2025-09-03
Horseshit
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Painting stolen by Nazis believed discovered in Argentine real estate listing
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Why San Francisco still owns a California town with just 63 people
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you will blame the wrong people | the singularity is nearer
The problem is the unproductive. The rich unproductive and the poor unproductive. The finance middle-man and welfare recipient. The real estate agent and the person on disability. The person with a fake job. Anyone who purposefully creates complexity for others. The obstructionists. Rent seekers. Anyone who lobbies against others getting so they can have relatively more. Broken systems that elevate zero sum losers. Why can’t we all turn against them? The first step is recognizing this is the problem. I don’t know why most people don’t see it.
- And just what are you producing, sir? "We'll be competitive with the people doing stuff now very soon we promise!" isn't that productive, is it?
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My economics training makes me much more optimistic about creating institutions that induce strong incentives for rationality on a wide range of topics. Such as prediction markets. The problem here is that we need most people to be okay with allowing such institutions legally to exist, and to sufficiently respect market price estimates to use them as a guide to action. And also to get enough people, perhaps just a small minority, to sufficiently subsidize such markets on important questions. However, given how widespread and powerful is rationalization I can’t be very optimistic that we will adopt such institutions because we agree we want more rationality. Even so, there’s a lot of randomness in which institutions get adopted where when, and there’s reason to hope that cultural selection may favor more rational institutions, at least in competitive contexts. So I still have hope for the idea that some big region might adopt futarchy as a form of governance, and then fix cultural drift by tying futarchy to a sacred long term goal, like space colonization, that conflicts with civ collapse. In this scenario, elites would need to give at least lip service to adaption as a goal, but would not need to be especially committed to that goal, or to rationality. Their institutions might instead do that work for them.
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For Mexican American millennials, success includes providing for parents
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Sexless seeds: how self-cloning crops could soon transform our food
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Gen Z are dipping into their retirements, skipping meals and selling belongings
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Onion CEO Ben Collins Hasn't Given Up on Print–Or Buying Infowars
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Social media is a lifeline for many abused and neglected young people
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Why Rising Family Size Temporarily Hid America's Motherhood Decline (1980-2016)
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Michael Phelps is right. USA Swimming's failure runs deeper than medals
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What overthinking after a party has to do with your 'lizard brain'
- Its your deep self reminding you that you could've slaughtered those people and eaten the tasty bits... right?
celebrity gossip
Musk
Electric / Self Driving cars
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BMW, I am so breaking up with you
Those first few drives felt exhilarating, too. The car was beautiful, the ride was smooth, and I felt like we were going places. Nearly two years later, I’m doing something I never thought I’d do: eagerly awaiting the end of a lease on a luxury car because its software is such a disaster that it makes my rusted-out Volvo look like a paragon of reliability.
Digital key issues have become so widespread that BMW owners have at times shared elaborate multi-step workarounds that read like instructions for disarming a bomb: “1. Open the BMW app on your phone and use it to unlock the door. 2. Sign in with your BMW ID in iDrive. 3. Place your iPhone in the vehicle’s charging tray. 4. Wait for the digital key to reappear in the Wallet app. 5. Double-click the side button, authenticate with Face ID, and—finally—start the car.”
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EV fast chargers have a surprising health downside
Charging stations create air pollution. While EVs contribute vastly less to air pollution than combustion-powered vehicles, fast-charging stations are what a recent study called an “overlooked source of air pollution.” emissions are likely tied to the fans used in direct current fast chargers’ power cabinets. While they help keep equipment cool, the recent study indicates they likely have the unintended side effect of kicking up particles from tires, brakes and dust into the air.
Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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Brazilian wax customer horrified after noticing beautician wearing Meta glasses
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Apple iMac G3 made from Lego has a chance to become an official retail set
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Frostbyte10 bugs put refrigerators at major grocery chains at risk
Ten vulnerabilities in Copeland controllers, which are found in thousands of devices used by the world's largest supermarket chains and cold storage companies, could have allowed miscreants to manipulate temperatures and spoil food and medicine, leading to massive supply-chain disruptions. To be clear: there is no indication that any of these vulnerabilities were found and exploited in the wild before Copeland issued fixes.
