2024-10-03

Free Starlink, multi polar misinformation, illiterate graduates, paywalls rise, VR dries up, AI gushes, ports prompt paper panic, BOA br0k3d, FEMA broke, Walz phrenology, fake COVID tests

NC/TN Floods / Helene

• Starlink systems deployed for Hurricane Helene by Biden administration

  The White House said on Monday dozens of Starlink satellite systems that provide high-speed internet access were in use in North Carolina, with over 100 more in transit to areas devastated by Hurricane Helene.

• Helene took out an N.C. town the entire tech world relies on

• Helene dumped 40T gallons of rain on the South

• Death of Tennessee plastics plant employee leaves a close-knit family in grief

• Distributed Rescue - by Chris Bray - Tell Me How This Ends

  While serious military assets sit unused and nearby, well into the disaster, little groups of neighbors are going hard at the problem.

• Which Waffle Houses are open?

• baked bean donations

• rumors of feds refusing donations

  Just was informed by a person in the water service industry that a supply company willing to donate pipe for repairs, to expedite city/county water being restored-- WAS TOLD NO by federal agencies (assuming it was FEMA) on the ground.

• thread on confiscation of donations

• Experienced pilot rescuing flood victims in NC ordered to stop

• Hurricane Helene Relief

  For those in areas that were impacted by Hurricane Helene, Starlink is available and temporarily offering free service for the first month.

• Biden: one thousand military personnel from Fort Liberty to help the NC National Guard

  We’ve deployed 67 Starlink satellites so that folks in places like Canton can call for help

• Walz: I authorized the Minnesota National Guard to provide emergency assistance to North Carolina

Horseshit

• Google Flights now uses Amtrak data to show trains to consider alongside flights

• Betting on U.S. elections can resume after legal freeze, appeals court rules

• The hell of the sandwich lunch

• shelter in place from 7pm to 7am each night

• Rage over road closure is tearing a neighborhood apart

• 'A target on their back': college athletes face wave of abuse amid gambling boom

• Where the Bubble-Tea Industry Has Gone into Hyperdrive

• Has social media pushed fandom to a point of no return?

• Palmer Luckey: Every country needs a 'warrior class' excited to enact 'violence

celebrity gossip

• Julian Assange speaks for the first time since his release from prison

• He don't look good: immy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday surrounded by family and friends in his backyard

• A TV celebrity's 15-year-old son went traveling in Europe without an adult

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Differences in misinformation sharing can lead to politically asymmetric sanctions | Nature

  We first analysed 9,000 politically active Twitter users during the US 2020 presidential election. Although users estimated to be pro-Trump/conservative were indeed substantially more likely to be suspended than those estimated to be pro-Biden/liberal, users who were pro-Trump/conservative also shared far more links to various sets of low-quality news sites—even when news quality was determined by politically balanced groups of laypeople, or groups of only Republican laypeople—and had higher estimated likelihoods of being bots. We find similar associations between stated or inferred conservatism and low-quality news sharing (on the basis of both expert and politically balanced layperson ratings) in 7 other datasets of sharing from Twitter, Facebook and survey experiments, spanning 2016 to 2023 and including data from 16 different countries. Thus, even under politically neutral anti-misinformation policies, political asymmetries in enforcement should be expected. Political imbalance in enforcement need not imply bias on the part of social media companies implementing anti-misinformation policies.

• Facebook and Instagram Restrict Use of Red Triangle Emoji over Hamas Association

• Judge blocks California deepfakes law that sparked Musk-Newsom row

• Clemson University researchers find extensive Iranian-linked fake X accounts pushing leftist politics in UK | Human Events | humanevents.com

  A network of fake social media accounts, reportedly linked to the Iranian government, has been pushing leftist political agendas and promoting Scottish independence in an effort to stoke division and tension within the United Kingdom. According to a report by The Times, the accounts, believed to be operated or influenced by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have been posing as left-wing British citizens. Research conducted by academics at Clemson University in the US uncovered more than 80 such accounts. These accounts are responsible for at least 4 percent of all discussions on X about Scottish independence, a volume four times higher than the activity of the official Scottish National Party (SNP) account.

