2025-01-23

father drought, Reddit blocking X links, Netflix price hikes, Stargate hype, UPS Surepost sunset, Ross pardoned, Indian repatriation, knives aint the problem, dyes suck, coyote chicken dinners

etc

• A million-dollar challenge to crack the script of early Indians

• Hollywood Was Already in Trouble. Then Disaster Struck L.A.

• Southern California burn areas brace for approaching storm, mudslide threat

Horseshit

• Her dad, the 10k records he left behind and a viral lesson in grief

• Picture of a Duck Accidentally Sent to Stripe Workers Being Laid Off

• stories i refuse to believe

• The number of exceptional people: Fewer than 85 per 1M across key traits

• "TaxTheSuperRich" is a protester motto at Davos. Would that end inequality?

• (Oct 2024) Social infertility: why birth rates hit an all-time low

  Recent research has found that it’s more likely to be men who aren’t able to have children even if they want them – in particular lower income men.

• The war over a private island in the San Francisco Bay

• The Second Trump Presidency, Brought to You by YouTubers—Analysis of 2000 videos

celebrity gossip

• The Dubious History of Curtis Yarvin, America's Most Famous Monarchist

• Murdoch's UK tabloids apologize to Prince Harry and admit intruding on Diana

Obit

• Jules Feiffer, Acerbic Cartoonist, Writer and Much Else, Dies at 95

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• The dangers of social media without fact-checking

• Political information curation on Google and Bing prior to 2024 US elections

• Right populists deliberately undermining democracy with misinformation

Facebook

• The Day Instagram Blocked Democracy

• Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg sanctioned for allegedly deleting emails

• Meta admits some people can't unfollow Donald Trump on Instagram

• Meta accused of pro-Trump bias after Democrat hashtag blocked on Instagram

TikTok

• TikTok owner asks Chinese staff in Singapore to pay taxes to Beijing

• YouTube star MrBeast joins bid to buy TikTok in US

• How Meta Tried to Lure TikTok Users to Instagram

• TikTokers offered $5,000 to join Facebook and Instagram

• Trump Backs Elon Musk as Possible TikTok Buyer

• How People Make a Living on TikTok

• TikTok Emerges from Shutdown Without ByteDance's US CDN

• TikTok, RedNote and the Crushed Promise of the Chinese Internet

• Apple won't return TikTok to the App Store until it's sold to a U.S. buyer

Bluesky

• NFL teams can't use Bluesky

  • NFL tells New England Patriots to shut down Bluesky account

Musk

• Elon Musk Reddit Ban: List of Subreddits Blocking X Links

  • Reddit won't interfere with users revolting against X with subreddit bans

  • Reddit Users Boycott X Links After Elon Musk's Gesture at Inaugural Event

• Elon Musk admits cheating at video games, chat transcript appears to show

• Elon Musk admits he cheated at some video games

• "Cybertruck Can Officially Be Considered a Flop"

• Let's Hope Elon Musk Doesn't Take EVs with Him

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• suspect dataset: Men have grown twice as much as women over past century, study shows | Biology | The Guardian

  Amid the profound changes humanity has witnessed, one might be forgiven for failing to notice a rise in sexy and formidable men: those tall, broad-shouldered types that are strangers to self-doubt. But according to a new study, men around the world have gained height and weight twice as fast as women over the past century, driving greater differences between the sexes.

  Halsey and his colleagues used data from the World Health Organization, overseas authorities and UK records to see how height and weight have changed with living conditions. The latter was measured by the human development index (HDI), a score based on life expectancy, time in education and per capita income, which ranges from zero to one.

• All Federal DEI Activities to Cease by 5pm Today

• MSNBC’s Al Sharpton Uses Network To Launch Boycott of Companies That Cut DEI Programs.

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• US scientist falsely accused of hiding China ties sues university that fired him

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Netflix is raising prices again

  • Netflix Adds Nearly 19M Subscribers

  • Netflix shares hit record as subscriber growth defies odds once again

  • Netflix price increase leaves fans furious

• Meta will soon let you link your WhatsApp account with Instagram and Facebook

• Remember when it was a free, community effort? The founder of IMDB is stepping down from the role of CEO after 35 years.

