2026-05-06

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• The Physics Behind the Thumb Trick

  Have you ever filled a bucket with water from the garden hose? It’s kind of a slow process. Or at least it feels slow while you’re standing there waiting. If you played with a garden hose at all, you know the trick of putting your thumb over the end to get a stronger jet. Obviously, the water is flowing faster with your thumb on than off. So if you do that - put your thumb over the end of the hose - to fill your bucket, do you think it’s going to fill faster, slower, or take the same amount of time?

Horseshit

• The Only Thing Worse Than Spirit Airlines Is a World Without Spirit Airlines

• Are Those Brake Lights or a House on Fire? Your Security Camera Can't Tell

• The Secret to Success Is 'Monotasking'

• Wearables Are Going Off the Rails

• The Brave Souls Who Bought a Used, 340k-Mile Rental Camper Van

• How Americans Caught Gold Fever Again

celebrity gossip

• David Attenborough, 'the voice for nature,' turns 100

• Alan Moore: 'The comics industry is poisonous'

Musk

• Musk vs. Altman week 1: Elon Musk says he was duped, warns AI could kill us all

• Brockman Says Musk Vowed on Trial's Eve to Make Him 'Hated'

  • Brockman's 'deeply personal' diary becomes focus in Musk vs. Altman case

• Elon Musk Testifies He Was a 'Fool' to Fund OpenAI

• All left of center parties in Germany are advising their members to leave X

  • Germany's main left-wing parties quit Musk's X over disinformation

• As X shuts down Communities, Acorn debuts an alternative

• SEC and Elon Musk agree to settle lawsuit over Twitter buyout in 2022

  • Musk Settles SEC Suit for Underpaying Twitter Investors by $150M for Just $1.5M

  • Remember when Musk bought Twitter and everyone was laughing at how much he overpaid?

  • Musk to pay $1.5M over SEC Twitter stake case

  • Trump SEC lets Musk settle $150M Twitter lawsuit for $1.5M

• Musk promised his data center would reuse water. That's now stalled

• X user tricks Grok into sending them $200k

Electric / Self Driving cars

• The Secret Team Blowing Up Ford's Assembly Line to Make a $30k Electric Truck

  • After Setbacks, Ford Says Its Affordable Electric Truck Is on Track

• Chinese company wants to attach rockets to its hypercar to do 0-62mph in 0.9s

  • Tesla did it first: Tesla Roadster SpaceX Package: The Ultimate Performance Hypercar

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• Robots move in as waste firms struggle to find staff

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• 'Close to zero impact': US study casts doubt on effect of phone ban in schools

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Developer re-enables features that Bambu Lab disabled, BL threatens legal action

• Valve just imported 50 tons of game consoles in two days

• "Notepad++ for Mac" release is disavowed by the creator of the original

• Meta, TikTok Recv Personal Data from Health Exchanges Alarming Privacy Experts

• The AI Hard Drive Shortage Is Making It Harder to Archive the Internet

• Former Nintendo of America President Warns Devs Mass Layoffs 'A Red Flag'

• Shortages push long-term supply agreements for SSDs and HDDs to record 5 years

• Instagram Encrypted Messaging Ends on Friday, May 8

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Virgin Galactic reveals new ship, but it's running out of time and cash

• Halley's Comet Meteor Shower (Eta Aquariids) About to Peak

• Astronomers believe they’ve detected an atmosphere around a world beyond Pluto

  • A Tiny Rock in the Outer Solar System Has an Atmosphere–But It Shouldn't

• NASA just released 12k more pictures from Artemis II mission

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• OpenAI co-founder discloses nearly $30B stake, financial ties to Altman

  • OpenAI president defends motives in for-profit restructuring, reveals $30B stake

  • OpenAI president discloses his stake in the company is worth $30B

• Google, Microsoft and xAI Agree to Share Early AI Models with U.S.

