2025-12-12

Horseshit

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

Meta shuts down global accounts linked to abortion advice and queer content

Musk

Operation Bluebird wants to relaunch "Twitter"
- Operation Bluebird wants to steal Twitter's trademark from Twitter.

Electric / Self Driving cars

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

Tumbleweed aerodynamics inspire hybrid robots for harsh terrains

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

Mandated or banned? Either way, women lose in the veil debate

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

U.S. Department of Education Announces Agreement with Missouri to End Biden Administration’s Illegal SAVE Plan

As part of the proposed joint settlement agreement, the Department will not enroll any new borrowers in the illegal SAVE Plan, deny any pending applications, and move all SAVE borrowers into legal repayment plans. If the agreement is approved by the court, it will mark the definitive end of the Biden Administration’s illegal student loan bailout agenda, putting it to rest once and for all, and end the limbo that more than 7 million borrowers currently face when it comes to not being able to make payments on their federal loans.
Crick and Watson Did Not Steal Franklin's Data

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

Instagram gives users control of their algorithms in new feature
Amazon has changed the way DRM is applied to self-published ebooks... For the better.
- If you choose not to apply DRM, Amazon now allows the author to select open formats like EPUB and PDF
Take-Two CEO Says Consoles Won't Die but PC Is the Future
Google Patches Mysterious Chrome Zero-Day Exploited in the Wild
PhD candidate busted for repeatedly sabotaging rival student's computer
It Will Soon Be Curtains for the Movie Theater
Intel Arc Pro B60 Battlematrix Preview: 192GB of VRAM for On-Premise AI
RAM scalping takes hold on eBay, some DDR5 selling for more than $2k

TechSuck / Geek Bait

Building a High-End AI Desktop

The logs confirmed this theory: seeing 1.67772e+07 (16,777,214) wasn’t evidence that my GPU had achieved nuclear fusion temperatures —it was evidence that the temperature sensor had simply stopped working. And if a sensor error is intermittent, the most likely culprit is a loose connection or physical damage.

Near one of the modules, I found some damaged surface mount components. The damage must have happened after cleaning, probably during the reassembly of the modules with the copper adapters. They weigh over 2 kg, so a slight bump would have easily caused this damage. Amazingly, the tiny components were still attached to the traces, and so I could measure them easily: a 100 nF capacitor, and 4.7k resistor (both of which I had on-hand, as they are standard values for decoupling circuits). The bad news? I had huge “0805” sized parts (2mm long), these were tiny “0402” (1mm long). And one of the traces was just gone. With some very fiddly soldering, and scratching off the solder mask on the PCB to expose more trace, I was able to ‘free solder’ the parts into a wonderful 3D sculpture which was then liberally coated in UV-curing mask resin, set, and then held in place with sticky tape. Very professional. After reassembly, the system booted smoothly.
What is a Bus Mouse? A Technical History of Early Microsoft Mouse Interfaces

The architectural influence of the Microsoft bus mouse extended beyond the world of PC compatibles. The PC-9800 series computers from NEC (usually known as PC-98) were x86-based computers though not IBM PC compatible. This line of machines was dominant in the Japanese market from the mid-1980s and well into the 1990s. The PC-98 mouse interface is identical to that of the original Microsoft bus mouse ISA card, including the +5 V supply on pin 1 and third button support on pin 7.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

Crypto con games

Economicon / Business / Finance

Oracle Credit Risk Gauge Deteriorates After Earnings Report
- Oracle Can't Escape OpenAI's Shadow
- Oracle shares slide on $15B increase in data center spending
Instacart's AI-enabled pricing may bump up your grocery costs by as much as 23%
What Happens When an "Infinite-Money Machine" Unravels
JPMorgan: The biggest national security threat may be America's workforce