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YouTube now flagging accounts on family plans that aren't in the same household
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Judge Orders Google to Share Search Results to Help Resolve Monopoly
TechSuck / Geek Bait
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
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Meta to stop its AI chatbots from talking to teens about suicide
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In the rush to adopt new tech, security is often forgotten. AI is no exception
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People Furious That OpenAI Is Reporting ChatGPT Conversations to Law Enforcement
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What Is Man, That Thou Are Mindful Of Him?
- "Rationalists" sure do have a fondness for putting words in the mouth of God ...
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High School Student's ChatGPT Trading Bot Is Crushing the Russell 2000
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Anthropic raises $13B Series F at $183B post-money valuation
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The Less You Know About AI, the More You Are Likely to Use It
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I'm a political cartoonist. AI is making a mockery of my profession
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Apple's Lead AI Researcher for Robotics Heads to Meta as Part of Latest Exits
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
Crypto con games
Economicon / Business / Finance
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Coming price cuts at McDonald's may signal a broader fast food price war
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Amazon must face US nationwide class action over third-party sales
over claims that the online retail giant overcharged for products sold by third-party sellers, a federal judge in Seattle has ruled. The class includes buyers in the United States who purchased five or more new goods from third-party sellers on Amazon since May 26, 2017. The consumers’ 2021 lawsuit said Amazon violated antitrust law by restricting third-party sellers from offering their products for lower prices elsewhere on rival platforms while they are also for sale on Amazon.
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Stripe Among First Fintechs to File Opposition to JPMorgan Open Banking Fees
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Japan Post Bank to issue yen deposit-backed digital currency in fiscal 2026
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US Manufacturing Activity Contracted in August for a Sixth Month
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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Judge says Trump administration's use of US Military in LA violated federal law
- No, Obama got those restrictions repealed in his first term, IIRC.
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Americans Lose Faith That Hard Work Leads to Economic Gains, WSJ-NORC Poll Finds
- Work can lead to gains, just not for the person working.
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Taylor Swift 'tax' goes mainstream: US states target luxury second homes
Trump
Left Angst
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The National Guard, DC landscaping and the great pursuit of lethality
National Guard troops recently dispatched to Washington, D.C., were notified last week they would be authorized to carry service weapons “solely in response to an imminent threat,” according to a Guard statement. Many guardsmen, however, were unaware the imminent threat posed would come in the form of unkempt flower beds and tree debris, their weapons akin to those wielded by an Anglo-Saxon fyrd under Alfred the Great.
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Digital platforms now ultimate political power, consequences for democracy
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The US Population Could Shrink in 2025
Population growth has two sources: natural increase (births minus deaths) and net immigration (arrivals minus departures). Last year, births outnumbered deaths by 519,000 people. That means any decline in net immigration in excess of half a million could push the U.S. into population decline. A recent analysis of Census data by the Pew Research Center found that between January and June, the US foreign-born population fell for the first time in decades by more than one million.
Biden’s permissive border policies were politically disastrous and costly for cities straining to house migrants. But they also fueled growth. Strong immigration helped power the U.S. economy ahead of other rich countries after the pandemic. Trump, by contrast, has gone far beyond restricting illegal entry. He has used the specter of undocumented immigration to build out a paramilitary force to carry out deportations of dubious legality; to frighten migrants who are here lawfully; to demolish our refugee programs; to constrict overall migration into the U.S. in the long run; to intimidate colleges that accept large numbers of foreign-born students; and to generally obliterate America’s privilege as the country where the world’s smartest people want to study, work, and live. The result is not just tighter borders. It’s a deliberate policy of demographic contraction that could wreak havoc across the US economy.
