2025-04-12

etc

• NYC Hudson River helicopter crash victims ID'd as family of 5 on vacation from Spain

  Agustin Escobar, the global CEO of rail infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, his wife and their three children were killed along with the as-yet-unidentified pilot when the tourist chopper they were all on plunged into the murky waters. Escobar’s spouse was identified as Merce Camprubi Montal, who was a global manager at an energy technology company, according to a person briefed on the investigation. She worked in Barcelona as a global commercialization manager for energy technology company Siemens Energy for seven years, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Horseshit

• Average Person Starts to Panic When Phone Battery Life Drops to 38%

• Fifty and out: How Gen X became the biggest work losers

  Obviously, that was ridiculous, but it was the Nineties – nobody worried about the cost of anything, and it was small beer compared to the money being spent by our American counterparts. One friend who moved to New York in the Nineties was paid $5 per word for 5,000-word articles. Last week, Vanity Fair writer Bryan Burrough – author of Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco – revealed he’d been paid around $166,000 per feature. “For 25 years, I was contracted to produce three articles a year, typically 10,000 words,” he wrote. “For this, my peak salary was $498,141.” Ever wonder how Carrie could afford that Manhattan apartment in Sex and the City? She was a Gen X magazine journalist.

• New simulation of Titanic's sinking confirms historical testimony

• The Secret Formula for Faster Trains

• Jamie Dimon says Gen Z has no reason to be depressed

• NYC Council to Establish a Citywide Strategy for Public Bathrooms

• Come On, Obviously The Purpose Of A System Is Not What It Does

  If you feel tempted to say “the purpose of a system is what it does”, I recommend at least coming up with some novel rephrasing. How about “No system has ever failed at its purpose”? Or “There is no such thing as an unintended consequence”? At least then everyone would know where you stand!

• Those Dire Wolves Aren't a Scientific Breakthrough

• An 8-Hour Vacation? Meet the Travelers Who Love 'Extreme Day Trips'

• U.S. officials discuss daylight saving time: Is it going away for good?

• Activists Vandalize Coachella Billboard

• To Escape the Grind, Young People Turn to 'Mini-Retirements'

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Liberals and Conservatives said their rallies drew thousands. We decided to count | CBC News

  The investigation, including expert analysis by crowd scientists, shows that the actual number of people attending those rallies was likely far lower than the counts the campaigns published on social media or reported to journalists at the events. The Conservatives claimed that the Edmonton-area rally was attended by 15,000 people, for example. CBC News counted roughly 1,558 in one panorama photo shared by the campaign. Even assuming that a large number of attendees were missed due to perspective or obstruction, 15,000 is "not possible," according to G. Keith Still, an expert in crowd dynamics and safety, who is a visiting professor of crowd science at the University of Suffolk.

  • 10% of announced figures is often reasonable. such things hardly ever speak of "ticket sales" or other verifiable records.

Bluesky

• Adobe Deletes Bluesky Posts After Furious Backlash

Musk

• Tesla Halts Orders in China on U.S. Imported Models

  • Tesla stops taking orders in China for two models imported from US

• Ex-OpenAI employees file an amicus brief in support of Elon Musk in his lawsuit

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Waymo coming to San Francisco airport after striking deal with city

• Mayor Lurie Allows Waymo to Operate on Market St

• Waymo Robotaxis Make Up 20% of Uber Rides in Austin, Data Show

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Quantum Physics Is on the Wrong Track, Says Gerard 'T Hooft

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Organised gangs behind rise in QR 'quishing' scams

• Microsoft is about to launch Recall for real this time

• Meta's New Tech Wants You Using Phones in Theaters

• Patrick Collison joins Meta's board

• Google lays off employees in Android, Pixel Group: Report

  • Google lays off employees in Android, Pixel teams, The Information reports

  • Google layoffs impact hundreds in Pixel, Android division

• Microsoft might slash jobs, targeting non-coder managers to boost coder ratios

• Rebooted Digg launches early-access community with $5 fee

• Guitar modeling companies are recreating rare vintage sounds for the digital age

