2025-01-27
historical Kilroys, blaming MMT fails on corporate crime, Zuck hate, Musk games, "Biden's book ban hoax", porn perspectives, underwater aliens, birds against Trump, Trump for China, Egyptian hyena
etc
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I Was Here - by George Dillard - Looking Through the Past
How should we think about all this graffiti? I’m pretty sure I know how I feel about Asshole Tourist Ivan carving his name into the Colosseum. So I suppose I should feel the same way about Pamonthes and Ianuarius. But I don’t, not really. The more ancient graffiti feels like a priceless record of a fleeting human life, an “I was here” echoing across the centuries. But a modern tourist or a nineteenth-century imperialist doing such a thing? It feels like self-aggrandizing vandalism. Comedians will tell you that comedy equals tragedy plus time — that the passage of years makes bad things seem more palatable. Maybe something similar applies to graffiti at historical sites.
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Flashes Then Flames: New Video of Eaton Fire Raises Questions for Power Company
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Think your dog can understand words? This scientist says you might be right
Horseshit
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Why Do So Many Millennials Look and Seem So Much Younger Than They Are?
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3D-printed "ghost gun" ring that sells on black market leaves a man dead
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The problem with ski holidays is all the other people are unbearable
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Toyota reduces price of new hydrogen car with $15,000 of free fuel
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Couple allegedly tricked AI investors into funding wedding, houses
- Stories such as this are important for making the usual "AI Hype" fraud seem more innocent and acceptable.
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It’s not a crime if we do it with an app
The core regulatory proposition of the tech industry is "it's not a crime if we do it with an app." It's not an unlicensed taxi if we do it with an app. It's not an illegal hotel room if we do it with an app. It's not an unregistered security if we do it with an app. It's not wage theft if we do it with an app.
Inflation is one of the most politically salient factors of this decade, and so much of inflation can be attributed to a crime, done with an app, with impunity for the criminals.
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"It wasn't the MMT; it was the corporate greed!" but hey at least they can now agree that inflation is real and has negative effects. it has become politically expedient to do so.
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(2021) Inflation or price-gouging?
To understand the real relationship between monetary policy, fiscal policy and inflation, you need to understand where money comes from (governments spend it into existence) and what taxes do (annihilate money to create fiscal space for public programs). Modern Monetary Theory, in other words.
if the infrastructure investment takes the form of expensive boondoggles — bridges to nowhere, empty Chinese cities built to keep property prices from crashing — then the money injected into the economy will be chasing the same goods as the private sector, but there will be no productivity gains by the private sector from the useless infrastructure investment, so you're mired in debt, inflation and MMT Hell.
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Former tech CEO suing to get the record of his arrest removed from the internet
TikTok
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Meta's Free-Speech Shift Made It Clear to Advertisers: 'Brand Safety' Is Out
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Mark Zuckerberg: This Man Is a Coward
The silence tells us everything. So do the actions that preceded it. In the months since Zuckerberg's Thanksgiving meeting with Trump, the architect of the Poke has orchestrated a complete surrender of principles at Meta. He stripped away fact-checking programs. He gutted content moderation policies. He elevated Republican executives to key positions. He eliminated diversity initiatives across the company, claiming without evidence they had somehow worked "too well" - even as men continue to outnumber women at Meta by two to one.
Watch how quickly he moves when Trump demands change. Special rules for Trump's social media posts? Done. A warm welcome back to Meta's platforms? Arranged immediately. The dismantling of years of protective policies? Executed within weeks. Zuckerberg transforms himself with each passing month, molding himself into whatever shape he thinks will please his new master. The awkward coding prodigy now struts around as a cage-fighting, wild-pig-hunting warrior philosopher, spouting tired talking points about "masculine virtues" on Joe Rogan's podcast.
Money tells the real story. Meta makes billions by harvesting and selling our attention to the highest bidder. Zuckerberg controls it all with near-absolute authority. He has more wealth than he could spend in a hundred lifetimes. He commands a platform that reaches billions of people. All that power, all those resources, all that potential influence - and he uses it to make himself smaller, bow lower, and surrender in ever more craven contortions of the human spirit.
Musk
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Musk tells Germans to get over 'past guilt' in speech to far-right AfD rally - POLITICO
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Tesla refuses to do the right thing about 'Full Self-Driving' transfers
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Elon Musk, Video Game King? Well, Maybe Not. - The New York Times
Gaming is a big part of the billionaire’s public persona. But other players are questioning whether he has the time or the skill to be as accomplished as he claims.
