2025-12-09

Horseshit

• I tried 'blood cleaning', the latest wellness fad

• Lost Vegas: inside America's most flailing destination city

• Nighttime exposure to light may raise cardiovascular risk by up to 50%

• Indian boy, aged 3, becomes youngest rated chess player in history

• Earth needs energy. Atlanta's Super Soaker creator may have a solution

• Funerary figurines found in royal tomb identifies Pharoah

• Ancient dirty dishes reveal decades of questionable findings

  An interdisciplinary team of Cornell researchers – ranging from classicists to food scientists to engineers – has determined that organic residues of plant oils are poorly preserved in calcareous soils from the Mediterranean. This means decades of archaeologists have likely misidentified olive oil in ceramics, failing to recognize other plant oils or perhaps mistaking them for animal fat.

• Why We're Treating Dogs Like People and People Like Dogs

• Reality Exists Without Observers? Boooo

• How Pokémon cards became a stock market for millennials

• Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic

• A 'toaster with a lens': The story behind the first handheld digital camera

• Lance Armstrong on Chicago-Based Schwinn

• Oseberg longship, built by Vikings, completes its final voyage

• Why Hyundai Has to Recall Only Silver Cars over a Serious Safety Defect

  recalls can be a fascinating window into the world of car design. Faults or malfunctions that no one could have anticipated are uncovered due to a combination of parts that no one ever thought to test together. That’s exactly what’s happened here, going by this recall from Genesis. The company’s big-boy G90 sedan has been recalled due to a phantom braking fault in its assisted driving software. But the problem only occurs in cars painted a specific shade of silver. t wasn’t a faulty sensor or rogue software that was causing the issue, as is the case with a lot of these phantom braking incidents. Hyundai soon discovered that the aluminum used in its Savile Silver paint was screwing up the radars in its front bumper. In the grand scheme of recalls, this is pretty funny. This is basically the equivalent of an animal seeing itself in the mirror and scaring the bejeezus out of itself.

• Is Gen X the Greatest Generation?

• Tech elites are starting their own for-profit cities

• Las Vegas is in trouble. Everyone has a theory about why.

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Bots, bias, and bunk: How can you tell what's real on the net?

Musk

• Europe's Foolish War on X.com

• Twitter Claims It Banned the EC's Ad Account. The EC Hadn't Used Ads for 2 Years

• Elon Musk appeared on EU Parliament employee list with internal email address

• Tesla Optimus robot takes a suspicious tumble in new demo

• EU says it will 'make sure' Elon Musk's X pays €120M fine

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Waymo's self-driving cars passed stopped school buses

• Waymo self-driving cars in 'standoff' cause traffic jam in San Francisco

• Northern California's largest non-Tesla fast charging hub: now online in Oakland

• Are EV Drivers at Risk from Radiation? A New Study Has the Answers

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• The Vatican returns sacred artifacts held for a century to Indigenous owners

• Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

• Is There a Religious Revival Among Young US Adults?

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• 42% of student loan borrowers say bills make it harder to cover basic needs

• Nearly 60% of Last Year's Graduates Still Haven't Landed Their First Job

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Paramount Makes Hostile Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery

  • Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery despite Netflix deal

  • Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

  • Paramount Attempts Hostile Offer for Warner Bros

  • Paramount Makes Hostile Takeover Bid for Warner After Netflix Struck Deal

  • Paramount makes $108.4B hostile bid for WB

  • Paramount Makes Hostile Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery

  • Paramount bids $18B more for Warner Bros than Netflix

  • Paramount gatecrashes Warner Bros-Netflix deal with $108B hostile bid

  • Jared Kushner is part of Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery

  • A Bidding War for Warner Bros

• Netflix Considered Buying EA

• Netflix Makes Itself Less Useful, Removes Casting with No Explanation

• How would your feed look if you got to control what you saw on social media?

