2024-09-07

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• How the FAA Is Keeping Flying Cars in Science Fiction - FEE

  The Department of Transportation (DOT) sets strict safety requirements for cars, but manufacturers are allowed to release new designs without first getting the DOT to sign off that all the requirements have been satisfied. The law is enforced ex post, and the government will impose recalls and fines when manufacturers fail to follow the law.

  The FAA, by contrast, enforces all of its safety rules ex ante. Before aircraft manufacturers can do anything with a design, they have to get the FAA’s signoff, which can take more than a decade. This regulatory approach also makes the FAA far more risk-averse, since any problems with an aircraft after release are blamed on the FAA’s failure to catch them. With ex post enforcement, the companies that failed to follow the law would be blamed, and the FAA rewarded, for enforcing recall.

  This subtle difference in the ordering of legal enforcement is the major cause of the stagnation of aircraft design and manufacturing.

• The Moon had volcanic activity much more recently than we knew

• Small asteroid creates ‘spectacular fireball’ while burning up over Philippines.

Horseshit

• Baseline pupil size related to cognitive ability in proper lighting conditions

celebrity gossip

• Bill Gates Talks to CNET About AI, Misinformation and Climate Change

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Judge Rejects yet Another Attempt by Texas to Police Online Speech

Tenet

• The Psyop Inside the Psyop – According To Hoyt

  don’t care if the Justice Department did a big bad press release. NO CRIME WAS COMMITTED. NOT A SINGLE ONE. Oh, mind you, the person handing out the cash on behalf of the alleged Russians MIGHT have been laundering money from other operations, in which case some money laundering laws might have been broken. That’s way above my pay grade. What I will say though is that in the “pay bloggers to say bad things about Jews” or “pay bloggers to praise Putin” or “Pay bloggers to say my eyes are pretty” stakes, no crimes were committed.

• Right-wing US influencers say they were victims of alleged Russian plot

• FBI says Kremlin-linked org paying 2800 influencers to spread pro-Russia content

Telegram

• Telegram will start moderating private chats after CEO's arrest

  • Telegram quietly updates FAQ

  removing: "All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them."

• Telegram's Durov condemns arrest, says stifles innovation

• Telegram to remove or disable services that have been misused

• Durov says Telegram will tackle criticism of how it moderates content

• Telegram to drop 'people nearby' feature and improve moderation

Musk

• X global affairs head Nick Pickles leaves social media company

• Tesla launches first all-electric 'Giga Train' – and it's free to ride

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Self-Driving Cars Get Help from Humans Miles Away

• Europe Surpasses 900,000 Public EV Charge Points

• Yangwang U8 First Test Review: Meet the 1,200-hp Chinese Electric Super-SUV

  Yangwang is a BYD subsidiary, sitting above sister companies Denza and Fangchengbao as the most luxurious automaker in the BYD family. The U8 is its first vehicle, a Land Rover Defender–looking SUV (it measures 209.4 inches nose to tail, just shy of the current Defender 130's 211.7 inches) with four permanent-magnet electric motors, as well as a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine that doesn’t drive the wheels but instead works as a generator to feed power into the modest 49.1-kWh battery. Plug-in hybrids with gas-fired engine/generators are all the rage in China, where they’re known as EREVs, or extended-range EVs. The U8 tested here is a 2024 Luxury Edition, which retails for the equivalent of $153,720 in China (if it were to magically appear in the U.S., it would require a 100% tariff) and is at its core a 7,628-pound, 1,180-hp super-SUV.

  Despite its heft, the U8 achieves a 0–60-mph time of 3.2 seconds and a 125-foot stop from that same speed. Considering the test track surface in China had less grip than we’re used to back home, the fact that the Yangwang came to a stop in the same distance as an Xpeng G6 compact SUV weighing 3,200 pounds less strikes us as a small win. Clearing the quarter mile in 11.4 seconds at a trap speed of 121.7 mph is a major victory that puts this luxobarge in the same league as BMW M and Mercedes-AMG utes.

