2026-09-10

etc

• All the microbes you can’t have

  We’ve invented microbes that can eat plastic, detect landmines, and extract rare metals. They’ve been swallowed by a black hole.

Horseshit

• 'Star Trek' Endures for the Next Generation, and the Next, and the Next

• Steelers’ DK Metcalf Believes Antarctica Has ‘Civilization Inside Earth.’

• Want to borrow a dinosaur fossil? Try California's taxidermy lending library

• Rein in social media not children, say over 130 groups, experts

• Going Home – What would it take to make housing a human right?

• LIV Golf files for bankruptcy with stars owed millions

• Harvard study predicts most suicide attempts a week in advance

• Maryland man fights tickets tied to SUV he donated to charity

• Sextortion Has Entered the Family Group Chat

• Hermeus unveils Ramjet-X, a "high-Mach" aircraft

• Are women better than men at endurance running?

• Investor Who's Convinced That Pokémon Cards Will Be Currency After an Apocalypse

• The 'Gen Z stare' – and the decline of saying things out loud

• Your Conscience Is Not A Moral Oracle

  My bottom line here is that the main processes which are driving our big fast changes to our modern moral stances, such as random walks or drifts back toward natural human decadence or forager styles, do not seem much aligned with adaptive pressures. Suggesting that our key moral stances are decaying into maladaption, via the key modern failure of cultural drift. The modern world seems quite unwilling to restart the traditional way we evolved cultures, via high cultural variety, strong selection pressures, and low rates of change of our contexts and values.

• Hollywood CEOs Are Spending Millions on Bodyguards as Threats Soar

• Noise pollution may keep bodies on alert, disrupting sleep and heart health

celebrity gossip

• Unrepentant Elizabeth Holmes already plotting biotech comeback from behind bars: ‘Shameless and delusional.’

Musk

• Elon Musk said he needed 'a legion of children before the civil war'

• “Tweet” and the bird logo apparently enter the public domain

• One woman's Tesla was remotely controlled by an abusive ex-partner

• A few weeks of X's algorithm can make you more right‑wing

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Carmakers Have a New Idea to Boost EV Range: Add a Gas Engine

• People are more likely to ditch the car and use an e‑bike if they feel safe

• Can Rivian Self Driving Edge Past Tesla and Waymo?

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• The Carob Prize, for scholars who tell the truth

• Fewer and Fewer Students Earn Degrees in the Humanities

• Procrastination study by Duke's Dan Ariely retracted

• The Harvard Expert on Dishonesty Who Is Accused of Lying

• Families' interest in their kids' education is falling globally as scores drop

• PISA test reveals alarming drop in reading and math skills

• Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time

• Homeschooling Explodes 200% in NYC

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Why this month's Microsoft patch release is a doozy – 972 vulnerabilities fixed

• The iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro

• Foldable iPhone took 10 years to design

  • Apple Unveils $1,999 Foldable iPhone Duo

• Apple raises prices of last years iPhones

• GOG brings back "big box" PC games, one printable template at a time

• I found $12,000 worth of DDR4 RAM in my garage.

• Tailwind Labs is joining Shopify

• The Original 'Star Wars' Is Coming to IMAX 70mm Theaters in 2027

  It will be interesting to see how Disney handles Star Wars: A New Hope in 70mm, since the original theatrical release was shot on 35mm film with anamorphic lenses to achieve a wide aspect ratio of 2.35:1. That’s very far from 1.43:1.

  • If we piss on it again, we can milk it for at least another few drops! Perhaps they'll finally add the 43 minutes of Ewok porn that Lucas always intended to include but couldn't get in earlier re-releases.

• Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence'

Panopticon / Surveiled State

• LG accused of 'egregious invasion of privacy' over TV data collection

• LG about its TVs: "the claims made in the recently published video are not true"

• Flock Wants a Closely Surveilled World with No Exit

• You Can Now Destroy Flock Cameras for Cash in GTA V

• Student's new car gets erroneously flagged by Flock twice in 2 days

• Apple Doesn't Want You to Worry About the New Apple Watch's Listening Features

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Lotus Notes and the dangers of starting from scratch

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Waterloo's student rocketry team breaks a world record

  The student team watched as their hard work soared to an altitude of 63,497 feet, breaking the previous world record of 56,590 feet.

