2025-07-09
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The Texas Flooding Tragedy: Could It Have Been Avoided?
But what is particularly disturbing is that the National Weather Service (NWS) provided excellent warnings and forecasts before the event that clearly predicted a substantial threat. And yet, no attempt at evacuation was made. Furthermore, weather model forecasts indicated the potential for a major precipitation event over this historically flood-prone region during the prior days.
Any media or other organization suggesting that the National Weather Service was not on top of this event is not only not telling the truth, but doing a deep disservice to the highly professional and skillful folks in that organization. Some folks are making such suggestions for patently political reasons. Extraordinarily unethical and wrong. The Texas flooding is another example of large numbers of deaths, even when weather forecasts are excellent, with all too many other examples, including the Maui wildfires, the LA wildfires, and flooding from Hurricane Helene. But if you really want to experience media and advocacy group loss of moral compass, consider those claiming this event is the result of global warming.
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Nuclear reactors smaller than a semi truck to be tested in Idaho
Horseshit
Musk
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'America Party' proves Elon Musk needs a political time-out
I think Musk has enjoyed his political work, which brought him unaccustomed adulation and a break from his grueling routine. But when you have a vocation that matches your unique talents, it’s best to focus on that. (Look at Elvis Presley, who wasted many years on acting — at which he was not uniquely talented). Take a vacation from politics, Elon. We desperately need you elsewhere.
- "unaccustomed adulation" is too much of a camel to swallow
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Tesla reimbursed Full Self-Driving in arbitration for failing to deliver
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Elon Musk's Grok praises Hitler, shares antisemitic tropes in new posts
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Elon Musk's Grok Chatbot Goes Full Nazi, Calls Itself 'MechaHitler'
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Grok praises Hitler, gives credit to Musk for removing "woke filters"
Electric / Self Driving cars
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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Jack Dorsey launches a WhatsApp messaging rival built on Bluetooth
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Qualcomm at 40: From Disrupting Mobile to Playing the Long Game with PCs
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Unless users take action, Android will let Gemini access third-party apps
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Cursor apologizes for unclear pricing changes that upset users
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Scattered Spider hackers are wreaking havoc on corporate America
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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Back to the Future came out 40 years ago: A hacker's look at the gear
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According to InfoWorld, during a photo shoot for the Asimov Pocket Computer ads, a Radio Shack employee asked Asimov: “How close is that to the computer you described in the first volume of the Foundation trilogy?” Isaac Asimov looked at the computer for a bit, then nodded and said “this is it.”
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Xorg neglect and XLibre slander | Felipe Contreras
Influential people like YouTuber ThePrimeagen misinform their audience making them believe that tear-free rendering is not possible under Xorg. It’s extremely easy to get rid of tearing without Sultan’s patch, but making a release with this patch could only help. So why are Xorg developers not releasing this patch? Why do they not rectify these myths? One would be tempted to say that perhaps they have a vested interest in making it seem like Xorg can not be fixed, even though this patch was merged in 2022, normal users still cannot use this feature in 2025. It’s interesting enough that the news site Phoronix published an article about it: xf86-video-modesetting X.Org Driver Sees Patch For “TearFree” Page Flipping. This is just one patch out of more than a thousand. Who knows how many gems Xorg maintainers aren’t particularly eager for users to have.
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
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AI-Enabled Coups: How a Small Group Could Use AI to Seize Power
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ChatGPT testing a mysterious new feature called 'study together'
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AI video becomes more convincing, rattling creative industry
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ChatGPT is pushing people towards psychosis – OpenAI doesn't know how to stop it
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People Are Using AI Chatbots to Guide Their Psychedelic Trips
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Meta's "AI superintelligence" effort sounds just like its failed "metaverse"
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OpenAI and Microsoft Bankroll New A.I. Training for Teachers
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Working with 400k teachers to shape the future of AI in schools
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Meta Invests $3.5B in Largest Eye-Wear Maker in AI Glasses Push
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
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Did something just hit Saturn? Astronomers are racing to find out.
- bloop. The Interstellar Squid dumped their ramscoop on the way in; so it won't fall into primitive hands should the worst happen. Once they conquer our planet they can build a new star drive from our resources.
Economicon / Business / Finance
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Amazon requests its NY office workers donate time to deliver groceries this week
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Shein files for Hong Kong IPO to pressure UK to save London listing
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The global economy is suffering from the Rashomon effect
oday there is no single narrative about where we are, or what comes next. Instead, there are multiple competing ones around globalisation, inflation, capital markets, politics and technology. All this creates a kind of Rashomon effect — the same data and events can be interpreted in contradictory ways by different market participants.
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Investors buy growing share of US homes as traditional buyers struggle
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We've decided not to care about blatant securities fraud anymore: Robinhood CEO downplays OpenAI concerns on tokenized stock structure
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Intel Cuts More Than 500 Jobs in Oregon as Part of Layoff Plan
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SoftBank-Backed Ola in Crisis Mode a Year After Blockbuster IPO in India
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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A Marco Rubio impostor is using AI voice to call high-level officials
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Impostor uses AI to impersonate Rubio and contact foreign and US officials
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State Dept. Is Investigating Messages Impersonating Rubio, Official Says
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Rubio imposter using AI in calls with foreign diplomats, US officials
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AI used to pose as Marco Rubio and contact foreign ministers
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Marco Rubio Imposter Used AI to Contact Five Government Officials Including Foreign Ministers
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Feds brag about hefty Oracle discount – licensing experts smell a lock-in
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NOAA and Google team up to advance AI hurricane forecast models
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Army, Navy both asked for right to repair, now Senators want to give it to them
Trump
Left Angst
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Detainees allege inhumane conditions at immigration concentration camp
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One Day in Kentucky and What Makes America Great
You’ll forgive me if I’m not feeling particularly patriotic on this 4th of July. The president, an authoritarian felon, recently boasted that migrants who escape from their purpose-built cages will get eaten by aligators.
