Nick @internic@qoto.org

Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the #Election and Change the Country
==

The little-known charity is backed by famous conservative donors, including the families behind Hobby Lobby and Uline.

It’s spending millions to make a big political push for this election — but it may be violating the #law.

#News #Voting #election2024 #Politics #GOP #Elections #Government #Religion #Politics

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-ziklag-secret-christian-charity-2024-election

Asahi Linux (Fedora, KDE) on the Mac M series works wonderfully.

Particularly with an enthusiastic 14 year old son willing to configure it to my needs and install everything I want, including the complicated things.

"The Tour de France has reintroduced protective measures against COVID-19, with race organisation, media and guests now required to wear masks wherever they come into contact with riders and team staff on the race." 👀

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-de-france-reintroduces-mask-mandate-amid-covid-19-concerns/

Noch mehr Soĉa...

Scientific names really are like magic spells. With the right name you can unlock so much information about a particular creature. With the common name... you never really know who you are talking about.

Finding the true name of a little ant is a magical quest. It's so exciting when I know who she is! And I know what your distant cousins have done, and what you might do next! And I know how to take good care of you too.

Before I depart for the night, let me leave you with an old blog post about how cosmic rays were first discovered at the top of the Eiffel Tower! 🧪https://skullsinthestars.com/2014/10/09/paris-city-of-lights-and-cosmic-rays/

Whoa: Photo of a bullet in flight. (1/8000 shutter speed)

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/14/us/politics/photo-path-trump-assassination.html

Chances are that you might have heard about #Firefox "Privacy Preserving Attribution for Advertising". I've been working for Mozilla for 12 years and I've learned about it here on the fediverse, not only because I haven't been paying much attention, but because internal comms have been occupied with other stuff. So let's talk about something I feel Mozilla desperately needs: transparency. 🧵 1/11

Oh, nice! @GreatDismal is getting the @foliosociety treatment. Can't wait to see what it looks like — they do such beautiful bindings.
https://www.foliosociety.com/ca/neuromancer

Don’t spread misinformation

"An incident occurred the evening of July 13 at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has implemented protective measures and the former President is safe. This is now an active Secret Service investigation and further information will be released when available." - US Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi

Another example of junk science being used by law enforcement and making things worse. This time it's 911 call analysis. https://www.propublica.org/article/911-call-analysis-fbi-police-courts

@ProPublica

"What this means in plain English is that one of the largest financial institutions in the world is seeing what people who are paying attention are seeing with their eyes: Companies are acting like generative AI is going to change the world and are acting as such, while the reality is that this is a technology that is currently deeply unreliable and may not change much of anything at all."

(Original title: Goldman Sachs: AI Is Overhyped, Wildly Expensive, and Unreliable)

https://www.404media.co/goldman-sachs-ai-is-overhyped-wildly-expensive-and-unreliable/

This is the best way possible to (maybe?) end this epic thread!

Here is the story of the Saskatchewan SpaceX debris fall, written by me, published by Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spacex-dropped-space-junk-on-my-neighbors-farm-heres-what-happened-next/

Many of you got to see this story unfold in real-time toots, but this is the whole thing, plus some extra science context. Extra special thank you to @NicoleCRust and @laurahelmuth for encouraging me to pitch the story to SciAm! I am so excited to publish in a magazine I read all the time as a kid.

We should name our heat waves after oil companies, in alphabetical order like hurricanes or tornadoes. So you’d say the western US is currently suffering from heat waves Shell Oil this week.

NPR: The European Union has charged Elon Musk’s X with violating new regulations for social media platforms. Musk faces hefty fines over delivering misinformation.#news #NPR https://www.npr.org/2024/07/12/g-s1-9944/eu-takes-elon-musks-x-to-court-over-blue-checks-and-ads

Did this animation of the Crab pulsar nebula about a year ago. I used all of the data from the Chandra archive that I could scrounge up to make the most complete animation I could. Most of the frames do not overlap the entire image, giving it a patchy appearance.

A version of it is on the NYT today. They missed me in the credits, but I'm told they've been informed of that. Gift article link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/12/science/space/chandra-videos-supernova-explosions.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6k0.65Q6.bRjgEbMjyrCI&smid=url-share

FBI just provided me with a statement regarding the AT&T breach.

In its statement, the FBI confirmed that AT&T contacted the federal agency to report the breach and that AT&T, the FBI and the DOJ agreed to delay notifying the public and customers citing "potential risks to national security and/or public safety."

Our story is updated: https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/12/att-phone-records-stolen-data-breach/

Astronauts have limited water available on the International Space Station, so recycling this precious fluid has become a key part of maintaining their lives in space. Now, researchers have designed a portable "stillsuit" that astronauts could wear that would absorb and purify sweat and urine into drinkable water. A backpack would treat the fluids, allowing 87% to be pumped back into a drinking bag that an astronaut could drink from during a long spacewalk.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1050765

This video by @skrishna includes a lot of really detailed spaceflight context (both law and spacecraft design, as well as SpaceX's operating practices) which is really helpful for understanding the whole debris-fall situation I described in my SciAm article above.

If you liked my article, give this a watch!

https://youtu.be/Ndqzl6zUw4Q