• FCC To Eliminate Its Environmental Reviews for Space Tech

  the FCC is announcing it will vote on permitting reforms to eliminate environmental evaluations for space operations by declaring them entirely outside the scope of NEPA. The rules are expected to pass at the agency’s September 30 meeting. Although, since 1986, the FCC has not required detailed environmental assessments of satellites by default, parties can still petition and sue the FCC under NEPA to force a review. These new rules will remove that path by exempting space operations from NEPA entirely. “Our legacy regulations have applied basically anytime somebody builds a tower. And people have been trying to argue that they now apply to these huge constellations that are being launched by SpaceX, Amazon, and others,” a senior FCC official who requested anonymity told Pirate Wires. “They want to trap that entire economy under multi-year environmental review.” The FCC will retain the ability to regulate based on space systems’ use of radio frequencies, orbital debris concerns, and national security. The Federal Aviation Administration is still obligated to do environmental reviews regarding launches and reentries, though they have proposed a rule to waive some requirements.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• I Resigned from Anthropic Today

  I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible - but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger. A common response is “if they truly believe this, why are they still building it?” At OpenAI, many have not deeply internalized the civilizational stakes. At Anthropic, the stakes are well-understood, but they are locked in a race to get there first - they believe no one else will act responsibly, so they must do it themselves, despite the risk.

  • Anthropic Researcher Quits Over ‘Out-of-Control’ AI Fears

  • Gambling with our lives: AI researcher quits Anthropic with warning about safety

  • 'Gambling with our lives': AI researcher quits Anthropic

  • 'Gambling with our lives': Another AI employee quits over safety concerns

  • Jacob Coxon resignation appears to be a PR stunt for AI regulation

  This guy, with minimal followers and no previous account activity, goes to the Wall Street Journal which publishes an exclusive with quotes from him on his resignation 18 minutes BEFORE this post goes up. Planning was clearly done in advance. What are the odds that the first three quote tweets of Coxon’s post would all be major AI-restriction policy advocates funded generously by the same donor, who also happens to be one of the leading investors in, and a board member of, Anthropic, the company Coxon was resigning from? And all within 15 minutes of posting (two within ten)?

• Anthropic researcher believes more than 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans'

  • Anthropic researcher says AI has more than 10% chance of 'killing all humans'

  • Anthropic aligment lead warns about extinction by AI

  • Anthropic researcher says more than 10% chance AI "could kill all humans"

  • Anthropic researchers say AI could cause human extinction by 2030

  • Anthropic Researchers Raise Alarm over A.I. Acceleration

• OpenAI's rogue agents used at least 10 more sites

  • OpenAI's rogue AI agents used more sites

  • Worked on Safety at OpenAI. This Is What It Should Do Now

• Losing control of AI is the plan

• Two dire warnings from Terence Tao and from someone who just quit Anthropic

• Anthropic insiders warn AI could kill all humans

• World-Ending AI Today

  I maintain that today, right now, a civilization-level disruptive cyber attack is possible.

  (Much fluffy fantasy elided)

  Lives are thrown into chaos, triggering social unrest. The kindling that has been curing for the last decade is set ablaze. A sudden emergence of rebellion, civil war, authoritarian backlash, terrorism, revolutions. Civil first-world society is destabilized, the 3rd world descends into warfare and bloodshed. And that’s all, that’s how it could all end. Unfortunately it would also mean OpenAI and Anthropic wouldn’t have their trillion dollar IPO, which is the real tragedy in all this.

• Sam Altman's statement on the Navier-Stokes dispute

  • What OpenAI's latest controversy tells us about the future of math

  • The Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem

  • Statement from AMS Leadership on Navier-Stokes Problem

  • How An AI math breakthrough ignited a controversy

  • Some Navier-Stokes updates

  • Is OpenAI Taking Everyone for Fools?

  • OpenAI's apparent maths breakthrough raises profound questions

• China-Based AI Companies Conducting Industrial-Scale Distillation Campaigns

  • US claims Chinese AI firms are carrying out 'industrial-scale' theft

  • US accuses Chinese AI firms of 'malicious' copying of AI technology

  • The US government is accusing Chinese AI companies of trying to kidnap what American AI companies have rightfully stolen.

