Links for 2017/11/28

November 28, 2017 · 4 minute read

There’s a big link roundup today.

Nazis in the New York Times, Net Neutrality, global warming killing our shrimp, snaketits, bitcoin, and more.

New York Times publishes sympathetic profile of a neo-Nazi

I’m not going to link to that fishwrap’s article; a lot of the things I link to will have a link to it. I’m interested in rounding up reactions to it.

A couple from the HuffPo:

And the Daily Banter:

Ignored By Big Telecom, Detroit’s Marginalized Communities Are Building Their Own Internet - Motherboard

We’re pretty much all going to have to be doing this, within the next few years, as the consequences of abandoning Net Neutrality start trickling down.

To Save Net Neutrality, We Must Build Our Own Internet - Motherboard

Speaking of which…

Alt-right glossary - RationalWiki

It is amazing that RationalWiki can so often be on-point even though the Internet skeptic and rationalism communities are so terrible. This roundup is informative and has all the signature wit of the site it’s published on.

Fall shrimp harvest down in South Carolina

It seems to be because of warmer fall waters than usual. The spring and summer harvests were fine, though?

A woman approached The Post with dramatic — and false — tale about Roy Moore. She appears to be part of undercover sting operation. - The Washington Post

A right-wing gotcha organization tries to gotcha the Washington Post (in a pretty stupid and transparent way), gets caught. Not that that will do anything to stop them from trying again and again.

Using the Natural Motion of 2D Materials to Create a New Source of Clean Energy | University of Arkansas

This isn’t exactly a source of energy so much as a way to collect ambient energy that would otherwise be lost. And maybe it’s only suitable for relatively low-drain applications? It’s hard to tell. But it’s neat.

Why Doesn’t This Magic: The Gathering Snake Have Boobs? - Motherboard

This was described as “Extremely Mastodon Content”, but not once was the phrase “snake tits” used. But seriously, a very funny look at femme representation in fantasy gaming. Outrageous examples of MTG cards.

Tim Berners-Lee on the future of the web: ‘The system is failing’ | Technology | The Guardian

Not just Net Neutrality, but also the advertising economy, aka “weaponized AI propaganda”.

The Revolutionary Optimism of Iain M. Banks’ Culture Novels | Tor.com

Obviously, I’m heavily influenced by Iain M. Banks’ vision that “the future is – in Earth terms – a bright, bright red”.

The impossibility of intelligence explosion – François Chollet – Medium

An argument that the fear of an AI Singularity is misplaced, because it depends both on a misunderstanding of what actually-existing intelligence is.

Nosediving

A look at the horror of our actual society, by way of a TV dystopia that we actually put to shame.

Unforeseen Consequences and that 1929 vibe

Scottish science-fiction author Charles Stross makes me hate bitcoin more than I did before, something that I would previously have considered impossible.

When these Scottish schoolchildren armed to fight a 7-foot vampire, parents started to worry

Children take in what we teach them, perhaps too well. Why then, do adults get so frightened of what children learn?

Surface Pro 3 SSD Upgrade: Surface Pro 3 SSD Upgrade I7 with 1 TB SSD!!!

This is terrible, but you can’t look away.

Melania Trump decks the halls with dead branches, spine-chilling wails of the damned

The rich aren’t like us.