2026-05-24

etc

• California Evacuation Map as Chemical Tank Will Fail or Explode: 'Bad'

  Thousands of Southern California residents have refused to obey evacuation orders as public safety officials warn of a "highly toxic" threat unfolding in Orange County amid a failing chemical tank housing methyl methacrylate. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for around 40,000 people in Garden Grove, California, and surrounding cities, including parts of Anaheim, Stanton, and Westminster, amid a critical situation at the GKN Aerospace facility. A massive chemical storage tank is projected to either fail or explode, with officials warning that both outcomes will release "highly toxic" substances into the surrounding communities.

  The Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) reported that the crisis began Thursday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. when a 34,000-gallon storage tank containing methyl methacrylate—a highly flammable chemical used in plastics manufacturing—overheated and began leaking, releasing toxic vapors and triggering a massive hazardous materials response.

  • Thousands evacuated in Garden Grove worry toxic chemicals in tank could explode

  • Garden Grove tank hazmat: What to know about chemical leak health risks.

  • 40,000 Evacuated in Southern California as Chemical Tank Threatens Leak or Explosion

  • Tank leaking toxic chemicals in Orange County will spill or explode

  The tank at GKN Aerospace contains a highly toxic and flammable chemical used to make plastics. Now, fire crews say the tank is going to fail in one of two ways: either with a spill of thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals or an explosion. Authorities just don't know when or how it will end. "There are literally two options left remaining," Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) Division Chief Craig Covey said. "One, the tank fails and spills a total of about 6,000 to 7,000 gallons of very bad chemicals into the parking lot in that area, or two, the tank goes into a thermal runaway and blows up, affecting the tanks that are around them that have fuel or the chemicals in them as well." It was unclear what initially caused the material in the tank to overheat.

  • Garden Grove chemical threat: 40000 evacuated as overheated tank faces explosion

  • CA declares state of emergency as fire crews race to contain toxic chemical leak

• It is glue: Methyl methacrylate - Wikipedia

  Another application is as cement used in total hip replacements as well as total knee replacements. Used as the "grout" by orthopedic surgeons to make the bone inserts fix into bone, it greatly reduces post-operative pain from the insertions but has a finite lifespan. Typically the lifespan of methylmethacrylate as bone cement is 20 years before revision surgery is required. Also used in fracture repair in small exotic animal species using internal fixation.

Horseshit

• The Enhanced Games fit right in with the rest of 2026's longevity vibes

• More Dads Are Scaling Back at the Office for Kids and Housework

• We found a baby on the subway – now he's our 26-year-old son

• Crypto industry braces for quantum computing threat

• New kind of dark tourism emerging in online 'Backrooms,' study shows

  Digital culture is reshaping people's experiences of fear, curiosity and belonging, according to new findings from Lancaster University. Researchers have explored why online environments like the "Backrooms"—mysterious empty spaces resembling uncharted office blocks, basements and corridors—have become so compelling, and why people are choosing to get lost in spaces that don't exist. Unlike traditional "dark tourism," which focuses on physical sites and historical events, the "Backrooms" represent a new kind of experience that exists entirely online. They emerge from, and circulate through, the darker corners of the internet that are less visible, less regulated, and often more experimental in tone.

• Maldives tragedy shines light on dangers of cave diving

• The Surprising Origins of 'Left' and 'Right' in Politics

• A Transoceanic Jet at 35,000 Feet Is In Airspace That Doesn't Legally Exist

celebrity gossip

• Stephen Hawking's father worried his son 'does not study much', diaries reveal

• JK Rowling mansplained: A new podcast dives into her transformation

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• The Young Wikipedians Writing the Front Page of Music History

• Deepfake vids degrade political reputations even when viewers know they're fake

Musk

• SpaceX launches Starship v3 rocket

  • Moment SpaceX rocket explodes in the Indian Ocean after splashdown

• The SpaceX IPO filing is filled with AI bets, Starship dreams

• Elon, stop trying to make Grok happen

• Tesla now calls FSD 'Tesla Assisted Driving' in China – a more truthful name

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Waymo suspends all freeway rides over safety

Robot uprising / Humanoid Helpers

• Southwest Bans Humanoid Robots After Viral Passenger Flights

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Iowa lawmakers to mandate students take Center for Intellectual Freedom classes

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• FTC Orders Cox Media Group to Pay $1M to Settle Deceptive Marketing Charges

• BambuStudio has been violating PrusaSlicer AGPL license since their fork

• Texas AG sues Meta over claims that WhatsApp doesn't provide end-to-end encrypt

• Former US execs plead guilty to aiding tech support scammers

• Microsoft Agrees to $250M Settlement with Activision Blizzard Shareholders

• Judge considers ordering Meta to revamp its apps

• Google appeals search monopoly ruling, says it won business 'fair and square'

• Google is currently struggling to define words like disregard, stop and ignore

• Walmart has announced a new range of Android tablets starting at $97.

