2026-05-13

Horseshit

• Teen Boys and Young Men Are Injecting Peptides in Search of Perfection

• Strange crystals found inside wreckage from the first nuclear bomb test

• Arts and cultural engagement 'linked to slower pace of biological ageing'

• Tech leaders propose UBI and shorter work week for AI; sounds familiar in Europe

• Adults relive the musical camaraderie of their youth at band camps for grown-ups

• Trying San Francisco's most experimental depression treatments

• How long do we wait for new inventions?

  For each invention, I asked Claude Opus 4.7 how much earlier it could have been invented. I specified “could a working example of this technology be built” as follows: I asked Claude to assume an inventor working in a well-equipped, era-appropriate workshop with a team of highly skilled engineers and craftsmen. Could they, using knowledge and technology available at the time, build a working example of the technology in five years?

• Why some mathematicians think we should abandon pi

• Leagues to be allowed one game abroad a season under new FIFA proposals

• The tipping point: what happens when deaths outnumber births?

• SpaceX and Google Are in Talks to Launch Data Centers in Orbit

• About 1,500 beagles from Wisconsin research facility sold to rescue group in Florida

Epstein

• Jes Staley Asked to Sit for US House Interview over Epstein Ties

celebrity gossip

• Sergey Brin’s ‘MAGA girlfriend’ denies pushing Google co-founder right: ‘If I could control him, I’d be married with a baby right now.’

• Steve Jobs U.S. Commemorative $1 Coin

Musk

• Ex-OpenAI exec Sutskever says he spent a year gathering proof of alleged Altman dishonesty

  • A consistent pattern of lying': trial exposes what insiders think of Sam Altman

  • Sam Altman takes the stand to testify in Musk suit: Live updates

  • Musk said control of OpenAI should go to his children, Sam Altman tells jury

• Elon Musk went to court. The judge wasn't amused

• SpaceX and Anthropic, xAI's Two Companies, Elon Musk and SpaceXAI's Future

• Elon Musk's Grok Is Losing Ground in AI Race

• Tesla's New AI Tech Could Save Lives, Thanks to Quicker Airbags

  • Tesla Says Its Vision AI Software Can Deploy Airbags Prior to Impact: Using its external cameras, the system can reportedly see when a crash is about to happen and start prepping the airbags a fraction of a second sooner.

• Once again, SpaceX has set a new record for the tallest rocket ever built

• Starlink users can be located and sometimes identified through terminal mapping

Electric / Self Driving cars

• People Who Don't Like People Are Making All of Our Decisions

• Waymo recalls 3,800 robotaxis over flood-risk software flaw

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• Unitree GD01: China's $537k rideable transformer robot is now in production

• Yarbo says it will remove the intentional backdoor from its robot lawn mower

• Humanoid robots to become baggage handlers in Japan airport experiment

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Google settles racial discrimination lawsuit for $50M

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Canvas hack: company pays criminals to delete students' stolen data

  • Instructure Reaches Deal with Hackers to Return Canvas User Data

  • Instructure Paid the Ransom

  • Canvas hack: Company pays criminals to delete students' stolen data

• UK Biobank breach prompts the field of genomics to rethink open science

• Harvard Students Furious over Plan to Crack Down on Grades

• There Is a Fire Sale on M.B.A.s

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Elsevier vs. Meta: first science publisher sues over scraped research papers

• Texas Attorney General Sues Netflix for Spying on Kids and Consumers

  • Texas accuses Netflix of spying on children in new lawsuit

  • Netflix sued by Texas AG for alleged surveillance, addictive features

• GM agrees to pay $12.75M in California driver privacy settlement

• Byron Allen Is Buying BuzzFeed, Will Become CEO

• Police shut down reboot of Crimenetwork marketplace, arrest admin

• Month over month: Sales data from Korea indicates that SSD prices are up 63% and memory prices up 29%.

