2024-10-30

VR mouse hardware (other way), Musk family compound, mouse bellies (other way), FBI knew, Vance plays Magic wrong, Meta Militias, it was UK terrorism, Google fined all the rubles, tree apocalypse

etc

• once they closed that road it went back to the property owner

  • "How dare you fix roads! Only Government gets to do that!"

• US airlines required to automatically refund you for canceled flight

• the nightmare before christmas' was released 31 years ago today

Horseshit

• NASA generated $76B for US economy in 2023

• More evidence that limiting social media won't boost your well-being

• Historian thinks the Ark of Covenant and Holy Grail are buried under this house

• Cadillac Ranch over 50 years is 'both interesting and odd' to Ant Farm artist

• What Cities Take When They Sweep Homeless Encampments

• London Redditors Are Trolling Tourists About the Best Steakhouse

• (2023) Full field-of-view virtual reality goggles for mice - ScienceDirect

  To achieve this position, we used two steps. First, during the surgery, we used a 3D-printed frame to implant a head plate at the same location with respect to the eyes across different mice (Figure 3D; STAR Methods). This frame included indicator targets, which, when aligned to the center of the mouse eyes, specified the correct head-plate implantation location. These surgical methods greatly reduced mouse-to-mouse and session-to-session variability in the location of the eyes with respect to the head plate and therefore with respect to the iMRSIV system (further details on the procedure and quantification of expected variability are provided under “iMRSIV alignment procedures” in the STAR Methods). Second, for final positioning of each mouse at the start of each behavioral session, we head fixed mice using the mounting posts

  • Surgically implanted head posts would solve many of the human issues with VR systems, too. Wonder why no one seems to have used that as a selling point. Probably saving it for the next VR bubble.

• The debauched posh are back: Drink, drugs and the new class divide

• Company renting SF sleeping pods for $700 a month gains city approval

• The Unfettered Selfishness of Digital Nomads

• Our perverse respect for immense wealth allows Musk and Zuckerberg to run riot

celebrity gossip

• NASA's oldest active astronaut is also one of the most curious humans

• Robert Downey Jr. Refuses to Let Hollywood Create His AI Digital Replica

• Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

• What Caused a CNN Guest to Get Ejected and Banned Midway Through a Segment?

  It’s when Hassan implies that Girdusky is a Nazi that things went off the rails. Girdusky wouldn’t let that fly, telling Hasan, “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.”

  • I'm glad America gets to see what CNN stands for.

Obit

• Teri Garr, offbeat comic actor of 'Young Frankenstein' and 'Tootsie,' has died

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Encrypted messaging apps: a persistent challenge in fighting organised crime

Musk

• Musk's Plan to Send a Million Colonists to Mars by 2050 Is Pure Delusion

• Elon Musk's XAI in Talks to Raise Funding Valuing It at $40B

• X Algorithm Feeds Users Political Content Whether They Want It or Not

• Elon Musk Bought a Texas Compound for His 11 Kids and Their Mothers - The New York Times

  Mr. Musk has told people close to him in recent months that he envisions his children (of which there are at least 11) and two of their three mothers occupying adjoining properties. That way, his younger children could be a part of one another’s lives, and Mr. Musk could schedule time among them. Directly behind the villa is a six-bedroom mansion that Mr. Musk helped purchase, according to two of the people and public records. The total cost of both properties was about $35 million. When in Austin, he often stays at a third mansion about a 10-minute walk away, the people said. Three mansions, three mothers, 11 children and one secretive, multibillionaire father who obsesses about declining birthrates when he isn’t overseeing one of his six companies: It is an unconventional family situation, and one that Mr. Musk seems to want to make even bigger.

• Elon Musk endorses killing the American economy if Trump wins

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Tesla Using 'Full Self-Driving' Hits Deer Without Slowing, Doesn't Stop

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• The Search for Room-Temperature Superconductivity Is Continuing

• Two High School Students Provide New Proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem

• US math teachers view student performance differently based on race and gender

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• EU to Apple: "Let Users Choose Their Software"; Apple: "Nah"

• Apple is turning The Oregon Trail into a movie

• New Mac Mini with M4

• Apple put the Magic Mouse's charging port on the bottom, again

  • In Defense of the Magic Mouse's Charging Port Placement

  None of them seem significantly changed aside from the port, including, as Peters notes, that the refreshed Magic Mouse doesn’t move the charging port from the bottom. It’s just USB-C instead of Lightning now. This will antagonize the vocal contingent of people who think the port placement is not merely ill-considered, but downright absurd. But I’m not surprised in the least that Apple didn’t change it. The contingent of Magic Mouse port-on-the-belly haters is, as I said, vocal, but I also think it’s small.