  • Google, xAI and Microsoft agree to US national security reviews of new AI models

  • White House considers government reviews for AI models

  • US Government expands vetting of frontier AI models for security risks

  • US moves further into AI oversight, will test Google, Microsoft and xAI models

  • U.S. ramps up frontier AI testing as White House pivots toward safety

  • US to safety test new AI models from Google, Microsoft, xAI

• AI Companies Learn the Word No

• Ahead of Race to IPO, OpenAI Discussed Spinning Out Robotics, Hardware Divisions

• A Dark-Money Campaign Is Paying Influencers to Frame Chinese AI as a Threat

• US State Dept orders global warning about alleged AI thefts by DeepSeek

• A blueprint for using AI to strengthen democracy

• Y Combinator holds $5B stake in OpenAI

• AI is 'creating an enormous number of jobs'

• Amazon rolls out Claude Code and Codex internally

• Anthropic entering AI services business

• What Silicon Valley layoffs hide about the future of the job market

• Anthropic Unveils $1.5B Joint Venture with Wall Street Firms

• The AI rush is hitting a bottleneck

• Fiddler sues Google after AI Overview wrongly claimed he was a sex offender

• AI and the Danger of Cognitive Surrender

• OpenAI has added pet companions to its Codex programming assistant.

• Microsoft Committed to Doubling AI Infrastructure in Two Years

• AI's Big Messaging Pivot

  Years ago, Altman did seem to generally agree with the folk consensus that AI’s purpose is to make most or all humans obsolete; in 2014 he warned that we could be faced with “a new idle class”, and explored the idea of Universal Basic Income as a remedy. In 2021 he wrote that “The price of many kinds of labor…will fall toward zero.” But in recent years, Altman has consistently stated that although AI will destroy many occupations, it will create new tasks for humans to do.

• AI data centers appear to be creating their own microclimates

• AI firms should face 'minimum wage for robots' to limit job cuts, says tech boss

• A bill banning AI companions for kids could usher in widespread ID checks online

• VC fired all analysts, is using AI to help run deals for its new $75M fund

• Influential study touting ChatGPT in education retracted over red flags

• Opposition to AI Data Centers Is a 'Bipartisan Issue'

• Will A.I. Make College Obsolete?

• OpenAI has reportedly fast-tracked plans for a phone

  • OpenAI smartphone leak reveals next-gen chipset and more details

• I Asked ChatGPT to Manage a Stock Portfolio. Here’s How It Did.

• Congress Is Doing Little to Prepare for Potential A.I. Job Losses

• Humane AI Pin hacks turns the gadget into a standalone Android-powered gadget

• Flattery jailbreaks Claude into giving bomb-making instructions

• Pennsylvania sues Character AI, says chatbot poses as doctors

• Why the AI backlash has turned violent

• Five Publishers and Scott Turow Sue Meta and Mark Zuckerberg

  • Zuckerberg 'Personally Authorized and Encouraged' Meta's Copyright Infringement

  • Zuckerberg 'personally authorized' Meta's copyright infringement, publishers say

• I'm a Doctor. Here's What A.I. Cannot Do

• Apple to let users choose rival AI models across iOS 27 features

• Richard Dawkins concludes AI is conscious, even if it doesn't know it

• Math long resisted a digital disruption. AI is poised to change that

• Blackstone, KKR in Talks with Google to Bring AI Models to Portfolio Firms

• Apple Reaches $250M Settlement Over Claims It Misled People on A.I

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• The rise and fall of Intrade, the first prediction market

• NPR finds "no sign" of Polymarket at its Panama HQ address

• Coinbase to cut about 14% of workforce

  • Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by \~14%

  • Coinbase lays off 14% of staff

  • Coinbase cuts headcount by 14% citing AI acceleration

  • Coinbase CEO issues warning to all Americans amid mass layoffs

• Crypto-miners are quietly colonising computers

• Fears erupt over 'tyrannical tool' as it could control your spending

  Known as a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), or 'digital dollar,' the form of money would be issued and regulated by the Federal Reserve. Formal discussion regarding CBDC intensified around 2020.

