2025-05-04

etc

• Five people survive 36 hours in alligator-infested swamp after plane crash

  Five people have been rescued after spending 36 hours atop a plane in an alligator-infested swamp in the Amazon after it was forced to make an emergency landing, local authorities said. The small plane was found by local fishermen in Bolivia's Amazonas region on Friday having been missing for 48 hours. The survivors - three women, a child and the 29-year-old pilot - were rescued in "excellent condition", Wilson Avila, director of the Beni Department's emergency operations centre, said.

• Two Airliners abort landing as Army helicopter makes scenic loop around Pentagon

• United Airlines Cancels Newark Flights over FAA Staffing

• Collections: Why Archers Didn’t Volley Fire – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry

  Archers didn’t engage in coordinated all-at-once shooting (called ‘volley fire’), they did not shoot in volleys because there wouldn’t be any point to do so. Indeed, part of the reason there was such confusion over what a general is supposed to shout instead of ‘fire!’ is that historical tactical manuals don’t generally have commands for coordinated bow shooting because armies didn’t do coordinated bow shooting. Instead, archers generated a ‘hail’ or ‘rain’ (those are the typical metaphors) of arrows as each archer shot in their own best time.

Horseshit

• $20B manufacturer has no bosses, just an internal currency called Will

• Housework robots are a step closer as they learn to work in any home

• The missing tech case for how we create an era of abundance

• He Lost Billions as Apple's Forgotten Co-Founder. Now He's Pitching Apple Beer

• Could DNA testing shed new light on 93-year mystery of Lindbergh baby case?

• Poland's Volonaut Airbike Brings Star Wars-Style Personal Flight to Reality

• What makes a Kentucky Derby champion? Big hearts, immense lungs, & powerful legs

• Disney's Got a Star Wars Droid to Sell You for $3k

• Formula One's Long–and Successful–Race to Crack America

celebrity gossip

• Zuckerberg's philanthropy cuts funding for affordable housing, homelessness

• A user-friendly opera about Steve Jobs powers up at the Kennedy Center

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Why Free Speech Matters - FEE

  As a contemporary example, let’s take the controversial claim of human-caused climate change. US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island—and others—have at different times proposed criminalizing denial of dangerous man-made warming. Further, former Vice President Al Gore has been saying for years that we are in a climate crisis and that there is no time to debate but only to take remedial action. If he is right about a possible climate emergency (and I think he is not), then he is emphatically mistaken regarding his conclusion. The truth is: We must debate. Evidence on both (or all) sides of the issue should be presented; rational human beings then honestly analyze and assess the evidence; they decide in the rigorous tribunal of their own minds where the preponderance of the evidence lies—and who among the opposing sides has the strongest case. We must debate, because if there truly is an emergency (or the possibility of an approaching one), it might be life and death to get it right. We need to examine all the evidence, even if a hearing is done relatively quickly. Criminalizing or suppressing the right to speak ideas on any side of a controversial issue establishes major roadblocks to the pursuit of truth regarding that issue.

• Pro-Russian influence operation in election attempt to 'poison' AI chatbots

  • Russian disinformation network flooded training data to manipulate frontier LLMs

  • A Moscow-Based 'News' Network Has Infected AI Tools with Russian Propaganda

Musk

• Elon Musk's company town: SpaceX employees to vote on 'Starbase'

  • Musk's SpaceX Prepares to Launch Starbase, Its Own Town in Texas

• Elon Musk's Grok AI Has a Problem: It's Too Accurate for Conservatives

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Self-Driving Cars Have New Rules in the U.S. Here's Why That Matters

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• You Won't Believe the Tax Breaks for Professors

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Tech Giants Propose Standard for End-of-Life Security Disclosures

• DOJ confirms it wants to break up Google's ad business

• Nintendo Switch 2's gameless Game-Key cards are going to be common

• Nintendo now blocks playing the same game on two Switch consoles simultaneously

• Playing 'whack-a-mole' with Meta over my fraudulent avatars

• AI bots are'juicing engagement'instead of being useful,Instagram cofounder warns

• Mark Zuckerberg says ads will soon be handled by AI

• Ghost in the machine? Legend of the 'haunted' N64 video game cartridge

• Sam Altman and Elon Musk are racing to build an 'everything app'

• Source code for the unofficial Signal app used by Trump officials

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• The birth, rise and eclipse of the personal computer

• QModem 4.51 Source Code

  The source code release of QModem 4.51, an MS-DOS telecommunications program authored by John Friel III (1960–2024). This source snapshot reflects the state of QModem "Test-Drive" edition, version 4.51, as it existed in early 1992. The release is presented in the hope it may prove valuable as a historical artifact, for telecommunications enthusiasts, retrocomputing hobbyists, or anyone interested in the inner workings of a classic DOS comms package.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Sounds Alarm as 50% of AI Researchers Are Chinese

• Gemini 2.5 Pro just completed Pokémon Blue

• Apple is teaming up with Anthropic on a new vibe coding platform.

  • Apple partnering with startup Anthropic on AI-powered coding platform

• Anthropic calls for tougher GPU export controls

• 'The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen'

• Airbnb is quietly rolling out an AI customer service bot in the US

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• We know a little more about Amazon's super-secret satellites

  • Amazon launches its first internet satellites to compete against Starlink

• NASA just got the Orion spacecraft that will fly astronauts around the moon

Crypto con games

• Could Eye-Scanning Crypto Orbs Save Us from a Bot Apocalypse?

