2025-02-23

rationalist saints, aligning corporate and State interests, Pope in critical condition, hot GPUs sell out, stolen billions, "the Science" doth protest mightily, cannibal released, useless drugs

Worthy

• Lives Of The Rationalist Saints - by Scott Alexander

  St. Felix publicly declared that he believed with 79% probability that COVID had a natural origin. He was brought before the Emperor, who threatened him with execution unless he updated to 100%. When St. Felix refused, the Emperor was impressed with his integrity, and said he would release him if he merely updated to 90%. St. Felix refused again, and the Emperor, fearing revolt, promised to release him if he merely rounded up one percentage point to 80%. St. Felix cited Tetlock’s research showing that the last digit contained useful information, refused a third time, and was crucified.

etc

• A new fire at the Moss Landing battery plant ignited Tuesday evening

• Gary, Indiana, and the Long Shadow of U.S. Steel

Horseshit

• The Wild Economics Behind Ferrari's Domination of the Luxury Car Market

• The Hottest Job in a World at War: Gun-for-Hire

• When They Stop Selling Your Favorite Thing

• A Toronto woman discovered she has up to 600 half-siblings

• Yugo Is Trying to Make a Comeback with a New Cheap Car

celebrity gossip

• Mark Zuckerberg's makeover didn't make people like him, study shows

• The 'SNL' Lorne Michaels Book-Event Reply-All Fiasco

• California Nominates Steve Jobs for Its American Innovation $1 Coin

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• The state as common good’s last stand: Recipes to stop oligarchy

  A growing number of economists are calling on governments to step up to ensure that the private sector’s pursuit of profit is aligned with the interests of society as a whole

• Brazil justice orders ban of video platform Rumble

Musk

• X Rolls Out AI-Generated Ads in Push to Win Advertisers Back

• Musk's X gets German judge removed in battle over election data

• Musk Biographer Claims There Is Zero Evidence Elon Musk Is Smart – HotAir

Electric / Self Driving cars

• EV could reboot medium-duty trucking by not reinventing the wheel

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Pope Francis is in critical condition, requiring oxygen at high flow, Vatican says | AP News

  Pope Francis was in critical condition Saturday after he suffered a prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis while being treated for pneumonia and a complex lung infection, the Vatican said. The 88-year-old pope, who remains conscious, received “high flows” of oxygen to help him breathe. He also received blood transfusions after tests showed low counts of platelets, which are needed for clotting, the Vatican said in a late update.

  • Pope Francis in Critical Condition

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Renowned scientific integrity investigator endows fund to support fellow sleuths

• Penn to reduce graduate admissions, rescind acceptances amid research cuts

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• 'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised

• The US Is Considering a TP-Link Router Ban–Should You Worry?

• Ask HN: How can I browse public GitHub repos on 128kbps connection? | Hacker News

• Gitlab and its execs sued again and again over 'misleading' AI hype, price hikes

• Amazon thought it could compete with Steam because it was much larger than Valve

• Amazon now discloses you're buying a license to view Kindle eBooks

• If you're hunting a GPU the clear conclusion is "buy AMD" Nvidia confirms 'rare' RTX 5090 and 5070 Ti manufacturing issue

  • NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 "GB202" Chip Turns Out To Be Defective For "Specific" Units In The Market; All Variants Potentially Affected By The Issue

  • RTX 50 Series GPU melting cables are uncommon but concerning | Windows Central

  • Nvidia's RTX 5000 Partially Sold with Fewer ROPs Than Advertised

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• SF tech startup Humane that raised $230M shuts down after horrendous reviews

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Debris from Blue Origin and SpaceX Rockets Found in Bahamas and Europe

• German startup to attempt the first orbital launch from Western Europe

Crypto con games

• Cryptocurrency theft of £1.1B could be biggest

  • Hackers steal $1.5B from exchange Bybit in biggest-ever crypto heist

  • Crypto exchange Bybit says it was hacked and lost around $1.4B

  • Bybit $1.5B multisig wallet hack: How it works

  • Over $1.4B taken from Bybit crypto exchange

  • Bybit loses $1.5B in hack but can cover loss, CEO confirms

Economicon / Business / Finance

• The U.S. IPO Market Needs Saving. Could Paul Atkins Be the Answer?

• Florida insurers steered money to investors while claiming losses, study says

• Japan to court Tesla on Nissan investment

• As private equity invests in child care, Colorado lawmakers seek guardrails

• The People Take Antitrust into Their Own Hands

• Warren Buffett amasses more cash and sells more stock

  • Warren Buffett sounds warning to Washington as Berkshire reports record profit

• Gig workers worked more but earned less in 2024, a new study shows

Trump

• Dan Caine, Trump’s Joint Chiefs Pick, Had Unusual Path to Top Ranks - The New York Times

Left Angst

• Firing of USFS workers raises concerns about wildfires in Oregon, the West

• Elon Musk's first month of destroying America will cost us decades

• Saving Public Data Takes More Than Simple Snapshots

• Federal Judge Banishes Musk's Doge Aides from Treasury Dept. Systems

• Hire Don’t Fire at the FDA

  To be fair, we’re talking about the firing of some 200 probationary employees from a total of some 20,000. Unusual but not earth shaking. But the firings are indiscriminate, and as I explain below, the FDA is a peculiar target for cost-cutting because user fees under PDUFA cover a significant share of the FDA’s budget so its workers are among the cheapest federal employees. So what is the point? Shock and awe in advance of bigger reforms for the FDA? Perhaps. Regardless, I think we should keep in mind the big picture on staff and speed.

