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Cory Nails It

The problem is that we’re confusing automated persuasion with automated targeting. Laughable lies about Brexit, Mexican rapists, and creeping Sharia law didn’t convince otherwise sensible people that up was down and the sky was green.

Rather, the sophisticated targeting systems available through Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other Big Tech ad platforms made it easy to find the racist, xenophobic, fearful, angry people who wanted to believe that foreigners were destroying their country while being bankrolled by George Soros.

Source: Cory Doctorow: Zuck’s Empire of Oily Rags – Locus Online

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Dangerously Incompetent CEO Allen Hollimon

A Trump extremist nut job was arrested in PA:

Two armed Virginia men who were arrested Thursday outside the Philadelphia Convention Center were “coming to deliver a truck full of fake ballots” to the city

…

Both men were carrying loaded handguns, and police found an AR-type rifle in the Hummer, authorities said at a news conference Friday. About 160 rounds of ammunition were found in the weapons and the vehicle, authorities said.

Stickers and a hat with logos of the QAnon conspiracy movement were found in the vehicle, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said.

LaMotta and Macias were charged with having a concealed firearm without a license and carrying a firearm on a public street or public property, Krasner said.

“This alarming incident is still very much under investigation regarding additional charges,” Krasner said.

LaMotta and Macias were arraigned Friday night, and a judge set bail at $750,000 each, Krasner’s spokeswoman Jane Roh said.

LaMotta’s boss, CEO Allen Hollimon, is so dangerously incompetent that when asked about his crazy Qanon believing employee he said:

Hollimon said he did not know why LaMotta was in Philadelphia and emphasized that he believes he is “a good guy.”

“He’s a very devoted guy. I’ve never had an issue with him,” Hollimon told CNN. “He’s not a threat.”

If I were a customer of Nationwide Investigations & Security, Inc. , I’d be searching to find a competent company for the job. When you can’t see the danger your employee poses to your customers, even when informed of the extremely dangerous behavior that led to his arrest, you can’t be trusted with keeping your customers safe.

Source: Report: Armed men arrested in Philadelphia were trying to deliver fake ballots – CNN

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Warnings From a Medical Scientist

Go read this, The “Herd Mentality” is Not a Public Health Strategy, and follow the links especially this one: Former Stanford colleagues warn Dr. Scott Atlas fosters ‘falsehoods and misrepresentations of science’.

Shopping for a Quack Doctor when you don’t like the diagnosis from multiple other doctors with actual expertise in the particular field of medicine is a sure way to increase the chance of death. Doing this for a whole country during a deadly pandemic like Trump has done ensures many thousands on up to millions of unnecessary deaths. Trump is already responsible for thousands, to tens of thousands, of unnecessary deaths, and based on his actions it seems he wants that number to become millions.

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I Agree

I don’t see how saying “Eww, ick, I won’t buy her books anymore” is authoritarian. It’s also not authoritarian if I look at that list of over 7000 signatories and think “What a bunch of assholes” and think poorly of them for their association.
Rowling has not been “honourable and compassionate” — she’s been a pious bigot — and if you regard standing in solidarity with a bigot is a commendable position, think again.
But yes, please, do go sign that useless petition if you agree with it. I love it when horrible people drop the mask and slap a clear label on their forehead.

Source: A nasty little list — the JK Rowling fan club

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I’m Currently Planning to Vote No on #1

Back in June, I posted about signing the petition to expand the Massachusetts Automotive Right to Repair law. It’s great they got enough confirmed signatures, including mine, so the initiative is on the ballot.

I’ve now read all I can find on the pros and cons of this initiative and am left feeling let down by the Massachusetts Right to Repair Committee. Very serious cyber security concerns have been raised by the NHTSA testimony and I have not been able to find any refutation of the NHTSA claims from known independent security experts. Both sides on this question have a financial interest in the outcome and I don’t trust either side to be looking out for my interests.

Only one side has brought forth information from an organization with no monetary interest in the outcome. So unless the Massachusetts Right to Repair Committee can provide a serious rebuttal to the NHTSA report, I’m voting no.

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Rhode Island 2020 – 2021 Hunting Season Fluorescent Orange Requirements

The state of Rhode Island requires all visitors to wear safety orange during the busiest hunting seasons. For the 2020-2021 season the regulations are:

All other users of State Management Areas and designated undeveloped State Parks, including but not limited to: hikers, bikers, and horseback riders are required to wear 200 square inches of solid daylight fluorescent orange from the second Saturday in September to the last day of February and the third Saturday in April to the last day in May.

500sq. in. by all hunters (including archers) and all users of management areas and undeveloped state parks during all portions of shotgun deer seasons.

Here’s my publicly available Google calendar showing the 200 & 500 sq. in dates.

Note: the calendar dates only apply to Zones 1 & 2 which is the vast majority of the state. For Zones 3 (Patience & Prudence Islands) & 4 (Block Island), refer to the regulations for those dates.
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Sadly True

This is actually happening now in the US with the history of slavery. For example, 41% of people in a recent survey believe that the civil war was about something other than slavery, when the historical record is clear that slavery was the driving issue. Recently Trump announced that he thinks the US should be engaged in “patriotic education.” He stated, “Children must be taught that America is “an exceptional, free and just nation, worth defending, preserving and protecting.” We know what this means in states that take this approach to education – white-washing the history of slavery.

Source: The Holocaust and Losing History | NeuroLogica Blog

Go read the rest, sadly Trump is following the playbook that worked so well for Hitler, any bets on when we see book burnings.

 

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Two Ars Technica Articles One Sad One Happy

😦

If all those costs are passed on to residential customers, the savings compared to 2015 would mean everybody would save a grand total of 49 cents each year.

In return for that, the societal-level savings from decreased pollution are basically wiped out.

Source: EPA issues new rules on coal plant pollution | Ars Technica

🙂

On Friday, the first small modular reactor received a design certification from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, meaning that it meets safety requirements and could be chosen by future projects seeking licensing and approval.

Source: NuScale’s small nuclear reactor is first to get US safety approval | Ars Technica