2024-11-22

six million dollar banana, Millhouse retires, more Musk less aged celebrities, DOJ vs Google, filesystems drama, Nvidia peaking, FCC and SEC headless, UK disarming, Russia goes ballistic, China slacks

etc

• Scientists identify tomato genes to tweak for sweeter fruit

• What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme?

• Civil War Toll Much Worse in Confederate States, New Estimates Show

• Investigation Reveals Cause of Deadly Maui Wildfire

  The cause of last year’s deadly wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, has been revealed. The August 2023 blaze that left more than 100 people dead was caused by the re-energization of broken utility lines in Lahaina, according to an investigation released Wednesday by the Maui Fire Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The fire has been classified as accidental. Per the report, the re-energization of the line caused sparks, which ignited overgrown vegetation at a surrounding utility pole. The overhead and energized power line fell to the ground, further igniting vegetation. Investigators initially believed they had extinguished the fire, which started around 6:30 AM, but undetected smoldering material reignited the second phase of the fire hours later, just before 3 PM.

• A lone dolphin has been yelling into Baltic Sea for years

• Volcano on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula erupts for the 7th time in a year

Horseshit

• Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped banana artwork fetches $5.2M at New York auction

• Young families are leaving many large US cities − here's why that matters

• The 'mad egghead' who built a mouse utopia

• Duct-taped banana artwork sells for $6.2M in NYC

  Maurizio Cattelan's provocative artwork of a banana duct-taped to a wall has fetched $6.2m (£4.9m) at Sotheby's in New York - four times higher than pre-sale estimates. The auction house says Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun outbid six other rivals to get the "Comedian" installation of the Italian visual artist on Wednesday. "In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience," Mr Sun was quoted as saying. The taped banana - now perhaps one of the most expensive fruits ever sold - was actually bought earlier in the day for a mere $0.35, according to the New York Times.

  • Duct-taped banana sells for more than $6M at auction

  • Banana-as-art sells for $6.2M at Sotheby's

  • Maurizio Cattelan's Duct-Taped Banana Sells for $6.24M at Sotheby's

  • Tron Crypto Founder Spends $6M on a Banana and Says He Plans to Eat It

  • (2019) Banana duct-taped to wall art installation sells for $120k in Miami

  The installation by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan went on display at the Art Basel Miami Beach exhibition this week. Organisers say two editions of the work, called Comedian, each sold for around $120,000 (£91,000) - and the price of a third edition has now reportedly been raised to $150,000 (£114,000).

• Billionaire food app CEO wants you to pay for the privilege of working with him

• Neanderthals may have enjoyed collecting tchotchkes

• Homeless People Often Aren't Reunited with Belongings Taken by Cities

• Concrete Magnate Aims to Save SS United States from Becoming Artificial Reef

• 'Switches' are turning handguns into machine guns on GTA streets

celebrity gossip

• 'The Simpsons': Milhouse Voice Actor Pamela Hayden Retires

  • Voice behind top Simpsons character quits after 35 years on hit show

  • The Simpsons Milhouse voice actor Pamela Hayden retires from show after 35 years

  • Milhouse voice actress retires from The Simpsons

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• The Psychology of Misinformation

  Creating content that’s relatable and respectful can make a real difference. We need to engage with people in a way that respects their emotions and social ties. Only by addressing the cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of belief can we create an environment where truth wins out over repetition and group loyalty.

Musk

• Elon Musk is now technically the best Diablo 4 player in the world

• Did the Roll-Out of Community Notes Reduce Engagement with Misinfo on Twitter?

• Insurance Providers in Canada Are Refusing to Cover Tesla Cybertrucks

• Elon Musk is hiring remote workers up to $270k: from any country

• Elon Musk’s transformation, in his own words

  Mr Musk posts vastly more than he used to. From December 2013 to the middle of 2018, he tweeted just over a dozen times a week, on average. Between then and October 27th 2022, when he completed the purchase of X, he was posting 50 times a week. Since the takeover, that has risen to around 220 a week. Those who follow him—and over 200m do—may also have noticed a shift in subject-matter. From 2016 to 2021 between 30% and 50% of his tweets each year were about Tesla or SpaceX, his two biggest companies. These days only 11% are. Meanwhile the share of his posts that are political has risen from less than 4% in 2016 to over 13% this year.

• Mass X-odus: professionals desert Elon Musk’s network

  “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,” wrote Jamie Lee Curtis of her decision to leave the social media site X. The actress is among several big names to jump ship from Elon Musk’s platform this month, citing a lurch to the right, misinformation and a lack of moderation. “Tried to stay, but the atmosphere has just become too toxic,” said writer Stephen King. The X-odus or X-it, as it is variously dubbed, saw 60,000 people deactivate their accounts on average each day last week, according to Similarweb, leaving a gap in many workers’ lives.

