2025-04-05

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• Truth Seeking Is Not A Pathology - Mary Harrington

  The most destructive progressive policies today have their grounding in the idea that there’s no truth, and no normative nature to anything – even, or especially, people. Meanwhile those who can still see that some things are more true are systematically marginalised in modern institutions. So today I want to offer a short history of how, and why, we buried truth in favour of power, and what that’s doing to our civilisation. I’ll talk about how truth-seekers are fighting back, in a way some of you might find counter-intuitive. And I’ll look at what this all implies for how we should be thinking about technology in order for it to nourish human relationships, rather than dissolve them.`

  what if one reason we’ve got less good at building things is that the post-truth managerial moral framework has reframed truth-seeking as a pathology?

Horseshit

• A Swirl of Intrigue Surrounds Swedish Painter Hilma Af Klint's Newfound Status

• "Low hiring, low firing" economy not great for Gen Z

• The Authenticity Drought

• The NBA is as talented and skilled as it's ever been. So why all the negativity?

• Invasion of the Home Humanoid Robots

  • Feels like they want this to be the next Big Thing: VR and AI are tapped out. I don't see any "cheap" buy in tho. This one will have to unfold among those who can afford $50k entry fee.

celebrity gossip

• Revisiting Val Kilmer's most underrated gem, a David Mamet thriller

  Val Kilmer left us with a filmography full of iconic performances, but there’s always been one of his movies that I’ve felt has never received the full measure of recognition it deserves: 2004’s Spartan. Written and directed by David Mamet, this taut, razor-sharp espionage thriller isn’t just one of Kilmer’s best movies — it’s one of the most criminally underrated films of its kind, period.

  • That was the first movie I picked to memorialize Mr Kilmer; but I wouldn't call it one of his best. We figure the director thought he was working with John Travolta. Every time Val says "Baby" in the film is like ringing the awkward bell.

• Davos Founder Klaus Schwab to Step Aside as Forum’s Chair - WSJ

In recent weeks, the Forum has been shaking up its leadership after the board received the findings of an investigation into the organization’s workplace culture. The investigation was prompted by a Wall Street Journal article last year that revealed allegations by employees of discrimination against women and Black people at the Forum, which is based in Geneva. The Forum disputed the Journal’s reporting, and Schwab denied the allegations against him.

• Russell Brand Charged With Rape, Sexual Assault

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Subreddits study highlights the hidden ways that hate speech spreads

Musk

• Tesla Cybertruck's recall fix is a joke that leaves burn mark and gap

• Elon's Edsel: Tesla Cybertruck Is the Auto Industry's Biggest Flop in Decades

• 'The Terror Is Real': An Appalled Tech Industry Is Scared to Criticize Elon Musk

• EU could fine Elon Musk's X $1B over illicit content, disinformation

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Toyota's Vision of Micromobility

• A number of electric vehicle, battery factories are being canceled

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Arkansas Bill Targets "Gender Non-Conforming" Haircuts for Kids

• Female Fencer EXPELLED For Refusing To Compete Against Male Opponent - modernity

  “I took a knee immediately at that point. Redmond was under the impression that I was going to start fencing. So, when I took the knee, I looked at the ref and said, ‘I’m sorry, I cannot do this. I am a woman, and this is a man, and this is a women’s tournament. And I will not fence this individual,”

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Original copy of Boole's pamphlet describing his algebra for sale at auction

• Cybersecurity professor targeted by FBI has not been detained, lawyer says

• Why I no longer use the term “cargo-cult science” | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

  • Its far more of a proper Church with the rituals and costumes and special unguents now.

• Carnegie Mellon settles class action suit over Covid-19 classes moved online

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• But what if I really want a faster horse? | exotext

  Netflix in 2012 was a super fast horse. It had a simple but massive catalog of movies and shows, solid recommendations, and basic library management. Compared to my limited local media library it was great. You could actively tune your tastes and rate things with a 5-star system.