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Streaming every NFL game this season requires 7 different services, costs $2,500

• Larry Ellison Will Control Paramount Global After Skydance Deal Closes

  • Larry Ellison now has controlling interest in Paramount

• Google faces antitrust charges in UK for 'self-preferencing' its ad exchange

• Nefarious actors attack from 3k shadow GitHub accounts, spreading malware

• Pay us, and we won't tell others what we know about you. The Sun and other publications roll out "Pay to Reject personalized ads"

• Thanks to Hits Like Wordle, the New York Times Is Now a Gaming Company

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Open Source undefined, part 1: the alternative origin story | Dieter's blog

  ’ve been active in Open Source for 20 years and could use a refresher on its origins and officialisms. The plan was simple: write a blog post about why the OSI (Open Source Initiative) and its OSD (Open Source Definition) are authoritative, collect evidence in its support (confirmation that they invented the term, of widespread acceptance with little dissent, and of the OSD being a practical, well functioning tool). That’s what I keep hearing, I just wanted to back it up. Since contention always seems to be around commercial re-distribution restrictions (which are forbidden by the OSD), I wanted to particularly confirm that there hasn’t been all that many commercial vendors who’ve used, or wanted, to use the term “open source” to mean “you can view/modify/use the source, but you are limited in your ability to re-sell, or need to buy additional licenses for use in a business”

  However, the further I looked, the more I found evidence of the opposite of all of the above. I’ve spent a few weeks now digging and some of my long standing beliefs are shattered. I can’t believe some of the things I found out. Clearly I was too emotionally invested, but after a few weeks of thinking, I think I can put things in perspective. So this will become not one, but multiple posts.

  I can’t decide which is more wild: OSI’s audacious outcries for the whole world to forget about the trademark failure and trust their “pinky promise” right to authority over a common term, or the fact that so much of the global community actually fell for it and repeated a misguided narrative without much further thought. (myself included) I think many of us, through our desire to be part of a movement with a positive, fulfilling mission, were too easily swept away by OSI’s origin tale.

• Linux man-pages project maintenance

  I've been maintaining the Linux man-pages project for the last 4 years as a voluntary. I've been doing it in my free time, and no company has sponsored that work at all. At the moment, I cannot sustain this work economically any more, and will temporarily and indefinitely stop working on this project.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• The US, UK, and EU have signed a "legally binding" AI treaty.

  • Pixy:

  Has it been ratified by the Senate? Yeah, that's what I thought. Unfortunately it is utter garbage since the definition of "artificial intelligence" it provides applies to every computer ever built, back to the Hollerith tabulating machines used in the 1890 US census.

• AI craze distorting VC market, as tech giants pour in billions of dollars

• "The Game UI Database has been laggy for weeks, we fixed it by blocking one IP"

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• SpaceX launches third batch of satellites for NRO's proliferated constellation

• Boeing Starliner to return to Earth – without its astronauts

  • Boeing's Starliner ready to head home to Earth today

  • Without astronauts, Boeing's Starliner undocks from space station

  • Stranded astronauts' capsule heads home without them

  • Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test Undocking

Crypto con games

• The Rise of Bitcoin-Powered Pools and Bathhouses

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Qualcomm has explored buying pieces of Intel chip design business

• Employment rises by 142K in August; unemployment rate changes little at 4.2%

  • Private sector tallies lowest monthly job gain since January 2021.

• OnlyFans Owner Makes $1B in Three Years from Dividends

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• CA Governor seeks to harness the power of GenAI to address homelessness

• Voters' Yearning for a Dictator Is a Danger to the Country

  Democrats are more likely than Republicans to believe that presidents have "total control" or "a lot of control" over gun deaths, abortion access, and poverty rates, pollsters found. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to believe the presidency exercises such vast authority over issues including foreign policy, national debt, and tax rates. Majorities of both partisan groups see the president exercising dictatorial authority over foreign policy, military operations, judicial appointments, and natural disaster response. But Republicans are more likely than Democrats to view the president as a near-monarch. Worse, whatever powers partisans think the president has, many want the office to wield much more.

• The "Need for Chaos" Voter - by Brian Klaas

  New research has discovered a new personality trait called "need for chaos." They just want to watch the world burn and they're happy to help democracy end in flames. We must understand them.

  the researchers wanted to know how Need for Chaos interacts with partisanship. To study that in the American context, they split research participants in two groups—Republican and Democrats. What they found was, as you’d expect, that Democrats were more likely to spread baseless political rumors about Republicans and Republicans were more likely to spread baseless political rumors about Democrats. Here’s the interesting twist: this relationship breaks down once a person scores high on the Need for Chaos index. At that point, the person just wants to spread everything that could cause damage, regardless of partisan affiliation. It’s not about political agendas; it’s about destruction.

