2026-03-15

Horseshit

• Underwater data center powered by tidal energy proposed off the coast of Maine

• Study finds human aging happens in bursts

• Rotating home owners boast of 360-degree views and energy benefits

• Want to hack your body with peptides? If only the science agreed

• Learning from the civilizations that tried to break down well

• The Science Behind Our Obsession with a Lost "Golden Age"

• Study of NBA finds that pay inequity among top performers erodes cooperation

• North Korea: secretive nation lands in spotlight at Women's Asian Cup

• An enormous brain in a jar? NASA's best space telescope saw something real weird

• Where Censored Words Find a Safe Haven: Inside Minecraft

Epstein

• A Hacker Accidentally Broke into the FBI's Epstein Files

celebrity gossip

• Identity of artist Banksy uncovered following investigation

Obit

• Jürgen Habermas, influential German philosopher, dies at 96

  • Jürgen Habermas Has Died

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• A New Bigfoot Documentary Helps Explain Our Conspiracy-Minded Era

Musk

• Elon Musk's Ketamine Use Can't Be Probed in OpenAI Fraud Trial

• Michael Burry worries about "structural manipulation" of Nasdaq-100 for SpaceX

• Starlink Militarization and Its Impact on Global Strategic Stability

• Musk admits xAI "not built right" weeks after Tesla invested $2B

  • Musk Says xAI Must Be Rebuilt as Co-Founders Exit

  • xAI Co-Founder Toby Pohlen Is Latest Executive to Depart

  • 'Not built right the first time', Musk's xAI is starting over again, again

• LA's Tesla Diner is so dead, not even the tech bros are eating there

• Musk says Tesla's chip fab project to launch in seven days

• Tesla's China sales climb in the first two months of 2026 while BYD numbers drop

• SpaceX plan for 1 million orbiting AI data centers could ruin astronomy, scientists say.

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Nissan Leaf drivers voice anger over app shutdown

• EyeDAR tech could give self-driving cars expanded radar perception

• BYD's latest EVs can get close to full charge in just 12 minutes

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• Why Do Humanoid Robots Still Struggle with the Small Stuff?

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• School district cites plate-reader data to deny enrollment

  Sánchez told reporters that she had filed all the required documents with the district to prove residency, including a mortgage statement, vehicle registration, utility bills, and her driver's license, but the district repeatedly denied enrollment after citing license plate recognition data that it said showed her vehicle appearing overnight at Chicago addresses during July and August of last year. Per the local report, Sánchez maintains she's been a resident of the home with her daughter since moving in, and that the vehicle was only in Chicago for that period because she loaned it to a relative.

• The slow death of the English boarding school

• Science Has a Major Fraud Problem

• Student Loan Delinquency Explodes in US

• What People Want from Our Schools Has Never Been Accomplished, Anywhere

  There are a lot of different expressions of the declinist attitude, though most of them are vague. A common one, and the easiest to squash, is the idea that the United States used to be a leader in international educational comparisons and now is not. This myth flows from the mouths of politicians like, well, like all sorts of other myths from the mouths of politicians. But it’s easily disproven - the history of American performance in educational comparisons with other developed nations is almost universally uninspiring, no matter the era. There are reasons to doubt some of the international results (Chinese-style manipulation, I suspect, is not just a Chinese phenomenon) but overall the reality is clear: we can’t get back to number one because we were never there, not even close. I don’t, however, think that this is really cause for commotion, given the particular composition of the American educational performance distribution, which is not the same as that of any other OECD country.

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• How Lego builds a new Lego set

• RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one

• Two long-lost episodes of 'Doctor Who' have been found

• Supply-chain attack using invisible code hits GitHub and other repositories

• HP has new incentive to stop blocking third-party ink in its printers

  Members of the International Imaging Technology Council (Int’l ITC) are calling out HP for issuing firmware updates that brick third-party ink and toner functionality in its printers. HP calls this Dynamic Security and has been doing it for years; however, the Int’l ITC is taking new issue with the practice, considering that it is explicitly prohibited for devices registered under the Global Electronics Council’s (GEC’s) Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) 2.0 registry. The Int’l ITC is a trade group that says it represents North American “toner and inkjet cartridge re-manufacturers, component suppliers, and cartridge collectors.”

• Lawyers in landmark social media addiction trial make final appeals to the jury

• Mac Trade-Ins Surge Amid MacBook Neo Launch

• Nvidia's GTC will mark an AI chip pivot, the CPU is taking center stage

• TikTok Investors Set to Pay $10B Fee to Trump Administration

  • Trump administration to be paid $10B for brokering TikTok deal

• 'RAMmageddon' hits labs: AI-driven memory shortage is impacting science

• Xbox revealed Gaming Copilot is coming to "current-gen consoles" later this year

• BuzzFeed has 'substantial doubt' it can stay in business

• Meta is killing end-to-end encryption in Instagram DMs

• 'Pokémon Go' players have been unknowingly training delivery robots

• Microsoft confirms Windows 11 bug crippling PCs and making drive C inaccessible

• The Washington Post Is Using Reader Data to Set Subscription Prices

• The RAM crisis could change the way developers make games

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• US lawmakers call for a permanent moon base. Will it ever happen? The impetus for establishing a “Lunar Surface Moon Base” is that America is in a space race with China.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Claude, you are a cutie-pie

• Sam Altman admits AI is killing the labor-capital balance

• The Dirty, Dystopian World of AI Data Centers

• Artificial intelligence-associated delusions and large language models

• Why physical AI is becoming manufacturing's next advantage

• Tech Boss uses AI & ChatGPT to create a cancer vaccine for his dying dog

• AI: Amazon orders 90-day reset after code mishaps cause lost orders

• The Backlash Against AI Devices That Are Always Watching

• 'God, It's Terrifying': How The Pentagon Got Hooked on AI War Machines

• The Pentagon Went to War with Anthropic. What's Really at Stake?