• Oura says it gets government demands for user data. Will it share how many?

• Texas sues Meta, WhatsApp over encryption privacy claims

  • Texas AG sues Meta over claims that WhatsApp doesn't provide E2EE

• Apple says Epic lawsuit shouldn't reshape App Store rules for all developers

• The end of the internet's golden age

• Ordinary WiFi can now identify people with near perfect accuracy

• A Mysterious Children's Search Engine Is Misleading Kids

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Reverse engineering circuitry in a Spacelab computer from 1980

  The Spacelab computer didn't use a microprocessor chip. Instead, like most minicomputers at the time, it was built from simple integrated circuits that were combined to implement the computer's circuitry. Unlike modern CMOS integrated circuits, these chips contained bipolar transistors, which were fast, but large and power-hungry, a technology known as TTL (transistor-transistor logic). Electronics hobbyists of a certain age will recall the popular 7400 series of TTL chips. The Spacelab computer was built from the military grade of these chips, the 5400 series.

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• The International Space Station is leaking (again)

• US Government releases UFO sighting reports – 'Orbs swarming in all directions'

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• The AI Superstars Who Say a 'Vibe Slop' Crisis Is Coming

• ChatGPT as the AOL of AI

• AI is getting pricey, but relief is coming, but not for you

• Microsoft reports AI is more expensive than paying human employees

• Sci-Hub has created a new AI chatbot. Is it any good?

• Sundar Pichai Understands Why People Are Anxious About A.I

• Airbnb's Chesky Says US 'Misunderstanding' Use of Chinese Open-Source AI Models

• His Chatbot Nearly Ruined Him. To Recover, He Had to Destroy It

• Data centers could be good for your hometown

• Zuck defends monitoring employees to win AI race in purported leaked audio

• I see dangers of AI firsthand – as people make doppelgangers of me

• Anthropic blames dystopian sci-fi for training AI models to act "evil"

• Duolingo's CEO says he backtracked on evaluating AI use in performance reviews

• The unlikely Vatican-Anthropic relationship that's reshaping AI ethics debate

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• Kalshi and Polymarket Are Spoiling Reality TV Shows

• 'The vibes are young male vibes': Why prediction markets attract a certain type

Economicon / Business / Finance

• New and Affordable Vehicles Coming From Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, and Dodge.

• One solution for Maine's struggling fishing industry? Give fillets away for free

• Nvidia Removes Gaming Revenue Category from Financial Reports

• Uber to make offer for German food delivery co DeliveryHero

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• White House ordering agencies to place its new app on all employees' govt phones

• AI Reconstructed Dead Pilots' Voices from Public NTSB Records

  • Feds unwittingly leak pilots' pre-crash conversation

• Trump Admin Investigating US Taxpayer-Funded Biolabs in over 30 Countries

  The Trump administration is probing more than 120 biological laboratories funded by U.S. taxpayers in 30-plus countries in a bid to end potentially dangerous experiments within gain-of-function research, federal officials confirmed Wednesday. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard ordered the investigation following a months-long review of U.S. holdings and files on the Washington-funded biolabs operating overseas, including to uncover specific locations as part of President Donald Trump's executive order in May 2025 to ban all federal funding for gain-of-function research in China or other nations without proper oversight.

• Mace targets Squad Dem with constitutional ban on foreign-born lawmakers

• US Towns Paid for Teachers and Cops to Use Weight-Loss Drugs. It Broke the Bank

Trump

• Gunshots heard near White House

  • Secret Service shoots person near the White House, bystander also shot

  The U.S. Secret Service shot a person near the White House on Saturday, and a bystander also was shot, a law enforcement official said. Both individuals were said to be in critical condition, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation. Journalists working at the White House reported hearing a series of gunshots and were told to seek shelter inside the press briefing room. Secret Service officers kept them from leaving.