  • It's shocking how few things humans do can be sped up by adding more humans.

• RFK, Jr. plans shake-up of vaccine advisers

• Doge says its savings total $55B, but analysis shows it's less

• DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled with Mistakes

  • They're using data already made available by other government agencies, where did the errors originate?

• Trump Eyes Tariffs to Counter Digital Taxes Despised by Big Tech

• Trump wants America to shine on AI. DOGE is blundering it

• Silicon Valley's Reading List Reveals Its Political Ambitions

• Americans Are Heading for the Exits

• Trump is trying to scam Ukraine – allies, beware

• Elon Musk's DOGE comes for agency that regulates autonomous vehicles

• The foundations of America’s prosperity are being dismantled | MIT Technology Review

  dismantling the behind-the-scenes scientific research programs that backstop American life could lead to long-lasting, perhaps irreparable damage to everything from the quality of health care to the public’s access to next-generation consumer technologies. The US took nearly a century to craft its rich scientific ecosystem; if the unraveling that has taken place over the past month continues, Americans will feel the effects for decades to come. Most of the federal workers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk or for fear of being targeted. Many are completely stunned and terrified by the scope and totality of the actions. While every administration brings its changes, keeping the US a science and technology leader has never been a partisan issue. No one predicted the wholesale assault on these foundations of American prosperity.

  • National Science Foundation staff axed by Trump fear for US scientific future

• Trump administration reportedly shutting down federal EV chargers nationwide

• Recording reveals new details on controversial DOGE employee Edward Coristine

• These park rangers oversaw Florida's only manatee refuge. Then they were fired

• NIH funding freeze stalls applications on $1.5B in medical research funds

• Elon Musk is coming for our weather service

• Airbnb Hosts Ditch Platform as Billionaire Co-Founder Joins Elon Musk's DOGE

• Feds must answer email on what they did last week – or lose jobs, Musk says

  • DOGE's Elon Musk says federal employees must document their work or resign

• FDA scientists told 'woman' and 'disabled' are on Trump's banned word list

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• The Ex-Rationalist Society Members Tied to a Killing Spree

• CT man accused of cannibalism and murder is granted conditional release – NBC Boston

  The board granted Tyree Smith's release after a careful review of his clinical progress, officials said. He's currently at Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown. Smith is accused of hacking a man to death with an axe in Bridgeport and eating part of the victim's brain and an eyeball. The PSRB said Smith has demonstrated long-term stability, remained engaged in all recommended treatments and consistently followed his care. His conditional release requires that he remain under structured supervision and that he continues to receive necessary mental health services.

• A church administrator tracked down the woman accused of killing her father

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• White House and Ukraine Close in on Deal for Mineral Rights

  • US could cut Ukraine's access to Starlink services over minerals, say sources

  • Zelensky surrenders to Trump and ‘will sign mineral deal within hours.’

• The CIA book smuggling operation that helped bring down communism

World

• UK's Hinkley Point C nuclear plant yet to attract new investors, says EDF boss

• Bear attacks are increasing in Japan

• Energy transition: US Secretary of Energy spreads misinformation about Germany

• Brazilian city in Amazon declares emergency after sinkholes appear

• Africa's Richest Man and His $20B Oil Refinery from Hell

• Why Germany is ripe for revolt

• How Germany's economic strength became a weakness

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Trump wants Ukraine's minerals. But what is up for grabs?

Health / Medicine

• Are noise-cancelling headphones impairing our hearing?

• Carbon Monoxide as a Potential Therapeutic Agent

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Paxlovid: You'd Have Expected More | Science | AAAS

  from these data (which are surely among the best we have) it appears that in vaccinated adults (without reference to any high-risk subgroups) that Paxlovid is not making much of a difference at all! That's even if you make the most optimistic assumptions within the study's statistical confidence intervals.

  If I get another round of the coronavirus, then, will I take Paxlovid? Good question! I have seen no evidence that a course of the drug does any harm, but if a drug's not doing you any good then you really shouldn't take it at all.

• Yale Researchers Find COVID Spike Protein in Blood 709 Days After Vaccination, Positing Millions of Long COVID Patients May Actually Be Vaccine Injured

• Is It Time to Rethink the Culling of Poultry in Response to Bird Flu?

• Alarm as bird flu now 'endemic in cows'

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Octopuses Rewrite Their RNA to Beat the Cold

• Carbon removal is the next big fossil fuel boom, oil company says

• February storms offer some relief from dry Colorado River conditions

• Will the Traditional Chinese Medicine Industry End the Pangolin?