2024-12-16

primordial wormholes in rocks, a trans-Atlantic tunnel, ancient Brit cannibals, bulk ban brags, Spacex rideshares, dumb TV appreciation, nv4090's nerfed, restaurant morality, drone fluff

etc

• Hawaii's population continues to decline as more move to California

• Amtrak Sets All-Time Ridership Record in Fiscal Year 2024

• Tiny Black Holes Could Have Left Tunnels Inside Earth's Rocks

  “We have to think outside of the box because what has been done to find primordial black holes previously hasn’t worked,” Dejan Stojkovic of the University at Buffalo, who co-wrote the study, said in a university statement.

Luigi

• Rage, race and good looks: the forces behind the lionization of a murder suspect

• Before shooting, Brian Thompson worried about UnitedHealth's negative image

• Luigi Mangone Isn’t an Aggrieved UHC Customer in Pain, He’s Just a Nihilistic, Over-Privileged Killer.

• Complications: The Ethics of the Killing of a Health Insurance CEO

Horseshit

• Why America has so many big houses

  For home builders, a number of construction costs are relatively fixed — they don’t change much, whether they’re building a house that’s 1k sq. ft. or 3k sq. ft. The builder has to pay many of these costs regardless of the home’s size. And in comparison to these fixed costs, adding extra bedrooms and bathrooms is relatively cheap.

• The Drugs Young Bankers Use to Get Through the Day–and Night

• The $20-Trillion Tunnel That Could Link New York and London - Newsweek

  The idea of a "Transatlantic Tunnel" has existed for a while, though issues of scale, cost, and utility have long stifled any realistic developments. While a flight between London and New York City takes around eight hours, it had previously been unclear if trains running underneath the ocean would make the journey fast enough to justify the cost of construction. With the two global cities being over 3,000 miles apart, construction would take several years—the 23.5-mile Channel Tunnel linking England and France took six years to construct—and require significant investment. Estimates over the cost have reached as high as £15.5 trillion, the equivalent of $19.8 trillion. However, developments in vacuum tube technology have made the concept more viable. By creating a vacuum within the tunnel and using pressurized vehicles, trains traveling along the structure could theoretically reach speeds of more than 3,000 mph, making the journey between London and New York barely an hour long.

• Human settlement of Mars isn't as far off as we might think

  Lower costs, higher payloads and larger crews all make for a far more efficient programme of lunar and Martian exploration. Yet even without it, everything we need to travel to Mars is currently available or in exciting late stages of development. There will not be a shortage of well-suited astronauts eager to go.

• Infectious diseases in Victorian novels highlight public health fragility now

• Bronze Age massacre victims likely cannibalised

  The massacre was probably driven by a furious "desire for revenge" and its effects likely "echoed through generations", says Professor Rick Schulting at Oxford university. He says the victims may have been eaten as a ritual to "dehumanise" them and to send a message by "insulting the remains".

celebrity gossip

• Jordan Peterson moves to US over bill that could turn Canada into ‘totalitarian hellhole.’

  Speaking in a recent episode of his daughter’s show, “The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast,” Peterson said he opted to move to the US over the contentious bill, C-63, and ongoing feud with the College of Psychologists of Ontario. “The issue with the College of Psychologists is very annoying, to say the least, and the new legislation that the liberals are attempting to push through, Bill C-63, we’d all be living in a totalitarian hellhole if it passes,” Peterson said.

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• AI helps Telegram remove 15M suspect groups and channels in 2024

  After announcing a crackdown in September, Telegram now says it has removed 15.4 million groups and channels related to harmful content like fraud and terrorism in 2024, noting this effort was “enhanced with cutting-edge AI moderation tools.”

• US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19

Musk

• Reserve your SpaceX Rideshare online

  $300k for 50kg to SSO with additional mass at $6k/kg. Affordable rates also available to Mid-Inclination LEO, GTO, and TLI.

• Elon Musk slams SEC as agency threatens charges in Twitter stock probe

• Why Musk Doesn't Have Access to SpaceX's Biggest Government Secrets

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Tesla is buffing Foundation badges off Cybertrucks to sell them as regular trucks

  Tesla is turning some of its Foundation Series Cybertrucks into regular Cybertrucks to sell them and sending hundreds of US Cybertrucks to be homologated in Canada as it is having issues selling them in the US.

• The UK Now Has Its Own Illegal Rubberized Cybertruck on the Road

• Tesla Cybertruck Becomes Extensively Corroded After Exposed to Magnet

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Sorry e/acc, Accelerationism is Anti-Capitalist to its Core

• Oldest known stone tablet inscribed with Ten Commandments to be auctioned

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Confronting Risks of Mirror Life

• Epidemic of Vicious School Brawls, Fueled by Student Cellphones

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Linux banned Russian contributors. Do I need to worry about U.S. Sanctions?

• Why Dumb TVs Deserve a Comeback

  dumb TVs should be marketed as a conscious choice, not just a budget option. Promoting their privacy benefits, longevity, and compatibility with external streaming devices could position them as the go-to choice for tech-savvy, privacy-conscious buyers.

  • HN comments

• Google will give you another year to make the Stadia Controller useful

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Nvidia 4090s are nerfed to half speed

  There's an eFuse blown on the AD102 die to halve the perf of FP16 with FP32 accumulate. RTX 6000 Ada is the same die w/o the blown fuse. This is not binning, it's segmentation.

