2025-04-29

etc

• Bombshell new report reveals who made fatal mistake that caused Black Hawk to collide with jet and kill 67 | Daily Mail Online

  Not only was Lobach flying her Black Hawk too high, but in the final moments before the impact, she failed to take advice and instruction from her co-pilot to switch course. Lobach's piloting skills were being tested during the evaluation on the fateful night, before the crew were informed that an aircraft was nearby, according to the report. Just 15 seconds before colliding with the commercial airplane, air traffic control told Lobach and Eaves to turn left, but she did not do so. Seconds before impact, co-pilot Eaves then turned to Lobach in the cockpit and told her that air traffic control wanted her to turn left. She still did not do so. Investigators may never know why Lobach did not change course that day.

Horseshit

• Scientists Develop Urinal That Doesn't Splash

• MrBeast lost 'millions' on his Amazon show

• when male fitness standards clash with female preferences

  A bunch of guys got furious that women did not appreciate Olly’s gains. And I mean, really, really furious. From accusations of “lying” to “these women are just fat insecure bitches who can’t stand a perfect physique,” to “women don’t get it and don’t know what they ACTUALLY want.”

  He also looks more locked in - like a guy who probably won’t pay much attention to me as he’s working to keep up his gains and impress his boys. As a woman, I immediately have questions about his diet and whether or not we can have happy times in the kitchen (let’s face it, probably not). He does not look strong and soft to me here, he looks like he may struggle with a supply chain collapse, and we probably won’t cuddle all that much. He does not appear relaxed.

• New Yorkers adjust to first new transit map in 50 years

• The End of Chicken-Breast Dominance

• Sea bass in space: why fish farms on the moon may be closer than you think

celebrity gossip

• Michael Tilson Thomas takes his final bow with San Francisco Symphony

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Online campaign urged far right to attack China's opponents in UK

  Working with the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate, the Guardian found more than 150 posts from 29 accounts on three days in August 2024 that sought to draw the attention of anti-immigrant groups and the far right to Lau and other Hong Kong exiles. Cybersecurity experts who have reviewed the posts say they exhibited some similarities to a major online influence operation that a Chinese security agency is suspected of orchestrating.

Musk

• Taking on Musk, New York Considers Move to Close Tesla Dealerships

  • They promised that it would only be Trump, but it never is: Bill of attainder

• Tesla is in worse shape than you think

• Elon Musk's XAI Holdings Is in Discussions to Raise $20B

Electric / Self Driving cars

• As Tesla falters, these new EVs are picking up the pace

• America's Electric Vehicle Sales Have Jumped 10.6% Compared to 2024

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Picking a Pope: Inside the World's Most Secretive Election

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Internal Documents Reveal Pervasive Pattern of Racial Discrimination at Harvard Law Review

  according to dozens of documents obtained by the Free Beacon—including lists of every new policy adopted by the law review since 2021—race plays a far larger role in the selection of both editors and articles than the journal has publicly acknowledged. Just over half of journal members, for example, are admitted solely based on academic performance. The rest are chosen by a "holistic review committee" that has made the inclusion of "underrepresented groups"—defined to include race, gender identity, and sexual orientation—its "first priority," according to resolution passed in 2021. The law review has also incorporated race into nearly every stage of its article selection process, which as a matter of policy considers "both substantive and DEI factors." Editors routinely kill or advance pieces based in part on the race of the author, according to eight different memos reviewed by the Free Beacon, with one editor even referring to an author’s race as a "negative" when recommending that his article be cut from consideration.

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Goldman Sachs-backed startup buys UK sounds studio in bet on AI music making

• How Meta's Upcoming $1k Smart Glasses with a Screen Will Work

• Apple removing key robotics team from John Giannandrea's oversight

• Samsung admits Galaxy devices can leak passwords through clipboard wormhole

• Battlefield 6 footage leaks from alpha playtests

• Unauthorised AI Bots on Reddit Are Eroding Sociality

• Google Generated $468B Delaying Its Antitrust Trial

• Monty Python and the Holy Grail at 50: a hilarious comic peak

• FCC Proposes Closing the Non-IP Network Robocall Loophole

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Uncovering the mechanics of The Games: Winter Challenge

  a Winter Olympics sports game developed by MindSpan and published by Accolade in 1991 for DOS and Sega Genesis.