Economicon / Business / Finance

• GameStop offers $56B for eBay, struggles to explain how it'll pay for it

  • Investor Michael Burry Says He Exited Entire GameStop Position

• Palantir Q1 revenue jumps 85% on booming US business

• Apple Explores Using Intel and Samsung to Build Main Device Chips in the US

• Cerebras targets $26.6B valuation in US IPO as AI chip demand surges

• Meta stock might look cheap if it weren't for Mark Zuckerberg

• The growing risk of a 'non-linear spike' in oil prices

• California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

• PayPal plans 20% job cuts

• Google DeepMind workers in UK vote to unionize amid deal with US Military

  • Google UK staff vote to unionise in protest against Israeli military contract

• SEC Proposes Amendments to Permit Semiannual Reporting by Public Companies

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• You can get dragged into a police investigation by proximity alone – for now

• A Hidden Liability for U.S. Cities: Looming Infrastructure Repair Costs

• (Video) Acting Attorney Blanche Announces Antitrust Investigations on Meatpacking Ops

Democrats

• Indictment of SPLC draws RNC attacks on Sen Jon Ossoff over past ties

• WaPo Admits Many Democrat Voters Can't Prove They're Citizens

  Ayres and Slaughter estimate that Democrats are 13 percentage points “less likely than Republicans to hold qualifying registration documents” in New Mexico. And while Ayres and Slaughter estimate the passage of the SAVE America Act would only have “modest” consequences for the midterms because those currently registered to vote would be “unaffected,” “as more people would need to register after moving, changing their names or reaching voting age, this document shortfall could flip New Mexico to an electorate where Republicans have a 3.3-percentage-point advantage.” Ayres and Slaughter see the GOP having a similar advantage in the battleground state of Nevada. Their research shows that Democrats are 5.3 percentage points less likely than Republicans to have the required documents, and they project that passage of the legislation “would push [Nevada] from battleground to comfortably Republican.” “Nationally, the overall effect leans Republican: Eight of 15 swing states show rightward shifts, and the only statistically significant results favor Republicans,” Ayres and Slaughter wrote.

Left Angst

• Trump's proposed NASA budget is a 'horrible threat to our future' in space

• DHS Demanded Google for Data on Canadian's Activity, Location over Anti-ICE posts

• Judge apologizes to White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting suspect Cole Allen over jail conditions

  US Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui told alleged wannabe killer Cole Allen, 31, he was sorry that the suspect had been held under suicide watch despite a mental-health exam finding he did not pose a threat to harm himself, according to Politico.

• Trump Is Losing a Second War

  The global energy transition — the shift from fossil fuels to electrotech, which uses solar, wind and batteries to power an electrified economy — is accelerating. It’s now clear that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz marks an inflection point: the global green energy curve, which was already on a rapidly rising trajectory, has suddenly become even steeper. “Investors,” reports the Financial Times, “are piling into clean energy funds.” This acceleration isn’t just a consequence of soaring fossil fuel prices. It is also the result of the worldwide realization that, with the end of Pax Americana, depending on imported hydrocarbons is a risk not worth taking. The United States cannot be relied on to keep sea lanes open when cheap drones can take out an oil tanker or a major pipeline. Even relying on oil and gas from America itself is dangerous, since one never knows when an erratic U.S. government – now under the control of a twice-elected malignant narcissist — will try to use energy as a tool of coercion.

  • Shouldn't leftists be happy, then? They've wanted fossil fuels gone forever and the end of the "Pax Americana" for even longer. Trump has accomplished goals they've held for decades in a year or less.

• Trump spent nearly $2B of taxpayer money to undo wind projects underway

• Trump's AI Oversight Plan Is Everything VCs Claimed to Hate About Biden's Plan

• Was the Declaration of Independence Better Before the Edits?

• The Impossible Things We Have to Believe

  In a time of energy shortage and, as noted, climate challenges, we have to accept that the world is going ALL IN on massive AI data centers that slurp up our water and emit vast amounts of CO₂ and gigawatts of heat. Apparently THIS is a priority! Meanwhile, a total lunatic is in charge of the US nuclear arsenal, and he starts random wars with no plan, and there is zero indication that the military or courts or congress are inclined to stop him in any way. We have to pretend this is all fine to get through the day. One day I hope things will get better. And in the meantime, it is them that are wrong, and not you.

