2024-12-07

antarctic dogs, Bayesian subjectivity, America bubbles, BlackRock declares end of history, TikTok divestment upheld, Trump Sacks crypto, Romania annuls election, improved bird flu, albatross lays egg

etc

• Internet Takes Lack of Sympathy Further, Thirsts over Suspect in CEO Shooting

• An Assassin Showed Just How Angry America Is

  • I put that point a few months ago when someone took a shot at Trump...

• Health Insurance Companies Take Down Leadership Pages Following Murder of UH CEO

  • Execs' Names Wiped from Other Insurer Sites After CEO's Murder

  • UnitedHealth and CVS Health removing photos of leadership teams from websites

• There Are No More Dogs In Antarctica - CHRIS DOBROWOLSKI

  As part of the Antarctic treaty, it was agreed that all non-indigenous species were removed from Antarctica. In view of their genetic similarity to seals there was a fear that dog distemper might mutate and cross over into the seal population. In view of this, dogs were especially targeted for removal and the last ones were taken from Antarctica in 1994.

  • HN comments

Horseshit

• Is Technology Worthy of Our Faith?

• The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era

• Why housing shortages cause homelessness

• Air Canada to remove free carry-on from basic economy

• Would You Fix Your Own Car? These Amateurs Are Trying It

  Saving thousands on repairs with a few tools and YouTube videos

• How Do We Stop Deepfakes from Tricking Juries?

• Study claims Neanderthals and modern humans must be classed as separate species

• A 'Reverse Aging' Guru's Trail of Failed Businesses

• How to Make $100 an Hour Scratching Someone's Back

• Nitpicking Gladiator II, Part I

celebrity gossip

• Kim Dotcom unable to communicate effectively following stroke, lawyer says

  “We have to see how he recovers before we can say more - some further recovery is likely but what that means is unknown,” Mansfield said. “Obviously we’re shocked by what’s happened. “Hence why the legal team, but more importantly his young family, have been dealing with the health issues before we made it public.” The FBI has been trying to extradite Dotcom - a Finnish-German internet entrepreneur and founder of the now-defunct file-sharing site Megaupload - for more than a decade to face charges related to copyright infringement and internet piracy.

• Paul Krugman retires as Times columnist | The New York Times Company

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Amazon CTO Werner Vogels on the fight against disinformation

  If technology brought us fake news, “then it’s also our responsibility as technologists to go the other way around to find solutions,” he told me. He believes that solutions like browser sidebars that display relevant context — and maybe academic research — about a given topic could be helpful, for example. “Elon is really going in time to push the story that media can’t be trusted,” Vogels said. “And since there’s many competing voices, can you trust the Washington Post and The New York Times and LA Times? Can you, or not? I mean, in the past, these used to be the source of truth. There was no discussion. If you were published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine, everybody in Germany would read that and know that that’s the truth. But can we help with technology? Is there a general perception, at least during the recent U.S. elections, that the general media can be trusted? At least one candidate is pushing that story very hard. Then we need to make sure that there is context around those stories that demonstrate which ones are telling the truth or not.” “If we look at X and sort of the community notes, I’m not really sure whether the community notes are terribly useful, but [they] should be. And the question is, can we automate these kinds of things?”

• This Bill Could Put A Stop To Censorship By Lawsuit

• AI fact checks can increase belief in false headlines, study finds

Bluesky

• Some cool stuff you can do with Bluesky

Musk

• Elon Musk risks being 'political puppet master', says Nick Clegg

  When asked whether Musk was a threat to democracy, Clegg said the entrepreneur had been "playing an outsized role" in the US election and in the formation of the new Trump administration. He also stood by comments labelling Meta's social media rival, X, a "one-man, hyper-partisan, ideological hobbyhorse".

Electric / Self Driving cars

• The Developing World Is Buying $180k E-Buses on the Cheap

• Rivian Is Opening Its Charging Network to Other EVs

• California's long-delayed $2k e-bike rebates are finally here

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Men take over women's restroom in "protest"

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Academic trolled for PhD 'unfazed by the vitriol'

  An academic who received death and rape threats after posting a picture of herself on X with her completed PhD has said she feels "quite unfazed by the vitriol". Dr Ally Louks' post has been viewed 100 million times since she first posted it on 27 November, and has attracted more than 11,000 responses. The University of Cambridge supervisor, whose thesis is in English Literature, stressed the majority of comments have been "incredibly nice, kind and generous", but after her post "was retweeted by a couple of very right wing accounts" it began to attract negative attention. X has been approached for comment, while Cambridgeshire Police confirmed an investigation into a report of a hate incident has begun.

• University of Michigan eliminates DEI statements as part of faculty hiring

• Bayes' Rule: The Theory That Would Not Die

  Bayes’ rule appears to be a straightforward, one-line theorem: by updating our initial beliefs with objective new information, we get a new and improved belief. To its adherents, it is an elegant statement about learning from experience. To its opponents, it is subjectivity run amok.