• How a $2k 'Made in the USA' Phone Is Manufactured

• LG and Samsung Are Pioneering the Netflix Model for Home Appliances

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Git turns 20: A Q&A with Linus Torvalds

• Raspberry Pi cluster spotted inside $6k audio processor | Jeff Geerling

• The Strange MS OS/2 1.21 Disk Driver

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Llama Does Not Look Good 4 Anything — LessWrong

  This was by far the most negative reaction I have seen to a model release, the opposite of the reaction to Gemini 2.5 Pro. I have seen similarly deeply disappointing and misleading releases, but they were non-American models from labs whose benchmarks and claims we have learned not to take as representing model capabilities. After this release, I am placing Meta in that category of AI labs whose pronouncements about model capabilities are not to be trusted, that cannot be relied upon to follow industry norms, and which are clearly not on the frontier. Until they show otherwise, they clearly do not belong in the category that includes OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI and DeepSeek.

• Researchers concerned to find AI models hiding their true "reasoning" processes

• Billions pour into AI as emissions rise – returns stay pitiful, say Stanford HAI

• The Parrot is Dead

  For a while, some people dismissed language models as “stochastic parrots”. They said models could just memorise statistical patterns, which they would regurgitate back to users. A model was a simulacrum of intelligence: it would mimic patterns of intelligent thought, but never go beyond the data it had seen in training. The problem with this theory, is that, alas, it isn’t true.

Crypto con games

• Can Ross Ulbricht Get His $18B in Bitcoin Back from DOJ?

• SEC: Offerings and Registrations of Securities in the Crypto Asset Markets

Economicon / Business / Finance

• The $40B Startup Mystery Shaking Up Silicon Valley

• JPMorgan's Stock Traders Notch Record Revenue on Market Chaos

• Chinese electronics company Anker starts raising prices on Amazon

• Guardian Bikes gets $19M financing to open bike manufacturing facility in USA

• Liquidity worsens in $29T Treasury market as volatility soars

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• OCC Notifies Congress of Incident Involving Email System | OCC

  based on the content of the emails and attachments reviewed thus far, the OCC, in consultation with the Department of the Treasury, determined the incident met the conditions necessary to be classified as a major incident. The OCC discovered that the unauthorized access to a number of its executives’ and employees’ emails included highly sensitive information relating to the financial condition of federally regulated financial institutions used in its examinations and supervisory oversight processes.

• Social Security Administration Moving Public Communications to X

• Judge rules Mahmoud Khalil can be deported

• Tariff collection for freight shipments delayed by customs 'glitch'

• USPS looks to raise price of "forever" stamp to 78 cents, as part of rate increase proposal - CBS News

Trump

• New Details Reveal Biden Stonewalled the Investigation Into Trump's Attempted Assassin

  "After 206 days of stonewalling by the federal government that stemmed from days of the Biden administration, I am able to now announce that my office is charging Mr. Routh for the attempted first degree murder of President Trump as well as a charge for terrorism," Uthmeier said. "My office, as well as our law enforcement partners were met with major roadblocks in prosecuting this case during Biden's term. Biden and his attorney general sought to frustrate our efforts and block our investigation into the man who crossed into this state and attempted to commit political violence against a Florida resident."

• Ending Cooperative Agreements’ Funding to Princeton University | U.S. Department of Commerce

• White House clarifies new China tariff rate of 145%, not 125%.