• Palantir Demos Show How the Military Could Use AI Chatbots to Generate War Plans

Economicon / Business / Finance

• US intervention in oil futures would be ‘biblical disaster’, CME warns

  The head of CME Group has warned the Trump administration it risks a “biblical disaster” if it attempts to lower oil prices by intervening in derivatives markets during the war with Iran. The Trump administration on Wednesday announced the release of millions of barrels of oil from its strategic reserve in a bid to prevent an oil price shock — its latest attempt to contain the crude rally. Analysts have said the administration could pursue other options to shelter US consumers, such as temporarily suspending federal taxes on gasoline, relaxing environmental rules on fuel or temporarily banning US oil exports.

• Meta reportedly plans layoffs as AI costs increase

  • Meta planning layoffs as AI costs mount

  • Meta weighing 20% workforce layoffs to offset AI infrastructure costs: report

• From CIA to CEO, Spies Step Out of the Shadows and into the Boardroom

• Nasdaq Proposes New "Fast Entry" Rule for the Nasdaq-100 Index

• Chip material prices double with Middle East crisis

• How Big Tech's AI Ambitions Are Fueling a Borrowing Boom

• He Earns $1k a Job–and He's a Car Dealer's Worst Nightmare

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• State Department slashes fee to renounce US citizenship by 80%

• Federal Judge Quashes Justice Department Subpoenas of Fed Chair Jerome Powell

Trump

• White House Considers Waiving Jones Merchant Marine Act

• Trump now Selling National Security Briefing Membership

• Trump says 'many countries' will send warships to keep Strait of Hormuz open

• Trump Adviser Warns of Possible Israel Nuclear Escalation in Iran Conflict

Left Angst

• Jeff Bezos Upended the Washington Post

• International Oscar Favorites Are Offering a Complicated New View of America

• DOGE deposition videos taken down after judge order amid widespread mockery

• Hegseth on CNN: 'The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better'

• Kennedy Center head steps down after tumultuous year

• Jared Kushner Solicits Funds for His Firm While Working as Mideast Envoy

• America gamified its war with Iran

• Male shoe anxiety hits the Oval Office

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Wanted fugitive killed by Dallas SWAT officers worked security for Rep. Jasmine Crockett, sources say

  A man shot and killed by Dallas police earlier this week was a familiar figure in North Texas law enforcement – and part of the security detail for U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, sources told CBS News Texas. Multiple law enforcement sources tell CBS News Texas the man, known publicly as Mike King, had been using aliases while running a business that placed officers in off‑duty jobs. King was killed Wednesday night after a standoff with Dallas police SWAT officers. Police say he fled into a hospital parking garage, barricaded himself inside a vehicle, and was forced out by tear gas before pulling a gun on officers.

  • Jasmine Crockett Security Officer Shot, Killed by SWAT Team.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Spain's PM calls for end to UNSC veto power, criticises US over global conflicts

World

• Fake rooms, props and a script to lure victims: inside an abandoned scam centre

• European Union to allow interception of encrypted data in a privacy-friendly way

• Italy ruling tells millions they have lost the right to citizenship

• The Most Accurately Predicted Genocide in History

  As the conflict enters its third year, there is still no confirmed death toll. Estimates vary widely, though a former US envoy to Sudan told the New York Times he believes the number may exceed 400,000, making it the deadliest war in the world right now. Statistics here are so overwhelming they can feel meaningless. And in a way, they are.

  • Narrative led reporting has destroyed trust, especially on stories like this one where the facts don't mesh nicely with what the media wants to talk about.

• UK Councils Tell Schools: Children’s DRAWINGS Could Be Blasphemous Under Islamic Law

  Guidelines warn that depicting humans or prophets could spark blasphemy complaints, forcing teachers to tiptoe around religious sensitivities at the expense of creativity and open education.

• Havana is expected to allow Cubans in Miami, elsewhere to own businesses on the island

• Cuban protesters ransack Communist office as energy crisis deepens

Iran / Houthi

• 'You are all worse than each other': anti-regime Iranians turn on Trump

• Iran Threatens Amazon, Google and Microsoft Assets in Middle East

• US warships cannot control the Strait of Hormuz

• Iran war's Qatari Helium production disruption is a blow to chipmakers like TSMC

Israel

• Israel is running critically low on interceptors, US officials say

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Moscow's Internet Outages Drive Sales of Pagers and Paper Maps

China

• China's Edge in an Oil Shock: Electric Cars and Renewables

• Apple cuts China App Store commission fees after government pressure

• How China is wooing Paraguay's political class away from longtime ally Taiwan

Health / Medicine

• Flu vaccines didn’t work that well in the US, officials find.

  This season’s vaccines were around 25% to 30% effective in preventing adults from getting sick enough from the flu that they had to go to a doctor’s office, clinic or hospital, according to a CDC report this week.

• Below 40? You Should Be Getting Screened for Cholesterol, Heart Attack Risks

• Woman sneezes out maggots after fly larvae get trapped in her deviated septum

• Daily pill may cure deadly sleep disorder that affects 84M people

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Analysis of Endocrine Disruptors and Hazardous Additives in Headphones

• Climate change is slowing Earth's spin at unprecedented rate

• Temperatures expected to remain at or near record levels in coming five years

• Nighttime tornadoes are 2.5 times more deadly

• Snakes Defy Gravity to Stand Up

• Intensifying global heat threatens livability for younger and older adults

• Microplastics that accumulate in the body may 'clog up' immune cells

• London, San Francisco and Beijing achieve remarkable reductions in air pollution

• New Panama tree species identified after 25 years is endangered

• US told to brace for extreme weather in every single state