2025-01-15

LA fires, blame rich men, InfoWars settlement, Twitter was right leaning in 2021, Musk/TikTok rumors, USB clarity, TSMC in AZ, Starbucks de-bums, Meta cuts, ESG illegal, Smith reports, charity bites

etc

• PEI Homeowner captures sound and video of meteorite strike on camera

LA Fires

• LA wildfires disinformation reveals limits of fact-checking

  in other words, yes, they were going to cut the budget, but no, they didn’t actually cut the budget, and yes, local fire departments say they were under-resourced and that this impacted their response capabilities, but they also said that even with every resource available at their disposal, they likely still couldn’t have controlled the blazes due to the extreme conditions. Got it? That’s a lot of nuance, and understanding nuance takes patience. And if I know anything about the Internet in 2025, it’s that the Internet hates nuance and has no time for patience nor any interest in making the time. This is (in part) why false narratives will continue to propagate, even though the facts are available and known to many of those who are spreading misleading claims and jumping to unsupported conclusions.

• Non profit tech for wildfire reporting

• Schoenberg scores destroyed in Los Angeles fires

• Homes Withstood the LA Fires. Architects Explain Why

• FBI working to piece together drone that damaged super scooper

• California Democrats put on the backfoot as wildfires - and criticism - rage | Reuters

  or California Governor Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders in the left-leaning state, the still-raging wildfires could have been a chance to showcase their competence and unity with the White House in dealing with a natural disaster. Instead, questions about the state's preparedness and response to the massive fires have rendered party leaders vulnerable to escalating attacks from the right, in a possible prelude to the politicization of disaster response under president-elect Donald Trump. with Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk using their reach on social media to attack both leaders, the crisis has evolved into a political battle with lines drawn broadly along two competing visions for America: the environmentally-conscious and regulatory-heavy ethos of the left versus a right skeptical of government expertise and progressive ideas.

• 47 Years Later, the Palisades Disappeared Overnight

• Art Collector Says He Lost Warhols and Harings to L.A. Fire

• LA Fires, Climate Risks Push California Insurance Market to Limit

• Why wildfires are becoming faster and more furious

• The LA fires cast CA's water scarcity into stark view. It's going to get worse

• 'Will Pay Any Amount': Private Firefighters Are in Demand in L.A

Horseshit

• Are ultra-processed foods changing the shape of our jaws?

• Rich Men Rule the World | WIRED

  a group of editors sat down to assess our lineup. And we noticed something, as we flicked through the drafts and infographics. Wherever in the world we’d sent a reporter, whichever corner of the technology landscape we were covering, the holders of all of that money? Men. All of them. Every. Single. One. Bill Gates, who sat down with Steven Levy to talk about his new memoir (stay tuned), has enjoyed 19 of the last 30 years atop the list of the world’s richest people. Of the 30-odd crypto investors in Trump’s inner circle, all of them are—wait for it—guys. Even the young people hustling door-to-door in the Sunshine State, shilling solar panels in a desperate bid to become millionaires by 30, are, well, men.

• You probably aren't washing your towels often enough

• Tokyo drift: what happens when a city stops being the future?

• An 836-pound 'cursed' emerald traveled the Americas, ruining lives

celebrity gossip

• Sandy Hook families reach settlement over Alex Jones' bankruptcy

  Under the new agreement between the Sandy Hook families, the Texas families will be paid $4 million, with $1 million being paid within seven days of court approval, according to court documents. After that, the Texas families will receive 25% of future payments made to the Sandy Hook families, with the Connecticut families taking 75%. The Texas families also agreed to limit their participation in the rest of Jones’ bankruptcy case, and to support the Connecticut families when necessary.

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• (Dec 2021) Algorithmic Amplification of Politics on Twitter

  this study carries out the most comprehensive audit of an algorithmic recommender system and its effects on political content. Results unveil that the political right enjoys higher amplification compared to the political left.

• Why Europe fears free speech

• Platforms Systematically Removed a User Because He Made "Most Wanted CEO" Cards

• Musk, Zuckerberg and Trump all target Brazil in disinformation war

Facebook

• Censorship is what you see in China, not what they say was on Facebook

• Meta Goes Mask-Off

• NY Post: Fact Checking Is Now Censorship

• Zuckerberg Debuts 'Real Mark' in Push to Woo Trump

Musk

• Sometimes, you can tell which side of a story they're rooting for... TikTok says report of possible sale to Musk 'pure fiction'

  • Chinese officials reportedly discuss sale of TikTok in US to Elon Musk

  • China Officials Internally Discuss Option of TikTok Sale to Musk

  • China considers selling TikTok U.S. operations to Musk, Bloomberg reports

  • China is reportedly open to Elon Musk acquiring TikTok US

  • China exploring possible sale of TikTok to Elon Musk

  • The Unlikely Marriage of TikTok and Elon Musk

• SEC Sues Elon Musk over Securities Violations

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Norway on track to be first to go all-electric