  The hidden copy protection checks are real! The game performs more hidden code wheel checks throughout the game, in each of these 6 locations. If the main code wheel check is merely skipped, these hidden checks will fail and the game knows you tried to circumvent the copy protection. When that happens, it will mess with the game in more subtle ways, to sabotage your illegitimate play session. This is a sneaky additional layer of copy protection, where if you try to crack the game and remove the obvious checks, you might not even realize these additional checks exist, unless you pick up on the gameplay alterations.

  When the copy protection check fails, any attempt land a ski jump beyond a certain distance fails. More specifically, beyond a distance of 86.7m, the game won’t recognize you pressing Enter to land your jump anymore

  Now that we know what a failed copy protection check looks like, we can check each of the game versions and cracks we found to see whether they work correctly. As it turns out, ALL OF THEM, except for one, FAIL THE COPY PROTECTION CHECK! That includes even the official releases: Both the 1996 US release and the 2020 GOG release are broken.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• People trust legal advice generated by ChatGPT more than a lawyer – new study

• "Godfather of AI" Geoffrey Hinton warns AI could take control from humans

• Professor's perceptron paved the way for AI – 60 years too soon

• Reality Check

  So you're saying this experimental software launched to an indeterminate amount of people that barely works is going to make OpenAI $13 billion in 2025, and $29 billion in 2026, and later down the line $125 billion in 2029? How? How? What fucking universe are we all living in? There's no proof that OpenAI can do this other than the fact that it has a lot of users and venture capital!

  In fact, I think we have reason to worry about whether OpenAI even makes its current projections. In my last piece I wrote that Bloomberg had estimated that OpenAI would triple revenue to $12.7 billion in 2025, and based on its current subscriber base, OpenAI would have to effectively double its current subscription revenue and massively increase its API revenue to hit these targets.

  What I believe is happening is that reporters are taking OpenAI's rapid growth in revenue from 2023 to 2024 (from tens of millions a month at the start of 2023 to $300 million in August 2024) to mean that the company will always effectively double or triple revenue every single year forever, with their evidence being "OpenAI has projected this will be the case."

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• National Archives Releases Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Records

• NASA Orbiter Spots Curiosity Rover Making Tracks to Next Science Stop

• Amazon launches first Kuiper internet satellites in bid to take on Starlink

Crypto con games

• Monero likely pumped 50% due to suspected $330M Bitcoin theft

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Teens Are Using ChatGPT to Invest in the Stock Market

• VCs stockpile cash in 2025 as startup funding stays flat

• The Origins and Evolution of Occupational Licensing in the United States

• U.S. Semiconductor Courses Surge Amid Industry Boom

• SF losing tech workers to NY. Here's where they're moving for jobs

• Temu adds 145% 'import charges' after Trump tariffs, more doubling some prices

• Demand slump hits US ports and air freight

  • Trump tariffs prompt slump in shipments to US ports

• 23andMe Bankruptcy Bid Deadline Extended as DNA Privacy Woes Linger

• Wealthy consumers upped their spending last qtr while rest of US is cutting back

• Backblaze responds to claims of "sham accounting," customer backups at risk

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• The FBI mistakenly raided their Atlanta home. Now the Supreme Court will hear their lawsuit.

• Colorado governor vetoes bill requiring sites ban users who violated state law

• Congress moves forward with new attempts at internet censorship

Left Angst

• The Fiasco at the National Security Council

• The economics of golden visas

• Looming tariffs are making it extra hard to be a tech geek

• Why US and China economic own goals give Europe an unlikely chance of glory

• Why Trump can't dislodge Apple from China

• Trump administration is pooling data on Americans. Experts fear what comes next

• The group chats that changed America | Semafor

  ust another day in Chatham House, a giant and raucous Signal group that forms part of the sprawling network of influential private chats that began during the fervid early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and which have fueled a new alliance of tech and the US right. That same week in Chatham House, Lonsdale and the Democratic billionaire Mark Cuban sparred over affirmative action, and Cuban and Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro discussed questions of culture and work ethic. This constellation of rolling elite political conversations revolve primarily around the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and a circle of Silicon Valley figures. None of their participants was surprised to see Trump administration officials firing off secrets and emojis on the platform last month.

