2026-10-31

etc

• European Arrogance

  • "European values" seems to include an inoculation of ennui and despair. I'm reminded of several bright, eager young European people i knew 30 years ago, who had a shared faith that no accomplishment of their own would ever really profit themselves or the world. They were happy to do things: they just could not conceive of their success at those endeavors ever being more than a momentary personal pleasure. Anything good would be quashed before it could become anything more. They knew this at a bone deep level that made American style sweat equity effort a complete mystery.

Horseshit

• Reed Hastings says Big Tech should get used to being hated – like Big Pharma

• 1 in 6 Dogs May Carry a Parasite Usually Found in Human Mouths.

• Study: Americans Are Putting More Additives–and Calories–In Their Coffee

• A Self-Described 'Junkie' Rode Synthetic Drugs to Oblivion – and Fame

• Searching for Jobs, Gen Z Feels Like It's Staring into 'The Void'

• Red Baron Worker Fired Up Over Vicious Social Media ‘Prank’ Gets Ultimate Payback

• Keeping Up Appearances – The women taking over the funeral industry

• Should Your Kids Be Born in a Pod?

• Turns Out Ergonomic Office Furniture Is Mostly Hype

• Just Noting That Your Candy Corn Is Made of Bug Secretions

• Worst Halloween candies, according to the data

• Study estimates 75% of NFL players who died over 15-year span had CTE

• A New Map of 'Empty' Space Challenges a Tranquil Picture of the Galaxy

• Steak for cramps, liver for beauty: How meat became all the rage in women’s wellness.

• Bugatti CEO chases down car thief – then offers him a lift home

  • Bugatti CEO's Own $3.3M Bugatti Casually Stolen at Factory

• A Pickpocket's Guide to New York

Obit

• why is it that a Captain whose name is Jean-Luc Picard have a perfect English accent?

  • Patrick Stewart, Star Trek Captain and X-Men Superhero, Dies at 86

  • Patrick Stewart dies at 86

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Dockworkers at more than 100 ports worldwide strike against arms shipments

• The Price of Propaganda: What Governments Spend to Shape Foreign Opinion

• Meta discussed 'whisper strategy' against social media critic Jonathan Haidt

  • Meta schemed 'whisper strategy' to discredit social media critic Jonathan Haidt

Musk

• SpaceX no longer needs NASA, and that’s a problem for America’s space agency.

  SpaceX is still fulfilling its existing contracts with NASA, the US Space Force, and other government entities. And it continues to do so at a lower cost and generally higher level of reliability than pretty much anyone else. But the company is no longer signing many large new contracts for spaceflight services, at least in the traditional launch and in-space flight domains.

• Elon Musk Made Off with $16B of Taxpayer Money

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Toyota and Waymo Advance Autonomous Driving Collaboration

Robot uprising / Humanoid Helpers

• Sterling Anderson doesn't think humanoid robots should be building cars

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• 'Yes in God's Backyard': Churches Are Turning Their Land into Affordable Housing

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• American views of higher ed decline, once again

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Reddit shares drop and it plans login requirement as search traffic sinks

  • Reddit is moving to "a logged-in-only experience," CEO says

  • Reddit to Transition to Logged in Only

  • Reddit stock today -28.46%, Bot/ghost town light in users

  • Reddit shares plunge as Google's AI search squeezes traffic

• Global GPU prices rise 35% in just three months

• I Returned My iPhone Duo

• Chrome extensions with 13.4M installs caught hijacking searches

• Dell workstation with 96GB Nvidia GPU may cost less than graphics card alone

• The reports of Stack Overflow's death are greatly exaggerated

• Linux Kernel TCP Flaw With 9.8 CVSS Score Affects Ubuntu, Red Hat and Other Distributions

  Anthropic said on October 27 that its AI model wrote an exploit that uses the flaw to let a remote attacker with no credentials run commands as root on Linux servers with a multipath TCP listener.