• Bambu Lab pushes a "control system" for 3D printers, and boy, did it not go well

• Apple TV+'s market share compared to other streaming platforms in the US

• The Online Porn Free-for-All Is Coming to an End

• The Internet is (once again) awash with IoT botnets delivering record DDoSes

• Google Is Now the East India Company of the Internet

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Google invests further $1B in OpenAI rival Anthropic

• AI Will Write Complex Laws

• Stargate, the End of Microsoft and OpenAI

  • Elon Musk Says the Stargate Project Doesn't Have the Money

  • Musk Pours Cold Water on Trump-Backed Stargate AI Project

  • Musk undercuts Trump's Stargate AI investment announcement

  • Elon Musk, White House advisor, says OpenAI deal is a sham

  • Musk bashes $500B Trump AI project, claims backers don't 'have the money'

• ByteDance dropping an Apache 2.0 licensed "reasoning" agent for computer use

• OpenAI has upped its lobbying efforts nearly sevenfold

• TikTok owner ByteDance plans to spend $12B on AI chips in 2025

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Satellite firm bucks miniaturization trend, aims to build big for big rockets

• The Artemis Accords: Principles for a Safe, Peaceful, Prosperous Future in Space

Crypto con games

• The Trump Memecoin's 'Money-Grab' Economics

• $Trump Is Already Worth Billions. What to Know About the Meme Coin

• $TRUMP Meme Coin Is Already Blowing Up in Everyone's Faces

Economicon / Business / Finance

• How shutdown Bay Area tech companies ditch their fancy gear fast

• Amazon to close Quebec facilities, insists it's not because of new union

• Index Funds Buy High and Sell Low

• Apple must face suit over alleged policy of underpaying female workers

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• R/DataHoarder: The White House Is Removing Everything

  • National Archives should have their copies up soon.

• FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Announces Staff Appointments

• Major data revisions are coming - by Jed Kolko

  Data revisions are how the government balances timeliness and accuracy: Higher-quality data take more time to collect, and policymakers and businesses can’t fly blind waiting for perfect data. US statistical agencies handle revisions the right way, with advance warning, transparency, and best-faith efforts to preserve historical comparability. But data revisions also cause confusion and sometimes fuel conspiracy theories.

• End of USPS-UPS Deal Could Mean Faster Rural Delivery, but More Expensive

  The UPS service known as SurePost was primarily something businesses used as an economic way to send less urgent packages, like a shirt or a pair of shoes from a retailer. Under the arrangement, USPS would deliver the last mile of those UPS packages. Now that the SurePost contract has expired and the USPS is not interested in renewing it, UPS says it will handle delivery of these rural packages door to door — except deliveries to post office boxes and military APO/FPO/DPO addresses.

• ABC, NBC, CBS Back In Hot-Seat After New FCC Chair Reinstates Complaints | ZeroHedge

  The new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr (R), will overturn an 11th hour decision by the outgoing Democrat chair - and will reinstate three complaints against major media outlets related to bias in the 2024 US election.

Trump

• Trump Pardons Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht

  • Trump likes him so he must be evil; forget what we said a few years ago... Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon | Hacker News

• Trump plays referee in White House meeting with Hill leaders.

• Trump's DHS Guts Board Investigating Chinese Hacking Group Salt Typhoon

  • Trump admin fires security board investigating Chinese hack of large ISPs

• Convicted US Capitol rioter Pam Hemphill turns down Trump pardon

• Trump Gives Gun, Drug Agents Deportation Power

Left Angst

• 'The gesture speaks for itself': Germans respond to Musk's apparent Nazi salute

• Trump's Executive Order Against Trans Technically Makes Every American Female

• US Constitution disappears from White House website on day two of Trump 2.0

• Why Does Trump Love Tariffs?

• Press Outlets Accuse Pete Hegseth of Domestic Abuse, but His Ex-Wife Nukes Them

• What Trump's flurry of executive orders means for science

• Antitrust in an Oligarchy

• Infosec was literally last item in Trump's policy plan; major changes are likely

• The Guide to Trump's Day 1 Executive Orders

• Trump criticizes 'nasty' bishop who made pro-immigrant and LGBTQ+ plea

• Trump orders federal workers back to office full-time

• White House orders government DEI employees to be placed on leave

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Woman admits she made up rape claims that put innocent man in jail and reveals she targeted him over his ‘creepy’ looks.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• India to take back 18k citizens residing illegally from US to placate Trump.