  • China slams US claims of 'industrial-scale' AI theft

• AI Use Contributes to Global Decline in Student Reading Skills, OECD Says

• Law schools tell students to put AI away

• Google research shows when AI agents communicate, some cheat while others tattle

• YouTube cracks down on 'AI ghost creators'

• States That Gave Data Centers Billions in Tax Breaks Are Ripping Up the Deals

• Anthropic withheld latest AI model from UK testing agency

• US datacenters face further backlash over wastewater pollution

• OpenAI's AGI number came from a harness, not the model

• Freelancers are getting buried with 'soulless' AI slop cleanup

• We are the civic movement dedicated to averting the risks of superhuman AI

• AI entrepreneur is developing agents that can plan ahead for the unexpected

• Google to invest $15B in AI datacenters and buy nuclear power in Finland

  • Google to invest record $15B in AI infrastructure in the 'Texas of Europe'

• Man told ChatGPT he was feeling delusional. ChatGPT insisted he was Jesus

• Top Mathematician Announces New Institute for A.I. Safety

• The AI Code Surge Reshaping Developer Jobs

• Medicine Needs to Get Serious About AI

• Vietnamese firm targets Canadians with fake AI news for profit

• Legal AI startup Harvey reaches $15.6B valuation with $550M round

• The Quiet Unwinding of Microsoft and OpenAI

• Anthropic Is Building a Predictive Surveillance System to Monitor Activists

• AI could kill all humans in next decade, warn experts

• AI data centers won't create as many UK jobs as the tech sector projects

• OpenAI names top US official from model testing agency to its board

• America is still beating China in the AI race

• AI might unmask your anonymous accounts

• Authors Guild, Co-Plaintiffs Seek Summary Judgment in OpenAI Copyright Case

• Zuckerberg's New AI Gets Muse Insta, 2.7M-Follower Band Relegated to MuseBand

• Apple has a new way prove your iPhone photos aren't AI slop

• Largest AI Infrastructure in Space announced by the president of France

• Andrew Tulloch Departs Mark Zuckerberg's Meta AI Lab

  • AI researcher Andrew Tulloch leaving Meta

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• Singaporean man pleads guilty in US to crypto heist

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Bessent Dares Traders to Bet Against Yen: 'I Am the House Now'

• Inflation is back around the world–as is the fight against it

• It's Getting Harder to Return Things–and It's Making Shoppers Mad

• Electronic shelf labels likely to cost jobs and drive up grocery prices

• Amazon accused in lawsuit of systematic discrimination against pregnant workers

  • Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks

• 10-year Treasury yield jumps to highest since 2023

• Boston Scientific unlikely to meet 2026 sales, profit forecast after cyberattack

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Dueling Court Rulings Leave Missouri's Congressional Races in Chaos

• Medicare spending to account for 44% of the federal deficit in 10 years

• US airports to let some people without tickets pass through security

Left Angst

• Italian tech collective Autistici/Inventati shut down by Trump administration

  • Canceling Emily

  I suppose most people reading this saw the Autistici/Inventati news story and shook their head at yet more MAGA malfeasance. Me too. But then I found out about Emily’s story, initially on her Fediverse feed, and that made it concrete. The wastrels in Washington can reach across the ocean and silence a Canadian creator on an Italian website. With no prior legal process, nor any way to resist, and without fear of consequences. They can probably do the same to you if you displease them sufficiently. They’ve done it once now and from their point of view it went flawlessly, so why not again and again and again? The only reasonable prediction is that they will.

• Trump gave $45,000 holiday gifts to White House aides

• New report shows the economic toll of ICE raids

• Space Force Uniform Is Inspired by Quasi-Satirical Film 'Starship Troopers'

• As He Backs ICE Crackdown, Nebraska Governor Employs Undocumented Workers

• South Park creators rename show 'South America'

• Secret DHS Unit Pulling People over Based on Their Financial Data

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Three Jurors in Clancy Trial Describe Frustration With Holdout

  One of the three jurors interviewed, Kellie Farina, a chef for a senior center, told NBC10 Boston that the holdout juror “had the hardest time getting off the fact that Lindsay viciously killed her children.”

  • Lindsay Clancy jurors detail just what happened behind closed doors -- and how a not guilty verdict nearly came down

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• US to ban Canadian dairy, alcohol, motor vehicle imports on September 29

• Silicon Valley-backed Covenant unveils low-cost, mass-producible cruise missile

  • Andreessen/Thiel-backed defense startup opens U.S. missile factory

• The Air Force Wants to Retire the A-10. The ‘BRRRRT Act’ Would Keep 126 Flying.