• The Apple Pencil turned the Duo into my new favorite notebook

• Apple Is Entering Its Slop Era

• Xbox Chased $800M Netflix Deal to Develop Movies, Shows Based on Games

• Writers Are Making Millions Selling Short Stories to Hollywood

• You Should Get to Own Your Media, Not Rent it Forever

Panopticon / Surveiled State

• Senators Demand Meta Answer for 'Pervert Glasses'

• GM to pay $220M after selling customer Smart Driver data

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Voyager 1 gives controllers the silent treatment

  Voyager 1 gave controllers the silent treatment for a few days this month before resuming communication weeks before the spacecraft reaches the one-light-day milestone.

• NASA ponders a Hubble servicing mission or a controlled deorbit

• Analysts find looming launch crisis is "more severe" than anticipated

• Retired Navy admiral warns of decades-long UAP ‘cover-up,’ points to deep ocean as ultimate hiding spot.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Anthropic may not secure investment-grade rating after IPO, Blackstone says

  • Anthropic to receive high 'junk' rating from credit agencies following IPO

• Anthropic hacked to deliver remote access trojan

  • Malicious Claude Code Extension Found in Cursor Marketplace

  • Official Claude Code extension compromise

• Sam Altman: local inference is a terrible allocation of scarce resources

  • OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says You Having DRAM Instead of Data Centers Is "Terrible"

  • Altman sympathizes with mathematicians, but says OAI's math onslaught won't stop

  • Sam Altman Thinks It's 'Terrible' for You to Have RAM in Your Gaming PC

  • Altman says 'quite terrible' for your PCs to have RAM

  • Sam Altman says the chip supply chain's invisible hand failing and DRAM is why

• Musk, Zuckerberg push to rebrand AI as 'super intelligence' on earnings calls

• Moonshot AI asking influencers not to disclose posts as paid when promoting Kimi

• OpenAI doubles ChatGPT Pro usage limits after backlash over planned 50% cut

• Invasion of the Sexy A.I. Joke Thieves

• Unreleased Claude model turned a Linux kernel bug into a remote root exploit

• The AI bubble could expose your deepest secrets

• Etsy to restrict AI-generated content in effort to combat seller slop

• Spotify aims to launch AI music remix service early next year

• AI will bring in universal income and everyone will get wealthier

• Canada to invest up to $1.6B in Toronto-based AI company Cohere

• A Defense Contractor Gave Their AI Agent Access to a Secure Pentagon System

• China increasingly depends on copying American AI

• Google eng is sure AI will destroy humanity he's stopped saving for retirement

• Anthropic only spends one third of its money directly on providing services to customers.

• AI is letting anyone reverse engineer anything. We talked to the developer

• Cisco is letting a 27-year-old rewrite 98% of its legacy code with AI: 'Go nuts'

  • Cisco gives engineer unlimited AI tokens to rewrite 98% of the company's code

• US Reps Lead Democratic Resolution Opposing A.I. Bubble Bailout for Big Tech

• We love how we look but AI tried to 'fix' our visible differences

• What is work for? Human wellbeing and the value of work in the AGI era

• Black October and the Future of Cybersecurity

• Anthropic Cracking Down on Video Game Rewrites

• Woman Died After ChatGPT Advised Her to Stop Taking Medication, Lawsuit Alleges

• BC looks into role of OpenAI private info in mass shooting. OpenAI asks to quash

• Winners and Losers If the Data Center Buildout Is Delayed

• Does AI help students learn? We have no clue.

• There are several ways your AI chat conversations can be made public

• Laser mosquito killer using A.I

• AI "Ghost Students" Steal Millions in Student Loans, DOJ Says

• The 'Pain in the Ass' Math That Could Save Vibe Coding from Itself

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• Attacker gets away with up to $3 billion from Binance

  • Binance-hacker-1029 – $5.6B stolen from Binance

  The Binance theft came within hours of a separate, much smaller theft of around $2.7 million from Polymarket users [W3IGG], and some people wondered whether the two were connected. I doubt it. Polymarket has blamed its incident on a compromised third-party vendor, which an attacker apparently used to inject a malicious script into the site’s frontend and steal user funds. The Binance attacker got access to the exchange’s own hot wallets. They’re very different attacks, and nothing besides timing ties them together so far.

