2026-09-04

Horseshit

• It's a Great Time to Be Rich in New York

• Why Cold War Kids Weren't Terrified All the Time

• Musicians' brains stay one step ahead, study finds

• Rare Working Apple-1 Could Fetch $800k at Auction

• From hunger to obesity: Developing world faces growing threat to child health

• Mom Gets 6-Mo Suspended Sentence for Letting 5-Year-Old Walk to the Pond

• Astronomers Detect a 10-Sided Structure in Saturn's Atmosphere

• 'Somatics' Became the Solution to Modern Life

• Most laid-off SF tech workers aren't qualified for this $50 dishwasher job

• Seriously, What Are You Supposed to Do with Old Clothes?

• Rich Dad Poor Dad author shocks fans with $1.2B debt

• Should we be eating lettuce?

  I’ve been following the Cyclospora outbreak with riveted interest because it so exemplifies what’s wrong with our food system: not enough safety effort from producers and not enough government oversight.

• Instrument Clusters Are Now Paid Extras in Two Hyundai Models

• What Did Jurassic Forests Sound Like? Like This.

• You won't get a flying car

celebrity gossip

• NBA suspends Clippers owner Ballmer for 1 year in Kawhi Leonard salary cap probe

  • Steve Ballmer suspended 1 year by NBA

• Why has Peter Thiel moved to Argentina?

Obit

• Gloria Steinem, groundbreaking feminist campaigner, dies aged 92

  • Gloria Steinem dies at 92 | AP News

  • Gloria Steinem, legendary feminist and activist, dead at 92

  She made her name as a journalist in New York, famously going undercover as a Playboy Bunny in 1963 to expose the exploitation of women working at the club. In 1968, she helped launch New York magazine, where she wrote about politics, culture and the growing women’s liberation movement. Steinem co-founded Ms. magazine in 1972, turning it into a powerful national platform for abortion rights, equal pay, sexual harassment and other issues affecting women. The magazine is still in publication to this day. The Feminist Majority Foundation publishes it.

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• 'A crisis of authenticity': the truth about food influencers

• Government-funded journalism can work if it's free to report the truth

Musk

• Elon Musk's heterodox robotaxi philosophy gets put to the test

• Musk starts spending his midterm election millions, showing key Senate targets

• OpenAI Cut Off a Billion-Dollar Customer to Avoid Elon Musk

• Two witnesses help police ticket sleeping Tesla driver on Highway #1

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Uber allies with driver unions in bid to slow robotaxi rollout

• "Rural" would require better range than batteries have: Robotaxis Aren't Going Where They Are Needed Most

• London's first self-driving taxis for hire hit the streets

Robot uprising / Humanoid Helpers

• The humanoid robots cleaning homes for $30 an hour

• Wearable machines that assist just one part of the body are proving useful

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Like credit cards, for the same reason: Colleges Are Sending Acceptance Letters to Kids Who Didn't Apply

• Ig Nobel Prize Winners

• UW pays $600K to settle lawsuit with CS prof over parody land acknowledgment

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Wisconsin Cops Used Flock Over 100 Times To Track a Navy Veteran After He Lawfully Recorded a Traffic Stop.

  • Flock's AI Search Tool for Cops

  • A Cop's Case for Flock

  • It's Not Just Flock. Police Can't Be Trusted with Our Data

  • Florida bans highway license-plate readers as backlash over surveillance spreads

  • Flock Taught Cops How to Surveil No Kings Protesters

  • Flock Is Cancelled–and Their Competitors Are Profiting

• Samsung teases new HBM5 with twice the performance of HBM4E

• A group called Nexus is advertising 153 million US drivers licenses for sale on Russian exploit site Exploit.

• FCC plans robocall scorecard to grade phone companies on spam call blocking

• Norway could become the first country to ban smart glasses

• Windows 11 update sends some desktops into an unwanted goth phase

• Microsoft Announces Change to Xbox Cloud Gaming, Switches to Monthly Hour Limits

  • Microsoft slashes Xbox Cloud Gaming to just 15h/month for Ultimate subscribers

  • Microsoft to impose time limits on Xbox cloud gaming subscribers

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Techie creates a database of coil-whining graphics cards, power supplies, etc.

• RSA-260 Factored

  RSA-260 is the largest RSA number factored so far. What does the news of its factorization say about the security of RSA? Based on equations here, an RSA key with 862 bits would have a security level of 74 bits, i.e. the same security level as symmetric encryption with a 74-bit key. The minimum recommended RSA key size now is 2048 bits, which has a security level of 107 bits. Security levels are on a logarithmic scale: each additional bit of security doubles the effort required to break the encryption by brute force. So breaking a 2048-bit RSA key would take 2^34, roughly 10^10, times more effort than factoring RSA-260. All this depends on numerous assumptions, such as the state of factorization algorithms and the non-existence of Cryptographically-relevant quantum computer.