• Insiders Stealing Instagram Usernames?

• The miracles of marketing budgets: Warhammer 40k should be considered a great work of science fiction

• FCC chair: Mobile dead spots will end when space-based and ground comms merge

• LinkedIn Shoots for TikTok's Virality

• 50k Oasis tickets to be cancelled for violating purchase terms

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• New in Python 3.13: SQLite support in dbm

• Five Eyes nations tell tech startups to take infosec seriously. Again

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Linus Torvalds reckons AI is '90% marketing and 10% reality'

• Vinod Khosla calls SB 1047 author 'clueless' and 'not qualified' to regulate AI

• Hospitals adopt error-prone AI transcription tools despite warnings

  • Researchers say whisper AI transcription tool invents things no one ever said

• A mysterious new image generation model has appeared

• Polish broadcaster shuts down AI-run radio station after week following backlash

• Meta is reportedly working on its own AI-powered search engine, too

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• For some reason, NASA is treating Orion's heat shield problems as a secret

• NASA narrows Artemis III landing target list to nine

Crypto con games

• Crypto mining and cross-border payments will become legal in Russia next week

• Bitcoin rises 3% after topping $73,000 since March

Economicon / Business / Finance

• New York Stock Exchange to extend after-hours trading

• Startups should hire recruiters much sooner than they think

• JPMorgan Chase has started suing customers who took advantage of an "infinite money glitch".

• The Commercial Real Estate Crash Is Battering Even the Safest Bonds

• Intel, CEO Pat Gelsinger fumbled the revival of an American icon

• Why fast-food price increases have surpassed overall inflation

  “There were increased commodity costs. We’ve seen those start to normalize,” said Stephens analyst Jim Salera. “But what continues to be ahead of historical averages is the increase in labor costs that restaurants are seeing.” Chains such as Wingstop and Chipotle are passing these costs on to their customers, especially in states such as California, where the minimum wage has increased to $20 an hour.

• Alphabet Revenue Jumps 15% to $88.3B

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• How Russia, China and Iran Are Interfering in the Presidential Election - The New York Times

  Now, eight years later, foreign interference in American elections has become far more sophisticated, and far more difficult to track. Disinformation from abroad — particularly from Russia, China and Iran — has matured into a consistent and pernicious threat, as the countries test, iterate and deploy increasingly nuanced tactics, according to U.S. intelligence and defense officials, tech companies and academic researchers. The ability to sway even a small pocket of Americans could have outsize consequences for the presidential election, which polls generally consider a neck-and-neck race. Russia, according to American intelligence assessments, aims to bolster the candidacy of former President Donald J. Trump, while Iran favors his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. China appears to have no preferred outcome. But the broad goal of these efforts has not changed: to sow discord and chaos in hopes of discrediting American democracy in the eyes of the world. The campaigns, though, have evolved, adapting to a changing media landscape and the proliferation of new tools that make it easy to fool credulous audiences.

  • We'll think about listening this time, as soon as someone admits how many occasions they've erroneously used "foreign disinfo!" to avoid answering valid political criticism... IE, never.

• USA Today joins the Washington Post and L.A. Times in not endorsing a candidate

• The Newspapers Were Never Going to Save Us

• Chaos erupts as newspapers axe endorsements

• Jeff Bezos defends Washington Post's end to election endorsements

• Bezos was in his rights to screw this up

• What to know after ballot box fires in Washington and Oregon - CBS News

  According to a federal bulletin published by the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, some online users on platforms frequented by domestic violent extremists have "encouraged violence against ideological opponents related to the use of mail-in voting," along with promoting "methods of sabotaging ballot drop boxes." In Clark County, where the Washington incident occurred, officials will assign ballot box observers to watch all of the county's ballot drop boxes 24 hours a day, in addition to increasing patrols around the boxes through Election Day. Election officials will also begin picking up the ballots at drop boxes more frequently. In Portland, election officials also plan to implement increased security measures and additional patrols.

Harris / Democrats

• reporter practically begs Kamala Harris to call Donald Trump a Nazi

• “Donald Trump sent me a check during the pandemic.”

  I often hear folks say, “Donald Trump sent me a check during the pandemic.” I want to make sure you understand this: Congress sent you a check. By the way, Joe Biden also sent you a check during the pandemic, just like I gave people relief during the Great Recession.

