2025-03-09
Pterry was a prophet, remote control murder, celebrating Musk hate, fraudulent science pays, opening ESP32, redefine "self-defense", estimating national wealth, Nork Nuke sub, Kursk cut off, spendy spunk
etc
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Volkswagen reintroducing physical controls for vital functions
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I won’t get into whether Discworld is better or worse as a fictional universe than Middle Earth. That is a matter of taste and which elements of craft you admire. But as an allegory for technology and society, Discworld is so radically, vastly superior, and LOTR is so terminally bad, it is not even a contest.
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'My next home must be fireproof': Angelenos are looking to build 'SuperAdobes'
Horseshit
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Lucky young couple lands gig taking care of uninhabited Irish island
- Horror novels also start this way
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(2020) The man who destroyed skepticism - Boing Boing
(James Randi) was to skepticism what Senator Joseph McCarthy was to anticommunism — a showman, a bully, and, ultimately, the very thing he claimed to fight against: a fraud. This has corroded our intellectual culture — in a Trumpian age when true skepticism is desperately needed.
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Hurt fireman got $1500 in gift cards from friends. DoorDash locked his account
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The great American classic we've been misreading for 100 years
The Great Gatsby is more than cocktail parties and color symbolism.
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A 'guided missile for the poor' is changing the face of targeted killing.
We fondly remember the times when the drone was an exciting new toy that enabled beautiful aerial shots we could share on social media, ways for film crews to get exceptional footage without recourse to a cumbersome helicopter. But today, they are used by psychopaths to murder civilians in a “human safari” in a warzone, by cartels to take out competitors and adversaries, and by the Russian mafia to eliminate barriers to entry in a nefarious market. With AI and technological development proceeding at light speed, we are a hair’s breadth away from plug-and-play autonomous assassination.
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VR in solitary confinement isn't a Black Mirror episode. It's happening in CA
'The cone people have gone too far': Chaos is brewing on SF's Billionaires' Row
Musk
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'Major brand worries': Just how toxic is Elon Musk for Tesla?
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Second-hand Teslas flood the market as Elon Musk faces British backlash
- Tesla cannot pay musk, by law apparently... So why should he be concerned with what happens to it?
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'Anger at Elon Musk turns violent with molotov cocktails, gunfire at Tesla lots'
Electric / Self Driving cars
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
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Retirees this way: college life is no longer just for students
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The incentives to investigate and call out fraud are non-existent. In fact, the opposite is true: If you find something fishy in a paper, your mentor, colleagues, and friends will most likely suggest that you keep quiet and move on (or as I have learned the hard way, they might even try to bully you into silence). If you are crazy enough to ignore this advice, you are facing a Sisyphean task: Emailing authors to share data (which they do want not to), begging universities to investigate (which they do not want to), convincing journals to retract (which they do not want to), waiting months or years for them to share their findings with the public (if it ever happens)… academia needs to reckon with this inconvenient truth: Committing fraud is, right now, a viable career strategy that can propel you at the top of the academic world.
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His manuscript was rejected. Then he saw it published by other authors
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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Mobile GeForce RTX 5000: Nvidia denies missing ROPs, OEMs see it differently
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Undocumented backdoor found in Bluetooth chip used by a billion devices
The ubiquitous ESP32 microchip made by Chinese manufacturer Espressif and used by over 1 billion units as of 2023 contains an undocumented backdoor that could be leveraged for attacks. The undocumented commands allow spoofing of trusted devices, unauthorized data access, pivoting to other devices on the network, and potentially establishing long-term persistence.
The researchers found undocumented hardware functionality which allows someone who already has code execution a greater-than-expected degree of low-level access to the ESP32 wifi stack. Calling this a "backdoor" is just pure clickbait.
- True, but that's what security research is now. These people aren't serious security researchers, they don't have a catchy domain name, web site, and week's worth of journalist teasing. "espbleed.com" is unregistered as i write this.
