2024-12-18

false harmony, Musk clearance, Waymo Tokyo, FTC bans junk fees, Honda and Nissan may merge, debanking sucks, Liz lied, Trump sues, daylight savings, Argentine growth, CNN's Syria oops, teen sobriety

etc

• The One Way I Know a Team is in Trouble - by Suzan Bond

  False harmony creates the illusion that we’re all in agreement. At the same time it squelches diverse opinions, new ideas and erodes trust. When people don’t speak up we miss valuable information leading to poor decision making. These teams are less prepared for challenges that arise and tend to underperform. False harmony will quietly decimate your leadership team and then your org.

• Political Violence Happens Because We Let It.

• Moon – Bartosz Ciechanowski

Horseshit

• How a young Dutch woman's life began when she was allowed to die

• OnlyFans model’s sex-marathon stunt reveals the desperate loneliness of men

• Study Suggests How to Find Advanced Civilizations That Ran Out of Fusion Fuel

• Elderly more risk-tolerant and resistant to manipulative choices, finds study

• Inside the War Against Headlight Brightness

celebrity gossip

• Luigi Mangione indicted on murder charges

  • Luigi Mangione indicted on terrorism charges

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• TikTok asks Supreme Court for emergency order to block a US ban unless it's sold

  • TikTok asks Supreme Court to block law that would shut down app in U.S.

• Brazilian judge orders Adele song be pulled globally over plagiarism claim

• Spain introduces bill to combat online fake news

Bluesky

• So, Bluesky Has an Extortion Problem

Musk

• Elon Musk will not receive highest-level government security clearance – reports

• Elon Musk and SpaceX Face Federal Reviews After Violations of Security Reporting Rules - The New York Times

  Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, have repeatedly failed to comply with federal reporting protocols aimed at protecting state secrets, including by not providing some details of his meetings with foreign leaders, according to people with knowledge of the company and internal documents. Concerns about the reporting practices — and particularly about Mr. Musk, who is SpaceX’s chief executive — have triggered at least three federal reviews, eight people with knowledge of the efforts said. The Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General opened a review into the matter this year, and the Air Force and the Pentagon’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security separately initiated reviews last month. The Air Force also recently denied Mr. Musk a high-level security access, citing potential security risks associated with the billionaire. Several allied nations, including Israel, have also expressed concerns that he could share sensitive data with others, according to defense officials.

• Elon Musk is causing problems for the Royal Society

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Waymo to begin testing in Tokyo, its first international destination

  • Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo

• Top Gear, the biggest car show,faked a negative review of Tesla Roadster

• Driverless bus service in Scotland to be withdrawn due to lack of interest

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Sotheby's to auction off ancient Ten Commandments tablet

• 'Nasbandi' mandatory if cadres want to marry: Surrendered Maoists to Amit Shah

  "Nasbandi (vasectomy)" is a very common word in Maoist lexicon. Cadres who wish to get married are forced to undergo the procedure on the directive of senior CPI (Maoist) leaders. A former Maoist insurgent from Telangana was instructed to undergo the procedure before he got married. Years later, after he laid down his arms and surrendered, he underwent a second surgery to reverse the procedure, eventually becoming a father to a boy.

• America's best-known practitioner of youth gender medicine is being sued

• The Push for Puberty Blockers Got Ahead of the Research

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Plagiarism detection software sparks widespread student concern

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• AWS now renting monster HPE servers, even in clusters of 7,680-vCPUs and 128TB

• Microsoft rejects documentation PR because AI chatbots can't display tables

• Most iPhone Users Uninterested in Apple Intelligence, Survey Suggests

• Humble Bundle revoked all Indiana Jones keys, even if in your Steam library

• Apple Plans Thinner, Foldable iPhones to Revive Growth

• FCC Fines Boston-Area Pirate Radio Operators for Illegal Broadcasting

• AT&T user's erroneous $6,223 bill is reminder that AutoPay can wipe you out

• Meta fined $263M over 2018 security breach that affected ~3M EU users

• LastPass hacked, users see millions of dollars of funds stolen

• Just how deep is Nvidia's CUDA moat really?

• See What ‘They’ See In Your Photos

• Big loss for ISPs as Supreme Court won't hear challenge to $15 broadband law

• Why don't we just ban targeted advertising?

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• HDMI 2.2 will be announced next month – and it may require a new cable

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• AI's emissions are about to skyrocket even further

• Sam Altman Is a Dunce

  Sam Altman is one of the dullest, most incurious and least creative people to walk this earth. This is, after all, the person who once tweeted 'i am a stochastic parrot and so are u', in response to Emily Bender's (entirely incisive and absolutely brilliant) critique of what his large language models are actually doing.

