2024-09-30
floods, Kerry dislikes 1st Amendment, Godot go nuts, Lunar Rover 4sale, never used, torch the Constitution, abolish the Supreme Court, "crime" down but "disorder" up, bio-glacier sequestration
etc
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"why are casinos so noisy?" Surprising sounds influence risky decision making
NC/TN Floods
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Every weather event is “unprecedented” if you think history began in 1980
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In four decades, their home never flooded. Then in a flash, they were homeless
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We only got out because some amazing souls led us through backroads for two hours
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You are not prepared for what we already know
All the devastation from this storm will prove the largest single death toll in Western NC in modern history.
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TN EMA: please DO NOT send donations that have not been requested by state or local authorities
TEMA is not accepting volunteers or donations until the life safety mission is complete. Tennesseans, do not self-deploy to disaster areas - this will hinder response and recovery operations.
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Emergency cellular network roaming has been enabled across the mountains and flood areas
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There is a Major at Fort Bragg practically begging to be sent out and all he's getting is crickets
Horseshit
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An 'abomination' of a sub – and the boss convinced Titan was safe
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'People say, just get surgery, and I'm like: Bruh, this is after surgery'
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Flying-Vs and longer wings: how the shape of passenger planes is about to change
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Experts Warn of Growing Inhalant Trend on TikTok as 'Chroming' Gains Popularity
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L.A. pilot guaranteeing families $1k/month shows 'transformative' results: study
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'An unmistakable stab at the USSR': Could Amadeus be the most misunderstood Oscar winner ever?
Forman's aim for Amadeus can be seen as radically different from a typical biopic, and that was to use a fictionalised version of an epic clash between musical composers to allegorise the defining global rivalry of the mid-to-late 20th Century: the Cold War. Put simply, the film may have played fast and loose with 1784 because its real preoccupation was 1984.
In Forman's hands, the Habsburg Empire bears the hallmarks of Soviet power. The masquerade balls, with their bewildering swirl of masked identities, conjure the confusion and paranoia that proliferated under the Soviet system. Salieri's reluctant servant-spy (Cynthia Nixon) carries out covert surveillance, a nod to the 20th Century's KGB, which had thousands of its moles burrow into the private lives of artists and dissidents. Meanwhile, Salieri's heretical burning of the crucifix and war on God call to mind the ideological struggle between a Christian worldview and secular Soviet hubris.
- Art is in the eye of the beholder. To us, a work may have meaning and evoke emotions that the creator was totally ignorant existed. However. I suspect the deep political allegory this author finds in Amadeus may be unique to their perception. I wonder if they find similar complexity in other things: does the wind contain voices for them? Do the voices tell them to "do things"?
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When Will the New York Times Correct Its Flawed Reporting on 'Unmarked Graves'?
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Global semiconductor manufacturing could end within six months
celebrity gossip
Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering
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John Kerry: "The 1st Amendment stands as a major roadblock for us right now" | Canada Free Press
" If people go to only one source, and the source they go to is sick and, you know, has an agenda, and they're putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to be able to just, you know, hammer it out of existence. "
Electric / Self Driving cars
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
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America's Young Men Are Falling Even Further Behind (Archive)
Among noncaregivers who aren’t disabled, men are more likely to be neither employed, in school nor in workforce training, what economists refer to as NEET. Around 260,000 more 16- to 29-year-old men than women fell into this category as of the first half of 2024, according to think tank the Center for Economic and Policy Research, representing 8.6% of young men and 7.8% of young women. Rates are up for both groups since 2019, but down from a Covid high. Until the past decade or so, “there was an assumption that men just needed to show up for their life and they’ll get a job and have a family and be provided for, because they’re men,” says University of Maryland masculinity researcher Kevin M. Roy.
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Police stop more Black drivers, while speed cameras issue unbiased tickets
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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Cloudflare denies hosting sites linked to data leak at India's Star Health
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The Godot Manager Went Rogue (3000 Accounts Blocked)
What started off as virtue signaling with multiple rainbow flags and naming the engine Wokot has turned into a media disaster and the CEO desperately trying to calm devs.
