2025-01-29

1077, "unbirthing", snitching on speech, WHOIS no more, GPU review jank, successful Boom, Nissan cuts, eggspense, Fed payment pause, we stopped arresting kids, terrorist Cartels, NJ drones authorized

etc

• Almost one in 10 people use the same four-digit PIN

• Some fire victims claim Airbnb's free housing vouchers are useless

Horseshit

• Touchscreen dashboards have taken over and ruined driving

• 66M-year-old vomit discovered in Denmark

• Billionaire BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Declares No One Should Have To Work Longer Than They Want But Says Retiring At 65 Is ‘Crazy’.

• Pundits and historians declare neoliberalism over: Mexico begs to differ

• Will the "unbirthing" process of aquamation replace burial and cremation?

• HD Hyundai set to debut production 14 ton hydrogen wheeled excavator

• Too many Americans still fear the future

• The Tangs, New Donor Royalty, Step into the Spotlight

• Experts Say Xenon Gas Will Not Help Climb Everest

• A worrying trend: 'A collapse in the well-being of young people'

• America's $3B Habit: Meat Sticks

• Atomic scientists adjust 'Doomsday Clock' closer than ever to midnight

• Brooklyn brewers take on sake, America's new hip tipple

celebrity gossip

• Jim Acosta expected to leave CNN after he’s pulled from network’s programming schedule.

Obit

• Britt Allcroft, Creator of 'Thomas the Tank Engine,' Dies at 81

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Bias reporting systems were a nightmare on campus — and now they’re everywhere

  neighbors reporting neighbors for speech that is protected under the First Amendment, and entire government entities created for fielding and responding to those reports, is absolutely what fascism, or really any form of totalitarianism, looks like. I am speaking about bias reporting systems, sometimes called bias response teams, which are essentially snitch hotlines where people can report others for “offensive” or “hateful” speech. The act of doing this to your fellow Americans over protected speech would be bad enough, but these systems go further. They often consist not only of administrators, but also law enforcement. Your eyes are not deceiving you. These systems include law enforcement dedicated to “responding” to reports on First Amendment-protected speech.

• Trump's Fight Against Online Censorship Quickly Goes Global | RealClearInvestigations

  It is not yet known whether and to what extent Rubio’s approach will affect the reorganized successor to the State Department’s recently shuttered Global Engagement Center, whose efforts defenders had called essential to combating foreign propaganda. Critics have dismissed the reorganization – of an office that funded entities targeting disfavored domestic speech – as an effort to simply rebrand and persist. The State Department did not respond to RealClearInvestigation’s inquiries in connection with this story. The global “counter-disinformation” ecosystem encompasses research centers at top academic institutions and think tanks, fact-checkers, news raters, and like-minded for-profits – often funded and/or promoted by government agencies and powerful foundations, and operating and seeking to influence governments both stateside and across the Atlantic.

TikTok

• Trump says Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok

  • Trump says Microsoft in talks to aquire TikTok

• Trump's reported plans to save TikTok may violate SCOTUS-backed law

• Instagram deals reveal Meta is offering TikTok creators as much as $300k to post

Musk

• X Debt Shopped with $6B Sweetener from Elon Musk's AI Bet

• Elon Musk's X begins its push into financial services with Visa deal

  • X announces a partnership with Visa to power X Money's wallet

• X says its payments service will launch this year

• Coalition of Jewish groups say they're leaving X over Musk's behavior

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• German scientific paternalism and the golden age of German science

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Indie Bookstores Will Soon Be Able to Sell E-Books

• Nielsen to End Panel-Only Ratings That Have Measured TV for Decades

• Apple plugs exploited security hole in iOS, updates macOS

• Double opt-in emails go back as far as LISTERV in 1993

• Fear of the unknown keeps Broadcom's VMware herd captive. Don't be cowed

• Intel slashes prices of Xeon 6 CPUs by up to $5,340

• New FCC Chairman Drops Bulk Internet Billing Ban for Apartments

  • FCC chair helps ISPs and landlords make deals that renters can't escape

• Disney’s New Captain America Just Decided to Set His Box Office Prospects on Fire

• Today is WHOIS sunsetting day for gTLDs, per ICANN

  As of 28 January 2025, the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) will be the definitive source for delivering generic top-level domain name (gTLD) registration information in place of sunsetted WHOIS services. RDAP offers several advantages over WHOIS including support for internationalization, secure access to data, authoritative service discovery, and the ability to provide differentiated access to registration data.

