2024-09-16

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• What is Haitian food like in the United States?

• Opinion | Helicopter Parents Should Ignore Their Children More Often - The New York Times

  I recently spoke with an anthropologist named Barry Hewlett who studies child-rearing in hunter-gatherer societies in Central Africa. He explained to me that children in those societies spend lots of time with their parents — they tag along throughout the day and often help with tasks like foraging — but they are rarely the main object of their parents’ attention. Sometimes bored, sometimes engaged, these kids spend much of their time observing adults doing adult things. Parents in contemporary industrialized societies often take the opposite approach. In the precious time when we’re not working, we place our children at the center of our attention, consciously engaging and entertaining them. We drive them around to sports practice and music lessons, where they are observed and monitored by adults, rather than the other way around. We value “quality time” over quantity of time. We feel guilty when we have to drag our children along with us to take care of boring adult business.

Horseshit

• The Man Who Made Nike Uncool

• The Most Desperately Needed Airplane Is Back in Production

• The Lost Art of Waiting

• Plants, Psychodiversity, & the Paranormal

• The Nazis' Desperate Attempts to Curve a Bullet

• Titan sub disaster: Five key questions that remain

• 3D printed glock switches allow firing of an entire magazine with a single pull

celebrity gossip

• Murdoch family fights to keep succession battle secret as Nevada hearings loom

• After Shark Tank, Mark Cuban Just Wants to Break the Drug Industry

Musk

• "Fascists": Elon Musk responds to proposed fines for disinformation on X

• Musk says humans can be on Mars in four years. Many laugh, but some see purpose

• By showing Musk's X the red card, has Brazil scored a goal for all democracies?

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• (Jun 2024) Our New Religion Isn't Enough

  These days it seems like everything is described as a new religion. Social justice is a new religion. So is climate activism. Trumpism, too. I saw a funny tweet recently about how girlboss feminism has now reinvented the Sabbath, with the shocking news that we might benefit from “one lazy day” a week. Even AI seems to be replacing religion, from giving spiritual guidance to reinventing arranged marriages. I think this point can be a bit laboured sometimes—but religious faith has collapsed, and many trends and movements have moved in to fill the void. The one that most resembles a religion to me, though, is the rise of therapy culture. I think it’s an exaggeration to say all of Gen Z are following the cult of social justice or climate activism—but I really don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that a significant majority of young people now interpret their lives and emotions and relationships through a therapeutic lens.

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• The Enlightenment That Wasn't - by David A. Bell

  Was the Enlightenment a single movement, or many different ones, Clark asks, recalling one of the major debates on the subject in the past few decades. His answer? “Neither.” “The Enlightenment,” he claims, never actually existed, at least in the eighteenth century. The phrase, he argues, properly denotes only an ideological concept retrospectively applied to a wide variety of intellectual works to give them a spurious unity, and which served as a rallying cry for various twentieth-century reform movements. The book is enormously erudite, forcefully argued throughout, ambitious, engaging, but also uneven—and not, in the end, convincing, at least to me. It is also driven by a deeply conservative ideological agenda.

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Google Has Officially Killed Cache Links

• Microsoft paves the way for Linux gaming with killing kernel-level anti-cheat

• OnlyFans Beats Apple,Google and Other Big Tech Companies in Revenue per Employee

• Boomer Apple

• (Aug 9 2024) The Death of the Magazine

  In the year 2024, the traditional magazine is rarely the best platform for serious journalism—and that’s true for both print and digital media. The legacy outlets are all chasing short form ‘content’ (ugh!) now, and have lost confidence in good writing. But here’s the strange thing. Readers are hungry for the longer, smarter writing that these periodicals refuse to publish. As a result, readers increasingly bypass the magazine and deal directly with writers. That’s the new reality in media. Readers are now more loyal to writers than they are to periodicals. They seek them out. They trust them more. The magazine as an aggregating concept is increasingly irrelevant.