• Substack is rolling out a TikTok-like video feed in its app

• We asked camera companies why their RAW formats are all different and confusing

• Epic CEO calls Apple and Google 'gangster-style' businesses needing competition

• Nintendo delays Switch 2 pre-orders in response to Trump tariffs

  • Nintendo pulls Switch 2 pre-orders in US over Trump tariffs

  • Nintendo Delays Switch 2 Pre-Order Date in the U.S. to Assess Impact of Tariffs

  • Nintendo Switch 2 Preorders Delayed Due to Tariffs

  • Nintendo Delays Switch 2 U.S. Preorders After Trump Tariffs

• Microsoft employee disrupts 50th anniversary and calls AI boss 'war profiteer'

• The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition

  Ken Williams normally listened to his wife. As lots of people knew then and will happily tell you today, Roberta was often the final arbiter of what did and didn’t happen at Sierra, in discussions that took place around the Williams family dinner table long after the lights in the boardroom and executive suites had been extinguished. In this case, however, he ignored her advice, as he did that of so many of his professional colleagues. Instead of taking Walter Forbes with a grain of salt, he took his deal — signed on the dotted line, with no questions asked, selling the company that had been his life’s work to another one whose business model and revenue streams were almost entirely opaque to him. Doing so was without a doubt the worst decision Ken Williams ever made in his business career, but it wasn’t totally out of character for the man.

• DHCP delenda est: NSA warns “fast flux” threatens national security. What is fast flux anyway? - Ars Technica

  Fast flux works by cycling through a range of IP addresses and domain names that these botnets use to connect to the Internet. In some cases, IPs and domain names change every day or two; in other cases, they change almost hourly. The constant flux complicates the task of isolating the true origin of the infrastructure.

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• atop security update

  With this update, additional validation is added and by default atop no longer tries to connect to the atopgpud daemon port unless explicitly enabled via -k.

• Anduril banned from recruiting on NixOS forums

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Most Americans think AI won't improve their lives, survey says

• Creating and sharing deceptive AI-generated media is now a crime in New Jersey

• Change of plans: we are going to release o3 and o4-mini after all

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Rising odds asteroid that briefly threatened Earth will hit moon

• Blue Origin's all-female space flight urges women to shoot for the stars

• Secretive Russian military satellites release mystery object into orbit

• SpinLaunch, the centrifuge rocket company, is making a hard pivot to satellites

  • Why they're not being dinged for fraud is a total mystery

• Germany funds Eutelsat internet in Ukraine as Musk tensions rise

• NASA astronaut reveals they nearly failed to dock Boeing Starliner to the ISS

  • Astronauts reveal failures on the Boeing Starliner were far dire than reported

• SpaceX’s private Fram2 astronauts splash down on Earth, ending historic polar orbit expedition.

  • SpaceX's Fram2 returns from first-of-its-kind mission around Earth's poles

Crypto con games

• Overwhelming Support for Stablecoin Transparency Bill in House Committee

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Visa Offers Apple Roughly $100M to Take over Credit Card from Mastercard

• Intel, TSMC tentatively agree to form chipmaking joint venture

  • It shakes my confidence in TSMC, actually: Intel Gains on Report of Joint Venture Deal with TSMC

• Buffett's Berkshire Weathers Tariff-Fueled Stock-Market Selloff

  • Buffett no longer has to defend his massive $300B cash pile

• Ford to offer employee pricing to US shoppers:Handshake deal with every American

• Dow Slides Another 1k Points. Nasdaq on Pace to Enter Bear Market

• JPMorgan Raises Risk of U.S., Global Recession to 60%

  • JPMorgan analysts say recession risk increased to 60% since Trump's tariffs

• Are lifetimes of big appliances shrinking?

