2025-04-25

Horseshit

• How Gen Z Became the Most Gullible Generation

• Revolut tracking staff behaviour with points-based 'Karma' bonus system

• How will the universe end? Recent analysis of dark energy raises questions

• British artist claims he has created paint in 'new' colour

• The tools I love are made by awful people — Ankur Sethi

  It hurts me to know that the tools I share such a deep connection with are made by corporations that exploit workers in developing countries, greenwash their products while generating tons of electronic waste, fight against the rights of people to repair their possessions, engage in malicious compliance when governments try to regulate them, spy on their users, hold their users’ data hostage, and commit a long list of other crimes that would take too long to recount here.

• How prediction markets create harmful outcomes: a case study

  Sports betting is a recently legalized form of prediction market that has grown enormously in a short amount of time. It can serve as a clear case study for the potential dangers of prediction markets. People have pointed out how it incentivizes and generates gambling addiction, which has also grown enormously since it was legalized. I won’t focus on this aspect here, but this is also a very real concern. For all the ills sports betting has created, it does finally allow us to see whether perverse incentives are indeed created and acted upon in prediction markets. In short, the answer is yes.

• The Carthaginians weren't who you think they were

• Half of the universe's hydrogen gas, long unaccounted for, has been found

• Texas Lottery Director Resigns Amid Scrutiny of Rigged 2023 Draw

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• As Election Nears, Canadians Confront News Void on Facebook and Instagram - The New York Times

  This type of online content — hyperpartisan and often veering into misinformation — has become a staple in the Facebook and Instagram feeds of Canadians as the country heads toward a crucial federal election on April 28. While such posts have become familiar in political campaigns everywhere, the content is especially prominent in Canada during its first-in-the-world, long-term news ban on Facebook and Instagram. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, blocked news from its apps in Canada in 2023 after a new law required the social media giant to pay Canadian news publishers a tax for publishing their content. The ban applies to all news outlets irrespective of origin, including The New York Times. Amid the news void, Canada Proud and dozens of other partisan pages are rising in popularity on Facebook and Instagram before the election. At the same time, cryptocurrency scams and ads that mimic legitimate news sources have proliferated on the platforms. Yet few voters are aware of this shift, with research showing that only one in five Canadians knows that news has been blocked on Facebook and Instagram feeds. The result is a “continued spiral” for Canada’s online ecosystem toward disinformation and division, said Aengus Bridgman, director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory, a Canadian project that has studied social media during the election.

  • Why not tax the "fake news" vendors on the same basis as the "real news" vendors?

Musk

• Musk's X sues to block Minnesota 'deepfake' law over free speech concerns

• UMass Boston student charged in firebombing Kansas City Tesla dealership: DOJ

• Tesla stock surges on Elon's lies despite disastrous earnings

• Manufactured Consensus on X.com

  Social proof used to reflect crowd wisdom. Now it reflects algorithmic endorsement — triggered not by consensus, but by proximity to influence. A single interaction can distort scale, making selected content appear widely supported. The result? Artificial popularity. Boosted narratives. Organic ideas buried by engineered reach. The crowd didn’t pick it—the algorithm did, based on who touched it. It’s not fraud. It’s influence infrastructure.

  The ones who try to control everything too openly, too quickly, get caught. It’s not the blunt force authoritarians who endure. It’s the subtle ones. The ones who let people believe they chose freely — while feeding them only curated choices.

  • Precisely as designed. When this tool was in the hands of the Saudi / CIA alliance, no one complained but for some cranks.

• Elon Musk wants control of a public beach

• Musk Pretends He's Leaving Job He Doesn't Have to Not Return to Job He Never Lef

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Driverless Semi-Trucks Are Coming Soon to a Highway in Texas

• Waymo reports 250k paid robotaxi rides per week in U.S.

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Woman who tricked her way into men-only Magic Circle allowed in

  A magician who tricked her way into the Magic Circle is finally being granted membership - 34 years after she was kicked out. Sophie Lloyd says she disguised herself as a man to fool examiners into letting her join the elite society in 1991, at a time female magicians were not allowed to be members. When the Circle announced it was permitting women to join later that year, Ms Lloyd revealed her deception, prompting the society to expel her at the very same meeting it admitted its first female magicians.

