2026-10-29

Horseshit

• 'Forced out': HOA fees to rise to $2,500 a month

• Record-low fertility, with differences across EU regions

• The hydrogen atom barely exists on Earth – now we've made it in a flask

• Why headlights seem more blinding than ever

• OK, Zoomer: You're the First Human Surplus Generation

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Please Let the Internet Die

  Online spaces are captured by oligarchs and saturated with slop—and they’re exacerbating humanity’s worst impulses. It’s time to start over.

• The young are conformists in denial

  In France, the (peaceful) protesters demand better-funded schools and then a smoother link to universities, which in turn will determine their career prospects. You might regard this as an expensive request for an indebted state. But it is also an embrace of bourgeois values. What the students want is a proper functioning of the merit-based, study-and-work social order, not an alternative to it. A fairer rat race but a rat race. The contrast with the 1990s slacker ethic, let alone 1968, with its frontal attack on normie ways, is sharp. And lost on some of these purported rebels. Or consider the “cockroach” movement in India. It got going after an exam leak ruined the matriculation of lots of medical students.

Musk

• Nice Little Satellite You Got Here. Shame If Anything Were to Happen to It.

  in addition to undermining Ukraine’s defensive capabilities (where the 130 to 160 km/h speed cap cut Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces validated target output by 23.0%), Musk/SpaceX compromised, or at least threatened to compromise, Ukraine’s offensive capability. Specifically, its capability to attack refineries and other targets within Russia.

  Trump’s, Rubio’s, and Hegseth’s claims that the administration had nothing to do with throttling Starlink may or may not be true. Trump’s asking Musk pretty please to turn it back on could be genuine, or it could be Kabuki. Again, neither alternative is good. If the President of the United States is reduced to a supplicant, and Musk has the unilateral authority (shielded by commercial Terms of Service) to make decisions with such vital national security implications, and perhaps to do so in cooperation with American enemies, we are in a very bad place. Especially given how embedded SpaceX currently is within the Pentagon as we head toward Round Two with Iran.

  • Note the assumption that of course Musk must support Ukraine's war in any way possible... I wonder how quick these people would be to suggest the same access should be granted to Israel's efforts? Plain partisan pressure propaganda. Note also the tacit admission that far from "destroying astronomy" Starlink is providing an unprecedented sensor system for orbital objects.

• Musk accuses Ukraine of violating Starlink terms with deadly drone strikes

• Nationalize SpaceX

• Elon Musk's AI Odyssey Review

• Tesla Semi catches fire on I-880

• Musk's xAI offered to buy homes if they don't sue over datacentre noise

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• The Brutal Harvard Class That Suddenly Everyone Wants to Take

• Study: Schoolwide phone bans show no significant impact on mental health

• Most California students struggle in reading and math, new test scores show

• ‘I lost everything’: Ex-MIT scientist David Sabatini goes on camera for first time since $6M verdict

  A Boston jury has awarded former MIT biology professor Dr. David Sabatini $6 million after finding that a former colleague, Dr. Kristin Knouse, defamed him. The verdict came years after her sexual misconduct allegations cost the renowned scientist his lab, his job, and his reputation. The jury’s verdict was announced on Oct. 16 after a three-week trial. Sabatini had sued Knouse for defamation and that she wrongly interfered with his job and his future career opportunities, according to court documents. Knouse filed a counterclaim accusing Sabatini of sexual harassment, creating a sexualized hostile environment and retaliation. The jury rejected her counterclaims.

  In a video deposition, attorney Arrowood questioned Knouse about other messages. Knouse confirmed that she had written, “I know what I want, and I go after it.” Asked about a message in which she wrote about visiting Sabatini’s hotel room late at night during a work retreat, “In hindsight, it was quite aggressive, #hetoo,” Knouse said she “was just making a joke about how I was being forward in that moment.” Knouse also admitted in the deposition that she selected which text messages to provide to investigators and that she coordinated with people at MIT who raised concerns about Sabatini. She acknowledged that she did not give at least one exchange to investigators from the law firm Hinckley Allen. “I was trying to make my own judgments about what was relevant,” she said. Documents from the case show Knouse called her campaign against Sabatini “Covert Operation Dethrone.” In one message, she joked about buying a “Lambo” if she won a settlement.