• Klarna Pauses Planned IPO After Trump Tariff Turmoil

• The US economy added 228,000 jobs last month, but the unemployment rate ticked up | CNN Business

  • Employers added 228,000 new jobs in March, blowing past economists' forecasts - CBS News

  • Jobs report March 2025: U.S. payrolls rose by 228,000 in March

  • Jobs report: US economy added positions in March as payrolls grew at faster pace | Fox Business

• Easter Eggs Are So Expensive Americans Are Dyeing Potatoes

  • (Mar 2024) PETA Wants White House Easter Egg Roll To Use Potatoes

  • Make Easter Affordable Again! PETA Asks President Trump, First Lady to Celebrate American Farmers with First White House Potato Roll | PETA

• Dow plunges 2,200 points, Nasdaq enters bear market

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• 'Chemtrails,' cloud seeding would be banned under bill passed by Florida Senate

• US labour watchdog halts Apple cases after Donald Trump picks group’s lawyer for top job

  The US labour watchdog froze two cases against Apple days after Donald Trump nominated an attorney who represents the tech group to be the agency’s top legal official. The National Labor Relations Board filed multiple complaints against the iPhone maker last year alleging it intervened against employee attempts to organise, but abruptly pulled back from two of the cases late last week, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. Trump last week nominated Crystal Carey, a partner at Morgan Lewis & Bockius, to be the NLRB’s general counsel. She is listed in the agency’s records as an attorney acting in Apple’s defence in both cases against the Silicon Valley tech group.

• Judge orders Trump administration to return deported Maryland man to US

• US Supreme Court lets Trump cut teacher training grants in DEI-related case

Trump

• Signalgate: Pentagon watchdog probes Defense Sec Hegseth

• Republicans Debate Hiking Top Tax Rate to 40% for Millionaires

• Senate Confirms Dr. Oz to Oversee Medicare and Medicaid

• Rubio Urges NATO Members To Increase Their Own Defense Spending To 5% Of GDP.

  Rubio stated the United States would also spend 5% of its GDP on defense as well.

• Trump to grant TikTok another extension to avoid a U.S. ban

  • Admin extends deadline for TikTok sale to non-Chinese buyer to avoid ban

  • US extends deadline to keep TikTok running

  • Trump Extends Deadline for a TikTok Deal

  • Trump delays TikTok ban again

  • Trump Grants 75-Day Extension to Reach TikTok Deal

  • Trump extends TikTok deadline for the second time

• DOGE Discovers Giant Social Security Fraud

  Social Security fraud like this is not a two-fer, it’s a trifecta of graft: They make money off selling stolen Social Security numbers to illegal aliens, they make money staffing the bloated government agencies providing welfare state benefits to illegal aliens, and they get more Democrats elected though illegal aliens illegally voting.

• Trump says Fed Chair should cut interest rates and 'stop playing politics'

Democrats

• (1996) Nancy Pelosi explains the need for reciprocal tariffs on China (1996)

  In terms of tariffs, I think it is interesting to note that the average United States MFN tariff on Chinese goods coming into the United States is 2 percent; whereas the average Chinese MFN tariff on United States goods going into China is 35 percent. Is that reciprocal?

  Exports. China only allows certain United States industries into China. Therefore, only 2 percent of United States exports are allowed into China. On the other hand, the United States allows China to flood our markets with one-third of their exports, and that will probably go over 40 percent this year, and it is limitless because we have not placed any restriction on it.

  There is an important issue that we are all familiar with: Piracy of our intellectual property. It remains to be seen if China will honor the commitment it has made in the recent agreement. It has not honored the memoranda of understanding or last year's agreement and indeed there is a report in the press yesterday that one of the PLA, People's Liberation Army factories has resumed production. But, the other issue is technology transfer. If intellectual property is a $2 billion, $3 billion loss, technology transfer is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. If you want to sell to China, bring United States products into China, the Chinese insist that you open a factory there. They misappropriate your technology, open factories of their own and then say to you, ``Now we want to see your plan for export.'' That is as simply as I can say it briefly.

