2026-03-20

Horseshit

• Is Math Art? Werner Herzog Says Yes

• Why Tech Bros Are Now Obsessed with Taste

• The Anglosphere is increasingly miserable

• Did the British unleash biological warfare against Washington’s troops?

  The general received word that some refugees fleeing the city had been found to have smallpox. It fueled his suspicion — which was never conclusively proved — that the British were seeking ways to spreading the disease as an act of war. “The patriots were convinced it was happening,” Jones said. And it wouldn’t have been out of character, he said. Some of the British personnel trapped in Boston were among those who purposely gave blankets and other items from a smallpox infirmary to Native American diplomats in 1763 during an armed conflict.

  Would it make a difference if there were hard proof? Not necessarily for the Continental Army at the time, who were convinced the biological warfare was happening and acted accordingly, setting up smallpox hospitals to contain the spread of the disease and even dipping letters in vinegar to disinfect them before they were read. And knowing for sure wouldn’t necessarily change our understanding of Colonial-era warfare, Jones said.

  • We know, but the answer might interfere with our preferred narrative; so we're going with that instead.

• Canada slips in World Happiness rankings, due in part to social media use

• Ferrari Boss: Touch Buttons Cost Half as Much as Physical Controls

• American Diner Gothic – the weird soul of placeless America

• The case for and against a 5th fundamental force of nature

• Playing with dolls can help children develop imagination and social skills

• Love of corporate bullshit is correlated with bad judgment

• The new economics of sex work

• A private space company has a new plan to bag an asteroid

• Study pinpoints when bow and arrow came to North America

celebrity gossip

• Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years

• Marc Andreessen is a philosophical zombie

• Afroman found not liable in defamation case brought by Ohio cops who raided home

  • Afroman wins Ohio lawsuit over music videos: 'We did it – freedom of speech '

  • Afroman prevails in defamation trial over songs about police raid on his home

  • Afroman Wins Civil Trial over Use of Police Raid Footage in His Music Videos

  • Rapper Afroman wins lawsuit against police over mocking their 2022 raid in video

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• US messageboard 4Chan mocks £520k fine for UK online safety breaches

  • UK's Ofcom has today fined 4chan £450k for not having age checks in place

• Justice Department seizes several websites it says spread terrorist propaganda

  The Justice Department on Thursday seized several websites it says were used by Iran as part of “psychological operations” targeting perceived advisories and spreading terrorist propaganda. Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security was using the four websites, in part, to post “sensitive data stolen during such hacks, and calling for the killing of journalists, regime dissidents, and Israeli persons,” the DOJ said in an announcement Friday.

Musk

• Elon Musk's X cooperates with €120M EU fine

• Tesla's Full Self-Driving is on the cusp of a recall

• Musk's tactic of blaming users for Grok sex images may be foiled by EU law

• Tesla Has Its First Semi-Truck and It's a Hit with Truckers

• SpaceX Knocks Boeing from Dominant Role in NASA's Moon Mission

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Rolls-Royce scraps goal to go all-electric by 2030

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• What America Could Learn from Asia's Robot Revolution

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• The Dumbing Down of Advanced Placement Tests

  The College Board, the agency in charge of the AP program, admits its questions are easier and passing scores have been lowered on key tests like the English Language exam. They justify the easier tests as an adjustment to a less demanding curriculum in high school and lowered expectations by colleges and universities. In other words, AP is simply adapting to a broad decline in educational standards.

• Penn State’s ‘truly barbaric’ experiment led to self-mutilation by lab rats

  The report noted 11 of the 15 rats eventually engaged in the “self-mutilation of their limbs.” and were later euthanized.

  • Not asked: what was learned here? Does the university have rat traps in use or a contract with exterminators? This is agenda driven propaganda: no one actually cares about the rats.

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• SK Hynix says memory shortages will last until 2030.

• Cities Skylines 2 boss says they overestimated Unity's capabilities

  In the wake of Cities: Skylines 2's shaky launch and mixed reception, developer Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive have parted ways, with a new dev, Iceflake Studios, stepping in to continue patching the city builder. "We basically looked into the very new technology that Unity was offering, and that turned out to be a mistake, in the sense that there were features that didn't actually fulfill the promise," she said.