• Accessing the attributes of a struct in C++ as array elements? – Daniel Lemire's blog

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• How Claude Became Tech Insiders' Chatbot of Choice

• Air Pollution and the Public Health Costs of AI

• Ex-Google CEO warns there's a time to consider "unplugging" AI systems

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Ingenuity Mars helicopter January grounding: What happened? • The Register

Crypto con games

• A Fake Uber Driver Borrowed Phones, Then Stole $200K in Cryptocurrency

• Memecoins like Fartcoin riding to huge valuations. Experts: may have only begun

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Private equity bids long goodbye to IPOs

• What Happened to Whataburger?

• Broadcom's long and winding path to the trillion-dollar club

• Peter Hargreaves' Blue Whale sells major tech stocks over AI concerns

• Office Property Meltdown Is Starting to Surface at Regional Banks

• Insiders say fraud in NY computer programming work dates back years

• London Stock Exchange suffers biggest exodus since financial crisis

• Why does McKinsey still get hired?

• If you own your business you can expense everything

• The Bay Area still has the highest cost of living in the U.S.

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• 1 in 6 Congresswomen Targeted by AI-Generated Sexually Explicit Deepfakes

• Governor McKee Issues Update on Cybersecurity Breach of RIBridges System

• The true story of a CIA plane crash in Death Valley National Park

Trump

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to donate $1M to Trump's inaugural fund

• Trump vows to end 'costly' daylight saving time

Left Angst

• Principles for a New Democratic Urban Agenda Amid the Big Blue Reckoning

  I don’t believe Kamala Harris—or any Democratic leader, for that matter—lost their vote share in cities because of a specific policy. Rather, I see the defeat as the result of urban governance failures. America’s cities are riddled with inefficiencies, housing crises, and declining public trust. This isn’t about one election; it’s about a broader erosion of faith in the ability of Democratic leaders to deliver. I write this from a cramped New York City studio apartment where my rent far exceeds the average mortgage. One more increase after countless before, and I’ll be priced out entirely. This story isn’t unique—it’s the reality for millions of Americans. Transit systems are neglected, rents keep skyrocketing, and anti-social behavior is present in public spaces (amplified by right-wing media). Meanwhile, bloated bureaucracy keeps even basic services—like installing a bus shelter—mired in dysfunction.

• UN cybercrime treaty faces December vote, uncertain future under Trump

• an "immigration law firm" Trump Administration Frequently Asked Questions

• Where will the Trump crowd go eat in DC?

• Robert Kennedy Jr. despises glyphosate. How should Iowa farmers respond?

  For Iowa farmers, glyphosate is more than a chemical — it’s an indispensable tool. For the average consumer, it’s the reason food remains affordable and accessible. The consequences of drastic changes in pesticide policies could ripple through grocery stores, small businesses, and dinner tables across America.

• DC server fired over refusing service to Trump officials

  “I personally would refuse to serve any person in office who I know of as being a sex trafficker or trying to deport millions of people,” Suzannah Van Rooy, a server at Beuchert’s Saloon on Capitol Hill, told the Washingtonian this week. “It’s not, ‘Oh, we hate Republicans.’ It’s that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don’t feel comfortable serving them.”

• Trump's tariffs are dividing business owners across the country

• Will Trump ban H-1B visas? The issue could divide him and Elon Musk

• Researchers worry about their jobs under Trump 2.0

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• She took a DNA test. Police used it to charge her grandma with a 1997 murder

• Foreign hackers need to face real consequences

• Two men arrested after drone flies 'dangerously close' to Boston's Logan Airport

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• US officials say most Northeast drone sightings are manned aircraft

• Mysterious drones shut down runways of NY airport, Hochul: 'Gone too far'

• Joint Staff Addresses Drones over New Jersey Military Installations

• After Weeks of Drone Sightings, New Jersey Remains on Edge

• New Theory: NJ Drone Sightings May Be "Nuclear Sniffers" Following Elevated NYC Radiation Levels | ZeroHedge

• What we know about the mysterious drones reported over the East Coast

• Drone Incursions Closed Wright Patterson Air Force Base's Airspace Friday Night

• What Is Project Blue Beam? Conspiracy Theory Erupts over Drones

• Was the US Telecom Breach Inevitable, Proving Backdoors Can't Be Secure?

• Small nonprofit is helping recover missing U.S. troops from deep underwater

World

• German man falsely imprisoned for 13 years faces €100000 bill for jail time

• Australian pilot avoids jail over crash that killed UK tourist

• Turkey exploits post-9/11 counterterrorism model to target critics in exile

• Hiring falls more sharply in UK than other major economies

• Edmonton(Canada) Police Commissioner to work remotely full time from Portugal

Israel

• Israel to close Dublin embassy after Ireland supports ICJ genocide petition

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Google to suspend payments for Russian app developers

• Scores of Nepalis tricked into joining the Russian army

• Russia's Africa Strategy at Risk After Syria Regime Collapse

China

• Why China is losing interest in English

• There's a budget GeForce GPU selling in China that not even Nvidia knew it made

Health / Medicine

• UnitedHealth Is Strategically Limiting Access to Treatment for Kids with Autism

• Eggs may be secret to high IQ in babies

• Coffee makes you live longer says research funded by the coffee industry

  • "weight loss drugs are curing everything" stories aren't at all suspect, apparently.

• First drop in adult obesity in a decade: from 46% in 2022 to 45.6% in 2023

• Holding your pee can have dangerous health risks, experts say

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Bird flu jumps from birds to human in Louisiana; patient hospitalized

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• How Cultivated Meat Carved Out Its Plate in History

• Big Oil wants to help Big Tech power artificial intelligence data centers

• Biggest iceberg heads north after escaping vortex

• Tornado hits northern California town

• Warming oceans are changing marine habitats