• Bucking Trump tariffs, California will push to maintain independent global trade

  • California to Negotiate Trade with Other Countries to Bypass Tariffs

• Democratic State Attorneys General Sue Over Trump’s Voting Executive Order | The Epoch Times

  A group of 19 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on April 3 disputing President Donald Trump’s executive order that requires voters to verify they are U.S. citizens and prevents states from counting mail-in ballots they receive after Election Day. Filed in Boston federal court, the lawsuit follows two others that challenge the order. The plaintiffs say the order “usurps the States’ constitutional power and seeks to amend election law by fiat.” “The president’s attempt to control our elections, intimidate voters, and limit Americans’ right to vote is unconstitutional, undemocratic, and frankly, un-American,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Left Angst

• Why Trump's tariffs are so bad for Big Tech

• Doge staffer's YouTube nickname accidentally revealed his teen hacking activity

• Europe seeks to capitalize on America's Trump-driven brain drain

• dunno Paul, you never managed: Will Malignant Stupidity Kill the World Economy?

• Trump tariffs sow fears of trade wars, recession and a $2,300 iPhone

• Trump Accused of Using ChatGPT to Create Tariff Plan

• I Just Saw the Future. It Was Not in America

• NSA Director and Deputy Fired

  The dismissal of Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also leads US Cyber Command — the military’s offensive and defensive cyber unit — is a major shakeup of the US intelligence community which is navigating significant changes in the first two months of the Trump administration. Wendy Noble, Haugh’s deputy at NSA, was also removed, according to the former officials and lawmakers. The top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committee, Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes, denounced the firing of Haugh, who served in the roles since February 2024, in statements on Thursday night. It wasn’t immediately clear why Haugh and Noble were fired. Lt. Gen. William Hartman, an experienced military officer and the deputy of Cyber Command, is expected to serve as acting head of the command and NSA, the two former officials said. The news of the dismissals came on the heels of the firing of multiple staff members on the National Security Council, after Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who once claimed 9/11 was an inside job, urged President Donald Trump during a Wednesday meeting to do so, arguing that they were disloyal. It was not clear whether the firings were connected.

  • Head of NSA and Cybercommand Is Ousted

  • National Security Agency and Cyber Command Chief, Gen. Tim Haugh, Ousted

  • US NSA Director Timothy Haugh Fired

  • Trump Fires Head of National Security Agency and Cyber Command

• More US Government Extortion Aimed at Universities

• Epsilon, Phi: The Tariffs Have Some Math

• The S&P 500's safety nets are gone

• Tariffs, the Dollar, and the Fed

• The Trade War Looks Brutal for Finance, Too

• An island of penguins ended up on Trump tariff list

• Rubio Orders U.S. Diplomats to Scour Student Visa Applicants' Social Media

• NOAA Weather will delete websites using Amazon, Google cloud services Saturday

  • NOAA research websites slated to go dark Saturday

• Chief Strategist Who Foresaw Tariff Shock Says Worst yet to Come

• NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab Laid Off 900 Workers Due to Budget Cuts—But Hasn’t Fired Its Top DEI Officer.

• Trump Cancels Biden Grants to China-Tied Think Tank Behind War on Gas Stoves.

• Who Pays the Tariff – How Voter Ignorance Impacts Public Policy

• After 'coding error' triggers firings, top NIH scientists called back to work

• Trump layoffs begin to erode FDA drug review system

• What America's stockmarket plunge means

• Big Tech Backed Trump for Acceleration. They Got a Decel President Instead

• EPA Museum – Yes, One Actually Existed – Shuttered After Zeldin Calls Out Massive Funding, Lack of Visitors – Sara Carter

  The museum, located at the EPA headquarters near the White House, opened in May 2024 with the goal of celebrating America’s environmental progress. Former EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan envisioned it as a space to honor bipartisan efforts to protect public health and the environment. However, the museum saw fewer than 2,000 visitors in its first nine months, which some may call pathetic. Taxpayers had invested $4 million to bring the museum up to Smithsonian standards, with an additional $600,000 per year required for upkeep. That worked out to about $315 per visitor—a price tag that Zeldin and his team argue cannot be justified.

