2026-05-29

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• Where Are the Economies of Scale in Homebuilding?

  or many sectors of construction, difficulty in achieving economies of scale could be attributed to the fact that only a small number of buildings of a particular type get built in the US each year. There were, for instance, only 10 skyscrapers taller than 200 meters built in the US in 2025. Semiconductor fabs, urban subways, and airports are similarly built in very small numbers. It’s hard to achieve economies of scale when there’s no scale to be had. Houses, on the other hand, are built in very large numbers. There were over 1.3 million housing starts in the US last year, including 942,000 single-family homes. This isn’t large compared to other types of manufactured goods — the US consumed over 7 billion cans of vegetables in 2025, for instance — but it’s certainly large enough for economies of scale to appear.

Horseshit

• It's surprisingly hard to tell if someone's drowning, so we made you a guide

  • (2010) Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

• UK's rudest chalk figure gets a glow-up to stop it fading in the rain

  For centuries, the Cerne Abbas Giant has been hard to miss. The 55-metre chalk figure, cut into a hillside near the village of Cerne Abbas in Dorset, shows a naked, club-wielding man whose outline has made him one of the UK's most instantly recognisable historic landmarks. But the National Trust, which owns and manages the site, says changing weather patterns are making it harder to keep the Giant prominent on the hillside. National Trust staff and volunteers will this week pack tonnes of new chalk onto the figure to restore the crisp whiteness of his outline.

• Woman without right hand charged for holding phone in right hand while driving

• Charges dismissed for woman without right hand cited for holding phone while driving

• Mystery emu found wandering city streets in Louisiana

• Should capitalism be deemed psychopathic and criminalised?

• His gut produces alcohol spontaneously.For years he was dismissed asan alcoholic

• People who want to replace humanity

• Trick or spice? How the 'nutmeg' came to dominate the soccer world

• Psychopathy: Some experts now say it doesn't exist – may be looking at it wrong

• British Airways Boeing 787 Pilot Clashes with New York JFK Controller

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

• The cognitive difference between amateur and expert chess players

• NY and NJ subpoena FIFA over 'manipulated' World Cup ticketing

• The Sun unleashed a bizarre radio signal that kept broadcasting for 19 straight days, leaving NASA scientists stunned.

Epstein

• Satire with Permits: A Brushed-Metal Pole Targeting Epstein Headed to Wisconsin

• BofA Banker Courted Epstein for Years Leading Up to His Arrest

celebrity gossip

• Tech Billionaire Peter Thiel Finds a New Escape: Argentina

  • Why Peter Thiel Is Decamping to Argentina

• Zuckerberg's superyacht lands in Seattle as Meta announces big local layoff

Obit

• Manny Nosowsky, Whose Wordplay Enlivened Times Crosswords, Dies at 94

Musk

• Why Tesla's AI trainers don't trust its self-driving tech – or its safety stats

• SpaceX has almost finished writing v1.0 of an in-house AI training stack in C

• California defeats Tesla's attempt to throw out racial discrimination lawsuit

• SpaceX and the Zuckerberg Discount

• FAA requires mishap investigation before resumption of Starship launches

  • FAA grounds SpaceX’s Starship V3 megarocket after Flight 12 ‘mishap.’

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Ferrari's electric car: divisiveness is the point

  • The Problem with the Ferrari Luce EV Offers a Lesson for Every Leader

  • After Ferrari EV backlash, Lamborghini says canceling EVs was the right choice

Robot uprising / Humanoid Helpers

• Airbnb host alleges $12k in damages after SF startup tested a robot in his house

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Citing 'severe' math deficits, UC faculty demand a return to SAT tests for STEM

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Smartphone Sales Are Tumbling

• IBM commits $5B to secure open-source software

• Motorola stops its phones from hijacking the Amazon app, which was 'unintended'

• LG reportedly discussing the sale of its TV business to Hisense

• Websites have a new way to spy on visitors: analyzing their SSD activity

• The Spy Who Came in from the WiFi: Beware of Radio Network Surveillance

  • RuView: See Through Walls with WiFi

• Meta to start testing AI subscription services

  • Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

• GitHub Actions not only went down, the outage left it telling users their accounts were suspended.

• Valve hikes Steam Deck prices by more than 40%, blaming rising costs

  • The Steam Deck Is Sold Out Again, Even After the Price Rise

  • Valve Takes Crazy Pills and Jacks Up Steam Deck Pricing

  Valve has some serious nerve to sell “refurbished models” that were produced and sold initially at a lower price and selling them suddenly at a much higher rate. At least they could pretend “we’ll go through the old stock of refurbished models before we apply a price hike for those in the future”. But no. Reminds me of the petrol stations’ price gougers applying direct gas price hike while their underground tanks of old, cheap oil, are still full to the top.