  Back in the mid-1960s, the top magazines frequently paid their best writers a dollar per word. If rates had kept up with inflation, top journalists could get almost ten dollars per word today. Good luck finding a writing assignment at that rate. The bitter truth is that a dollar per word is still considered attractive in freelance journalism.

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Twibright Optar

  a codec for encoding data on paper or free software 2D barcode in other words. Optar fits 200kB on an A4 page, then you print it with a laser printer. If you want to read the recording, scan it with a scanner and feed into the decoder program. A practical level of reliability is ensured using forward error correction code (FEC). Automated processing of page batches facilitates storage of files larger than 200kB.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• NSA maintains full observability on OpenAI's frontier research security enclave

• Why Google scuttled its AI robot project after pouring untold millions of dollars into it.

• AI is 'accelerating the climate crisis,' expert warns

• OpenAI's warnings about risky AI are mostly just marketing

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Crew Dragon splashes down to conclude Polaris Dawn mission.

• So what are we to make of the highly ambitious, private Polaris spaceflight?

Crypto con games

• Tether: The Shadow Dollar That's Fueling the Financial Underworld

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Stripe Europe's Losses Widen to $1.1B after employee 'liquidity event'

• McDonald's Extends $5 Meal in Battle for Cash-Strapped Consumers

• Railroads Love 'Monster' Trains. Texans Don't

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Weaponizing Anger is a Useful Political Strategy

  Understanding how our emotions are manipulated is the first step in breaking the cycle of outrage. While anger may be a natural and sometimes necessary emotion, we are capable of recognizing when it is being weaponized against us. As an avid user of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, I have recommended muting certain phrases and words intended to express anger or condemnation (e.g., “Let that sink in,” “I can’t believe this has to be said,” “Yikes”) in order to clean up your feed and avoid being captured by the algorithm. Recognizing when we are being manipulated, choosing not to react impulsively, and taking responsibility for our own experiences when consuming media can weaken the power that anger-driven politics holds over us.

• Ray Dalio warns of threat to democracy

  A billionaire investor who predicted the global financial crisis has warned that the US election risks tipping the world’s biggest economy into serious disorder. In a week when candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump finally faced each other in a televised debate, Ray Dalio said his biggest fear was for democracy no matter who wins on 4 November. Mr Dalio founded the world’s largest hedge fund and is closely-watched by other investors for his stock-picks. In an interview with the BBC, he said: “There's a possibility that the loser, particularly if it's the Republicans and Donald Trump, might not accept losing and you have a situation where it's a win-at-all-cost by both the left and the right, so neither side can compromise. “My great fear is for democracy,” he said.

Harris / Democrats

• ABC News whistleblower swears Harris campaign dictated terms of presidential debate.

  Furthermore, the Harris campaign insisted upon live "fact checking" of Donald Trump during the debate.

• Rent controls will not deter housing investment, US mega-landlord says

Biden Inc

• Kim Dotcom: X claims that Hunter Biden is a pedophile

  I can tell you from experience that X would not have made the allegation that my post contains ‘Child sexual exploitation’ content unless they are 100% sure. Especially because the content in question was created by the son of the US President. In my mind there are only two scenarios of this happening:

  1. There is an active FBI investigation against Hunter Biden for the creation of this ‘Child sexual exploitation’ content. The photos from Hunter Biden’s laptop have been shared numerous times on social media. X would have received a notice from the FBI to cooperate with the investigation and was likely instructed to prevent the content from being shared on X.

  2. X has been approached by the White House about my post and was asked to urgently remove it. The only way this could be done is by flagging the content as ‘Child sexual exploitation’ because otherwise the photo in question would not be in breach of X rules and the post could not be removed.

Trump / Right / Jan6

• Trump threatens to withhold fire aid over political differences with Newsom

  Former President Trump would withhold fire rescue aid from California if Gov. Gavin Newsom doesn't back his policies, the GOP presidential nominee said during a news conference on Friday.