• Tesla tops Audi in global auto sales

• Tesla Sales Are Tanking in Europe

• Musk Distorts Data: Tesla Still Years from Full Self-Driving

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Nearly Half of Adults Worldwide Hold Antisemitic Views, Survey Finds

• Federal Court Upholds Forcibly Detransitioning Transgender Inmates in Florida

  Judge Allen Winsor, a Trump appointee with a record of anti-LGBTQ+ rulings, dismissed the injunction request. Winsor’s opinion misgendered Keohane, describing her as “a male who self-identifies as a woman.” He argued that the FDC’s policy does not constitute a blanket ban on hormone therapy, despite evidence showing the policy effectively forces the detransition of hundreds of inmates. Winsor claimed that Keohane, having navigated extensive bureaucratic hurdles to preserve her care, faced no “imminent injury” and therefore did not meet the criteria for emergency relief.

  • failing to provide the services demanded is now a form of "assault".

• Contra Paul Graham on Wokeness

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• The Physicist Decoding the Nonbinary Nature of the Subatomic World | Quanta Magazine

  Q: Do the properties of quarks and gluons resonate with you as a nonbinary person? A: Yes, I think the simple fact that gluons carry multiple color charges means they are fundamentally nonbinary creatures. And they are the cornerstone of everything around us.

• Why are tech people suddenly so into homeschooling?

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Gentrified Doom remake trades chainsaw for cheese knife

• WordPress leader Matthew Mullenweg exiles five contributors

• An updated USB logo will now mark the fastest docking stations | PCWorld

  Finally, the updated USB logos will also apply to cables. Jeff Ravencraft, president of the USB-IF, said that was done to clearly communicate the only things consumers cared about: what data speeds the cable supported and how much power it could pass between two devices.

• What is RedNote, the Chinese social media app that US TikTokers are flocking to?

• Mastodon's founder cedes control, refuses to become next Musk or Zuckerberg

• Apple in final stages of verifying TSMC's 'Made in USA' chips

  • Apple will soon receive 'made in America' chips from TSMC's Arizona fab

• Texas Sues Allstate over Its Collection of Driver Data

  • Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to track driving behavior

• NOAA sees new applications for commercial weather data

• Oracle open source overlord calls it quits, leaves with big ol' pile of shares

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Amazon races to transplant Alexa's 'brain' with generative AI

  • Amazon must solve hallucination problem before launching AI-enabled Alexa

• Microsoft creates new AI engineering group led by former Meta executive

• AI Will Spew Gas Fumes for Years Before the Nuclear Revolution Takes Off

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• New Glenn to make another launch attempt early Thursday

  • Although it’s “insane” to try to land New Glenn, Bezos says it’s important to try.

• Qantas South Africa flights delayed by falling debris from SpaceX rockets

• Space Firm Loft Orbital Raises $170M to Scale Up Launches

Crypto con games

• Bitcoin and Late Capitalism

• Stablecoins are non-fungible, bank deposits are fungible

• Crypto firm Tether and its founders finalizing move to El Salvador

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Starbucks says people using its coffee shops must buy something

  • Hanging Out at Starbucks? You Now Need to Order Something

  • Buy something or leave, Starbucks says

  • Starbucks ends its open-door policy, requiring people to make a purchase to stay

  • Starbucks ends its 'open-door' policies

• U.S. Employee Engagement Sinks to 10-Year Low

• U.S. Has More Fancy Apartments Than It Is Able to Fill

• Walmart's Latest Brand Refresh

• HPE may have bagged $1B order from Elon Musk's X for AI servers

• FTC Proposes Rules to Deter Deceptive Earnings Claims by Multilevel Marketers

• CFPB Sues Capital One for Cheating Consumers Out of More Than $2B in Interest

• Meta Is Planning to Cut 5% of Lowest Performers, Memo Shows

  • Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

  • Meta to Cut Roughly 5% of Staff, Targeting Lowest Performers

  • Zuckerberg says Meta will lay off more 'low-performers'

  • Meta cuts another 5% of its workforce

  • Meta says 5% staff cut is critical to further AI, social media

  • Meta to Cut 5% Workforce

• Microsoft pauses hiring in U.S. consulting unit as part of cost-cutting plan

• 1 in 5 Online Job Postings Are Either Fake or Never Filled

• Retailers may be taking a more staggered approach to holiday hiring

• American workers' enthusiasm for their jobs falls to a 10-year low

• Klarna scores global payment deal with Stripe to expand reach ahead of U.S. IPO

• FTC Prepares to Sue Greystar, Largest U.S. Apartment Landlord, over Hidden Fees

• Maybe ESG Is Illegal Now - Bloomberg

  Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing is quite controversial now, with a lot of conservative critics. And so Judge O’Connor was naturally asked to declare that it is a violation of fiduciary duty for an investment manager to consider ESG factors in making investment decisions, and last Friday he did that. Here is the opinion. It is hard to know how seriously to take this — it could be appealed, etc. — but in general the political winds do seem to be shifting against ESG, so it’s possible that this is right and ESG is now sort of illegal.

