2026-10-05

Horseshit

• Sugar from Outer Space Became One of the Backbones of Life on Earth

• Rodin Museum 3D Scan Verdict

  Not content merely to tell simple, substantive lies, the Rodin Museum submitted increasingly absurd and disjointed legal briefs to the court. For example, it simultaneously claimed that its scans were unusable and that they could be used by counterfeiters. In one brief, the museum confirmed that it held a scan of Les Trois Ombres, then in the next brief denied the sculpture had ever been scanned. (We replied with a photograph of the museum’s subcontractors scanning the sculpture.)

• Spotify billionaire's body scan startup Neko Health has come to America

• Dyson CameraJet

  when I saw Dyson had a $500 toothbrush, I was excited. Finally, advertising that targets me! I love brushing my teeth, and I have more money than I know how to spend. It broke within 30 seconds of the first brushing. None of the LEDs turn on anymore. I spent an hour investigating, finally opening the user removable battery compartment to find the Spearmint Dyson Low-foaming mouth rinse had leaked inside. And by how the toothbrush is designed, it’s clear the entire electronics compartment was flooded with the stuff. Apparently this is happening to everyone, “a potential for water seepage” they say.

• Simulating death can reduce people's fear of dying

• Rumors of lost gold spur clandestine excursions into New York sewers

• Teens Who Can't Put Down TikTok and Instagram Are Losing Their Sense of Time

• What new cat ownership data says about Americans

Obit

• Tell HN: Bob Cringely has died

Musk

• Musk explains why Tesla Robotaxi isn't running at night, and Lidar is the answer

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Does gravity create reality? A shocking path to a theory of everything

• How Effective Altruism Conquered the World

  • Will MacAskill responds to our cover story on effective altruism

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Record-low three in ten Americans consider college ‘very important’: poll.

• Research paper overload: submissions capped at two a month

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Automatic iPhone reboot: Forensics firm allegedly stops time

• Micro Center requires photo ID and signed no-export pledge to buy gaming GPU

• Google freezes open-source bug bounty program amid flood of invalid AI slop

Panopticon / Surveiled State

• I went looking for surveillance cameras in my neighbourhood

• Your Car Is Sharing Data with Big Tech

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Superpowers Race to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon

• Asteroid-mining company to launch first autonomous space mission in 2027

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• How the bad science of AI doomerism is good for big business

  • The ugly economics of consumer AI

• A.I. Is Going Rogue. Who Should Be Held Responsible?

  • AI Backers Sound the Alarm About Safety

  • AI doesn't need 'superintelligence' or evil intent to start a nuclear war

• AI rebrand causes 'unprecedented' demand for Slovenian website names

  • Trump names national intelligence director Jay Clayton to lead new AI task force

  • Trump names intelligence chief Clayton as AI czar

  • AI Czar Named

• OpenAI safety employee resigns, claiming the company’s ‘culture is broken'

  • Legal risks pile up for Altman as OpenAI uncovers hacks

  • I quit OpenAI because its culture is broken

• Muse Creates Detailed Profiles of All Your Friends and Family

  • Meta AI: Alexandr Wang’s outfit is intentionally scruffy. I have a theory why.

• Bait and Switch

• China's Push into A.I. Has Led to a Problem: Too Much Usage

• "Torturing" LLMs in a Robot Prison Has Triggered the Dumbest Debate in AI Yet

• What's the Future for Pure Math Research in the Age of AI?

• Amazon responds to data center backlash, says it no longer uses NDAs

• Religious scholars met with Anthropic

• OpenAI's latest features take direct aim at the app store model

• 98% of US households aren't paying for AI yet

• The Mythology of Conscious AI

• AI On Your Gaming PC

• Understanding the AI That Drives Robots

• AI's 'Thought' Process Can No Longer Be Trusted

• AI Could Worsen a Common Cognitive Trap

• Anthropic asks Claude users to share voice data for AI model training

• Powerful open model is set to shake up AI race

• The AI industry is booming. Women are getting left behind

• Google's first orbital data center is in orbit

  Google’s first orbital data center is in orbit (October 1st). They say it is about the size of a fridge. It has one kilowatt of solar power. It is about the power of a household.

