Andreesen is a hypocritical NIMBY who can go walk into the ocean for all I care. His opinion shouldn't matter.
He's probably right in this instance, but rich people do not deserve to be listened to just because they are rich.
I'm generally a fan. I see a lot more people biking around my suburban sprawling American city, and I've noticed the majority now are ebikes. Probably half of those are cargo bikes, so they really seem to be enabling more trips outside a car, and that's pretty great.
Just a reminder, the "major questions doctrine" is bullshit, used by the partisan conservatives to ignore the plain text of a statute whenever they want to engineer an outcome. Don't pretend that this is anything less than make-believe judicial bullshit.
Paywall-free link: https://archive.ph/LAUew
A successful CIA hack of Venezuela's military payroll system, insider fights for spy agency resources, and messy opposition politics: A WIRED investigation reveals a secret Trump-era attempt to oust autocratic ruler Nicolás Maduro.
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As bitter adversaries, the Trump administration and Maduro regime didn’t agree on, well, anything. Except for the fact that the US government wanted Maduro gone.
After that UN meeting, the Trump administration amped up its efforts around the world to isolate and depose the Venezuelan leader, including by levying additional punishing sanctions against his regime. Much of that diplomatic maneuvering played out in public. But the administration also put into motion another, very much secret prong to the US’s regime-change campaign: a covert CIA-run initiative to help overthrow the Venezuelan strongman.
That campaign would pull off at least one disruptive digital sabotage operation against the Maduro regime in 2019. But the CIA-led initiative—alongside the Trump administration’s wider efforts to get rid of Maduro—would fall well short of its ultimate goal. The story of that secret anti-Maduro effort also lays bare the tensions between an administration with hardliners laser-focused on deposing the Venezuelan autocrat and a CIA deeply reluctant, yet nevertheless obligated, to follow White House orders. It shows the limitations of covert, CIA-assisted regime change schemes, particularly when they are not aligned with larger US foreign policy objectives. And it provides new insights into how a second Trump administration—or a Harris presidency—might still try to dislodge the Venezuelan strongman, whose latest sham reelection in July 2024 has again thrust his country into chaos.
The details of that covert CIA-assisted campaign, told exclusively to WIRED by eight Trump administration and former agency officials with knowledge of the anti-Maduro operation, are reported here for the first time.
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Truly a superb photo, it jumped out at me even before I clicked through and read the description. Thanks!
Just stop building in Phoenix already. We're just creating the next round of climate refugees.
If this is the case, why aren't the Brits famous for longevity or graceful aging after generations of boiling everything?
I know that the state is trying to manufacture standing so it can bring the claim, but this is a deeply cynical and unethical argument that I would be embarrassed to make.
I would totally drive a Moosetang. Or, if you want to be boring, just call it a Moose. But that would be hilarious. Make this happen, Ford!
Back atcha, buddy, you know this sub removes posts that don't use the article title? Take it up with the title editor, not me.
It’s hard to imagine what else Daniels could say, but Team Trump reportedly offered to reduce what she owes him in exchange for her silence.
Days before the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen made a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about her alleged affair with the Republican presidential candidate. It did not quite go as planned. When Trump was in the White House, Daniels’s claims about their relationship (which Trump denies) went public. Years later, in May 2024, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to the payoff.
Trump has been trying to get his conviction thrown out or at least delay his sentencing (maybe forever). But we’ve already learned plenty of lurid details about the alleged relationship. So why would Trump make a second attempt to silence Daniels ahead of the 2024 election?
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported on Wednesday that Trump’s attorney recently made another offer to Daniels. In 2018, years before the Manhattan DA brought charges against Trump, Daniels filed a defamation suit over a Trump tweet attacking her for claiming that she was threatened by a stranger to stay quiet about their affair. A federal judge dismissed the suit months later, and Daniels was ordered to pay Trump’s legal fees. As of this summer, the two camps were still haggling over the final amount: Team Trump had asked for $652,000 at one point, while Team Daniels said it should be closer to $600,000, per Maddow. Then in July, Trump’s lawyer sent a letter to Daniels’s representative saying that a payment of $620,000 was too low, but that they would agree to it if Daniels signed a nondisclosure agreement. According to MSNBC, the letter said this:
>We disagree that a payment of $620,000.00 would be in full satisfaction of the three judgement. However, we can agree to settle these matters for $620,000.00, provided that your client agrees in writing to make no public or private statements related to any alleged past interactions with president Trump, or defamatory or disparaging statements about him, his businesses and/or any affiliates or his suitability as a candidate for President.
Daniels’s lawyer rejected the offer. Eventually, Trump’s attorney said that after speaking to “my client and co-counsel,” they would agree to $635,000 — with no mention of Daniels remaining silent. Daniels’s attorney said they eventually settled on $627,500 with no NDA.
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That price is so low, it might as well just be the customer list.
Edit: For the record, Juiced made some decent bikes. The HyperScorpion is a fun little moped, and I would have liked to have seen a refined version that improved on the battery design (they were really hard to put back in if you removed them for charging) and came with better stock tires.
Bring us back major concert tours from Hole, Veruca Salt, Garbage, the Breeders, and the Chicks, you cowards! (The Chicks are still filling arenas, actually, and they put on a really good show.)
Errol Morris and Jacob Soboroff discuss their new film, “Separated,” which chronicles the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” immigration policy, which separated more than 4,500 children from their parents between 2017 and 2019. 1,300 children are yet to be reunited due to incomplete information...
Cybercabs are two-seater vehicles
Just two seats why? Has this so-called genius ever taken a cab with friends ever?