• Amber flags in Open Source & Self-Hosted Projects · Danb Blog

• Nvidia says 'Press Build' RTX 5090s are not juiced up

  Speculation has surfaced that Nvidia allegedly sent pre-binned RTX 5090 samples to third-party reviewers, with higher performance than their retail counterparts. Nvidia has shot down this theory, claiming that all RTX 50-series GPUs, including ones marked "Press Build," are not tuned up or pre-binned and feature identical performance to retail RTX GPUs.

• NSA can track powered-down phones

• Google employees petition for 'job security' ahead of expected cuts

• Why old games magazines are a vital source of cultural history – and nostalgia

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Film Capacitors Can Go In The Wrong Way Round? Who Knew!

• Fixing my monitor's power button | Luke's Wild Website

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• DeepSeek gives biased propaganda answers about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan

• Ask HN: Confused about how DeepSeek hurts Nvidia

• AI's energy obsession just got a reality check

• Why DeepSeek Could Change What Silicon Valley Believes About A.I

• Chinese Quant Whiz Built DeepSeek in the Shadow of a Hedge Fund Rout

• DeepSeek is running inference on Huawei 910C chips

• Why DeepSeek's AI Model Just Became the Top-Rated App in the U.S.

• DeepSeek collects keystroke data and more, storing it in Chinese servers

• What DeepSeek's AI Did That Everyone Else's Didn't

• DeepSeek Disruption Has Its Upside

• The DeepSeek panic reveals an AI world ready to blow

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Boom Supersonic to break sound barrier during historic test flight today

  • Boom: America's answer to Concorde completes its first supersonic flight

  • Boom's XB-1 becomes first civil aircraft to go supersonic

  • Boom Supersonic jet breaks sound barrier to open way for new 'Concorde'

• 40 years ago, a classified Shuttle mission foreshadowed Challenger's fatal flaw

• Astronauts' eyes weaken during long space missions

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Egg prices are soaring. Don't expect that to change anytime soon

• Whole Foods Workers in Philadelphia Vote to Form Chain's First Union

• Nissan Planning To Cut Up To 2,000 U.S. Jobs And Reduce Production By 25% | ZeroHedge

  Nissan plans to cut 1,500–2,000 U.S. jobs and reduce production by 25% as part of a strategic review, according to GuruFocus. It aims to close a production line at its Smyrna, TN plant by April and another at its Canton, MS plant later in the year. The company is reviewing its EV production and investment strategy. Spokesperson Shiro Nagai stated the reports are unofficial, and Nissan declined further comment.

• Ex-Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger loads up on Nvidia stock, says market reaction wrong

• Black Swan's Taleb Says Nvidia Rout Is Hint of What's Coming

• HSBC to exit parts of investment banking business in UK, US and Europe

• Egg prices are soaring. Don't expect that to change anytime soon | AP News

  Bird flu is forcing farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, pushing U.S. egg prices to more than double their cost in the summer of 2023. And it appears there may be no relief in sight, given the surge in demand as Easter approaches. The bird flu outbreak that started in 2022 is the main reason egg prices are up so much. Anytime the virus is found on a poultry farm, the entire flock is slaughtered to help limit the virus’ spread. And with massive egg farms routinely housing more than 1 million chickens, just a few infections can cause a supply crunch. Cage-free egg laws in 10 states may also be responsible for some supply disruptions and price increases.

  • possibly we don't have to kill entire flocks? Perhaps we might even find breeds with better immunity to these diseases? at least they mention the regulations reshaping the market, even if only to dismiss their impact.

• Small investors bought the dip in Nvidia by a record amount Monday

• US power stocks plummet as DeepSeek raises data center demand doubts

• Nvidia’s DeepSeek Stock Crash Solves a Wall Street Puzzle - Bloomberg

  In a mostly efficient market like that of the US, where risk and return are supposed to be closely related, why should investors earn above market returns for owning the most stable, dominant and profitable companies?

• No One Can Find a Job Because LinkedIn Is a Social Network

• Walmart boosts some top managers to over $600k a year

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Federal Futarchy - by Robin Hanson - Overcoming Bias

  Futarchy is a new financial-market-based form of governance. First described in 1999, over the last two years it has seen several apparently-successful field experiments. I here consider how to try it in the US federal government.

• FTC Releases Summary of Key Accomplishments

Trump

• Trump to Tariff Chips Made in Taiwan, Targeting TSMC

  • Trump to impose 25% to 100% tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, impacting TSMC

  • Trump plans "100 percent tax" on foreign (inc. Taiwan) semiconductors

  • US Administration to Tariff Chips Made in Taiwan, Targeting TSMC

  • Trump says new tariffs on computer chips, semiconductors coming 'soon'

  • Responding to Trump tariff threat, Taiwan says chip business is 'win-win'

• White House Orders Pause in All Federal Grants and Loans

  The White House budget office has ordered a pause in grants, loans and other federal financial assistance, according to a memo sent to government agencies on Monday, potentially paralyzing a vast swath of programs and jeopardizing spending that Congress has mandated by law. In the two-page memo, Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, directed federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance,” and any other programs that included “D.E.I., woke gender ideology and the Green New Deal.”

