2024-09-29
floods, Ethernet or neural nets?, SpaceX to the rescue, Liberals welcomed at Trump rally, smuggling bologna, UK chicken licenses, Hezbollah hit hard, DNA data unsecured, Cows are good for the earth
etc
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I locked myself in my apartment for 4 years to build this humanoid
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At least 54 people were trapped on the roof of a hospital in Tennessee on Friday after floodwaters due to Hurricane Helene quickly surrounded the medical center. Everyone was rescued safely, Sen. Bill Hagerty said in a statement. Unicoi County Hospital -- located in the northeastern part of the state on the border with North Carolina -- took on so much flooding that those inside could no longer be safely evacuated and had to relocate to the roof. In addition to the people trapped on the roof, seven people were in rescue boats. The National Guard and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) are currently engaged in "a dangerous rescue operation," according to Ballad Health, a health care company that runs a chain of hospitals.
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We are estimating water levels reached 8 feet over the record elevation.
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Posting from the downtown library’s WiFi connection bc no cell, no internet, no water and most without power.
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How an 'AquaFence' temporary wall protected Tampa's hospital from Helene
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I have no responsibility to stay on campus when it’s unsafe and there are no basic utilities. I’m sure campus operations are doing the best they can
Horseshit
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The housing crisis is global. What are other countries doing about it?
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Kids Should Be Blindfolded and Dropped in the Woods at Night
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Space travel is dangerous. Could genetic testing and gene editing make it safer?
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Critical Vulnerabilities Discovered in Automated Tank Gauge Systems | Bitsight
- A reason these computers are insecure is they can't do much that's important.
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No, since about the mid 1970's: As Florida Storms Worsen, Some in Tampa Bay Wonder: Is Living There Worth It?
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Uber terms mean couple can't sue after 'life-changing' crash
celebrity gossip
Electric / Self Driving cars
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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The Fujifilm X100V Went Viral Two Years Ago. You Still Can't Buy One
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What is going on in the WordPress war, from a former WP Engine employee.
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CA law inspired by Ubisoft, Sony requires warning that games can be taken away
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Steam doesn't want to pay arbitration fees, tells gamers to sue instead
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Apple Movies Won’t Be Coming To Theaters Anytime Soon - Bloomberg
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Annapurna Video-Game Division Imploded Because of Power Struggle
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Winamp A Few Days Later: You Can Fork, And Watch For GPL Violations
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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It is never too late to write your own C/C++ command-line utilities – Daniel Lemire's blog
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Bob Metcalfe on why neural network hardware was not created 50 years ago
Title of my 1968 MIT bachelor thesis in EE was “A Neuron Model and Some of Its Information Processing Capabilities.” 1968. My advisor, Marvin Minsky, accepted the thesis, but I could tell he didn’t like it much. So I went farther down the 9th floor and got a job with JCR Licklider helping to build the Arpanet/Ethernet/Internet. Worked out.
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
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SpaceX launches rescue mission for stranded NASA astronauts | AP News
SpaceX launched a rescue mission for the two stuck astronauts at the International Space Station on Saturday, sending up a downsized crew to bring them home but not until next year. Since NASA rotates space station crews approximately every six months, this newly launched flight with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams won’t return until late February. Officials said there wasn’t a way to bring them back earlier on SpaceX without interrupting other scheduled missions. By the time they return, the pair will have logged more than eight months in space. They expected to be gone just a week when they signed up for Boeing’s first astronaut flight that launched in June.
Economicon / Business / Finance
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
Harris / Democrats
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Kamala Harris' Chances Surge in Major Election Forecast (Archive)
The Economist's latest election forecast shows that Harris now has a 3 in 5 chance of winning the Electoral College in November, compared to Donald Trump's 2 in 5 chance. This marks the vice president's strongest position since becoming the Democratic presidential candidate. The forecast also shows that Harris is expected to pick up 281 Electoral College votes, while Trump is expected to win only 257. Over the past three weeks, Harris' chances have risen sharply by 10 percent, up from an even split with Trump on September 8, when both had a 50-50 chance of victory, with the Democrat predicted to pick up 270 Electoral College votes—just enough to win—while the Republican was predicted to win 268 votes.
- Millions of twitter bots are eager for their first chance to cast a vote for Kamala
Trump / Right / Jan6
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Feds charge 3 Iranians with 'hack-and-leak' of Trump 2024 campaign
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Ken Klippenstein: "I redacted the JD Vance Dossier. Surprise: I'm still banned"
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one of our team members was sexually harassed
This experience was a stark contrast to the rallies we’ve covered in the past, where we’ve always felt we could do our job without fear. Tonight was different, and if this is a sign of what’s to come, it’s deeply concerning. We’ll continue to cover these events because it’s our job, but what happened tonight in Macomb County was not acceptable. When you cultivate a culture that marginalizes women, subjugates them and when your rhetoric shows a clear disrespect we can’t be too surprised that supporters would act this way. We still processing the events of the night and we are home safe now.