On its face, the claim feels improbable: In addition to being the world’s richest man, the chief executive of multiple companies and a key adviser to President Trump, Elon Musk says he is also a world-class video game player. It is a claim that Mr. Musk has repeated through the years. He has an account on X, his social media platform, dedicated to posting highlights of his gameplay. He has streamed with some of the top competitive video game players in the world on platforms like Twitch. He has even etched his name on the global leader boards of certain games. But last week, the community of gamers he’s long tried to impress turned against him. It started with a livestream of Mr. Musk playing Path of Exile 2, a popular action role-playing game known for its difficulty. Despite his account showing he had earned one of the game’s highest levels, his gameplay looked like that of an amateur.
Electric / Self Driving cars
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
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U.S. Department of Education Ends Biden’s Book Ban Hoax | U.S. Department of Education
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced that it has dismissed 11 complaints related to so-called “book bans.” The complaints alleged that local school districts’ removal of age-inappropriate, sexually explicit, or obscene materials from their school libraries created a hostile environment for students – a meritless claim premised upon a dubious legal theory. Effective Jan. 24, 2025, OCR has rescinded all department guidance issued under the theory that a school district’s removal of age-inappropriate books from its libraries may violate civil rights laws. OCR is also dismissing six additional pending allegations of book banning and will no longer employ a “book ban coordinator” to investigate local school districts and parents working to protect students from obscene content.
“By dismissing these complaints and eliminating the position and authorities of a so-called ‘book ban coordinator,’ the department is beginning the process of restoring the fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. “The department adheres to the deeply rooted American principle that local control over public education best allows parents and teachers alike to assess the educational needs of their children and communities. Parents and school boards have broad discretion to fulfill that important responsibility. These decisions will no longer be second-guessed by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education.”
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Because if p < 0.05, why not publish?
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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How Onlyfans Took Over The World - by Aella - Knowingless
Onlyfans maintains the dynamic that made camming so successful - direct, live connection with a girl - but manages to make it feel individualized. Instead of having to pay a lot of money to rank against other men, you can pay a little money and enter a pussy paradise with not a single other man in sight. Onlyfans lends its design towards isolating the men from each other. If you’re a horny dude, the existence of other horny dudes is a fleeting shadow, a ghost only hinted at implicitly through seeing ‘like’ counts on photos or occasionally subscriber count numbers, for the rare girls who make it public.
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The Online Porn Free-for-All Is Coming to an End - The Atlantic
Three decades into the internet era, the Supreme Court finally appears ready to uphold age-verification laws.
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Asus lets processor security fix slip out early, AMD confirms patch in progress
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Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, just a power button and a USB port
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Because of the ubiquity of USB, no one has even tried establishing a inductive connector for high-speed data transfer. Data transfer could be the limiting factor that keeps professional phones on USB-C for the near future,
- WiFi, Bluetooth, and the cellular network (the reason the phone exists) are all wireless data transfer methods. This is the mentality of an Apple victim, blind to the bird in hand in fervent hope for future hype. Just how thin does a phone actually need to be?
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Spotify's playlists have altered the music industry in unexpected ways
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Nvidia Maxwell, Pascal and Volta Support May Soon Move to a Legacy Driver
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After TikTok, the WiFi router in your home may be next Chinese tech ban target
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
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Burchett says he believes aliens have underwater bases on Earth
“When they tell me something’s moving at hundreds of miles an hour underwater, and our capabilities … and these things, this one was, it was large as a football field underwater. And this was a documented case, and … and I have an admiral telling me this stuff,” Burchett said Wednesday.
Crypto con games
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Crypto is chain-letter technology - by Arnold Kling
That is how Bitcoin works. As long as new speculators come along (the equivalent of people playing along with the chain letter), the price goes up. Early speculators who have sold some of their Bitcoin are like the person who starts the chain letter and gets his $100,000. Later Bitcoin speculators are like the naive downstream participant in the chain letter, daydreaming of how they will spend their Bitcoin. But at some point, the scheme will collapse, and the later speculators will be holding worthless Bitcoin, just as the downstream participants in a chain letter will never see any money. In the case of TRUMP coin, it is obvious who started the chain letter. It is Donald Trump. He will be able to cash out some of his holdings, and perhaps so will some early speculators. The downstream speculators will end up losing money.
In the case of Bitcoin, the scheme has been running for so long, with so many generations of participants, that the question of who first started it is no longer relevant. But as of today there is a single individual, Michael Saylor, who is at the top of the chain letter. His company owns a lot of Bitcoin. Speculators bid up the price of its stock as the price of Bitcoin goes up. That enables the company to raise capital to buy more Bitcoin, raising the price of Bitcoin.
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Brazil bans Sam Altman's tech firm Tools for Humanity from paying for iris scans
Economicon / Business / Finance
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Why are economists in the US today able to exercise such sway over the state?
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How does cost of housing figure into the consumer price index? It's complicated
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2025 will likely be another brutal year of failed startups, data suggests
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Passing "fee range eggs" laws: Eggs are pricey again. What's the government doing about it?
