2025-05-08

Cool

• (1873) Pyrotechny: The art of making fireworks at little cost with complete safety

etc

• Cornish tin was sold all over Europe 3k years ago, say archaeologists

• (May 1) Still adrift: Three Crew Injured as Engine Room Incident Disables Maersk Containership

  • Container ship adrift after engine explosion - The Royal Gazette | Bermuda News, Business, Sports, Events, & Community |

  It is understood that the ship was about 400 miles east of the island when the blast followed an engine fire. The two injured crewmen arrived in Bermuda last Thursday morning and were initially taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

• NASA Balloon Circumnavigates World in 16 Days

  More than 16 days after lifting off from Wānaka, New Zealand, NASA’s football-stadium-sized super pressure balloon has completed its first full circumnavigation of the globe — a significant milestone for the test flight around the Southern Hemisphere’s mid-latitudes.

  • South of everything but the tip of South America; so not much noise about "US Spy Balloon".

• How the US Built 5k Ships in WWII

  As the situation in Europe grew more dire, and UK ship losses mounted, the building program of the Maritime Commission expanded. On top of the 50 ships being built annually by the long range program, the commission agreed to construct 60 ships for Britain in late 1940. The British ships were quickly followed by an “emergency program” of 200 more ships for the US in January 1941. Another 300 ships were added to the emergency program in April, and even more in October. By December, the commission was planning to build 5 million deadweight tons of ships in 1942, and 7 million in 1943. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the US formally entered the war, shipbuilding targets were raised even higher. The 12 million deadweight ton target of 1942 and 1943 was raised to 14 million, then to 19 million, then to more than 25 million.

Horseshit

• Amazon's Vulcan Robots Now Stow Items Faster Than Humans

  • Amazon makes 'fundamental leap forward in robotics' device having sense of touch

  • Amazon Has Made a Robot with a Sense of Touch

  • Vulcan Robots: Amazon's Solution to Picking Challenges

  • Amazon says new warehouse robot can 'feel' items, but won't replace workers

• The crux of all evil: the first city that tried to ban smartphones for under-14s

• Spanish Shipwreck Reveals Evidence of Earliest Known Pet Cats to Arrive in US

• 90-second Newark blackout exposes parlous state of US air traffic control

• Dogs really do look and act just like their owners

  Some sources of similarity are clear: women with short hair tend to own dogs with short ears, for example, while those with long hair tend to favour long-eared breeds. People with higher body-mass-indices also tend to have more overweight dogs. Other connections are less obvious, as shown by research revealing dogs and owners can be correctly paired from pictures in which only their eyes are visible. A similar affinity bias may be at play for invisible characteristics as well, with owners’ personality traits mirrored in the way their dogs behave. Introverted owners have dogs that are more nervous around strangers, neurotics are more likely to pair with aggressive pets and conscientious people own dogs that are more motivated and easier to train. Owners of breeds classed as dangerous, such as the notorious XL Bully, rate themselves higher on traits like sensation-seeking and psychopathy.

celebrity gossip

• AG Bondi Says FBI Sifting Through "Tens Of Thousands Of Videos" Containing Jeffrey Epstein "With Children Or Child Porn" | ZeroHedge

Musk

• 'How come I can't breathe?': Musk's data company draws a backlash in Memphis

  • How Is Elon Musk Powering His Supercomputer? Fast and Loose in Memphis,as in D.C

  • Elon Musk's xAI sparks pollution uproar

  • xAI to Use Tesla Batteries at Memphis Supercomputer

• Elon Musk Risks Turning Tesla into the Next Boeing

• DoJ Opens Investigation Into Minnesota DA Who Refused to Charge Tesla Vandal With Felonies.