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• 43K fewer drivers on Manhattan roads after congestion pricing turned on

  • The theory is that this doesn't also mean fewer people, less economic activity, and so on.

• The Borda Count is the Best Method of Voting

  The Borda Count has voter rank the n candidates from most to least preferred and assigns (n-1) points to the candidates with the candidate with the most points winning. For example if there are 3 candidates a voter’s top-ranked candidate gets 2 points, the second ranked candidate gets 1 point and the last ranked candidate 0 points.

  • The Electoral College is already too complicated to explain to many voters; how are ya gonna sell this?

• U.S. Capitol Flags Will Be at Full-Staff During Inauguration

Trump

• Trump says he will create 'External Revenue Service' to collect tariff income

• (PDF) Jack Smith's report to Attn General Garland: Final Report on the Special Counsel's Investigations and Prosecutions

  In 2020, then-President Donald J. Trump ran for reelection against Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Mr. Trump lost. As alleged in the original and superseding indictments, substantial evidence demonstrates that Mr. Trump then engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the legitimate results of the election in order to retain power. Although he did so primarily in his private capacity as a candidate, and with the assistance of multiple private co- conspirators, Mr. Trump also attempted to use the power and authority of the United States Government in furtherance of his scheme.

  Evidence from a variety of sources established that Mr. Trump knew that there was no outcome- determinative fraud in the 2020 election, that many of the specific claims he made were untrue, and that he had lost the election. He knew this because some of the highest- ranking officials in his own Administration, including the Vice President, told him directly that there was no evidence to support his claims.

  • DOJ Releases Jack Smith’s Report on Trump

  Smith said in the report that Trump sought to defraud the United States and obstruct the certification of electoral votes in part by conspiring with others to send alternate slates of electors to Washington.

  • Special Counsel Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case - The New York Times

  The report amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of a president-elect, capping a momentous legal saga that saw the man now poised to regain the powers of the nation’s highest office charged with crimes that struck at the heart of American democracy.

  • "Unprecedented Criminal Effort" - DOJ Releases Jack Smith's Report On Trump 'Election Interference' | ZeroHedge

• Trump inauguration: Almost 8,000 soldiers bussed in for 'peaceful transition'

  Almost 25,000 police officers and 7,800 soldiers will descend on Washington DC for Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, officials have said, as the capital prepares for a “peaceful transfer of power”. Two FBI field offices, a fleet of drones and more than 30 miles of fencing will be used to keep Mr Trump, other world leaders and attendees safe as he takes the presidential oath of office for the second time. Local and federal officials revealed the security plans for the ceremony on Monday, and said that despite receiving no specific threats against the president-elect, they are “prepared” for the worst. The inauguration security team will include almost 25,000 police officers and members of the National Guard from every state will run checkpoints to enter the National Mall in front of the US Capitol.

Democrats / Biden Inc

• Executive Order on Advancing United States Leadership in AI Infrastructure

  • Biden to issue executive order to ensure power for AI data centers

  • Biden signs executive order aimed at growing AI infrastructure in the US

• Biden administration finalizes US crackdown on Chinese vehicles

  • Biden's final rule banning Chinese connected cars also bars robotaxi testing

Left Angst

• Trump is on a collision course with the bond vigilantes

• Young people are abandoning democracy for dictators

• Nearly Half of Federal Employees in the Swamp Plan to Resist Trump, Poll Finds.

• Liberal Media Scream: PBS delights that Trump will forever be a ‘convicted felon.’

• Donald Trump Threatens Comcast in Rant over Seth Meyers' Late Night Show

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Third Circuit: A Reasonable Officer Can Deliberately Arrest the Wrong Person

• DOJ confirms FBI operation that mass-deleted Chinese malware from US computers

  • Justice Dept., FBI and International Partners Delete China-Backed Malware

  a multi-month law enforcement operation that, alongside international partners, deleted “PlugX” malware from thousands of infected computers worldwide. As described in court documents unsealed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a group of hackers sponsored by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), known to the private sector as “Mustang Panda” and “Twill Typhoon,” used a version of PlugX malware to infect, control, and steal information from victim computers.