  • Trump White House orders freeze on federal grants, loans

  • US pauses all Federal aid and grants

  • White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion

  • Trump administration directs widespread pause of federal loans and grants

  • Trump is pausing federal loans and grants as his administration reviews spending

  • Trump’s Most Lawless Action Yet - The American Prospect

  The pause would include student loan payments to universities, grants for basic research, grants to state and local governments for a wide variety of purposes, and much more. The OMB memo claims that Social Security and Medicare benefits are exempted by the order, as well as grants delivered specifically to individuals, like Pell grants or veterans’ benefits. It’s unclear how much money is at stake, but it could range into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Vaeth halted the spending pending a review to ensure compliance with Trump’s executive orders involving immigration, energy, abortion, and DEI. The review is supposed to wrap by February 10. “What you are ordering is breathtaking, unprecedented, and will have devastating consequences across the country,” wrote the Democratic leaders of the Appropriations Committees, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).

  • Federal funding freeze to disrupt Medicaid in Illinois

  • Medicaid reimbursement portals down in all 50 states after Trump ordered freeze

  • CA, NY Attorneys General sue to resume federal funding of Medicaid, FEMA, PEPFAR

• DeepSeek's popularity should be a wake-up call, Trump says

  • Trump: China's DeepSeek AI should be a wake-up call for American tech companies

• Indiana man fatally shot by sheriff's deputy identified as Jan. 6 defendant

  Huttle was charged with misdemeanor offenses after trespassing into the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021. The Northwest Indiana Times reported Huttle was charged with recording his entry into the Capitol's Senate Wing and walking through several locations inside. Security footage was captured of Huttle on the first floor of the Capitol. He was sentenced to six months in federal prison before he was released on July 17, the paper reported.

  • Indiana man pardoned by Trump in Jan. 6 riot is killed by deputy

  • Indiana man pardoned for Jan. 6 crimes is killed in traffic stop

• Trump administration fires Justice Department lawyers who investigated him

• Trump's Iron Dome for America calls for space-based interceptors

  • President orders 'Iron Dome for America' in sweeping missile defense push

• The Case Against Birthright Citizenship: Trump’s executive order stands on a firmer footing than its vocal critics acknowledge.

• Trump Sparks Market Volatility as Asia Heads into New Year Holiday

• Trump offering buyouts to all federal workers

  • Trump Offers Buyouts to Federal Employees in Bid to Cut Workforce

  • White House tells federal workers they can quit now, get paid through September

Left Angst

• NSF freezes grant review in response to Trump executive orders

• US Civil servants are being asked who they voted for in 2024 election

  Incoming senior Trump administration officials have begun questioning career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council about who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts that could be considered incriminating by President-elect Donald Trump's team, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

  • a justification for the COVID vaccine mandates was "they will help eliminate the Trump supporters from Government."

• Intel Officer FORGETS to Remove Her Name from Secret Post About Sabotaging Trump's Gov

• Trump Administration Halts HIV Drug Distribution in Poor Countries

  • 20M lives at risk after funding for AIDS medication suspended

• Google Maps in the US Will Change to Gulf of America and Mount McKinley

  • Google says it plans to use Trump's new names for Denali, Gulf of Mexico

  • How Google Maps Plans to Handle the 'Gulf of America'

  • Google Maps Will Soon Rename Gulf of Mexico to 'Gulf of America'

  • Google Maps Will Rename Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America in US

• Trump's murky tariff policy sets the stage for market volatility

• DeepSeek's Breakthrough Pressures Trump to Act on AI

• NYT Still Won't Admit Kash Patel Was Right About Russiagate

  The reporters’ suggestion that the FBI is still in the business of “figuring out what is true” is laughable, considering their own roles in helping the FBI generate a national frenzy over false claims about Trump and Russia. Kash Patel, who was one of the first people to expose the Russia hoax while working for then-Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Devin Nunes, took down the false narrative that Savage and Goldman helped create, so it’s no wonder they haven’t forgiven him for it.

