2025-03-13
pocket turtle, Musk's drugs, ancient cancellations, terrorist academe, telecom insecurity, alien flick, Apple sued for minerals, DptEd layoffs, charging fraud, ozempocalypse nigh, bird flu and lab leaks
Horseshit
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Why Do I Keep Finding Padlocked Playgrounds in New York City?
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Tech Execs Are Pushing to Build 'Freedom Cities' Run by Corporations
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20 Plagues Y Combinator Unleashed on the World Over the Last 20 Years
If Y Combinator had never backed Reddit we wouldn’t have Malcolm and Simone Collins, the pro-natalist weirdos who go viral every few years. (Most recently in The New Yorker) Where did they get their start? Reddit. Malcolm proposed to Simone on Reddit using “advice animal” memes. Then he wrote about it for The Huffington Post.
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Cheating scandal shocks ski jumping, topples Norway's Olympic champions
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Children who lack fish in their diets are less sociable and kind, study finds
celebrity gossip
Obit
Musk
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How Much Should Americans Worry About Elon Musk’s Ketamine Use?
Musk has said he uses ketamine regularly, so for the past couple of years, public speculation has persisted about how much he takes, whether he’s currently high, or how it might affect his behavior. Last year, Musk told CNN’s Don Lemon that he has a ketamine prescription and uses the drug roughly every other week to help with depression symptoms.
- what prescriptions were the Biden family on; and what drugs were they actually taking? Was that of interest to the nation?
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New Video Confirms What We've Long Suspected About These Anti-Elon Protests
left-wing activists are being paid to cause mayhem.
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S.F. Tesla showroom has been operating without proper permits
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X's globe-trotting defense of ads on Nazi posts violates TOS, Media Matters says
Electric / Self Driving cars
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
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Orson Scott Card: Casualty of Culture Wars
Here’s the quandary: what does the “secular humanism” Card spoke of do with the people it leaves behind? Card’s view at the time left no room for the sort of reconciliation that is my instinct, the polite but strongly felt disagreement between two people aligned on more fundamental matters. I want to be on the side of the Orson Scott Card pushing for secularism and cooperation in the ‘90s, against evangelicals pushing young-earth creationism in schools and censorious progressives alike, while at the same time feeling a sense of impossibility at understanding how to cooperate with the Card who spoke of gay marriage as a threat to the Republic so profound it would merit tearing the government to the ground. Even with that impossibility, though, I retain the sense that Card was wronged, as are many good people who see the times move on from them. People fixate so much, so exclusively, on the area of dissonance between his frame and theirs that everything else fades into irrelevance, that one of the most earnest and humanizing authors of our day becomes known in pop culture only as the one who was against gay marriage. It’s not that it’s unfair to judge people on the fights they pick, precisely—but I cannot help but see it as profoundly tragic to reduce them to that and become incapable of seeing or talking about anything but that dissonance.
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
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Yale Scholar Banned After A.I. News Site Accuses Her of Terrorist Link - The New York Times
Helyeh Doutaghi, a scholar in international law, began a new job in 2023 as the deputy director of a project at Yale Law School. As an activist who had championed pro-Palestinian causes in both published papers and public appearances, Dr. Doutaghi seemed to fit into the left-leaning mission of the Law and Political Economy Project, which promoted itself as working for “economic, racial and gender equality.” Last week, though, she was abruptly barred from Yale’s campus in New Haven, Conn., and placed on administrative leave. She was told not to advertise her affiliation with the university, where she had also served as an associate research scholar. Yale officials cited the reason as allegations that she was tied to entities subject to U.S. sanctions. It was an apparent reference to Samidoun, a pro-Palestinian group placed on the U.S. sanctions list last year, after the Treasury Department designated it a “sham charity” raising money for a terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The decision came three days after a news site, powered at least in part by artificial intelligence, published a story about Dr. Doutaghi’s connections to the group. The swift action against Dr. Doutaghi illustrates the tightrope American universities are walking as the Trump administration takes aim at higher education.
