Summary Increasing immigration rates would benefit both US citizens and immigrants alike. However, many native citizens believe immigrants impose more costs than benefits, by increasing crime, consuming welfare services, and changing the culture. So they naturally oppose increasing immigration rates. Sponsored immigration incents citizens to support increased immigration by a) giving them a personal choice in who they allow to immigrate b)a direct financial stake in the immigrant's long-ter...

"Colleagues I spoke to were appalled. None of them had ever heard of a paper in any field being disappeared after formal publication. Rejected prior to publication? Of course. Retracted? Yes, but only after an investigation, the results of which would then be made public by way of explanation. But simply disappeared? Never. If a formally refereed and published paper can later be erased from the scientific record and replaced by a completely different article, without any discussion with the auth...

"As MetalSucks reports, a man who goes by the moniker Prince Midnight (already we’re off to a cool start) has just finished constructing a guitar out of his uncle Filip’s bones. Definitely a bit freaky, but it has been quite some time since Filip passed. Tragically, he died more than 20 years ago as the result of a car accident.Filip’s skeleton had been donated to a local college in Greece, where it was used for educational purposes for two decades. When the school no longer needed the skeleton,...

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will step down as chief executive of the company he founded 27 years ago, the online retailer announced Tuesday. Andy Jassy, head of Amazon Web Services, will take the reins as CEO beginning in the third quarter, while Bezos will become executive chairman, Amazon said. In a memo to employees posted on Amazon's blog, Bezos, 57, said he is giving up the CEO role to focus on other ventures, including the Bezos Climate Fund, the Washington Post and Blue Origin, Bezos' space fl...

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From 2009, when the Onion was still funny. ...

Some Chrome plugins that are useful for bypassing paywalls. Note, I've not carefully vetted these for potential malware/spyware. Unpaywall (Links to legal pre-prints of scientific papers)https://unpaywall.org/welcome Bypass paywalls (bypasses paywalls for dozens of sites)https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean Cookie Autodelete (Can be used to delete cookies used to track how many free articles you've used)https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cookie-autodelete/fhc...

One of the ways that Facebook seduces users to stay within their walled garden is by making easy to follow a new friend, view/like/share their posts, or comment.  As a result, both reader and writer can quickly and easily give each other hits of dopamine. There are also tools to make connection with others outside of the walled gardens, such as RSS feeds/readers, Web clippers, Unfortunately, these open alternatives are more difficult to learn and use.  (There's a reason the FATMAG companies have...

I'm very happy with Standard Notes app (https://standardnotes.org/) plus their https://listed.to blog publishing service.  So happy, in fact, that I've subscribed to their 5 year, extended plan. Standard Notes makes me happy because the developers:  * release the code under an open source license (both server and clients). * devote a great deal of attention to usability and documentation.* prioritize user privacy.* fight against bloat in the main flagship program--most features are handled via p...

https://robinhood.com/support/articles/360001226546/how-youre-protected/ "KEEP IN MIND - Cryptocurrency investments through Robinhood Crypto are not protected by SIPC and that Robinhood Crypto is not a member of FINRA or SIPC." ...

"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that the social media company will be reducing the amount of political content on its platform. In the company’s fourth-quarter earning’s call, Mr Zuckerberg said that there were numerous groups that he did not want on the social media platform “even if they don’t violate [Facebook’s] policies”.Mr Zuckerberg also said that Facebook would be reducing the amount of political content in the News Feed, although the company is “still working through exactly the...

"On the normal web, you can’t buy a blender without giving the site owner enough data to learn your whole life history. In DeFi, you can borrow money without anyone even asking for your name."This is a great explainer article about decentralized finance by Brady DaleAlso check out this video about MakerDao: ...

"The ongoing conflict between the Stock Market and the Wallstreetbets subreddit continues to ignite as stock traders attempt to fire back at the popular trading app Robinhood. This recent attack on the app is in response to Robinhood halting stock trading for GameStop, the gaming retailer that set off this whole situation due to the way a number of hedge funds had been manipulating the market. However, as the Redditors and other onlookers retaliated against Robinhood by review bombing the app...

"GameStop's stock has continued to make big moves, briefly crossing $450 a share on Thursday, fueled by Reddit users collectively taking on the Wall Street establishment. But individual investors looking to make trades have faced multiple issues on trading sites and apps over recent days, with many experiencing service disruptions, according to Bloomberg. The frenzy over GameStop stock has led to TD Ameritrade and Robinhood restricting new purchases of particular stocks (GameStop and AMC, among ...

If your life or business depends on a proprietary service, then you're vulnerable to censorship if the staff of that business decide they don't like you or if you arouse enough ire from activists or government officials that they must either censor you or be shut down themselves. Therefore, it's a good idea to gradually shift your business to software and services that respect your privacy and don't try to lock you in. Here's a few open source alternatives to common proprietary services. ...

Since I sometimes see people claim "Censorship? What censorship?", I've started collecting examples of censorship from around the world. Know of some good examples? Send them my way! Reported press freedom violations in Black Lives Matter protests near 500 Black Lives Matter Activists Say They're Being Silenced By Facebook TikTok apologizes after being accused of censoring #BlackLivesMatter posts Will Biden Resuscitate Obama’s Reprehensible “Operation Choke Point”? Permanent suspension...

Why care about censorship? Why bother, you might ask? Between work, kids, and chores, you don't have time to be an anarchist. You don't do drugs, turn tricks, or sell guns. You're not a member of Antifa or Proud Boys. You're not a BLM protester, a Covid-skeptic, or QAnon believer. In fact, you rarely make political posts at all. Maybe you use Facebook mostly to a) keep in touch with the customers of your handcrafted mittens, b) share pictures of your kids and c) spam your friends wit...