  The international operation was led by French law enforcement and Sekoia.io, a France-based private cybersecurity company, which had identified and reported on the capability to send commands to delete the PlugX version from infected devices. Working with these partners, the FBI tested the commands, confirmed their effectiveness, and determined that they did not otherwise impact the legitimate functions of, or collect content information from, infected computers. In August 2024, the Justice Department and FBI obtained the first of nine warrants in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania authorizing the deletion of PlugX from U.S.-based computers. The last of these warrants expired on Jan. 3, 2025, thereby concluding the U.S. portions of the operation. In total, this court-authorized operation deleted PlugX malware from approximately 4,258 U.S.-based computers and networks. The FBI, through the victims’ internet service providers, is providing notice to U.S. owners of Windows-based computers affected by this court-authorized operation.

  • DOJ remotely cleaned thousands of computers from Chinese malware

World

• Indonesia plans minimum age for social media use

• EU reassesses tech probes into Apple, Google and Meta

  • EU reassesses tech probes into Apple, Google and Meta, FT reports

• Ministers consider ban on all UK public bodies making ransomware payments

  • UK plans to ban public sector organizations from paying ransomware hackers

• Ministers mull allowing private firms to make profit from NHS data in AI push

• Has Canada Become a Jamaican Bobsled Team? 🤔

  Although nobody should take the “51st state” argument seriously, if Canada were to become a state, it would be the third poorest in the country, right behind Alabama. Everybody talks about the American debt issue, but Canadian households bear more debt relative to their income than any other G7 country. The average Canadian now spends 15% of their income on debt servicing.

• Sweden is a nearly cashless society – how it affects people who are left out

• NATO to deploy ships, aircraft in Baltic Sea after cable breaches

• It's not just Big Tech: The UK's Online Safety Act applies across the board

• French leftist theatre faces bankruptcy after opening its doors to 250 African migrants for a free show... and they refused to leave and remain in the building five weeks later | Daily Mail Online

  A theatre in Paris which is known for its radical shows and exhibitions has been occupied by more than 250 African migrants after they were let in for a free event five weeks ago. The Gaîté Lyrique theatre in Paris staged the conference, entitled Reinventing the welcome for refugees in France, on December 10. It involved talks hosted by academics from top universities and Red Cross officials, and saw activists welcome in the migrants. But when the conference was finished, the migrants, who mainly come from France's former west African colonies, refused to leave the venue. Still occupied, the leftist theatre now faces going out of business after weeks without revenue from ticket sales, and has had to cancel all performances until at least January 24.

• Big tech is picking apart European democracy

• MI5 files suggest queen not briefed on spy Blunt in royal household for 9 years

Israel

• Hamas expected to release 33 hostages in first phase of emerging ceasefire deal, Israeli officials say.

• Israel, Hamas Are Finalizing a Gaza Cease-Fire Agreement

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russia is being set aflame by hundreds of arson attacks

  The perpetrators, often pensioners like Mr Nikiforov, claim to have been tricked into transferring large sums of cash, before somehow being persuaded they must burn ATMs to recover the money. Russia is blaming Ukraine for the unusual campaign, citing both motive and means. On the latter point, Ukraine is somewhat of a world-leader in the phone scamming industry, with hundreds of murky call-centres operating from cities such as Kyiv and Dnipro. Since Russia began its original war on Ukraine in 2014, and Ukrainian law-enforcement agencies broke off all co-operation with Russia, Russian citizens have been prime targets of the criminal activity. Ukraine’s bilingualism and Russia’s high level of corruption, leading to masses of data being put up for sale on the dark net, have made it a lucrative business.

• Vladimir Putin 'considering freezing Russian bank accounts' and 'food cards'

• Mass Ukrainian Drone Onslaught Strikes Targets Across Western Russia

China

• Taiwan clears TSMC to make 2nm chips abroad – country lowers 'Silicon Shield'

Health / Medicine

• Longevity-Obsessed Tech Millionaire Discontinues De-Aging Drug

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Covid-19 vaccines and adverse events of special interest

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• We can still get out of the climate Hellocene and into the clear

• Australian funnel-web spider enthusiast discovers a new species

• Eco-friendly reactor mimics lightning to produce ammonia from air and water

• Climate activists deface Darwin's grave at London's Westminster Abbey

• Plant CO2 uptake rises by nearly one third in new global estimates

• Berkshire Hathaway operates dirtiest set of coal-fired power plants in the US

• "Exceptional" Global Warming Spike Continued in 2024

• Three-Quarters of the Land Is Drying Out, "Redefining Life on Earth"

• Aquifer Beneath Oregon's Cascades Could Be the Largest in the World

• In 2024 global warming topped 1.5C. Have we failed the Paris Agreement?

• Air pollution and brain damage: what the science says

• Step1: stop shutting down farms. Nobel Prize winners call for urgent 'moonshot' effort to avert global hunger

• Chemicals in sewage sludge fertilizer used on farms pose cancer risk, EPA says

• How toxic waste from the US ends up in a neighborhood in Mexico