America has a talent shortage, with 40% of adults lacking basic digital skills, says a new report from JPMorganChase that bolsters the bank's recently announced $1.5 trillion U.S. investment initiative. The report frames the workforce shortage as a national security threat, not just an economic issue, arguing that funding for vital industries like AI and energy won't move the needle without a talent pipeline.
Wells Fargo CEO: More job cuts coming at the bank, as AI prompts 'efficiency'
Federal Reserve cuts rates to 3-year low after fractious meeting
Did that Colorado station sign say gas for only $1.69? Yes, it did
Half a million young Californians aren't in school or work. Most are men
Is the US an Emerging Market?
Intel pursued deals that boosted CEO Lip-Bu Tan's fortune, sources say
A Billion-Barrel Oil Glut Is Forming at Sea

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

Rep Massie Introduces Bill For US To Dump 'Cold War Relic' NATO | ZeroHedge

The bill argues that the US military cannot be seen as the police force of the world, and that given NATO was created to counter the long-gone Soviet Union, which no longer exists, American taxpayers’ money would be better spent elsewhere. "We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not socialist countries… US participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to risk US involvement in foreign wars… America should not be the world’s security blanket - especially when wealthy countries refuse to pay for their own defense," Massie said.
Trump Admin Buys Fleet of Deportation Jets.

DHS will shift from relying solely on charter services to operating its own aircraft after Congress approved a major funding increase for President Donald Trump’s border and immigration agenda, according to The Washington Post.
Texas Files Antitrust Suit Against Epic Systems over Health Data
Independent voters ask court to declare Pa.'s closed primaries unconstitutional

Trump

Left Angst

Trump Admin Is Preparing to Revoke Visas of Critics of Elon Musk's Twitter
Tourists to US would have to reveal 5 years of social media activity under plan
ICE is using smartwatches to track pregnant women, even during labor
What border guards will look for on your socials, could be made to hand over DNA
What Trump’s National Security Strategy Gets Right About Europe - The New York Times

President Trump’s detractors on both sides of the Atlantic blamed him for rupturing the NATO alliance and for straying into matters far removed from national defense — such as migration, culture and demography — that are the province of racists and xenophobes. That is the wrong way to understand the document. Read carefully, in fact, the passages about Europe sound more like a defense of the continent. They include a description of Europe as “strategically and culturally vital” to the United States. Few of those outraged by the document have bothered to distinguish between Europe — a geographical area that is also shorthand for the culture that arose over the centuries from a mix of Greek rationalism and Middle Eastern monotheism — and the European Union, a 33-year-old experiment that aims to replace the continent’s nation-states with a novel form of transnational governance based in Brussels. In certain quarters the European Union has become synonymous with a postdemocratic permanent ruling class of regulators and bureaucrats. It has proved more successful at delegitimizing national governments in, say, Paris and Rome than at shifting their responsibilities for defense, budgeting and border policing to Brussels. That is because European voters have not conferred on it the legitimacy to do so. What powers Brussels has been able to claim, it has snatched piecemeal from voters when they were distracted by the euro crisis, Covid, the Ukraine war and other emergencies.
(Feb 2025) The Leftist Tactic of Labeling Opponents as Nazis or Fascists

Labeling opponents as “Nazis” or “fascists” serves multiple strategic purposes. First, it provides a method of moral delegitimization. Once someone is labeled a “Nazi” or “fascist,” they are no longer treated as a rational person with a different perspective but as an existential threat. This allows the accuser to bypass debate entirely, as no one is expected to engage with or defend a supposed “Nazi.” This framing also provides the accuser with a moral high ground, positioning them as a defender of democracy, human rights, and social justice—regardless of whether their own methods are authoritarian. Second, it enables avoidance of policy debate. Instead of addressing legitimate political disagreements, leftists can use these labels to shut down discussion. If someone argues for controlled immigration, they are called a “fascist” rather than having their position debated on its merits. If someone critiques radical gender ideology, they are smeared as akin to Nazi eugenicists rather than having their arguments engaged⁵. This tactic serves as a distraction—by shifting the focus from policy substance to moral outrage, leftists avoid having to justify their own positions.
How a new Russia-China-US network could work

A seemingly far out idea pinging around Washington this week would have the U.S. stand up a new “Core 5” group of countries — including China and Russia — bringing traditional adversaries closer and offering a sharp contrast with the existing G7. While that might have once seemed like a nonstarter, some observers noted that it does have a Trumpian ring to it.
Man Charged for Wiping Phone Before CBP Could Search It