Crypto con games

• Bitcoin rallies past $107,000, hopes grow for strategic reserve

• Microsoft Shareholders Vote Down Bitcoin Treasury Proposal

• Memecoins ride Trump's victory to valuations. Experts say it has only begun

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Amazon reportedly doesn't have room for everyone it ordered to RTO

• Amazon and the endangered future of the middle manager

• Infosys Founder Calls for 70-Hour Work Week, Again

• Mark Cuban admits after pumping $20M into 85 startups on Shark Tank, he's down

• Walmart employees are now wearing body cameras in some stores

• FTC Announces Rule Banning Junk Ticket and Hotel Fees

• 'Burning through cash,' Boston Dynamics lays off 45 employees

• Retailers that make it harder to return stuff face backlash from their customers

• A Continuing Struggle to Reform Payday Lending

• FTC Action Against Grubhub for Harming Diners, Workers, and Small Businesses

• Japan's Honda and Nissan to reportedly begin merger talks

  • Honda and Nissan to begin merger talks amid EV competition

  • Honda and Nissan Say They Are Exploring Merger

• Albertsons Is Mad at Kroger - Bloomberg

• Grubhub pays $25M for allegedly tricking customers and lying to drivers

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• MIT study explains why laws are written in an incomprehensible style

• MAGA types have a point on debanking

  A low tolerance among bankers for risk—whether commercial, legal or reputational—often lies behind the decision to refuse service. In turn, this low tolerance is produced by an alphabet soup of regulatory acronyms. Know-your-customer (KYC) standards require banks to monitor client identities as part of their anti-money-laundering (AML) measures and efforts to counter the financing of terrorism (CFT). Guidance comes from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international anti-money-laundering body. The task force prods banks to monitor politically exposed persons (PEPs), a nebulous category of people judged to have some link to the functions of the government, since these individuals and their families may pose greater risk of corruption and embezzlement. At first, banks were asked only to focus on foreign PEPs. But in 2012 the FATF added domestic political figures to the list. Banks are fearful of enforcement action, making compliance a booming industry. According to the Bank Policy Institute, an industry group, the number of full-time American bank employees dedicated to compliance rose by 62% between 2016 and 2023, three times as fast as overall hiring. Bosses now report that they spend 42% of their time on compliance issues, up from 24% seven years earlier. By one estimate, the industry globally spends more than $200bn on compliance each year. In this context, overzealous debanking is inevitable. Even if it is not motivated by political animus, the critics have a point.

• FAA Rule Requires Drug and Alcohol Testing for Foreign Repair Station Employees

• Expanding Child Tax Credit for Good Has Bipartisan Potential

• Ex-Twitter CFO will take charge of SF's downtown, housing crises

Trump

• House GOP accuses Liz Cheney of tampering with J6 witness, ask FBI to investigate criminality | Just The News

  The House Administration Oversight Subcommittee and its chairman Barry Loudermilk on Tuesday released an interim report on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, concluding the attack was preventable and also asking for an investigation into former Rep. Liz Cheney for criminally tampering with a witness during the Democrat-led congressional inquiry of the tragedy. “Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the report released by the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee and its chairman Barry Loudermilk stated.

• Trump sues Des Moines Register, top pollster for 'brazen election interference,' fraud over Harris poll | Fox News

  The lawsuit was filed Monday night in Polk County, Iowa under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act and related provisions. It says it seeks "accountability for brazen election interference committed by" the Des Moines Register (DMR) and Selzer "in favor of now-defeated former Democrat candidate Kamala Harris through use of a leaked and manipulated Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll conducted by Selzer and S&C and published by DMR and Gannett in the Des Moines Register on Nov. 2, 2024." The lawsuit is also against the parent company of the Des Moines Register, Gannett, which also owns other publications, including USA Today. "Contrary to reality and defying credulity, defendants’ Harris Poll was published three days before Election Day and purported to show Harris leading President Trump in Iowa by three points; President Trump ultimately won Iowa by over thirteen points," the lawsuit states.

Democrats / Biden Inc

• Former FBI informant pleads guilty to fabricating Biden claims

• Midnight regulations on chip access

• James O’Keefe Releases Shocking Video of NSC Advisor Admitting Biden Is Far Worse Off Than We Know – RedState

• H-1B Visa Program Overhaul Finalized by Biden Administration

• Joe Biden calls for ban on congressional stock trading

Left Angst

• Trump to block the government and military from buying EVs

• New FCC chair wants to revoke broadcast licenses; First Amendment might stop him

• How much FTX money was in the last election? Crypto Got What It Wanted in the US Election. Here's What's Next

• Save Daylight Savings Time

  I suppose I’m not anti-DOGE, though it’s hard to say because its structure and its mandate are unclear. I’d certainly like for it not to cost $2.5 billion to build a single mile of subway track in New York, for instance. But without having any real teeth to implement its policies, DOGE may focus more on gimmicks — and will run the risk of violating the precept of Chesterton's Fence by changing things that are perfectly fine or where the current rules are in place for a reason. Daylight Savings Time is a perfect example of this. Eliminating it would deprive the average American of 40 minutes of waking daylight in the summer months. This is a terrible idea.