  • Binance lost $6.3B without leaking a single private key

  • Binance – Total impact sits at around $6.3B

  • 'Elite North Korean hackers' blamed for $6.3B Binance hack

  • North Korea Steals USD 6.36B from Binance in the Largest Hack in History

  • Binance Suspends Transactions After It Is Targeted in Biggest-Ever Cyber Heist

  • Blockchain analysis firm TRM says North Korea behind Binance crypto theft

  • Binance's possible hack triggers $3B freeze in crypto assets

  • Binance Hacker Hunts for Exit Ramps as DeFi Exchanges Pause Markets

  • Hackers stole $6.3B from Binance, likely NK and compromised dev's laptop

  • The $6.3B Binance Hack Was Pulled Off in Just 20 Minutes

  • The largest theft in history: DPRK behind the $6.4B Binance hack

  • Blockchain intelligence firms link North Korea to $6.3B hack on Binance

  • Behind the Scenes of Crypto's Biggest Nightmare: A Record-Breaking Cyber Heist

• Binance cofounder Changpeng Zhao asks Elon Musk for 'respect'

• Hackers Swipe Millions from Polymarket Users in Latest Security Breach

  • Some Polymarket user funds stolen by hackers

  • Polymarket 1h halt after vendor compromise; affected users will be 'made whole'

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Amazon, Alphabet, SpaceX and Meta are all to blame for the new tech stock rout

  • US tech stocks see sharp falls over AI cost fears

  • Alphabet Sheds Half a Trillion in Market Value in Stock's Worst Day

  • PC chip plunge wipes out a quarter of Intel's value

  • Intel plunges 25%, triggers global chip rout on bleak outlook

  • US tech stocks tumble as concerns over AI spending intensify

  • Tech Selloff Pushes Nasdaq to Its Worst Month in over a Year

  • Tech sell-off deepens, sending Wall Street toward its worst day since June

  • Wall Street closes sharply lower as AI cash burn fears spark tech selloff

  • Google's $500B bloodbath reflects the danger it faces from AI

• Josh Kushner's Thrive and OpenAI to buy home security firm ADT

• The Factory in Phoenix That Could Save American Manufacturing

• What to consider if a company that made AI-related job cuts wants you back

• What to know about the cost of Halloween this year

  Prices for candy, the most popular Halloween purchase, and gum have risen 7.7% in one year and are up more than 18% in two years, according to the latest federal data. That's higher than the average rate of food inflation during that time. One major culprit: chocolate. Drought and heavy rains in places like West Africa have hurt cocoa harvests in recent seasons and pushed up prices worldwide.

  • It'll be another couple years before they admit there was a cartel that pushed up prices despite plentiful supply.

• The U.S. Investment Boom Arrives

• U.S. Oil Industry Earned over $130B in Profit During Iran War

• Microsoft expects 5% or fewer eligible employees to take its big buyout

• Intel to buy quantum firm Classiq for about $2.3B

• Supersonic airliner in doubt as company shifts to powering AI data centers

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• The Four Academics Who Dreamed Up California's Billionaire Tax

• New federal rule will require prescription drug middlemen to share payment data

• 1 in 10 members of Congress traded stocks in companies their committees oversee

Trump

• Adjusting Imports of Robotics, Industrial Machinery and Their Parts

Democrats

• Ilhan Omar Investigation Involves New Scrutiny of Long-Disputed Marriage

Left Angst

• Did your company donate to Trump's ballroom project? Call your lawyer

• Will they also participate? Top House Democrats demand Trump preserve conversations with Grok

• New book makes fiery claims about Jared Kushner's finances in Trump's first term

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Confused NYPD Abandons East Village E-Bike Raid

• Feds swarm Minnesota businesses in latest twist in state's sprawling fraud scandal

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Hegseth fires senior Pentagon general over classified leaks to press

  The official said Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia failed three polygraph examinations related to alleged disclosures of classified information. The investigation has been referred to the Justice Department. Sylvia is also accused of meeting journalists outside the Pentagon with the alleged intention of leaking classified material after Hegseth imposed new media restrictions requiring reporters to be escorted inside the building.

