2026-08-07

Horseshit

• I Didn't Realize How Addicted I Was to My Phone–Until I Went to Prison

• It's Easier Than Ever to Fly Private Without Your Own Jet

• Marmots facing money troubles turn to OnlyFans

• Two simple tests to see how your fitness compares with Elite older athletes

• I Went to a 'Torture Party' with Polyamorous Bay Area Rationalists

• MetroCard Vending Machine and MetroCard Express Machine auction

  New York City Transit is auctioning a limited quantity of MetroCard Vending Machines and MetroCard Express Machines. There are a limited number of machines available through this auction, so we encourage anyone interested in owning a piece of transit history to read this information, and submit a bid soon. The auction opens on Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 8 a.m. Offers must be received by Wednesday, August 19, 2026 at 8 p.m.

• Microsoft's Quantum Chief Doesn't Care That Scientists Don't Believe His Results

• The new science of brain workouts

• Same Shoe, Different Factory: Who Makes Your Running Shoes

  There is no private equity firm to point a finger at in this story. No debt, no flip, no rollup. It starts with a foam innovation in the mid-1970s that moved the part of the shoe that wears out from the outside, where a cobbler could replace it, to the inside, where it cannot be repaired and often cannot even be seen. Within a generation, that one change caused an entire industry to abandon control over how its own product is made. Inside a generation, the category moved from a quality item to a disposable one. For those of us that care about quality and pride on the part of the producer in their work, that transition was stark. We now replace running shoes on a schedule. We do not argue with the schedule, we do not try to fix them, and for most of us it has never occurred to us that we could.

• Dietitians Warn Against the Cabbage Soup Diet: Here’s Why It’s Not Healthy.

• Why 'super movers' have healthier brains – and how to be one

• The American Art of Blowing Stuff Up

celebrity gossip

• Getting old isn't fun: George RR Martin about depression amid further book delay

• ZZ Top Cancel Hollywood Bowl Concert Due to 'Insurmountable Obstacles'

Musk

• Data shows just how hard Tesla's Cybertruck has flopped

• SpaceX claims Starlink Mobile will be better than AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon

• Elon Musk's attempt at an AI Wikipedia hasn't been updated in months

  • Grokipedia stopped updating three months ago

• Investors are having doubts about Elon Musk's grandiose ambitions

• The Investors Whose SpaceX Shares Vanished Before They Could Cash In

• Nikita Bier steps down as X's head of product

• SpaceX wants to launch next Starship this month and catch it, too, Elon Musk says

• Cashing in on SpaceX: 'Every chance I get, I'll sell a little more'

• SpaceX, Tesla to initially spend $16.8B on Terafab chip plant in Texas

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Self-driving taxis cleared for London streets 'later this summer'

• Teamsters sue California over self-driving truck rules

Robot uprising / Humanoid Helpers

• MIT unveils a robot that flies and swims

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• A study of Norwegian conscripts found 20th century IQ gains reversed after 1975

• Star Scholar Resigns as Cambridge Announces Investigation into His Record

  • I was reported to police over the Arday case. I was just doing my job

• Mathematicians make a breakthrough on Gauss's riddle, unsolved for 200 years

• DOJ Says Duke Law School Discriminated in Admissions

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• All 8 Flock cameras in Winona, Minnesota cut down and missing

• Sell recordings into the kink market too: Apple Vision Pro as a wearable display for endoscopic surgical procedures

• Video game maker EA bought by Saudi-led group for $55B

  • EA to pay $1.8B in interest annually on buy-out debt

• Reddit is introducing new moderator:AI, also planning big changes for old Reddit

  • Reddit signals ominous upcoming "changes" for old.reddit.com

• Thousands of servers can be backdoored by exploiting buggy motherboard controllers - Ars Technica

  Researchers have warned since at least 2013 that BMCs present a golden opportunity for hackers looking for ways to gain deep and persistent access to datacenters.

• China's CXMT aims to have 30% of global DRAM market share by 2030.

