2024-12-03

recent history, office work sucks, device spying not needed, bible boom, Pokemon and the CIA, Pat stands down from Intel, Joe pardoned Hunter, Trumpist traitors, secret: don't look, hydro-sexuality

etc

• Ancient footprints capture coexistence of two kinds of human ancestor

• Supermassive black hole binary emits unexpected flares

• ASML made a $230 Lego kit version of its $380M semiconductor tool

Horseshit

• Timekeeping is now on the verge of a giant leap forward in accuracy

• 40th Anniversary: The Making of Do They Know It's Christmas?

• Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance

• US airlines transported passengers over two light-years since the last crash

• History is in the making - The Works in Progress Newsletter

  The second marked the start of a revolution that is about to burst upon us and sweep away one of the most fundamental of all human activities since the dawn of civilization – livestock farming. On that date the world’s first entirely synthetic hamburger, made from meat that had come not from an animal but from a culture, was cooked and eaten in London. The burger cost $300,000 but the technology is expected to soon reach the point where cultured meat (and meat substitutes) are as cheap as livestock-produced meat.

• I've worked in SF, Chicago, and Silicon Valley. I'd only raise my family in one

• The Abandoned Corner Shops Getting Transformed into Million-Dollar Homes

• Modern cars are surveillance devices on wheels with major privacy risks

• How to be not lonely? 'Cohousing' is an answer for some people

• 'It's so easy to lie': A fifth of children use fake age on social media

• Casio's ring watch is coming to the US

• The psychological impact of nuclear war

• Xenomorphia ex machina: the zoology and biochemistry of xenomorphs from the Alien franchise – Journal of Geek Studies

• Enron Corporation Announces Relaunch with a Vision to Solve Global Energy Crisis

  • Enron is back to launch crypto token focused on solving the energy crisis

• Modern Work Fucking Sucks.

  It’s Monday morning. The first thing you see (yes, before you see your kids, your partner, even your coffee) is a Slack notification. That Slack notification leads you to a Confluence document, which is supposed to prepare you for the upcoming Zoom meeting. In the Zoom meeting, you’re expected to take notes in Notion. Those notes? They’ll eventually need to be turned into actionable tasks in Monday and then logged as progress updates in Trello. By the time Friday rolls around, you’ve done nothing tangible, produced nothing meaningful, and yet you’re exhausted — an entire week spent shuffling bits of information between fifteen different systems, each charging a tidy $15 per month, per user, for the privilege of making you feel productive.

• The Enclosure of the Human Psyche

  Whether our devices are, in fact, listening to us or not, it seems clear that the experience of our technological milieu is such that most people find the claim entirely plausible. Indeed, not only plausible, but altogether likely. And while I wouldn’t say that the question of fact is of no consequence, I do think it can be approached rather pedantically by those who want to brush off the fact that there are countless and concerted efforts made to capture our attention and thus our data for the express purpose of rendering us so predictable and pliable that it would be superfluous for a device to be actively listening to us.

• The Two Big Games - by Robin Hanson - Overcoming Bias

celebrity gossip

• Director of Cold War film ‘Red Dawn’ said movie’s success taught him lesson about liberal Hollywood.

• Stephen King shuts down money-losing radio stations after 40 years

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• The dark side of online space disinformation

Bluesky

• Bluesky keeps growing, and so do its problems

Musk

• Elon Musk Rehires Entire Supercharger Team After Firing Them

• Musk seeks injunction to stop OpenAI morphing into for-profit company

• European Federation of Journalists to stop posting content on X (Twitter)

• Tesla CEO Elon Musk loses bid to get $56B pay package reinstated

  • Judge confirms decision to sink Musk's $56B package despite shareholder vote

  • Elon Musk's $50B Tesla Pay Can't Be Reinstated, Delaware Judge Rules

  • Musk Record Tesla Pay Plan Rejected Again by Delaware Judge

Electric / Self Driving cars

• 95 Tesla deaths have involved fires or Autopilot failures

• Tesla has been slow to make its chargers accessible to other EVs

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Sales of Bibles Are Booming, Fueled by First-Time Buyers and New Versions - WSJ

  Bible sales are up 22% in the U.S. through the end of October, compared with the same period last year, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. By contrast, total U.S. print book sales were up less than 1% in that period. "People are experiencing anxiety themselves, or they’re worried for their children and grandchildren,” said Jeff Crosby, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. “It’s related to artificial intelligence, election cycles…and all of that feeds a desire for assurance that we’re going to be OK.”