• Linux Scheduler Work Helping Boost Gaming Performance on Old "Potato" Hardware

• Netflix spent over $135B on film, TV over last decade

• Meta Sued by California County over 'Scam' Advertisements

  • Meta Sued by Santa Clara County for Allegedly Enabling Billions of 'Scam' Ads

• Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract

  I love how they frame this as a developer trying to impersonate their app, when he's literally using the same AGPL-licensed code their Linux app uses. I find it doubly ironic since their own fork caused Bambu users' telemetry to hit Prusa's servers back in 2022, and (to my knowledge) Prusa didn't snap back with a C&D.

• Nearly 50 Years Later, WKRP in Cincinnati Becomes a Real Radio Station

• We're starting to get convincing counterfeit DDR5 modules

• Americans love their iPhones (though some wish they could live without them)

• Valve just imported 50 tons of game consoles in two days

• Short form video "clippers" are overrunning the internet

• Meta employees protest against mouse tracking tech at US offices

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Veteran network architect proposes IPv8 – to improve IPv4, not leapfrog v6

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Bright lights: UFO files shed light on sightings but leave interpretation

• DESI Completes Planned 3D Map of the Universe and Continues Exploring

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Anthropic's Mythos was greatest marketing stunt ever, says cURL creator

• Microsoft researchers find AI models and agents can't handle long-running tasks

• Amazon staff use AI tool for unnecessary tasks to inflate usage scores

  • Amazon employees are "tokenmaxxing" due to pressure to use AI tools

• OpenAI gives European companies access to its latest model GPT-5.5-Cyber

• AI coders are carrying half-open laptops through airports, offices, & ice rinks

• Google exec Mo Gawdat searches for ethical AI in alarming insider warning

• Big Tech Keeps Piling on AI Debt. Spending Is Set to Soar

• Microsoft's Kenya AI data center requires turning off power to half the country

  • Microsoft's $1B AI data center will "switch off half of Kenya"

• Parents say ChatGPT got their son killed with bad advice on party drugs

  • "Will I be OK?" Teen died after ChatGPT pushed deadly mix of drugs, lawsuit says

• AI Will Make the Academic Article Obsolete

• Five architects of the AI economy explain where the wheels are coming off

• Why Americans Dread AI

• After Deaths, Lawsuits Against A.I. Companies Test a New Strategy

• Samsung is upgrading its smart refrigerators with Google AI to recognize foods

  • Samsung is upgrading its smart refrigerators with Google AI to recognize foods

  • "I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you have the jelly donuts"

• Anthropic says newest lawyer tools are 'like giving an engineer a legal degree'

• The newest AI boom pitch: Host a mini data center at your home

  SPAN would take on responsibility for paying the electricity and Internet bills for each household while offering residents either a flat utility fee—the company floated the example of a $150 fee—or possibly no fee at all,

  SPAN’s main strategy is to tap into excess power capacity in each home, with 200 amps of electrical service capacity representing the standard for most modern US homes built in the last 30 years. “Virtually all homes with 200-amp utility services have 80 amps available at all times, so we set that as the maximum power consumption for a single XFRA node,” Lander said. He described how the XFRA nodes would “operate as always-on loads within verified residential capacity,” meaning they would run around the clock under normal circumstances.

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• Why you're probably going to lose money on Polymarket

Economicon / Business / Finance

• eBay Rejects GameStop's $55B Takeover Bid

  • eBay rejects GameStop's $56B takeover bid

  • eBay rejects GameStop's takeover bid

  • GameStop's $55.5B bid for eBay rejected as 'neither credible nor attractive'

  • eBay Rejects GameStop's $56B Takeover as Not Credible

• $70 Should Be the Most Worrying Number for LNG

• America is experiencing a productivity miracle

• US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

  • US consumer prices rise 3.8% as Iran war sends energy prices rapidly higher

• Snack giant makes mono(chrome) move due to Middle East conflict

  A very visible impact of the ongoing Middle East conflict is set to hit shelves in Japan, as snack giant Calbee switches from distinctive colourful packs to black-and-white packaging on some of its lines due to ink supply issues. The Japanese headquartered group announced today (12 May) that it would temporarily revise the packaging specifications on some of its products “in response to supply instability affecting certain raw materials amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East”.