• Inside the Coke-Fueled Rise and Fall of VICE

• Restaurants, pubs and theatres ban Meta's 'spy glasses' over privacy fears

• A Look Back at the First Website Ever Launched, 30 Years Later

• BMW Owners Angry 'Spider-Man: New Day' Ads Are Suddenly in Their Cars

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• telephones caught in between

  "Universal Service," is a key point around which telecom policy pivots even today. As the telephone system was at its apex, Universal Service became its undoing.

• Calculus-Free PID (Almost) In A Spreadsheet

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Unprecedented images may explain one of greatest mysteries of the sun

• Mars dust is toxic. How will future astronauts deal with it?

• Blue Origin narrowing in on root cause of catastrophic rocket accident

• America is finally taking extraterrestrials seriously

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Meta AI model hacks another company during testing

  • Meta says AI model accessed the internet and hacked another firm

  • Meta latest to tell world its AI agent wandered out of test pen

  • Meta says its AI model hacked into another company during testing

  • An AI model from Meta also hacked another company during testing

  • OpenAI gives first detailed debrief of the Hugging Face incident at Black Hat

  • OpenAI models shared hacking tips on a messaging board before HuggingFace breach

  • OpenAI agents rebuilt a secret message board after the company shut it down

  • OpenAI Didn't Notice Its AI Agents Using Message Board to Plan Hacking Spree

  • Who's legally to blame for Anthropic and OpenAI's autonomous AI hacks?

  • OpenAI Models Joined Forces Months Ahead of Hugging Face Hack

  • Should AI labs be treated like the owners of dangerous animals?

  • OpenAI hacking incident exposes mounting risks in AI arms race

  • AI agents fake identities, target real people in new security incident.

  • AI models have been going rogue in tests – how worried should we be?

  • OpenAI's models schemed on a secret messaging board for Hugging Face breach

• Artificial Intelligence used to design new viruses

  • AI creates first synthetic viruses

  • Safety fears as scientists make first viruses designed by AI

  • AI can now design functional viruses – not the computer kind, either

  • Large genome models used to design new viruses

  • AI Creates Bacteria-Killing Viruses: 'Extreme Caution' Warns Genome Pioneer

• Jeff Dean and other top AI researchers are leaving Google to launch own startups

  • Google is expanding its AI empire – and losing the people who built it

  • Google Shifts AI Leadership to California in Race Against Anthropic, OpenAI

  • Opinion: Demis Hassabis' new role exposes Google's AI balancing act

  • Google shifts AI power back to Brin as DeepMind's Hassabis steps aside

• Banks to offload $15B of debt for Anthropic data centre backed by Google

• Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

  • Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

• Governments are making a dangerous bet on the AI boom

• Should Researchers Write Papers for AI Instead of People?

• OpenAI says Apple's trade secrets lawsuit is 'rotten to its core'

• Time Magazine has a separate version of its website with ads only AI can see

• Anthropic is hiring an AI chip design team

• Claude Fable 5 finds a tiny formula that topples an 87-year-old math conjecture

• Train the AI to Want to Die

• Someone Is Mysteriously Snapping Up Used Books Around the World

• Silicon Valley Splits over Closing the Borders to Chinese A.I

• Nobody Asked for AI

• Mark Zuckerberg Blasts Centralization of A.I. Power

• Shopify shares soar as AI efforts begin to pay off

• Trump's Vision for A.I. Dominance Comes with Major Air Pollution

• DeepSeek Plans 'Significant' Price Increase for Its AI Services

  • DeepSeek warns of a 'significant' price rise

• Meta's Muse Spark is joining the increasingly crowded AI coding space.

• Microsoft's AI Sales Mostly Come from OpenAI, Disclosures Show

• Shopify says AI search is driving more traffic and sales, not replacing Google

• AI isn't enough to protect social media communities from AI

• After fierce backlash, Georgia freezes new data center projects through year

• Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

• Hollywood is entering its AI era

• OpenAI makes major upgrades for free and paid ChatGPT users

• AI poster win at Ohio State Fair ignites backlash, rule change

• OpenAI researcher Naomi Bashkansky resigns to build AI that can read thoughts

• Anthropic will design its own hardware to power Claude

• OpenAI's New Device Will Be Hockey Puck-Sized and Cost over $300

  • OpenAI's ring-shaped smart speaker will reportedly cost between $300 and $400

• OpenAI's latest math breakthroughs commit research misconduct, experts say

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Workers speak out against growing screen time surveillance

