2026-05-16

Horseshit

• Men use "vocal fry" more than women, counter to stereotype

• The Earliest Known Dentistry Wasn't Done by Our Species

• Cowboy files plans for up to 20k orbital data centers

• Teens Helped Bring Malls Back to Life. Now They're Getting Banned.

• Researchers unearth Southeast Asia's largest dinosaur

• Silicon Valley Wants to Put a Chip in Your Brain

• True purpose of Egypt's Great Pyramid challenged by new theory

celebrity gossip

• Harvey Weinstein's third NYC sex crimes trial ends in a mistrial after surprise jury note

Obit

• Edith Eger, Auschwitz Survivor Who Helped Others Cope with Trauma, Dies at 98

• Sam Kieth, Creator of Surreal Comic Book Series the Maxx, Dies at 63

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Overseas fakers using AI videos to push a narrative of UK decline, BBC finds

  • We've made it illegal for the citizens to complain...

• NYT and Vaping: How to Lie by Saying Only True Things

  An exercise in spotting agenda journalism: dissecting a 2022 New York Times article on teen vaping sentence by sentence to show how it pins an EVALI hospitalization on legal nicotine vapes while never quite saying so—since the actual cause was illegal THC products. Every misleading sentence is technically true.

Musk

• SpaceX's Starship V3 megarocket finally has a debut launch date

  Liftoff will occur at 6:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday (May 19), if all goes to plan.

• Musk accused of 'selective amnesia,' Altman of lying as OpenAI trial nears end

• Musk's China trip during OpenAI trial prompts apology from his lawyer

• X to block UK access to accounts linked to terrorist groups in Ofcom agreement

• Mars or the Moon or A.I.? Elon Musk's Changing Goals for SpaceX

• SpaceX IPO set to lock in Elon Musk's control with Mars-linked pay deal

• SpaceX Is Aiming to Go Public on June 12 in What Stands to Be Biggest IPO

  • SpaceX accelerates IPO timeline, targets June 12 listing on Nasdaq, sources say

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Waymo recalls 1000s of driverless cars after some failed to avoid flooded roads

  • Waymo recalls 3,800 robotaxis after they drive into flood waters

• Empty Waymos invade Atlanta neighborhood, circle culdesac for hours

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• Hello Robot's Wheeled Home Robot Ditches Humanoid Hype

• Sexbot rights now! Sorry, you can't bring your humanoid robots on Southwest flights anymore

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Giggle for Girls app discriminated against trans woman; judges double damages

  • Court upholds discrimination ruling after male excluded from female-only app

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Princeton will supervise exams for first time in 133 years because of AI

• Justice Department Investigation Determines Yale Discriminated Based on Race

• The Grand Tradition of Suing for School Tuition

• Nobody believes the criminals and scumbags who hacked Canvas deleted data

• Why U.S. Test Scores Are in a 'Generation-Long Decline'

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Zero-day exploit defeats default Windows 11 BitLocker protections

• The era of 15GB free Gmail storage is ending

  • Google tests 5 GB cap for users who skip phone numbers

• Possible Samsung strike puts more pressure on memory pricing

• U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

• Hackers have breached tank readers at US gas stations

• California bill would require patches or refunds when online games shut down

• Judge Bars Kars4Kids from Broadcasting 'Misleading' Ads in California

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• HDD Firmware Hacking

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Countdown to Apophis Close Approach–Cascading Hazards from Asteroid Impacts

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Anthropic agrees terms of $30B funding deal at $900B valuation

• OpenAI Considers Legal Action Against Apple in Strained Relationship

• IEA: AI data center electricity demand could nearly double by 2030

• Andy Jassy Is Rewriting Amazon's Playbook for the AI Age

• Overworked AI Agents Turn Marxist, Researchers Find

• The rise and fall of an AI-driven 'local news outlet' in South Florida

• OpenAI just lost its enterprise AI crown to Anthropic

• White-collar workers report growing feelings of 'AI brain fry'

• Big tech is sacrificing its cashflows to prop up the AI boom

• AI Writing Hits a Ceiling

• Big Tech groups launch global borrowing spree to fund AI expansion

• 'I didn't want to be the guinea pig': inside tech's AI-fueled manager purge

• Debunked elsewhere, pre-existing deal: Energy supplier abandons Lake Tahoe residents to serve data centers