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Feds arrest man for sharing DVD rip of Spider-Man movie with millions online
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Bluesky Ad in Boston – Claims 'Finally, Social Media That Is Billionaire Proof'
TechSuck / Geek Bait
- (2018) reprint from 1985 MAD magazine: The MAD Computer Program
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
Crypto con games
Economicon / Business / Finance
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Most Americans just don't matter to the economy like they once did
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Lenovo joins growing China exodus as manufacturers flee US tariffs
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Venture Capital's 'Blitzscaling' Obsession Is Warping the World
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Hudson's Bay, Canada's Oldest Retail Chain, Nears Bankruptcy
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Compared to index funds, actively managed mutual funds still stink
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Investors spy the dawn of a tectonic shift away from US markets
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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Bill could redefine self-defense in California
Deadly force wouldn’t be considered necessary when the shooter could have safely retreated, during cases of mutual combat or when the shooter “knowingly provoked a person,” CalMatters detailed. “What this bill is focused on is someone who goes out in public, picks a fight — and when the victim responds — they shoot them and claim self-defense,” Zbur told CalMatters. Republicans, however, say the bill would take away people’s right to self-defense.
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Utah governor mulls measure eliminating universal mail-in voting
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Agriculture secretary cancels $600K grant for study on menstrual cycles in transgender men
Trump
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The Forces That Flipped Trump from Crypto Critic to 'Crypto President'
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The COVID-Era Smearing – and Resurrection – of Trump NIH Appointee Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
Some of his Stanford colleagues leaked false and damaging information to reporters. The university’s head of medicine ordered him to stop speaking to the press. Top leaders at the National Institutes of Health, Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins, dialed up the attacks, dismissing him and his colleagues as what Collins termed “fringe epidemiologists” while their acolytes threw mud from a slew of publications, including the Washington Post, The Nation, and the prestigious medical journal BMJ. In the years since, many of Bhattacharya’s scientific concerns about the efficacy of lockdowns and mask mandates have been corroborated. Fauci, meanwhile, accepted a pardon from President Biden, protecting him from COVID-related offenses dating back to 2014, the year he started funding research at a Wuhan, China, lab that U.S. intelligence agencies now believe probably started the pandemic. And this week, Bhattacharya looks set to achieve surprising vindication as the Senate holds a hearing on his nomination to head the NIH, in a Department of Health and Human Services run by science nonconformist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Democrats
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Why Biden administration might not have been the kind of bad we thought
if people were simply deciding on laws and executive orders without the president being aware of it, it’s an insurrection. They took over for the sitting president without the consent of the people. The question then boils down to whether Biden was aware or not and whether he was in a position to be aware. Was his cognitive abilities sufficient, even in that moment, to make decisions? If not, the use of the autopen to sign anything is a huge issue simply because we cannot be sure who knew what was being signed. Instead of Biden issuing all of these executive orders and signing laws, it may have been someone the American people didn’t vote for making all of the decisions, such as Jill or Hunter Biden.
- "Everyone knows, but we don't talk about it" taboos like this are the reason liberals are so afraid; the slavering hordes of ignert rednecks who will talk about these subjects have been told they can.
Left Angst
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Seattle scientists fight back against Trump cuts, disinformation
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DOGE's chaotic effort to release billions of gallons of California's water
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Trump 2.0: an assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere
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NIH to eliminate many peer review panels-lay off some scientists overseeing them
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FAA workers threatened with firing if they 'impede' SpaceX federal deal
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These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration
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Doge Has Deployed Its GSAi Custom Chatbot for 1,500 Federal Workers
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Commerce to Overhaul Internet for All Plan, Expanding Starlink Funding Prospects
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there is nothing in Trump’s executive orders that mandates the removal of these images or historical stories. His orders were directed at DEI initiatives that supposedly prioritize identity over merit. Moreover, it is important to note that the anonymous source indicated that the database has not been finalized, suggesting that these images will remain on the websites.
- "malicious compliance"
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Foreign Aid Cuts Are Setting the Stage for Disease Outbreaks
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50 Thoughts on DOGE - by Santi Ruiz - Statecraft
people in the NGO class were completely blindsided by the animosity the Trump administration had toward them and the speed at which many of their contracts would be torn up.
many conservatives have pushed for the Department of Education to be dismantled since it was created. Chris Rufo put together a detailed playbook for doing so. In a world without DOGE, you would still see an attempt to shutter or to aggressively limit the department.
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Opinion | Truths to Remember in a Time of Lies - The New York Times
- "If we shout loud enough it will be true!" because 40 years of propaganda is hard to forget...