• Biggest US law firms explore selling stakes to private equity

• Employers are hiring less but paying more

• US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

• Alphabet Lures Investors to Mega Bond Deal with High Premiums

• Bank of America Spends $250M a Year on GLP-1 Drugs for Their Employees

• Who will buy baby boomers' houses? The question that could shape the 2030s

• FAA orders inspection of 737 MAX jets for cracks

• Hackers using calls, websites, meticulous tactics targeting US financial firms

• Why So Many C.E.O.s Are Getting a Chief of Staff

• Kevin Warsh to stick with lean Fed messaging despite market backlash

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Senate Panel Has Obtained Copy of Fauci's Cellphone

  • Senate Panel Votes to Hold Fauci in Contempt for Refusing to Answer Questions - WSJ

  Senators voted 8-5 on the resolution, along party lines, which was brought by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s chairman, Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.). It seeks to refer the case directly to the Justice Department for potential prosecution, bypassing a vote from the full Senate, where Republicans would be unlikely to meet a 60-vote threshold to advance the resolution.

  • Senate committee votes to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress, seeking to bypass floor vote with DOJ referral

  • Anthony Fauci Held in Contempt of Congress

  As expected, the vote broke along party lines, with every Republican on the committee backing the contempt charge.

  • US Senate panel votes to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress over Covid hearing

• Federal appeals court OKs Florida anti-drag show law

• Too kinky for TV: Celebrity culture is one thing. For TMZ, Congress is the new 'reality show'

• Mitch McConnell released from rehabilitation center after June fall.

Trump

• Bessent Declares Widening Gap Between Rich and Poor 'Dead'

• Trump again tries to limit US birthright citizenship with new executive orders

Democrats

• Moderate Democrats Prepare for 'War' Against an Ascendant Left

Left Angst

• Trump Has Called Warsh Repeatedly Since He Became Fed Chair

• DHS Wants Protesters' Signal Group Chats

• Truth Social's Early-Access Scheme Is Indefensible

• The Once-Shameless President Is Deeply Embarrassed

• Thomson Reuters Employees Demand That ICE "Leave Our Cities"

• 'Sell America' Debate Re-Emerges as US Policies Sow Doubts

• 'Every dollar is mobile': California's rich snap up New Zealand 'golden visas'

• How Americans View Capitalism, Socialism and Free Enterprise

• Tucker Carlson unveils 10-point manifesto amid third-party speculation

• Trump's tech ties blamed for AI inaction by MAGA Republicans and Democrats

• Palmer Luckey's political fundraising as his company wins sole-source contracts

• Former Federal Prosecutors to Senate: Stop Confirming Election Deniers as Judges

  Not a single one of Trump’s second-term court picks would say in their Senate hearing that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election. Not one. They also routinely dodge questions about January 6

  • The only elections above reproach are those the Democrats win.

• Trump Admin Hijacked $21B in Internet Access Funding and Then Went Mute

• SoftBank donated $50M to Trump's library before federal data center deal

• New Melania Trump series coming to Amazon Prime after losses for documentary

• Trump FCC kills TV ownership cap, claiming authority over limit set by Congress

  • Federal Communications Commission scraps limit on broadcast TV ownership

  • US agency ends 39% household cap on local TV station owners

• Trump's Iran dilemma: He's stuck in war with no exit in sight

• Cynicism and Naïveté in the Summer of a Thousand Fires

  I've been moved by how in this dire moment, so many people turn out to care deeply about truth, justice, equality, human rights, nature, and a lot of other things that have put them in active opposition to the deep selfishness of the Trump Administration and the far right and the oligarchy backing them. Over a much longer timespan, a minority of people have demonstrated their commitment to the well-being of the earth itself by becoming climate scientists, activists, donors, and educators. A lot of people care about the well-being of the whole. Not all of us, of course. Because there is no one human nature.

  • the "well being of the whole" brooks no dissent, and is perfectly defined by the leftist dogma du jour...