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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The Insecurity of Telecom Stacks in the Wake of Salt Typhoon
I can’t (legally) access most mobile phone companies’ networks to see what vulnerabilities I can find, but there are plenty of open source software projects related to telecommunications on GitHub. So when I heard about the Salt Typhoon hacks, I wondered, “Is any of this open source telecom software any good?” This is all to say, I thought looking at this sort of software would be a fruitless endeavor. Surely all of the low-hanging fruit would be found already? Thus, I opened FreeSWITCH’s source code on GitHub and almost immediately found a vulnerability.
An employee of SignalWire (which develops FreeSWITCH) came right out and said they would let people who aren’t paying for FreeSWITCH Advantage stay vulnerable until their regularly scheduled release (sometime in the Summer). While such a decision might be perfectly legal, it really does not inspire trust in the stewards of this software project to give a shit about the harm their careless coding practices inflict upon their users.
to be honest, that kind of took the wind out of my sails so I didn’t bother looking at Asterisk or any of the other software. I mean, why bother? I already had the answer to the question that prompted me to look in the first place: Telecom security sucks today.
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Google changes Chrome extension policies following the Honey link scandal
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Pokémon Go developer Niantic to sell gaming business to Saudi group
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Pocket Casts makes its web player free, takes shots at Spotify and AI
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Why Java endures: The foundation of modern enterprise development
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AMD's 3D V-Cache Optimizer Driver For Squeezing More Ryzen 9 9950X3D Performance Review - Phoronix
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Spotify has paid $4.5 billion to publishers, but songrwriters struggle
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Meta mocked for raising "Bob Dylan defense" of torrenting in AI copyright fight
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Chromecasts are still broken, but Google tells owners not to factory reset
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NY Times tells editorial writers: Accept new position or take buyout
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Meta goes to arbitrator to prevent whistleblower from promoting tell-all book
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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The OSI First to Endorse United Nations Open Source Principles
The United Nations Open Source United community and the Open Source Initiative (OSI)Opens a new window today announced that the OSI has become the first organization to officially endorse the UN Open Source Principles. The UN Open Source Principles, recently adopted by the UN Chief Executive Board's Digital Technology Network (DTN)Opens a new window, provide guidelines to drive collaboration and Open Source adoption within the UN and globally.
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Tthe Linux Foundation and the Open Infrastructure Foundation, Are Merging
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
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China opens 2028 Mars sample return mission to international cooperation
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“The Age of Disclosure” aims to prove that aliens are real - The Washington Post
The resulting film asserts that the U.S. government has been hiding evidence of alien encounters for 80 years — as well as a secret program to reverse-engineer the technology in retrieved UFO crashes, which has become a cold war arms race with Russia and China in the lead, some interviewees claim — creating an existential threat not just for America, but for the planet.
Economicon / Business / Finance
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Congo Sues Apple Over Conflict Minerals, Accuses Rwanda of Laundering
The world’s most valuable company, Apple, is being sued by the Democratic Republic of the Congo amid major advances by M23 rebels in the east of the country. Congo filed criminal complaints against Apple subsidiaries in France and Belgium in December and alleges that the U.S. tech giant used “laundered” minerals that were smuggled into Rwanda from conflict areas.
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Labor Market Dynamics Tighten Further. Job Openings, Quits, Hires Rise
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Amazon, Meta, Google sign pledge to triple nuclear power capacity by 2050
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
Trump
Left Angst
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Doge axes CISA 'red team' staffers amid ongoing federal cuts
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Trump's scrapping of corporate transparency will strengthen dictators
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Will There Be a Trump Recession?
- I am certain they will report one; no matter what the economy actually does.
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Top Trump aide: conditions on federal aid to L.A. will target Coastal Commission
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Justice Department office that prosecutes public corruption slashed in size
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Donor pushes redesign for Penn Station that aligns with Trump's taste
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DOGE and agencies cancel 200,000 federal government credit cards.