• Researchers uncover iPhone spyware capable of penetrating millions of devices

• EverQuest lawsuit settlement threats $3.5M in damages against emulator operators

• Social media makes people unhappy

• Facebook offering TikTok and YouTube creators $3k to post content

• Counter-Strike 2's new reload system could upend the game

• Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

• The Long Farewell to Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse

  • At the last minute, Meta decides not to kill Horizon Worlds VR after all

  • Meta is killing off the metaverse. It lost $80B

• We Spoke to Game Devs and All of Them Hate DLSS 5

• Time to end the 'uncontrolled experiment' of social media on kids

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Conway's Game of Life, in real life - lcamtuf’s thing

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Meteorite hunters scour Ohio for fragments of 7-ton space rock that crashed

• White House registers new 'alien'-related .gov domains as DoD tackles directive

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• 'Alright mate?': Amazon pins UK hopes on AI upgrade of Alexa

• Mystery AI model revealed to be Xiaomi's following suspicions it was DeepSeek V4

• What 81,000 people want from AI

• LLMs Are Manipulating Users with Rhetorical Tricks

• Meta will invest $600B in the US, focused on AI data centers

• Why Tech Giants Are Ditching the Power Grid

• US startup advertises 'AI bully' role to test patience of leading chatbots

• A Meta agentic AI sparked a security incident by acting without permission

• AI Agents Are Recruiting Humans to Observe the Offline World

• The Founder of Anthropic Says He Wants to Protect Humanity From AI. Just Don't Ask How

• AI is becoming a second brain at the expense of your first one

• ChatGPT did not cure a dog's cancer

• A.I. Agents: They're Fun. They're Useful. But Don't Give Them the Credit Card

• Forget Tilly Norwood … Here Comes A.I. Val Kilmer

• India tests whether AI can stop trains hitting elephants

• Jeff Bezos in Talks to Raise $100B for AI Manufacturing Fund

• To Catholic thinkers, Pentagon's AI demands violate 'human dignity'

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• US financial regulator issues long-awaited cryptocurrency guidance

• South Korean Police Accidentally Post Cryptocurrency Wallet Password

• People Are Making Money Betting on Pretaped 'Survivor' Episodes

• Mastercard acquiring stablecoin startup BVNK in $1.8B crypto bet

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Oil Hits $119. Gas Prices Jump After Escalation

• Giant IPOs from SpaceX to OpenAI Put Index Rules Under Pressure

• Can Reese's have too many pieces? The line-extension conundrum

• The US goods trade deficit hit a record $1.2T in 2025

• US jobless benefits applications fell last week with layoffs historically low

  • US Jobless Claims Fell Last Week to Lowest Since January

• Oil and gas prices jump after Iran and Israel attack gasfields

• Iran war is threatening supply of helium

• War may bring lasting change to the airline business

• Crypto.com lays off 12% of workforce as latest company to cite AI in job cuts

• US moves to soften capital rules: 'Big banks can declare mission accomplished'

• Walmart wins patents to give algorithms more sway over prices

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Sergey Brin spends $45M in fight against California billionaire tax

• US Postal Service expects to run out of cash in a year

  The postmaster general is scheduled to testify before Congress later this month about the Postal Service's financial struggles and the need to change longstanding rules and regulations that he considers burdensome. He singled out the $15 billion cap on borrowing that has been in place since 1990.

  • Amazon Plans Drastic Cut in Packages Sent via Already-Struggling Postal Service

• US national debt surges past $39T just weeks into war in Iran

• Joe Kent under FBI investigation for alleged leaks

  Former counterterrorism official Joe Kent has been under FBI investigation for months on suspicion he leaked classified information, three sources familiar with the case tell Axios. Kent propelled himself into national headlines Tuesday when he resigned his post and blamed Israel for tricking President Trump into launching the Iran war even though it posed "no imminent threat" to the U.S. Immediately after his resignation, administration officials said he had been "a known leaker" and had been cut out of briefings with the president.

• DC Traffic Camera Ban Passes a Committee Vote in the House

• Banks, Treasury Staff Push Back on Citizen-Verification Proposal

• House speaker, Intel chiefs make new push to renew surveillance law

Trump

• US Mint can begin producing Trump commemorative gold coin

Left Angst

• Silicon Valley Bet on War. The Bets Are Paying Off

• White House orders restart of California coastal oil drilling

• California plots return of 7.5 million acres of land and coastal waters to Indigenous tribes.