Trump
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Donald Trump ridicules Denmark and insists US will take Greenland
US President Donald Trump has ridiculed Denmark’s attempts to defend Greenland with additional patrols including two extra dog sleds as he insisted America would take control of the strategically crucial Arctic island. Denmark’s defence minister has conceded that the Nordic country has not done enough to protect its autonomous territory of Greenland, but revealed plans to spend $1.5bn on two new inspection ships, two drones and two dog sled patrols after Trump renewed his interest in the island. “I do believe Greenland, we’ll get — because it really has to do with freedom of the world. It has nothing to do with the United States, other than we’re the one that can provide the freedom. They [Denmark] can’t. They put two dog sleds there two weeks ago, they thought that was protection,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One this weekend.
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Trump 2.0: A Shockwave of Change in Just Six Days › American Greatness
Do you really think government agencies would attempt to disguise DEI programs under their auspices? Let’s ask Lisa T. Boykin, who works (worked?) at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Last Monday, Boykin was listed as the Bureau’s “Chief Diversity Officer.” But by Thursday she was listed simply as “Senior Executive” on the agency’s website. Same picture. Doubtless the same remit. Different title. Uh-oh.
Breathtaking changes are coming thick and fast. On Friday, Marco Rubio, Trump’s newly confirmed secretary of state, sent a cable to all U.S. diplomatic posts announcing that nearly all foreign aid would be frozen for 90 days while the U.S. determines whether that aid is in alignment with Trump’s agenda. There are exceptions for emergency food aid and military aid to Israel and Egypt, but the blanket moratorium, “effective immediately,” has stunned the diplomatic corps and their clients. Professional humanitarians and other passengers on the U.S. gravy train have their knickers in a twist. No matter. Rubio is committed to implementing Trump’s policy. “Every dollar we spend,” he said last week, “every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?” What a refreshing set of priorities.
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Trump issuing 'emergency 25% tariffs' against Colombia,going up to 50% in a week
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Trump imposes tariffs, sanctions on Colombia after it refuses deportation flight
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ZeroHedge said that they'd decided to accept the flights ...
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Democrats / Biden Inc
Left Angst
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Lina Khan warns of ‘catastrophic consequences’ if Trump gives free hand to private equity
Lina Khan has warned of “catastrophic consequences” for America if Donald Trump’s antitrust officials fail to scrutinise private equity groups that are buying up chunks of the US economy. The recently resigned chair of the US Federal Trade Commission told the Financial Times that private equity groups posed a threat to the country’s healthcare system.
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Reports of Navajo people being detained in immigration sweeps
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The Tech Arsenal That Could Power Trump's Immigration Crackdown
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Willful ignorance in furtherance of artificial outrage: C Is Legal Again | Hacker News
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Musk Plan for Retooling Government Takes Shape, but Big Questions Loom - The New York Times
DOGE has been tasked with recommending cuts to the federal work force in the next 90 days and playing a key role in overhauling hiring practices within four months. But the office does not have the power to approve spending cuts — that authority remains with Congress.
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'We just can't take the hit': businesses worldwide brace at Trump tariff threats
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Chicago immigrants stay home from work to avoid potential ICE arrests
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The Chinese interests behind Trump's Panama Canal bluster
Describing the company’s Panama assets as a tool in the hands of Beijing “fits in perfectly with Trump’s narrative that Hong Kong firms are aligned with the Chinese government”, said Rodrigo Martin, whose research at the University of Salamanca in Spain has focused on relations between Panama, China and the US. Li Ka-shing, the founder of CK Hutchison Holdings, was once the richest man in Asia and remains one of Hong Kong’s most influential figures. Rumour has it that “for every dollar spent in Hong Kong, five cents end up in Li Ka-shing's pockets”, French business daily La Tribune wrote in 2014. Wealth and influence have enabled the likes of Li Ka-shing to “maintain a degree of freedom from Chinese Communist Party surveillance that you wouldn’t see elsewhere in China”, said Rosendal.
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
World
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
Health / Medicine
Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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Renewable energies: 100 gigawatts of photovoltaics installed in Germany
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First record of the spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta in Egypt during the past 5,000 years
An individual of spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta was killed by local people in Elba Protected Area, South-East Egypt in winter of 2024. This record constitutes the first record of the species in contemporary Egypt since its extinction over 5,000 years ago. The possibility of increased rainfall and grazing practices creating a corridor for hyena dispersal from neighboring Sudan was investigated. The record is 500 km north of the known range of the spotted hyena.
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The dodo bird is extinct. This scientist says she can bring it back
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A Mountain Lion Attacked My Nephews. What Could Have Stopped It?