  • The Iran War Is Taking the Color Out of Japan's Best-Known Snack Bags

  • Snack giant switches to black and white packaging as Iran war hits ink supplies

• Enron for the whole country: CME to Create Futures Market for Computing Power Backing AI

• Nvidia is buying the chip supply chain

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• I Helped Craft the 25th Amendment. It Was Never Meant to Oust a President

  Adopted in 1967 in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the amendment was designed not as a tool of removal, but as a practical framework to ensure continuity of presidential power. Its purpose is limited and precise: to address presidential inability and fill a vacancy in the vice presidency. It was not meant to address political dissatisfaction with a president.

• PayPal Reaches $30M Pact with Justice Department over Minority Funding

  PayPal agreed to forgo approximately $30 million in transaction fees to end a Justice Department probe into allegations that the financial services company had adopted unlawful preferences for minority-owned businesses. Justice Department officials had been investigating whether the company violated a federal civil rights law that prohibits creditors from discriminating against applicants based on race.

Trump

• However you feel about their creator, TrumpIRAs are sorely needed.

• Trump says US FDA Commissioner Makary is out

  • FDA chief resigns after Trump admin forced approval of fruity e-cigs

Democrats

• Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice leaves Democratic Party over antisemitism concerns.

  Justice David Wecht, who was elected to the court as a Democrat in 2015, said in a statement he is switching his party affiliation to independent due to an “acquiescence to Jew-hatred” becoming “disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party.” “I can no longer abide this. So, I won’t,” Wecht said. “I am no longer registered within any political party.”

• The Shadow Cabinet of Soros. Inside the Soros-Funded Nonprofit That Hand-Picked Biden’s National Security Team, Then Pretended to Dissolve.

Left Angst

• 1 in 4 Americans think White House correspondents’ dinner shooting was staged

• Trump-style war on windmills spreads across Europe

• Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

  • Democrats apparently don't find rampant fraud and illegal acts like stealing the nonprofit problematic.

  • Oversight chair seeks info from OpenAI's Altman re potential financial conflicts

• The gutting of USAID has left a void China will not fill

  • Yes, the Anti-American forces world wide have fallen on hard times; Iran can't afford them, Russia is busy, China already has their own stable... Time to learn to code!

• In Trump administration battle over AI, U.S. spy agencies seek more power

• ICE Agents Have List of 20M People on Their iPhones Thanks to Palantir

• Thomas Massie Has Always Been a Pain in the Ass

  Massie, Trump fumed, has been “disloyal to the Republican Party. He’s disloyal to the people of Kentucky, and most importantly, he is disloyal to the United States of America. And he’s got to be voted out of office as soon as possible.” Trump urged voters to support his hand-picked challenger, former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who jumped on stage to pump Trump’s hand and lead cheers of “USA! USA!” What had the seven-term congressman done to become “the worst person”? First and foremost, he worked with Democrats to force the Justice Department to make good on Trump’s campaign promise to release the Epstein files— documents that exposed Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to some of the world’s ultrarich, notably Trump himself. But that’s only part of it. Over the past year, the MIT-educated engineer has been the lone Republican in Congress willing to challenge a vengeful president. Now he’s locked in a nasty and expensive primary that has been framed as a referendum on Trump’s sinking popularity. But the results on May 19 may have as much to do with the conflict between Massie and his state’s Republican establishment. “He’s at the front lines of trying to define what kind of party it’s going to be,” said Stephen Voss, a political science professor at the University of Kentucky.

  • When Massie says principled things that DON'T agree with the Leftist agenda he's as much a Nazi etc to these folks as any other Republican.

• Trump Moves to Open National Parks, Other Federal Lands, to More Hunting

• We're still talking about the Trump phone

• There's an Unhinged New Video Game About Trump and the Iran War

  The game, Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell, was developed by Secret Handshake, an anonymous group of artists behind a handful of satirical works mocking the Trump administration. The group previously installed a gold statue of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein on the National Mall; it portrayed Trump holding onto Epstein in a pose reminiscent of Jack and Rose from the movie Titanic. The game is available to play online, but three fully functional arcade cabinets are currently installed at the Washington, DC, War Memorial and will remain there for the next few days, Secret Handshake said in a press release on Monday.

