2026-06-06

Cool

• NOAA Satellite Captures Rare Imagery of "Interstate-Induced" Clouds

  On the morning of Tuesday, June 2, 2026, NOAA’s GOES East satellite captured imagery of a rare phenomenon over Houston, Texas that many meteorologists hadn’t seen before—long, narrow bands of clouds stretching across the sky that lined up with many of the city’s major roads and highways. This phenomenon has since been unofficially dubbed “interstate-induced clouds.”

etc

• Sun erupts with 3 colossal solar flares in less than 24 hours, boosting chances for northern lights.

Horseshit

• Starcloud hits $1.1B valuation to build space-based data centers

• A Fleet of Ghost Ships Is Hiding in Plain Sight on the Potomac River

  The presence of Revolutionary War-era boats, while fascinating, has a ready explanation: Mallows Bay’s shallow, protected waters along a strategically important river made it a natural place to abandon spent vessels. But the World War I graveyard requires a little more riddle solving. Immediately following the United States’ entry into the First World War in 1917, the administration of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson commissioned the Emergency Fleet Corporation. Between 1917 and 1919, it’s believed that only about three hundred ships were ever made, although the original order was for one thousand—and many of the ships that were built weren’t actually seaworthy. A report from the National Trust for Historic Preservation said that all the vessels were “troubled by mechanical failures and construction problems.” Not a single ship made it to Europe before the war’s end,

• Short videos may hinder learning by fragmenting attention and memory, study

• 'I knew it was over for us': the bands who got left behind when punk exploded

• India's surprise baby bust is a warning to the world

• The Man Whose Job Is Making Sure We Don't Have Blackouts This Summer

• What Dogs See That We Can't

celebrity gossip

• Reid Hoffman leaves Microsoft board

  Reid Hoffman, billionaire co-founder of networking website LinkedIn, has decided ​not to stand for re-election to ‌Microsoft's board of directors at its 2026 annual shareholder meeting, the software ​giant said in a filing ​on Friday. Hoffman, who has served on the ⁠board since 2017, will stay ​on till the meeting. His decision was ​not a result of any disagreement with executives on any matter relating ​to policy or operations, Microsoft ​said.

Obit

• Anthony Head, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ted Lasso actor, dies aged 72

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ted Lasso, and Little Britain Actor Anthony Head Dies

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• The teenagers enlisted as agents of mayhem by Russia and Iran

• The Pentagon is running an AI propaganda mill targeting Latin America

• US tobacco firms applied tobacco strategies to globalize ultra-processed foods

Musk

• SpaceX IPO video sells Musk's space, AI, asteroid dreams to mom-n-pop investors

• China, HK Investors Banned from SpaceX IPO over Security

• SpaceX tells banks it won’t move its $135-a-share IPO price.

• Elon Musk Is Dropping a Boulder in a Kiddie Pool

• Morgan Stanley Sees SpaceX's Revenue Reaching $3.4T in 2040

• Google Buying Computing from SpaceX in $920M-a-Month Deal

  • Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Questions arise after Waymo blocks road in midst of Dallas apartment explosion

Robot uprising / Humanoid Helpers

• How China is using human labor to win the humanoid robot data race

• The skeptic's guide to humanoid robots going viral on the Internet

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Science with military applications is cited more than civilian-only research

• A Job Market Leaving Young Graduates Behind Could Scar Them for Years

• Alpha School Costs $65,000 a Year–But Isn't Actually a School

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Cloudflare: bots have passed human traffic online, a year faster than expected

  • Cloudflare CEO Is Lying to You About the Bot Traffic Jump

  The category Prince points to as the cause contradicts him. Agentic is tiny. What actually fills the AI bucket is training scrapers, like GPTBot and ClaudeBot, pulling text to build models, which have been climbing steadily and predate his announcement. He blamed a friendly, fast-growing sliver of agents fetching pages for people and swapped in unfriendly bulk (mass scraping for training). Why? We can guess, but that is exactly the traffic his pay-to-crawl product exists to bill. It’s a sales pitch. And it’s based on a lie.

• Valve says it's ready to launch the Steam Machine this summer

• Mathematicians warn of AI threats to profession as industry encroaches

• Chrome, Opera and Vivaldi pen open letter to Microsoft saying "enough is enough"

  • Dear Microsoft, enough is enough

• Amazon's New Stargate Series Is Officially Dead

• Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic, data shows

• Meta Silently Added Face-Recognition for Its Smart Glasses to Phones

• Everything new is old again: DDR4 is back on the menu.