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'There's a knife at my throat'. A tax code time bomb hammered small businesses
Like many small businesses, Agile Six was blindsided and hammered by a quiet shift in the U.S. tax code, a change to what’s known as Section 174. The change radically rewrote the tax rules on research and development. And it has helped fuel the loss of hundreds of thousands of high-paying, white-collar jobs, a Quartz investigation revealed last month. The tweak dates back to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the first Trump administration’s signature tax legislation. That bill slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% — a massive revenue loss on paper for the federal government. To make the bill appear deficit-neutral over the standard 10-year budget window, lawmakers inserted delayed provisions that would raise future revenue. The change to Section 174 was one of them. It didn’t take effect until 2022. But when it did, the impact was brutal.
- If only the Democrats had been given an opportunity to "fix" things at some point between then and now, eh?
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What Is American Exceptionalism, and Is It Coming to an End?
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Founders sign letter to Sequoia on Shaun Maguire's Mamdani remarks
Almost 600 people have signed an open letter to leaders at venture firm Sequoia Capital after one of its partners, Shaun Maguire, posted what the group described as a “deliberate, inflammatory attack” against the Muslim Democratic mayoral candidate in New York City. Maguire, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, posted on X over the weekend that Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary last month, “comes from a culture that lies about everything” and is out to advance “his Islamist agenda.” Those signing the letter are asking Sequoia to condemn Maguire’s comments and apologize to Mamdani and Muslim founders. They also want the firm to authorize an independent investigation of Maguire’s behavior in the past two years and post “a zero-tolerance policy on hate speech and religious bigotry.”
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DOJ goes after US citizen for developing anti-ICE app
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RIAA is supposed to be behind law enforcement efforts to counter "applications and devices intended to circumvent law enforcement", right?
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Learning to See America's Promise Through Its Failures
The United States was the original author of the restrictive, "guilty-until-proven-innocent" immigration regime that is the global standard today. These laws made it so impossible for me to get a visa that I was forced into a nightmare I can barely speak about—becoming a sex slave to a trafficker, just to get the permission to escape from Iran. The permission which they had taken away from me simply because of where I was born. Today’s immigration system has its roots in the Confederate states, and it became federal law through the Immigration Act of 1924. A legislation so restrictive and exclusionary that it inspired and fueled the Nazi movement, unleashing a wave of nationalist hatred across the world.
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Trump Fired Them. Now They’re Plotting to Stop Him.
Former USAID and State Department officials worried about the future of democracy in America say they’re actively organizing to resist Trump, inside and outside of government.
“Take it from those of us who worked in authoritarian countries: We’ve become one,” said a currently employed federal official, who spoke to NOTUS on condition of anonymity. “They were so quick to disband AID, the group that supposedly instigates color revolutions. But they’ve done a very foolish thing. You just released a bunch of well-trained individuals into your population. If you kept our offices going and had us play solitaire in the office, it might have been safer to keep your regime.”
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Trump's NASA budget could cede solar system to China, scientists warn
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All living NASA science chiefs unite in opposition to unprecedented budget cuts
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Masked, Armed and Forceful: Finding Patterns in Los Angeles Immigration Raids
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
World
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Britain's 5G experience 'among the worst in Europe' says MedUX
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Japan requires name change after marriage with big effects on female scientists
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Post Office scandal may have led to more than 13 suicides, inquiry finds
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Blaze at Cairo telecommunications building kills 4, disrupts internet, phone
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'Village of one kidney': India-Bangladesh organ traffickers rob poor donors
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City to get its own Monopoly board after contest
Chichester is set to receive its own Monopoly board after beating off rivals from around the UK to get its own version of the game.
- Paris, TN had "custom monopoly" games in the stores the last couple years; i assumed it was a Chamber of Commerce type scam. We didn't buy one even when they had the clearance sale.
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78% believe fast, reliable internet access should be a right in the UK
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In Hiroshima, search for remains keeps war alive for lone volunteer
Israel
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
Health / Medicine
Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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As Global Climate Leadership Stumbles, Cities Are Stepping Up
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A new species of rare pseudoscorpion has been named after the Slovak president
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Typhoon Danas damages floating solar platforms off southern Taiwan
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Underwater turbine spinning for 6 years off Scotland's coast is a breakthrough
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Can you trust climate information? How and why powerful players are misleading
We reviewed 300 studies published between 2015 and 2025, all of which centred on climate misinformation. Our study found that the human response to the climate crisis is being obstructed and delayed by the production and circulation of misleading information. We found that this is being done by powerful economic and political interests, such as fossil fuel companies, populist political parties, and some nation states. The public needs access to accurate information about climate change, because this enables them to take action to stop global warming. Without accurate information, none of us will be able to do the right thing for coming generations and the wider natural world.
- "We need people to not disagree with us so we can immanentize the eschaton"
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Feds Could End Wyoming's Controversial Cloud Seeding Program for Good
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Peter Jackson Tries to Resurrect a Giant Bird That Went Extinct 600 Years Ago