• Label Obsession Grips Canada as Shoppers Shun American Products

• No, Trump Did Not Deport a US Citizen to Honduras – HotAir

  "NPR says so." Whenever I have to explain that NPR is full of crap, I haven't dented NPR's credibility in their eyes, but my own. If people are inclined to instantly trust an Establishment source, it is almost impossible to break through that nearly impenetrable barrier. That seems bizarre, but it is true. No matter how many times you remind people that they have been fed lie after lie after lie by the same sources, it doesn't seem to matter. It is an ingrained habit to believe them, and when the lies are exposed, they shrug them off as good-faith mistakes.

  of course, they didn't deport a 2-year-old citizen. They deported her mother, and her mother chose--rightly, I believe--to take her daughter(s) with her back home. The case broke into the news because the father of the children is not an illegal alien, and he naturally wants his children with him, and would prefer that their mother remain here as well, even though she is an illegal alien. I can not only understand that, but I heartily approve of his wishes.

• Trump’s Blue Suit at Pope Francis’ Funeral Draws Attention - The New York Times

  President Trump, it seems, is fully committed to going his own way when it comes to international relations — even during the funeral of a pope.On Saturday, as he joined other world leaders to pay his respects to Pope Francis, he stood in St. Peter’s Square among President Emmanuel Macron of France (who was wearing black), Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain (in black), President Javier Milei of Argentina (in black) and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy (in black). Mr. Trump? He was wearing blue. And not even dark, midnight blue, but a clear, sapphire-like blue, with matching tie. Amid all the black and Cardinal red, it popped out like a sign. The choice did not grossly violate the dress code for the event (which reportedly called for a dark suit with a black tie for men). Prince William also appeared to be wearing blue, though a shade closer to navy, and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. wore a blue tie. But Mr. Trump’s look certainly skirted the edges. It did not go unnoticed online, where social media users recalled that Mr. Trump had previously criticized President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for not wearing a suit to a meeting in the Oval Office in February, appearing to see it as a sign of disrespect. (At the pope’s funeral, Mr. Zelensky, who met privately beforehand with Mr. Trump, wore a black military-style jacket and black pants.)

• Lefty judge threatens to close court, start raising bail money for defendants after feds arrested Judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly helping illegal migrant avoid ICE

  Monica Isham, a circuit judge Sawyer County, defended Judge Hannah Dugan Saturday, claiming in an email to other state judges that she “has no intention of allowing anyone to be taken out of my courtroom by [Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents] and sent to a concentration camp,” Wisconsin Right Now first reported. Isham, who in 2023 became the first Native American elected to the county’s circuit court, also threatened to “start raising bail money” for defendants.

• Analyzing the scale of Trump's federal layoffs in his first 100 days

• How Columbia University is tearing itself apart to please Trump

• Thinking about Dual Citizenship?

• A ‘Citizen Lawyer’ Gets a Standing Ovation at the Supreme Court - The New York Times

  After a routine Supreme Court argument on Wednesday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked the lawyer who had represented the government to return to the lectern. “You have just presented your 160th argument before this court, and I understand it is intended to be your last,” the chief justice told the lawyer, Edwin S. Kneedler, who is retiring as a deputy solicitor general. “That is the record for modern times.” Chief Justice Roberts talked a little more, with affection and high praise, thanking Mr. Kneedler for his “extraordinary care and professionalism.” Then something remarkable happened. Applause burst out in the courtroom, and that led to a standing ovation for Mr. Kneedler, with the justices joining, too.

  The tribute to Mr. Kneedler’s candor and integrity came against the backdrop of a different kind of courtroom behavior. In the early months of the second Trump administration, its lawyers have been accused of gamesmanship, dishonesty and defiance, and have been fired for providing frank answers to judges.

  Mr. Kneedler’s retirement is part of a wave of departures from the solicitor general’s office, which is quite small. After the solicitor general and a handful of deputies, there are just 16 line lawyers. About half of them are leaving, The Washington Post reported this month.

  • How many lawyers do they need, then? About the Office of the Solicitor General

  The task of the Office of the Solicitor General is to supervise and conduct government litigation in the United States Supreme Court. Virtually all such litigation is channeled through the Office of the Solicitor General and is actively conducted by the Office. The United States is involved in approximately two-thirds of all the cases the U.S. Supreme Court decides on the merits each year.

• White House Tech Bros Are Killing What Made Them (and America) Wealthy

• Doge employees gain accounts on classified networks holding nuclear secrets

• State Dept reorg could harm US in tech battle with China

• Reports of the Death of California High-Speed Rail Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

• My ‘woke DEI’ grant has been flagged for scrutiny. Where do I go from here?

