2025-02-28

"sex research", high justice, memecoin it, Epstein files, RIP Gene Hackman, Instagram errs, EA opens C&C, MrBeast worth 5 billion, proving citizenship to vote, why the FBI says "lab leak", dolphin horde

etc

• Seven planets to be visible in night sky for last time until 2040

Horseshit

• It's the Most Indispensable Machine in the World–and It Depends on This Woman

• Did Iron Age 'begin' in India? Tamil Nadu dig sparks debate

• The Mediterranean diet is a lie

• Sampling California's first lab-grown chocolate

• Aella, the Internet’s Favorite Sex Researcher - The Atlantic

  Over the course of 2024, Aella cried on 71 different days, showered on 24, and took ketamine on 14. We know this because she meticulously gathers and posts information about people’s personal, emotional, and sexual lives—including her own. The crying number was unusually high, she says, because of a bad breakup. For many fans, the more boggling statistic was that last year, she had sex on only 41 days, but on one of those days, she had sex with nearly 40 people.

• A son spent a year trying to save his father from conspiracy theories

• How New York’s Plan for Reparations Became a Debt Trap for Marijuana Retailers - The New York Times

  the state inspector general’s office is investigating the program, called the Cannabis Social Equity Investment Fund. The situation exposes how an experiment in reparations that sought to lift people disproportionately harmed by prior enforcement against marijuana not only failed but also helped derail the rollout of legal cannabis in New York. Essentially, Governor Hochul made big promises based on an unrealistic expectation that investors would be willing to take lopsided risks even as the cannabis industry struggled elsewhere. Instead, the rush of investors never materialized, causing the legal market in New York to lose ground to the rapid proliferation of illicit dispensaries. And even when the fund attracted a sole lender, Chicago Atlantic, the restrictions attached to the investment served to strangle the fledgling market, shop owners said.

• The Bay Area startup with a 'bats–t' plan to take on Elon Musk's SpaceX

• 6 years after wildfires destroyed their Malibu homes, many struggle to rebuild

• Buy Infowars for the Memes - Bloomberg

  you can see why the meme-coin approach might be preferable. For one thing, it’s a meme coin. People are primed to think of it differently. With a stock, people will ask questions like “what are the expected cash flows from this business” or “how much will I be diluted in the deal” or “what happens to our investment if you don’t win the auction and buy Infowars?” With a meme coin, people understand that asking questions is pointless: There are no cash flows, if you don’t win the auction the coin will fizzle away, and everything is just vague vibes and emotion rather than careful financial analysis. For a certain sort of business — this sort — that is the right financing mechanism.

• An unlikely nonprofit (Goodwill) at the heart of a recycling revolution

• A16Z-backed site hosts sexually charged conversations w underage celebrity bots

celebrity gossip

• Andrew Tate and brother leave Romania for US after travel ban lifted

• Attorney General Pam Bondi says ‘some Epstein information’ will be released Thursday.

  • Pam Bondi announces Epstein flight logs are expected to be released on Thursday | Just The News

  • Exclusive | Here's what's on the Jeffrey Epstein list that the Trump DOJ is set to release later today

  A source who has reviewed the files said the release spans more than 100 pages, including a list of contacts without further context. The person said the unveiling was likely to be a “disappointment” to sleuths eager for bombshell new evidence about the billionaire pedophile’s connection to prominent political and business leaders. A client list is not included in the initial release, which was compiled into binders describing the disclosure as “phase one” of the Epstein files, according to the source.

Obit

• Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife and dog found dead in their New Mexico home - KOB.com

  Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, his wife and their dog were found dead in their New Mexico home, authorities said Thursday. Foul play was not suspected, but authorities did not release circumstances of their deaths and said an investigation was ongoing. Hackman, 95, Betsy Arakawa, 63, and their dog were all dead when deputies entered their home to check on their welfare around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Denise Avila said.

  • Gene Hackman Has Died

  • Gene Hackman : Hollywood legend dies aged 95

  • Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa found dead at their home in New Mexico

  • Gene Hackman, his wife and their dog all found dead in New Mexico home

• Boris Spassky (1937-2025) Chess World Champion and Legendary Grandmaster

  • Boris Spassky Has Died

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Reddit co-founder says Meta end to third-party fact-checking is 'pragmatic'

• Misinformation mostly confuses your own side

• AI could combat conspiracy theories, according to new research

• Pandemic kids more likely to struggle identifying false beliefs

Musk

• Cal Newport: The Hollow Core of Elon Musk's Productivity Dogma

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Driverless trucks are coming and unions aren't happy about it

• How to sell your Tesla and other options for electric cars

• What we know about Waymo's 2025 expansion plans

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Many are unaware that the "forgiveness" stuff was not real. It was announced regularly for years, after all. 43% of student-loan borrowers who owe payments haven't resumed making them