  • not so much. Gaming computers often spec 1kw power supplies for a single machine, the "AI PC kits" that no one can afford right now go up to 3kw.

• Apple says it's tightening macOS privacy controls amid the rise of AI agents

• Will A.I. Still Take Our Jobs?

• We Won't Know the Answers to AI's Most Important Questions Until It's Too Late

• Lockheed Taps OpenAI to Solve F-35 Challenges

• Google Tells Sites to Fact-Check AI Content Before Publishing

• Florida woman used Claude as a diary, then Anthropic reported an entry to police

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• Gen Z is betting on sports. Experts warn of the risks

Economicon / Business / Finance

• America's Restaurants Face a Dilemma: How to Sell Food in the GLP-1 Era

• Pay Advance Apps May Be Costlier Than Workers Think

• US Hackers Face $1k-a-Month Pay Cuts in Controversial Plan

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• The Battle to Pass a Billionaire Tax

• Lawmakers look to require AM radio in new cars despite automakers' pushback

Left Angst

• U.S.-Russia Talks on Ukraine Now Involve an Oil Deal Tied to Trump Allies

• Florida weighs ditching property taxes and sticking Canadians with the bill

• New York Times Saved $45M with Tax Break It Faults Meta for Using

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Mental health clinic owner convicted in $26 million TRICARE fraud

  Millions of dollars spent on casino-themed parties, expensive hotels and a gold-plated Cybertruck. It sounds like the spending spree of a character from “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Instead, federal prosecutors say the absurd spending was financed by a 64-year-old mental health clinic owner named Kevin Darnell Curry.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• America wants to wean itself off Chinese technology

• Californian accused of shipping $300M worth of Nvidia chips to China

• Hackers Breached Propulsion System of US-Bound Oil Tanker

• The Pentagon confirms that all B-1 bombers deployed to RAF Fairford in the UK have returned to the US

  • US removes all Air Force bombers from UK base following new threat

World

• Argentina Offers Golden Passports to Foreigners for $350k

• 'This can't go on': thousands protest against housing crisis in Spain

• Canada, EU plan to link next-gen payment systems

• Why Canada is preparing for a US invasion

• UK Government Body Kept Files on People Criticizing Prevent Program

• Brazil goes to polls amid a right wing surge in Latin America

• Tokyo's record rainfall streak ends after 37 days

• Over 20 NHS trusts have ditched Palantir waiting-list tools, analysis shows

• Smart meter rollout in Germany continues to be slow

• European Commission Staff Dislike Their 'Sovereign' Alternative to Teams

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• In Ukraine, distributed renewables foil Russia's assaults

• Russia’s Strategy In Two Words: “War Crimes”

• A Front Line at the Border: How Russia Uses Migrants as Weapons Against Europe

• Is Russia using AI for disinformation in CAR?

• How Kyiv cracked Russia’s kill zone and got its tanks back in the fight

China

• University asks staff to review some partnerships with China after MI5 warning

  • MI5 warns UK academics their research may have helped Chinese spies

• China's space plane appears to have released a mystery object in orbit

Health / Medicine

• Rejection Sensitivity in Gifted and Twice-Exceptional Children

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Siberian Plague-Lab Death Draws FSB Escort For Ambulances

  A possible plague case in Siberia has triggered a major containment effort after the death of a 28-year-old employee of an anti-plague laboratory. A hospital wing is under quarantine, nearly 200 people are reportedly under observation, and Russia's chief sanitary official has flown in. Local outlets say FSB units have been escorting ambulances carrying the woman's contacts for examination. The authorities are clearly taking the threat seriously - but getting a straight answer out of the feds is another matter. Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev is still calling it a "particularly dangerous infection," while assuring residents that every identified contact is symptom-free and testing negative.

  • Plague death triggers quarantine, mask mandates in Russia's Irkutsk region

  • White House monitors suspected plague outbreak in Russia

  • Researcher at Russian plague laboratory dies of 'unknown' infection

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Smaller, distributed batteries could help the grid

• Our Solar System Is Terminally Unstable

• Poor thing: A Shark Was Spotted Swimming Through the Flooded Streets of New Jersey

• The energy transition is starting to feed itself