• RFK Jr says Deep State 'is real,' called FDA employees 'sock puppet' of industry

Left Angst

• China strikes back with 125% tariffs on U.S. goods as trade war intensifies

  • China Raises Tariffs on U.S. Imports to 125%

  • China raises tariffs on US goods to 125% and says it won't respond any further

• A $1M-per-head dinner at Mar-a-Lago is how you get AI chips to China

  • Meta to Nvidia, tech CEOs are paying the president to get the outcomes they want

• British man's tattoo wrongly linked to Venezuelan gang in US Government document

• Carney's Checkmate: How Canada's Quiet Bond Play Forced Trump to Drop Tariffs

• CDC's cruise ship inspectors laid off amid bad year for outbreaks

• Doge Suffers Another Setback, American Oversight Wins Court Order

• The thing about Europe: it's the actual land of the free now

• Cybersecurity industry falls silent as Trump turns ire on SentinelOne

• Trump's Trade War Is Strengthening China's Soft Power

• America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

  • Heard that in the 80's, too. Things is impossible if they're never tried.

• Elon Musk's Gleeful Destruction of the Government

• Trump and Xi Are Preparing for a War Nobody Wants

• Reimagining Democracy - Schneier on Security

  All democracies have boundaries limiting what the majority can decide. We are not allowed to vote Common Knowledge out of existence, for example, but can generally regulate speech to some degree. We cannot vote, in an election, to jail someone, but we can craft laws that make a particular action illegal. We all have the right to certain things that cannot be taken away from us. In the community of our future, what should be our rights as individuals? What should be the rights of society, superseding those of individuals?

• How Trump 2.0 is slashing NIH-backed research – in charts

• Musk's DOGE cuts staff at self-driving car watchdog

• Elon Musk's DOGE Is Getting Audited by GAO

• Kennedy Wants Causes of Autism Solved by September

• She Worked in a Harvard Lab to Reverse Aging, Until ICE Jailed Her

• Pharmaceutical Tariffs: The What and the How

• See How Government Spending Is Up Even as Musk Touts Savings

• Carnegie Mellon student with one semester left learns his visa was revoked

• Trump White House budget proposal eviscerates science funding at NASA

• Brain drain? Trump cutbacks force scientists to seek jobs in Europe

• Mighty U.S. dollar feels heat as Trump's tariffs spark trade turmoil

• FDA to stop animal testing of new drugs

• How Did Silicon Valley Break Bad? - by Paul Waldman

  how the land of hippie-technologists turned into a haven for right-wingers with grand and malevolent ambitions.

• Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

• $2,150 for an iPhone?

• Critical Trade Theory | the singularity is nearer

  You know about Critical Race Theory, right? It says that if there’s an imbalance in, say, income between races, it must be due to discrimination. This is what wokism seems to be, and it’s moronic and false. The right wing has invented something equally stupid. Introducing Critical Trade Theory, stolen from this tweet. If there’s an imbalance in trade between countries, it must be due to unfair practices. (not due to the obvious, like one country is 10x richer than the other)

  • Watch what actually happens, not what the media says is going to happen. "Critical" means the coverage of both phenomenon has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with advocacy.

• Trump st this whole thing up for him and his buddies to profit off the market

• Devastating': Trump marks thousands legally dead to stop them from making money

• America’s financial system came close to the brink

  The financial system came perilously close to the brink, and it is important to understand why, since the turbulence may well return. Warning bells have been ringing everywhere. Volatility gauges, derived from the insurance premiums traders pay to protect themselves from wild swings, have soared, though after Mr Trump’s announcement they fell back somewhat (see chart 2). For risk managers at banks and hedge funds, such moves can be a prompt to tell trading desks to offload risky positions, lowering the chances of a big loss. If this happens at many institutions at once, the selling can make markets even wilder. The dash for cash even sent the gold price down for a time.