• Company CEO flooded file share with smut, called for help after he deleted it

• Instagram Is the New LinkedIn

• Go Ask Alice Why Tech Startups Are Spending Big on Hype Videos

• Mark Zuckerberg's Worst Metaverse Bet Was Always Mark Zuckerberg

• Supreme Court lets Vermont's Meta suit proceed, open door to 50-state legal wave

• Cities Are Covering Flock Cameras with Trash Bags

• GitHub bans security researcher who posted zero-day Windows exploits

• Utah tells porn sites to take the P out of VPNs, and it's their fault they can't

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Video loopback howto: Linux Fu: Fake Webcams Have Many Uses

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• JAL to launch Moon payload service, aims to preserve heritage

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• The Pope Grasps the Limits of AI

  • What the Pope said about AI

• Robinhood Lets Customers Use AI to Trade Stocks, Make Credit-Card Purchases

• Dirk and Linus discuss AI and kernel development

  • Rust Will Save Linux from AI, Says Greg Kroah-Hartman

• Mistral to explore designing own chips, CEO says

• UK spy chief labels AI 'unstoppable force'

• Don't let Big Tech hide ecological cost of AI, environment agency chief tells EU

• Netflix is building an AI animation studio

• Seven Ways to Avoid Losing Your Job to AI

• Former Google and Apple Researchers Launch a Startup to Build AI's Missing Feed

• Dispatches from the possibly last days of human relevance

  Maybe the new AI mathematicians will soon hit a wall, because they lack the uncomputable quantum gravity microtubules of Penrose and Hameroff, or some other magic human ingredient. The fantastical thing is that, one way or the other, we’re going to find out empirically before very long.

• AI Is Starting to Hit Power Grid Limits

• Want to pack a public meeting in Kansas? Just say it's about a 'data center'

• When everyone has access to the same AI models

• Popular LLM software hit by critical vulnerability in Python package Starlette

• Progressives Are Listening to the Wrong People on A.I

• Dario Amodei warned of an AI white-collar bloodbath, now he's changing narrative

• Illinois Lawmakers Just Passed America's Strongest AI Safety Bill

• One Job That Is Growing in the A.I. Era? Cybersecurity Experts

• Amazon Strikes $6B Deal with Snowflake for Agentic Computing Chips

• What Will Happen When the AI Barons Give Back?

• AIs don't like religion – particularly Jehovah's Witnesses, study claims

• AI sticker shock hits corporate America

• What It Takes to Get a Job at Anthropic

• AI hiring algorithms reject Black, Asian job seekers at higher rates

• CNN sues Perplexity over alleged AI copyright theft

  • CNN sues Perplexity over 'verbatim' copycat articles

  • CNN files lawsuit against Perplexity alleging unlawful content distribution

• The medieval secrets being revealed by AI

• Occupy Wall Street co-founder built an on-device AI for activists

• DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says AGI may arrive by 2029, warns world unprepared

• Anthropic to boost hiring in Europe after opening Milan office

• Celebrities are telling women to use more AI or be 'left behind.'

• Phoenix Built an Empire of Cubicle Jobs. AI Is Coming to Tear It Down

• I Tried to Sell My House with a Chatbot

• Chatbots' Downward Spiral

• Big Subsidies for Google, Limited Water for Locals: The Dilemma of AI in India

• Robinhood's bet on agentic trading and purchasing is 'wake-up call' for banks

• Anthropic to roll out Claude Mythos in coming weeks, launches Opus 4.8

• Mistral to explore designing own chips

• Anthropic Tops OpenAI to Become the Most Valuable A.I. Startup

  • Anthropic valued at $965B after raising $65B in latest round

  • Anthropic leapfrogs OpenAI as most valuable AI startup

• Amazon scraps AI leaderboard to stop workers chasing usage scores

• LLMs believe false statements even after explicit warnings that they're false

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• Google Employee Charged with Insider Trading

  • Google Engineer Charged with Insider Trading on Polymarket

  • Google Security Engineer Arrested in Million-Dollar Polymarket Trading Scheme

  • Google worker charged with using internal data to make $1.2M on Polymarket

  • Google engineer charged with using inside information to win $1.2M on Polymarket

  • DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2M

  • Google engineer charged with insider trading after making $1.2M on Polymarket

  • Google employee charged with $1M Polymarket insider trading bet on search term

• Anonymous plaintiffs have asked a NYC court to declare them owners of 3.8M BTC

Economicon / Business / Finance

• What it would take to rebuild U.S. manufacturing might

• Can Intel Save America?

