2025-02-17
think about death o be happy, failed aspirations are BigTech's fault, are games social?, clothes dryers that work, Feb anti-Black Friday for DEI, "free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide",
Horseshit
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Bhutan's Dark Secret to Happiness
In Bhutanese culture, one is expected to think about death five times a day. That would be remarkable for any nation, but especially for one so closely equated with happiness as Bhutan. Is this secretly a land of darkness and despair?
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Engineer built 200 public benches in Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco
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Bosch's brake-by-wire system may be the next big leap in automotive tech
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The Rower Turned Engineer Who Helped Make Nvidia a $3T Company
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The Picture of Free, Untrammeled Womanhood: How the Bicycle Liberated Women
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At 100, He's the Last Original Owner of a Frank Lloyd Wright House
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Big Tech Has Disrupted the Social Contract
Big Tech has sold people on the dream of becoming their own business knowing that most people are incapable. That’s why we’re left to fend for ourselves when there are disputes. My gripe is simply renting a car with a suspended license and then being falsely accused of smoking in the vehicle and going over the mileage limit. I also almost got towed and left on the side of the road in a snow storm with my 16 month old son. If you drive an Uber, rent an Air Bnb, or loan a car on Turo, you are a business. You have responsibilities and there are rules, but no one is actually there to ensure performance. Just because there are rules listed on an app or website doesn’t mean they will be enforced.
Obit
Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
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(2016) Why the Number Line Freaks Me Out
If you pick a random number between 0 and 1, you will arrive at a number that literally cannot be communicated or expressed. Sure, you can list the decimal digits, but if you ever stop, even after a trillion years, then you will have failed to specify your number – and there is no process by which you can tell a computer to carry on the job. These are numbers that cannot be touched by the human mind.
- No, you've just touched them. They can be hard to communicate if you limit yourself to the most common numeric systems. If you want to wallow in angst over your ignorance, you can. If you want to come to a workable accommodation like specified precision, the possibilities open right back up. Plato addressed this dilemma quite some time ago.
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Labor strikes planned at all UC campuses, medical centers
As many as tens of thousands of unionized University of California workers are poised to strike Feb. 26 to 28 across all 10 UC campuses and five medical centers over what the unions say are unfair labor practices. Two unions, UPTE-CWA Local 9119 (University Professional and Technical Employees) and AFSCME Local 3299 (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) have authorized strikes for Feb. 26-28 and Feb. 26-27, respectively, according to union officials. The two strikes are unrelated but slated to occur on overlapping days. Both unions are currently renegotiating contracts with UC that expired last year.
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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Steam now warns you if an 'early access' PC game might be abandoned
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Meta to show rival ads providers on Marketplace after EU antitrust fine
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France's biggest game industry union 'Grève Bundle' to support striking workers
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After more than a year of previewing new Alexa, another delay?
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Roblox is still trying to convince lawmakers it's not social media
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I set my phone to 'do not disturb' three years ago – and have never looked back
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Intel 8th, 9th and 10th Gen processors removed from Windows 11 CPU support list
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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Open source maintainers are feeling the squeeze • The Register
- Being an "open source maintainer" became a thing thats done one way and has all these pressures associated with it... What ever happened to "this code works for me, if it works for you we're both lucky?" When did giving something away begin to carry so much responsibility?
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
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Death of OpenAI whistleblower deemed suicide in new autopsy report
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Large Language Models Show Concerning Tendency to Flatter Users
- chatbots that say mean things to people tend to not survive.
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We will never agree about AI until we agree on what it means to live a good life
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
Crypto con games
Economicon / Business / Finance
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Intel's Stock Has Soared, but a Rescue Will Be Hard to Pull Off
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Broadcom, TSMC eye possible Intel deals to split storied chipmaker, WSJ reports
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Landlords Have a New Hardball Tactic: Tanking Your Credit Score
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Amazon workers vote against unionizing a North Carolina warehouse
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'Trump trades' like the dollar and Bitcoin stalling, Chinese stocks racing ahead
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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US Energy Department ending appliance efficiency standards
Today's announcement will foster consumer choice and lower prices – it is a win for all Americans. The people, not the government, should be choosing the home appliances and products they want at prices they can afford." Today’s actions postpone the efficiency standards for the following home appliance rules:
Central Air Conditioners, Clothes Washers and Dryers, General Service Lamps, Walk-In Coolers and Freezers, Gas Instantaneous Water Heaters, Commercial Refrigeration Equipment, Air Compressors
Additionally, the Department of Energy is creating a new energy efficiency category for natural gas tankless water heaters. Creating a new category for these popular and low-cost water heaters exempts these products from the Biden-Harris Administration’s onerous rules and gives the American people the power to choose the best option for their homes and budgets.