Musk

• Elon Musk's X is worth nearly 80% less than when he bought it

• Elon Musk gave millions to Republican causes far earlier than previously known

• CIA Recruiting on X

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Bidirectional Charging May Be Required on EVs Soon Due to New California Law

• Men Harassed a Woman in a Driverless Waymo, Trapping Her in Traffic

• the US is many miles away from its goal of installing 500k chargers by 2030

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• New MacArthur "genius" says she defied caste prejudice

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• This Hartford Public High School grad can't read. What happened?

  Those officials, in statements that her attorney says display “shocking” educational neglect, have acknowledged that Ortiz never received instruction in reading. Despite this, she received her diploma this spring after improving her grades in high school — with help from the speech-to-text function — and getting on the honor roll. She began her studies at the University of Connecticut this summer. Ortiz can’t read even most one-syllable words. The words she can read were memorized during karaoke or from subtitles at the bottom of TV screens and associating the words she saw with what she heard, she said.

• The toll of PhDs on mental health: data reveal stark effects

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Reuters, CNN Become Latest Outlets to Make You Pay for Digital News

  • CNN launches a digital paywall, charging some to read articles

  • Reuters to launch digital subscriptions for $1 per week

• AT&T claims VMware by Broadcom offered it a 1,050 percent price rise

  • "Extreme" Broadcom-proposed price hike would up VMware costs 1,050%, AT&T says

• Godot Responds to Mass Banning -- No Apology, Blames Banned Users

  The statement "we made a tweet that unexpectedly led to a wave of harassment directed at our staff" is, based on all available evidence, simply not true. The majority of bannings, enacted by Godot, appear to have been directed towards people who were makings statements which could not be described as "harassing staff". Many were variations on "why not focus on software?" or "why are people being banned?"

  Godot appears to be distancing themselves from this moderator by stating that this was an "unofficial Godot-related Discord server". However, this Discord server was listed as the official Discord server -- according to the Godot Foundation website (as of just three months ago). Likewise, "Xananax" has been often referred to as the "Main Moderator" for multiple years.

  As I sat there, in the Godot Discord topic -- specifically for asking questions about this issue -- I was amazed as I saw comment after comment, from a wide range of users, get deleted. Right before my eyes.

• Microsoft is discontinuing its HoloLens headsets

  • Microsoft Is Discontinuing HoloLens 2, with No Replacement

• Christian Selig's unofficial YouTube app for the Vision Pro just got taken down

• Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney renews blast at 'gatekeeper' platform owners

• 2 years after entering the graphics card game, Intel has nothing to show for it

• Pink Floyd Sell Catalog and Name/Likeness Rights for $400M

  • Pink Floyd reaches deal with Sony to sell music catalog for $400M – report

• Ryujinx Switch Emulator Project Shuts Down Under Nintendo Pressure

• Microsoft pulls the plug on HoloLens 2

• Meta smart glasses can be used to dox anyone in seconds, study finds

• Beware Hollywood's digital demolition: as if your favourite films never existed

• Cisco is abandoning the LoRaWAN space, and there's no lifeboat for IoT customers

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows - the fastest X Elite, tested | Jeff Geerling

  Everyone I've been in contact with also ordered the Dev Kit on July 16, but we've all been waiting for it to ship—for months. It's October, and the Snapdragon Dev Kit meant to propel CoPilot+ PCs into a new era of Generative AI computing was expected in June, but finally opened up for orders on July 16. At that time, Arrow's website proclaimed 'ships tomorrow'... until you paid for it and saw your order status. But it's finally trickling out to Windows developers who put down almost $900 (including shipping).

