Reading archive 2025-01-21

Meta just flipped the switch that prevents misinformation from spreading in the United States: The company built effective systems to reduce the reach of fake news. Last week, it shut them down - "Notably, none of these [now-deactivated changes] actually eliminated anyone’s freedom of expression. Instead, they restricted what the technologist Aza Raskin has termed “freedom of reach.” Fact-checking and down-ranking obviously false stories allowed liars and hoaxsters to express themselves but sought to limit the negative effects of those lies on Meta’s customers.

Knowing Things is Hard - "History is Written by Losers (2013): winners are busy swimming in vaults full of gold, having a nice dinner and drinks, and going to bed with bevies of cute people, losers have time and grudges and writing is cheap. Thucydides, Polybius, Sallust, and Sima Qian were not winners."

Everest Fallacy: a logical error, the confusion of the extreme and the normal.

This school has a problem, and the solution is dead vultures. For real.: “Apparently live vultures are offended and will not return to where their brethren are hanging dead,” a Virginia teacher said.

Ex-spies say suburban D.C. casino would put nation’s secrets at risk: Valerie Plame and more than 100 other former CIA, defense and intelligence figures say a Tysons casino would be a too-convenient temptation.

Trump reinstates plan to strip protections from federal workers: Trump issued several orders Monday aimed at federal agencies, including a return-to-office mandate and a hiring freeze.

We tried a $1,000 trash can for food waste. Here’s what we learned.: Food dehydrators, which dry and grind up food into soil-like grounds, have emerged as a way to keep food waste out of the garbage. Here’s how to use them.

Files detail bid to contain fallout from Tulsi Gabbard meetings with Assad: Trip to Syria in 2017 is expected to be a focus of questions from senators weighing her nomination to be director of national intelligence.

The GOP’s stunning response to Trump pardoning those who assaulted police: Trump has worn his party down, and few events crystallize it like the GOP’s muted — and, in some cases, positive — response.

The push to ‘billionaire-proof’ social media

Trump designated drug cartels as terrorists. Here’s what that means.: Cartels have set off car bombs and beheaded victims. But designating them as terrorist groups could have unforeseen consequences. - "The majority of those arrested carrying fentanyl over the border are U.S. citizens. Most guns used by drug traffickers are acquired from Americans. In theory, U.S. gun dealers could be charged with aiding terrorists under the new measure.

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"Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to Washington, said the problem with adding cartels to the terrorism list was the focus on military solutions to the drug crisis. 'You’re just playing whack-a-mole,' he said, noting that cartels simply reconfigure after kingpins are detained or killed. What’s needed is a more sophisticated strategy, he said, including curbing U.S. demand for drugs and choking off cartels’ money."

To get rid of ‘drug-addicted’ rats, Houston police clean up evidence room: The Texas city’s mayor said he will work with the county district attorney to discard drug evidence obtained before 2015 that no longer has any value.

Cheap, smart, deadly. The tech industry pitches a new way to wage war.: Anduril, a weapons start-up with links to President Donald Trump, wants to see the Pentagon invest more in AI-enhanced drones. - "The high-tech [American] missiles that repelled the [Iranian] assault collectively cost hundreds of millions of dollars, military experts said. The weapons Iran fired were much cheaper: Each of its Shahed drones can be made for about $50,000, according to leaked Iranian documents obtained by Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The U.S. response included SM-3 missiles that can each cost $28 million, according to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a defense industry group.