Noah McCormack:
"The history of literacy is the history of class.
AI has given the American ruling class the final impetus to more or less abolish education.
The elites are ecstatic about imagining a vast, uneducated, and unproductive population forced to pay companies like OpenAI to access the written word and to approximate thought; with the unemployed illiterate and addicted to screens, they are unlikely to be politicized and join a socialist campaign."
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/we-used-to-read-things-in-this-country-mccormack
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Mars rover Curiosity wishes all earthlings a Happy New Year.
Note that the Martian New year (year 0039) will begin on Sep 30, 2026.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/curiosity-sends-holiday-postcard-from-mars/
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"Corporate bankruptcies surged in 2025, rivaling levels not seen since the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, as import-dependent businesses absorbed the highest tariffs in decades.
At least 717 companies filed for bankruptcy through November, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. That’s ~14% more than the same 11 months of 2024, and the highest tally since 2010."
It's a feature, not a bug.
Now the vultures will swoop in.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/12/27/corporate-bankruptcies-economy/
#UsPol
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Amazon Web Service (AWS) outages on Xmas Eve since ~9 p.m. EDT are affecting a large number of web services that use AWS.
Many gaming sites are down.
This may not be an AWS outage since AWS is reporting a healthy status. Most of the sites with outages are gaming related.
https://piunikaweb.com/2025/12/25/aws-outage-2025-december/
https://downdetector.com/
https://health.aws.amazon.com/health/status
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On the 57th anniversary of the iconic pic of "Earthrise" taken by Apollo 8 astronauts, the image that changed our collective consciousness of Earth and ourselves, let's pledge to redouble our efforts to turn things around, nudge the world back towards green energy and a reduced energy footprint, and replace hatred with kindness.
Part of the plan must be to boot these anti-science grifters from the White House, Congress and state and local offices everywhere."
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/113708606597266847
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"Earthrise" - captured on Dec. 24, 1968 by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders.
Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders became the first humans to orbit the Moon and the first to witness the awe-inspiring sight.
50 years later, Anders observed - "We set out to explore the moon and instead discovered the Earth."
Wilderness photographer Galen Rowell called Earthrise "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken."
What are your thoughts?
https://science.nasa.gov/resource/the-story-behind-apollo-8s-famous-earthrise-photo/
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December 23, 1947 - Walter Brattain and John Bardeen of Bell Labs, under the direction of William B. Shockley, demonstrated the world's first transistor.
The point-contact transistor was made of two gold foil contacts sitting on a germanium crystal.
The New York Herald Tribune predicted that this invention would be a revolution in the electronics industry.
78 years later, we have chips with over 200 billion transistors and over 1.3E+23 transistors built to date.
https://ethw.org/Milestones:Invention_of_the_First_Transistor_at_Bell_Telephone_Laboratories,_Inc.,_1947
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"There was a power outage in San Francisco on Saturday, initially leaving ~30% of customers without power. It also caused a widespread Waymo meltdown, with apparently all active Waymo robotaxis in the city stuck in robotic comas, blocking intersections and choking traffic on some streets."
No update on whether the vehicles had trouble traversing blacked-out stoplights, or if the issue had something to do with data reception or transmission.
Hopefully, no injuries.
https://gizmodo.com/blackout-in-san-francisco-litters-streets-with-traffic-blocking-deactivated-waymos-2000702290
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Not one photo of trump in the released Epstein files. How convenient!
Oh wait, there was one; it has now been deleted. How devious!!
https://www.rawstory.com/jeffrey-epstein-2674816933/
#UsPol
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The Clinton-Jackson-Ross photo was tweeted by White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson.
We suppose she is part of the Ministry of Propaganda.
#UsPol
3/n
"The administration inserted a photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross into the Epstein files and falsely implied it showed them with victims.
In reality, it’s a publicly available fundraiser photo featuring Jackson and Ross’s own children."
https://bsky.app/profile/meidastouch.com/post/3mag7myutmc2d
#UsPol
1/n
Not one photo of trump in the released Epstein files. How convenient!
Oh wait, there was one; it has now been deleted. How devious!!
https://www.rawstory.com/jeffrey-epstein-2674816933/
#UsPol
2/n
"The administration inserted a photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross into the Epstein files and falsely implied it showed them with victims.
In reality, it’s a publicly available fundraiser photo featuring Jackson and Ross’s own children."
https://bsky.app/profile/meidastouch.com/post/3mag7myutmc2d
#UsPol
1/n
AkaSci 🛰
️