melp @ melp @beehaw.org

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6 mo. ago

My friend just went to Dallas and was like... it's WAY WORSE than Los Angeles there for homelessness. I wouldn't be surprised if its actually worse in "red states" because they flat out do not care there.

I have a catgenie my friend gave to me... I have no use for it. I desperately want to give it away and no one wants it.

Nate for VP!

At least they got their 22% pay raise. Well deserved.

When faced with a political system where the opposition is controlled and ineffective, people can take several actions to foster genuine change and resist manipulation:

1. Build Grassroots Movements
2. Focus on Direct Action
3. Promote Independent Media
4. Hold Leaders Accountable
5. Leverage Social Media for Advocacy
6. Build Coalitions Across Ideologies
7. Educate Yourself and Others
8. Create Parallel Systems

By focusing on decentralized, transparent, and community-driven approaches, people can challenge the dominance of controlled opposition and work toward meaningful systemic change.

Oh look... Blackstone.

This Jacobin article discusses how private equity firms are exploiting loopholes in the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) System, a Depression-era program meant to encourage affordable mortgage lending. Instead of supporting affordable housing, these firms are using government-subsidized loans obtained through insurance companies they own to fund their own business ventures, including buying up housing and driving up rents.

Here's a breakdown:

• The Loophole: Private equity firms are acquiring insurance companies, which then access low-interest loans from the FHLB system. These loans are supposed to be used for affordable mortgages, but the insurance companies invest the money in the private equity firms' portfolios instead.
• Who's Doing It: Major private equity firms like Apollo, KKR, and Blackstone are heavily involved. Apollo is a major player, earning potentially hundreds of millions of dollars annually through this practice.
• Impact: This diverts funds away from affordable housing initiatives and allows private equity firms to expand their holdings in the housing market. This contributes to rising rents, increased evictions, and a squeeze on homebuyers.
• Lack of Oversight: There's little oversight on how the loans are used, making it difficult to track where the money goes.
• Trump Era: Reforms to fix the system are uncertain under Trump's nominee for housing regulator, Bill Pulte, who has ties to the private equity industry.
• Real-Life Example: The article highlights the story of Darlene Simpson, a tenant in California whose rent has doubled and maintenance requests have been ignored since Blackstone (a major private equity landlord) purchased her building.
• The Big Picture: Private equity firms are becoming major landlords, profiting from the housing crisis while using funds intended to alleviate it.

Viva la resistance

This story is huge and getting no where the amount of attention it should be getting. The rescues would be better funded if it weren't for Elon and Trump and the operations wouldn't exist without Elon. What a sad story. I feel for these people. I feel like the right NGO could organize a donation fund to at least get them a plane ticket home.

Waiting for a $600 plane ticket: Authorities in Thailand say they cannot allow foreigners to cross the border from Myanmar unless they can be sent home immediately, leaving many to wait for help from embassies that has been long in coming.

China sent a chartered flight Thursday to the tiny Mae Sot airport to pick up a group of its citizens, but few other governments have matched that. There are roughly 130 Ethiopians waiting in a Thai military base, stuck for want of a $600 plane ticket. Dozens of Indonesians were bused out one morning last week, pushing suitcases and carrying plastic bags with their meager possessions as they headed to Bangkok for a flight home.

The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, for example, previously funded care for victims of trafficking in scam compounds in one shelter in Cambodia, but was forced to halt that work by the Trump Administration’s funding freeze announced in January, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation. The halt to funding has also impacted a network of civil society groups that worked to stop human trafficking and rescue survivors in Thailand.

It’s not clear how much of an effect these releases will have on the criminal groups that run the scam centers.

February marked the third time the Thais have cut internet or electricity to towns across the river. Each time, the compounds have managed to work around the cuts. Large compounds have access to diesel-powered generators, as well as access to internet provider Starlink, experts working with law enforcement say.

That's fair. Probably shoulda been added to this list sooner.

lol

Alternative headline: Big Time Ad Agencies Restructuring Their Biggest Bullshitters

Living through the LA fires this January

plop plop fizz fizz

As much as we all despise Elon, I personally think Mark is the worst. I hope he falls into lava. Maybe take his bloodline with him on a volcano vacation.

tl;dr - literally idiots fall for misinfo.

Summary on "Who Falls for Misinformation and Why?" by Hubeny, Nahon, Ng, and Gawronski.

Study Overview

This research investigated who falls for misinformation and why, using Signal Detection Theory (SDT) to identify three distinct factors affecting misinformation susceptibility:

1. Truth sensitivity: Ability to distinguish true from false information
2. Acceptance threshold: General tendency to accept information as true
3. Myside bias: Tendency to accept information congruent with one's views

The researchers conducted two studies examining associations between 15 individual-difference dimensions and misinformation susceptibility: Study 1 with political misinformation (274 participants) and Study 2 with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation (222 participants).

Key Findings

Who Falls for Misinformation

People were more likely to believe misinformation if they had:

• Lower cognitive reflection abilities
• Lower actively open-minded thinking
• Higher bullshit receptivity (tendency to find random statements profound)
• Higher conspiracy mentality

Why They Fall for Misinformation

The research revealed these associations were primarily driven by differences in truth sensitivity. People with high cognitive reflection and actively open-minded thinking showed better ability to distinguish true from false information, while those high in bullshit receptivity and conspiracy mentality showed poorer ability.

A bifactor model analysis revealed these four dimensions are largely driven by a single underlying factor the authors call "reflective open-mindedness."

Acceptance Threshold and Myside Bias

While individual differences in acceptance threshold and myside bias both contributed to misinformation susceptibility, none of the 15 individual-difference dimensions showed reliable associations with these factors across both studies.

Theoretical Contributions

• Demonstrates that multiple factors affect misinformation susceptibility
• Shows that analytical reasoning (cognitive reflection, AOT) may reduce misinformation belief through improved truth sensitivity, but is unlikely to affect belief driven by low acceptance threshold or myside bias
• Identifies a major gap in understanding individual differences in acceptance threshold and myside bias
• Provides evidence for general propensities to fall for misinformation across different content domains

This research suggests that while we understand what makes people better at distinguishing true from false information (truth sensitivity), we don't yet understand what makes some people have higher acceptance thresholds or show stronger myside bias.

Oh hey... here's what happens when you privatize the mail https://apnews.com/article/postnord-denmark-postal-service-mail-ce78db2f2234a50e676063fac790a617

He probably just didn't pay a bill and thinks that's an attack

I love my Hello Kitty game. It was originally called Hello Sweet Days and they changed it to the most unfortunate acronyms HKDV... Hello Kitty Dream Village. Yes I am a middle aged woman playing a Hello Kitty gacha game but I love it.

It does, doesn't it.

You have me beat. I think the sportiest car I ever had before this lil i4 was my Integra sport edition. I loved that car. It was bought used. My brother killed it... long story. I too wish we weren't weirdlt prejudice against Chinese EVs.