• Graduated from high school with honors but can't read or write, now she's suing

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• An appeals court may kill a GNU GPL software license

• VSCode extensions with 9M installs pulled over security risks

• Meta Apologizes for Error That Flooded Instagram with Violent Content

  • Instagram users are getting served violent content

  • Meta fixes error that flooded Instagram Reels with violent videos

  • Instagram Reels flooded with violent videos before Meta says it fixed error

• Fresh leaks suggest Half-Life 3 development may be nearing completion

• Technicolor is winding down operations

• It's Time to Rethink 6G

• Marvel Rivals Abandons Controversial Reset in Response to Angry Fans

• Cellebrite suspends Serbia as customer after claims police planted spyware

• Ads Popped Up on Drivers' Screens. There May Be More on the Way

• EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert

  • HN comments

  • EA just released source code for a bunch of old Command and Conquer games

• Amazon shuts down Chime, its Zoom alternative

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Python interpreter adds tail calls

• FCC to Explore Further Opportunities in the Upper C-Band

• FCC Improves Wireless Emergency Alerts by Enabling Silent Alerts

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• The 'Spy Sheikh' Taking the AI World by Storm

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Lauren Sánchez Headed to Space on Blue Origin

Crypto con games

• North Korea behind $1.5B hack of crypto exchange ByBit, says FBI

  • FBI says North Korea was responsible for $1.5B ByBit hack

• Meme coin moment fizzles after Trump cashes in

• Bitcoin Reserve Bills Are Failing in Quick Succession in States

Economicon / Business / Finance

• A Disastrous Buyout Exposes Fuzzy Math in Private Equity Deals

• Chicago tech incubator 1871 leaving the Merchandise Mart after 13 years

• YouTube Star MrBeast Is Raising Money at a $5B Valuation

• Return to office: CEOs are ignoring the math

• Austin Rents Tumble 22% from Peak on Building Spree

• IBM closes $6.4B HashiCorp acquisition

• Meta in Talks to Raise $35B for Data-Center Financing Led by Apollo

• Honda's Next-Gen Plant Is Geared to Build Whatever the Market Demands. Here's How

• Nvidia Earnings Spark Chip, AI Stock Selloff

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• New York is rejecting a federal demand to stop its $9 Manhattan toll

  • Memo to the President: Manhattan Economy Improving, Thanks to Congestion Pricing

Trump

• Tulsi Gabbard suggests UK broke agreement in asking Apple for backdoor

• Tulsi Gabbard Prepares to Fire Intel Employees Who Participated in Secret Sex Chats

• Trump says US will impose additional 10% tariff on China

• Kash Patel's Whirlwind Start at the FBI

Democrats

• Fired CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge reveals photos of files on Hunter Biden, COVID origins seized by network

  Fired CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge posted photos of the confidential files seized by the network — which “included sensitive reporting about COVID-19 origins and Hunter Biden.” The award-winning investigative journalist — who was dismissed last February as part of wider layoffs by embattled parent company Parent Global — stirred a firestorm in her bid to regain the materials before the network gave back the items weeks later. “Exactly one year ago, @CBSNews returned my investigative reporting files,” Herridge wrote on X on Wednesday. “Today, I am releasing photos of the records for the first time so you can see the sheer volume involved.”

• While Democracy Burns, Democrats Prioritize Demolishing Section 230?

Left Angst

• Save Act would require all Americans prove citizenship when registering to vote

  ecause documentation would need to be presented in person, the legislation would, in practice, prevent Americans from being able to register to vote by mail; end voter registration drives nationwide; and eliminate online voter registration overnight—a service 42 states rely on. Americans would need to appear in person, with original documentation, to even simply update their voter registration information for a change of address or change in party affiliation. These impacts alone would set voter registration sophistication and technology back by decades and would be unworkable for millions of Americans, including more than 60 million people who live in rural areas.

  • How do they think the people in rural areas have been doing these things up to this point?

• US Forest Service firings decimate: entire generation of talent and passion lost

• FAA close to canceling $2.4B Verizon contract in favor of Musk's Starlink

  • FAA targeting Verizon contract in favor of Musk's Starlink

  • FAA targeting Verizon contract in favor of Starlink, sources say

  • Starlink poised to take over $2.4B contract to overhaul ATC communication

  • Musk: Upgrade of FAA's ATC system is failing and SpaceX needs take over

• Trump might not know he's forging a new relationship between Britain and the EU

• Trump freezes U.S. law banning bribery of foreign officials

• Donald Trump Threatens to Sue People Using Anonymous Sources

• NIH appears to archive policy requiring female animals in studies

• I'm Building a Trump-Proof Tech Stack Without Big Tech

• DOGE's Chaos Reaches Antarctica

• The Trump Administration’s Attack on Science Will Backfire

  scientists are among the least woke academics. Most steer clear of activism, and many view leftist campus culture with skepticism. The STEM fields are highly meritocratic and reality-driven. By undermining science, the administration is weakening one of America’s leading meritocratic sectors. The long run implications of weakening meritocracy are not good.

