Favorite Rejects 2021-12-05

Tom, BSc, CCP-C @DaaamnItsCold

This... Is an impressive level of trolling.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

It seems like the easiest part of creating a fake Swiss scientist persona would be giving him a Swiss name rather than an Anglophone one — Eduard or whatever.

Antonio Regalado @antonioregalado

Quite a story. In a report on adversarial networks, Meta (aka Facebook) unpacks the case of "Edward Wilson," a Swiss biologist who turns out to be a fake "persona" created by China to put a wrench in covid origins hunt. Complete with GAN generated profile image. https://t.co/M3Zibnyhgl https://t.co/wL76l3OE8V

ProPublica @propublica

Text messages reviewed by ProPublica represent the strongest indication yet that members of the Trump family inner circle were involved in financing and organizing the Jan. 6 “Save America” rally, which immediately preceded the Capitol riot.

propub.liTexts Show Kimberly Guilfoyle Bragged About Raising Millions for Rally That Fueled Capitol RiotText messages reviewed by ProPublica represent the strongest indication yet that members of the Trump family inner circle were involved in financing and organizing the Jan. 6 “Save America” rally, which immediately preceded the Capitol riot.

Genna Bain ♡ @GennaBain

Goldeneye 007 pause music had no business going so hard, but I’m glad it did.

Vinny Thomas @vinn_ayy

Getting our outfits ready for the function at the Lincoln Memorial

Andrea McCarren @AndreaMcCarren

A beautiful night at the Lincoln Memorial interrupted by demonstrators chanting “reclaim America.“ The crowd gave them the finger and exchanged profanities. https://t.co/Z2voculi9Z

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Check out this chart and recall back when people were saying urban areas where uniquely vulnerable to Covid slowboring.com/p/urban-plague

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

Was gonna write a blog post but instead I think I'll stagger around the streets of the Sunset screaming "Japan has good trains because they allow dense housing so there are lots of people to ride the trains, not because of some magical racial solidarity bullshit" at passers-by

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

Seems only fair, given that we have plenty of bases near China. But I imagine the people who think that foreign military bases = empire are having a seizure right now.

Michael M. Phillips @MPhillipsWSJ

EXCLUSIVE: China wants to put its first Atlantic Ocean military base in Equatorial Guinea, U.S. intelligence shows. Chinese warships rearming and refitting opposite the U.S. East Coast is a five-alarm scenario for the Pentagon and White House. https://t.co/WArA5yJIh1 via @WSJ

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

It's cool that the NIH hasn't updated its Covid-19 treatment guidelines for Fluvoxamine since April when a big study showing large positive results was published in the Lancet in October.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

I don’t think the American left is going to get far until it can acknowledge that average living standards in this country are actually very high, and that’s the appropriate context in which to think about specific problems. https://t.co/Ma7JhPZD81

Kate Aronoff @KateAronoff

People really underestimate how dystopian the United States is

Patrick McKenzie @patio11

Personal opinion, but I am glad that Pfizer and Moderna shared their vaccines with the world by inventing and distributing them. I hope we massively increase the production of vaccines to be shared with the world, and incentivize future sharing appropriately.

reverend at selfemploed @Theophite

there is no reason why we can't treat indoor air quality & respiratory diseases with the same sanitation mindset we used on water quality & food safety in the 19th and early 20th century

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

Watching leftists argue about density is like:

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

@Noahpinion tbh I think it’s the other way around

Emily Feng 冯哲芸 @EmilyZFeng

cnn.comBiden administration expected to announce diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics this weekCNN’s Phil Mattingly talks to author Gordon Chang about reporting that the Biden administration is expected to announce that no US government officials will attend the 2022 Beijing Olympics, implementing a diplomatic boycott of the games.

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

I wonder who the people who insist that "history is written by the victors" think won the Vietnam War

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

I know lots of infosec experts believe this but I don't understand what the threat model is supposed to be. Amazon doesn't want to listen to conversations that happen in my living room. Government might force them to but my phone is equally vulnerable there.

Chris Dixon @cdixon

No people I know who understand security would allow a surveillance speaker like Alexa or Google Voice in their house.