Electric / Self Driving cars

• $360k, ultraluxury EV Cadillac Celestiq

• Uber invests $100M in WeRide to fuel robotaxi expansion across 15 more cities

• Port of LA terminal just ditched all propane forklifts for electric

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Believing in Spirits and Life After Death Is Common Around the World

• The cardinals are watching Conclave to learn things

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Student loan collections restart May 5: Here's what you need to know

• Mississippi Can't Possibly Have Good Schools - by Tim Daly

  Painting the Deep South as an embarrassing cultural backwater is one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice among elites. It’s not just tolerated - it’s venerated. Mississippi is probably the top target. I don’t have to tell you why. You know about the poor health outcomes. The poverty. The corruption. The obesity. The confederacy stuff. Wikipedia has an entry dedicated to the phrase “Thank God for Mississippi” because its horrible performance on so many metrics saves other states the embarrassment of finishing last. The term has been used since at least 1945.

  Which has made it awkward in recent years as Mississippi has become the fastest improving school system in the country. You read that right. Mississippi is taking names. In 2003, only the District of Columbia had more fourth graders in the lowest achievement level on our national reading test (NAEP) than Mississippi.1 By 2024, only four states had fewer.

• Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College

• Ghost students are creating an 'agonizing' problem for Calif. colleges

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Sonos and IKEA are ending their partnership

• Unmasking MrDeepFakes: Canadian Pharmacist Runs Notorious Deepfake Porn Site

• Reddit will tighten verification to keep out human-like AI bots

• NBC will use Jim Fagan's AI-generated voice for NBA coverage

• Microsoft's new Surface devices ditch magnetic charging port for USB-C

• Netflix Debuts New Home Screen, Its First Redesign in 12 Years

  • Netflix's UI Overhaul Traps You into Binging Forever

  • Netflix Overhauls Its Home Screen For First Time in 12 Years

• Netflix rolls out vertical video feed for mobile users

• Netflix Is Removing Black Mirror's Boldest and Most Experimental Episode

• U.S. Jury Orders NSO Group to Pay $168M in WhatsApp Spyware Case

• US Warns of Hackers Targeting ICS/Scada at Oil and Gas Organizations

• Minecraft Officially Drops VR Support, but There Are Still a Few Ways to Play

• How long will Switch 2's Game Key Cards keep working?

• Disney to Build a Magic Kingdom Theme Park in the Middle East

  • Disney to open theme park in Abu Dhabi after abandoning DEI push

  Disney’s decision to build a resort in the Arab country suggests a significant change in outlook at the entertainment giant, which has long prided itself on its LGBTQ+ friendly stance. Homosexuality is outlawed in the Emirati capital and punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment. In 2022, the UAE banned Disney’s animated Buzz Lightyear film from cinemas over a same-sex kiss.

• CrowdStrike to Cut 5% of Workforce. CEO Points to AI Productivity Gains

  • CrowdStrike announces 5% job cuts, says AI is 'reshaping every industry'

• Samsung adds Bowers and Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, and Polk to its audio empire

  • Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

• VMware perpetual license holders receive cease-and-desist letters from Broadcom

• Data stolen in PowerSchool data breach not deleted despite paid ransom

• TikTok, Facing a U.S. Ban, Tells Advertisers: We're Here and Confident

• Microsoft wins appeal in FTC challenge to $69B Activision Blizzard deal

• You can finally buy books in the Kindle app, thanks to a California judge

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• 30 years of MySQL, the database that changed the world

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• AI of dead Arizona road rage victim addresses killer in court

  • Arizona road rage victim speaks to killer through artificial intelligence

  • After an Arizona man was shot, an AI video of him addresses his killer in court

• Google releases 'Simplify,' an AI that dumbs down text

• Zuckerberg's Grand Vision: Most of Your Friends Will Be AI

• OpenAI struggles to escape its non-profit chains

  • OpenAI Claims Nonprofit Will Retain Nominal Control

• Google to greenwash AI power consumption with another vague nuclear deal

• OpenAI and the FDA Are Holding Talks About Using AI in Drug Evaluation

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Private Japanese lunar lander enters orbit around moon ahead of a June touchdown

• Failed Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 could crash to Earth this week

Crypto con games

• Trump family's net worth has increased by $2.9B thanks to crypto

  • Trump's 'corrupt' billion-dollar crypto deal sparks outrage in Congress

• We have reached the "severed fingers and abductions" stage of crypto revolution

