2024-11-16
fire in the sky, advertisers return to X, why trust "the Science(TM)?", Microsoft monopolizing, InfoWars drama, spy appliances, fading disinflation, un-woke GenZ, subverted cops, Welsh dogs racist
etc
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Leonid meteor shower hits peak activity this weekend: When and how to watch.
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Dark Skies Over Indonesia: Explosive Eruption Sends Ash Miles Into the Sky.
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The Influence of Bell Labs - by Brian Potter
Discussion of Bell Labs tends to center around the impact and successes of the Labs itself. But a perhaps underappreciated impact of Bell Labs is the influence it had on other large corporations. Bell Labs was highly prestigious, and its invention of the transistor demonstrated that world-changing products could come by funding “basic” scientific research. Inspired by Bell Labs, in the second half of the 20th century, a variety of corporations started their own research operations based on the Bell Labs model.
Horseshit
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Six inane arguments about EVs and how to handle them at the dinner table
- Anything that requires "how to discuss with family" articles is a cult.
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Texas' uneven population boom is creating ghost towns in many rural counties
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Software Development Goes Full Brown Shirt On 3D Printing - The Truth About Guns
Cloud-based 3D printing management platform 3DPrinterOS has partnered with Montclair State University to develop an algorithm that identifies the 3D printing of firearm parts, but they are not the first. Print&Go recently launched a software system designed to block 3D-printed production of firearms called 3D GUN’T.
celebrity gossip
Musk
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Musk's amended lawsuit against OpenAI names Microsoft as defendent
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Comcast, Disney, and IBM Are Among Advertisers Returning to X After Ad Freeze
Lou Paskalis, chief executive of marketing consultancy AJL Advisory and a former media executive at Bank of America, said some marketers were likely to reallocate spending back to X as “political leverage”, such as if they were seeking government contracts. He added companies would seek to get in the “good graces of Elon”, who has been given a wide remit by Trump as co-head of a new Department of Government Efficiency. “It could be seen as an official channel for White House communications,” said another advertising agency chief, adding that Trump’s victory has lent Musk new legitimacy as well as power over brands in sectors that could face new regulatory curbs from Trump. “The high ground rarely kicks in if it’s an important channel,” said Shira Jeczmien, chief executive of Screenshot Media, the media and marketing group.
In a Wednesday letter to Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Meta, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr accused them of having "participated in a censorship cartel that included not only technology and social media companies but advertising, marketing, and so-called "fact-checking" organizations as well as the Biden-Harris Administration itself." The relevant conduct extended from removing or blocking social media posts to suppress their information and viewpoints, including through efforts to delist them, lower their rankings, or harm their profitability."
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Size Matters: SpaceX CEO Musk Mocks Russia's 'Familiar' Looking Rocket Prototype
Electric / Self Driving cars
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Cruise fined $500K for submitting false report after last years pedestrian crash
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Tesla Has the Highest Fatal Accident Rate of All Auto Brands, Study Finds
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Tesla pushes update for highway driving, but only for newer vehicles
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Tesla supports killing $7,500 EV tax credit – going directly against its mission
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
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Caste remains off-limits in corporate India's drive for diversity
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US trust in scientists plunged during pandemic – but it's starting to recover
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Science does not require trust. Verification and replication serve much better.
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Public Trust in Scientists and Views on Their Role in Policymaking
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Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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FTC reportedly begins investigating Microsoft's cloud business practices
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Newsletter platform beehiiv launches multi-million dollar journalism fund
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Mayor Adams' office directs NYC agencies to launch Bluesky accounts amid growth
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How to migrate from X to Bluesky without losing your followers
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Judge orders hearing to review Onion's purchase of Alex Jones's InfoWars
The exact bid amount offered by the Onion for InfoWars remains unknown, but it has been reported it was lower than First United American’s bid of $3.5m. The Onion’s offer was seen as a better deal because some of the related Sandy Hook families agreed to forgo a portion of the sale proceeds to help pay off Jones’s other creditors.
