2024-09-23
"World Changed" without changing, creating doesn't pay, don't mod Pride flags, AI used against nerd, DOJ "neutrality", Walz "masculinity", Brits dislike Trump, Big Z hits PA ammo plant
etc
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Far Older Than Machu Picchu: Scientists Discover Stunning Ancient Temple in Peru
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The cities that are owned and operated by Democratic Machines are different. The growth is sclerotic. It’s hard to get things done. Change almost never happens and if it does there are a lot of strings attached. You have to know whom to pay off, whom to talk and pander to, and who to hire to get shit done. No one comes out of the closet as a Republican who wants to do big business in a city, until after they made it. I lived in Chicago and Chicago’s machine isn’t that different from Boston, SF, NYC, Philly, The Twin Cities or any other Democratic stronghold. They limit growth and now, they are trying to limit speech and other freedoms guaranteed by the US Constitution. Rural areas are very different. I cannot speak for all of them.
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A Bay Area boy kidnapped from a park in 1951 was just found alive
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Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction
Horseshit
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Taste Is Eating Silicon Valley
Software has been commoditized — the result of technological advancement, decreasing cost and complexity, and democratization of coding as a skill. AI’s push into the mainstream has supercharged this shift. The lines between technology and culture are blurring. And so, it’s no longer enough to build great tech.
Everyone’s software is good enough. Software used to be the weapon, now it’s just a tool. In a world of scarcity, we treasure tools. In a world of abundance, we treasure taste. The barriers to entry are low, competition is fierce, and so much of the focus has shifted — from tech to distribution, and now, to something else too: taste.
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Sicily: Fear of foreign actors prompts security request for wreck of yacht
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I give to charity – but never to people on the street. Is that wrong?
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Deadpool & Wolverine vs. Victory
It's mercifully short for a modern superhero flick, at two hours and seven minutes, though you sure as hell wouldn't it want to be any longer. A fourth-wall gag has Deadpool apologizing for the movie length, in fact, which actually pretty well sums up this movie: It's not just a commentary on the superhero genre, it's a commentary on the commentary. This is what Hollywood is reduced to. Watching this - or any big budget movie these days - is sort of like watching your figure skating team at the Olympics when it's going through a bad patch. (Debi Thomas, anyone?) There's tremendous skill and a huge talent pool and craftsmanship everywhere, but you're just so sure someone's going to faceplant, you're ecstatic when they don't, and you kind of cheer too loudly when they accomplish something awkwardly but without crashing completely.
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Opinion | Israel’s Pager Attacks Have Changed the World - The New York Times
Israel’s brazen attacks on Hezbollah last week, in which hundreds of pagers and two-way radios exploded and killed at least 37 people, graphically illustrated a threat that cybersecurity experts have been warning about for years: Our international supply chains for computerized equipment leave us vulnerable. And we have no good means to defend ourselves. Though the deadly operations were stunning, none of the elements used to carry them out were particularly new. The tactics employed by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied any role, to hijack an international supply chain and embed plastic explosives in Hezbollah devices have been used for years. What’s new is that Israel put them together in such a devastating and extravagantly public fashion, bringing into stark relief what the future of great power competition will look like — in peacetime, wartime and the ever expanding gray zone in between. The targets won’t just be terrorists. Our computers are vulnerable, and increasingly, so are our cars, our refrigerators, our home thermostats and many other useful things in our orbits. Targets are everywhere.
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consider: it was a multi-year operation to sell the victims the modified devices. Google, fore example, hasn't that kind of time horizon anymore.
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someone there makes the point: Nothing changed last week. Our devices are just as trustworthy now as they always have been. This is likely to be less trustworthy than many people have been assuming.
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(PDF) UN unanimously adopts new "Global Digital Compact"
- "Transforming global governance" is section 5...