• America has a child marriage epidemic

  Children today have it tough, between grades, drugs, alcohol—and apparently, the threat of child marriage. This isn’t hyperbole. To this day in 2024, thousands of children are beholden to, obliged to, forced into, (what’s the right word here?) child marriage in the United States—and Republicans seem to want to keep it that way. With several thousand documented child marriages every single year—some involving as children as young as 10—we need need legislative solutions and penalties for those who exploit children. But where do we begin? while child marriage is a nationwide problem, Republican states lead the way. Nine of the top 10 states leading rates of child marriage are GOP run states.

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Not the Right Kind of Provocation - Freddie deBoer

  the pro-phonics case is not nearly the slam dunk people think it is. If you actually dig into the research record, the rapidly-congealed conventional wisdom that phonics instruction is far superior to the whole language model seems much more shaky than anyone lets on.

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• AWS opens physical outlets that let customers upload their data

• Some Simple Economics of the Google Antitrust Case

• FCC Strengthens Requirements for Third-Party Caller ID Authentication Solutions

• The CIA, NSA, and Pokémon Go

  Way back in 2001, Keyhole, Inc. was founded by John Hanke (who previously worked in a “foreign affairs” position within the U.S. government). The company was named after the old “eye-in-the-sky” military satellites. One of the key, early backers of Keyhole was a firm called In-Q-Tel. In 2010, Niantic Labs was founded (inside Google) by Keyhole’s founder, John Hanke.

• WordPress: BlackRock marks down its investment in Automattic by 10%

• Boy they're desperate to sell "metaverse" anywhere they can: Insects react to virtual reality gaming

• Windows 11 now warns when typing your password in Notepad, websites

• Windows 11 market share falls despite Microsoft ad blitz

  • Windows 11 market share declines as users seemingly shift back to Windows 10

• The rise of static-first websites: why major brands are making the switch

• CD Projekt's switch to Unreal wasn't motivated by Cyberpunk 2077's rough launch

• Warcraft 1+2 will be delisted from GOG

• What Will Enter the Public Domain in 2025?

• Costco to stop selling books year-round at most stores starting in January.

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• HN Jobs:

  • Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2024)

  • Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (December 2024)

  • Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (December 2024)

• There’s Now A Wiki For Hacking Redbox Machines | Hackaday

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• ChatGPT Is Two Years Old; Despite Billions, Reliability Still Falls Short

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Global push for cooperation as space traffic crowds Earth orbit

• Falcon 9 reaches a flight rate 30 times higher than shuttle at 1/100th the cost

• Trump may cancel NASA's powerful SLS Moon rocket – here's what that would mean

Crypto con games

• Feds: Tether has become a money laundering tool for Mexican drug trafficker

• There's a real math problem with MicroStrategy's obscene valuation premium

• Coinbase policy chief expects speedy approval of crypto laws

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Minimum qualifying income for a home in the Bay Area is now $320k

• Global Value of Music Copyright soars to $45.5B, now worth more than cinema

• Amazon Workers on Strike from Black Friday to Cyber Monday

• Winners and losers of Black Friday 2024 | Retail Dive

  This year, worldwide, Black Friday hit its peak at just after 2 p.m. Eastern time, according to Block, which tracked transactions across its Square, Afterpay, and Cash App Card platforms. U.S. retail sales (excluding auto sales) were up 3.4% compared to Black Friday last year, according to Mastercard’s SpendingPulse report, which measured in-store and online retail sales, included all payment types and was not adjusted for inflation. Buy now, pay later plans helped finance purchases, driving 8.8% more in online spend than last year, reaching $686.3 million, per Adobe Analytics, which found that to be especially true for mobile shopping, with a 79.3% share compared to desktop so far.

• The Great Flattening is here to stay

• Intel Announces Retirement of CEO Pat Gelsinger

  • HN comments

  • Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger Resigns After Struggling to Turn Around Chip Maker

• Tech Companies Are Awash in 'Ghost Engineers,' Researcher Says

• Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares abruptly quits as US Jeep, RAM sales falter

• VW Workers Go on Strike

• Texas Asks If Index Funds Are Illegal

Trump

• Bernie Sanders admits ‘Elon Musk is right,’ backs DOGE if it makes major cuts in this department.