• Early reports: Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity

  • Shooting near Trump Golf Club

  Shooters were targeting each other, not President Trump

  • Trump is ‘safe following gunshots in his vicinity,’ campaign says in statement | CNN Politics

• Trump taken to safety after Secret Service opens fire on man with possible gun at his Palm Beach golf club.

• Suspect in custody after apparent Trump assassination attempt

  According to the FBI and other officials, the suspect had a scope on his rifle, a GoPro camera with which he apparently intended to record footage and a backpack with ceramic tile in it.

• unverfied Trump's Latest Shooter

• reports about shooter id

  The purported name of the second Trump attempted assassin suspect is out. He has a lot of pro-Ukraine posts, and is very critical of Trump.

• Trump 'safe and well' after being targeted by would-be assassin

• Trump "Safe" After Shooter With AK47 Reportedly Targeted Former Pres While Golfing, Secret Service Returned Fire | ZeroHedge

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• ShotSpotter Led to Hundreds of Arrests in Chicago this Year. Mayor Johnson Is Getting Rid of It | National Review

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• New DJI drones to be banned in the US

  • US House votes to bar new DJI drones

• U.S. fleet welcomes newest USS New Jersey, the first gender-neutral submarine

• Russian military aircraft detected off Alaskan coast for third time, NORAD says

World

• European Consumer Organization goes after publishers for their in-game currency

• 'I want them all crushed': the council poised to ban 'dangerous' Lime bikes

• Sweden Will Offer Migrants $34,000 to Go Home - The New York Times

  The government greatly increased a grant to encourage more immigrants to return home. Critics say it sends the wrong message and, in any case, may not tempt many refugees.

• Venezuela Arrests Navy SEAL Among Several Foreigners Behind Alleged Maduro Assassination Plot | ZeroHedge

Israel

• Crisis at Jewish Chronicle as stories based on 'wild fabrications' are withdrawn

China

• Adopted from China as a Toddler, I've Spent My Life Searching for Home

• Xi Jinping vs. Macroeconomics

Health / Medicine

• We're not going to run out of new anatomy anytime soon

• Scientists figured out why some people don't lose weight even when they work out

• Roche data shows stomach-churning side effects of weight-loss drugs

• People with Obesity Have Slim Chance of Obtaining Normal Body Weight

• The tussle over cigarette warning labels, and the hazy future of vaping

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Bird Flu Is Quietly Getting Scarier - The Atlantic

  • "Quietly" means "a dozen propaganda stories per week for the last year"

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Scientists debunked one of conservation's most influential statistics

• Dropped Cheetos Could Have Triggered Ecosystem Chaos in Largest US Cave Chamber

• New evidence upends contentious Easter Island theory, scientists say

• Banks Urged to Stop Financing Livestock Production | American Ag Network

  An open letter from groups led by Friends of the Earth to some of the world’s biggest banks calls for a halt on any new financing that expands industrial livestock production and to add requirements that meat, dairy, and feed clients disclose their climate action plans. The letter calls out the banks by name for supporting the world’s biggest meat, dairy, and animal feed producers like JBS, Tyson Foods, and others.

• 'It's almost shameful to want to have children'

  These interviewees have more climate change knowledge than most people do. All of them are college-educated; most of them either grew up or have lived for some time in Southern California; and most have taken environmental studies classes, either as undergrads or in graduate school. Their experiences as members of marginalized groups have shaped their experiences with climate emotions like anxiety, fear, and trauma — as well as hope and optimism. Paying closer attention to those emotions and mental health in communities of color, including how they shape reproductive plans, will become an increasingly important component of climate justice in the United States.

• $35M debt-for-nature deal aims to protect Indonesia's coral reefs

• Eating less beef is a climate solution. Here's why that's hard for American men

• Gigantic Wave in Pacific Ocean Was the Most Extreme 'Rogue Wave' on Record

• "Planned Parenthood was supposed to get paid for that!" Neonatal deaths due to climate change in 29 low-to-middle-income countries

• Wild ginseng is declining, but small-scale 'diggers' aren't the main threat