Beehaw

I just discovered economist Gary Stevenson. He has over a million views of each weekly video on YouTube.

He is working class AF but graduated from LSE & Oxford and then made millions since 2008 betting that inequality will rise and that most people will be worse off. He was the most successful trader for Citibank but quit in disgust to reveal the scam to the public.

~~https://youtu.be/03lydX8XHF4&amp;t=1m0s~~ <--- Fuck Piers Morgan

Watch/hear a cutup with just the Gary parts instead https://youtu.be/BRvMuefnl0k

One has to strain to think of even one or two pro-worker or pro-union moves that Trump has taken. The White House says his tariffs are pro-worker and pro-union, insisting they will bring back manufacturing jobs. But many economists say Trump’s tariffs will hurt myriad industries and workers. His auto tariffs, for instance, will increase car prices and as a result, auto sales, auto production and auto jobs will decline, at least short-term. Not only that, other countries’ retaliation will pummel various US industries and trigger additional layoffs. Moreover, Trump’s tariffs will undermine GDP growth and perhaps push the US into recession. Bottom line: Trump remains obsessed with tariffs, even though they’re likely to result in more pain than gain for US workers.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Wednesday, April 2, a major expansion of a military operation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, saying the army would seize "large areas" of the Palestinian territory.

The defense chief said in a statement that Israel would expand its presence in Gaza to "destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure." The expanded operation would "seize large areas that will be incorporated into Israeli security zones," he said, without saying how much territory Israel would take. The announcement comes after he warned last week the military would soon "operate with full force" in additional parts of Hamas-run Gaza.

In February, Katz announced plans to set up an agency for the "voluntary departure" of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. That came after Israel expressed a commitment to a proposal from US President Donald Trump to take over the territory after relocating its 2.4 million Palestinian inhabitants.

AP has called it. They were about a half-hour late to my mind, but that's how they work.

So, Elon, maybe throwing money at things isn't a repeatable act.

Deaths aren't really entertaining, so I'm throwing this here. But holy shit, he was 65? does quick math Yep, that checks out, I'm just also getting old.

A UK paper once again stepping in to the print void in the Rogue Valley, though they leave Medford for this one.

Target saw foot traffic fall for the eighth consecutive week, extending a losing streak that began just a few days after the company announced it would end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program in late January.

For the week that began March 17, foot traffic fell 5.7% YoY for Target, according to data from Placer.ai. That's compared to the 7.1% it fell last week, and an average weekly decline over the last eight weeks of 6.2%.

In a March 4 earnings call, when it reported a 3.1% Q4 loss and a non-specified sales decline in February, Target executives were bullish about its Easter assortment boosting business. But if it has so far, it's not reflected in the foot-traffic data. What may have taken the spring out of the Easter Bunny's hop for Target is a 40-plus day boycott coinciding with Lent (so ending on Easter) spearheaded by Black clergy for which more than 150,000 have signed up, exceeding organizers' stated goal of 100,000.

Strom Thurmond must be rolling in his grave that his record was beaten by a guy he didn't consider human.

The Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE have begun dismantling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), beginning with stated plan is to cut half of the agency’s workforce.

Their biggest cuts appear to be in the Large Business and International division, which audits wealthy individuals and companies with more than $10 million in assets. These are essentially the workers that make sure billionaires and corporations pay their taxes.

Musk and Trump claim to be sage businessmen, but it would be hard to find a business owner in America that would dismantle their accounts receivable department when their wealthiest clients still owe them money.

So make no mistake: These cuts will cost taxpayers a lot more than they save.

Following months of testing, Plex has started to roll out its redesigned mobile app to Android and iOS devices, and it will arrive to everyone within the next week. The new app comes with an updated navigation system that should make it easier to access different parts of the app and find content to watch, along with a dedicated tab for centralized media libraries.

It also has a button in the top-right corner of the screen for your Watchlist and more artwork across detail pages for shows and movies, as well as cast and crew profiles. In a post on the Plex forum, the company outlines a ton of improvements it has made to the app since the preview, including faster load times and scrolling, the addition of a sleep timer, and picture-in-picture support.