  • India Set to Accept 18,000 Citizens From U.S.

• Pentagon Reportedly Deploying 1,500 Active Duty Troops To US-Mexico Border | ZeroHedge

World

• UK government uses 'vibe check' on whether MPs will like policies

• Ex-executive who oversaw Muan airport localizer installation found dead

• S Korea to remove concrete walls near runways after deadly crash

• Loophole that transformed Berlin from tenant's paradise to landlord's playground

• Popcorn Is Taxed at Three Rates in India – Nation Says This Is Why We're a Mess

• ‘Disgrace’ that Axel Rudakubana could buy a knife on Amazon

  The Southport attacker admitted carrying a knife more than ten times before he bought a kitchen knife on Amazon to launch his deadly attack in July last year. Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said it was “a total disgrace” that Axel Rudakubana was “easily able to order a knife on Amazon” despite being aged 17 and having a conviction for violence. It is illegal to sell knives to under-18s. Amazon also faced criticism after Rudakubana bought ingredients for the lethal toxin ricin from its vendors. Experts question whether the company’s algorithms were able to flag the purchase of a series of potentially harmful products by a single customer.

  Cooper also took aim at social media companies for failing to remove dangerous material accessed by Rudakubana, who faces life in jail when he is sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty to the murder of three girls in his stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29. He also admitted possessing an academic study of an al-Qaeda manual, and to the production of ricin.

• Indonesia fines Google $12.4M for unfair business practices

• UK tax collector's phone service deliberately bad to push users online, say MPs

• Syria to dismantle Assad-era socialism, says foreign minister

• There are less than 30 cobblers left in Ireland

• Spain's Prime Minister Pushes for EU Plan to Rein in Social Media

Iran / Houthi

• Ocean rates could fall as Houthis say they will end Red Sea attacks - FreightWaves

• Houthis Release Hijacked Crew and Signal End to Red Sea Attacks

Israel

• Why Hamas still stands: Failed military doctrine drives IDF thinking.

• Google worked directly with Israel's military on AI tools in Gaza war

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• War clinics in Ukraine witness sharp rise in drug-resistant infections

• Britain Says Russian Spy Ship Returned to U.K. Waters in Sign of Kremlin Threat

China

• Second report corroborates iPhone's fall from first to 3rd place in China

• 'Natural deterioration' behind latest Taiwan undersea cable issue

• Targeting of Taiwan's Undersea Cables Previews Cross-Strait Tensions

• China's 'artificial sun' shatters nuclear fusion record

Health / Medicine

• It's Not Just Red Dye No. 3. It's Everything

  Relieved by the ban? Don’t be. Red Dye No. 3 is set to be replaced by. . . Red Dye No. 40, which in Europe comes with the unencouraging warning label: “May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.” It’s hard to shake the feeling that synthetic dyes are just the tip of a very large and very troubling iceberg. Part of the challenge with our current generation of stuff is that their damaging ingredients are now enmeshed in almost everything we touch, consume, or encounter. Never have so many ingredients been as invisible as they are pervasive. But their disturbing omnipresence does not have to continue.

• Indiana bill to end tax breaks for non-profit hospitals that overcharge patients

• Florida man eats diet of butter, cheese, beef; cholesterol oozes from his body

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Geese found dead on UMass Amherst campus test positive for bird flu

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• SF's coyotes are going after an unexpected source of prey, study shows

  The highest overall contributor to coyote diets in San Francisco was anthropogenic, or human-origin, food, which was identified in 78% of the samples collected. T

• Sunfish that began ailing recovers after human cutouts set up outside tank

• Climate scientist: "There's no place that's safe"

• Thousands await stinky plant's rare bloom

• Meet The New Species of Endangered Whale Discovered in the Gulf of Mexico

• Analysts say real datacenter emissions are a dirty secret

• Thailand bans imports of plastic waste