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Former Boar's Head sanitation manager recounts where Virginia plant went wrong
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Boy named after Star Wars character denied passport due to copyright infringement - NZ Herald
the name Loki Skywalker Mowbray was problematic, the UK Home Office said. The government organisation reportedly refused their application due to copyright issues. An email to the couple stated the refusal was because his name contained a name “which relates to a trademark or copyright”. The family claim they were told to remove the name Skywalker or get permission from Disney, which owns the copyright to the Star Wars franchise.
Musk
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X Loses Battle to Protect Genshin Impact Leaker's First Amendment Anonymity
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(May 2023) Posting Is the Most Powerful Force in the Universe
Elon Musk, more than anything else in the world, wants to seem cool on Twitter. He was the richest man in the world last year. He’s involved in projects touching on the future of humanity - brain implants, electric cars, space tech, and more. And yet it’s very clear that appearing cool on Twitter to the masses consumes him far more than going to Mars or building electric cars does these days. He’d deny this if asked, but it seems plainly true. He spends his time micromanaging the site in the strangest ways - such as paying for celebrity blue checks who don’t want them, replying to his own porn jokes with a burner account based on his three year old son, changing the CBC’s labeling to make a ‘69’ joke, and changing the company’s sign to say ‘Titter’, among other things.
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SpaceX plans to send five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years
Electric / Self Driving cars
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?
Years ago when I did strategy consulting to Fortune 500 clients, we would sometimes devise parasite strategies (that’s exactly what we called them). But we did this simply as a thought exercise—we never actually presented these ideas to clients. Professional managers disliked these kinds of strategies back then (not anymore, as we shall see below). So we came up with these approaches simply as a way of grasping what others might do to us.
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"thou shalt not touch the Pride flags" Only some mods allowed now
To address the banning, which is what a lot of people want to focus on, the mod was uploaded by a sock puppet account (i.e. a newly made account by someone who already has an account on the site) and uploaded under the name "Mike Hawk". It was very clearly done deliberately to be a troll mod. The fact the user needed to make a sock puppet like a coward to upload the mod showed their intent to troll and that they knew it would not be allowed. Had they not been a coward and had they used their main account instead, we would have simply removed the mod and told them that we did not want to host it, only banning them if they reuploaded it again after being fairly warned. The creation of the sock puppet removed any doubt and made it a very easy decision for us. Both the sock puppet account and the user's main account have been banned.
In regards to the replacement of Pride flags in this game, or any game, our policy is thus: we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it. The same goes for people attempting to troll other users with mods deliberately to cause a rise. For our part, we will endeavour to do a better job of moderating our website to this ethos ourselves.
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Kelsey Hightower: If governments rely on FOSS, they should fund it
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Movie theater chains in the U.S. plan to invest $2.2B in upgrades
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Valve appear to be testing ARM64 and Android support for Steam on Linux
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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Software as a public good - The GitHub Blog
One of the Global Digital Compact’s key commitments is to increase funding for Digital Public Goods (DPGs), that means open source software, open standards, open data, open AI systems, and open content collections that adhere to privacy and other applicable laws and best practices, do no harm, and help attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). About 80% of DPGs live on GitHub. To help developers connect with these projects, we have launched the For Good First Issue where developers can easily find and contribute to open source projects that support SDGs. If you want to lend your skills to an open source project focused on a public good, this is a great place to start working together with public sector-led open source projects, without having to be a public policy geek.
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
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Google says UK risks being 'left behind' in AI race without more data centres
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I haven't decided what to do. I mean, like I said, I haven't had a problem with Elecrow in the past. I'm hoping beyond all hope it was an honest mistake and they didn't even realize it was my voice. But beyond that, the worse thing is there isn't any legal precedent for unauthorized AI voice cloning, at least not that I'm aware of. There is precedent for not using someone's voice in commercial works without their consent. Look up Midler vs. Ford. I don't know if I want to do anything with lawyers, because that costs money and right now I'm just trying to keep my old Camry running through the end of the year. And I'm not even sure non-consensual voice cloning is against YouTube's Terms of Service.