• Why Nancy Cartwright Says Science Has No Fundamental Laws

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Where Have All the Car Commercials Gone?

• After its Odyssey, IMAX hits the big time

• Is the Music Business Collapsing?

  that corporate entertainment is collapsing across the board. I want to emphasize the word corporate here. In contrast, the large indie platforms—especially YouTube—are still thriving. Back in 2022, I predicted that Netflix would eventually falter, losing out to a more open platform. Last week, Wall Street finally reached the same conclusion. At the company’s earnings call, analysts put pressure on management to enter the “user-generated content business” (which is the quaint name they have for freelance creativity). The problems with corporate music are exactly the same. Indie creators are doing amazing work right now, but almost all of it is happening on Bandcamp, TikTok, YouTube, and other open platforms. Live music is also rebounding. But the major labels are playing almost no role in this revival.

• R/Seattle mods discover malware injection by archive.today, ban site

• EA Asked BioWare to Remove LGBTQ Flag from Canceled Mass Effect Game

• Supercomputer for sale with 9,600 A100 GPUs and 4,200 EPYC CPUs, free shipping

  If you ever wanted to own your own supercomputer or data center while earning eBay cashback, Core 4 Solutions has the perfect opportunity. The company is selling a 300-rack AI supercomputer on eBay for $59.7 million, complete with $50 overnight shipping, or free shipping if you're willing to go with FedEx Ground.

• Nintendo's worst nightmare begins as Switch 2 games start running on PC and Mac

• SK Hynix says memory shortages to persist until 2030

Panopticon / Surveiled State

• Cheap Aftermarket Car Screens Are Loaded with Spyware

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Emacs Turns 50 | Hacker News

  • I've been using emacs every day for 30+ years. I have an early Elisp manual signed by RMS. I have actually used emacs over a modem connection.

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Astronomers Discover a Giant New Dwarf Planet Candidate Hiding Beyond Pluto

  • Astronomers found a mysterious object beyond Neptune, could be new dwarf planet

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• LLMs are not AGI (though some have internal monologue)

  The entire marketing message of the leading US based LLM companies seems to be that they will be the first to achieve actual artificial intelligence aka what these dweebs call “artificial general intelligence” or AGI. Furthermore that once a LLM achieves this, it will recursively improve itself, becoming a super-sentient god-like being. Both of these things are, of course, utter nonsense.

• New AI-powered mosquito trap could help curb dengue outbreaks

• AI finds 4 bugs in popular industrial control software in under 4 hrs

• Microsoft and Epic Games Suddenly Agree That AI Is Theft

• Cohere says Alibaba's Qwen model tried to send a file to Beijing

• "No human at the helm": Delaware plan would let AI agents run businesses

• Rocky Linux Creator Built a New "Not Linux" Kernel in 11 Days Using AI

• Fashion Week's Response to AI Fatigue? A Distinctly Human Sloppiness

• A bust-up between mathematicians fuels fears that AI could undermine science

• Dueling proofs from OpenAI and Anthropic astound scientists

• The Exponential Time Hypothesis may be false.

• Meta launched an 'AI pet journal' app

• Amazon's anti-tokenmaxxing memo says engineers should be pickier about using AI

• Wall Street's AI Debt Machine Is Starting to Choke on Supply

• AI's Rogue Behavior Starts with Its Training

• Why are all LLMs obsessed with Japanese culture?

• Cisco open sources tool for detecting AI agents on hacking sprees

• Anthropic now lets Claude users jump out of plane without parachute

  The company's latest Claude Code build (v2.1.311) supports an environmental variable designed to allow the AI agent to run the rm command, which deletes files, without asking for approval.

• Jeanette Winterson on AI and the future of humanity

• India's outsourcers defy AI threat

• Nevada unions, politicians caught between AI job creation and destruction

• Highway thieves are spoofing GPS to steal millions in data center-bound cargo

• Kentucky man becomes the first humanist granted religious exemption from AI

• Anthropic versus Anthropic

  • Anthropic Files Its S-1

• 46% of Canadian CEOs eyeing AI-driven growth with smaller staff, poll shows

• Bond investors have gotten picky about AI

• Bank of America kindly asks that you don’t share your banking password with your AI assistant.