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Why does the judge need to review it, the Guardian obviously knows the justification for accepting the lower bid, they should just inform him.
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Judge Halts Sale of InfoWars as Elon Musk's Lawyers Intervene
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Fighting conspiracy theories with comedy? That's what The Onion hopes
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Unreal and Unreal Tournament are now free and preserved on the Internet Archive
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Air fryer might be spying on you
While privacy and security concerns around smart TVs are nothing new, the appetite of some air fryers for our personal data is more of a surprise. "Which?" found that the three fryers it tested all wanted to "record audio on the user's phone, for no specified reason".
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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A fast alternative to the modulo reduction – Daniel Lemire's blog
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AMD Radeon PRO W7700 running on Raspberry Pi | Jeff Geerling
After years of work among a bunch of people in the Pi community (special callout to Coreforge!), we finally have multiple generations of AMD graphics cards working on the Raspberry Pi 5. We recently got Polaris-era GPUs working (like the RX460), but in the past month we've gotten 6000 and 7000-series GPUs up and running. And many parts of the driver work at full performance—well, as much as can be had on the Raspberry Pi's single PCIe Gen 3 lane (8 GT/sec)!
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Lenovo Has a CXL Memory Monster with 128x 128GB DDR5 DIMMs
The 64 DIMMs are connected directly to the Xeon CPUs, and then 64 additional DIMM slots are connected via CXL memory expansion. That gives us 128 DIMM slots. With 128GB RDIMMs, that is 16TB of memory capacity.
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
Crypto con games
Economicon / Business / Finance
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Rising US producer prices add to signs of fading disinflation.
Combined with a drop in first-time applications for unemployment benefits to a six-month low last week, which suggested the abrupt slowdown in job growth in October was an aberration, and tariffs on imported goods expected to be unveiled by President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration, economists said the Fed was likely to opt for fewer rate cuts in 2025 than the four it projected in September. Indeed, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Thursday that if economic data allows a slower pace of rate cuts, then that would be the "smart thing to do." Some economists now see a rate cut at the U.S. central bank's Dec. 17-18 meeting as a very close call.
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Meat processing giant Smithfield will pay a $2 million penalty to resolve a child labor compliance order with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, the largest child labor enforcement action in DLI history. The fine will have almost no impact on the company’s bottom line, however, given annual revenue of parent company WH Group Limited tops $26 billion. A consent order with the company will also require the Chinese-owned Smithfield to conduct industry outreach related to child labor compliance; require child labor compliance with its labor staffing agencies and sanitation contractors; and take other steps to ensure future child labor compliance, according to a DLI press release.
A DLI investigation found that between 2021 and 2023, the St. James area plant owned by Smithfield employed at least 11 minor children between the ages of 14 and 17. The children were also working late on school nights and performing hazardous jobs like working near chemicals; operating power-driven machinery, including meat grinders, slicers and power-driven conveyor belts; and operating nonautomatic elevators, lifts or hoisting machines, including motorized pallet jacks and lift pallet jacks.
The company said it uses E-Verify, a federal system that validates employment eligibility based on federal records. “Each of the 11 alleged underage individuals passed the E-Verify system by using false identification. Each used a different name to obtain employment with Smithfield than the name by which DLI identified them to Smithfield,” the company said in the statement.
Trump
Democrats / Biden Inc
Left Angst
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The Not-So-Woke Generation Z - The Atlantic
For years, Gen Z has been either derided or praised for supposedly being “woke.” Its members have been called snowflakes, mocked for performative “slacktivism” and embracing trigger warnings, and described (favorably and unfavorably) as climate warriors and gun-control activists. Some older commentators have even proclaimed them the nation’s last hope. (The number of people who’ve argued that Gen Z might “save the world” is … not small.) But that progressive reputation was called into question when Donald Trump won last week’s presidential election—partly thanks, it seems, to Gen Z, which encompasses voters ages 18 to 27. Exit polls and county-by-county analyses, however imprecise, indicated that young voters had shifted right since 2020. That’s especially true for young men—most of all young white men, who made up one of Trump’s most supportive cohorts. Democrats also lost ground with young women, though. According to some national exit-poll data, the party’s lead among 18-to-29-year-olds was cut nearly in half. And county data (which are considered more reliable, though still imperfect) indicate that counties with large populations of 18-to-34-year-olds moved 5.6 points rightward since the 2020 election.