  • Suspect dead after shots fired near the White House

  The U.S. Secret Service fatally shot a person who opened fire on officers at a security checkpoint on Saturday in an exchange of gunfire that briefly locked down the White House, officials said. The shooting happened shortly after 6 p.m. when a male approached the Secret Service checkpoint at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, pulled a gun from a bag and opened fire on officers, the Secret Service said in a statement. The officers returned fire and shot the suspect, who was taken to a hospital, where he later died, the Secret Service said. The agency said the shooting remains under investigation. A bystander was also shot, the Secret Service said, but it was unclear who fired the round that injured that person. Their condition was not immediately available.

Left Angst

• FBI director's Based Apparel site has been spotted hosting a 'ClickFix' attack

• Stephen Colbert represented the worst of establishment liberalism

  Treating a mediocre comic like an inspiring political leader demonstrates the slow and humiliating death of establishment liberals. They inhabit a world in which prestige is their main currency, yet they often spend it on self-congratulation and promotion.

  • Penn State professor: Stephen Colbert ‘one of the most important satirists in American history.’

• Trump's 3,711 Trades Point to Multiple Stock-Market Strategies

• Is Trump trying to turn Texas blue?

• The Banal Horror of Jimmy Fallon

  Fallon laughs endlessly at the same pseudo-jokes, rubs elbows with Trump and Sam Altman, and ushers in the death of culture.

• The U.S. Education Department fired workers. Now, it's on a hiring spree

• DHS Quits Granting Green Cards–Almost

  • Most people seeking green cards must now apply from outside US

  • US tells foreigners seeking green cards: Return to your countries to apply

  • New rule requires most green-card applicants to apply from outside U.S.

  • Trump directs legal migrants to return to home country to apply for green cards

  • Trump admin to force foreigners in the U.S. to apply for a green card abroad

World

• US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

• Spanish Court Declines to Fine NordVPN over LaLiga Piracy Blocking Order

• UK economic catastrophe unless it adapts to young people rewired by smartphones

• In India, You Can Get Milk Delivered Faster Than It Takes to Make Coffee

• Europe physicists plan to build 91-kilometer particle collider

• UK targets hostile and heinous Russian activity with latest sanctions

• Italy Cancels Boeing Pegasus Order, Shifting to Airbus A330 MRTT

• Italian authorities shut down major streaming piracy network

• Why Japan has millions of abandoned houses

  The median age in Japan is 49 years old — the second-highest in the world, trailing only Monaco. Many of these elderly citizens have left their homes empty and moved into care facilities or the homes of family members.

• Alberta will vote on whether to remain part of Canada. What now?

Iran / Houthi

• U.S. prepares for new military strikes against Iran - CBS News

  No final decision on strikes had been reached as of Friday afternoon. "Circumstances pertaining to Government" are keeping President Trump from attending his son Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding this weekend, he said in a social media post. The president had planned to spend Memorial Day weekend at his golf property in New Jersey but will now return to the White House. Some members of the U.S. military and intelligence community canceled their plans for the Memorial Day weekend in anticipation of possible strikes, several sources said. The U.S. and Iran have largely refrained from striking each other since a temporary ceasefire began in early April, buying time for indirect talks on a longer-term deal.

• Iran Destroys $1 Billion in US Reaper Drones, Depleting Pentagon Inventory

Israel

• Gaza flotilla activists allege sexual assault and rape in Israeli detention

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Four Russian satellites are now within striking distance of an ICEYE radarsat

• Putin Can No Longer Hide His Catastrophe

• 'A Total Nightmare': Voices from a Moscow Hit by Ukrainian Drones

China

• China: Mine death toll rises to 90 after gas blast

• China Eliminates Tariffs on Africa to Outmaneuver U.S.

Health / Medicine

• "Wacky Tobaccy" Tobacco plant can produce five psychedelics, including psilocybin and DMT

• Guinea worm disease nears worldwide elimination, with only 10 cases in 2025

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Ebola Outbreak Now Third Largest Recorded and "Spreading Rapidly"

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• See great white shark swim between surfers at Pismo Beach pier. 'It's insane'

• Earth’s molten outer core is behaving in chaotic, unexpected ways.

• Wildlife is watching us, too – and changing their behavior in response