• Elon Musk Is the Richest Man. Why Is He Sleeping on an Office Floor?

• Study Finds Support for Solar Energy Has Become Politically Polarized

• Profiles In Cowardice: The Nobody Saw This Coming Brigade | Techdirt

  Let’s cut through the bullshit: This isn’t just policy disagreement or political maneuvering. It’s the complete collapse of the post-war security architecture that has prevented great power war for three generations. And our political class is responding with all the urgency of someone scheduling a dental cleaning. The reason for their silence? Fear of mean tweets—many generated by bot networks. Fear of being primaried. Fear of the digital mob that Elon Musk can direct with a few keystrokes—a mob increasingly composed of artificial accounts and coordinated influence operations. These aren’t just personal failures of courage—they represent something far more dangerous: the complete surrender of democratic institutions to manufactured technological intimidation.

• Elon Musk's conflicts of interest 'should scare every American', experts say

• Trump administration struggles to rehire fired bird flu employees

• Trump team weighs pulling funding for Moderna's bird flu shot despite outbreak

• Stanford Freezes Hiring as Schools Face Trump Funding Threat

• Scott Jennings Asks CNN Panel for Examples of Trump ‘Shredding’ Constitution and They Can’t Give Any.

• White House official threatens to redraw Canadian border

• State Department official has called for mass sterilization of 'low-IQ trash'

• The People Carrying Out Musk's Plans at Doge

• The Collapse at the NIH

• Hey Elon: You Don't Just 'Ooopsie' the Destruction of Ebola Prevention

• USAID's chief economist has resigned. Here's why

• The Doge Takeover Is Worse Than You Think

• 'Cruel and thoughtless': Trump fires hundreds at US climate agency Noaa

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• U.S. soldier charged in AT&T hack searched "can hacking be treason"

• Mexico extradites 29 drug traffickers to the United States

• Britain advised by US insiders to reduce UK reliance on US military equipment

World

• Thousands trafficked to cyberfraud hubs in Myanmar

• Japan births fall to lowest in 125 years

• 'I don't want it to die': one man's battle to save last phone box in his village

• Signal will withdraw from Sweden if encryption-busting laws take effect

• Stonehenge-like circle unearthed in Denmark may have links to UK

• France is about to pass the worst surveillance law in the EU

• Succession-like feud engulfs one of Singapore's richest families

• Tokyo court upholds suspended jail term for former Nissan exec

• Almost 50 schools in South Korea to shut down amid worsening birth rate crisis

China

• Thailand Deports Uyghurs to China, Activists Say

• China accuses Taiwan of giving away chip industry to the US as a 'souvenir'

Health / Medicine

• Utah set to become first state to ban fluoride in public water.

• FDA clears Google watch feature to call 911 if you flatline

• Pig organs in people: The future of cross-species transplants

• Montana Renews Accused Cancer Doctor's License Despite Criminal, Civil Inquiries

• Organ Transplant System 'In Chaos' as Waiting Lists Are Ignored

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Next generation oral Covid-19 vaccine project halted

• What sparked the Covid pandemic? Mounting evidence points to raccoon dogs

• The FBI's lab leak investigation

  As bird flu spreads, and Team Trump begins dismantling America’s public health apparatus, a former FBI scientist and investigator speaks out about the evidence that led the bureau to suspect that COVID-19 was sparked by an incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

  Vanity Fair can now report that FBI scientists closely scrutinized the research activities of a group of graduate students and researchers who worked under Shi Zhengli, the lead coronavirus scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). For at least three years prior to the pandemic, those scientists performed risky research on a group of viruses that included one of the closest known relatives to SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. The FBI found that Shi’s researchers, in their publications, were not candid about the inventory of viruses in their possession and the true breadth of their work, which was conducted in labs with a low biosafety level. The intelligence community also determined that, in the autumn of 2019, three of Shi’s researchers fell ill with COVID-like symptoms.

• Anti-vaccine movement falsely blames measles shots for Texas outbreak

• Cambridge initiative to address risks of future engineered pandemics

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• New rice strains cuts methane emissions by 70%

• Captain 'lost for words' after witnessing a super pod of more than 2k dolphins

• Simulations show nightmare Atlantic current shutdown less likely this century

• As Miami-Dade cools on burning its garbage, is it composting's big moment?

• Most jurors in pipeline case against Greenpeace have ties to fossil fuels

• Scientists match Earth's Ice Age cycles with orbital shifts