’: a short history of yet another global conspiracy | The Spinoff

• Deadly Tropical Storm Debby drenches historic southern cities

• 1970 Clean Air Act Was Intended to Cover Carbon Dioxide

• Why Rocket Fuel Has Been Contaminating Our Food and Water for Years