2026-07-09

etc

• Boeing 737 cargo plane goes missing off Pakistan coast

• Buckling Manhattan high-rise deemed 'stable' for now after evacuations ordered

Horseshit

• What it's like to live in the most liveable cities in 2026

• San Francisco homes sell for $1M above asking price amid AI boom

• Low Birth Rate Risks Creating US Housing Glut over Coming Decade

• The male wellness guide to peptides

• It seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history

• America's support for capitalism has declined over last decade

• One of the Hardest Jobs in America. Millions Are Doing It Alone

• Pilot dies after jumping from plane leaving trainee to land it

• "Dante" documentary follows Colorado man's 500-mile run on psychedelics

• Horror movies begin like this: Lucky young couple lands gig taking care of uninhabited Irish island

• A New 'Little House' Expands and Updates the Prairie

• Are Argentina being treated favourably at World Cup?

celebrity gossip

• Valve's Gabe Newell continues spending his billions on an undersea armada

Musk

• SpaceX just launched the 1st-ever nuclear-powered commercial satellite.

• The space bit of SpaceX is worth $8 a share, says Morgan Stanley

• The robotaxi law that could ban Tesla

• US judge approves Elon Musk settlement with SEC despite misgivings, 'red flags'

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Waymo car delivers misbehaving teen passengers to San Mateo police

  • Two teens learn the hard way not to do toy gun drive-bys from a Waymo

• Waymo starts driverless rides in four more U.S. markets as expansion accelerates

• Companies must address self-driving car interference with emergency vehicles

Robot uprising / Humanoid Helpers

• Robots available for rent: But what can they do?

• How AI could enable autonomous robot workers in workplaces–and maybe homes

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• The LGBTQ Movement Just Found Out How Islamic Nations Actually Feel About Them

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• NYT calls University of California 'test-blind' admissions a 'terrible' mistake

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Meta says it's facing $1.4T in penalties in teen mental health case

  • Meta says US states are seeking $1.4T in penalties in August youth safety trial

  • Meta's Teen Safety Case Just Became a $1.4T Existential Threat

• Meta Now Lets Anyone Use Your Instagram Photos in AI Images–Unless You Opt Out

  • Outcry as Meta lets users make AI images from public Instagram profile pics

• Meta tests 'super sensing' AI glasses that can record every moment

  • Meta's glasses will turn off the camera if you tamper with the privacy light

• GitHub cuts short offer to burn repos on CD after mockery ensues

• 15-year-old arrested for unsubscribing over 40k anime accounts

• LG uses MS Store auto installs to show McAfee ads when connecting a new monitor

• Android phones will see more downgrades as RAMageddon rages on

• "Can We Make the Villain a White Guy?"

  This creates a problem dramatically: if we only have six main roles, AND half of them must be diverse, AND that diverse half needs to be fundamentally moral, well, the number of potential dramatic combinations becomes incredibly narrow. Let’s say we have six characters, one protagonist (who we know is good) and one antagonist (who we know is evil). In between are 4 characters who can switch sides. If each of those characters has a full moral range, i.e. can be good or evil, there are 2^4 potential combinations, or 16 potential outcomes. Now let’s say that two of those four characters are from marginalized groups and can only be represented as skilled, wise and good. That means we only have two characters who can flip, or 2^2, which gives us 4 potential outcomes.

• Flock Cameras Wrongly Tracked Me for Days over 'Stolen' Plates

• Discord admits AI moderation bug wrongfully banned users over harmless images

• Allstate Insurance quits Broadcom, alleges vengeful license audit on the way out

• A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Copy That Floppy – Cambridge guide for preserving data from fragile floppy disks

• What happens to your brain in space?

• Pi 5 Becomes ALSA-Compatible TOSLINK Sound Card

  At 48 kHz stereo, S/PDIF needs a 6.144 MHz half-bit stream. That is far too timing-sensitive for a normal Linux userspace GPIO loop, but it is a good fit for RP1 PIO + DMA.

