2024-09-10

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• Telescope maker: Orion Ceases Operations, Future Of Meade Unclear

• Double-helical design boosts concrete crack resistance

• Entrepreneurship changed the way I think – Casey Handmer's blog

Horseshit

• Farmers wrecked rain gauges in crop insurance fraud

• Amazon Wants Your Palm and TSA Wants Your Face. What Saying Yes Will Mean.

• Idiots who tried TikTok's viral "free money glitch" at ATMs are getting reported for fraud.

• What Americans want to kill, according to Google

• Snacks Took over American Life

• The Roman siege of Masada lasted just a few weeks, not several years

• Avis alerts nearly 300k car renters that crooks stole their info

• With pedestrian fatalities mounting, US proposes tougher vehicle design rules

celebrity gossip

• Bill Gates says solving misinformation is now young people's problem

Obit

• Walter G. Ehmer, longtime Waffle House president, dies at 58

• James Earl Jones, commanding actor who voiced Darth Vader, dies at 93

  • James Earl Jones dead at 93

  • James Earl Jones, One of Hollywood's Most Defining Voices, Has Died

  • James Earl Jones Dies at 93

  • James Earl Jones, voice of Darth Vader, dies aged 93

  • James Earl Jones, Actor Whose Voice Could Menace or Melt, Dies at 93

  • one of my favorite stories about him: Darth Vader's Penchant for CB Radio | Mental Floss

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Russia focusing on US social media stars to covertly influence voters

Musk

• Deluge of abuse sent on X to prominent UK politicians in election period

• Elon Musk’s X is a poison. We don’t need to keep taking it.

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Panasonic Ready to Start Making Next-Gen EV Cells at Japan Plant

• The Electric Vehicle Future Is Coming. Just a Little More Slowly.

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• East Timor welcomes Pope Francis as he continues grueling Asia tour

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• 'Unschooling' parents put their kids in charge of their own educations

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Google's lucrative ad tech business goes on trial

  • Google’s ad dominance at the centre of its next big antitrust showdown

  • Google antitrust trial over online ads opens in Virginia

  • Google's lucrative ad tech business goes on trial

• Put levy on smartphones to help creatives survive AI threat, top UK artists say

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• AI may not steal many jobs after all. It may just make workers more efficient

• New bill would force AI companies to reveal source of AI art

• Scientists Make 'Cyborg Worms' with a Brain Guided by AI

• AI Started as a Dream to Save Humanity. Then, Big Tech Took Over

• Study shows 'alarming' level of trust in AI for life and death decisions

• Large language models will upend human rituals

Crypto con games

• NY judge orders SEC to provide docs in Coinbase case, excludes Gensler testimony

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Are greedy companies to blame for grocery inflation? We looked at the data

• America's best-paid CEOs have the worst-paid employees

• Boeing offers 25% pay rise to avoid strike

  • To avoid strike, Boeing promises 25% pay hike–and to build next jet in Seattle

  • Boeing reaches deal with union to avoid strike

• TSMC's Arizona Trials Put Plant Productivity on Par with Taiwan

• Volkswagen's $5B Rivian tie-up prompts dismay at software division

• 'Ghost Jobs' and Shrinking Consultant Salaries Spell Trouble for Other Workers

• Amazon rejects plea to stop selling taxi roof signs as cab scam spreads

• How Apple Went From Underdog to $3.4 Trillion Global Force

• Battery giant Northvolt to lay off staff in cost-cutting drive

• Hoonigan Files for Bankruptcy with $1.2B in Debt

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Support for U.S. TikTok ban continues to decline

• NOAA Gets $100M Windfall for "Rhea" Research Supercomputer

• Utah lawsuit seeks state control over areas of federal land

• Judge's ruling opens door to US election betting

• Republicans threaten a government shutdown unless Congress makes it harder to vote

• New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu Saves Man Choking in Lobster Roll Contest

Harris / Democrats

• The mistakes of 2019 could cost Harris the election.

• Harris turns to show a more private side and connect with voters | AP News

  It is known that Harris is a foodie and likes to cook. In fact, she had just made a pancakes-and-bacon breakfast for her niece’s 6- and 8-year-old daughters on the July morning when Biden called with the news that he was dropping out of the race. From talking about nacho cheese Doritos as her snack of choice to washing collard greens in the bathtub, Harris is aiming to connect with voters on a more personal level.

• Harris leans into underdog image ahead of debate with Trump

Biden Inc

• How Joe Biden Engineered Apple's New AirPods

  Apple engineers turning AirPods into hearing aids is wonderful, but it’s not a uniquely difficult endeavor. In fact, what’s happening here is that a set of elected leaders opened up a market that had been closed off by a cartel that had secured a comfortable position, shielded by the Food and Drug Administration. And engineers, many of whom care deeply about hearing, acted in this new legal space to create tools to help people live better lives.

  Finally, in 2017, Congress acted. Led by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, Congress passed a bill titled the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act, mandating that the Food and Drug Administration allow hearing aids without a prescription. [And Donald Trump signed it.]

  So it’s not outlandish to say that Joe Biden designed Apple’s new hearing aid AirPods, with an assist from Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Grassley, and Donald Trump. It’s just what happened.