• Stripe Stablecoin Financial Accounts

Economicon / Business / Finance

• WeightWatchers Files for Bankruptcy

  • WeightWatchers Files Bankruptcy, Adapts to Chemically Induced Weight-Loss Future

• Uber CEO says changing employee benefits 'is a risk we decided to take'

• The High-School Juniors with $70k-a-Year Job Offers

• Countdown To Shortages? Last Cargo Ships From China Arrive In US Ports | ZeroHedge

  China in particular is not as integral to America's supply chain as it once was. Since 2018, US imports from China have dropped from 21% of total goods to 13% of total goods. US dependency on China has been in steep decline. Only 7% of US exports go to the Chinese; a negligible portion of total GDP. On the other hand, China is in serious trouble. Though their exports to the US have fallen to 15% of total goods, the communist nation is in the middle of a crushing deflationary crisis. Any major shocks to their system at this juncture will cause a long term crisis.

  Even more dangerous is China's reliance on US agricultural goods. Their imports from the US have dropped from 29% in 2009 to 13% in 2024, but their food supply is still precarious. Again, any shock to this area of their economy could have far reaching repercussions. There are, however, some risks to the US. For example, a large percentage of over the counter drugs and some antibiotics in the US are sourced from China (about 95% of U.S. ibuprofen comes from China, for example). Around 20% of apparel imports and 24% of textile imports come from China. From 60% to 80% of many consumer electronic items in the US are manufactured in China, including smartphones, laptops and game consoles. Around 80% of all toys in the US are made in China.

• Ford raises prices on Mexican-made cars–but not the full tariff cost

• WK Kellogg cuts annual sales, profit forecasts on softening packaged food demand.

• Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement

  the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4-1/4 to 4-1/2 percent. The Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage‑backed securities. The Committee is strongly committed to supporting maximum employment and returning inflation to its 2 percent objective.

  • Fed Rejects Trump Calls To Cut Rates: Warns Of "Increased" Stagflationary "Uncertainty" | ZeroHedge

  all eyes and ears are now focus on what Powell says at the presser for Powell to explain the difference:

  • Sept 2024: weak soft data, tight financial conditions, August market crash, cut rates by 50bps
  • May 2025: weak soft data, tight financial conditions, April market crash, pause

  Oh, one more difference: Sept 2024: Democrat President; May 2025: Trump President

• Alphabet Stock Sinks on Apple Testimony About Falling Search Queries

• Doctors Warn Accountants of Private-Equity Drain on Quality: You Could Be Next

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Former Colorado postal employee admits to stealing ballots ahead of 2024 election

  One of the women accused of stealing and fraudulently casting more than a dozen ballots ahead of last November’s election pleaded guilty Monday.

• FTC rule on unfair or deceptive fees to take effect on May 12

• Real ID now required in US after nearly 20 years of delays

  • Real ID Requirement Comes to U.S. Airports

  • Real ID is a waste of my time and I don't need one

• Californians Can Sue Out-of-State Corporations That Violate State Privacy Laws

Trump

• Trump to scrap Biden's "AI diffusion rule" Thursday in win for chipmakers

  • Trump to Rescind Chip Curbs After Debate over AI Rules

Democrats

• Biden Defends Decision To Run Again Despite Age Concerns: I Was ‘So Successful’ It Was ‘Difficult To Walk Away.’

• Biden memo let feds target Americans for ‘non-criminal behavior’ before Catholics, parents probed.

  The Biden administration authorized federal law enforcement four years ago to target Americans engaged in "concerning non-criminal behavior" in the name of fighting domestic terrorism, with a specific eye on those serving in the military, owning firearms, or spreading what officials considered to be "xenophobic" disinformation, according to newly declassified documents.

• Biden’s Gaza pier injured far more troops than previously known

  More than 60 service members were injured as a part of former President Joe Biden's floating aid pier in Gaza, a Pentagon Inspector General report published on Tuesday said, a number significantly higher than had been previously disclosed. The pier, announced by Biden during a televised address to Congress in March 2024, was a massive endeavor that took about 1,000 U.S. forces to execute. But bad weather and distribution challenges inside Gaza limited the effectiveness of what the U.S. military says was its biggest aid delivery effort ever in the Middle East. The pier was only operational for about 20 days and cost about $230 million.