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People fill old newspaper boxes with movies, call it 'Free Blockbuster'
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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PC Floppy Copy Protection: Vault Prolok
One of Vault's biggest customers was Ashton-Tate, makers of the industry-leading dBase database software and later owners of the Framework office suite. Both dBase III v1.0 and Framework 1.0 would see releases incorporating Vault's Prolok copy protection.
unlike other methods which were applied during a professional disk duplication process, Prolok was offered as a commercial product in the form of pre-damaged diskettes upon which a software publisher could write their software. Vault had a bit of a habit of overstating the sophistication of their fingerprinting technology. At the end of the day they were just burned circles on a disk.
was fortunate enough to acquire an original, unopened package of Prolok Protection Diskettes, so we can see exactly how they functioned. A physical examination shows there are 3 fingerprints on each disk, and the fingerprints on all disks in the package are in identical locations. However, the PROLOK.EXE saved to each disk is unique, as is the data in sector 1 of Cylinder 39, Head 0, Sector 1. The presence of three fingerprints is interesting - dBase III v1.0, one of the few commercial products known to have used Prolok, only has a single fingerprint.
In May of 1985, Vault filed a lawsuit against Quaid Software seeking $100 million in damages. This case would set an important precedent in copyright case law - significant enough to have its own Wikipedia article: Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software Ltd.
There is one part that fills me with guilt to this day. The software industry had long dreamed of shutting down copiers with litigation. The decision in my case could not have been more favorable to copiers even if I had written it myself. This convinced the software industry, and the music and movie industries, that there would be no relief through the courts as long as they followed Vault vs Quaid. In 1996 they switched from litigation to legislation. The result was the horrible Digital Millennium Copyright Act enacted without opposition in 1998. I feel that in some way I am the godfather of this awful development.
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
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Not to us: NASA is selling a brand-new Moon rover
What NASA proposes, instead, is that a commercial company takes command of VIPER. In exchange, it would have to pay for the rover’s final tests; find a way to land it on the Moon (possibly with a different lander); and then perform its original scientific mission. Any new owner would still be expected to reveal any findings made with the rover, but they could also use the opportunity to further their own lunar ambitions. Eleven companies have thus far submitted proposals.
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SpaceX pauses Falcon 9 launches after upper stage deorbit anomaly
SpaceX said in a social media post early Sept. 29 that the upper stage “experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn” during the Crew-9 mission that launched Sept. 28. “As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area.”
Economicon / Business / Finance
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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Is It Time to Torch the Constitution? | The New Yorker
Everyone agrees that, if the Constitution says you can’t do it, it can’t be done. The question is: Who tells us what the Constitution says you can and cannot do? And the answer is: the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the ultimate authority on the ultimate authority. That’s a lot of authority for nine unelected individuals to have. This is why, when people are unhappy with the way the political system is working, they tend to blame one of two things: the Constitution or the Supreme Court. They argue either that the Constitution is flawed and needs to be changed, or that the Court is misinterpreting the Constitution and needs to be changed. When people are really unhappy, they argue both.
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Lebowitz Calls for Biden-Harris to “Dissolve the Supreme Court” – JONATHAN TURLEY
Lebowitz called for President Joe Biden to “dissolve the Supreme Court” despite the fact that it would violate the Constitution and remove one of the most critical protections against executive and legislative abuse. Lebowitz insisted that the Supreme Court is a “disgrace” because, in a reference to Donald Trump, it is “completely his.” To the wild applause of the New York audience, she added: “It’s so disgraceful, this court, that it shouldn’t even be allowed to be called the Supreme Court. It’s an insult to Motown. Basically, it’s a harem. It’s Trump’s harem.”
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CBS News says it will be up to Vance and Walz to fact-check each other in veep debate | AP News
CBS News, hosting vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz for the general election campaign’s third debate next week, says it will be up to the politicians — not the moderators — to check the facts of their opponents. During ABC’s debate between presidential contenders Kamala Harris and Donald Trump earlier this month, network moderators on four occasions pointed out inaccurate statements by Trump, and none by Harris. That infuriated the former president and his supporters, who complained it was unfair.
Harris / Democrats
Biden Inc
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I continue to be briefed by my team
my Administration is in constant contact with state and local officials to ensure communities have the support and resources they need.
Trump / Right / Jan6
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Meta blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier over election interference concerns
- comment:
I think the censorship of this JD Vance document is positive for the Harris campaign. The actual document is run-of-the-mill opposition research, but when some people unfamiliar with the contents hear about it being censored they will assume it's as scandalous as Hunter Biden's laptop.
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The Fear That’s Keeping Mitt Romney From Endorsing Harris
The Washington Post reported Friday that Romney has cited concern for his family’s safety as one of the reasons he has not publicly supported Kamala Harris, according to one person familiar with the Utah politician’s thinking. n an interview with The Atlantic published earlier this week, Romney fretted over his ability to keep his entire family safe from Trump’s ire, should he be reelected in November. (Trump has made it clear that his plans for a second term include seeking revenge on those who’ve wronged him.)