• Elon Musk to 'summon MPs to US to explain threats to American citizens'

• A year after ditching waitlist, Starlink says it is "sold out" in parts of US

• Researchers Claim to Pinpoint Exact Date When Elon's X Started Boosting Right

• Elon Musk's Neuralink receives Canadian approval for brain chip trial

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Ford lost $3.7B on its EV sales

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• What is behind the explosion in talk about decolonisation?

  • The Tides Foundation is usually somewhere behind these fads. The more nihilistic, the closer they are.

• Pope announces web designer as first millennial saint

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• At 17, She Just Passed the State Bar of California

• Ohio State's "Buckeyemail for Life" service to be discontinued on April 1, 2025

• Andrew Gelman is not the science police because there is no science police

• The "Mississippi Miracle": How America's Poorest State Dramatically Improved Its Schools

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Google must sell Chrome to end search monopoly, US prosecutors argue

  • DOJ has demanded Google sells off Chrome

  • Google's Chrome Worth Up to $20B If Judge Orders Sale

  • Justice Department: Google must sell Chrome

  • DOJ's staggering proposal would hurt consumers and US global tech leadership

  • U.S. Proposes Breakup of Google to Fix Search Monopoly

  • U.S. Justice Department Calls for Google to Sell Chrome

  • Google workers to DOJ: we need protections to make your breakup effective - The Verge

  Three members of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA (AWU-CWA) met virtually with staff from the DOJ Antitrust Division on October 23rd, workers who attended the meeting told The Verge exclusively. During the hour-long conversation, the Google employees urged the government to consider how any remedies imposed by the court could impact workers and to make sure workers are protected and aware of their rights to share compliance concerns without facing retaliation.

  • Google Selling Chrome Won't Be Enough to End Its Search Monopoly

  • DOJ demands Google sells Chrome and possibly Android

  • DOJ says Google must sell Chrome to crack open its search monopoly

  • US reveals plan to destroy search monopoly

  • US prosecutors demand Google divest Chrome to end search monopoly

• Google Maps Is Deleting Your Entire Location History

• Coca-Cola causes controversy with AI-made ad

  • Coca-Cola's A.I.-Generated Holiday Ads Receive Backlash

• Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight was 'the most-streamed sporting event Ever'

• Age Verification Laws Are Just a Path Towards Full Ban on Porn, Proponent Admits

• Fans Saved Sexypedia from Being Erased from the Internet

• As Bluesky soars, Threads rolls out custom feeds globally

• Bluesky chief doesn't know age limit for users

• News Influencers Have Eclipsed Traditional Media

• Microsoft didn't think people would actually want to play Flight Simulator 2024.

  • Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Steam Review Collapse to Overwhelmingly Negative

• At 50, Microsoft Is an AI Giant, Open-Source Lover, and as Bad as Ever | WIRED

• Microsoft launches imprint that aims to be faster than normal book publishing

• Microsoft pushes full-screen ads for Copilot+ PCs on Windows 10 users

  • Microsoft tries to convince Windows 10 users with full-screen prompts

  • Win10 users treated to more full-screen ads for Windows 11

• Kindle no longer available on Amazon India website; previous generations removed

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Ten best selling CPUs on Amazon are all AMD chips

• D-Link tells users to trash old VPN routers over bug too dangerous to identify

• Bcachefs Changes Rejected Reportedly Due to CoC, Kernel Future "Uncertain"

  Bcachefs lead developer Kent Overstreet published a Patreon post this evening entitled "Trouble in the kernel" where he explained:

  Linus has said he isn't accepting my 6.13 pull request, per "an open issue with the CoC board", and at this point I have no idea what's going on with the CoC board. I, for my part, have felt for quite some time that there are issues about our culture and the way we do work that need to be raised, and that hasn't been going anywhere - hence this post."

• ReiserFS Has Been Deleted from the Linux Kernel

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Elon Musk's xAI Startup Is Valued at $50B in New Funding Round

• Child safety org launches AI model trained on real child sex abuse images

• OK, I can partly explain the LLM chess weirdness now

  In many ways, this feels less like engineering and more like a search for spells.

• New York Times Says OpenAI Erased Potential Lawsuit Evidence

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• As NASA increasingly relies on commercial space, there are some troubling signs

• Space Station Raises Orbit Avoiding Orbital Debris

• Lunar Outpost selects Starship to deliver rover to the moon – SpaceNews

• SpaceX just got exactly what it wanted from the FAA for Texas Starship launches.