Figured it'd be nice to have a spot to talk about this. Link is to the upcoming direct on their channel.

People can also post articles after the fact, I don't think our community is so active that I worry about clogging the feed. But we'll see. I'm excited!

https://archive.ph/H5h3n

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe asteroid 2024 YR4, which earlier this year seemed to be at risk of hitting Earth in 2032. Earth is now safe, but astronomers are cheering on a possible collision with the moon

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20241729

Rice University researchers have developed an innovative solution to a pressing environmental challenge: removing and destroying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly called “forever chemicals.” A study led by James Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science and nanoengineering, and graduate student Phelecia Scotland unveils a method that not only eliminates PFAS from water systems but also transforms waste into high-value graphene, offering a cost-effective and sustainable approach to environmental remediation. This research was published March 31 in Nature Water.

Now, thousands of protesters have been detained and government-owned media appears to be running a blackout on any coverage of the protests. A number of journalists have been arrested and a BBC reporter has even been deported after his reporting of demonstrations.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have gathered across Turkey in what was initially to express opposition to Imamoglu’s arrest, but have quickly bloomed into wider anti-government gatherings. However, Turkish state media has been accused of censoring any coverage of the protests. The Guardian reported that government owned channels broadcast interviews with ministers unrelated to the protests and that:

Substantive coverage of the protests has instead been the preserve of the small slice of newspapers and cable channels that exist outside the well funded and slick pro-government broadcasting networks.

Smart TVs and streaming devices running Amazon’s Fire OS have screensaver ads, too. Even LG, which is considered a more premium brand, launched screensaver adsin September, but users can disable them.

Startup Telly is a standout example of a company trying to monetize idle TV time. Announced in 2023, Telly TVs have a secondary screen that can show ads when the TV is not in use. Telly TVs are free to purchase in exchange for providing the company with user data, including disclosing your favorite news outlets, film and TV genres, foods, and services, your gender and race, and other information before you’re able to order the TV.

China announced Monday the discovery of a crude oil reserve estimated at 100 million tons in the northeastern part of the South China Sea, according to a statement from the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The reserve was located at the "Huicou 19-6" oil field, situated approximately 170 kilometers off the coast of Guangdong province in southern China. The field lies in waters averaging 100 meters in depth.

CNOOC said test drilling at the site yielded 413 barrels of oil and 68,000 cubic meters of natural gas per day.

The coronavirus membrane protein (M) is the main organizer of coronavirus assembly1,2,3. Here, we report on an M-targeting molecule, CIM-834, that blocks the assembly of SARS-CoV-2. CIM-834 was obtained through high-throughput phenotypic antiviral screening followed by medicinal-chemistry efforts and target elucidation. CIM-834 inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 (including a broad panel of variants) and SARS-CoV. In SCID mice and Syrian hamsters intranasally infected with SARS-CoV-2, oral treatment reduced lung viral titres to nearly undetectable levels, even (as shown in mice) when treatment was delayed until 24 h before the end point. Treatment of infected hamsters prevented transmission to untreated sentinels. Transmission electron microscopy studies show that virion assembly is completely absent in cells treated with CIM-834. Single-particle cryo-electron microscopy reveals that CIM-834 binds and stabilizes the M protein in its short form, thereby preventing the conformational switch to the long form, which is required for successful particle assembly. In conclusion, we have discovered a new druggable target in the replication cycle of coronaviruses and a small molecule that potently inhibits it.

Education officials in Maine declared this week that they will not sign a compliance agreement with the Trump administration, continuing the state’s standoff with President Trump over his political fixation on transgender girls in school sports.

On March 17, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated in a press release that both the Maine Principals’ Association and Maine School Administrative District No. 51 (MSAD 51) had violated Title IX civil rights law by allowing trans girls to compete with cisgender girls in the same school sports leagues. The release said both entities would be offered “an opportunity to voluntarily commit within 10 days to resolve the matter through a signed agreement or risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for appropriate action.”