  Easily the most baffling decision is Qualcomm's choice of Windows 11 Home to ship with these units. Microsoft can't be charging OEM's that much more per unit for a device meant to assist developers building their next-gen computing platform, right? Especially when developer-centric features like Active Directory support and Remote Desktop server are tied to a Pro license? Microsoft still doesn't have any official way of downloading an arm64 version of the Windows 11 installation media ISO... Currently, there's no restore image available from Qualcomm, and multiple developers have been asking about this

• The Fastest Mutexes

  The reason why Cosmopolitan Mutexes are so good is because I used a library called nsync. It only has 371 stars on GitHub, but it was written by a distinguished engineer at Google called Mike Burrows. If you don't know who he is, he's the guy who coded Google's fiercest competitor, which was Altavista. If you're not old enough to remember Altavista, it was the first search engine that was good, and it ran on a single computer.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Famous AI artist says he's losing million$ from people stealing his work

• Speculative Monotheism OpenAI asks investors not to back rival startups such as Elon Musk's xAI

• AI will guzzle energy, and that's good for the climate

• OpenAI Has Closed New Funding Round Raising over $6.5B

• OpenAI Completes Deal That Values Company at $157B

• OpenAI raises $6.6B in largest VC round

• AI Will Drive Broad Deflation, Silicon Valley Pioneer Vinod Khosla Says

• Meta hit with new author copyright lawsuit over AI training

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• The politically incorrect guide to saving NASA's floundering Artemis Program

• NASA Turns Off Science Instrument to Save Voyager 2 Power

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Raspberry Pi has charmed its way to a UK computer revival

• Dockworkers may have the negotiating advantage in their strike against US ports

  • Dockworkers waging battle against automation. The rest of us might take notes

  • Brown bananas, crowded ports, empty shelves: What to expect with the US dockworkers strike

• Toyota to invest $500M in flying taxi startup Joby

• eBay wins dismissal of US lawsuit over sale of harmful products

• DC landlords could soon have power to evict tenants who don't pay rent

• Nvidia's Monster Rally Broke Your Tech ETF

• Canada Just Saw 1 in 20 Businesses Close in a Month, Biggest Wave Since Pandemic

• Bank of America is down: Customers report widespread outage

  • Bank of America customers report outage, with some seeing $0 balances

  • Bank of America app glitch zeroes out people’s balances.

• Dish Bondholders Don't Want a Haircut

• ABC News hit with 75 layoffs as corporate parent Disney slashes costs

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• What to do when your country is supposed to be a democracy but it feels rigged

  In the USA, things are different. The political parties were largely abolished in the 1970s with the spread of the primary system, leaving the parties too weak to function as sites of citizen mobilization. But in the USA, the local and state governments offer sites of mobilization. In particular, the style of voting, even in national elections, is decided on the state level, so getting involved there can have a big impact. In particular, changing the voting in a state to Ranked Choice Voting makes it much easier for 3rd parties to compete, and thus break the duopoly of the Democrats and the Republicans.

• My Speech in Washington: "Rescue the Republic"

  Now, is it against the law when a White House official calls Facebook and asks to ban a journalist for writing that the Covid vaccine “doesn’t stop infection or transmission”? I think hell yes. It certainly violates the spirit of the First Amendment, even if judges are found to say it keeps to the letter. But this is post-9/11 America. Whether about surveillance or torture or habeas corpus or secret prisons or rendition or any of a dozen other things, WE IGNORE LAWS. Institutional impunity is the chief characteristic of our current form of government.

• What populists don't understand about tariffs (but economists do)

• Concern: FEMA Does Not Have Enough Money to Pay for Helene Damage

  Sen. Scott and other Florida lawmakers are calling for Congress to convene a special session to allocate more money to FEMA for disaster response. Congress is not scheduled to return to the Hill until after the November election. Scott says FEMA needs the money now.

  • Mayorkas Warns of Funding Shortfall for Rest of Hurricane Season - The New York Times

  The Federal Emergency Management Agency does not have enough funding to ride out the remainder of the hurricane season, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, said on Wednesday. “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” Mr. Mayorkas told reporters on Wednesday while en route to meet with officials in South Carolina. “We are expecting another hurricane hitting — we do not have the funds, FEMA does not have the funds, to make it through the season.”

• Ask HN: I owe –$30k in back taxes on under water stock options. Any suggestions? | Hacker News

  got in early at a startup. exercised stock for ~$6k. got valued at ~$90k+, received a 1099 for that. company subsequently declined in value, now the stock might never be worth anything, but I owe $30k in taxes. ...no way to sell the privately-held shares.