• What Happened in Two Days at a Wild Crypto Party

Economicon / Business / Finance

• The number of new apartments is at a 50-year high, but states expect a slowdown

• Apple says import tariffs will increase its costs by $900M this quarter

• Warren Buffett Plans to Step Down as Berkshire CEO at Year-End

  • Warren Buffett to Step Down from Berkshire Hathaway at Year-End

  • Warren Buffett shocks shareholders by announcing his intention to retire

  • Warren Buffett, 94, stepping down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO

  • Warren Buffett announces retirement from leading Berkshire Hathaway

• Why the Bay Area's biggest real estate company is at war with Zillow

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Magistrate judge breathing fire over law firm's dragon logo on legal pleadings

  “Use of this dragon cartoon logo is not only distracting, it is juvenile and impertinent,” Kent wrote in his April 28 order. “The court is not a cartoon.”

  • Judge Rejects Lawsuit with Dragon Logo, Calling It 'Juvenile and Impertinent'

• Why New Media is Winning

• FBI Places Censorship Agent Elvis Chan on 'Terminal Leave'

  Chan’s leave follows a turbulent period involving a lawsuit filed by the House Judiciary Committee last year. The committee accused Chan of obstructing its investigation into alleged social media censorship by failing to comply with a subpoena for a deposition. The lawsuit, lodged in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., claims Chan disregarded the subpoena after the Department of Justice challenged the committee’s deposition protocols. “Chan has violated and continues to violate his legal obligations by refusing to appear before the Judiciary Committee,” the House’s Office of General Counsel stated in the filing.

• Why Some States Refuse Federal Cash to Feed Poor Kids

• NYC legislation could bring back some short-term rentals

• Federal Court Halts Dismantling of Federal Library Agency in ALA Lawsuit

• Amazon sues government safety agency Consumer Product Safety Commission

• FAA offering more incentives as air traffic controller shortage worsens

Trump

• Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens

• Marco Rubio: I'll 'never tell' a judge if Trump requested Abrego Garcia's return

• Waltz's ouster: Before Signalgate, talks with Israel angered Trump

Democrats

• NIH investigates Biden last-minute $89 billion grant to ‘seemingly dormant’ University of California nonprofit: Nonprofit founded in 2022, never raised nor spent a dime.

Left Angst

• Trump's Tariff on Cheap Chinese Imports Will Cost Big Tech Billions

• Trump dismantles surveillance watchdog, triggering Europe's privacy PTSD

• Trump Asks Supreme Court to Let Doge View Social Security Data

• The Planetary Society condemns deep, damaging 24% cut to NASA's budget

• Door knocks and DNA tests: How Trump adminis plans to keep tabs on migrant kids

• Warren Buffett knocks tariffs and protectionism: 'Trade should not be a weapon'

• Palantir, the secretive tech company, is rising in the Trump era

• Trump wants to cut quarter of NASA budget: No Lunar Gateway, Artemis, ISS retire

• Administration plans major downsizing at U.S. spy agencies

• Tech oligarchs are gambling our future on a fantasy

• Trump's Border Crackdown Spooks International Founders and VCs

• The CEO Who Says an Asteroid Is Coming to Destroy America's Businesses

• In his first 100 days, Trump launched an "all-out assault" on the environment

• US EPA plans to cut staff to 1980s levels, dissolve research office

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• US Buzzes China's Military Satellites in Unfolding Space Rivalry

World

• South Korea's 'sea women' are genetically adapted for their tough trade

• Co-op cyber attack affects customer data, firm admits, after hackers contact BBC

• "An Egalitarian Pressure": Australia Has Had a Compulsory Vote for 100 Years

• Proposal to Allow Wiretapping of Children Under 15 Without Criminal Suspicion

• Bali plunged into mass island-wide blackouts

• Flies in the evidence room: Inside Belgium's rotting Justice Palace

• Democracy in danger - Marginal REVOLUTION

• Spain-Portugal blackouts: what happened

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Ukraine destroys Russian fighter jet with missile from sea drone in world first

China

• As China Looks for Way Out of U.S. Trade Deadlock, Fentanyl Could Be Key

Health / Medicine

• The US has approved CRISPR pigs for food

• Which Arm Gets Vaccinated Could Matter More Than You Think

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• World may be 'post-herd immunity' to measles, top US scientist says

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Pakistan set to break temperature record

• Scientists Have Discovered an Australian Fungus That Produces 'Real Gold'

• Young bats learn to be discriminating when listening for their next meal

• Why the green-technology race might not save the planet

• Power-sector CO2 hits all-time high in 2024 despite record growth in renewables

• Killer fungi to spread as climate heats up

• More Climate Litigation Silliness From Academia | RealClearWire

  To derive their damage estimates, the authors combine bad science with bad economics. First, they use simplified climate models to predict what average world temperatures would have been had there been no GHG emissions from fossil fuels. Next, they use other models to determine how many fewer extreme heat events, which they define as the hottest five days of each year, there would have been absent GHG emissions from fossil fuels. Finally, they calculate the damages in terms of lost GDP based on a simplistic regression model that assumes lost GDP increases in proportion to the square of temperature increases, and which ignores the myriad other economic factors that affect economic growth. They justify this absurd specification, which has no economic basis, on “peer-reviewed research” – a previous article they published.

• Antarctica's Astonishing Rebound: Ice Sheet Grows

• Deadly Screwworm Parasite's Comeback Threatens Texas Cattle, US Beef Supply