Crypto con games

• The US Stablecoin Startup Fueling a $3B Boom in Africa

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Spirit Airlines CEO Got a $3.8M Bonus a Week Before Its Bankruptcy

• Nvidia earnings, forecasts top expectations as 'age of AI is in full steam'

  • Nvidia Is on Top but Does It Have Anywhere to Go but Down?

  • Nvidia almost doubles revenues as data center profits skyrocket

• CFPB Rule on Popular Digital Payment Apps to Protect Personal Data, Reduce Fraud

  • Apple to be treated like a bank, says US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

  • Apple Pay to Be Treated Like a Bank with Federal Scrutiny in the U.S.

• PayPal down for customers worldwide as thousands report issues

• AI hiring bias? Men with Anglo-Saxon names score lower in tech interviews

• Google Plummets Nearly 6% as DOJ Targets Chrome, Android in Monopoly Crackdown

  • The DOJ-Google Fight Comes into Focus. Why It's Finally Hitting Alphabet's Stock

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Bike lanes are not about bikes

  as The Post’s Rachel Weiner reported, this squabble reveals an essential truth about bike lanes as weapons of civic planning: They are often installed not to satisfy the barely measurable trickle of residents who pedal to work but mainly to make car traffic worse enough that people will be discouraged from driving.

• California Defaults on $18.5B Debt, Leaving Businesses Holding the Bag

  The state’s Legislative Analyst Office predicts that repaying the loan through higher taxes on businesses is not expected until 2029 or 2030 and note that retiring the debt could take longer, depending on the state’s economic performance. A recession would almost certainly delay repayment, and the odds of a recession in the next seven years are significant.

• Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Announces Departure from FCC

• SEC chair Gary Gensler will step down

  • Gary Gensler to step down as SEC chair in January

• Wray, Mayorkas snub Senate panel with no-show to hearing

  Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray did not show up to provide testimony at a routine hearing scheduled Thursday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. It's the first time in at least 15 years that the agency heads have refused to appear publicly for the annual hearing, the committee's chairman said in a statement. The pair's refusal to appear is a "shocking departure" from tradition, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, said in the statement.

Trump

• Trump’s immigration crackdown is expected to start on Day 1.

• Matt Gaetz withdraws as Trump's AG nominee

• Trump Has a New Attorney General Nominee.

  Trump decided to nominate Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, as his replacement. Mr. Trump and Ms. Bondi met earlier today, which led to the official announcement hours later.

• Musk and Ramaswamy Call for Five-Day In-Office Workweeks for Federal Employees

  • Musk, Ramaswamy vow 'mass head-count reductions' in U.S. government

Democrats / Biden Inc

• (2008) Obama considers stars for Cabinet - POLITICO

  President-elect Barack Obama is strongly considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a Cabinet post, Democratic officials told Politico. The selection of Kennedy would be a shrewd early move for the new presidential team. Obama advisers said the nomination would please both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). It also would raise the profile of the EPA, which would help endear Obama to liberals who may be disappointed on other issues important to the Democratic left because of budget restrictions.

Left Angst

• RFK Jr. Would Put the Economy at Risk, Too

• If Elon Musk Really Wants to Cut Government Waste, He Can Start Here – Mother Jones

  President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to head the Department of Government Efficiency. Despite the name, it is not a government department. In fact, it is not part of the government at all. It is a non-governmental commission that will provide advice to the Trump administration. Musk says he will identify “at least $2 trillion” in savings from the $6.5 trillion federal budget. How will Musk do it? Details are scarce. Musk is recruiting “high-IQ revolutionaries” to work 80-hour weeks for no pay to help him with the task. Cutting $2 trillion is impossible politically. But if Musk is serious about cutting government spending and waste there is only one place to start: the defense budget. About half of the discretionary budget—the spending that Congress approves each year—is spent on defense. For the 2024 budget, the amount allocated for the Department of Defense (DOD) exceeded $840 billion.

  • "it is not a government Dept" ... wait, honesty from "Mother Jones"? no, this is a substack they've reprinted; it is an inadvertent accuracy.

• Cyber-Security Experts Warn Election Was Hacked

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• US charges Indian billionaire Gautam Adani with fraud

  • US authorities issue arrest warrant for Gautam Adani

• Las Vegas man who called 911 for help killed by police in his home

  A 43-year-old man was fatally shot by police in Las Vegas after he called 911 for help while fighting off an intruder in his home. The family of Brandon Durham, including his 15-year-old daughter who was hiding in a nearby room, have asked for the officer to be fired. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Mr Bookman, 26, had been placed on paid administrative leave while they conduct an internal review of the 12 November incident.