  • Hegseth firing Sylvia isn’t office politics — he smoked out a wartime mole.

• Taiwan 2027 conflict window remains valid, Army Pacific commander says.

• Pentagon tells Europeans to cool their rhetoric on Russia, sources say

World

• Protests erupt in Spain after 68 killed in deadliest train crash in decades

  Far-right demonstrators clashed with police outside the country’s Transportation Ministry, where they had gathered to call for the prime minister’s resignation.

• Europe Is Aflame, and It's Not Going to Stop

  • Cost of living protests to spread to Germany and reignite in France on Halloween

• French national assembly votes 0.055€/GB internet tax

  • French digital tax may kill VideoLan non-profit

• Serbia just elected the world’s brainiest parliament

• Greece showcases new air defense systems at Thessaloniki military parade

• Big Tech lobbying pushing EU towards data-protection rollback

• Europe plans to squeeze out Starlink

• Startups look for ways to make quieter drones

• Electrocutions, disease, no pay: workers risk exploitation in Europe datacentres

• MEPs tell China: Your exports are hurting our industry

• Portugal considers 80 per cent EV purchase subsidies

• UK ministers had time for AI datacenter bosses, but not for environmental groups

• Ofcom outlines age verification for under-16s ahead of social media ban

  • UK social media ban may lock out more than 100k teenagers without ID

• North Korea's Enemies Within

• British intelligence misplaced 1000s of storage devices still can't say how many

• Does working less explain Europe's GDP per capita gap with America?

• It's Complicated: Japan's Love for American Corn

• EU to impose €2 fee on all packages entering the bloc as of 1 November

• BBC licence fee expected to top £200 amid row over 'YouTube tax'

• Carney says, unequivocally, Canada seeking to become EU's first associate member

Israel

• Israeli influence campaign exploits islamophobia to sway European elections

  • I'm sure the Muslims who are rioting and burning things just love being told their actions are actually caused by Jews.

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

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

• Russia Adds Apple and Microsoft to State Surveillance Registry

• Ukrainian arms manufacturer Fire Point has overcome Starlink restrictions

• U.S. approves $2.1B sale of Patriot interceptors to Ukraine

China

• I Covered the Tiananmen Square Massacre. It Still Weighs on Me

• China unveils 13-foot robot that can lift a cow

Health / Medicine

• 40-year mystery solved: Common gut virus infects bacteria, not human cells

• Six popular sugar substitutes linked to faster brain aging

• 34% of U.S. women under age 50 have iron deficiency under new guidelines

• Medicare Will Pay $50k for Your Heart Attack. It Should Pay $100 to Prevent It

• Spinal cord injury can reshape gut microbes that influence whole-body health

• I didn't know I was lacking in Vitamin D until I collapsed at work

• Eli Lilly scraps phase2 Alzheimer program after drug falls short of expectations

• GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs Will Be Covered for Fewer US Employees

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Babies Are Catching Measles in Utero for the First Time in Decades

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• El Niño Is Flooding California's Coasts with the Highest Tides to Come

• Google Faces Criminal Probe over 816 Acres Cleared for Finnish AI Data Center

  • Finland launches criminal probe into land clearance for Google data centre

• How India Saved Its Tigers

• How the harsh, icy world of Snowball Earth shaped life today

• Even birds get jet lagged, study shows

• Giant eagles once ruled the skies