• Trump threatens 100% tariff on BRICS nations if they try to replace dollar

Democrats / Biden Inc

• President Biden pardons his son Hunter Biden

  President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he has pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who faced sentencing this month for federal tax and gun convictions, marking a reversal as he prepares to leave office. “Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” the president said in a statement. It is a “full and unconditional pardon,” according to a copy of the executive grant of clemency. This official grant of clemency cannot be rescinded by President-elect Donald Trump. By pardoning his son, Joe Biden has reneged on a public promise that he made repeatedly before and after dropping out of the 2024 presidential race. The president and his top White House spokesperson said unequivocally, including after Trump won the 2024 election, that he would not pardon Hunter Biden or commute his sentence. The pardon means Hunter Biden won’t be sentenced for his crimes, and it eliminates any chance that he’ll be sent to prison, which was a possibility. The judges overseeing his cases will likely cancel the sentencing hearings, which were slated for December 12 in the gun case and December 16 in the tax case.

  • Giving us the situation where we could be legally punished for watching the video of the man getting a footjob from his underage niece, but he has no legal penalty available the act and filming of it.

  • Biden Pardons Son and Co-Conspirator | Frontpage Mag

  The long investigation of the Biden Crime Family ended when its principal member extended a “full and unconditional” pardon to its front man for any and all crimes that Hunter Biden might have committed or taken part in from January 2014 through Dec 1 2024. The eleven year pardon by Joe Biden for his son and apparent co-conspirator is unprecedented in both its scope and its brazen shameless criminality. Biden’s pardon begins in the last two years of his vice presidency when the lame duck politician was using Hunter to aggressively monetize his fading political influence by conspiring with oligarchs around the world.

  • Biden Pardons Hunter on All Charges and Anything Else He Might Have Committed Since 2014.

  • Biden pardons his son Hunter despite previous pledges not to

  • Republicans pounce on Biden pardoning his son, Hunter - POLITICO

  Republicans called President Joe Biden a “liar” for pardoning his son, who was convicted on gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax fraud this summer. The decision comes after the president said that he would “abide by the jury’s decision” in an interview ahead of his son’s conviction in June, when Biden still topped the Democratic ticket. “Joe Biden has lied from start to finish,” said House Oversight Chair James Comer in a post on X. “It’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability.”

  • Joe Biden Pardoning Hunter Biden: Will It End up with Hunter Testifying against Joe?

  Almost always, the King pardons someone after they have been convicted of a crime. That means the doctrine of double jeopardy applies— the person cannot be tried again for the same offense. The next King can therefore not try the person again. If, however, the pardon was issued before conviction, it isn’t so clear. This is more like the King saying he declines to prosecute—- and so long as the statute of limitations has not run out, the King can change his mind about that. A fortiori, the new King could decide to prosecute. Here, though, the pardon does not even specify a crime. How, then, can it bind a future President? How far could this go? Could President Biden pardon, '“for those offenses which they have committed against the United States” not just one particular person, but any member of the Democratic Party? Could he say, “I pardon for those offenses they have committed against the United States in 2024 anybody in my Administration except those who were disloyal to me”? There are limits to pardons. And, indeed, how can we say that the President is knowingly pardoning someone when he has no idea of what the person has done? Suppose it turns out that Hunter Biden was an Iranian spy, something nobody has ever alleged and which would be a complete surprise to us all. How could the President be said to have knowingly pardoned that?

  • "Enough Is Enough" - Biden Pardons Hunter For "Unfair Prosecution" By His Own DoJ | ZeroHedge

  In a statement, Biden said Hunter was "treated differently" by his own Justice Department, adding that the charges only came about "after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election." "In trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me," Biden continued, adding "Enough is enough."

  • President Biden pardons son Hunter Biden

  • Analysis: Biden's sweeping pardon for son rewrites the rules

  Presidents have pardoned family members in the past. In 2001, Bill Clinton issued clemency for his brother Roger’s 1985 drug conviction. Hunter Biden’s “full and unconditional” pardon was particularly broad, however. It covers his criminal convictions, as well as any future charges for “offenses against the United States” from the start of 2014 to this Sunday. That time period includes two years that Hunter Biden served on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma and was involved in other international dealings while his father served as vice-president. Republicans have alleged that Hunter Biden had improperly benefitted from his father’s position of power and that the elder Biden had been connected to his son’s business dealings.