• Amazon to Acquire Apple's Globalstar Stake in Satellite Deal

• Wix laying off about 20% of its workforce. CEO cites AI, exchange rates

• Nvidia bets $150B on Taiwan as Trump's plan to make US an AI hub backfires

• Why the US job market is so hard, especially for recent college graduates

• St Louis FED president: Risky to rely on AI productivity to ease inflation

• Aircraft owners lease out engines rather than whole planes as prices soar

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• The millionaires tax was pitched as a $2B revenue source. It's blown past that

• Delaware court upholds voting by companies in small town's election

• Maryland Governor Wes Moore Signs GLOCK Ban Bill Into Law.

• New York Passes Tax on the Ultra-Wealthy

• Trump Regulator Moves to Drop Case That Drew Ire of Winklevoss Twins

• Taking Children from Their Parents Without a Court Order

  A class-action lawsuit is challenging the emergency-removal practices of New York’s Administration for Children’s Services.

Trump

• US government prepares to print $250 note featuring Trump's face

Democrats

• Menefee beats Green in Houston congressional district

  Democratic U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee defeated U.S. Rep. Al Green to represent a newly drawn congressional district that encompasses both of their current Houston-area districts, effectively ending the tenure of one of the state’s longest-serving congressmen and a veteran Democrat in Washington. Green, who has represented the 9th Congressional District since 2005, has been a vocal opponent to President Donald Trump’s policies in Washington and a fixture on the Houston political scene. Green repeatedly and unsuccessfully filed articles of impeachment for Trump during the president’s first and second terms. He was also removed from the State of the Union earlier this year after unfurling a protest sign. He had vowed to continue fighting Trump’s agenda if reelected and leaned on his experience, pitching himself as the candidate has been doing the job.

• Michigan Gov. Whitmer says she won’t be running for president in 2028.

Left Angst

• Trump admin drawing up plans to stop processing intl flights in sanctuary cities

• 60 Minutes journalist accuses CBS News of penalizing her

  Alfonsi was at the center of a national firestorm after the CBS News editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, shelved a segment she had reported on a notorious prison in El Salvador. She confirmed to the Guardian that she had not been offered a contract to return for the show’s 59th season, which begins in the fall. While not naming her bosses at CBS News, Alfonsi spoke about “corporate calculations” happening at media companies these days. “Some executives are asking not: ‘Is the story true?’ But: ‘Is it good for business?’” she said. “Right now, our industry is afraid of the wrong things. We’re afraid of offending power. We’re afraid of losing access. We’re afraid of another baseless lawsuit. But what we should all be afraid of is silence.”

  • "True" has never been a concern of "60 minutes"; why would they start now?

• CBS News Names an Outsider, Nick Bilton, to Lead '60 Minutes'

• Musk's cut to USAID have made the Ebola outbreak worse

  • Elon Musk boosted false USAID conspiracy theories to shut down global aid

• Ebola exposed Americans blocked from US return

  • U.S. to send Americans exposed to Ebola to Kenya quarantine facility

• MIT president: Why so many optimistic scientists are losing heart

• Justice Dept. Is Said to Open Criminal Inquiry of E. Jean Carroll

  The investigation centers on whether Ms. Carroll committed perjury in civil lawsuits against Mr. Trump, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Ms. Carroll won a $5 million civil judgment against Mr. Trump that he had sexually abused and defamed her, which the president last November asked the Supreme Court to overturn. She also won a $83.3 million civil judgment against him in another defamation case. An inquiry into Ms. Carroll would represent the latest chapter in Mr. Trump’s retribution campaign, which has been carried out by Justice Department officials. A number of figures who brought criminal and civil cases against Mr. Trump have come under the department’s scrutiny, including James B. Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and other adversaries of the president.

  • US DOJ opens criminal inquiry into E Jean Carroll

  • DOJ Digs Into E. Jean Carroll’s Possible Perjury.

• Lawmakers propose banning all U.S.-Chinese research collaborations

• ICE has spent over $25M on iris scanners in no-bid contracts

• The Current Crisis: What's Happening to Science in America

  Occasionally someone says something like "Well, you work in industry, why should you care?" And my response is that every single person working in industrial science and engineering came up through academic scientific training, and that the US has been responsible for a huge amount of the basic research that we've been building the whole scientific enterprise on. We're now engaged in tearing all of that down, and it's a crime against this nation, against its people, and against the rest of the human race - an unforgivable one.

  • if I do not care to pay for your research, which costs ever more, with un-reproducible results and un-falsifiable claims, what right have you to tell me it is in my best interest and tax me to fund it? "Government funded science" is an oxymoron, pursued by whores.