Trump can use immigration policy as a weapon, too. By creating pain points for cities, states, and companies that are reliant on immigrant labor, the president could force them to bend the knee and then dictate the terms by which they could qualify for guest-worker programs to alleviate their shortages. He could urge cities and states to accept national armed forces, or get companies to change progressive policies or donate tens of millions to his preferred causes. In this way, the politics of a stagnant or shrinking America would empower Trump’s pursuit of one-man control over the entire country.
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Trump's Commerce Secretary's Former Investment Bank Taking Bets Against Tariffs
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Experts: Trump DOE Climate Report "A Mockery of Science"
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Dozens of scientists find errors in a new Energy Department climate report
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And now the Gubmint "leans" on the media not to report these people's word; to call it "misinformation", etc.. They lose jobs and loans and banks won't do business with them... right? While all the former colleagues tut-tut over how these people fell victim to Russian right wing influences. Just like everyone who had reservations about COVID responses.
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Ted Cruz reminds us why NASA's rocket is called the "Senate Launch System"
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Alarm as US far-right extremists eye drones for use in domestic attacks
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ICE obtains access to Israeli-made spyware that hack phones and encrypted apps
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FBI arrests US Army veteran for 'conspiracy' over protest against ICE
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Nearly 600 economists sign letter, defend independence of the Federal Reserve
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US sliding towards 1930s-style autocracy, warns Ray Dalio
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The US is transforming into a 1930s-style autocracy, says billionaire Ray Dalio
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Why, the President might even do silly things like declaring failed amendments to be law
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External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
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We Have Met the Enemy and He Isn't Us
The latest illustration of the division and dysfunction in our politics—images of the National Guard occupying our nation’s capital—has justifiably infuriated my fellow Democrats. But the military’s deployment in Washington shouldn’t be understood merely as the latest MAGA cut against American democracy. It reflects a new zeal among partisan activists for “occupying” adversarial domestic institutions—the “deep state” for some, Wall Street for others. Occupation wasn’t always so important to reformers—but now it’s close to an obsession. The question today: Can China be the external threat that restores internal cohesion to our politics?
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India Was the Economic Alternative to China. Trump Ended That
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U.S. gov't revokes TSMC's authorization to ship tools to its fabs in China
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U.S. Military Strikes Drug Vessel from Venezuela, Killing 11
World
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Despite concerns expressed on social media, not much is known about the circumstances of the deaths of the four candidates other than they died “unexpectedly,” which means none of them died from a long battle with cancer, for example. As of yet, nobody has provided any evidence that the AfD candidates died from anything other than natural causes. In addition, there does not appear to have been any police investigations launched into the deaths of any four of the individuals.
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Graham Linehan claims he was arrested at Heathrow for posts about trans people
The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. Not one, not two – five. They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets. In a country where paedophiles escape sentencing, where knife crime is out of control, where women are assaulted and harassed every time they gather to speak, the state had mobilised five armed officers to arrest a comedy writer for these tweets.
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Apple to Curb iPhone 12 Radiation with EU-Wide Software Update
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South Korea dismantles propaganda loudspeakers on the border with North Korea
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Smiles and Clasped Hands as Xi, Putin and Modi Try to Signal Unity
Israel
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Staying sane on a zombie planet
Hardly for the first time in my life, this weekend I got floridly denounced every five minutes—on SneerClub, on the blog of Peter Woit, and in my own inbox. The charge this time was that I’m a genocidal Zionist who wants to kill all Palestinian children purely because of his mental illness and raging persecution complex.
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
China
Health / Medicine
Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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For first time in 40 Years, Panama's deep and cold ocean waters fail to emerge
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In Indonesia's Rainforest, a Mega-Farm Project Is Plowing Ahead
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Warming temperatures affect glaciers' ability to store meltwater
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Scientists stunned as strange islands & hidden springs appear in Great Salt Lake
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Rising visitor numbers leaving harmful human footprint on Antarctica ecosystems
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Volunteers can make an impact on forests, one pine cone at a time
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No Evidence Climate Change Has Accelerated Sea Level Rise per First Global Study
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Human activity may be locking the Southwest into permanent drought