• Apple Taps Meta Lawyer as General Counsel in Latest Shake-Up

• Apple's chip boss squashes exit rumors, says he's not leaving the company

• How the Creator Economy Destroyed the Internet

• Researcher finds Chinese KVM has undocumented microphone,communicates with China

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• To boost research, states are building their own AI-ready supercomputers

• Google is experimentally replacing news headlines with AI clickbait nonsense

• AI Art Is Weird, Sad, and Ugly. Let's Not Pretend Otherwise

• Why IBM's CEO doesn't think current AI tech can get to AGI

• Geoffrey Hinton says Google is 'beginning to overtake' OpenAI

• The AI-Fication of Cyberthreats

• The Collapse of Trust in AI Assistants

• The power crunch threatening America's AI ambitions

• An EU startup just beat Nvidia in AI hardware

• Samsung's recent AI ad spam crushes creativity, and the irony is stunning

• Artificial intelligence research has a slop problem

• Stanford PhD dropout hired Meta's brightest minds to join AI math startup

• NY judge orders ChatGPT conversation handover in newspaper copyright win

• Critical flaws found in AI development tools have been dubbed an "IDEsaster".

• AI-powered police body cameras tested on Canadian city's 'watch list' of faces

• The Accounting Uproar over How Fast an AI Chip Depreciates

• The era of AI persuasion in elections is about to begin

• CoreWeave Has Slumped on Debt Concerns. It Is Issuing More Convertible Bonds

• Microsoft has a problem: nobody wants to buy or use its shoddy AI products

• Google Tells Advertisers It'll Bring Ads to Gemini in 2026

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Former NASA chief says US needs to start over with moon landing plans

• NASA Analysis Shows Sun's Activity Ramping Up

• Congress warned that NASA's current plan for Artemis "cannot work"

Crypto con games

• Married millennials, here comes the crypto divorce cliff

• How a Cryptocurrency Helps Criminals Launder Money and Evade Sanctions

Economicon / Business / Finance

• IBM nears $11B deal to acquire Confluent

  • IBM to Acquire Confluent for $11B

  • IBM Nears Roughly $11B Deal for Confluent

  • Confluent stock soars 29% as IBM announces $11B acquisition deal

• Palantir Could Be the Most Overvalued Company That Ever Existed

• JPMorgan names Berkshire's Todd Combs to lead new investment initiative

• Uber starts selling ride/eats data to marketers

• Health insur. premiums rose nearly 3x rate of worker earnings over past 25 years

Trump

• Trump raises potential concerns over $72B Netflix-Warner Bros deal

• Trump to issue order creating national AI rule

  • POTUS says he will sign 'One Rule' executive order to federalize AI regulation

Left Angst

• Why U.S. senator in top Intel post wants more spying on Chinese companies

• CDC advisory panel delays vote on hepatitis B vaccines

• Survivors Clung to Wreckage for Some 45 Minutes Before U.S. Military Killed Them

• How to Leave the U.S.A.

• App That Tracks ICE Raids Sues U.S., Saying Officials Pressured Apple to Remove

  • ICEBlock app sues Trump administration for censorship and 'unlawful threats'

• Trump EPA Nearly Doubles Amount of Formaldehyde Considered Safe to Inhale

• Is This the End of the Free World?

  There was a time, not so long ago, when America was the leader of the free world. It was the first among equals within an alliance of nations bound together by shared values — above all a commitment to democracy and civil liberties. From London to Berlin to Tokyo, in the aftermath of genocide and the utter devastation of World War II, America – as Ronald Reagan put it – was the shining city on the hill. We should never forget that Americans played the pivotal roles in the Nuremberg trials, upholding the rule of law in an impartial and transparent manner in the trials of those who had committed unspeakable atrocities and acts of war. “Ich bin ein Berliner,” declared John F. Kennedy in Berlin, as East Germany tried to trap its own people behind the Berlin Wall. MAGA, however, doesn’t want to be part of that world. In fact, it doesn’t want a world of democracy, civil liberties and the rule of law to exist. The Trump administration has become especially hostile to Europe, precisely because the Europeans are trying to hold on to the values MAGA is trying to destroy at home.

