2025-05-12
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Intelligence on Earth Evolved Independently at Least Twice | WIRED
“A bird with a 10-gram brain is doing pretty much the same as a chimp with a 400-gram brain,” said Onur Güntürkün, who studies brain structures at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany. “How is it possible?”
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(2018) Singular sensation
The 1938 Everel single-blade propeller is an artifact of aeronautical innovation with a legacy somewhere between those of the Spruce Goose and Molt Taylor’s Aerocar.
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In 2020, Americans spent $276 million wholesale on potted orchids—more than any other potted plant. Poinsettias, the favorite until orchids surpassed them in 2009, had just $157 million in sales in the same period. Measured in pots, orchids exceeded 34 million units.
Horseshit
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Is the Southern accent fixin' to disappear in parts of the US South?
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'It's an illogical job': Why driving a train isn't as cushy as it might seem
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Alone Together: Disconnection Is Our Generation's Black Death
Over the next decades, we will be together alone. We will still inhabit shared spaces, yet experience them as emotionally vacant. Proximity will no longer guarantee presence. AI will not only displace labour, it will erode social interaction. Increasingly, we will interact with machines rather than people, because our infrastructure will allow nothing else
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Golden Owl solution is revealed, but leaves players of 31-year hunt disappointed
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Polish startup made a flying star trooper like motorcycle doing 200km/h
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Scientists are growing T. rex leather in a lab. It could be used to make purses
celebrity gossip
Musk
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
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Trends in Educational Attainment in the U.S. Labor Force
Currently, almost 67 million people (25 and over) in the U.S. labor force have a bachelor's degree or higher. This is almost 45% of the labor force, up from 26.2% in 1992. This is the only category trending up. "Some college", "high school" and "less than high school" have been trending down. Based on recent trends, probably half the labor force will have at least a bachelor's degree sometime next decade (2030s). Since workers with bachelor's degrees typically have a lower unemployment rate, rising educational attainment is probably a factor in pushing down the overall unemployment rate over time.
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As 'Grading for Equity' Movement Grows, More Teachers Are Pushing Back
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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Can Late-Night TV Survive Streaming? John Mulaney's Show Is a Test
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Europa Universalis 5 is so complex it will let you automate half the game
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Tech that defined the modern internet is changing, SV is finally admitting it
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Internal Documents Show Why We Shouldn't Trust Porn Companies
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As the hype around ‘Scattered Spider’ shows, marketing is everything in the cyber security industry
TechSuck / Geek Bait
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IAB Statement: Dotless Domains Considered Harmful
It has come to the attention of the IAB that there are proposals for so-called “dotless” domains in the root zone, and that some existing top-level domains (TLDs) are already operating in such a mode. TLD operators of dotless domains are intending that single label names — those containing no dots — resolve to the TLD itself, rather than be resolved locally, within the context of the local site at which the user resides. Unfortunately, dotless domains will not work as intended by TLD operators in the vast majority of cases. As recommended by IETF standards track RFCs, existing deployed systems apply a search list to single-label names prior to attempting to resolve them. As a result, the resolution of dotless domains depends on local configuration such as the search list. For example, in a location where “example.com” is included within the search list, the URL http://printer1/ will generate a query for “printer1.example.com”, whereas in a location where “example.net” is in the search list, it will generate a query for “printer1.example.net”. This behavior was developed in the DNS precisely because most users entering single-label names want them to be resolved in a local context, and they do not expect a single name to refer to a TLD.
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
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Insurers launch cover for losses caused by AI chatbot errors
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Apple plans AI-powered search in Safari, threatens Google's dominance
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OpenAI launches GPT-4o image gen with precise text and context-aware editing
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Asking chatbots for short answers can increase hallucinations, study finds
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OpenAI negotiates with Microsoft to unlock new funding and future IPO
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AI hallucinations are getting worse – and they're here to stay
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
Economicon / Business / Finance
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Theranos Fraudster's Boyfriend Starts New Blood-Testing Company
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2025 will likely be another brutal year of failed startups, data suggests
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The driver of the semi, Andrii Dmyterko, 45, was arrested and charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter. What is notable about Mr Dmyterko is that he is in the United States from Ukraine on a work visa, and there are some hard questions to be asked about the trucking company he worked for, called "4 US Transportation Company" whose address was registered to a Pizza joint in Darien, Illinois.