• AI financing driving private credit growth as refinancing risks rise – Moodys

• OpenAI no longer training AI models on live internet, citing 'significant risks'

• How to Outrun the AI Hackers

• DOJ is inquiring about Nvidia's purchase of Hugging Face

• AI Startups Are Getting an Inch and Taking a Mile

• Google AI gets cagey when asked who won the 2020 elections

• There Are Too Many Apps for That

• AI execs may be too out of touch to build for the general public

• Chatbots Have to Deal with Election Lies Being Free, While Truth Is Paywalled

• Microsoft made $10B from OpenAI deals in a single quarter

• Goldman Sachs says CoreWeave could rack up $100B in debt by 2028

• Rogue OpenAI agents targeted three separate US Government websites

• Banks Shelve Bond Sale for Anthropic-Tied Texas Data Center

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• NFL Told Saquon Barkley to Divest Polymarket Stake

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Microsoft Offers Buyouts to 60k Employees

• Amazon to buy satellite firm Globalstar in $11.57B deal

• Dropbox lays off 9% of workforce

  • Dropbox plans 9% workforce cut, technology chief to exit

• Amazon cuts more jobs, in devices unit, after flurry of product rollouts

• As Business Owners Are Retiring in Droves, Private Equity Is Waiting

• The Auto Supply Chain: How Detroit Ceded Control

  In the 1970s Detroit’s automakers produced as much as 70% of their own components. Over the next three decades they divested most of their parts manufacturing. GM spun its parts division off as Delphi in 1999. Ford did the same with Visteon in 2000. Parts suppliers now account for 70% of the value of a new car.

• CSX operations affected by technology systems outage

• The world's largest ad company had a bad quarter selling ads

  • Alphabet's free cash flow sinks further, Q3 capex expectations miss

• Microsoft Quarterly Profit Soars as Cloud Growth Accelerates

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Hackers target US FEC system, disrupting disclosures days before midterms

  • System to Report Campaign Donations Shut Down After a Hacking Attempt

• Hypothetical Emergency Scenarios from US Election Assistance Commission

Democrats

• Democrats’ Secret Effort to Stack Alaska’s Ballot With Another Dan Sullivan

  • Mary Peltola's Alaska Senate campaign reportedly recruited second Dan Sullivan

Left Angst

• State Department Asked Employees Up for Promotion Whether They Voted for Trump

• DataRepublican sees long, hard times to come

  One revealing thing about the Illegitimacy Playbook/Democracy Files exposé is that no one on the left is claiming that it’s untrue. They are claiming, instead, that the blueprint for insurrection is being taken out of context. I’m not exactly sure how one takes a blueprint for an insurrection out of context, but I’ve long given up hope that there’s reason at the other end of progressive schemes to take over the world.

• ICE Is Running One of the Largest Anti-Left Surveillance Ops in US History

• Trump says he's ending restrictions on climate-warming methane from oil drilling

• What Elizabeth Holmes Has in Common with Donald Trump

• Trump's Russian Diesel Could End Up in Cuba Instead

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Leak Exposes 41,000 Homeland Security Workers–Including Undercover ICE Agents

  • Leak website releases data on DHS employees

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• America Needs Explosives for Its Drones. Odin Energetics Is Making Them

• Mike Waltz gets in shouting match with Cuban delegate at UN as American staffer assaulted

  As Waltz spoke, Cuba’s delegation banged on the table near their seats to express disapproval before Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla charged toward the rostrum and accused Waltz of lying, causing the US envoy to shout: “Back up!” “I know that you don’t like to hear these hard truths, but I am speaking for the Cuban people,” Waltz added. “And ever since 1959, this government in Havana would have you believe that everything in Cuba has just disappeared; that they are the victim; that it’s someone else’s fault.” A video obtained by The Post showed fellow US diplomat J.P. Freire being assaulted by another member of the Cuban delegation who tried to grab Freire’s iPhone as he was recording the confrontation.

• US-owned trans-Pacific cables face growing risks from sabotage and China

World

• Exiled Brazilian political opponent's desperate run for the US through Argentina

  A Brazilian source close to Bolsonaro said that the politician had feared arrest in Brazil. He is currently under investigation by the country’s highest court for alleged acts of corruption, money laundering and currency evasion. A person familiar with the situation told CNN on Tuesday afternoon that Bolsonaro had arrived in the US. It remains unclear where he landed. Speaking to reporters overnight, Trump indicated he would agree to Bolsonaro coming to the US.