• Australian with working visa detained, deported upon return to US from memorial

• Trump tariffs on China hit small businesses, Amazon and eBay sellers

• US Secretary of Education Referred to AI as a One

• DOE withdraws, postpones multiple appliance energy efficiency rules

• NASA science budget faces cuts in Admin proposal

  • White House Budget Proposal Would Gut NASA's Science Programs

• White House orders NIH to research trans 'regret' and 'detransition'

• Trump is waiting for Xi to call. The Chinese see it differently

• NOAA Scientists Clean Bathrooms, Reconsider Lab Experiments as Contracts Expire

• US tells government employees to report on one another for "anti-Christian bias"

• Apple silent as Trump promises "impossible" US-made iPhones

• EU could tax Big Tech if Trump trade talks fail

• Trump's draft budget eviscerates weather and climate tracking and research

• Trump is attempting to take over American Universities

• US funding cuts are threatening South African families living with HIV

• Well-timed options trades ahead of Trump's tariff pause draw questions

• Trump seeks to end climate research at premier U.S. climate agency

• In trade war, China holds many more cards than Trump; it may have a winning hand

• FEMA slashes $300M in flooding, hurricane relief projects in Florida

• Fearing paper on evolution might get them deported, scientists withdrew it

• Palantir Is Helping Doge with a Massive IRS Data Project

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• San Francisco crime is going through an and rare change

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Space Force Commander Greenland Sent Out Email Breaking with Vance After Visit

  "I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the U.S. administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base," Meyers wrote in the email, which was communicated to Military.com.

  • Meyers has been removed from command

  Colonel Susannah Meyers, commander of Pituffik Space Base was removed from command by Colonel Kenneth Klock, commander of Space Base Delta 1, on April 10, 2025 for loss of confidence in her ability to lead.

• How The Pentagon is adapting to China's technological rise

• Panama deal allows US to deploy troops to canal

World

• Bulldozers to Move in on 'Scotland's Chenobyl' in Port Glasgow

• Inside The Controversial Decision to Rid the UK of Its Plutonium Stores

• Fake accounts drove praise of Duterte and now target Philippine election

• The Frozen North – Canada's Economic Stagnation

• EU, China will look into setting minimum prices on electric vehicles, EU says

• Why did the Philippines turn over its former president to the ICC?

• UK woman says she was arrested after confiscating her daughters' iPads

Iran / Houthi

• Houthis Offer Reciprocal Truce With US: 'Not At War With The American People' | ZeroHedge

  the Houthis are apparently holding out the possibility that the conflict with US naval and aerial forces can cease. This week a senior leader of Ansarallah told Drop Site News in a rare interview, "We do not consider ourselves at war with the American people. If the U.S. stops targeting Yemen, we will cease our military operations against it."

Israel

• Israeli military organises tourist tours of newly occupied Syrian territory

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russian cable attacks 'threaten to cut off internet'

China

• China clarifies chip import rules, impacting US firms with domestic fabs

• China's formidable logistics sector challenges Trump tariff enforcers

• China's new semiconductor rule spares Taiwan fabs

• Taiwan charges Chinese ship captain with damaging undersea cables

Health / Medicine

• Ibogaine: The overlooked psychedelic that may help treat traumatic brain injury

• Eight or more drinks per week linked to brain lesions

• Longest human transplant of pig kidney suddenly stops working after 4 months

• Cholera cluster in Europe linked to people drinking bottles of holy water

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Mpox Outbreak in Africa Traced Back to Squirrels

• "Not Just Measles": Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline

  • And/Or the vaccines themselves were debased years ago and no one wants to talk about why functional medical treatments were replaced with placebos.

• Nose Bacteria May Hold the Key to Your Covid-19 Vulnerability

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• PR campaign may have fuelled food study backlash, leaked document shows

  Eat-Lancet report recommended shift to more plant-based, climate-friendly diet but was extensively attacked online. A leaked document seen by the climate website DeSmog reveals that helping to fuel this backlash was a PR firm, Red Flag, which represented the Animal Agriculture Alliance, a meat and dairy industry coalition set up to protect the sector against “emerging threats”, and which has staff from Cargill and Smithfield Foods – two of the world’s five largest meat companies – on its board.

• Sleep and Anxiety Medication Is Having a Curious Effect on Salmon Behavior