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Gen Z grads say their college degrees were a waste as AI infiltrates workplace

• As ChatGPT scores B- in engineering, professors scramble to update courses

• Distraught families say Zuckerberg pulled funds from low-income school

  • Charity doesn't invoke obligation

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Bluesky trusts the client app to fetch, and honestly report, webpage metadata

• Mark Zuckerberg Says Social Media Is Over

• Like to play alone? Ubisoft is still watching you

  • Like to play alone? Ubisoft is still watching you

• Max Cracking Down on Password Sharing with New 'Extra Member' Feature

• 20 years ago, the first videos uploaded to YouTube were short and sweet

• Unpatched Microsoft zero-day has been exploited by DPRK, Iran, Russia, and China

• Cheap Android phones and tablets will need at least 32GB storage moving forward

• The world beneath the shadows of YouTube's algorithm

• Motorola tried to make Perplexity its default AI assistant and Google said no.

• Roku says its ads aren't meant to be 'interruptive' after controversial test

• Angel’s THE KING OF KINGS Holds Strong to Earn an Estimated $17.2M in Second Weekend Box Office for a 2-Week Total of Over $45.3M | Angel Studios

  • 2 on the lists, About half the revenue of the Minecraft movie.

• Comcast reports higher broadband subscriber losses as competition heats up

• Qualcomm says license fight was because Arm wants to make its own server chips

• Fujifilm Suspends Some US Camera Orders Due to Tariffs

• Google reveals sky-high Gemini usage numbers in antitrust case

• Yahoo Wants to Buy Chrome

• Perplexity AI enters the smartphone market with Motorola partnership

• Dialogue-only subtitles are finally making their way to Netflix

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• ASML, creator of lithography machines, has a messy software stack

• The innovative designs of 1995 - The History of the Web

  People found a home themselves on the web. And crucially, there was no one to stop them from making a website of their own. By 1995, that would become a trademark of the web.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Llama 4 smells bad - FastML

• Israeli AI startup ex-CEO admits forging contracts with ChatGPT

• Teaching LLMs how to solid model

  when does text-to-CAD become a commonly used tool for mechanical engineers? With start-ups actively building products and the rapid improvement of frontier models, my guess would be something like 6-24 months.

• How Big the AI Revolution Is, in Four Charts

• Publisher of PCMag and Mashable Sues OpenAI

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• No Shortage of Dreams: Apollo to Mars & Venus: North American Aviation's 1965 Plan for Piloted Planetary Flybys in the 1970s

  LBJ's vision of NASA's future made no mention of piloted Mars/Venus flybys based on Apollo's technological legacy. On the other hand, neither did it specifically forbid them.

• Hubble celebrates 35th year in orbit

Crypto con games

• Revolut profits surge above £1B on crypto trading boom

• They Stole a Quarter-Billion in Crypto and Got Caught Within a Month

• Fed announces withdrawal of guidance for banks on their crypto-asset activities

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Norway's $1.7T Wealth Fund Reports $40B Tech-Driven Loss

• St. Michael Cinema discovers massive credit card processing error

  A technology failure from February through November 2024 is hurting the St. Michael Cinema in a big way. Customers were using credit cards to buy tickets online, but the cinema’s credit card processing company failed to settle the transactions. St. Michael Cinema’s agreement with its card processor shields the processor from liability for the error, so now the theater has started a local campaign asking previous moviegoers to come forward and close their tabs.

• California Overtakes Japan to Become Fourth Largest Economy in World

  • California now 4th largest economy in the world

  • How's that fire recovery effort going? 4 rebuilding permits issued?

• New Jersey Sues RealPage Accuses of Colluding with Landlords to Raise Rent

• What's Driving the Surge in U.S. Corporate Profits?

• The dollar's sell-off raises concerns that investors are losing trust in U.S.