  With Biden’s political career drawing to a close, however, there is little price he could pay for his action. And given that Democrats lost power in both Congress and the White House last month, there are few members of the party in a position of power to face the consequences.

  The Trump camp was quick to issue a response to the news of the Biden pardon, saying that the president-elect would fix the US justice system and restore due process in his second term. It’s something to keep in mind when Trump returns to office, as he is expected to again use his pardoning power to aid associates who have been prosecuted during the Biden presidency – and to free many of his supporters who have been convicted during the 6 January, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. Trump mentioned the 6 January cases when criticising the Hunter Biden pardon, and he is likely to cite the president’s action when he issues his own round of pardons next year.

  • NBC NEWS: Biden’s Lying About Pardoning Hunter Was Part of the Plan

  In case you missed the key line, I’ll print it again:

  They said it was decided at the time that he would publicly say he would not pardon his son even though doing so remained on the table.

  • President Biden pardons his son Hunter Biden

• Democrats have a "fool me twice" problem

  in practice, voters tend to care a lot about a sense of feeling betrayed: that a party didn’t live up to its promises (e.g. in the case of Democrats, standing up for oppressed groups) or wasn’t looking out for their interests. In recent years, the Democratic Party’s message has often been simply this: vote for us, or the country gets it, because Trump is even worse. (Actually, political parties have probably always used some form of this message: every election is deemed to be the most important election of one’s lifetime and declared to have existential stakes.)

  there are two times when I’ve felt betrayed by the Indigo Blob, my term for the unofficial alliance between the Democratic Party and the progressive expert class. If you’ve been reading me for a while, you can probably identify them because they’re the two huge fights I’ve had with the left in the past several years. One was with COVID stuff. When the pandemic began, I was one of those people who was like “Welp, we ought to just trust the experts here!”. Many of those experts did a great job under impossible circumstances. But I felt betrayed by a minority who were clearly using the pandemic to advance their political agendas: their utter hypocrisy in endorsing the George Floyd protests after having spent weeks telling everyone to stay home, for instance. And then they did profound harm with prolonged school closures.

  The party has moved away from tangible, material goals. But the abstract goals are hard to fulfill, especially concepts like justice that are seen as a continuous struggle. And then when there’s an emperor-has-no-clothes moment, like with Biden’s obvious decline and half the party refusing to acknowledge it, it calls into question the party’s moral authority as the expert class and reality-based community.

Left Angst

• Musk's Rivals Fear He Will Target Them with His New Power

• Rush to 'value up' may be Asia stocks best defense against Trump

• Women Are Getting Sterilized After Donald Trump's Victory: 'Only Option' - Newsweek

• Despite election losses, waning public support, climate groups, politicians say won’t change plans | Just The News

• Shouldn’t Trump Voters Be Viewed as Traitors? - The New York Times

  Something like three-quarters of Americans, surveys over the past year report, think democracy in America is threatened. To go by exit-poll data, those voters supported Trump in about the same proportions as those who thought democracy was secure. In a study published last year, researchers at U.C. Berkeley and M.I.T. provided evidence that democratic back-sliding around the world — with citizens voting for authoritarian leaders — is driven in part by voters who believe in democracy but doubt that the other side does. The researchers found that such voters, once shown the actual levels of support for democracy among their opponents, became less likely to vote for candidates who violated democratic norms. The general point is that not understanding the actual views of people of other parties — and assuming the worst of them — can be dangerous for democracy. Trump voters, for the most part, don’t think he committed treason. And your position can’t be that unknowingly voting for someone guilty of treason is itself treasonous. Perhaps you think that they should believe him to have been treasonous. Similar issues were aired when Henry Wallace, otherwise a highly dissimilar figure, ran for president in 1948. He had denounced the Marshall Plan, wanted the Soviet Union to play a role in the governance of Germany’s western industrial heartland and — detractors thought — was a Stalin apologist.

• How the Trump administration and congressional Republicans may crack down on pro-Palestinian protesters

• Trump's Second Term Could Shape the Future of Health in America

• Former Democratic lawmaker says party needs ‘rebrand’ post-Trump win.