• A Strategy That Ignores the Real Threats

• Wash Post: "Trump's Attack on DEI May Hurt College Men, Particularly White Men"

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Cold Case Inquiries Hampered After Ancestry.com Revisits Terms of Use

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Intuitive Machines–known for its Moon landers–will become a military contractor

• U.S. to allow export of H200 chips to China

  • Trump greenlights Nvidia H200 AI chip sales to China, says Xi responded pos

  • Trump Clears Sale of More Powerful Nvidia A.I. Chips to China

  • Trump Says U.S. Will Allow Nvidia H200 Chip Sales to China, Get 25% Cut

  • Nvidia can sell H200 chips to China for 25% U.S. share

• Overmatched: Why the US Military Needs to Reinvent Itself

• The U.S. Gave Mexico a List of Russian Spies. Mexico Let Them Stay

• The Military Almost Got the Right to Repair. Lawmakers Just Took It Away

World

• Keep hitting US Big Tech with fines, Europe's Greens tell von der Leyen

• India weighs greater phone-location surveillance; Apple, Google, Samsung protest

• Brighton ban Guardian from stadium over reporting on Tony Bloom

• UK government promises 50k new apprenticeships in youth employment push

• Thailand launches airstrikes at Cambodia as border tensions reignite | Reuters

  • Thailand Launches Airstrikes on Cambodia

• Ancient Egyptian pleasure boat found by archaeologists off Alexandria coast

• Removing juries: 'A move towards an authoritarian state'

• Strong earthquake hits northern Japan, tsunami warning issued

  • Magnitude 7.2 quake strikes off Japan's northern coast, triggers a tsunami alert

• EU Says Meta Will Change Ads Policy After €200M Fine

  • Facebook and Instagram will let European users see fewer personal ads

  • Meta commits to give EU users choice on personalised ads under DMA

  • Instagram and Facebook Users in Europe Get Option of Sharing Less Data

• Saudi Arabia Will Sell You Alcohol Now, If You're Rich Enough

• European Council president warns US not to interfere in Europe's affairs

Israel

• Israel's biggest defence company suspended by NATO amid corruption probe

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russia Loses Launch Capability After Accident at Baikonur Cosmodrome

• Putin Wanted AI Supremacy. Now Russia Is Struggling to Stay in the Race

• Russian authorities have imposed restrictions on FaceTime

China

• China's exports top expectations on strong sales to non-US markets

• The Kenyan Workers Training China's AI Models

• Chinese phonemakers seize on Apple's AI struggles

• China's Trade Surplus Climbs Past $1T for First Time

• Get Ready, America: Here Come China's Food and Drink Chains

Health / Medicine

• Why Leftover Pizza Might Be Healthier

• Deaths and injuries are linked to faulty Abbott glucose monitors

• Noninvasive imaging could replace finger pricks for measuring blood glucose

• New Jersey looks to create hallucinogenic mushroom research program

• Cancer is surging, bringing a debate about whether to look for it

• Trials avoid high risk patients and underestimate drug harms

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• FDA claims Covid vaccine caused kids' deaths. Experts are skeptical

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Queensland Museum accused of misleading teachers and children about climate

  Queensland Museum has been accused of misleading teachers and children about the root cause of the climate crisis through a multimillion-dollar education partnership with one of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies. Shell’s Queensland Gas Company has been sponsoring the museum’s Future Makers learning program since 2015 and produces teaching materials as well as running free professional development courses for teachers. But a review of the program’s climate change materials carried out by climate advocacy group Comms Declare claimed they ignore the root cause of the climate crisis: the burning of fossil fuels, including gas.

• The surprising countries pulling off fast clean energy transitions

• White storks to make historic return to London in 2026

• Weather radars used to count flying insects in the skies over the US

• Defunct Pennsylvania oil and gas wells may leak methane and metals into water

• More than 200 environmental groups demand halt to new US datacenters

• EU to weaken more environment reporting rules, draft document shows