  While there were no deaths or known direct attacks on the pier, the Pentagon had said three U.S. troops suffered non-combat injuries in support of the pier in May, with one medically evacuated in critical condition. But the new report by the Pentagon Inspector General said that the number was actually 62.

Left Angst

• EPA Plans to Shut Down the Energy Star Program

  • Trump admin announces plans to shut down the Energy Star program

• Florida's Plan to Replace Migrant Workers with Children Falls Apart

• Trump's Tariffs Won't Make Hollywood Great Again, but There's a Plan That Can

• Moldbug Sold Out

  In the late 2000s, Moldbug wrote some genuinely interesting speculations on novel sci-fi variants of autocracy. Admitting that the dictatorships of the 20th century were horrifying, he proposed creative ways to patch their vulnerabilities by combining 18th century monarchy with 22nd century cyberpunk to create something better than either. These ideas might not have been realistic. But they were cool, edgy, and had a certain intellectual appeal. Then in the late 2010s, he caught his first whiff of actual power and dropped it all like a hot potato. The MAGA movement was exactly what 2000s Moldbug feared most - a cancerous outgrowth of democracy riding the same wave of populist anger as the 20th century dictatorships he loathed. But in the hope of winning a temporary political victory, he let them wear him as a skinsuit - giving their normal, boring autocratic tendencies the mystique of the cool, edgy, all-vulnerabilities-patched autocracy he foretold in his manifestos.

• Trump and DOJ try to spring former county clerk Tina Peters from prison

• More NIH workers laid off, including cuts at the National Cancer Institute

• White House “Accelerating” Nuclear Power With Executive Orders

• Death is the policy | The Verge

  “There’s a sort of Darwin-esque notion that only the fittest survive,” says Paul Offit, a vaccine scientist, virologist, and professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “But these viruses can kill anybody, so that’s just wrong.”

• Carney says Canada 'never for sale' after Trump again suggests 51st state plan

  President Trump had three little words for newly-elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney Tuesday after the commander in chief again said he wanted Canada to be America’s 51st state. “I say, ‘Never say never,'” the 78-year-old said. “I’ve had many, many things that were not doable and ended up being doable.” Trump was responding to Carney, 60, telling him that Canada is “not for sale” and that the Canadian view on becoming part of the US “is not going to change.”

• Foreign Aid Official Who Resisted DOGE Took Secret Payments After Steering Africa Money To Friend.

  Mathieu Zahui, chief financial officer of the African Development Foundation, refused to grant DOGE access to its books and told the White House that the agency would not acknowledge President Donald Trump's appointee as chairman of the board. After a dramatic showdown in March, DOGE physically took over the building with U.S. Marshals, but control of the agency is now the subject of a lawsuit objecting to "swooping in with DOGE staff, demanding access to sensitive information systems" -- an objection that reads differently in light of the criminal probe.

  For years, workers at the small, USAID-adjacent federal agency focused on Africa have told oversight bodies about allegations of self-dealing, procurement violations, and mysterious offshore bank accounts, many of them involving Zahui. But little was done about it, several told The Daily Wire.

• 'Scientific asylum': How Europe is luring US researchers amid Trump fears

• The FDIC Dismantling Is Underway

  • The people who decided to bail out Silicon Valley Bank well over any coverage and damn the laws, need to have more happen to them than getting fired and the agency taken under closer supervision.

  Regulatory filings from December 2022 estimated that more than 85% of deposits were uninsured.