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Scientific American editor quits after Trump comments draw backlash - The Washington Post
Helmuth’s decision comes shortly after she was criticized for social media posts about the Nov. 5 election. In a series of Bluesky posts, which were later deleted, Helmuth wrote that “my Gen X is so full of f---ing fascists.” In another, she wrote, “Solidarity to everybody whose meanest, dumbest, most bigoted high school classmates are celebrating early results because f--k them to the moon and back.” In a third post, she wrote, “Every four years I remember why I left Indiana (where I grew up) and remember why I respect the people who stayed and are trying to make it less racist and sexist. The moral arc of the universe isn’t going to bend itself.”
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Opinion | This Is the Dark, Unspoken Promise of Trump’s Return - The New York Times
Around the world, populist autocrats have leveraged the thrilling power of that promise to transform their countries into vehicles for their own singular will. Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban vowed to restore a simpler, more orderly past, in which men were men and in charge. What they delivered was permission to abandon societal inhibitions, to amplify the grievances of one’s own group and heap hate on assorted others, particularly on groups that cannot speak up for themselves. Magyar calls this “morally unconstrained collective egoism.” Trump’s first term, and his actions in the four years since, tracked the early record of Putin and Orban in important ways. Looking closely at their trajectories, through the lens of Magyar’s theories, gives a chillingly clear sense of where Trump’s second term may lead.
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Mass Deportation: Devastating Costs to America, Its Budget and Economy
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'How to Change My Vote' Searches Spike in States Won by Donald Trump
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Google searches for term tariff spike after Donald Trump elected as president
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
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Arrested and Charged Because My 11yo Was Walking 1 Mile from Home
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California teen pleads guilty to making 'swatting' calls across US
“For well over a year, Alan Filion targeted religious institutions, schools, government officials, and other innocent victims with hundreds of false threats of imminent mass shootings, bombings and other violent crimes. He caused profound fear and chaos and will now face the consequences of his actions,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a news release.
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FBI arrests Houston man for alleged ISIS ties, terror plot on US soil
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TBI: Dangerous Venezuelan gang is in ‘every major city’ in Tennessee
the gang had been active in the state in 2023, but for more than a year had been inactive after arrests were made. However, over the last few months, Rausch said there’s been an increase in activity once again. “They are back in all of our major cities. They are running human trafficking operations, and that’s where they start,” said Rausch. The TBI director went on to add that this gang has been known for not only human trafficking, but organized retail theft and drug crimes. In some cases, members of Tren de Aragua have been known to clash head-to-head with members of the cartel, which has escalated to crimes as severe as murder at all times of the day, according to the TBI.
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Criminals Are Still Using Bogus Law Enforcement Subpoenas to Obtain Users' Info
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Global Tel Link to Pay $3M for Freezing, Draining Accounts of Jailed People
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
World
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Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube
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Welsh Government Told to Create ‘Dog Free Zones’ in Public Areas to Fight Racism - modernity
The environmental group Climate Cymru BAME has issued a report instructing the government to create “dog-free areas in local green spaces” as part of an “anti-racist” drive to make the country more “inclusive”. The advice was reinforced by another group, the North Wales Africa Society, which complained that “one black African female stated that she feels unsafe with the presence of dogs” during a focus group meeting.
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Australia to Make Big Tech Liable for Citizens' Online Safety
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French Baby Bust Adds to Concerns over Europe's Graying Population
Israel
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
China
Health / Medicine
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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India's ambitious energy transition: A pathway to sustainable investment
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China must now lead global warming fight, UN climate chief says
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Geothermal power is vying to be a major player in the clean-energy future
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US Drought is so severe only significant rainfall will help break the trend
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Black Plastic Kitchen Tools Might Expose You to Toxic Chemicals