Trump / Right / Jan6

• Trump signals support for Biden plan to loosen marijuana restrictions

• Republicans spread unsubstantiated slurs about Haitian migrants in Ohio city | Ohio | The Guardian

• JD Vance pushes false accusations of Haitians eating pets

  GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) on Monday amplified a false claim that Haitian immigrants are abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, despite the city’s police department denying any such incidents.

• Trump Campaign Amplifies False Claim About Haitian Migrants in Ohio - The New York Times

  The Trump campaign promoted an outlandish false claim on Monday that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have abducted and eaten their neighbors’ pets, again demonizing migrants as the campaign seeks to attack Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration. A news release from the campaign on Monday recounted the falsehoods, which were amplified earlier in the day by former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, and sought to stoke fear, saying “it’s coming to your city next.”

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Police pressured him to confess to a murder that never happened

• Cybercriminals Are Selling Access to Chinese Surveillance Cameras

• Are Parents Responsible for School Shootings Committed by Their Children?

• 'Terrorgram' leaders arrested, charged

  The Justice Department announced today that Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, and Matthew Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho — leaders of the Terrorgram Collective, a transnational terrorist group — were charged with a 15-count indictment for soliciting hate crimes, soliciting the murder of federal officials, and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Humber and Allison were arrested on Friday by law enforcement officials.

  According to the indictment, which was unsealed today, Humber and Allison are the leaders of the Terrorgram Collective, a transnational terrorist group that operates on the digital messaging platform Telegram, where it promotes white supremacist accelerationism: an ideology centered on the belief that the white race is superior; that society is irreparably corrupt and cannot be saved by political action; and that violence and terrorism are necessary to ignite a race war and accelerate the collapse of the government and the rise of a white ethnostate.

  The indictment alleges that Humber and Allison, as leaders of the Terrorgram Collective, contributed to and disseminated several Terrorgram videos and publications that provide specific advice for carrying out crimes, celebrate white supremacist attacks, and provide a hit list of “high-value targets” for assassination. The hit list included U.S. federal, state, and local officials, as well as leaders of private companies and non-governmental organizations, many of whom were targeted because of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

  Humber and Allison are alleged to have operated Terrorgram channels and group chats, where they solicited Terrorgram users to commit attacks in order to achieve Terrorgram’s goals of accelerationism and white supremacy and provided instructions and guidance to equip Terrorgram users to carry out those attacks.

  The indictment charges Humber and Allison with a total of 15 counts, including one count of conspiracy, four counts of soliciting hate crimes, three counts of soliciting the murder of federal officials, three counts of doxing federal officials, one count of threatening communications, two counts of distributing bombmaking instructions, and one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Antony Blinken Dragged US Diplomacy into the 21st Century

• US is dismantling nuclear warheads to power next generation of reactors

World

• Greece to Restrict Cruise Visits as Islands Struggle with Tourist Crowds

• Will German police get to do secret house searches?

• Silicon Valley Investors Are Not Honduras' Biggest Problem

  Honduras’ current feud with Próspera is part of a pattern of reneging on obligations to investors and expanding state influence, not a one-time rectification of a coup by Silicon Valley billionaires. Equally absent the article is any mention that the supposedly “center-left” Castro is a self-proclaimed socialist strongly aligned with Venezuela and, in shirking foreign investors and the US, following in its footsteps quite neatly. Castro’s recent removal of Honduras from the ICSID over the long list of outstanding claims against it is a move familiar to Venezuela, which left in 2012. The Honduran government’s rationale—that the ICSID favors corporations instead of states—is the same that Venezuela used. The practical effects of this move are limited, but the symbolic ones are meaningful. Honduras is branding itself as a bad place to do business.

• A Hong Kong court convicts 2 journalists in a landmark sedition case

Israel

• Visualising how Israel keeps stealing Palestinian land

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Germany blames Russian GRU unit for EU, NATO cyberattacks

China

• China's Defense Budget Skyrockets to $700B

Health / Medicine

• Study links bananas, oats and yoghurt to greater diabetes risk in susceptible

• Hair and skin care products expose kids to hormone disrupting chemicals

  These chemicals are endocrine disruptors – which means they can mimic, block or interfere with the body’s own hormones. And when it comes to children, the concern is that they might cause disruptions during key developmental moments. Researchers have also raised concerns that the widespread presence of endocrine-disrupting chemicals like phthalates in the environment may be contributing to girls getting their first menstrual period at an earlier age.

  • We should only be screwing up our kids' sexual development the other way? With large doses of hormones and whittling bits off?

• A Novel Adeno-Associated Virus Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Cystic Fibrosis

• She Ate Poppy Seed Salad Just Before Giving Birth. Then They Took Her Baby Away

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Covid lockdowns prematurely aged girls' brains more than boys', study finds

• The Mosquito-Borne Disease Triple-E Is Spreading in the US as Temperatures Rise

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Fall of the wild: why pristine wilderness is a human-made myth

• Fall in bat populations results in increased pesticide use and infant mortality

• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Can Be Cleaned for $7.5B

• The US toxic fire shrouded in secrecy: 'I taste oil in my mouth'

• Wild and human-cared spotted dolphins harbor different microbiomes

• Great Barrier Reef already been dealt its death blow

• Pacific islands submit proposal for crime of ecocide to ICC

• Parts of Texas 'out of water' as the rest dries out, ag commissioner says