• Kamala Harris Wins Nickelodeon's 'Kids Pick the President' Poll With 52% of Votes, Trump Grabs 48%

• Moderates Should Vote for Harris

• Balls for Kamala

• George W. Bush's daughter, Barbara, campaigns for Kamala Harris

• Kamala Harris' 'Fortnite' Map Bans Guns, Has Less Than 400 People Playing - Newsweek

• Babylon Bee endorses Harris

Biden Inc

• IRS, DOJ, and FBI Knew Laptop “Was Real” Immediately

  • the FBI & CIA conspiracy to interfere in the 2020 election on behalf of Joe Biden confirmed

Trump / Right / Jan6

• Trump at MSG: A Closing Carnival of Grievances and Racism - The New York Times

  A comic kicked off the rally by dismissing Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” then mocked Hispanics as failing to use birth control, Jews as cheap and Palestinians as rock-throwers, and called out a Black man in the audience with a reference to watermelon. Another speaker likened Vice President Kamala Harris to a prostitute with “pimp handlers.” A third called her “the Antichrist.” And the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson mocked Ms. Harris — the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father — with a made-up ethnicity, saying she was vying to become “the first Samoan-Malaysian, low IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.” By the time the former president himself took the stage, an event billed as delivering the closing message of his campaign, with nine days left in a tossup race, had instead become a carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.

• The Day After The Nazi Rally - by Between Chairs

  The only thing I am seeing on my Facebook page is my friends and acquaintances forwarding articles and commenting on the big Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. I am in a lot of mental pain today, because of it. I have not voted in many years and the last vote I cast was in Germany. I just became a US citizen last year like many of you know. My observation today feel like someone rubbing salt into an open wound. I have never cast any vote for anything that was not considered left. So marking anything that was labeled republican was painful to me. Like I had to physically force myself to color the box black. I voted by absentee ballot that I carefully drove to the nearest drop box. I did not trust USPS not to lose it.

• Magic the Gathering fans explain why JD Vance’s favorite deck reflects badly on him | The Independent

  "Essentially, you’re not playing an interactive game anymore. You’re just sort of playing Solitaire... while the other person sits there and waits for the game to end," said Lucas Kunce, 42, a lifelong Magic player who is also a Democrat Party politician running to unseat Republican senator Josh Hawley in Missouri. "In tournament Magic, I’m sure a lot of people played it,” said Kunce. “But if JD Vance was playing that at the kitchen table against his buddies, then people probably thought he was kind of a jerk.”

  • Kunce shot a reporter last week in a stupidly unsafe "target shooting" photo op. Obvious authority on jerk moves.

• Facebook Is Auto-Generating Militia Group Pages as Extremists Continue to Organize in Plain Sight | WIRED

  Anti-government militia movements have been continuing to use Facebook to recruit, coordinate training, promote ballot box stake outs, and prepare for a civil war that many militants believe will break out after election day. And in some cases, the movement is attracting people who don’t appear to have any prior background in a militia. Meta is even doing the work for extremist movements by auto-generating some group pages on their behalf.

• This Trump Supporter Was Labeled a Noncitizen and Kicked Off Texas' Voter Rolls

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Pizza shop owner sentenced to 8.5 years for threatening workers | AP News

  Stavros Papantoniadis, 49, of Westwood — the owner of Stash’s Pizza, a Massachusetts pizzeria chain — was sentenced Friday in federal court to 102 months in prison, one year of supervised release and ordered to pay a $35,000 fine. Papantoniadis forced or attempted to force six victims — five men and one woman — to work for him and comply with excessive workplace demands through violent physical abuse; threats of violence and serious harm; and repeated threats to report the victims to immigration authorities for deportation, according to prosecutors. In June, a jury convicted Papantoniadis of three counts of forced labor and three counts of attempted forced labor. Papantoniadis has remained in custody since his arrest in March 2023.

• Chicago shooting: Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi charged after wounding Jewish man, firing at CPD in West Rogers Park, police, ald. say - ABC7 Chicago

• Defendants with Ties to White Supremacy Sentenced in Connection with Plot to Destroy Energy Facilities

  Jordan Duncan, 29, of Bailey, North Carolina was sentenced today to seven years in prison for manufacturing a short barrel rifle in violation of the National Firearms Act. Joseph Maurino, 25, of Manalapan, New Jersey, was sentenced on Oct. 25. Paul James Kryscuk, 38, of Boise, Idaho, Liam Collins, 25, of Johnston, Rhode Island, and Justin Wade Hermanson, 25, of Swansboro, North Carolina, were sentenced in July. Duncan, Collins, and Hermanson are former Marines who were previously assigned to Camp Lejeune. “We have now brought to justice all five of the defendants involved in a self-described ‘modern day SS,’ who conspired, prepared, and trained to attack America’s power grid in the name of violent white supremacist ideology,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department is aggressively investigating, disrupting, and prosecuting these kinds of hate-fueled plots that seek to sow violence and chaos and endanger our national security.” “This NCIS-led investigation has been crucial in dismantling a domestic terrorist cell intent on targeting innocent people and destroying critical infrastructure,” said NCIS Director Omar Lopez. “The tireless efforts of NCIS, our dedicated law enforcement partners, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office demonstrate our commitment to ensuring that those who conspire to undermine our national security are thoroughly investigated and held accountable.”