A man in Atlanta has been arrested and charged for allegedly deleting data from a Google Pixel phone before a member of a secretive Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unit was able to search it, according to court records and social media posts reviewed by 404 Media. The man, Samuel Tunick, is described as a local Atlanta activist in Instagram and other posts discussing the case. The exact circumstances around the search—such as why CBP wanted to search the phone in the first place—are not known. But it is uncommon to see someone charged specifically for wiping a phone, a feature that is easily accessible in some privacy and security-focused devices.
In Wake of Free Beacon Report, Trump Administration To Investigate Federal Contractors That Say They Won’t Hire US Citizens

Several IT firms that appear to bar U.S. citizens from certain jobs also have contracts with the federal government, suggesting that they are discriminating against Americans even as they receive millions in taxpayer largesse. The Trump administration is now investigating those companies, and the General Services Administration told the Washington Free Beacon it would "take all necessary steps to ensure accountability and compliance."
Flying Abroad? Get Ready for New Facial-Recognition Tech at Departure Gates
Trump security strategy reportedly calls for "pulling Poland away from EU"
- Leaked files 'show US wants to persuade four nations to leave EU'
Trump Administration Rules Threaten Nobel Prizes Won by Immigrants
'Censorship pure and simple': critics hit out at Trump plan to vet visitors'
Marco Rubio bans Calibri font at State Department for being too DEI

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

US forces take over sanctioned, stateless VLCC off Venezuela

Vanguard Tech identify tanker as falsely flagged VLCC Skipper. Skipper was sanctioned in 2022 in connection with oil shipments on behalf of the IRGC and Hezbollah
- Oil Tanker U.S. Seized Has Faked Its Location Before, Data Shows
- U.S. Steps Up Campaign Against Maduro in Seizing Tanker Off Venezuela
US Navy pledges $448M to test if Palantir is seaworthy
U.S. Blueprint to Rewire Economies of Russia, Ukraine Sets Off Clash with Europe
America Can’t Make What the Military Needs - The New York Times

The Constellation is just the latest in a string of American shipbuilding failures. Over the past 35 years the Navy has commissioned more than half a dozen new kinds of ships, from small combat vessels to large destroyers. Nearly all of them have flopped, running billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule and failing to perform as promised, leaving the military reliant on a fleet designed largely in the Reagan era. Recent efforts to build fighter and bomber aircraft have similarly disappointed. It takes, on average, 12 years to produce a war-ready jet, ship or tank, and the Air Force is retiring planes faster than it can replace them. America’s defense industry, like so much of the economy, has lost the ability to build quickly and effectively. That has left the United States at risk of falling behind China, which has embarked on one of the biggest peacetime military expansions in history. Beijing now operates the world’s largest naval force, with over 370 warships compared to America’s 296. It has several types of ship-killing hypersonic missiles, while the United States has deployed none.
NATO's Rutte warns against a war on the scale of that seen by past generations

World

Israel

Israel's Operation Rising Lion Dismantled Iran from Within

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

Shield protecting Chernobyl nuclear power plant no longer blocks radiation

China

Health / Medicine

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

Hundreds Quarantined in South Carolina as Measles Spreads

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

Roman urbanism was bad for health, new study confirms
Why the resale market is expanding fashion's carbon footprint
Ecosia is pushing for a Climate Nobel Prize
Sea urchin species on brink of extinction after marine pandemic
The Wild West tale of the first cow-buffalo hybrid
A psychedelic tour of Earth's ecosystems–from the desert to Siberia
Why no fish wants a tongue-eating parasitic louse in its mouth
Middle East, North Africa temperatures rising twice as fast as global average
Ice Age lake at Death Valley National Park reemerges after record rainfall
Earthworm Invaders

Almost every earthworm in most of the U.S. came from somewhere else. Native earthworms all but disappeared more than 10,000 years ago, when glaciers from a Pleistocene ice age wiped them out. A few survived further south. But today, virtually all earthworms north of Pennsylvania are non-native.
- I would argue that the lands north of PA are still uninhabitable, anyhow.
How the Next Big Thing in Carbon Removal Sunk Without a Trace