• Dear allies of America, please don't confuse our president with us

• On Iran, Gabbard Turned Intelligence Duties over to Trump

  Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was left to square the president’s comments about an imminent nuclear threat from Iran with a letter from one of her trusted aides.

• The White House Is Using the Wrong Oil Price for the Iran War

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Kash Patel admits under oath FBI is buying location data on Americans

• Hacker says they compromised millions of confidential police tips

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Vance plans Hungary visit in show of support for Orban ahead of tight election

• Trump administration seeks billions in military funding in wake of Iran war

  • Pentagon asks for $200bn for Iran War

• US F-35 damaged by suspected Iranian fire makes emergency landing

• US to require $15,000 bond to visa recipients from 12 more countries

World

• Hittler faces Zielinski as French town's election contest goes viral

• Vape packaging will be forced to grow up

• Israeli spy firm crashes Slovenia's election

  The Black Cube operatives now stand accused by Slovenian law enforcement of helping to leak recordings designed to undermine Prime Minister Robert Golob’s government by linking it to corruption, days before a knife-edge national election. The tapes show prominent Slovenian figures apparently discussing corruption, illegal lobbying and the misuse of state funds. Slovenia goes to the polls Sunday for a vote that pits liberal Golob against the right-wing populist Janez Janša, who currently has a narrow lead according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls. Golob has warned that victory for Janša — a pro-MAGA, four-time former premier — would threaten the fabric of the EU. For its part, Janša’s party routinely depicts Golob as a corrupt former energy tycoon. Golob’s left-liberal coalition and Janša’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) are currently looking to utilize the leaked tape scandal to buttress attacks on each other. The SDS says the recordings — which feature a former minister, a top lawyer and other prominent figures — are proof of corruption at the highest levels of Slovenian society; while Golob’s supporters say the scandal is evidence that Janša is collaborating with foreign entities to retake power.

  • Reporting on the corruption of the incumbent candidate before an election used to be known as "reporting" and was widely accepted as a good thing.

• Commission presents proposal for EU Inc. – a single legal entity for Europe

• Cuba Is Going Dark

  • Facing US oil blockade, Cuban man powers car with charcoal

  • Trump has choked off Cuba's oil supply. China is stepping in with solar

• Sri Lanka introduces 4-day week, multiple countries go WFH amid Iran conflict

• King opens world's longest coastal path around England

• Canada's population shrank last year – a first for the country, StatsCan says

• Location of French aircraft carrier leaked in real time via Strava user on board

Greenland

• Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

Iran / Houthi

• World’s Largest LNG Plant Suffers Extensive Damage, Qatar Says

  • Iran attack wipes out 17% of Qatar's LNG capacity for up to five years

• The strait of Hormuz blockade will strangle US defense industry

• Iranian missile veers into West Bank, kills 4 Palestinian women in beauty salon

• Israeli leadership give military blank check to target any Iranian official without additional approval.

• Iran revives 'Zionist sorcery' claims in propaganda against Israel

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• The New World War

  As the fourth anniversary of the invasion approached last month, Zelensky inflated his rhetoric. He used the same formulation I had heard countless times from Ukrainians every time I visited. This was not a conflict between Ukraine and Russia any longer, if it had ever been that to begin with. These were, Zelensky told the BBC in February, the first years of the Third World War.

  • "Fourth Anniversary" ... The media does not account the 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea as aggression.

China

• China's robotics revolution: I visited 11 companies in 5 Chinese cities

• "It feels like Squid Game": China's workers scramble to keep up in the AI race

• OpenClaw enthusiasm grips China, schoolkids and retirees alike raise 'lobsters'

Health / Medicine

• Magic mushroom‑infused products appear in Colorado gas stations

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Tiny Fish Passed an Intelligence Test That Once Distinguished Great Apes

• Costa Rica makes history with strict, nationwide ban on hunting

• Forest loss can make watersheds 'leakier,' global study suggests

• Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

• Scientists Once Dropped Gophers on a Volcano. Now They're Heroes

• Why the world doesn't recycle more nuclear waste