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• The Emerging Age of AI Diplomacy: To Compete with China US Must Walk Tightrope

World

• Opinion | Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party Is Faltering - The New York Times

  Japan’s prized political stability is no more. The Liberal Democrats, the country’s indispensable political force for so long, is losing its way. It is in disarray and weakened by scandals that have contributed to growing public disgust with the status quo. All of this is happening as Japan faces some of its biggest challenges in decades. The economy, which has alternated between anemic growth and recession for many years, slipped back into recession late last year and barely grew in the most recent quarter. The yen hit a nearly four-decade low this summer. It remains unclear how Japan can continue to pay for the spiraling long-term social welfare needs of its rapidly aging population while also following through on plans to raise military spending to meet the growing threat posed by China and nuclear-armed dictatorships like North Korea and Russia.

• Researcher finds lost city in Mexico jungle by accident

• Far-right governments seek to cut billions of euros from research in Europe

  A surge in far-right parties entering governments across Europe is raising concerns for science. The parties, whose focus is typically immigration, care little about research, say policy experts. In the Netherlands — where the Party for Freedom (PVV), led by the anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders, entered a coalition government in July — researchers are bracing for €1 billion (US$1.1 billion) in cuts to the budget, the worst in decades.

• Tram derails and crashes into shop in central Oslo

• Grocery prices at Coles and Woolworths go up and down.What's behind the pattern?

• Deadly new drugs found in fake medicines in the UK

• Southport attack: Teen charged with girls’ murder at UK dance class facing terrorism charge, prosecutors say | CNN

  The teenager charged with the murder of three young girls in a July stabbing attack at a dance class in northwest England will face a terrorism charge, British prosecutors announced Tuesday. The suspect Axel Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack but is now 18, will be charged with the production of the biological toxin ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism, the United Kingdom’s Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement. The new charges he faces in relation to the attack in the town of Southport, England, are in addition to three charges of murder, 10 charges of attempted murder and one charge of possession of a knife.

• Wanted. Top infosec pros willing to defend Britain on shabby salaries

• Mexico may be at the cusp of one of its biggest transformations in decades

• Hack-for-hire scandal rocks Italian political elites

Israel

• Israel Passes Landmark Law Ending UNRWA Activities - i24NEWS

  In a historic move, the Knesset has voted to ban all activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Israeli territory. The legislation, passed in its final reading on Monday, was spearheaded by MK Boaz Bismuth, who emphasized that “UNRWA is not a refugee aid agency; it is a Hamas aid agency.”

• Twitch apologizes after some users in Israel, Gaza barred from making accounts

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Recent BGP leak that redirected internet traffic through Russia

• Skyscraper-high sewage plume erupts in Moscow

• Russian court fines Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

China

• Millions joined a livestream selling tickets to space on a Chinese rocket

• Chinese engineers use Raspberry Pi to test tunnels

Health / Medicine

• What happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads?

• Minor degree of hypohydration adversely influences cognition

• Is Depression Contagious?

• Weight-loss surgery down 25 percent as anti-obesity drug use soars

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• The Health and Employment Effects of Employer Vaccination Mandates

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Dire wolves were real–and even stranger than we thought

• Microplastic Pollution Is Everywhere, Even in the Exhaled Breath of Dolphins

• Cyanobacterial Artificial Plants for Indoor Carbon Capture and Utilization

• Unveiling Chonkus: The Algae That Sinks Carbon to Save Our Planet

• Alarm call as trees slide towards extinction

  Scientists assessing dangers posed to the world’s trees have revealed that more than a third of species are facing extinction in the wild. The number of threatened trees now outweighs all threatened birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians put together, according to the latest update to the official extinction red list.

• Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Is About to Go Big

• Hedgehogs being decimated by human behavior: report

• The "Energy Transition" Won't Happen

• Much of Ireland Is an Ecological Desert. Meet the Man Who Wants to Rewild It

• New Study Reveals Oceans Absorb More CO2 Than Previously Thought.

• Threat of foodborne pathogens is growing with climate change, experts warn - CBS News

  Warmer temperatures are impacting the food supply and its safety, experts warned amid an outbreak of E. coli that has struck McDonald's Quarter Pounders. Experts said pathogens—the bacteria that can make us sick—are changing with the weather. "It's an adjustment due to climate change," said Pratik Banerjee, who teaches food safety at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, "and some of these adjustments are not good." Banerjee is currently studying the impact of climate on the food supply.