2026-05-18

etc

• Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely

Horseshit

• SF vibes are frenetic over the divide in outcomes and career uncertainty

• How a blind taste competition launched the American wine industry

  • they made a decent movie about it: Bottle Shock

• PG&E to cut power in parts of Bay Area in anticipation of high winds

  • Because figuring out how to keep you power lines from starting fires isn't the "Green" option; blackouts (for some) are.

• Physicists Can't Agree on What Quantum Mechanics Says about Reality

• Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once

• The shooting stopped. Then came everything else

  Few ever see how a community carries on after a deadly school shooting. Survivors of last year’s attack on a Minneapolis Catholic school want you to know: In class and at home, the trauma colors everything

• AI license plate cameras tore this town apart and led to a state of emergency

• Is the Modern NBA Breaking Its Stars?

• Swatch stores close for second day after crowds

• Target can't measure their own bins

Obit

• Peter G. Neumann (of RISKS digest) has died

  Peter G. Neumann, renowned computer scientist, ARPANET/Internet pioneer and expert on technology risks, working at SRI International since 1971, has died at age 93.

  • RISKS-FORUM Digest

  • Fwd: Peter Neumann has died

  • Peter G. Neumann, Who Warned of Computer Security Risks, Dies at 93

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• 'News will find me' mindset makes people trust algorithms and online networks

Musk

• Musk vs. Altman week 3: Elon Musk and Sam Altman traded blows

  • What we learned from a cringey courtroom drama between Elon Musk and Sam Altman

  • Court grants Musk's bid to add Craig Federighi to Apple/OpenAI lawsuit

• Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

• The latest X algorithm has been published to GitHub

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• In Japan, we don't see robots as a threat: just a form of presence in the world

• ElliQ is a surprisingly helpful companion robot for older adults

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Judge Says Krafton Must Rehire Fired 'Subnautica' CEO

• Trillions of miles of data: Your car is spying on you

• Security researcher says Microsoft built a Bitlocker backdoor, releases exploit

• Reddit Is Blocking Some Users from Accessing Its Website from Mobile Devices

• Who will maintain the web when PHP's veterans retire?

• FTC tells platforms to comply with Take It Down Act by May 19

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Ouch: 60fps Video on a CGA? - The GlyphBlaster

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• 4 alien species have been pulled from crashed UFOs, ex-government researcher claims.

• Europe Just Unveiled a Serious Rival to SpaceX's Starship

  the SpaceLiner booster glides back through the atmosphere on wings, before being captured in mid-air by a large subsonic aircraft. It is a recovery method that sounds almost science fictional, but one that DLR researchers argue has distinct advantages: the booster needs no fuel reserved for landing burns, which means more of every kilogram of propellant goes towards actually reaching orbit.

• Three's a party: US, China, and now Russia are on the prowl in GEO

  Ars has written about these activities in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) before, but the last few months have seen a couple of interesting developments. First, Russia has now joined the fray with the recent arrival of its own suspected inspector (or attack) satellite in GEO. Second, the US Space Force is poised to order more—perhaps many more—reconnaissance satellites of its own to send into the geosynchronous belt.

• New UFO files offer no answers–but something is happening in the skies

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• What A.I. Kant Do

• Claude Code Did the Heavy Lifting to Get Adobe Lightroom CC Running on Linux

• American Jobs with AI Exposure Are Starting to Disappear, Data Show

• Some Asexuals Are Using AI Companions for Intimacy Without the Sex

• Fellow Artists, I'm Begging You to Pull Your Heads Out of the Sand About AI

• A Lo-Fi Rebellion Against A.I

• The US Is Using AI to Hunt Down Insider Trading on Polymarket

AI-generated code is 'pain waiting to happen'

• At Cannes, filmmakers shift toward cautious acceptance of AI

• AI Poop Analysis App Offered to Sell Me Database of Its Users' Poops

• AI Poised to Tilt Job Market Leverage Toward Older Workers

• Construction on Meta's largest data center brings chaos to rural Louisiana

• Datacenters slurping up so much juice they boosted prices 75%

• What AI Did to My College Class

• AI Rings on Fingers Can Interpret Sign Language

• AI Wearables Are Coming but They'll Need to Pass the Coffee Shop Test to Survive

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Nvidia Surpasses Germany

• Palantir's SaaS is dead claim is a warning shot for founders

• Listen to this trucker explain how “foreign” drivers are being sidelined just days after SCOTUS said companies are liable for them.

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Google Maps Satellite Imagery of Palisades Fire Area Reverts

  • Surely a totally apolitical decision... Wouldn't the incumbent administration do well to publish their own areal photos showing the true extent of the progress in rebuilding?

Left Angst

• Trump's More Than 3,700 Trades Astonish Wall Street Insiders

• Trump celebrates after UN climate committee moves away from its most extreme global warming scenario

• You Are What You Beat, From Your Wife to Your Meat

  How a poorly-written blog post led to the rise of gay conservatism, Steve Bannon, and Donald Trump

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Military Snipers Are Being Put Out of a Job by Drones

World

• My sources tell me Keir has decided to stand down, but he’ll do it on his terms

• How a self-proclaimed Swiss king's 'empire' is riling local authorities

• Is Britain Ungovernable?

• South Korea says it will pursue all options to avoid Samsung strike

• Germany's spy agency picks French AI firm over Palantir

• U.K. Economy Accelerates to Outpace U.S. as War Headwinds Loom

• EU weighs restricting use of US cloud platforms to process sensitive gov data

Iran / Houthi

• Strait of Hormuz submarine cable

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russia pressures university students to become wartime drone pilots

China

• China bypasses US GPU bans with 1.54-exaflops 'LineShine' supercomputer

• 'White monkeys' paid to make Chinese businesses look global

• China's Invisible Hand Is Distorting Global Oil Markets

Health / Medicine

• What the FDA won't tell you about your medications

  For years, the Food and Drug Administration told the public that generic medications are just as safe and effective as the brand-name versions. But ProPublica reporters uncovered information that proves this isn’t always true.

  • But it wasn't worth writing about until the politics were more convenient.

• Scientists believe ibogaine can help veterans overcome PTSD

• Yes, you can be allergic to water

• A revolutionary cancer treatment could transform autoimmune disease

  Originally designed to target and wipe out cancer by reprogramming the patient’s immune cells, CAR T is now being offered to patients in hundreds of clinical trials for autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis, lupus, Graves’ disease, vasculitis, and many others. The hope is that CAR T can duplicate the success it has demonstrated in a range of blood cancers by hunting down and eliminating cells that target the self in autoimmune diseases.

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Ebola epidemic in DRC, Uganda public health emergency of international concern

• WHO declares Ebola outbreak in DR Congo a global health emergency

• WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak a Global Health Emergency

• WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Congo, Uganda emergency of international concern

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Japan’s robot wolf sells out as record bear attacks drive demand

• Coal Makes a Comeback, Fueled by War in the Middle East

• Coal pollution is cutting solar power output, study finds

• Bear spray is exploding in the trash near Yellowstone National Park

• Basalt could be the key to greener and cheaper cement