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• FBI Arrests CIA Official with $40M in Gold Bars in His Home

  A senior C.I.A. official was arrested last week after investigators found hundreds of gold bars worth over $40 million stashed in his Virginia residence, a small fortune that he apparently brought home from work, according to court papers. The official, David Rush, is being held in jail while he awaits a detention hearing in the coming days on charges of stealing public money by filling out fraudulent time sheets. The charging documents filed in Alexandria, Va., still leave a lot unanswered about his recent conduct. The only charge lodged against Mr. Rush is that he inflated his academic credentials and obtained military leave pay worth tens of thousands of dollars. The authorities say he falsely claimed to be a member of the Navy Reserve when he was discharged.

  • Former CIA official arrested after feds find $40M worth of gold bars stashed at his home.

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Pentagon puts building blocks in place for Cuba invasion

• Pentagon says military personnel reportedly being targeted using location data

• Marines turn to modified Call of Duty 4 to train new sergeants

• US Probe of Embattled UN Gaza Relief Agency Expands to 1,500 Staffers Suspected of Hamas Ties: UNRWA Could Soon Be Labeled a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’

• Our Military Is Built for the Wrong Century

• US Military personnel are reportedly being targeted using location data

  • US troops are reportedly being targeted using location data, Pentagon says

  • Troops' phones gave away location data to foreign adversaries

World

• Norway will come under France's nuclear umbrella

• Germany eyes heat pumps as Iran war drives energy costs up

• Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are suffering industrial rot

• A one-word answer to why EU lost control of Big Tech: Ireland

• Ottawa's latest deal with U.S. data giant Palantir raises warnings

• Locked out of the city some young Canadian buyers are heading to cottage country

• Dutch block US takeover of Solvinity as against public interest

• Sikh man accused of murdering university student with 8-inch ceremonial knife used racism as his 'trump card' to ensure police arrested his dying victim instead, court hears

• Europe's May heatwave sparks UN calls to shift to clean power

• EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

• 'Hidden datacentre tax' costing Irish households millions

• France's parliament votes to repeal slavery-era "Black Code" laws

• China could use "kill-switch" on buses in Dutch cities, says Cabinet member

• Where expat escapees from Dubai end up? Will they ever return?

• Australia sues US giant 3M over 'forever chemicals' in firefighting foam

• A company turned visas to Europe into big business

• How the EU's plan to turbocharge Italy's economy fell flat

• EU wants crisis powers to seize control of chip supplies

• Europe told to cool its datacenter boom before water and power run short

• EU moderation watchdog says social media giants hate taking down hate speech

Iran / Houthi

• NASA satellites locate mysterious GPS jammer within several kilometers in Iran

• U.S. and Iran reach deal but need Trump's final approval, officials say

  • Iran disagrees with that report

• US and Iranian negotiators reach tentative deal to launch nuclear talks

Israel

• Learning from Ukraine, Hezbollah is now using fibre-optic drones to hit Israel

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Is Russia Maneuvering to Threaten an Iceye Satellite?

• Russia allows central bank and Sberbank to down drones

  The law, passed by Russia’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday, will allow staff at Russia’s central bank to be armed and to operate the systems used to down unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, or drone) attacks without the involvement of special forces.

• Ukraine to buy 20 new Gripen jets, Sweden to donate older jets sooner

• Ukraine Is Turning the Tables

China

• China works on AI token futures market

• The world's carmakers are struggling to compete with China

• China Is Growing Artificial Human Embryos In Space To Learn More About Reproduction Beyond Earth

• China shakes up its space programs to land astronauts on the moon by 2030: ‘We will spare no effort.’

Health / Medicine

• Ozempic may be reshaping the brain, scientists say

• Bad cholesterol slashed 62% by single dose of gene-editing drug in small trial

• Blood pressure tech floods the market after FDA relaxes wearables oversight

• What it's like to have your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

• Preservatives linked to high blood pressure and heart disease in new study

• How gut microbes help shape how many calories you absorb from food.

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• The World Cup Is a Petri Dish

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Australia launches $2B lawsuit over PFAS 'forever chemicals'

• The fog is alive: bacteria in fog droplets clear toxins from air

• World likely to breach 1.5°C limit in next five years

• Tiny, blue octopus species discovered 6,000 feet deep in ocean — and scientists think it’s adorable: ‘Never seen anything like it’.

• Humanity has exceeded Earth's limits, study warns

• A New York cemetery was hiding 5.5M bees underground

• Renewable energy is overtaking traditional power projects across Africa

• Forecasters predict below-average hurricane season, advise against complacency.

  • There's no longer as much money in predicting the end of the world regardless of the data...

• Why Garlic Repels Mosquitoes and Keeps Them from Breeding