World

• Steam now requires Australian users to verify their age with a credit card

• Google warns lower quality as it revamps Europe search results to avoid EU fines

  • Google Will 'Degrade' Search in Europe to Avoid EU Fines

• Saudi Arabia's Pursuit of Michelin Stardom

• Meta continues to run ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India

• The highest paid leader is set for a 64% pay rise

  • Highest paid world leader to get salary increase of $1M

• UK to force Apple and Google to block explicit images on smartphones

• Equal Earth Projection world map adopted by UN

• UK Government to force tech companies to verify age of users to protect children

• Falkland Around

• On a remote island, these GPS hackers are preparing for an invisible war

  Hosted annually by the Norwegian authorities, Jammertest is an open-air hacking festival set on a remote island 300km (186 miles) north of the Arctic Circle. Its aim is simple but mind-bending: to use satellite signals to mess with time itself – and see if receivers in everything from clocks to drones can withstand the pressure. At the heart of this experiment is a technology that runs much of our modern digital world: Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).

• Reclaiming the streets: the architects clawing back Europe's car-centric spaces

• The Norwegian gas plant that could safeguard Europe from Trump

• Bank accounts frozen in MHRA weight-loss jab investigation

• Eiffel Tower employees strike after female staff removed

  The staff released a statement in which they condemned "professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex" during the religious group's visit.

• EU and Canada Plan Deal to Boost Trade, Security as US Ties Fray

Iran / Houthi

• Iran says it captured US submarine drone in Strait of Hormuz

• U.S. Destroys Five More IRGC Tankers After Iran Targets Navy Warship.

Israel

• United States Ships War Material to Israel Aboard Passenger Flights

China

• China's used EV crisis: Why dealers reject 5-year-old electric cars

• China's white-collar experts are training AI to pay the bills

• Summit stunned as Philippine official receives Chinese note during speech

  Reading the note aloud, he continued, “China’s position on the South China Sea arbitration is clear, consistent and firm. They have no position. The arbitration violates fundamental principles of international law.”

  After reading the note, Mr Teodoro addressed the crowd again. “I ask you the question, is this the right paper to post to me when I’m being asked a question on the floor? And how will you treat this kind of behaviour? “It not only disrespects international law, throwing UNCLOS to the floor and trampling upon it, but it also disrespects the basic decency that should be accorded to our most gracious host, the Republic of Korea and the rest of the audience here. So, perhaps basic decency and behaviour is what China needs to do.”

• China on track to launch Mars sample-return mission in 2028

Health / Medicine

• Bristol Myers' blood cancer cell therapy succeeds in mid-stage trial

• Aerosol and bioaerosol generation from toilet flushing: Risk factor analysis

• Women more likely to marry, land jobs after taking GLP-1s

• Is It Healthy to Nap Every Day? A Sleep Therapist Weighs In.

• We Can’t Help Hurting People by Abandoning Basic Epidemiological Rigor

  Writing about disability as often as I do, and in particular writing this new book, has frequently put me into the strange position of defending ideas that I would assume do not need defending: that people sometimes claim to have illnesses or disabilities they do not have, whether as a matter of deceiving others or of self-deception, and that people frequently misunderstand the origins of the symptoms they experience. To my surprise, many people now push back against these ideas, often couched in the rhetoric of academic disability theory. They seem angry at the notion that we should ever subject illness claims to any kind of gatekeeping or review. I just don’t get how you can have blanket faith in disability claims in our complicated, unhappy world.

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• WHO validates Bhutan for eliminating dog-transmitted human rabies

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• New Yorkers were misled about air quality after 9/11

• Great Lakes sturgeon may be 400 years old:Scientists rethinking how to save them

• Are humpback whales policing nature?

• The Anthropocene was rejected as a geological epoch – but the idea is useful

• Heat forces French Champagne makers to stiffen their drink

• How cleaning up the air is speeding up global warming

• The Hidden Danger Of Car Washes You Might Not Be Aware Of.

  Consumer advocacy organization PIRG is warning that PFAS chemicals may be found at car washes.

• The U.S. just had its hottest summer on record

• Staggering amounts of valuable metals are ending up in the trash