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• ULA's last six Atlas Vs can't launch anything besides Boeing's Starliner

• Ex-NASA boss points out small flaw in Moon landing plan: No lander

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• The "Merge" with AI Has Begun

• Maine librarians are helping patrons resist AI and Big Tech

• China May Restrict Access to Its Most Powerful AI Models

• AI has taken over the stock market. The bond market is next

• Trump administration lifts restrictions on OpenAI's GPT 5.6

  • OpenAI to unveil GPT-5.6 on Thursday after delaying launch

• Hackers can use 9 of the most popular AI tools to assemble botnets

• AI is becoming a bargain hunter's market, with a few luxury models on top

• Oregon approves PGE's 29.7% rate hike for data centers under landmark law

• I Met with China's Top AI Experts. They're Freaking Out, Too

• China warns about AI risks with Anthropic's Claude Code

  • China Says It Has Found Security Vulnerabilities in Anthropic's Claude Code

• We Are Living in a 'ChatGPT Flyer Pandemic'

• BofA Saw OpenAI as Too Risky, but Now the Bank Wants to Cash in on IPO

• Amazon aims to raise $25B from bond sale

• Can AI equalize political campaign ads – or will it remain for spreading lies?

• Is AI making us dumber?

• Lawmakers probe growing use of Chinese AI models in U.S. companies

• 'Who Should I Vote For?' Voters Turn to A.I. Before Casting Their Ballots

• Pritzker signs Illinois bill aimed at artificial intelligence accountability

• In San Francisco, Some Home Sellers Now Ask for OpenAI or Anthropic Stock

• Microsoft joins AI cost-cutting trend by relying more on its own models

• Maybe Anthropic and OpenAI Are Not the Future of Artificial Intelligence

• AI is starting to replace humans in operations, analyst jobs

• China Is Abusing AI

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• New York can restrict sports gambling on prediction markets, US judge rules

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Chicago Fed launches a new consumer sentiment composite index

• Japan's borrowing costs soar to 30-year high on debt fears

• Egg producers will pay $3.3M and donate 53M eggs to settle price-fixing

• Half of Americans struggle to afford groceries and gas, exclusive poll finds

• JPMorgan, Bank of America and other banks explore a deal to shake up payments world

• A factory was severely short on workers. Then it offered flexible work

• A brewing battle: More IT workers want unions. The industry doesn't

• Europe's economy is a mess. Its stock markets are a steal

• Proposal would allow drivers to trade personal data for lower insurance rates

• Leveraged Stock ETFs Are as Stable as a Row of Dominoes

• More Workers Take Mental Health Leave, and Bosses Aren't Happy

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• MAGA demands Mitch McConnell 'proof of life' as wild rumor sweeps DC amid three-week hospitalization

  • Republican leaders say they talked to Mitch McConnell on Tuesday but no one believes them and now the memes have begun

Trump

• Trump orders a halt to US trade with Spain

• Jack Smith prosecutors may have mishandled classified docs after charging Trump with same offense 

Left Angst

• ICE sent officers to a man's home over an email. Now he's suing

• Founder of Adderall 'Pill Mill' Sentenced to Six Years in Prison

• DOGE Ended on July 4, but the Workers Whose Lives Musk Upended Are Still Reeling

• Vought: Trump admin won't do DOGE after-action report

• How Liberal Law School professors fueled rise of Federalist Society

• US Food and Drug Administration rejects petition to set PFAS limits in food

• Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold?

  Republicans who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 and deny the results of that election. The dividing line is the denial itself: the willingness to hold that an election was stolen in the absence of evidence. That single belief turns out to be a genetic marker. Everything else travels with it. The group is about 15 percent of American adults — roughly 38 million people. Yes, that many. Within it, about 30 percent strongly expect a civil war in the United States within a few years. Over half endorse the “great replacement” claim that native-born white people are being deliberately replaced by immigrants. Roughly a quarter affirm the core QAnon claim about Satan-worshipping elites controlling American institutions. Most disturbingly, nearly a third agree that having a strong leader matters more than having a democracy. And 58 percent consider political violence usually or always justified to achieve at least one specific political objective. Now, the finding inside the finding — the one that matters most and gets reported least: MAGA Republicans are not more willing than anyone else to personally commit violence. Read that again. They don’t want to throw the brick. They want someone else to throw the brick for them.