• Senate Democrats push plan to abolish Electoral College after Trump win

• Hyundai Is Becoming the New Tesla

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Two killed by female student in shooting at US Christian school

• RI state government hit by major cyberattack; SSNs, bank numbers believed stolen

• Interpol urges end to 'Pig Butchering' term, cites harm to online victims

  • Interpol Says People Aren't Reporting Online Scams for Fear of Being Called Pigs

• Tech consultant found guilty of 2nd-deg murder in death of Cash App founder

  • Tech entrepreneur found guilty of Cash App founder Bob Lee's murder

• 14 detained in armed Aurora, Colorado home invasion are likely illegal gang members: police | Fox News

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• How to Protect Yourself from the Salt Typhoon Hack, No Matter What the FBI Says

• AT&T, Verizon Fail to Inform Customers About Major Salt Typhoon Hack

  • doesn't the law specifically says something like: "the company may not inform the user when the monitoring protocols are in use".

• How to keep text messages secure as FBI warns of Chinese hackers

• The epistemics of drone incursions

• Concern rises as drone sightings are reported in Massachusetts and New Hampshire

• Most of the 5K drone reports are planes, hobbyists and stars, feds say

• Multiple Drone Incursions Confirmed over Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton

• Navy Wasted $2B to Maintain Older Guided Missile Cruisers, GAO Says

• Possible ban on Chinese-made drones dismays U.S. scientists

World

• Germany to Shut Down Key LNG Terminal in 2025

• The electricity cost jumps to almost 1000 EUR / MWh in Germany

• Edinburgh Airport flights resume after IT issue grounded planes

• Argentina’s economy exits recession in milestone for Javier Milei

  Argentina’s economy emerged from a severe recession in the third quarter of 2024 in a milestone for libertarian president Javier Milei in his bid to end the country’s long-running crisis. GDP expanded 3.9 per cent from July to September in seasonal-adjusted terms compared with the previous quarter, marking Argentina’s first quarter of growth since it entered recession in late 2023, the country’s statistics agency said on Monday.

• Report: Syrian Man ‘Freed’ by CNN a Member of Assad’s Torture Squad

  Salama, known as “Abu Hamza,” is a first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence, notorious for his activities in Homs. Residents of the Al-Bayyada neighborhood identified him as frequently stationed at a checkpoint in the area’s western entrance, infamous for its abuses. Abu Hamza reportedly managed several security checkpoints in Homs and was involved in theft, extortion, and coercing residents into becoming informants. According to locals, his recent incarceration—lasting less than a month—was due to a dispute over profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer. This led to his detention in one of Damascus’s cells, as per neighborhood sources.

• At least 100k bodies in Syrian mass grave, US advocacy group head says

• EU Commission opens formal proceedings against TikTok on election risks

• Post Office inquiry witnesses driven by 'self-preservation' says Vennells lawyer

• After 11 years, internet begins to dominate Japan's elections

• Northern Ireland police unlawfully put reporters under surveillance

Iran / Houthi

• Domestic issues pile pressure on Iran's president amid foreign policy setbacks

• Iran Extends School Closures In Tehran Amid Fuel Shortages.

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russia braced for mammoth rate hike as it's losing the battle against inflation

• Ukraine says it killed senior Russian general who died in scooter blast

• Russian General Accused of Using Chemical Weapons Assassinated by Ukraine

China

• China orbits first Guowang internet satellites, with thousands more to come

• China’s November retail sales miss expectations as real estate slump deepens.

• China's Slowdown Has Changed the Trade War

Health / Medicine

• Study Challenges Myths About Cannabis, Brain Health, and IQ

• Your Blood Pressure Reading Is Probably Wrong

• Lower rates of death from Alzheimer's disease among taxi and ambulance drivers

• Missing rebound: Youth drug use defies expectations, continues historic decline

  • "Unprecedented" decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts

• Drugmakers say Crohn's drug met primary targets

• Giant Companies Took Secret Payments to Allow Free Flow of Opioids

• Processed plant-based meat alternatives linked to depression risk in vegetarians

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Congo's health ministry says unknown disease is severe malaria

• Infamous paper that popularized unproven Covid-19 treatment retracted

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Denmark will not extradite anti-whaling activist Paul Watson to Japan

• World's largest iceberg has broken free after being trapped in vortex

• Environmental Burden of United States Data Centers

• Earth is warming faster. Scientists are closing in on why

• Turns out everyone in SF didn't need to throw away their black spatulas