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
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Con Artists Aren't Just Targeting Big Banks. They Go After Goat Ladies Too
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NYC Mayor Adams pleads not guilty to sweeping federal corruption indictment
Mayor Adams pleaded not guilty at Manhattan federal court on Friday to sweeping corruption charges alleging he traded his influence for luxury trips around the world, illegal campaign contributions from overseas donors, and other gifts for nearly a decade.
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It's Time to Talk About America's Disorder Problem
while Chattanooga—like many cities—had a violent crime problem, it’s mostly been brought under control. Facing a shrinking police staff, they focused their limited resources on bringing down violence using evidence-based strategies, and succeeded in doing so. But, I argue, they’ve done so at the expense of controlling disorder in the city—public homelessness, trash, drug-related violations, etc. This is what has prompted persistent unease even as crime has come down.
A similar pattern emerged in my recent report on crime in Washington, D.C. There, too, there are signs that disorder has risen, relative to both the pandemic and pre-pandemic, as the police have attended to it less. Unsheltered homelessness, unsanitary conditions, shoplifting, farebeating—all seem to have become more common in D.C. And those problems have come as a smaller police force has deprioritized order enforcement—if you look at table 2 of that report, you’ll see that arrests for minor crimes were down as much as 99% in 2023 relative to 2019.
I increasingly think this is a more general phenomenon. Disorder is not measured like crime—there is no system for aggregating measures of disorder across cities. But if you look for the signs, they are there. Retail theft, though hard to measure, has grown bad enough that major retailers now lock up their wares in many cities. The unsheltered homeless population has risen sharply. People seem to be controlling their dogs less. Road deaths have risen, even as vehicle miles driven declined, suggesting people are driving more irresponsibly. Public drug use in cities from San Francisco to Philadelphia has gotten bad enough to prompt crack-downs.
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
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(Sep 26) Tennessee National Guard Task Force deploying to Middle East
More than 700 Soldiers from the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment are departing Saturday, September 28, on the first leg of a year-long deployment to the Middle East. Prior to departing Tennessee, Task Force units in Cookeville, Crossville, Gordonsville, and Morrison will hold departure ceremonies for the Soldiers where families and friends can honor them for their service. The 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is headquartered in Knoxville, is the largest unit in Tennessee and one of five armored brigade combat teams in the National Guard.
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Rethinking US Foreign Policy for a Multipolar World
Before charting a course forward, the US first needs to finally deal with at least its recent past and weed out all its war criminals and other neoconservative fanatics. In contrast to former President Barack Obama’s admission that the US “tortured some folks,” but it’s better to “look forward, not backwards,” the US should fully investigate and prosecute enablers of Israeli war crimes and other US wars of aggression
World
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Floating megabomb heaves to near the English coast
The MV Ruby, a ship carrying a highly explosive Russian cargo, is damaged and looking for a port. Whether or not this is hybrid warfare, the threat is clear.
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What I found on the secretive tropical island they don't want you to see
Diego Garcia, which is about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from the nearest landmass, features on lists of the world's most remote islands. There are no commercial flights and getting there by sea is no easier - permits for boats are only granted for the archipelago’s outer islands and to allow safe passage through the Indian Ocean. To enter the island you need a permit, only granted to people with connections to the military facility or the British authority that runs the territory. Journalists have historically been barred. UK government lawyers brought a legal challenge to try to block the BBC from attending the hearing, and even when permission was granted following a ruling by the territory's Supreme Court, the US later objected, saying it would not provide food, transport or accommodation to all those attempting to reach the island for the case - including the judge and barristers. Agreements signed in 1966 leased the island to the US for 50 years initially, with a possible extension for a further 20 years. The arrangement was rolled over and is set to expire in 2036.
The US dollar is the accepted currency and the electricity sockets are American. The food offered to us for the five days includes “tater tots” - a popular American fried-potato side dish - and American biscuits, similar to British scones.
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South Korea set to criminalize possessing or watching sexual deepfake videos
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Austria’s Freedom Party secures first far-right national election win since World War II.
Israel
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
Health / Medicine
Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws
TL;DR: To stop climate change, just do this - raise crops for biomass (sequestering CO2) and freeze them in huge aboveground piles during winter by running pipes through the middle. With a little insulation, they won’t ever thaw out during the summer.
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Just stop oil soups two more Van goghs hours after sentencing of earlier souping
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Melting glaciers force Switzerland and Italy to redraw part of Alpine border
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Gov. Newsom vetoes Calif. bill requiring health warning labels on gas stoves.