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Rosie O’Donnell Has Moved to Ireland After Trump Election: ‘It Has Been Heartbreaking.’
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DOGE helps Veterans Affairs end IT contract run by service-disabled entrepreneur
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When Elon Musk said he loved Donald Trump “as much as a straight man can love another”, the emetic effect was widespread. Trump is one of the few people left in Washington DC who likes having Musk around. Yet having given Musk more power than any private figure in US history, the president is watching his benefactor turn into an albatross. The question is how Trump will get rid of Musk, not whether. The price of having him as co-helmsman is already steep. The New York Times chronicled how Trump clipped Musk’s wings in a heated cabinet meeting last week. Cabinet heads, rather than Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, would take care of their own hiring and firing, Trump said. His White House had until then been notably leak free — in contrast to his first term. But it appears senior staff are keen to see the back of the chainsaw-wielding oligarch. The showdown had been set up with the aim of hastening that day.
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Doge Pushes Social Security Administration to Cut Off Phone Service
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HHS Secretary: It Would Be Better If 'Everybody Got Measles'
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Trump's FBI Moves to Criminally Charge Major Climate Groups
The FBI is moving to criminalize groups like Habitat for Humanity for receiving grants from the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration. Citibank revealed in a court filing Wednesday that it was told to freeze the groups’ bank accounts at the FBI’s request. The reason? The FBI alleges that the groups are involved in “possible criminal violations,” including “conspiracy to defraud the United States.”
The Appalachian Community Capital Corporation, the Coalition for Green Capital, and the DC Green Bank are just some of the nonprofits being targeted. “This is not fraud. This is targeted harassment,” @capitolhunters continued. “The idea of criminalizing community climate work wouldn’t have originated at the FBI—it likely comes from EPA director Lee Zeldin, who today cut all EPA’s environmental justice offices, which try to reduce pollution in poor and minority communities.”
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EPA head says he'll roll back dozens of environmental regulations
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
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Palantir's AI-fueled TITAN trucks are rolling into U.S. Army hands
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Arrested captain of Solong ship is Russian national, owners say
The captain of the Solong cargo ship arrested after a collision with a tanker in the North Sea is a Russian national, the ship's owner has confirmed. Humberside Police said the 59-year-old man remained in custody after being arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter on Tuesday. The Portuguese-flagged Solong and the US-registered tanker Stena Immaculate crashed off the East Yorkshire coast at about 10:00 GMT on Monday. A missing crew member from the cargo ship is presumed dead after a search and rescue operation was called off late on Monday.
World
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Europe's largest council kept auditors in the dark on Oracle rollout fiasco
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Greenland's pro-business opposition wins election amid Trump control pledge
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Duterte's ICC arrest is a victory for a faltering rules-based order
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Foreign Entrepreneurs Find Life in Japan Tangled in Red Tape
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Douglas Murray Wins Libel Claim Against The Guardian
conservative author Douglas Murray won a libel claim against the Guardian Media Group, whose subsidiary The Observer ran an article last August that accused him of “supporting violent racist attacks” against migrants during anti-immigration protests in 2024.
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Volkswagen open to building military equipment for German army
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27 hostages killed after hijacked Pakistan train rescue ends in bloodbath | CNN
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
Health / Medicine
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So for the past three years, telehealth startups working with compounding pharmacies have sold these drugs for about $200/month. Over two million Americans have made use of this loophole to get weight loss drugs for cheap. But there was always a looming question - what happens when the shortage ends? Many people have to stay on GLP-1 drugs permanently, or else they risk regaining their lost weight. But many can’t afford $1000/month. What happens to them? Now we’ll find out. At the end of last year, the FDA declared the shortage over. The compounding pharmacies appealed the decision, but last month the FDA confirmed its decision was final. As of March 19 (for tirzepatide) and April 22 (for semaglutide), compounding pharmacies will no longer be able to sell cheap GLP-1 drugs. Let’s take a second to think of the real victims here: telehealth company stockholders.