• (Nov 6 2024) I told you so - by Sam Kriss - Numb at the Lodge

  There are two factions in American politics, and they’re not evenly matched. As everyone knows, one of them contains all the smart people, the academics, the professionals, the people who’ve read the studies, learned the science, educated themselves, who eat well and own nice things made of wood, the good little boys and girls who know what’s best for everyone. It’s not polite to say this about the other side, but everyone is secretly aware that they are—let’s be honest here—morons. Actual imbeciles, breathing through the spittle in their mouths. Glassy-eyed religious maniacs. Frothing adult virgins with their heads full of Y-DNA charts and built-up cum. Uncomfortably globular men who have unknowingly outsourced their entire sense of reality to Kenyan scammers generating engagement-bait with ChatGPT. If you talk to these people for even a few minutes, it becomes clear there’s something very seriously wrong with them.

  You have sinned, and Trump is your punishment: whatever happens next, you will deserve it. You did not learn! The last eight years have taught you absolutely nothing: we’ve gone nowhere, we’re trapped in the same stupid loop, and now I’m writing essentially the same post all over again.

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• The FBI's WofMD Program Has a New Target: Animal Rights Activists

• She believed she was an FBI 'asset.' The scam drained her life's savings

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Latest US strike on China's chips hits semiconductor toolmakers

• Turkish strike drone completes first carrier landing, takeoff

• China Tensions Prompt U.S. Navy Race to Reload Missiles at Sea

• When a Telescope Is a National-Security Risk - The Atlantic

  Bateman told me that the very existence of the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency responsible for developing U.S. spy satellites, was classified until 1992. The NRO still operates a fleet of these satellites, but exact details about how many, and what kind, remain secret. The Vera Rubin Observatory will likely make awkward eye contact with some of them.

• The Secret Pentagon War Game That Offers a Stark Warning for Our Times

• Russian National Arrested for Attempting to Illegally Export Aircraft to Russia

World

• Dutch suburb where residents must grow food on at least half of their property

• Czech billionaire closes in on deal to buy Royal Mail

• A new invention could help reduce fatbergs and unclog sewers across Australia

• South Korea to roll out $10B in loans next year to support chip industry

• Georgia's moment of truth: Protesters demand Western path not Russian past

• Rising Sick Days Are Costing Europe Billions Every Year

Israel

• Israel's New Approach to Tunnels: A Paradigm Shift in Underground Warfare

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Putin approves record defense spending – a third of Russia's budget

China

• Building Apple Products Is a Side Hustle for BYD, China's Biggest EV Maker

Health / Medicine

• Inhaling Hydrogen-Rich Gas Before Acute Exercise Alleviates Exercise Fatigue

• Evening use of eReaders negatively affects sleep, and next-morning alertness

• Study finds widespread use of unregulated molecular urine tests in older adults.

• Fish Have a Brain Microbiome. Could Humans Have One Too?

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Meditation-induced bloodborne factors as an adjuvant treatment to Covid-19

• Australia is the only continent without the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain

• Why have U.S. bird flu cases been so mild? Scientists have some theories

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Rising temperatures impact the immune system of wild monkeys

• South Korea hosts treaty talks on curbing plastic pollution

• Loving the Brine Shrimp: Exploring Queer Feminist Blue Posthumanities to Reimagine the ‘America’s Dead Sea’ | Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics

  The article aims to transform narratives surrounding Utah’s Great Salt Lake, often referred to as “America’s Dead Sea,” by reimagining how brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana) are perceived in science, culture, and art. It introduces the concept of hydrosexuality to bridge these realms, thereby enriching feminist blue posthumanities and feminist biology through art-based practices and queer advocacy. By navigating the environmental narrative of the GSL, the hydrosexual perspective challenges settler science by exploring the connections between the reproductive system of brine shrimp and the economy, ecology and culture. The article provides a framework for integrative cultural analysis that bolsters arguments about the multilayered exploitation of the lake and amplifies voices that recognize the brine shrimp as vital to the survival of multiple species and to the GSL as a unique ecosystem. Furthermore, this cultural analysis draws inspiration from low trophic theory and Queer Death Studies. This multifaceted approach is exemplified by two case studies in the arts, which gradually alter white humans’ perceptions and understandings of the brine shrimp, helping to reimagine the GSL in the context of rapid climate change.

• Norway suspends controversial deep-sea mining plan