• Google is letting social media stars customize their search result page

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Python Steering Council asks the JIT project to pause development

  the Steering Council is formally requesting a Standards Track PEP be authored that the community can discuss and the Steering Council can formally accept (or reject), making the case for the JIT as a supported, non-experimental part of CPython: its guarantees, its maintenance commitments, and its impact on redistributors. Until such a PEP is accepted, we ask that no new development on the JIT land on main, including new features, optimizations, and performance work. Bugfixes and security fixes may of course continue as normal; the request is specifically that no further new JIT functionality be added until a PEP has been accepted.

• Parsing XML EXIF from .avif files (plus a rant)

  The HEIF container format is ridiculous. Look, I get that these things are put together over years of committee meetings with input from different companies with different priorities so some amount of cruft is expected. But this is really pushing it - for a modern format they had the opportunity to produce something future-proof and sane. They failed - I am not sure if HEIF is the silliest binary format I have encountered but it ranks. What was the point of all that binary soup when you are just going to embed a mass of pretty-printed XML anyway?

  • The people selling the standards document have no incentive to make a format that can be understood without that document. See also Microsoft's languages and standards since 1990. "Write the book that explains the standard" was what they had instead of employee retirement plans.

• The circus freaks of open source

  • Yet another "weird people don't belong in my community" post by a person whose libels of others have repeatedly failed to gain any traction. People like this have made the prospect of releasing work under an open license much less appealing, even for normals.

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• NASA announces 3 uncrewed missions to moon this year to prepare to build a base

• NASA head urges new launcher for Blue Origin’s moon landers to meet Artemis mission deadlines.

• ISS astronauts in evacuation mode as Russia attempts to fix widening air leak

  • International Space Station astronauts under evacuation orders

  Astronauts onboard the International Space Station have been ordered to shelter in their spacecraft and prepare for potential evacuation as a Russian crew attempts to fix a worsening leak of air in its portion of the orbital laboratory, Nasa has said. The four astronauts of Nasa’s Crew-12 mission on the station – two US astronauts, a French astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut – got orders from Nasa mission control at 9.04am ET on Friday to enter their Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the station and don their spacesuits in case the air leak warranted an emergency evacuation, a Nasa official said.

  • Astronauts on ISS told to shelter as repairs under way to fix air leaks

  • NASA orders ISS astronauts to shelter, prepare for evacuation due to air leak

• Alien hunters update guidance on sharing news of possible intelligent life

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Anthropic Calls for Al Pause Button to Let Humans Take Stock

  • Anthropic calls for global freeze in AI development

  • Anthropic Urges Global Pause in AI Development, Flags 'Self-Improvement' Risk

  • AI technology is nearing a point where it could develop without human input

  • Anthropic urges pause in AI development, says industry needs 'brake pedal'

  • Anthropic warns that AI could soon escape human control

  • Anthropic urges AI development 'pause' and conversation about risks

  • Anthropic proposes a global slowdown of AI development

  • Anthropic warns Claude AI is building itself faster than expected

• OpenAI says it will comply with Trump's order requiring AI model reviews

• 'World-first' vaccine designed by artificial intelligence

• The Meta hack shows there's more to AI security than Mythos

• Chip Capacity Constraints Put a Governor on AI Spending Growth

• Senior U.S. Officials Eye Government Shares in AI Giants

• Mark Zuckerberg's longest-serving employee on AI, jobs and her boss

• Benevolent dictator Zuck will give Meta staff 30-minute break keylogging assault

• Americans lead AI data centre backlash, global poll finds

• Satya Nadella 'Not Sure' Who Said Microsoft Wanted to Make Addictive AI

• 'Please do not vibe f–- up this software': Broken backups spark AI coding row

• Walmart investors reject AI workplace report as automation expands in the US

• CEO to staff: You're not getting a raise. We're spending on AI instead

• Can These Ads Make You Love A.I.?

• AI Data Centers Are Building a New Political Coalition

• Researchers find all big-name bots bomb EU compliance tests

• Amazon engineers in Seattle slam employer for building AI data centers

• AI is designing OpenAI's next model in a sign of 'super intelligence'

• Alarm over computer "worms" created with AI

• AI must foster 'maternal instincts' or we risk extinction, warns Geoffrey Hinton

• Flood of AI 'garbage' is pushing open-source developers to the limit

• Meta weighs big equity raising after blockbuster Google deal

• Meta putting up tents across the US to house AI servers

• Sam Altman joins rivals in call to prevent AI-developed bioweapons.