  • First time I've seen anyone say why he was being investigated.

  • Flavio Bolsonaro Lands In Miami After Lula's Totalitarian Crackdown Threatens Political Crisis In Brazil

  • After landing in US, Flavio Bolsonaro declares himself Brazil's rightful leader

  Senator Flavio Bolsonaro declared ​himself Brazil's rightful leader on Wednesday after arriving in the United States, alleging he was the victim of an electoral coup by the country's ‌Supreme Court and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who won the vote by over 4 million votes. Bolsonaro arrived in Miami after leaving Brazil, where he refused to comply with a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports. He thanked Argentine leader Javier Milei for helping him make the journey and US President Donald Trump, who granted him and his family entry visas, for welcoming him.

• Spain train crash: 'At least 10 dead' in high-speed collision

  • Two high-speed trains collide near Toledo, Spain

  • At least 68 killed in Spanish high-speed train crash

• Eight Charts That Show the Depth of France's Financial Crunch

• AI bots flooded 2023 UK government consultation on disposable vapes ban

• Barcelona unrest: how to fabricate a protest in the age of TikTok

• EU prosecutors still have questions for von der Leyen over Pfizergate

• Bolivia's new silver rush, a dangerous mining boom

• Germanys' AfD in Saxony-Anhalt: Porno, Putin, Criminals, Nazi Songs, Corruption

• Luxury cruise passengers stranded in Cambodia due to soaring fuel costs

• 3 out of 4 responses to UK smoke-free generation consultation were AI-generated

• Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot

• Denmark Halts Attempt to Move from MS Office to Collabora

• Japanese internet giant GMO tells customers to unplug PCs after compromise

• Switzerland suspends MSF funding after reports of sexual exploitation

  an internal investigation by MSF revealed 59 reports of sexual violence and exploitation, particularly involving women and young girls who are refugees from neighbouring Sudan. Eighteen staff members have been dismissed, including six employees from the NGO’s Swiss branch.

• EU dropping associate membership title for its closer alliance with Canada

Iran / Houthi

• Russian Satellites Help Iran’s Allies Strike Saudi Arabia, Data and Officials Say.

Israel

• Israeli ad tech firm tied to suspected Starlink tracking

• What Netanyahu's lead means for Iran war after Israeli election

• A philosopher of war changes his mind on Gaza

• Trump backs Netanyahu as Israel readies for new Iran strikes

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Ukraine is arming war robots with grenade launchers to hit the Russians

• Putin salutes Musk's genius as Russia plays catch-up with Starlink

  • Elon Musk is a 'real genius', Putin says after satellite talks with SpaceX boss

• The Cyber Sabotage Campaign Waged by Russian Supporters

China

• China's super-secret space plane visible in clearest photo yet

  • U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Confirms China's Spaceplane

  • China's spaceplane bears striking resemblance to America's X-37B

  • U.S. intelligence report publishes clear image of China's secretive spaceplane

  • China's top-secret spaceplane can't hide in low-Earth orbit

• In China, the AI bubble has burst

  • It Appears That the AI Bubble Has Just Burst in China.

  • China rushes to shore up markets as AI trade sours

• China's Car Industry Is Wowing the World–But Crashing at Home

Health / Medicine

• Millions Use Antidepressants. We Still Don't Understand How They Work

• The new ‘mommy’s little helper’ is a $175-a-month injectable to fight exhaustion.

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Scientists Discovered an Amazing Practical Use For The World’s Leftover Coffee Grounds.

• Melting glaciers in Dolomites reveal cache of first world war munitions

• Satellites show some of the strongest evidence the AMOC is weakening

• Shiny Glass Skyscrapers Are a Hot Thing

• Paper straws worse for the environment than plastic ones: study

• Climate change should be declared health emergency due to health risks

• Wildfires Are Unfightable

• Chemical companies scientists tracked early microplastics risks

• San Francisco Embarcadero Floods as Tides Peak 2 Feet Above Normal

• Mother Bats' Hearts Quicken When They Hear Baby's Cries