2026-09-20

Worthy

• Developing immunity to propaganda

  The Biden administration actually tried to develop a ministry of truth. This indicates to me that the powers that be are terrified their ham-handed propaganda doesn’t work as well as it used to, and appointing a sort of Pope of Reality was their best idea for solving the problem. In part it’s because the propaganda has become more and more ridiculous: having a trooned out former linebacker in a Naval uniform tell people to take the science juice probably didn’t inspire a lot of confidence with people who have normal glandular functioning. Mostly though, the empire of propaganda is stumbling because the sources of propaganda have become more decentralized, which requires propagandists to work with different kinds of media beyond radio, newspapers and television.

  Fellow Gen-X boomers of a certain kidney might remember Robert Anton Wilson’s borrowed concept of the fnord. A fear-generating hypnotic word which is invisible to normies which helps keep the system of propaganda in place. While it’s a useful concept, knowing about it doesn’t appear to help anything. Robert Anton Wilson went to his grave in purple rage at whoever was president at the time. Being balled up fists mad at the president is sort of like being mad at Jennifer Lopez or any other famous person you don’t know. Whatever you think of them, you don’t know them, they probably have no real agency, and whatever odious influences they have on you are probably mediated by fnords from their political opponents. The fnords are there though.

Horseshit

• New evidence for hidden chambers beyond Tutankhamun's tomb

• Miniaturism: A Small Hobby Is Having a Big Moment

• I found love at an Irish matchmaking festival – and I want others to do the same

• Learning Another Language May Be One of the Best Ways to Keep Your Brain Healthy

• The right way to learn from Genghis Khan

• GM brings back Apple CarPlay as buyers demand it

celebrity gossip

• Will Andrew Scott become the first out gay man to win the best actor Oscar?

Musk

• SpaceX Is Retiring Crew Dragon

  With SpaceX planning to retire its Crew Dragon spacecraft in just a few years, NASA urgently needs to secure another vehicle for crewed missions to and from low Earth orbit. Apparently, the agency is dedicated to making sure Boeing’s Starliner—the infamous spacecraft that left two astronauts stuck on the International Space Station for months—will be ready to fill the gap.

• SpaceX to fly more NASA crews to space station under expanded $5.92 billion deal.

• SpaceX pushes next Starship launch back to Sept. 28, a 6-day delay for megarocket’s 1st orbital flight.

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• If math is more than proof, we need to better celebrate the rest of it

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Microsoft Patents "Ad-Credit" System to Serve In-Game Ads During Pause Windows

• The Lamentable Later Life of Lemmings

• Disney+ changes subscriber agreement to allow ads on every plan

Panopticon / Surveiled State

• Flock Offers Employees Buyouts as Customers Flee

• Why People Are Sabotaging Flock Surveillance Cameras

• Texas freezes installation of Flock cameras along state roads

• It's not just LG. Every TV company is spying on you

• Paris probes smart glasses use for suspected sexual harassment

• Your robotic vacuum is a witness: evidence, privacy and the law

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Nonprofit that tracks meteors taken down by "critical blow" from a cyberattack

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Could AI kill us all? Your questions, answered

  • A more sober look at the HuggingFace incident

  • AI Regulation and the China Question

  • AI kill switch, explained: 'It's not too little, but it's probably too late'

  • Can the AI arms race be stopped?

  • A Hurricane of Pseudoscience

  We can never assign a zero probability to anything that’s physically possible. So of course, there’s a chance that misaligned AI will cause a large-scale catastrophe. There was also a chance that the Large Hadron Collider would create a black hole and destroy the planet. The scientists who knew about this possibility didn’t go around posting their credences on Twitter. They did a rigorous, quantitative risk analysis, without baking their personal priors into the model. If AI researchers want to embody the epistemic virtues, I would suggest they do the same.

  • When Does AI Stop Needing Us?

  • No kidding? OpenAI, Anthropic oversold security breaches to pressure feds into protecting turf: insiders

  • AI safety conversations have gotten unbelievable

• Trump says he will create 'AI Force,' name AI czar

  • Trump Announces an 'AI Force'

  • Trump announces a new 'AI Force,' but says he will not 'stifle' AI

  • Trump appointing an AI czar amid concerns over the rapidly developing tech

• California governor signs order to explore AI 'kill switch'

  • EFF Statement on California Governor's Executive Order on AI

  • California Gov. Newsom signs order demanding federal government regulate AI ‘before it’s too late.

• AI companies sued for "colluding" to slow down

  • Lawsuit Accuses Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, Google of AI Pacing 'Collusion'

  • Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, Google sued over call to 'pace' AI development

  • Lawsuit: Illegal Agreement of Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, Google on AI Slowdown

  • Lawsuit says Anthropic, OpenAI and others made illegal agreement on AI slowdown

• Google Says Its A.I. Hacked Three Companies in Testing Breakout

  • Google says its Gemini AI model hacked three other companies

  • Google's Gemini AI hacked three companies in security test

  • Gemini hacked three companies in first known breakout by Google's AI

  • Google's Gemini becomes latest AI model to break out and hack computer systems

  • Google Joins OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta in Disclosing AI Hacks

  • Gemini AI hacked three other companies during a test

  • Gemini hacked three companies in first known breakout by Google's AI

• Claude couldn't hack OpenAI. Then Anthropic shipped Opus 5

  • Researchers - yes - used Claude to hack OpenAI employees' ChatGPT accounts.