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The reason behind the TikTok ban
It all started with Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and concerns about anti-Semitic content on the social media platform TikTok. It all ended with a classified briefing and a foolish attempt, still alive, to ban the social media platform. The company’s ownership by China never was the driving force in Congress eventually taking action.
The account by Gallagher makes explicit something there have been hints of for some time. Israeli officials and lobbyists told everyone that would listen in Washington that TikTok’s algorithm fueled American youth opposition to the Israel-Hamas war. As I reported last year, a State Department source told me that a high-ranking Israeli diplomat was ranting about the supposed malign role of some Chinese-manufactured algorithm, purposely dismissive of the reality that the college protesters’ outrage was sincere, that it was about Israel’s military conduct in Gaza and not some “foreign malign influence” campaign hatched in Beijing.
Democrats
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Carville: Dems Aren't This Stupid -- It Must Be Sabotage – HotAir
Carville discussed the doubling-down Democrats have done since losing the election, and claimed that Democrat leadership couldn't possibly be this stupid. Carville suggested sabotage as a better explanation, although possibly he meant it tongue in cheek:
Pointing to the gender rules that were enumerated during a recent Democratic National Committee meeting – that went viral due to their woke nature – the longtime Democratic strategist suggested that someone was sabotaging the party from within by suggesting these policy points. “And it’s like, there’s a, a plant somewhere in quote, progressive, unquote America, that just to seize how many jacka–, stupid things that they can embrace, it’s stunningly stupid. Both of them.”
Left Angst
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DOGE impersonators storm San Francisco City Hall, demand information
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Nationwide Economic Blackout on February 28: List of Stores Being Targeted - Newsweek
Americans are pledging to stop making any purchases for a full 24 hours on February 28. The national economic blackout is scheduled as a way for Americans to boycott major retailers that have pulled back on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies as a response to President Donald Trump.
- OK, then: New "Black Friday"
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How Medical Research Cuts Would Hit Colleges and Hospitals in Every State
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US Forest Service and National Park Service to fire thousands of workers
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Watch: Rachel Maddow Caught In Massive Self-Own With 'Armored Cybertruck' Fake News | ZeroHedge
it was the Biden administration that originally included the potential procurement, and the spreadsheet was wiped of Tesla references in December 2024 - also by the Biden administration. And of course, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow peddled the lie that "Musk has convinced the government to spend $400 million on armored Tesla’s. Definitely not corrupt and ripping us all off?" Except, That was all done under Biden.
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Elon Musk's man in the US Treasury is still holding down job as a software CEO
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Protesters target Tesla stores in US over Elon Musk's cost cutting
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Why the US let a safety bill die as parents try to protect kids on social media
- Even Leftists were calling that one "rank censorship"
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"The country is less safe": CDC disease detective program gutted
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Top US Election Security Watchdog Forced to Stop Election Security Work
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Trump admin pulls financial education videos from CFPB's YouTube channel
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Elon Musk's mass government cuts could make private companies millions
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The Staffers Helping Elon Musk Dismantle and Downsize the U.S. Government
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Brennan interrupted Rubio with the claim that Vance was “standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide.”
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Trump tariffs to slow U.S. companies' digital spending, Fujitsu says
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Musk's DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
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Reasons of State: Why Didn’t Denmark Sell Greenland? · Gwern.net
Greenland has been, is, and will be indefinitely, a white elephant. Denmark turned down 100m USD from the USA in 1946; I discuss how this was a bad idea—America got what it needed anyway while Denmark kept control of a loser.
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Ukraine not invited to US-Russia peace talks, source tells BBC
World
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
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Five Russians went out drinking. When they got back, Australia had struck
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Chart: EU Has Continued to Buy Russian Fertilizer Throughout War | Statista
Last month, the European Commission finally proposed raising tariffs on fertilizers from the current 6.5 percent in proportion to the value to 100 percent in three years. If implemented, this means Russian fertilizers will likely continue to be imported until 2026. The proposed tariffs would bring a tonne of nitrogenous fertilizers to the sum of €315 and other fertilizers up to €430 per tonne. The measure is intended to support domestic production, allow for diversification of supply and cut off a financial flow to Russia’s economy. Until now, the EU has been resistant to placing sanctions on agricultural products from Russia due to global food security concerns.
Health / Medicine
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Uncertainty surrounds US participation in WHO flu strain selection meeting
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Defenses that keep threatening information out of awareness are posited to reduce anxiety at the cost of longer-term dysfunction. By contrast, socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that preference for positively-valenced information is a late-life manifestation of adaptive emotion regulation. Using longitudinal data on 61 men, we examined links between emotion regulation indices informed by these distinct conceptualizations: defenses in earlier adulthood and selective memory for positively-valenced images in late-life. Use of avoidant defenses in midlife predicted poorer memory for positive, negative, and neutral images nearly 4 decades later. Late-life satisfaction was positively linked with midlife engaging defenses but negatively linked at the trend level with concurrent positive memory bias.