• ICE Arrests Workers Involved in Landmark Labor Rights Case

• Hey Florida. Your government just kneecapped direct democracy

• Doge Aide Who Helped Gut CFPB Was Warned About Potential Conflicts of Interest

• NASA scrambles to cut ISS activity after Trump budget–its options are not great

• U.S. pushes nations facing tariffs to approve Musk's Starlink, cables show

• Average US price of smartphones, game consoles, and laptops may soon exceed $1k

• DOGE aims to pool federal data, putting personal information at risk

• (PDF) Assassination Culture: A Meme Aesthetic for Political Violence

  Political violence targeting Donald Trump and Elon Musk is becoming increasingly normalized. Following the July 13, 2024 attempted assassination of President Trump, tolerance - and even advocacy - for political violence appears to have surged, especially among politically left-leaning segments of the population. This pattern builds on a broader trend NCRI identified in two December 2024 reports which analyzed how viral social media narratives were legitimizing political violence, particularly in the aftermath of the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s assassination. The reports found widespread justification for lethal violence - including assassination - among younger, highly online, and ideologically left-aligned users. A spillover effect into offline domains is already occurring, as illustrated by a ballot measure recently submitted in California that is macabrely named “the Luigi Mangione Access to Health Care Act.”

  A broader “assassination culture” appears to be emerging within segments of the U.S. public on the extreme left, with expanding targets now including figures such as Donald Trump and Elon Musk. NCRI empirically assessed this shift with original survey data and open source intelligence analysis to assess how normalized and justified violence against the administration has become in public discourse. The findings signal a threat to political stability and public safety.

• A 'Trump Card Visa' Is Already Showing Up in Immigration Forms

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• FDA to boost surprise inspections at foreign-based food, medical plants: New policy arrived after pilot testing in China and India, FDA officials say.

• Another Navy jet falls into sea, marking fourth major mishap in months.

  • US Navy aircraft carrier in the Red Sea loses a third Super Hornet

World

• Teenagers to drive trains due to concerns over labour shortages | UK News | Sky News

  The current minimum age for someone wanting a career on the railways is 20. But with 87% of night-before cancellations made because a driver is unavailable, the government has decided to lower the age of entry by a couple of years.

• Can India Cut Off Pakistan's Indus River Lifeline?

• India's May 7 blackout drills

• France has become a nation of heirs again

• Merz's government decree gives German digital ministry extensive powers

  The country’s first ever Digital Ministry will be headed by Karsten Wildberger - a former businessman - and will take over departments or responsibilities that are currently hosted under six ministries, in a bid to accelerate digitisation in Germany. The Ministry of the Interior, for example, will cede two departments that deal with digital administration and digital society as well as general IT procurement, whereas the former Transport and Digital Affairs ministry will hand over digital and data policy, as well as its department for digital infrastructures. From the Justice Ministry, the Digital Ministry will inherit artificial intelligence matters and will therefore likely become in charge of setting up or appointing a market surveillance authority to ensure businesses’ compliance with the EU’s AI Act.

• EU chiefs use controversial Signal app but will not reveal what is said

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• New drones are sneaking past jammers on Ukraine's front lines

China

• Bureaucratic Incentives and Effectiveness of the One Child Policy in China

• China's Economy Is Burdened by Years of Excess

Health / Medicine

• Western Diet Disrupts Gut Recovery and Raises Infection Risk

• New studies offer insight into Lyme disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms

• Small Reforms to Improve the US Medical System

• Medicaid Taxes Pay for Themselves

• New Brunswick has no mystery neurological disease, scientific study concludes

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• The next superbug threat is already here. It's going to be harder to overcome

• How to block the next Covid in mid-air

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Scientists chased a falling spacecraft with a plane to understand satellite air pollution: “The event was fainter than we expected.”

• Orsted Cancels Major UK Offshore Wind Farm as Costs Jump

• Ape Empathy Shatters Species Stereotypes

• How climate change is raising your electricity bill

• Richest 10 Percent Responsible for Two-Thirds of Warming

• Sea otter responses to a prey surplus following the collapse of a predator

• Dangerous clear-air turbulence is worsening due to global warming

• World-first genetic index helps Aussie farmers breed heat tolerant cows

• After 17 Years Underground Cicada Brood to Swarm U.S.

• New research: plants absorb 31% more CO2, reshaping climate predictions

• Ice rebounds at BOTH poles – climate more complex than known

• Time for adults to act like adults on climate change