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Complaints About Iran War Leaks Prompt Aggressive DOJ Investigations

• Eileen Wang, Mayor of Arcadia, accused of acting as Chinese agent

  The mayor of Arcadia admitted to acting as an illegal foreign agent of China, resigning from her position in a shocking federal plea deal unsealed on Monday. Eileen Wang agreed with prosecutors that she worked with the People’s Republic of China to boost propaganda with a fake news website on US soil between 2020 and 2022. She was elected to Arcadia City Council in November 2022 — the city is located in the San Gabriel Valley within LA County. Wang, 58, worked with her then fiancé, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, on a web site called “U.S. News Center,” which claimed to be news source for Chinese Americans, according to court documents. But in reality the pair were carrying out Beijing’s orders through the site.

  • Arcadia, CA, Mayor Federally Charged with Acting as Illegal Agent of PRC, Pleads

  • California Mayor Resigns, Admitting to Being an Agent for China

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Cheap Missiles, Not Drones, Will Win the Next Air War

• US in closely-guarded talks to open new bases in Greenland

• US budget watchdog estimates Golden Dome will cost $1.2T

• Supermicro and the ghost of Chinagate: The evolution of a multinational scam

World

• EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids

• Europe to block Microsoft, Amazon, and Google from handling government data

• EU weighs restricting use of U.S. cloud platforms to process sensitive gov data

• How driving test booking is changing for learner drivers

• Lambo Fury as Green councilor proudly posts footage of himself driving gas guzzling Lamborghini days after his election — despite his party’s ‘war on motorists.’

• The Most Surprising Capitalist Makeover Is Under Way in Sweden

• Meta loses court fight over compensation to Italian publishers

• EU takes aim at TikTok, Meta's 'addictive designs' for teens

• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces growing calls to quit.

• JP Morgan to scrap £3B London HQ if Starmer is replaced by PM 'hostile to banks'

Iran / Houthi

• UK to send drones, jets and warship to join defensive mission securing Hormuz

Israel

• Israel Turned Eurovision's Stage into a Soft Power Tool

  • How to Win Eurovision with Just a Few Hundred Voters

• Tens of thousands of pedophiles operate in Israel every year

• Microsoft fires head of Israeli subsidiary over surveillance of Palestinians

• Sexual violence was 'systematic, integral' to Hamas-led October 7 terror assault, study finds

  • New report details ‘systematic’ rape and sexual violence during Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on Israel

• counter propaganda: The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• A Russian ship may have been carrying submarine nuclear reactors to North Korea

  • Russian ship that sank may have been carrying nuclear reactors to North Korea

• Anti-Drone "Cope Cage" Appears on Russian Patrol Boat

• Ukraine's Weirdest Front Line

China

• Chinese AI engineers are Silicon Valley's new power players

• China knows that governing new tech can be harder than inventing it

Health / Medicine

• A $440k Breast Reduction: How Drs Cashed in on Legislation and Arbitration

• An 'Impossible' Idea Led to a Pancreatic Cancer Breakthrough

• Alzheimer's drugs offer little benefit, major review finds

• Common lab tests reveal 16 blood biomarkers associated with PTSD

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Hantavirus outbreak exposes uncertainty about how disease spreads

• Cruise-ship hantavirus cluster exposes a wider preparedness gap

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Earthworms Don't Bio-Accumulate Microplastics, So There May Be Hope for Us

• Scientists Gave 'Aggressive' Fish Psychedelic Drugs. A Breakthrough Came Next

• Toxic sewage tsunami racing toward US coast threatens wealthy beach towns

• Could an El Niño this year match an 1877 event that killed millions?

• Channelized topography amplifies melt-sensitivity of cold Antarctic ice shelves

• Microplastics turn up in nearly every human brain sample

• The Tonga Volcano Cleaned Up After Itself

• Scientists Confirm 'Brain-Eating Amoeba' Is Widespread Yellowstone Grand Teton