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Middle Eastern funds are plowing billions of dollars into hottest AI startups
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
Economicon / Business / Finance
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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To Many, the Justice Dept. Is Honoring Political Neutrality in the Breach Again | RealClearWire
“Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon,” he said before a packed house, gathered in the Great Hall of DOJ headquarters on Sept. 12. “Federal prosecutors and agents may never make a decision regarding an investigation or prosecution for the purpose of affecting any election or the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.”
Garland’s words came in response to former President Trump’s assertion during his debate with Kamala Harris that the FBI and Justice Department had been weaponized against him. But in issuing a fiery rebuttal, the attorney general put himself squarely where he said he didn’t want to be: namely, in the crossfire of a partisan political campaign. Moreover, in the view of many, his assertions clearly belie the Justice Department’s deeds. These critics say it’s obvious that the FBI and DOJ have repeatedly put a thumb on the scale of justice to defeat Trump. In 2016, it was the Russia-gate collusion hoax. In 2020 it was the FBI’s refusal to say not only that it was in possession of Hunter Biden’s incendiary laptop, but that it had verified its contents, even as Joe Biden claimed erroneously that it was a Russian plant.
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Oregon voters to decide on ballot measure to give every resident $1,600
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Congressional leaders announce 3month spending deal to avert government shutdown
Harris / Democrats
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Bush-era Republican Supervillains Are Eager to Vote for Kamala Harris
Cheney and Gonzales join the ranks of many former Trump officials who have announced their support for Harris — including Trump’s former press secretary and his former White House communications director. Many more — including Mike Pence, Bill Barr, James Mattis, Mark Esper — have said he is unfit for office. But for anyone who holds out hope that George W. Bush will speak out — as he did rather explicitly at Trump’s inauguration — his office insists that the former president is retired from presidential politics and is focused on his painting.
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Tim Walz and the politics of football: Democrats tackle the manhood game | Salon.com
Democrats have deftly embraced this traditionally masculine sport, long identified with red states and small towns. Beyond Walz, Rep. Colin Allred of Texas, a former Tennessee Titans linebacker, is using his NFL experience to run against Sen. Ted Cruz; Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a former collegiate wide receiver, recently suited up for a practice; Democrats have even flown campaign banners over big college games at Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin (all of those in swing states).
The Republican response has seemed defensive and inconsistent, belittling Walz’s coaching experience, questioning his military service and dispensing the stale and misogynistic epithet “Tampon Tim.” In other words, to stake their claim for American men, Republicans have tried emasculating their opponent. After Walz’s performance at the DNC, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough remarked on "Morning Joe" that Democrats “seem to be the party of the NFL now.”
Trump / Right / Jan6
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British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read - London Daily
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
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Executions of the conceivably innocent are no better than human sacrifice
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Sheriff Arrested in Shooting Death of Kentucky District Judge | The Epoch Times
“The preliminary investigation indicates that Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines, 43, of McRoberts, fatally shot Judge Mullins following an argument inside the courthouse,” Bray said.
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
World
Israel
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Hezbollah devices were detonated individually, with precise Intel on targets
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Israel shuts down Al Jazeera's Ramallah bureau in occupied West Bank | AP News
The move marked the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet operating in the country. However, Al Jazeera has continued operating in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, territories that the Palestinians hope to have for their future state. The Israeli military acknowledged conducting the raid 12 hours later, alleging without providing evidence that the newsroom was “being used to incite terror, to support terrorist activities and that the channel’s broadcasts endanger ... security and public order.”
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
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He is expected to go to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant to kick off a busy week in the United States shoring up support for Ukraine in the war, according to two U.S. officials and a third familiar with Zelenskyy’s schedule who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that were not yet public. He also will address the U.N. General Assembly annual gathering in New York and travel to Washington for talks on Thursday with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Health / Medicine
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MIT reveals new vaccination method that could kill HIV in just two shots
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The new tech that could improve care for Parkinson's patients
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'NYC doesn't heart you': 80% of heart attack sufferers die due to slow response
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'I Don't Want to Die.' He needed mental health care. He found a ghost network
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The unknowns surrounding the mysterious rise of cancer in young adults