• Nationwide burger chain to close more than 100 stores | KTLA

  Jack in the Box announced plans Tuesday to close 150-200 underperforming stores as part of an aggressive financial plan called “JACK on Track.” The company’s CEO said in a statement that the fast-food chain known for the Jumbo Jack and sarcastic mascot is focused on accelerating cash flow and paying down debt. Jack in the Box operates some 2,200 stores across 22 states, primarily on the west coast, including many locations in Southern California.

• Home sales drop to their slowest pace since 2009

• DigiKey: Small U.S. town grew a big company. Can it weather the tariff blizzard?

• Berkshire Hathaway Now Owns 4.89% of the Entire U.S. Treasury Bill Market

  • Buffett now owns 5% of all US Treasury bills, a larger holding than Fed itself

• Google forcing some remote workers to come back 3 days a week

• Tech Companies Aren't Hiring Gen Z. Entry-Level Jobs Are Drying Up

• The Stock Market Loves Bitcoin

• Meta Lays Off More Than 100 Employees Across Reality Labs Unit

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• NYC Council to reconsider helicopter restrictions: It may violate federal law

• DOJ accidentally files doc outlining flaws with NYC congestion pricing plan

• Analysis of US congressional speeches reveals a shift from evidence to intuition

Trump

• Trump's Biggest Meme-Coin Investors Get Invited to Dinner with the President

  • Trump invites top meme coin holders to dinner; price surges

  • Trump crypto soars as president offers dinner to top holders

• A dozen states sue the Trump administration to stop tariff policy

• EO eliminates disparate impact: Restoring Equality of Opportunity & Meritocracy

• US calls EU fines on Apple and Meta 'economic extortion' | Reuters

  The White House said on Wednesday that fines on Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab and Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab by the European Union were a "novel form of economic extortion" that the United States will not tolerate. "This novel form of economic extortion will not be tolerated by the United States," a White House spokesperson said.

• Hegseth Set Up Signal on a Computer in His Pentagon Office

  • Hegseth had an unsecured internet line set up in his office to connect to Signal

• SignalGate: A Surveillance Arms Race Has Poked Gaping Hole in National Security

Democrats

• Former Democratic Aide Opens Up About Senate Sex Tape Scandal, Compares Self to Monica Lewinsky

  Aidan Maese-Czeropski, the former Democratic aide best known for being filmed on the receiving end of a backdoor sex romp in a Senate hearing room in 2023, is finally speaking out about the scandal that cost him his job and prompted him to flee the country.

  "No one would hire me. Everyone in D.C. knew me, and it was kind of gross and horrifying because I’m not someone who likes to be in the public spotlight at all." (Fact check: He films himself having sex for money and regularly posts pornographic content on his public social media accounts.)

Left Angst

• The dollar's sell-off raises concerns that investors are losing trust in U.S.

• HHS, FDA Announce Phase Out of Synthetic Dyes in Foods as MAHA Agenda Advances

• After EU fines, Big Tech wants Trump to swoop in

• What's the Deal with Beef Tallow?

  First, claims that beef tallow causes less inflammation in humans than seed oils aren’t based on scientific data, Lichtenstein said, adding that there’s “no data” that she’s aware of to indicate that the amounts of seed oils that a typical person consumes lead to adverse health outcomes such as inflammation. Claims that seed oils cause inflammation likely come from animal studies or cell cultures in which the animals or cells are exposed to extreme amounts of the oil, she said. Lichtenstein cautions people to be wary of nutrition information that they gather from social media. She recommends taking note of whether an influencer online can support their claims using data from peer-reviewed publications or information from trusted groups of experts such as the American Heart Association or the American Cancer Society.

• Thanks to Trump, your next phone from AT&T and Verizon could cost more

• Trump's Return and Its Effect on My Freelance Business

• US climate philanthropies fear Trump blow from loss of tax-free status

• Women Could Be Most Affected by Trump’s Penalties for Overdue Student Loans

• JFK’s Radical Grandson Accuses Vice President J.D. Vance of ‘Killing the Pope’ in Unhinged Online Rant.