• Chicago Has Barely Made Progress on Its Court-Ordered Police Reforms

• Jussie Smollett's conviction overturned in 2019 attack on himself

  The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned actor Jussie Smollett’s conviction on charges that he staged a racist and homophobic attack against himself in downtown Chicago in 2019 and lied to police. The state’s highest court ruled that a special prosecutor should not have been allowed to intervene after the Cook County state’s attorney initially dropped charges against Smollett in exchange for forfeiting his $10,000 bond and conducting community service. The ruling and the appeal did not address Smollett’s continued claim of innocence.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Boeing overcharged the U.S. Air Force 8,000% above market for soap dispensers

• Anyone Can Buy Data Tracking US Soldiers an Spies to Nuclear Vaults and Brothels

• AI Has Enshittified America's Advanced Stealth Fighter

World

• Swedish police focus on Chinese ship after suspected undersea cable sabotage

  • No doubt that Russia is behind the damage to the Finland/Germany cables

  • European Subsea Cable Association Rebukes Hysteria Surrounding Baltic Sea Outage

  • Chinese-Registered Ship Is Held in Baltic Sea Sabotage Investigation

• Finland urges NATO, EU to shield critical networks after undersea cables damaged

• Europe preps for WWIII as secret German docs reveal plans for 800K troops in case Russia invades NATO

• Nordic neighbours release new advice on surviving war

• UK to scrap warships, military helicopters and fleet of drones to save money despite threats abroad | UK News | Sky News

  • £500m defence cuts as ships, drones and helicopters scrapped

• Now Online Safety Act is law, UK has 'priorities' but won't explain 'spy clause'

• School removes Christmas references from panto to make children feel 'safe and valued'

• Social media ban for children under 16 is introduced in Australia's Parliament

  • Australia launches 'landmark' bill to ban social media for children under 16

• These Women Were Among Afghanistan's Best Athletes. Then the Taliban Came Back

• Trudeau government to send $250 cheques to most people, slash GST on some goods

• By Javier Milei, president of Argentina Argentina: the making of an economic miracle?

Israel

• ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas officials

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Kyiv says Russia fired ICBM in Ukraine attack

• Russia fires intercontinental ballistic missile at Ukraine for first time

  The missile, which did not carry a nuclear warhead, was fired alongside seven Kh-101 cruise missiles at the southern Ukrainian city of Dnipro. The use of the ICBM comes after Ukraine launched US-made long-range Atacms missiles and British Storm Shadows at Russian territory in recent days. Ukraine said that it had intercepted six of the Russian missiles.

• First Ever Recorded Use of ICBM in War

• Russia fires new ballistic missile at Ukraine as Putin threatens West

China

• China Is Building 30k Miles of High-Speed Rail–That It Might Not Need

• China's Surveillance State Is Selling Citizen Data as a Side Hustle

• Is China really a nation of slackers?

  China is famous, even infamous, for hard graft. Prodigious amounts of toil and elbow grease helped the country become the workshop of the world. More than 175m migrant workers labour in cities far from home, often leaving their children in the care of relatives. And the sacrifices are not confined to the poor. Even some of China’s more sophisticated firms are known for their “996” office culture, encouraging unfortunate employees to work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. Many Chinese people therefore reacted with surprise and no little scorn to a new official survey of how they spend their time. The study, only the third of its kind, claimed that the average resident devotes less than three and a half hours a day to paid labour. “They must have surveyed government workers only,” quipped one on social media. “Did they go to kindergartens and care homes?” asked another.

Health / Medicine

• Hypochondria Is a Real and Dangerous Illness, New Research Shows

• Direct impact of commonly used dietary emulsifiers on human gut microbiota

• Horrifying medical device malfunction: Abdominal implant erupts from leg

• Your friends shape your microbiome – and so do their friends

  • And pets, and neighbors, and all the wild things that live in your neighborhood that you've never met...

• Seed Oils: Is RFK Jr. Right?

• Anxiety drug taken by millions recalled over 'life-threatening' label mistake

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Early-twentieth-century cold bias in ocean surface temperature observations

• Reality check on technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the air

  • Direct air capture: climate plans may be based on questionable assumptions

• Scientists are trying to figure out why Earth has been hot for the past 2 years

  • Haven't we been repeatedly assured it was the cow farts? Perhaps that big volcano had something to do with it?

• House Dust Mites Trigger Allergic Asthma by Activating the Immune System

• Patches of wildflowers in cities can be as good for insects as natural meadows

• It's November, and the Northeast is on fire

• To Cope with Extreme Heat, Paris Will Swap Parking Spaces for Trees

• Feds release highly anticipated options for managing overstressed Colorado River

• 14-Year-Old Casper Wind Farm Has Not Turned a Blade in at Least 3 Years

• The Downsides of a Global Climate Conference

• Northern California faces possible record-breaking rainfall atmospheric river