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
Democrats
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Fetterman raises alarms with outburst at union meeting, AP sources say | AP News
Against this backdrop came that New York magazine story, which paints a picture of an isolated senator: “Fetterman’s staffers, his truest believers, now question his fitness to be a senator. They worry he may present a danger to the Democratic Party and maybe even to himself.” Of course, this will raise all sorts of alarm bells, especially given the senator’s previous and ongoing mental and physical health struggles. After digesting the story, many Pennsylvania Democrats went “a-ha!,” agreed with their findings, and said or thought the senator needed some mental health help. Meanwhile, many Republicans, both in and out of the state, dismissed the article as just a hit piece, brought on by his pro-Israel shift. They took it as an opportunity to blast the senator’s staff for turning on him, and decided there was no there there, and it was just all sour grapes because of his vocal support for Israel. Is real life ever that neat?
Left Angst
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NSF slashes number of 'rotators' and well-paid managers as part of restructuring
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Border agents are going to photograph everyone leaving the US by car
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What happens when a hegemon falls?
“The World in Depression”, a book published in 1973, and has recently enjoyed a new lease of life as a demonstration of the self-harm that protectionism inflicts. From month to month, Kindleberger charted how the global economy turned in on itself throughout the late-1920s and 1930s, spiralling towards disaster. Another idea from his work—the “Kindleberger gap”, referring to a leadership void—is also proving helpful. Kindleberger had a front-row seat for the Depression. As a graduate student completing his thesis in the 1930s, he worked at the US Treasury for Harry Dexter White, chief architect of the post-first-world-war system of fixed exchange rates. Graduation led to a job at New York Federal Reserve. After the second world war, during which he worked at the Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the CIA, he moved to the State Department, where he helped shape the Marshall Plan, America’s programme for the reconstruction of Europe. In time he found his way to academia—he had probably had enough excitement, his biographer speculates—becoming one of the first members of the economics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Trump admin poised to accept luxury jet as gift for Trump from Qatar
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Trump reportedly prepared to accept 'palace in the sky' as gift from Qatar
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Trump Wants a New Air Force One So Badly He’s Refurbishing a Qatari Plane - WSJ
Frustrated by delays on Boeing’s work to deliver a new Air Force One, Trump has commissioned a smaller defense contractor to ready an interim presidential plane by year’s end. Boeing will continue plugging away on a pair of Air Force One replacement jets, which have fallen so far behind that Trump might not get to fly on them while in office. The U.S. government has commissioned L3Harris to overhaul a Boeing 747 formerly used by the Qatari government. The Melbourne, Fla.-based company is tasked with retrofitting the plane with certain specialized systems to transform the luxury aircraft into a presidential jet, some of the people said.
In his first term, Trump commissioned two new presidential planes to replace a pair of aging jets, which are among the world’s most complex aircraft with communications and defensive systems that serve as a command and control platform for the commander in chief. Boeing won the $3.9 billion contract and at one point was expected to have the planes ready by last year. But it is now years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, after a series of supplier, engineering and manufacturing setbacks.
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US President Donald Trump Seeks to Cancel NASA's Mars Sample Return
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An $18M grant would have drastically reduced food waste. Then the EPA cut it
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This Los Angeles port is among the first casualties of Trump's trade war
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
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To Dominate the Arctic, Trump Needs Ice-Breaking Ships. Finland Wants to Help.
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U.S. Announces China Trade Deal in Geneva
the United States has a massive $1.2 trillion trade deficit, so the President declared a national emergency and imposed tariffs, and we’re confident that the deal we struck with our Chinese partners will help us to work toward resolving that national emergency.
World
China
Health / Medicine
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The price of remission – Celgene and cancer drug made from Thalidomide
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Why weight-loss drug users are telling no one – not even their partners
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More People Use Illicit Fentanyl in the U.S. Than Previously Thought
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Intermittent fasting: is it the calories or carbs that count?
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'Grit' and relentless perseverance can take a toll on brain health
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Genetic mutation lets some people thrive on just 4 hours of sleep
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The surgeon who used F1 pitstop techniques to save lives of babies