• The Fitbit Air is a good wearable weighed down by a chatty AI "coach"

• Microsoft and OpenAI broke up – now they're ready to fight

• UK orders Google to allow publishers to opt out of AI scraping

• Amazon Employees Show Up to City Council Meetings, Demand Limits on Data Centers

• AI's Wrong Answers Are Bad. Its Wrong Reasoning Is Worse

• OpenAI Offers a New Policy Blueprint

• The Irishman raising millions to fund journalists reporting on rise of AI

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• JPMorgan, Citi and Big Banks Plan New Tokenized Deposit System to Answer Crypto

• Bitcoin weathering ugliest week in months as narrative fades, liquidity rotates

Economicon / Business / Finance

• S&P Global keeps fast index entry rules unchanged as SpaceX listing looms

  • S&P will not change its rules to get SpaceX in early

  • SpaceX won’t make the S&P 500

  • S&P 500 rejects SpaceX, also blocking entry for OpenAI and Anthropic

  • SpaceX must wait a year to be part of S&P 500

• US posts another month of strong job gains in May

  • The US economy added a stronger-than-expected 172,000 jobs last month

• Americans on GLP-1s Are Overwhelming Retailers with Their Nonstop Returns

• Blackstone Investors Ask to Pull $4.4B from Private-Credit Fund

• Oracle files foreign-worker requests amid layoff bloodbath

• Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

• TSMC working hard to meet chip demand, would 'like' to hike prices

• How much value is AI creating?

• Google is quietly laying off staff in its cloud division

• Energy Markets Limit the Hormuz Shock

• Meta's stock sinks on report company could raise billions for AI push

• Nasdaq Sinks 4% over AI and Rate-Hike Fears

  • Gee. Why would anyone be pulling their money out at the moment? Possibly to invest in the loudly hyped big IPO's? nah... must be "fears".

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Some billionaires pay too little tax

• U.S. attorney says election fraud probes are underway in California

• Public transport network partially shut–down bosses forgot to pay internet bill

Trump

• Trump to meet AI leaders to discuss US investment in their companies

  • Donald Trump says US may take equity stakes in AI companies

  • Trump administration, OpenAI discussing possible government stake in the startup

Democrats

• Hunter Biden hints at 2028 presidential run

  • He probably won't be the first candidate who got a footjob from his niece; but none of the others released the videos of theirs... yet.

• NYT Deliberately Withheld the Most Explosive Graham Platner Allegations From Its Own Story

  The New York Times spiked accusations of sexual assault from the other women (who were Democrats) in their article, instead focusing on her and highlighting her work as a Republican operative. "Why does it say 'nobody could corroborate' when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate?" she continued. Those friends confirmed to the Times that Fifield had told them about Platner's abuse years before he ever announced a run for office. The Times left that out, too. She drew the only conclusion that fit. "It dawned on me that this really was a set up all along," Fifield said. "The journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign. Violating the trust of his victims. Shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life."

• Why Can't California Count?

  we might want to analyze the implications of California’s elections on Tuesday under the state’s top-two primary system. But we can’t do that because we’re on the third day since the election and the finish line is not in sight yet for several key races.

Left Angst

• Trump directs hundreds of millions of dollars to support coal

• Congress rejects Khanna's attempt to stop deeper US/Israel military integration

• Why Stone-Faced Fascists Keep Getting Antiquity Wrong

  the fight over Homer represents just another skirmish in the campaign mounted by bigoted very-online right-wing self-described “chuds” to claim Greek and Roman culture for their own fascist, or at least fascist-adjacent, ideology, which demands the exclusion of minorities, women, and LGBTQ people.

• Murder charges dismissed for Republican Sheriff

  In the order dismissing the case, Special Circuit Court Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. cited missing evidence and misconduct by law enforcement, saying it “was so egregious that dismissal of this case is warranted.” Spencer admitted to gunning down Michael Fosler in the early hours of October 8, 2024, after he found him with his daughter after midnight despite a no-contact order. Fosler, 67, was out on bond while facing dozens of charges, including internet stalking of a child and sexual assault in connection with Spencer’s daughter, who was 13 at the time. In February, Spencer won the Republican primary for Lonoke County sheriff, saying he’s running to fix a justice system that failed to protect his daughter.

  • Murder Charge Dropped Against Arkansas Nominee Who Killed Daughter’s Assailant.

• New York Times Stirs Baseless Panic Over Trump, Vaccines, and Childhood Diseases.

• Trump officials planned to mark 2.7M living people as dead, whistleblower claims

• Republicans Claim Anti-Data Center Movement Is a Chinese Psy-Op

• ICEs Plan to Let Cops Around the Country Scan Faces to Verify Immigration Status

• How Elon Musk Killed Hundreds of Thousands of People

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• American journalist pleads guilty to acting as unregistered agent for China

• Ex-CIA official accused of stashing $40M in gold bars is 'master manipulator'

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Beneath Nvidia AI chips, Chinese PCBs raise security concerns in U.S.