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Why Russia's broadcaster RT turned to funding American pro-Trump influencers
Speaking on Russian state television after this month’s Justice Department indictments, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said RT started working “underground” using “guerilla operations” in places it lost access, including the U.S. Simonyan wouldn't say whether the scheme involving several prominent right-wing American influencers is one of these operations. The influencers, who have not been charged, say they didn’t know the money came from Russia.
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
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Woman attempts to smuggle over 700 pounds of bologna
A woman was fined after officers seized over 700 pounds of illegal bologna hidden within her suitcases. Upon opening the suitcases officers found 40 rolls of Mexican pork bologna, which is illegal in the United States due to Mexican pork's potential to spread "foreign animal diseases to the U.S. pork industry."
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Eric Adams Staffer Left FBI Interview to Delete Encrypted Chat Apps
World
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The Tories’ enemy is now clear for all to see. They must equip themselves for the fight
Let me take an example whose sheer triviality is telling. I have before me the new “Kept Bird Registration Form – Keeper of less [shouldn’t it be ‘fewer’?] than 50 Poultry or Other Captive Birds”. This four-page document insists that you give the address of where the birds are kept, their “Country Parish Holding (CPH) number”, map references, your own details and the number of birds, their species, such as chickens, ducks, ostriches, psittacines and cassowaries, and the purposes for which you keep them, eg. releasing for racing, display, “growing pullets up to point of lay”. Even if you have but one solitary hen, “you are breaking the law if you do not register”, which you must do by Tuesday.
It is argued that registration is made necessary by recent bird flu. Serious though bird flu has recently been, it seems reasonable to believe that this extension of the criminal law is excessive, and more than reasonable to believe that, in a country where goodness knows how many people keep a few chickens, ducks or geese, enforcement will be preposterously expensive. I cite this example for two reasons. The first is to show how minutely invasive regulation has now become. The second is to remind people that this silly little measure – and no doubt hundreds like it – was invented under the Tories. Just like Labour now, they lamentably failed to stand up for the capacity of ordinary citizens to make the right decisions in their own sphere of life.
Iran / Houthi
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Why Iran Isn’t Rushing to Hezbollah’s Defense - The Atlantic
Iran has been trying for months to ease tensions and pursue talks with other countries in the region and with the West. This past week in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, a visiting Iranian delegation headed by President Masoud Pezeshkian defended Hezbollah and Hamas but put its main focus on giving out peace vibes. Pezeshkian even told a group of American journalists that Iran would put down its arms if Israel also did so. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later denied that the president had made such a statement, but Iranian hard-liners leaked audio that confirmed it.
Israel
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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah killed by airstrike in Beirut: IDF
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Who is longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah?
Idolized by his Lebanese Shiite followers and respected by millions of others across the Arab and Islamic world, Nasrallah holds the title of sayyid, an honorific meant to signify the Shiite cleric’s lineage dating back to the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. A fiery orator viewed as an extremist in the United States and much of the West, he is also considered a pragmatist compared to the militants who dominated Hezbollah after its founding in 1982, during Lebanon’s civil war. Despite the power he wields, Nasrallah has lived largely in hiding for fear of an Israeli assassination.
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Bunker-busters: How Israel penetrated Iran-backed Hezbollah's bunkers
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
Health / Medicine
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Bacteria involved in gum disease linked to increased risk of head, neck cancer
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Remember That DNA You Gave 23andMe? - The Atlantic
23andMe is not doing well. Its stock is on the verge of being delisted. It shut down its in-house drug-development unit last month, only the latest in several rounds of layoffs. Last week, the entire board of directors quit, save for Anne Wojcicki, a co-founder and the company’s CEO. Amid this downward spiral, Wojcicki has said she’ll consider selling 23andMe—which means the DNA of 23andMe’s 15 million customers would be up for sale, too. 23andMe’s trove of genetic data might be its most valuable asset. For about two decades now, since human-genome analysis became quick and common, the A’s, C’s, G’s, and T’s of DNA have allowed long-lost relatives to connect, revealed family secrets, and helped police catch serial killers. Some people’s genomes contain clues to what’s making them sick, or even, occasionally, how their disease should be treated. For most of us, though, consumer tests don’t have much to offer beyond a snapshot of our ancestors’ roots and confirmation of the traits we already know about. (Yes, 23andMe, my eyes are blue.) 23andMe is floundering in part because it hasn’t managed to prove the value of collecting all that sensitive, personal information. And potential buyers may have very different ideas about how to use the company’s DNA data to raise the company’s bottom line. This should concern anyone who has used the service.
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New study finds potentially harmful pathogens traveling high in the atmosphere