• The courage to be decent

  Intimidating lawyers has become a key component of the Trump administration’s overall strategy, and this is especially true with respect to mass deportations. Immigrants detained for lacking documentation are more than 10 times more likely to get a favorable outcome if they have an attorney than if they don’t. There were also multiple incidents of DHS targeting immigration attorneys, advocates, and journalists with criminal investigations or by flagging their passports for extra scrutiny if they left and reentered the country.

  • How intimidating is the prospect of representing Trump, as a lawyer? Rudy's example is still playing out.

• Congressional Republicans Might Set Off the Debt Bomb

• IBM says 15 contracts impacted by DOGE cost cuts, shares drop

• America's reputation drops across the world

  Belief in the US as a force for good falls. The proportion saying America will have an overall positive influence on world affairs has fallen in 26 out of 29 countries over the last six months. Today, almost two in three (46% on average across the 29 countries) say the US will have a positive influence, down from 59% who said the same in Sept/Oct 2024, prior to the presidential election.

• The new American refugees fleeing across state lines for safety

  They’re being propelled by hostile political forces bearing down on them because of who they are, what they believe, or for their medical needs. All are displaced within their own country for reasons they did not choose. They are the new generation of America’s internal refugees – and their ranks are growing by the day. Here, we profile families who have joined America’s swelling class of internal refugees. They represent just five stories among many others which might have been included: librarians fleeing book bans, professors forced out by ideologically-motivated college education boards, and most recently, the thousands of federal employees fired by the Trump administration.

• Fight Fiercely

  It’s crucial for people to understand that, in its total war against universities, MAGA has now lost, not merely the anti-Israel leftists, but also most conservatives, classical liberals, Zionists, etc. with any intellectual scruples whatsoever. To my mind, this opens up the possibility for a broad, nonpartisan response, highlighting everything universities (yes, even Harvard) do for our civilization that’s worth defending.

• NPR: Abrego Garcia was “Living Quietly” in Maryland Before he was Deported – JONATHAN TURLEY

  NPR leaves out a couple of facts in its passing reference to his being “granted protection by an immigration judge.” Abrego Garcia already had a hearing at which the judge found evidence that he was an MS-13 member. It was not only based on his being arrested with MS-13 gang members and wearing clothing associated with the gang. It was also based on a confidential source connected to the gang. After losing at his hearing, Abrego Garcia then lost on appeal. The only reason that Abrego Garcia was not removed is that he said that he was being threatened by a gang that could harm him in El Salvador. That gang, however, reportedly no longer exists. More importantly, President Trump has declared MS-13 a Foreign Terrorist Organization, which bars the use of the justification for his not being removed. In other words, he has little factual or legal foundation under his original claims to remain in the country.

  • Deported El Salvadoran stopped in car owned by alien who pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges | Just The News

  Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the deported El Salvadoran at the center of the Trump administration’s immigration battle with the courts, was stopped by police in an SUV owned by a man who was himself deported after pleading guilty to smuggling illegal aliens in 2020, according to court and Homeland Security Department intelligence documents reviewed by Just the News.

  • Wife of wrongly deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia doxxed by government

• White House Proposal Could Gut Climate Modeling the World Depends On

• NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

• Trump administration cancels top NASA climate lab's lease at Columbia University

• US to loosen rules on self-driving vehicles criticised by Elon Musk

• No new autism registry, HHS says, walking back NIH director's claim

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Ransomware scum bilked victims out of a 'staggering' $16.6B last year, says FBI

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Privacy concerns mount as Dutch intelligence continues to share data with U.S.