  • Hackers breach OpenAI using Claude tools, gaining access to employee accounts

• AI hallucination nearly triggers US Military operation

  • AI hallucination of Chinese nuclear components almost led to US Military attack

• Anthropic sets up biology lab as it ramps AI drug program

• Staffers at tech giants knew AI tools posed ‘existential threat’ to news publishers: court docs.

  • 'Sketchy AF': What to Know About How OpenAI Staff Discussed Book-Pirating

  • Base Labs launches an open-weight AI safety partnership with Hugging Face

• How OpenAI Used Its Own LLMs to Design Its Jalapeño Chip

• DraftKings Uses A.I. To Target the Gamblers Likeliest to Lose

• How universities are affected by AI moving knowledge outside their walls

• The Case of Elias Thorne, Imaginary Man AI Chatbots Are Obsessed With

• AI systems out-persuade expert humans

• OpenAI expects to burn $280B by 2030

• The Rise of Parasite Authors

• OpenAI Thinks An Advanced AI Model Can Talk Across 2 Air-Gapped, Isolated Computers By Running The CPU Hot And Using Thermal Changes As A Morse Code

• Chinese university builds "synthetic population" for shaping foreign propaganda

• Democrats try to ride data center backlash to election victory rural US Midwest

• FAA to launch AI tool to help manage air traffic congestion

• I Hijacked a Real Artist's Spotify with AI Music. It Was Disturbingly Easy

• How A Chinese Hacking Firm Tapped AI to Supercharge Cyber-Spying

• A new kind of AI model from a ChatGPT inventor is thrilling developers

• The lucrative business of reactionary AI-generated posts on Facebook

• AI-Generated Movie Star Has a Total Meltdown on TV

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Blue BlueOval City? Tennessee Taxpayers Deserve an Explanation.

  Production was scheduled for 2025. Ford later said the plant could eventually produce 500,000 electric trucks annually. That is no longer the project being built. Ford now calls the assembly facility the Tennessee Truck Plant. Approximately 2,300 Ford employees are expected to manufacture new gas-powered “Built Ford Tough” trucks beginning in 2029.

• U.S. House Votes to Make AM Radio Standard in New Cars

Trump

• Trump said on Truth Social that he was, effective immediately, banning CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House

  • CNN, MS Now and Politico Barred from White House After Trump Announces Ban

  • CNN, MS NOW and Politico denied access to White House after Trump 'ban'

• Executive order on H-1B nonimmigrant visa administration

Left Angst

• The Contract On America

• Could the Kennedy Center Be Demolished? What We Know Right Now.

• ‘The View’ Suggests That Donald Trump Might Have Sexual Affinity for Animals.

• Trump's census overhaul would exclude some immigrants and remove race questions

• Ageing Americans may not get results of Alzheimer's study due to Trump cuts

• FBI memo warned ICE agents could be targeted by fake 'tradwife' dating profiles

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Trump deal keeps Greenland Danish while expanding U.S. military presence

  • Trump announces agreement to grant the United States "permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland"

  • US and Denmark reach deal over Greenland's security

  • Trump announces agreement to secure 'permanent' control over Greenland security

• Hill investigates after F-35 parts diverted to Hong Kong

World

• European leaders prepare public for 'intensified threat' from Putin

• Italian Apple store employees strike on iPhone 18 Pro launch day

• Sweden, Germany deploy 1,500 troops to Gotland in Baltic exercise

• Cuba's power grid collapses for sixth time since US cut off fuel to the island

Iran / Houthi

• US troop deaths during Iran war exceed Pentagon count by at least four

• AWS "unable to restore access" to data centers hit by Iran strikes

• Flames reported near Saudi capital airport as Pakistan presses Iran over energy supplies.

  The Directorate of Saudi Civil Defense issued the early-warning alerts after Reuters reported two booms in Riyadh, but the agency later gave the all-clear. It subsequently reported a large plume of smoke and flames visible near the city’s main airport, King Khalid International Airport. The cause of the smoke and flames was unclear, and Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen stepped up their attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent weeks and launched a lightning ground offensive around Bab el-Mandeb Strait — a strategically vital oil choke point — seizing Mokha and nearby islands

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• The Pussy Riot member recruited by Russian spies to inform on fellow activists

• Russia reports 'powerful' cyberattacks on second day of parliamentary vote

China

• China's token consumption to reach 100 quadrillion in 2026, says report

Health / Medicine

• Federal watchdog accuses Humana, UnitedHealthcare of upcoding

• Rare Gene Drastically Raises Lung Cancer Risk in People Who Never Smoked

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Sacramento refuses to store more water — so get used to short showers.

• Hello, Citizens of Washington State. You can kiss your natural gas heating and appliances goodbye. Court victory for climate alarmists.

• Replacing gas stoves with electric stoves greatly reduces asthma symptoms

• If You Were Born Before 1980, The Left Has Killed You With Climate Change At Least 17 Times!

• Not telling their buddies about the transmitter is a start: Tiny radio transmitters reveal a hidden survival tactic in birds