• Airlines Push Back Against ICE Enforcement at Airports

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Hacks on U.S. Water Supply Follow Years of Warnings and Neglect

• California Man Is Kidnapped Then Executed in Front of Police

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Pentagon draws up new nuclear weapons strategy for war with Russia and China

• Rebuilding U.S. Missile Inventory: A Multiyear Project

• US Military GPS jamming exercise suspected of contributing to plane crash

• Sailors on USS Lincoln outside Iran are exhausted and suffering from poor morale

World

• Congo bans exports of copper, cobalt concentrates

• Explosive drone at German airport raises new danger, minister says

• Britain will soon be Europe's energy powerhouse

• France is banning unsolicited telemarketing calls starting next week

• Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

• Thousands of migrants, including more than 860 minors, remain in Ceuta | Euronews

  Juan Vivas, the president of Ceuta, estimates that between 3,000 and 5,000 migrants remain in the city four days after the mass influx from Morocco.

• UK wants datacenters to pay a fee for grid connection requests

• A Mystery Avenger Escalates a War Against Scotland's Parking Police

• Facebook is paying controversial creators to produce rage-bait content

  Hugo Lennon is a far-right agitator who was formally moved on by Victoria Police for shouting profanities and racist abuse at Narendra Modi at a Melbourne hotel. He has been receiving revenue through Facebook's "Content Monetization" program since September 2025.

• The impact of nonlinear child costs on Switzerland's birthrate

• Why police raided Starbucks Korea's headquarters

• Westminster Council suggests restrictions on standing at Soho and West End pubs

• Civilians under siege by Mexican cartel fight back with AK-47s, grenades

Iran / Houthi

• Iran warns Gulf states: tell Trump to desist or we hit you hard

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Germany Thwarts Russian Plot to Assassinate CEO of Drone Supplier to Ukraine

  To organize the attacks, Russian intelligence services recruited operatives online. Initially, Sergei N. monitored Stefan Thumann, but after he fled abroad, the intelligence-gathering effort was continued by Romanian citizen Alla S. Investigators have not ruled out that Russia was preparing another assassination attempt against a senior defense industry executive in Bavaria. This possibility was indicated by the discovery of explosives on June 11 at the Serbian-Hungarian border in a truck heading to the German region. Serbian police arrested two men in connection with the case — Danilo B. and Slobodan D. During checks of their mobile phones, investigators found direct contacts with Russian intelligence representatives.

• Putin signs landmark crypto law allowing regulated retail trading in Russia

China

• China Is Building a Blue Granary

• In China gas engine became a "marketing decoration" for customer's reassurance

• China's AI drive threatens the largest workforce

• Why China's A.I. Models Could Threaten the Communist Party

Health / Medicine

• FDA approves first mRNA flu shot, from Moderna

• Half of vaccines are binned – 'fridge-free' versions could change that

• Qdoba Pulls Jalapenos as US Officials Probe Salmonella Outbreak

• Whether you are first-born or not may influence what diseases you get

  First-born children are more likely than their siblings to develop mental health problems later in life, a groundbreaking new study suggests. Previous studies have indicated that younger siblings tend to suffer lower rates of some diseases, like allergies, likely due to older brothers or sisters bringing in more microbes into their homes.

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Cyclospora outbreak follows years-long pattern of Taylor Farms deflecting blame

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Calico vs. Tortoiseshell: Feds Continue with Plan to Save Spotted Owls by Killing Nearly 500k Other Owls

• The Green War: Fighting to Save South Africa's Stolen Succulents

• Atlantic hurricane season is looking like a dud

• Black lung rates in Appalachia are high as the 1970s, thousands of miners sick

• 'Only one conclusion': study suggests life on Earth arose twice

• The crisis of Europe's disappearing rivers

• 280 snakes killed at 2026 Florida Python Challenge

  The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) announced the results of this year’s Florida Python Challenge, which featured 907 participants from 30 states as well as Vietnam and Canada. Over 10 days, hunters scoured locations like Everglades National Forest to remove as many Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) as possible in an effort to promote ongoing mitigation efforts against the destructive invasive species. Challenge participants collectively removed a total of 280 snakes from south Florida,

• The Danube River's water is dropping so low that World War II ships are emerging

• Sticky or slippery? Snails can change their slime to meet the moment