• Fifth Circuit Says Gov't Can Violate Migrants' Due Process Rights... For 90 Days

• The Trump admin is ramping up pressure on states to change election practices

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• The family of a man shot by the Tennessee National Guard demands video release

  The grandfather of a man who was shot and killed by the Tennessee National Guard in Memphis over the weekend says he wants answers from law enforcement. Evaniel Johnson said he is waiting to see if video footage supports the police narrative that his 20-year-old grandson, Tyrin Johnson, turned toward U.S. guard members with a gun while running from them early Sunday. Memphis police say the guard members were responding to a report of gunfire.

• Family demands an independent probe after ICE officer shoots a man in Houston

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• US will give Patriot missile license to Ukraine

World

• Australia's Biggest Telco has nationwide outage

• Germans turn to battery storage to shield against fossil fuel price shocks

• Apple Loses Spat with EU over App Store and iPhone Rules

• Nigel Farage live: Reform UK leader 'in real trouble' against Count Binface as Clacton by-election stunt flops

  Nigel Farage is under renewed pressure this morning after all main parties refused to take part in his by-election stunt. Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems have all ruled out standing a candidate in Clacton triggered by Farage's resignation - with satirical figure Count Binface appearing to be his only rival.

  • UK Farage's election gamble could see him face one challenger Count Binface

  • Nigel Farage's unusual by-election opponent: Count Binface

• Australia's teen social media ban fails to clear first hurdle in age checks

• EU Parliament Revives Chat Surveillance for Thursday Vote

• Australia dock workers call for 28-hour week in AI talks

• Germans Don't Love Budweiser. It Won't Take No for an Answer

• Lamb kebabs made of goat compared to horsemeat in lasagne scandal

• Meta's woes deepen in India as child abuse ads on Instagram draw government ire

• Special food additive that helps prevent weight gain is approved in the EU

• France orders Meta to resume talks with media groups over publishing fees

  • French Watchdog Orders Meta Negotiations over News Copyright

• TV licence fee is 'yesterday's model', new BBC director general says

• EU court hands Brussels win over Apple on Big Tech rules

• 1-in-2 phones sold in Africa exfiltrate whole-device activity to China

• Aussie gov't tells volunteers throw out functioning test routers

• Andrew and Tristan Tate 'made more than £1million from prostituting a teen through webcam sex business'

  Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan made £1 million from prostituting a teenager through their webcam sex business, police have alleged. The brothers are facing a heap of new charges from Romania's directorate for investigating organised crime and terrorism (DIICOT). In addition to charges of human trafficking and rape, prosecutors have now added money laundering, witness intimidation and complicity in the trafficking of minors to the list of charges.

Iran / Houthi

• US revokes Iran oil waiver after Hormuz attacks.

• Iran war: Trump says ceasefire 'over' after fresh strikes

• Just wondering what the correct model of Iran is here

  I read many, many commentators saying how good the final deal was for Iran, and what a major loss it was for Trump. I was never sure I understood all of the parameters of the full deal, but still I did not hold any directly contrary opinion to that. And now I see Iran is attacking ships in the Strait again, talking openly and brazenly about building nuclear weapons, and making plans to have tolls/fees on the Strait. To be clear, only the first of those surprises me, the latter two do not.

  But given their reckless behavior in what is supposedly a wonderful war outcome for them, what is the correct way to model what they would have done had Trump and Netanyahu not attacked? And what is the correct way to model our optimal response to that? The terrible things that are happening now, do they not reflect an underlying equilibrium that would have emerged anyway within a few years’ time, or do we hold some hypothesis here of extreme path-dependence, suggesting the Iranian government would have been less bellicose on more or less a permanent basis?

• Iran, Not Trump, Is in Control of This War

China

• Apple interest thrusts China's CXMT into memory chip spotlight

Health / Medicine

• Obesity rates in the U.S. climbed to about 40% of adults, 20% of youth in 2023

• Creatine doesn't just build muscle. It may also help fight cancer

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• 99% of people on Earth will get sunlight at the same time this Wednesday

• European countries top 'scorecard' on climate progress while US slips to 27th

• A key Arctic science outpost finds itself tangled in a geopolitical web

• Can geoengineering blunt El Niño's fury?

• Scientists Thought Royal Jelly Made Queen Bees. They Were Wrong.