• Tyler Tech’s Odyssey Software Took Over Local Government and Courts - Bloomberg

• Newsom vetoes bill to help undocumented migrants buy homes

Harris / Democrats

• Kamala Harris will win election, predicts leading historian Allan Lichtman

• Kamala Harris' Donors Privately Urge Firing of FTC's Khan, SEC's Gensler

Biden Inc

• Hunter Biden Admits He Committed Every Element of Every Crime Charged in Indictment – RedState

Trump / Right / Jan6

• Trump: I'll hire Elon Musk to make 'drastic' changes as US efficiency tsar

• School shootings are just a fact of life, says JD Vance

  • 'Fact Of Life' - Harris Disinfo Campaign Against Vance Peddles Deleted AP Propaganda | ZeroHedge

• Judge Delays Trump Hush-Money Sentencing Until after Election | National Review

  Judge Juan Merchan ruled Friday that Trump’s sentencing will take place on November 26, three weeks after election day, ensuring that Trump will not be sentenced in any of his criminal cases leading up to the election. Trump’s sentencing was originally scheduled to take place in July ahead of the Republican National Convention, but it was pushed back to September 18 following the Supreme Court’s presidential-immunity ruling.

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Ninth Circuit rejects qualified immunity for officer who shot activist in groin

• Feds raid home of NYPD Commish Edward Caban, other close Eric Adams allies

• Georgia school shooting: Suspect's father arrested on charges including involuntary manslaughter

  The 14-year-old suspect, Colt Gray, who used an AR-style weapon in the shooting, surrendered immediately and was taken into custody within minutes. He was charged with four counts of murder today. The suspect's father, Colin Gray, 54, was arrested on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said today. Colin Gray gave his son an AR-15 style rifle as a gift, two law enforcement sources said. It's unclear when he gave the gift, but it was after authorities interviewed the father and son last year in connection with threats to carry out a school shooting, The suspect was a new student at Apalachee High, having only been there for a partial day. The day of the shooting was his first full day at the school, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.

  • This is not a coincidence

  GPS data reveals that an FBI special agent, previously linked to multiple other shooters, was within 1,000 feet of Georgia school shooter Colt Gray on 11 separate occasions over a 14-month span.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• White House doubts Hamas wants Gaza deal with Israel after hostage killings

  Biden and his top advisers were shocked after Hamas killed six hostages, among them U.S. citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, and have started to rethink the way forward in the negotiations over the deal. At the same time, Hamas' new demand to increase the number of Palestinian prisoners released as part of the deal raised even more concerns and questions among U.S. negotiators about whether an agreement is possible, U.S. officials said. "We still think the deal is the only way to save the lives of the hostages and stop the war. But the executions not only increased our sense of urgency but also called into question Hamas' willingness to do a deal of any kind," a U.S. official said.

• Planning for a Post-American NATO | Foreign Affairs

  Europe may soon find itself in a tight spot. By the end of January 2025, the continent’s most important partner, the United States, could be led by former President Donald Trump, who has said that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell it wanted” to European countries that did not do what he wanted: spend more on defense. The previous Trump administration strained the transatlantic relationship, and the next iteration would almost certainly be worse. Freed from the influence of the traditional Atlanticist Republicans who staffed his cabinet in his first term, a second-term Trump would face fewer obstacles to making good on his threats. The U.S. election is far from decided, but the magnitude of the change that a Trump victory could bring is far too great for Europe to sit by and hope that the former president loses at the ballot box. Trump has warned that he would immediately cut all U.S. aid to Kyiv and demand a quick end to the war, which would likely require Ukraine to cede a significant part of its territory to Russia. And that could just be the start. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO, so it is not inconceivable that he would strip back the U.S. commitment to defend Europe.

World

• The Netherlands' Rent Control Disaster

China

• Nvidia's AI chips are cheaper to rent in China than US

• With NASA's plan faltering, China knows it can be first with Mars sample return

Health / Medicine

• Humans are unreliable models of mouse disease

• Testosterone Clinics Sell Virility. Some Men End Up with Infertility

• Study: 75% of women treated after taking abortion pills 'severe or critical'

• Saline nasal irrigation for the common cold

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Causing environmental damage should be a criminal offence

• Fossil fuel industry influence in higher education: Review and a research agenda

• The biggest oil spill in US history: What we've learned since Deepwater Horizon

  Jeffrey Short, an expert in oil spills and now-retired scientist from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), was working for Oceana, a marine conservation organisation when the BP spill occurred. When a colleague told him about the spill at lunchtime, he felt sick. "I knew immediately that this would be ecologically and economically disastrous, that it would wreck tens of thousands of people's lives, and that it would dominate my professional life for the next several years," he says. "All of which proved true."