• Trump's Biggest Beneficiary: Himself

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Man arrested in theft of DHS chief Kristi Noem’s purse is in the U.S. illegally, official says.

• New York Man Charged with Concealing Role as Perpetrator of Rwandan Genocide

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Autonomous strike drones within technological reach, says German startup

• Lawmakers propose $25B to fund Golden Dome missile defense shield

World

• Many cultures borrow. Japan transforms

• Student rescued from Mount Fuji twice in one week

  • Mount Fuji climber rescued twice after going back for lost phone

• Global military spending hits record in 2024, sharpest rise since Cold War

• India Is Flooding Pakistan

• Pakistan defence minister says military incursion by India is imminent

• European Power Prices Drop Far Below Zero as Solar Output Surges

• (Apr 22) Spain hits first weekday of 100% renewable power on national grid

• Reports of widespread power cuts in Spain and Portugal

  • Massive Blackout Hits Spain and Portugal

  • Nationwide Power Outages Also Disrupt Internet Traffic in Portugal and Spain

  • Power Outage Hits Spain, Portugal, and Andorra

  • Spain, Portugal and parts of France hit by power outage

  • Massive power outages cause blackouts in Spain and Portugal

  • Power outage cripples Spain and Portugal

  • Widespread power outage hits Spain and neighboring countries France and Portugal

  • Spain and Parts of Portugal and France Hit by Widespread Power Outage

  • ‘Extremely rare weather phenomenon’ behind Europe power cuts - as Portugal blames Spain - LBC

  Portugal's grid operator, REN (Rede Eletrica Nacional) claimed interruptions to the country's power supply were the result of a "fault in the Spanish electricity grid". They said this was related to a "rare atmospheric phenomenon", namely "extreme temperature variations". Due to these variations in the interior or Spain, there were "anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 KV), which is a phenomenon known as 'induced atmospheric vibration'". "These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network." Spain has yet to respond to the claim. REN added that normalisation of the system could take up to a week.

• Muslim Migrants Set Church in Wales Ablaze - Geller Report

  • Two teens arrested for Port Talbot chapel fire - Swansea Bay News

  “A 14-year-old boy from Sandfields, Neath Port Talbot and a 15-year-old boy from Bryn, Neath Port Talbot have been arrested on suspicion of arson. This investigation is ongoing.”

  • Port Talbot fire: Huge fire at historic chapel - Wales Online

  Bethany Chapel served local parishioners late into the 20th century before becoming a library and then closing permanently in 2002. In the years since, the chapel has lain empty, though it has previously gained permission to be turned into a bar or restaurant. The building then went on sale in 2021

  • Fire service issues update after blaze rips through historic Welsh chapel

• Germany triggers EU's emergency clause for defense spending

• European chip production: "Promises that are completely unrealistic"

• Liverpool to introduce 'tourist tax' for visitors

• Why the UK's electricity costs are so high – and what can be done about it

• Is Keir Starmer being advised by AI? The UK government won't tell us

Iran / Houthi

• Iran repelled large cyber attack on Sunday

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Putin announces unilateral three-day ceasefire in war against Ukraine, starting May 8 | Just The News

• 'They Lied To Us About Iraq's WMDs, But They've Taken It To Another Level With Ukraine...'; Hitchens | ZeroHedge

China

• Why the new pope won't be welcome in China

• Taiwan’s Biggest Problem in Steeling Itself for War with China is Cultural

• China widens tax rebates for foreign tourists to boost spending

• Chinese factories stopping production/looking for new markets as US tariffs bite

• Top scientist urges China to develop alternative to Nvidia's CUDA software

• China Has an Army of Robots on Its Side in the Tariff War

Health / Medicine

• Amateur Athletes Are Turning to Ozempic to Raise Their Game

• The hospital where staff treat fear of death as well as physical pain

• Wholegrain revolution: Denmark changed diet and health of their entire nation

• Ultra-processed foods may be linked to early death

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Major offshore wind developer has stopped activities in United States

• The Vietnam War ended 50 years ago, but the battle with Agent Orange continues

• Lawsuits to address climate change have promise but face uncertain future

• By owning a pet, you are doing more damage to the environment than you realise

• Surprising, but not unexpected, multi-decadal pause in Arctic sea ice loss

• NASA confirms that China's Three Gorges Dam project is altering Earth's rotation