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• AT&T says it won't build fiber home Internet in half of its wireline footprint

• Gitlab names Bill Staples as new CEO

• Solana Web3.js library backdoored to steal secret, private keys

• LA Times owner plans to add AI-powered 'bias meter' on news stories

• Microsoft Discontinues iMac Rival Surface Studio 2

• Telecom industry 'think tank' tries to smear community owned broadband

• Apple seemingly wants to ditch Qualcomm in iPhones over the next three years

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Let's not go to x86-64 microarchitectural levels. 'Tis a silly place

  I have no idea who came up with the "microarchitecture levels" garbage, but as far as I can tell, it's entirely unofficial, and it's a completely broken model. There is a very real model for microarchitectural features, and it's the CPUID bits. Trying to linearize those bits is technically wrong, since these things simply aren't some kind of linear progression. And worse, it's a "simplification" that literally adds complexity. Now instead of asking "does this CPU support the cmpxchgb16 instruction?", the question instead becomes one of "what the hell does 'v3' mean again?" So no. We are NOT introducing that idiocy in the kernel.

  • Linus Torvalds Comes Out Against "Completely Broken" x86_64 Feature Levels

• Debian opens a can of username worms

  whether Debian should allow non-ASCII characters for usernames, how to do that if so, and if it was more appropriate to document username guidance in Debian's Policy Manual rather than its wiki. His suggestion was to allow UTF-8 for regular user accounts, but to restrict to ASCII for system accounts created by Debian packages.

• OpenWRT One: Why I'm No Longer Supporting Software Freedom Conservancy

  What good is "repairability" if the software controlling the device isn't ours? How can we celebrate GPL compliance when the four freedoms are not upheld for every piece of software the device requires? Software freedom must be a foundational principle in hardware design, not a secondary consideration. Anything less is a compromise we cannot afford. This announcement has led me to rethink my support for the Conservancy. It seems the organization is veering away from a path of complete software freedom, instead treating "repairability" - essentially freedom #1 - as if it were sufficient on its own. But we need all four freedoms to ensure genuine software freedom, not just the ability to "repair."

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Google Says AI Weather Model Masters 15-Day Forecast

  • Google DeepMind predicts weather more accurately than leading system

• OpenAI explores advertising as it steps up revenue drive

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• NASA says Orion's heat shield is good to go for Artemis II–but does it matter?

• Remnants of SpaceX rocket salvaged from ocean off Australia's Ningaloo coast

Crypto con games

• Hawk Tuah Girl's Crypto Team Short on Answers After Disastrous Meme Coin Bust

  • Newly launched memecoin HAWK crashes from $500M to $60M market cap in 20 mins

• The Cryptocurrency You May Not Even Know You Own

Economicon / Business / Finance

• The mother of all bubbles

  It’s as if America is the only nation worth investing in. Travelling in Asia and Europe, I keep coming across investors who seem overawed by the global giant. In Mumbai, financial advisers are pressing their clients to diversify outside of India by buying the one market that’s even more expensive — America. In Singapore, the host of a lunch with wealth managers asked them: “Anyone here who does not own Nvidia?” Not a single hand went up. This is not a bubble in US markets, it’s mania in global markets. At the height of the dotcom bubble in 2000, US stocks were more expensively valued than they are now. But the US market did not trade at nearly so vast a premium to the rest of the world.

• Uber will need to fingerprint drivers in California to transport teens

• You Want That Gift to Arrive Today? This Is What It Takes

• U.S. added 227k jobs in Nov and labor force participation rate declined to 62.5%

  • Employment rises by 227K in November; unemployment rate changes little at 4.2%

• World economy has exited the 'boom and bust' cycle, BlackRock says

  BlackRock has said the global economy has exited the cycle of ‘boom and bust’ due to a fundamental shift driven by the emergence of “mega forces” including artificial intelligence technologies. In its 2025 Global Outlook, BlackRock said it believes the world economy is currently in the process of being entirely “reshaped” by the emergence of five new “mega forces,” including the shift to net zero carbon emissions, geopolitical fragmentation, demographic trends, digitization of finance and AI.