World

• Two teens and 5k ants: how a smuggling bust shed new light on a booming trade

• Ofcom announces new rules for tech firms to keep children safe online

  • Ofcom 'is prioritising interests of tech firms instead of child safety'

• Australian Navy's newest boats made in China

• European Parliament in 'final stages' of talks with China to remove sanctions

• Predictions for the German Economy Call for No Growth and Blaming Trump – HotAir

• Korean Telco Giant SK Telecom Hacked

• EU Energy labelling will apply to phones and tablets from June 2025

• 'Fighting crime blindfolded': Europe is coming after encryption

• Aerial Images Show Progress at Biggest Construction Site

• India pulls the plug on Indus Water Treaty

  • India Warned of 'Act of War' by Pakistan as Relations Collapse

  Pakistan warned India on Thursday that it was committing an "act of war" by suspending a landmark water-sharing treaty in response to a deadly terror attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The threat from Pakistan Prime Minister's Office followed a number of diplomatic measures imposed by New Dehli on Islamabad as tensions flare between the neighboring nuclear powers. On Thursday, India's Ministry of External Affairs "strongly advised" its citizens to avoid travel to Pakistan and those already there to leave "at the earliest. Pakistani nationals in India also had their visas revoked.

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Booby-trapped Alpine Quest Android app geolocates Russian soldiers

  The software in question is Alpine Quest, a legit topographic mapping tool popular among hikers, hunters, and more to the point, Russian military personnel operating in combat zones. A tampered version, with spyware dubbed Android.Spy.1292.origin injected into it, has been circulated by persons unknown, seemingly with the intent to infect the devices of President Putin's war-fighters.

China

• Pope's death receives muted official response in China

• In China, trade war with U.S. taking a toll on research labs

• The Rise of CCP Young Elites and Xi Jinping's "Tsinghua New Army"

• Sadly for China, rare Earth elements aren’t actually all that rare

Health / Medicine

• Daily peanut exposure can desensitise allergic adults, study suggests

  • My peanut allergy nearly killed me – now I eat them every day for breakfast

• Food Additives Could Combine to Boost Health Threats, Study Says

• Research reveals snacking may hinder children's growth

• My more-hardcore theanine self-experiment

  This is the most annoying possible outcome. A clear effect would have made me happy. Clear evidence of no effect would also have made me happy. Instead, some analyses say there might be a small effect, and others suggest nothing. Ugh. But I’ll say this: If there is any effect, it’s small. I know many people say theanine is life-changing, and I know why: It’s insanely easy to fool yourself. Even after running a previous 18-month trial and finding no effect, I still often felt like I could feel the effects in this experiment. I still thought I might open up all the envelopes and find that I had been under-confident in my guesses. Instead, I barely did better than chance.

• Legalizing cannabis edibles linked to increased adolescent use in Canada.

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Tapeworm in fox poop that will slowly destroy your organs is on the rise

• Going Out With A Bang

  While actively reading or writing data, a 30TB SSD uses twice as much power as a 30TB hard drive.

  The legacy of Balthus' clients attitude that they 'know the world is doomed, so may as well go out with a bang' and the unsustainable AI bubble will be a massive overbuild of data centers, most of which will be incapable of hosting Nvidia's top-of-the-line racks. If the current cryptocurrency-friendly administration succeeds in pumping Bitcoin back these data centers will likely revert to mining. Either way, the Scope 3 emissions from building and equipping and the Scope 1 and 2 emissions from powering them with natural gas and coal, will put megatons of CO2 into the atmosphere, hastening the point where it is unlikely that 'us in the North, we're fine'.

• Review of Scalable Enhanced Rock Weathering

  Industrial-style, land-based weathering can solve many scaling, cost, and verification barriers that plague other varieties like ocean disposal or field application. These three methods have a chance of being cheaper than the majority of subsidized decarbonization technologies. Testing these methods could cost as little as a few million dollars, and scale is practically infinite if they work.

• E. Coli linked directly to rising bowel cancer in people under 50

• Can the legal system catch up with climate science?

• Extinction Rebellion Vandalizes Wall Street Bull on Earth Day.

• Sustainability still not a high priority for datacenter industry

• Impacts of low emission zones on sick leave and mental well-being

• New Study Could Bolster Climate Laws to Make Polluters Pay

• Big Banks Quietly Prepare for Catastrophic Warming

• Lethal fungi are becoming drug-resistant–and spreading

• The controversial tree farms powering Apple's carbon neutral goal

• Can the legal system catch up with climate science?

• Almost Half of Americans Breathe Unhealthy Air, Report Finds