  • If you keep shouting, reality will go away and you can live in the media's fantasy world in peace.

• Trump Pressures FDA Commissioner to Approve Flavored Vapes

• National space weather center on chopping block

• FDA Blocked Publication of Research Finding Covid and Shingles Vaccines Safe

• RFK Jr. launches plan to curb 'overprescribing' of psychiatric drugs

  • RFK Jr. plans to curb antidepressants, which he falsely compares to heroin

• Why Stocks Keep Going Up

World

• NHS to close-source GitHub repos over AI, security concerns

• A man who blew up a nuclear power station and disappeared

• Britain now down to five operational frigates.

  HMS Iron Duke has been stripped of her weapons and sensors and has not been to sea since October 2024, with no formal decommissioning announcement made despite her effective removal from the fleet.

• Pornhub to become accessible again for some UK users

• The UK's Answer to DARPA Wants to Rewire the Human Brain

• Rice cooker leads to £260k payout to sacked university cleaner

  A part-time cleaner has won more than £260,000 after an employment tribunal found she was unfairly dismissed by a university following a dispute over a rice cooker.

• Tokyo workers asked to swap suits for shorts to combat energy costs and heat

• For All the EU and USAID Machinations to Install It, Romanian Government Collapses.

Iran / Houthi

• US Navy Sinks Seven Iranian ‘Fast Boats’ As the Regime Attacks South Korean Cargo Ship and UAE.

• U.S. and Iran Both Claim Control over Strait of Hormuz

• UAE oil facility on fire after Iran fires missiles

• Does Iran Have Secret Armed Dolphin Assassins?

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Taiwan Could Learn from Ukraine. Informally, Connections Are Growing

China

• China Opens Rocket Launches to International Satellites

• As Oil Prices Stay High, China Doubles Down on Wind Power

• China Steps Up U.S. Sanctions Fight, Defying Blacklisting over Iranian Oil

• The Rising Chinese Automaker Not Named BYD

Health / Medicine

• Harvard doctor believes we've been getting cholesterol all wrong

• What is the P-Shot? Learn the risks and rewards of the ED treatment popular with gay men.

• Eight vaccines linked to a lower risk of dementia

• Single dose of psylocibin can cause anatomical brain changes, study finds

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Suspected hantavirus outbreak traps 150 on ship off Cape Verde

  • Human-to-human transmission suspected on board hantavirus cruise ship, WHO says

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Emergency brakes: How to limit temps long before last resort of geoengineering

• The Mathematical Dance Inside Plant Cells

• One of California's Ritziest Beach Towns Has a Problem: A Tsunami of Raw Sewage

• Norwegian fish farms polluting fjords with waste likened to 'raw sewage'

• Chaotic whale rescue shocks marine biologists

  It was presented as a triumph. On Saturday morning, Timmy, the 12-meter-long humpback whale that lay stranded off Germany’s Baltic coast for more than a month, was released from a water-filled barge that had transported it to freedom in the Skagerrak, the strait between Denmark and Norway, capping a rescue operation that had captivated the public in Germany and around the world. A video showed Timmy spouting water from its blowhole, in what one German tabloid interpretated as a playful goodbye to its rescuers. But 2 days later, it’s unclear whether Timmy—called Hope by some—is still alive. The privately funded rescue team has fallen apart amid bitter recriminations, attempts to track the whale appear to have failed, and some scientists say the rescue traumatized the animal. A drone video of the whale on the day before its release, struggling and banging against the sides of the barge as the crew apparently tried to pull it out, has shocked researchers. “It’s very hard to watch,” says oceanographer Burkard Baschek, director of the Ocean Museum Germany. “The animal must have suffered greatly.”

• IPCC Admits Apocalyptic Climate Scenarios Are "Implausible"

• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch could be part of a hidden problem

  • Airborne Microplastics May Be Warming the Planet

• Shark lasers could help save vulnerable species.

• Microplastics have been found to interact with the gut microbiome

• Should the Grizzly Return to California?