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'Startup Nation' Groups Meeting Trump to Push for Deregulated 'Freedom Cities'
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Trump Pulled $400M from Columbia. Other Schools Could Be Next
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SpaceX teams up with Thiel's Palantir, Anduril on American Golden Dome
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
World
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Health NZ was using an Excel spreadsheet to track $28B of public money
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China announces retaliatory tariffs on some Canada farm, food products
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UK lifts restrictions on Syria's central bank and other entities in landmark move | Middle East Eye
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Data, waves and wind to be counted in the economy
Wind and waves are set to be included in calculations of the size of countries' economies for the first time, as part of changes approved at the United Nations. Assets like oilfields were already factored in under the rules - last updated in 2008. This update aims to capture areas that have grown since then, such as the cost of using up natural resources and the value of data. The changes come into force in 2030, and could mean an increase in estimates of the size of the UK economy making promises to spend a fixed share of the economy on defence or aid more expensive.
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Poland and Baltic nations welcome Macron's nuclear deterrent proposal
Israel
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MDMA may have protected Nova attack survivors from trauma, study suggests
As dawn approached on the morning of 7 October 2023, many of the partygoers at the Nova music festival near Gaza's border took illegal recreational drugs like MDMA or LSD. Hundreds of them were high when, shortly after sunrise, Hamas gunmen attacked the site. Now neuroscientists working with survivors from the festival say there are early signs that MDMA - also known as ecstasy or molly - may have provided some psychological protection against trauma. It is thought to be the first time scientists have been able to study a mass trauma event where large numbers of people were under the influence of mind-altering drugs.
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
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Ukrainian forces fighting inside Russia are almost surrounded, open source maps show | Reuters
Russia has retaken about two-thirds of the territory Ukraine seized last summer in the Kursk region of Russia, but at a fearful cost in lives.
Health / Medicine
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Demand for sperm, and American sperm in particular, is far outstripping supply. As the buyer’s market has increased globally, American sperm has become one of the hottest commodities in a straitened market. Its regulations mandate rigorous testing of sperm for communicable diseases. There is also greater variety. And there is no limit on how many families one man can give to (in the UK, it’s capped at 10 per donor), allowing more regular donations. America also permits sperm donors to be compensated for their contributions – in the UK, per the NHS, it is illegal to pay donors other than for their time and expenses. In the States, “you can just pay for what you want”, says Arthur Caplan, a professor at NYU and head of medical ethics at the Grossman School. Accordingly, American sperm has become one of the country’s priciest resources. By weight, super-premium semen ($4,000 or more for a gram) now costs more than Beluga caviar (up to $3 a gram for roe), which represents a tenfold rise in price over the past decade.
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New research shows bigger animals get more cancer, defying decades-old belief
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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Gene-edited non-browning banana could cut food waste
- And "golden rice" will vastly improve human health worldwide...
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Great Unconformity protection efforts stalled, but advocates hopeful
Las Vegas locals began a project in the 1990s to protect a geological marvel at the edge of town. They made educational signs and were joined by politicians including late Sen. Harry Reid and then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, but the area was vandalized soon after. Thirty years later, groups are no closer to increasing protections for the area
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South Sudan farmers pin hopes on rare climate-resistant coffee
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Do Not Be Bamboozled by the New Fluffy Mouse
I have previously written about the many logistical, ethical, and scientific problems with de-extinction, so I will only briefly say that de-extinction is a morally questionable gambit in a time when tens of thousands of species are threatened by extinction. I am thoroughly unconvinced by Colossal's argument that returning extinct species to modern-day habitats, which have considerably warmed since the mammoth went extinct, will make these ecosystems more resilient to climate change. Despite its colossal promises and frequent press releases announcing secondary plans to de-extinct other animals, the company appears more invested in raising capital than restoring an actual mammoth.
people have already invented a "mammoth-like" mouse, as the evolutionary paleontologist Tori Herridge pointed out in a Bluesky thread. They are called fancy mice—first bred in the 1800s in Japan and later became the ancestors of modern lab mice. Some fancy mice are even hairier than the woolly mouse, and some fancy mice were already called "woolly." You might wonder, how is the woolly mouse a step in the direction of a woolly mammoth, but a fancy mouse is not? Another great question. It's not. As Herridge points out in her excellent thread—which is an in-depth analysis of the ways the woolly mouse fails to measure up to Colossal's claims—all the genetic edits Colossal made to their woolly mice were edits already known to produce hairy mice.