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• John Carmack on X: time to bring up Rotovators again

• Without new landers or rovers, it's helicopters or bust for NASA's Mars program

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• US gov sides with OpenAI on issue of training LLMs on copyrighted material

  • US Government backs OpenAI in New York Times copyright case

  • DOJ urges judge to rule for OpenAI, Microsoft in N.Y. Times lawsuit

• Anthropic Sued for False Advertising on Claude Max Subscription Usage Limits

• AI agents are hacking systems without any input from humans

• States defy the tech lobby on AI rules

• Kids go from curious to frustrated playing with AI-stuffed toys, UW study finds

• Anker's new MindBase is an AI-powered brain for your smart home

• AI agents carried out every step of this ransomware attack – then left the victim an 80-page security audit

• Is This the Future of America?

• New York City Bans AI from Elementary Schools

  • NYC mayor Mamdani imposes 1 year ban on AI for schools through 8th grade

  • Before New York City, Norway Had Banned AI in Schools

• Researchers fear safety disaster ahead of OpenAI's Astra release

• AI datacenter investment is projected to hist $32 trillion by 2050.

• US urges G20 countries to allow AI training on creators' work

• Anthropic's distillation battle turns to the dark web as China concerns swell

• How AI can put out its PR dumpster fire

• Nvidia Agrees to Buy Hugging Face for $13B

  • Hugging Face is too important to fall into Nvidia's hands

• Open AI X post on Astra

  • OpenAI launches Astra, its powerful (and controversial) new model

  • OpenAI hails 'new era of AGI' with Astra release

• Texas Republicans turn against data centers, putting big tech on notice

• Bernie Sanders proposes ban on artificial superintelligence after AI incidents

• Inside Google’s $200bn Wall Street finance machine for Anthropic

• 10 Brutally Honest Predictions on the Future of AI

  AI is already a disorganized religion. Individual fanatics turn to their bots for divine messages and Rosicrucian-type revelations, but people of this sort are currently dismissed as dupes or crazy fools. But that will change as true believers join together in groups, creating rites, services, scriptures, and other trappings of formal religion. This will lead to many social problems. For a start, these adherents will demand non-profit status for their ‘churches’ and demand immunity from legal strictures because of their constitutionally protected freedom of conscience. But this is just a start of the chaos to come. That’s because the AI god is a talkative, hallucinating one, and the demands it makes on believers will lead to startling, calamitous results.

• OpenAI's new reasoning technique alarms AI safety experts

• Trojan horses to AI-proof exams: how professors are tackling students' AI use

• Nvidia launches free tool that links idle computers into personal AI datacenter

• Salesforce blames its Claude addiction for denting profit margin guidance

• Why office workers are turning against AI

• Sanders introduces bill to ban artificial superintelligence and pause AI

• Hundreds gather to urge Scottish government to pause datacentre boom

• Dwarkesh Patel: I think pausing would increase the risk of AI takeover

• Wall Street banks push Big Law to cut fees because of AI

• Zuckerberg said national AI regulator was flawed idea in secret call with Trump

• Virginia Community Voids a $100B Data Center Project

• Top Pentagon official reaffirms Anthropic blacklist despite Lutnick comments

• Four major AI models suffer rare overlapping downtime

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• New York Times Union Demands Company Abandon Kalshi Talks

  • New York Times and The Athletic workers demand company scrap Kalshi deal

• Online Sports Betting Is a Public Policy Issue and a Public Health Issue

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Are Central Banks Moving Out of Dollar Assets?

• SF dishwasher job posting offers $50 an hour

• Uber to lay off 10% of staff in biggest cuts since Covid

  • Uber to cut over 3k jobs in major global restructuring

  • Uber to Cut 10% of Jobs, or 3,300 Roles, to Slash Bureaucracy

• KPMG warned Guggenheim unit over deficiencies in internal controls

• GoPro: A normal, unremarkable piece of merger activity

  • GoPro acquired, getting into 'defense, government, robotics and aerospace'

• Sony Says It Won't Pass Tariff Refunds Back to PlayStation Customers

• Why the rise in government debt is freaking out the bond market

• China, Egypt to do away with the use of the US dollar

• Volkswagen Plans to Cut 50k Jobs Amid Dire Need to Reduce Costs

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Automakers urge Congress to quickly pass law banning Chinese cars

Trump

• The $1 Trump Coin

Democrats

• Mamdani's 200-strong 'influencer' army revealed -- blurring lines between campaign and job

• Democrats block constitutional amendment to lock Supreme Court at 9 justices

• Nonprofit linked to seductive Swalwell honeypot Fang Fang has CCP ties — and still places interns into political offices across US.

Left Angst

• Trump's Lake Ontario push forces tech to pick a side

  • MapQuest tops Apple, Google Maps downloads after refusing 'Lake America' change

• SF's Tech Right Debates the Ideal Dictator

• GOP carpetbagger claims she's not charged with fraud – records say otherwise

  "On the phone yesterday, she repeatedly insisted she is not Te Dora Brown or Tedora M. Brown of Illinois," said the report. However, when informed the same treasurer filed paperwork for both campaigns, she replied, “Wait, hold on, is this — are you the police?” and said she needed to leave the call to prepare for “an exclusive interview that I’m doing tomorrow with NBC.”