Harris / Democrats

• 8 Body Language Tells From the Vice Presidential Debate - POLITICO

  When Walz felt especially passionate about something, he’d open his eyes wide as saucers. Eye-popping can sometimes be a sign of surprise, but for Walz, it simply revealed his emotional intensity — like this moment during an exchange about abortion. The orbicularis oculi muscle, working in concert with the corrugator and frontalis muscles, contract to raise the eyebrows — a dynamic and emphatic facial motion that grabbed the viewer’s attention. Early humans would have made such facial gestures to communicate strong emotions, like “danger is close.” For Walz, it gave extra weight to his feelings and held our gaze.

  From the time we are born, we demonstrate negative sentiments by furrowing the glabella — the space between the eyebrows. Throughout our lives we use it to communicate our doubts and insecurities as well as disagreements in real time. Walz gave us a textbook example: During a disagreement over democracy, he furrowed his glabella forcefully at what Vance was saying. Then he held his eyebrows like that, in tension, for some time. While Vance had the floor, this was a way for Walz to silently say, “No way, that’s not right, and I am going to challenge you on this.

• Walz clarifies 'friends with school shooters' gaffe

• Coach praises Tim Walz's son for helping protect other kids after shooting

Trump / Right / Jan6

• No, Project 2025 doesn't recommend eliminating FEMA, but it does recommend making major changes

• Schiff: Donald Trump did not “peacefully” turn over power. Not by a long shot.

• Trump's 'Gish Gallop' Debate Tactic Comes from Creationists

• Judge Unseals New Evidence in Federal Election Case Against Trump - The New York Times

  Judge Tanya Chutkan made public portions of a filing by prosecutors setting out their argument for why the case should go forward despite the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Lawsuit: Metro officers didn't intervene as woman stabbed 68 times

  Las Vegas police officers stood outside listening as a 74-year-old woman was stabbed 68 times and killed by one of her sons in her home, a lawsuit filed Saturday alleged.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Fentanyl traffickers are exploiting a U.S. trade law to kill Americans

• Army Testing Robot Dogs Armed with AI-Enabled Rifles in Middle East

World

• Oracle to invest $6.5B to set up cloud facilities in Malaysia

• Buried US Second World War Bomb Explodes at Japanese Miyazaki Airport

• (Sep 23) Sri Lankans throw out old guard in election upset: What nation’s new Marxist-leaning leader means for economy, IMF loans

Israel

• Multiple exoatmospheric intercepts can be seen as bright purple bursts in sky

• Blasts, shooting happen near Israeli embassies in Nordic capitals

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Ukraine Is Losing the War

China

• Young Chinese are retiring in the countryside as China's unemployment woes grate

• Stressed young people in China are tapping digital wooden fish

Health / Medicine

• CFPB issues warning to medical debt collectors

• Why is US health care like this?

• 'Nobody Knows What These Bills Are For'

• A Hospital Kept a Brain-Damaged Patient on Life Support to Boost Statistics

• Migration during adolescence linked to increased psychosis risk, study finds

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Lab owner pleads guilty to faking COVID test results during pandemic | Ars Technica

  The scam, which ran from around February 2021 to about February 2022, made over $83 million total in fraudulent payments from the federal government's Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which covered the cost of COVID-19 testing for people without insurance during the height of the pandemic. Local media coverage indicated that people who sought testing at LabElite were discouraged from providing health insurance information.

• How Covid-19 Messes Up Your Gut Health

• Covid-19 reinfection ups risk of long Covid, new data show

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Coastal communities face 'catastrophic flooding' from rising sea levels

• Conservationists are waging a global war on island rats

• eBay listings for banned chemicals shielded by Section 230, judge rules

• The toll taken by tropical storms

• Zillow introduces First Street's climate risk data on for-sale listings

• American Dams Weren't Built for Today's Climate-Charged Rain and Floods

• Climate change is destroying American homes. Who should have to move?

• Invasive 20-pound rodents continue to spread in the Bay Area