• AI research papers are getting better, and it's a big problem for scientists

• Greg Brockman Officially Takes Control of OpenAI's Products in Latest Shakeup

• Peter Norvig Joins $4B Effort to Build Self-Improving AI at 'Recursive'

• Anthropic Raising $30B More as AI Labs Absorb Majority of VC Funding

• Google updates its spam rules to include attempts to 'manipulate' AI

• Mayo Clinic Is Using AI to Listen to Emergency Room Visits

• Doctor's AI notetaker may be making things up, Ontario audit finds

• China Sought Access to Anthropic's Newest A.I. The Answer Was No.

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF $MSBT got an official listing announcement from NYSE

Economicon / Business / Finance

• 'Everyone is unhappy': Meta faces grim mood, plans 8k layoffs soon amid cuts

• Vanguard succeeded because it is owned by customers

• Cisco announces record revenue and 4k layoffs in the same day

• Kushner's Thrive Capital Invests $100M in Shopify

• Tech layoffs have been brutal this year, and are likely to get worse

• Big Tech goes beyond Wall Street for AI borrowing

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Caltrans Explores High-Speed Bus Network to Complement Rail System

• America is experiencing a productivity miracle

• The Supreme Court just told every freight broker that they can be sued

• He's One of a Dying Breed in Congress. America Needs Him Now More

• Congress Introduces Bill to Permanently Block Chinese Vehicles from US

= Hawaii passes law bypassing Citizens United, governor signs it

Trump

• Trump poised to drop IRS suit, launch $1.7B 'weaponization' fund for allies

• Vance announces suspension of $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California.

Left Angst

• Tech groups score win on clean energy rules for gas-powered data centres

• US reportedly dropped fraud charges against Adani after he hired Trump's lawyer

• Does Trump Mobile know how many stripes are on the American flag?

• Racial backlash erupts online after California mayor admits to being an agent for China

  • "They did the meme"

• Colorado governor commutes sentence of election denier Tina Peters

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• US plans to indict Cuba's Raul Castro, US DOJ official says

  • U.S. moving to indict Cuba’s Raúl Castro, sources say

• Travelers on Air Force One ordered to throw away gifts, phones after China trip

• Trump leaves China with no agreement but cites 'good' talks with Xi

World

• Britain's latest civil servant is a chatbot trained on Gov.uk misery

• Canada Is Acting Increasingly Like the EU's 28th Member State

• Britain investigates Microsoft over business software dominance

• The Secret Mission to Fly Taiwan's President to Africa

• Ukrainian drone strike on fuel depot prompts Latvian prime minister resignation

• Yes, Europeans Are Poorer Than Americans

• UK firms should take steps to limit risks from frontier AI models, UK says

• UK reloads artillery plans with £1B remote-control howitzer order

Iran / Houthi

• Trump, Bessent Say China May Help Reopen Strait of Hormuz.

• Tech Companies to Discuss Iran's Future During 'Private Conference' at Uber HQ

China

• Coal is rising in China's clean energy transition

• Chinese short dramas became AI content machines

• The Efficiency Moat: Why China Is Beating the U.S. on AI and Everything Else

Health / Medicine

• Even mild blows to the head disrupt the microbiome

• Routine vaccines may cut dementia risk–experts have startling hypothesis on how

• Psyllium husk is being touted as nature's Ozempic

  • see also "Super Colon Blow"

• Ice vests or daily cold showers could help people lose weight, study finds

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Ebola outbreak in remote Congo, 65 deaths recorded

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Nairobi became a nexus for the black market in giant harvester ants

• The secretive and lucrative world of orchid breeding

• How to avoid the horror of walking through a spiderweb, according to the National Park Service

• Maldives holds first underwater Cabinet meeting in a bid for climate

• El Niño is likely to emerge soon and continue through winter 2026-27

• Magnus the wandering walrus swaps Scotland for Norway

• The Colorado River Is on the Brink of Disaster

• Giant Squid Longer Than a School Bus Emerges From 1,500ft Deep Off Australia.