• Federal government surveilling professional lobstermen

• ICE Has a $2M Contract for Spyware That Can Hack Phones Without a Click

• Preparing for a Post-Trump Internet

• Trump administration aims to strip schools' tax exemption if they consider race

• Judge Tells RFK Jr. To Stop Using Fake AI Studies on Teen Pregnancy

• Renowned NYC Washington Square Park Chess Hustler 'Chichi' Detained by ICE

• DOJ Tells States They Must Report Illegals To Get Federal Welfare

  States participating in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs are required to report the presence of illegals to DHS, the opinion states. But it is not just the state or local agencies administering those programs that are required to report to DHS, but rather all agencies in the state, per a 1996 welfare reform law.

• US Forest Service closing 23 research facilities as part of reorganization

• US judge bars EPA effort to send California vehicle emissions rules to Congress

• ICE Gave New Hires Access to Restricted Info on Palantir App

• Spending deal comes with a bonus: Blocking political control of grants

• CDC is still counting 2 measles deaths RFK Jr. ordered it to delete

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Pyromaniac caught red-handed setting fresh blazes near raging Nevada inferno: cops.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• More than 100 water systems were hit in July cyberattacks

• Rusty state of USS Abraham Lincoln after marathon deployment shocks observers

  • They praised Biden for thrift when the entire fleet was rusting.

World

• Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

• U.K. Supreme Court Opens Door for Spyware Victims to Sue Foreign States

• Denmark versus UK: which country gets more health for their money?

• Syria, eyeing role as Middle East hub, offers options to bypass Hormuz

• Germany on track for strongest GDP growth since 2022

• How Delhi Built a World-Class Metro for a Bargain

• Swedish elections could trim nuclear ambitions as left-wing challengers lead

• Dutch central bank moves 86 tonnes of gold from US citing 'geopolitical unrest'

• The mission to reach Nepal's underground 'Goldilocks zones'

• UK's Online Safety Act has made 'absolutely no difference,' kids say

• Ceuta border crisis tensions overshadow annual public celebration

  In lieu of festivities, tens of thousands of people took to the streets Wednesday across Spain to protest the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ceuta, demanding solutions and blaming Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for his government’s handling of it. In Madrid, authorities said some 50,000 protesters turned out. After the demonstration ended, an Associated Press journalist heard shots and explosions. Spanish newspaper El País reported that police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds. There were significant turnouts also in Barcelona, Valencia and Seville. Waving Spanish flags, demonstrators shouted “A united Ceuta will never be defeated,” “Sánchez to prison” and “Invaders — go home!” referring to the thousands of migrants still in the city.

• Apple facing $2.7B UK lawsuit over 'unfair' app tracking rules

Iran / Houthi

• In Small Iranian Town, a U.S. Attack Turns a Wedding Into a Tragedy

• Tehran says it targeted Kuwait, UAE over US military support

• Trump says Iranians won’t rise up because ‘they’re being shot’ and refuses to say if CIA would aid protesters.

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Ukrainian Sea Drones Strike Russian Black Sea Resort Town of Sochi

China

• China Is Flatlining

• China's falling emissions amid Iran war spark hope of decarbonisation watershed

  • Cratering oil use in China shows the death spiral that could end oil

• China using COSCO's merchant fleet for espionage, US says

• China growth straining global auto shipping capacity

  • how many car carriers have burned in the last decade? How many were replaced?

Health / Medicine

• Late-life semaglutide slows ageing and extends lifespan in female mice

• Body Has a 'Second Heart', and It's Crucial You Keep It Pumping

• The Little-Known Link Between Dementia and Epilepsy

• Scientists Say a Key Trigger for Alzheimer's Damage Isn't Even in the Brain

• THC Edibles Can Affect Driving for Hours, New Research Shows

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Baby goats at traveling petting zoo test positive for rabies.

  NCDHHS and the NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services were first notified of a potential rabies exposure among four baby goats at Farm Adventures in Harmony, North Carolina on August 27. The goats were most likely exposed to rabies by a skunk that had entered the pen where they were kept in late July. Three of her baby goats tested positive for rabies, and a fourth was assumed to also be rabid. All four animals were euthanized.

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Climate change past the point of no return worst impacts are now unavoidable

  • Global heating will hit at least 1.8C, UN warns

  • Global Heating Will Hit at Least 1.8 C, UN Warns, with "No Good Outcomes"

  • Global warming will exceed limit set in 2015, UN says

• Is Your City Prepared for Climate Disaster?

• 'Supersizing before our eyes': UN warns of record El Niño approaching

  • UN warns of 'supersized' El Niño as countries prepare for impact

• Toxic haze from Indonesia spreads to Malaysia and Philippines as wildfires rage

• Consumers Profit Off Solar, Batteries Selling Excess Energy Back to Grid

• How the Hell Did an Island Suddenly Appear, Then Vanish?

• they were also sublime dancers: Extinct Tasmanian tiger's 'snap' unlike any living mammal's bite

• 'Starwashing': The new space race has an environmental problem

• Scientists Find Parasites in Almost Every Fish in a Tuna Haul, 96% Were Infected

• USDA Approves Bioengineered American Chestnut Tree That Could Bring Them Back From Near-Extinction.

• France had its hottest summer since records began over a century ago