overall, I think the past two years have been a fun experiment in semi-free-market medicine. It’s no surprise that you can sell drugs cheap if you violate the patent. But it is interesting that the non-cost aspects work out so well. For the past three years, ~2 million people have taken complex peptides provided direct-to-consumer by a less-regulated supply chain, with barely a fig leaf of medical oversight, and it went great. There were no more side effects than any other medication. People who wanted to lose weight lost weight. And patients had a more convenient time than if they’d had to wait for the official supply chain to meet demand, get a real doctor, spend thousands of dollars on doctors’ visits, apply for insurance coverage, and go to a pharmacy every few weeks to pick up their next prescription. Now pharma companies have noticed and are working on patent-compliant versions of the same idea.
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Contrary to Popular Belief, CPR Is Not as Successful as Many Think
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Children under eight should avoid slushies as glycerol leads to hospitalisations
Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp
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H5N1 Bird Flu Strain Reported to be Another “Gain-of-Function” Virus
The study suggests that this strain may have emerged from gain-of-function research conducted at two specific facilities: the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, Georgia, and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
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Health experts fear the West Texas measles outbreak may be larger than reported
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BND has suspected a laboratory accident behind the Corona outbreak since 2020
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German Intelligence Agency Concluded COVID19 Likely Originated from Lab Accident
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German spy agency concluded Covid virus likely leaked from lab, papers say
ermany’s foreign intelligence service in 2020 put at 80%-90% the likelihood that the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic was accidentally released from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, two German newspapers reported on Wednesday. According to a joint report by publications Die Zeit and Sueddeutscher Zeitung, Germany’s spying agency BND had indications that the institute had conducted gain-of-function experiments, whereby viruses are modified to become more transmissible to humans for research purposes. It also had indications that numerous violations of safety regulations had occurred at the lab, the papers said. The spy agency assessment’s was based on an unspecified intelligence operation code-named “Saaremaa” as well as on publicly-available data. It had been commissioned by the office of Germany’s chancellor at the time, Angela Merkel, but never published, the report said.
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Exclusive: Inside the FBI’s Lab Leak Investigation | Vanity Fair
With Republicans ascendant in Washington, there is a renewed push to investigate the origins question. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has subpoenaed 14 government agencies for records related to the US government’s funding of research at the WIV. And Tulsi Gabbard, now heading the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has pledged further review and could declassify more information. If significant information does result from this effort, it is far from clear how it will be used. Ideally, sober consideration would help shape new policies. But any new revelations could fuel a right-wing crusade to lay the blame for the pandemic at the feet of Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
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After 150k articles and 17M genome sequences, what has SARS-CoV-2 taught us?
- That the people we've trusted as representatives of "public health" are petty tyrants who cannot pretend to do their actual job in their eagerness to gain and use political power.
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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Major Global Companies Pledge Historic Support to Triple Nuclear Energy
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As countries scramble for minerals, will mining the seabed be a disaster?
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Cascading extreme weather events unleash billions in damages globally
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Lightning over Shipping Lanes Suddenly Halved Following New Regulations
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How To Boil the Mediterranean Sea - by Ben James
On May 1st, ships in the Mediterranean will be subject to a new Emissions Control Area. It will limit sulfur content in fuels by an additional 80% (reducing the current 0.5% limit down to 0.1%). This will increase warming in Europe!
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Extreme Heat Linked to Accelerated Aging in Older Adults, Study Finds
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Addressing the toxic chemicals problem in plastics recycling
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Climate Group Funded by Bill Gates Slashes Staff in Major Retreat
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The UK's gamble on solar geoengineering is like using aspirin for cancer
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Likelihood of Mount Spurr eruption in next few weeks or months has increased