• U.S. Military Turned GPS into a Global "Numbers Station"

• Mysterious Next-Gen Aircraft Allegedly Spotted Near Area 51

World

• Japan proposes rebuilding ageing nuclear plants to meet power demand

• Miracle on Everest: Guide believed dead spotted crawling down ice

• Canada says AI strategy will help create 250k jobs, boost GDP by 3%

• AI simply can't replicate it': Japan embraces zine trend

• Deaths Projected to Outnumber Births in UK Every Year from 2026

Iran / Houthi

• The Hormuz Squeeze Is Redrawing the Oil Map for Good.

  Even if Washington and Tehran reach a deal to reopen the strait and maritime exports resume, the shift toward an export network with multiple exits will endure because the conflict has proved that robust contingency plans are essential, officials and analysts say. Saudi Arabia’s ability to export oil via a previously underused fallback pipeline demonstrated the strategic value of a backup, while in recent weeks the United Arab Emirates and Iraq have launched plans to expand pipelines of their own.

• ‘Khamenei’ says US, Israel hit by ‘decisive blow’ amid mixed signals on talks, US security alert.

Israel

• Microsoft to tighten human rights measures after inquiry into Israel deals

• UN food agency discloses breach affecting 600,000 Gaza households

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russia, Uzbekistan start construction of nuclear power plant

• Russian Satellites Have Been Jamming GPS Signals Across Europe, Scientists Say

China

• China's solar majors charge into batteries as panel sales falter

• Celebrity Border Collie with 1.5M followers dognapped and eaten

  A Border Collie with more than 1.5 million followers on social media was stolen, sold to a restaurant and then eaten, his distraught owner said. Surveillance footage is said to have shown two people taking the dog away on an electric scooter from the family home, prompting the blogger to cut short his trip and return to search for his beloved pet. Two weeks later, Guo said he tracked down a man he suspected of the theft and offered 10,000 yuan (about $1,500) to return Chutou. But according to The Post, the blogger was told the animal had already been sold to a restaurant for 180 yuan ($27), slaughtered and eaten. The alleged thief had claimed he mistook Chutou for a stray dog, but Guo said his pet had been wearing a collar and a GPS tracker. Offering no apology, the man reportedly said: “The dog is dead, so stop making a fuss. I did not break the law.”

• China builds an economic fortress as global tensions rise

Health / Medicine

• US adult cigarette smoking rate hits another all-time low

• Cat Ownership Linked to Increased Risk of Schizophrenia, Study Suggests.

• The blood cancer that became solvable

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• A disease of deforestation: how Ebola is linked to the smartphone in your pocket

• Ebola burial team attacked and 11 patients flee care in widening outbreak in Congo

  A team attempting to safely bury an Ebola victim was assaulted in the South Kivu town of Katana, forcing workers to abandon the coffin and allowing community members to handle the body, an incident health officials warned could spark new chains of transmission. Meanwhile, patients escaped isolation facilities in the epicenter Ituri, while security remained unstable in parts of the province where armed groups continue to limit humanitarian access.

• Some hantavirus-exposed cruise ship passengers return home to finish quarantine

• The Causes of Long Covid

  Long Covid is a real a disease as lupus, MS, Hashimoto’s, or Type I diabetes, all of which are driven by production of antibodies to a person’s own tissues. Many will immediately think of fibromyalgia, another autoimmune syndrome that has also been taken to the point of identifying autoantibodies. It’s possible that what we’re calling Long Covid is a new variety of this, but it could also be its own distinct immunological problem.

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• see also yesterday's screw worm links

  • Flesh-eating screwworm confirmed in Texas calf as parasite crosses from Mexico

  • Flesh-eating screwworm returns to U.S. after 60 years, threatening cattle herd

• Bumblebees show advanced problem-solving skills in new experiment

• Mangrove forests are healing after decades of human destruction

• Birds masturbate, and that's perfectly normal

• Shimane farming districts face onslaught from rising monkey population

• Permafrost tipping point triggered by warming-driven loss of old carbon

• 'Bear-Repelling Poles' Attracting Attention; Developed by Man Who Faced Bear

• Gene flow from wild apples and selection shaped the domesticated Apple genome

• Scientists Gave Cocaine to Salmon and You Will Believe What Happened

• Killing Lake Powell Won't Save the Colorado River

• Wildfires have worsened ozone pollution in the United States