• Intel aims to reinvent itself as foundry focus sharpens

• Natural Disasters Expected to Cost Insurers $135B in 2024

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• NYC Council passes zoning reforms to create 82K homes, $5B for infrastructure

• California plans to appeal Huntington Beach voter ID ruling

• Zero-based regulation made Idaho the least regulated state in the US

• Capitol Police union boss decries special treatment for officer who killed unarmed J6 protester | Just The News

• TikTok divestment law upheld by federal appeals court

  • Federal appeals court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok in the US

• Social Security Faces a Crisis, but Sound Tax Policy Can Help

Trump

• Trump picks venture capitalist David Sacks as AI and crypto 'czar'

  • Trump picks Musk ally David Sacks as crypto and AI tsar

  • Trump Names Top Silicon Valley Conservative to Oversee Crypto and AI

  • Donald Trump Names David Sacks as White House AI and Crypto Czar

  • Trump says venture capitalist David Sacks will be AI and crypto 'czar'

  • Trump appoints former PayPal COO David Sacks as AI and crypto czar

Left Angst

• Elon Musk Spent over $250M to Help Elect Trump

  • Elon Musk spent a quarter-billion dollars electing Trump

• Elon Musk is sending DOGE after high-speed rail

• GOP FTC Commissioners Push For Government To Block Moderation Of Online Speech

• The Trump NIH Pick Who Wants to Take on 'Cancel Culture' Colleges

• Trump may cancel US Postal Service electric mail truck contract, sources say

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• U.S. org suffered four month intrusion by Chinese hackers

• Salt Typhoon forces FCC's hand on making telcos secure their networks

• Large drones are flying over New Jersey at night and no one knows why

World

• EU about to vote on Chat Control

• Brazilian court overturns injunction imposed on Apple's App Store

• Canada adds more than 300 assault-style firearms to list of banned weapons

• Spain to limit child smartphone access and add safety labels

• Tokyo government gives workers 4-day workweek to boost fertility, family time

• Romanian court annuls result of presidential election first round

  Romania's constitutional court has annulled the result of the first round of voting in the presidential election just days before the second round was due to take place. It means the process will be restarted from scratch, with the government due to decide a date for a new vote. The first round was won by Calin Georgescu, an almost unknown far-right Nato-sceptic who has previously praised Vladimir Putin. The court's decision comes after intelligence documents were declassified, suggesting Georgescu benefitted from a mass influence operation – conducted from abroad – to interfere with the result of the vote. Hours after the court's decision, Georgescu told a Romanian TV channel that the country's democracy was "under attack", describing the verdict as a "formalised coup d'etat". He said he would "go forward through the voting process", implying that he would try to run again for president. Outgoing Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the court's decision to annul was "the only correct solution after the declassification of the documents... which show that the result of the Romanians' vote was blatantly distorted as a result of Russia's intervention". In an address on Friday evening, current President Klaus Iohannis confirmed he would remain in the role until a new president was elected.

  • Romanian court cancels presidential election amid TikTok Russian influence fears

  • Romania cancels election after systems targeted in cyberattacks

  • Romanian court annuls first round of presidential election

  • Russia and China rigged Romanian Elections using 10M fake TikTok accounts

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Ukraine's three nuclear power plants have restored electricity production

China

• China Plans to Retrieve Mars Samples by 2031

• Why China is building a Starlink system of its own

Health / Medicine

• Anthem reverses plans to put time limits on anesthesia coverage

  • Anthem BCBS calls off surgery anesthesia cap after UH CEO murdered

  • Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield reverses decision to put time limit on anesthesia

• Lung cancer 'could be detected by world-first urine test'

  • Cambridge researchers develop urine test for early detection of lung cancer

• Study: Expanding public health insurance has minimal impact on health outcomes

• Surprise-billing legislation associated with lower pay to anesthesiologists

• FDA Heads to Court to Defend Decision Protecting Drug Monopoly from Competition

• US life expectancy, currently 49th, expected to fall to 66th by 2050

• The lobbyist who hijacked \~3% of revenue from US doctors

• Beef fat prevents alcoholic liver disease in the rat

• What Happens When US Hospitals Binge on Nurse Practitioners

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• A single mutation in bovine influenza H5N1 hemagglutinin switches specificity to human receptors

  • "And we've got people working hard to splice up and stabilize that mutation in a lab!"

• A single mutation in bovine influenza H5N1 switches specificity to humans

• Bird Flu Virus Is One Mutation Away from Binding More Efficiently to Human Cells

• H5N1 bird flu is closer to gaining pandemic potential than we thought

• USDA orders testing of milk for bird flu

  • USDA to Begin National Testing for Bird Flu in Milk

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Rapid surge in global warming mainly due to reduced planetary albedo,researchers

  • Fewer clouds may explain 'missing' 0.2C of warming from Earth's hottest year

• Hunt for underground nest after 'murder hornets' seen in Europe for first time

• Optimal control of polar sea-ice near its tipping points

• Why there's no song and dance around India's killer air

• ExxonMobil's Alleged Hack-for-Hire Campaign Targeting Climate Activists

• Oldest-known wild bird lays an egg in Hawaii at age 74

  • Wisdom the Laysan albatross lays new egg at 74 years old after finding new mate

• The first known animal that's "immune" to alcohol intoxication

• New York town doesn't want to be a climate experiment

• Turning table scraps into biodegradable, single-use plastics

• Their Fertilizer Poisons Farmland. Now, They Want Protection from Lawsuits.

• High temperatures preferentially killing the young, not old, research finds