I don't like how every news story about the layoffs uncritically parrots the company excuse about the strike, as if decades of regulatory capture, short-term business strategy, and poor engineering and supply chain decisions by successive waves of over-paid executives didn't sink the company.
MADRID, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Operators of rental e-scooters will have until Oct. 25 to remove all their mobility devices from the streets of Madrid, the mayor's office said on Tuesday, following an outcry against reckless driving and chaotic parking by their users.
After withdrawing their licences last month, the mayor's office said the three foreign operators - Lime, Dott and Tier Mobility - had failed to implement limits on their clients' circulation or control their parking to regain the licences. Amsterdam-based Dott, Germany's Tier Mobility and U.S.-based Lime, whose scooters are available via the Uber have around 2,000 e-scooters each throughout Madrid.
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The Ros strips were always some of my favorite. You never stop identifying with Calvin, but you also kinda cheered for her, and when she won (like in Calvinball) you celebrated with her too.
Speaker Mike Johnson won't let Congress fund hurricane recovery efforts until after the election.
With the Federal Emergency Management Agency reeling from major staffing and funding shortages amid the impact of Hurricane Helene, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) refused on Sunday to commit to reconvening the House before Election Day to aid recovery efforts. In response to a letter from President Biden urging congressional leaders back to replenish federal disaster loan funding, Johnson said during a Fox News Sunday interview that he’d only do so after the election—all but ensuring the funds will run out.
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The Department of Energy is weighing a $1.6 billion loan guarantee for a plan to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant with Microsoft as its sole customer.
The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant is pursuing a $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee to help finance its plan to restart the Pennsylvania facility and sell the electricity to Microsoft to power data centers, according to details of the application shared with The Washington Post. Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend.
The taxpayer-backed loan could give Microsoft and Three Mile Island owner Constellation Energy a major boost in their unprecedented bid to steer all the power from a U.S. nuclear plant to a single company.
Microsoft, which declined to comment on the bid for a loan guarantee, is among the large tech companies scouring the nation for zero-emissions power as they seek to build data centers. It is among the leaders in the global competition to dominate the field of artificial intelligence, which consumes enormous amounts of electricity.
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Neil Laughton and Sherpa Nima Kanchha summited and descended a 7,246m beast
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20389308
> Anyone who has journeyed deep into the mountain ranges of Europe to take on some of the legendary climbs of the Grand Tours understands what it is like to stand on top of a mountain, breathing in the cold, thin air while surveying landscapes that roll away far below. > > But British adventurer and all-round action man Neil Laughton, 60, took that achievement several levels higher when he journeyed to Nepal to set a new Guinness World Record for the highest ever bike ride. > > Teaming up with Nepali Sirdar Nima Kanchha Sherpa, the pair rode and carried their bikes to the top of the 7,246-metre high Putha Huinchuli mountain over a period of several days, were Laughton rode 20 metres at the highest point, before turning tail and journeying back down again. > > Laughton's machine of choice was a Brompton, while Nima used a Cube mountain bike for the ride. > > ...
Neil Laughton and Sherpa Nima Kanchha summited and descended a 7,246m beast
Anyone who has journeyed deep into the mountain ranges of Europe to take on some of the legendary climbs of the Grand Tours understands what it is like to stand on top of a mountain, breathing in the cold, thin air while surveying landscapes that roll away far below.
But British adventurer and all-round action man Neil Laughton, 60, took that achievement several levels higher when he journeyed to Nepal to set a new Guinness World Record for the highest ever bike ride.
Teaming up with Nepali Sirdar Nima Kanchha Sherpa, the pair rode and carried their bikes to the top of the 7,246-metre high Putha Huinchuli mountain over a period of several days, were Laughton rode 20 metres at the highest point, before turning tail and journeying back down again.
Laughton's machine of choice was a Brompton, while Nima used a Cube mountain bike for the ride.
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French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has denied violating any rules as she and her National Rally party and two dozen others went on trial accused of embezzling European Parliament funds.
PARIS (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen denied violating any rules as she and her National Rally party and two dozen others went on trial on Monday, accused of embezzling European Parliament funds, in a case that has the potential to derail her political ambitions.
Arriving at the court in Paris, Le Pen said she remained confident as “we have not violated any political and regulatory rules of the European Parliament” and vowed to present the judges with “extremely serious and extremely solid arguments.″
Le Pen and other National Rally members casually greeted each other before sitting down in the first three rows of the packed courtroom.
The nine-week trial will be closely watched by Le Pen’s political rivals as she is a strong contender in the race to succeed Emmanuel Macron when the next presidential election takes place in 2027.
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Odyssee was created by a now defunct New Hampshire cryptocurrency company and recently emerged from bankruptcy dedicated to keeping it, "censorship resistant."
David Duke, former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, frequently posts videos on a website called Odysee. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones also streams his podcast, “The Alex Jones Show,” on the site. It works a lot like YouTube and attracts millions of views each month.
Anti-hate groups say the site is a hotbed of extremism where users from around the world — including promoters of U.S.-designated terrorist group the Nordic Resistance Movement, Holocaust deniers and Proud Boys supporters — use Odysee’s data storage and financial features to spread their views and raise money. Users also take advantage of the forum’s near complete lack of content moderation. The site’s CEO said he’s dedicated to keeping the company “censorship resistant.”
The site also comes with strong New England ties. Odysee was created by a now-defunct New Hampshire cryptocurrency company and began with seed money from a downtown Boston-based venture capital firm called Pillar VC, financed by a diverse constellation of local investors.
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