• Donald Trump Floats Deporting American Criminals

• Trump administration halts proposed EPA limits on PFAS pollution

• Trump says he's sending water to LA. It's going to megafarms

• Proton Mail Says It's "Politically Neutral" While Praising Republican Party

• Europe's leaders plot to stop Trump from taking Greenland

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Cleveland police used AI to justify a search warrant. It derailed a murder case

• Facebook free bikes dumped by employees and police hassle kids who ride them

• What Happened When America Emptied Its Youth Prisons - The New York Times

  Muhammad’s unlikely elevation came during a remarkable — if largely overlooked — era in the history of America’s juvenile justice system. Between 2000 and 2020, the number of young people incarcerated in the United States declined by an astonishing 77 percent.

  The number of young people behind bars increased steadily in the 1970s and 1980s and then rose more sharply in the 1990s. What comes next is surprising: Beginning in 2000, each year for the next two decades there was a decline in the number of young people locked up. If you think of juvenile incarceration as a mountain, we reached the summit in 2000, and until 2020 we sprinted straight downhill. In the last two years for which we have data, 2021 and 2022, the number of incarcerated juveniles rose 10 percent, which worries Muhammad. But even factoring in that increase, the country locked up 75 percent fewer juveniles in 2022 than it did in 2000.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Chaos On Border: Mexican Cartels Fire At US Border Patrol Agents | ZeroHedge

• Labeling Mexican Cartels ‘Terrorists’ Could Expose U.S. Companies to Sanctions - The New York Times

  President Trump’s executive order designating Mexican cartels and other criminal organizations as foreign terrorists could force some American companies to forgo doing business in Mexico rather than risk U.S. sanctions, according to former government officials and analysts — an outcome that could have a major effect on both countries given their deep economic interdependence.

  • Yes... That's the point.

• Technology research and development effort aims to tackle illicit finance

• White House says most New Jersey drones were authorized by FAA

  • White House says New Jersey drones 'authorized to be flown by FAA'

  • White House Press Secretary: NJ Drones 'Authorized' by FAA

World

• UK council selling farm (and fire station) to fund ballooning Oracle project

• UK will not be able to resist China's tech dominance

• Heathrow expansion plan faces sky high challenges

• UK population exceeds that of France for first time on record, ONS estimates

• Importing a single router in Thailand now requires a license

• German demand soars for Russian LNG via European ports

• From Love Island to the outback: Australians cash in on shortage of electricians

  A shortage of electricians means that those willing to endure long shifts and live on remote sites can potentially earn up to A$200,000 (US$124,000) a year — double the national average salary and not far off the average MP salary.

• Osaka bans smoking on all of its streets, vaping included

• Denmark launches $2B Arctic security plan, seeks EU unity on Greenland

• Pakistan Senate votes to ban fake news on social media

• Visiting leaky, crowded Louvre is 'physical ordeal', museum's boss says

• Bans, Fees, Taxes. Can Anything Stop Overtourism?

• Two girls who pleaded guilty in alleged fatal swarming sentenced to probation

• Denmark announces $2B Arctic security plan

  • France has discussed with Denmark sending troops to Greenland

• New Zealand relaxes visa rules to lure digital nomads and influencers

Israel

• French Journalist Exposes Anti-Israel Club Training French Wikipedia Editors

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• NATO: There was officially a Russian plot to kill head of Rheinmetall

China

• Images Show China Building Huge Fusion Research Facility, Analysts Say

  • Images show China building fusion research facility

Health / Medicine

• Expert Reveals Why The FDA Finally Banned ‘Red 3’ Dye.

• Dead babies, critically ill kids: Pediatricians make moving plea for vaccines

• A Missing Link Between Concussion and Alzheimer's

• Childhood maltreatment is associated with specific epigenetic patterns in sperm

• Why your cancer risk may be set before birth

• Obesity dipped in U.S. adults last year for first time in a decade

• Weight-loss surgery down 25 percent as anti-obesity drug use soars

• Novo's Wegovy Shows Stronger Weight-Loss Effects in Women Than Men: Study

• FDA approves Ozempic for chronic kidney disease

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Will bird flu spark a human pandemic? Scientists say the risk is rising

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• In Amsterdam, a community of floating homes shows how to live alongside nature

• How a recent flight made it snow over Denver

• US's wind and solar will generate more power than coal in 2024

• The Alpha Myth: How captive wolves led us astray

• Corals Are Made for Walking

• Extreme heat will kill people in Europe without rapid action

• Did giant Ice Age beasts carve these caves in South America?

• Meat Without Animals? The Potential of Microorganisms as Protein Sources

• Construction materials could store billions of tons of CO2 annually

• Quantifying the acceleration of multidecadal global sea surface warming

• 'Super pod' of 1,500 dolphins captured on video as they cavort off Cali coast