• Economist Thomas Sowell Alarmed Trump’s Tariffs May Spark ‘Worldwide Trade War’

  “It’s painful to see what a ruinous decision, from back in the 1920s, being repeated,” the 94-year-old Sowell said on an episode of “Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson.” “Now, insofar as he’s using these tariffs to get various strategic things settled and that he is satisfied with that.” “But if you set off a worldwide trade war, that has a devastating history. Everybody loses because everybody follows suit and all that happens is that you get a great reduction in international trade,” Sowell said.

• Mislabelled shipments led to tariffs on uninhabited islands

• USDA cuts could cause long-term damage, reverse hard-won progress

• Trump's tariffs shake markets, spark recession fears

• Tariffs hit science labs: Trump levies raise cost of supplies

• Tariffs only "work" if they make prices higher

• Trump tariffs terrify board game designers

  • Tabletop industry in full panic as tariffs poised to erase decades of growth

• The 'Judicial Black Hole' of El Salvador's Prisons Is a Warning for Americans

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• The "expert witness" racket has been rotten for a long time: Cyber Forensic Expert in 2k Cases Faces FBI Probe

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• US ports use Covid-like tests to identify illegally trafficked seafood species

• America still needs Canadian oil

• US bans govt personnel in China from romantic/sexual relations with CN citizens

• The Menace of Malicious Compliance in Our Military – HotAir

World

• Hackers strike Australia's largest pension funds in coordinated attacks

• Wikipedia must remove India content deemed defamatory, rules Delhi High Court

• Syrians are still surprisingly upbeat

• Tunnock's tea cakes cleared for take-off by RAF 60 years after ban

• South Korean court removes president from office, says he violated duties

  • South Korea braces for ruling on president's impeachment over martial law

  • South Korea Removes Its Impeached President and Regains Direction

• Australian PM promises Port of Darwin to be returned to Australian hands

• India's Subprime Bubble Grew 2,100%. Now a Bust Looms

• UK Home Office haunted by 25-year-old asylum system

• Heathrow Was Warned of Power Supply Vulnerabilities, Airlines Advocate Says

Israel

• Hungary withdraws from International Criminal Court during Netanyahu visit.

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Hacking Democracy: Russia's Digital War on German and European Elections

• Eastern Europe Wants to Build a 'Drone Wall' to Keep Out Russia

China

• China to impose tariffs of 34% on all US goods from April 10

  • Trump's Trade War Escalates as China Retaliates with 34% Tariffs

  • China imposes a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products

Health / Medicine

• Marriage linked to higher dementia risk in older adults, 18-year study finds

• Is the Poppers Party Over?

• Unsanitary Practices Persist at Baby Formula Factory; Shutdown Led to Shortages

• Ozempic Settles the Obesity Debate: It's Biology over Willpower

  • Who Should Pay for Ozempic Is the Next Big Workplace Fight

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• The rise and fall and rise again of measles in the United States

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• A wild 'freakosystem' has been born in Hawaii

• Man catches hawk that attacked villagers for weeks

• What's in that bright red fire retardant? No one will say, so we had it tested

• Sunspot update: NOAA scientists try to hide how wrong they have gotten things

  As for the solar sunspot cycle, we still have no idea what will happen in the next year. The Sun could be ramping down to minimum, as the NOAA scientists now claim. Or its sunspot activity could jump back up, as it did in the previous maximum. We will simply have to wait and see.

  • Solar Cycle 25 Progression

• When I converted my home from gas to electric my utility bills nearly doubled

• Our bodies may not be as resilient to heat as we thought

• Germany's 'Deutschlandticket' helps environment – study