2025-05-14

etc

• How ships escaped the great stagnation

  Airplanes today fly no faster than they did in the 1970s. In many countries, road speeds have decreased. Flying cars never showed up. In developed countries, the tallest buildings have only inched higher. Most rich countries produce less energy per capita than they did 20 years ago, and the cost of building new physical infrastructure like railways seems to rise inexorably. Yet cruise ships continue to grow: a natural experiment in what can be achieved outside the constraints that have stifled progress on dry land.

• The Airplane 'Barf Bag' Is a Genius Invention Most People Never Think About

Horseshit

• F1 at 75

• New Bill Would Make All Pornography a Federal Crime in the U.S.

• Newark airport uses floppy discs for air traffic control and more

• The global and sustainable lives of wine barrels

• GM's new turbo engine rewrites the rules of torque control-and locks out tuners

• Why the 737 MAX has been such a headache for Boeing

• Gilded ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhahab Edition features actual 24k gold

• Eldercare robot helps people sit and stand, and catches them if they fall

• "The Great Gatsby" Took over High School

• Welcome to the age of paranoia as deepfakes and scams abound

• As tariffs stoke economic fear around the world, Puerto Rico sees opportunity

• Amazon tested warehouse robots and found they're not ready to replace humans

• Climbing Everest in a week using an anesthetic gas

• Jeremy Renner and the Science of Extraordinary Near-Death Experiences

• Why Gen X is the real loser generation

  Many forget about Generation X, which is made up of those born tween 1965 and 1980. Proxied by Google searches the world is less than half as interested in Gen X as it is in millennials, Gen Zers or baby-boomers. There are few podcasts or memes about Gen X. Aside from Douglas Coupland’s “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”, a novel published in 1991 which popularised the moniker, there are few books discussing the cohort. In Britain Gen Xers are less likely than members of any other age group to know the generation to which they belong. Gen Xers may have no place in the popular imagination but, contrary to Seneca, they really do suffer. This is true both because Gen Xers are at a tricky age, and also because the cohort itself is cursed.

  The position of Gen Xers may not improve much in the years ahead. They could be the first to suffer owing to broken pension systems. America’s social-security fund is projected to be depleted by 2033—just as Gen Xers start to retire—meaning benefits will be cut by 20-25% unless Congress acts.

• Can a $700 Calendar Save Your Marriage?

• Spain's Grid Collapsed in 5 Seconds. The U.S. Could Be Next

• Pete Rose, 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson Among Players Reinstated by MLB

celebrity gossip

• Ken Griffin will loan his copies of the Constitution and Bill of Rights so the public can see them | AP News

  Citadel CEO Griffin announced Tuesday that he will lend his first-edition copy of the Constitution to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for a public exhibit dedicated to the founding document of the U.S. government. He will also loan the center his copy of the Bill of Rights, which he has not previously acknowledged owning publicly, and his nonprofit Griffin Catalyst will make a $15 million donation for the exhibit – the largest in the center’s history.

Obit

• José Mujica, Uruguay's modest leader who transformed the country, dies at 89

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• (Apr 2025) Europe Really Is Jailing People for Online Speech

• Conspiracy theorists can be deprogrammed

Musk

• Tesla Board Chair Robyn Denholm Made $198M Selling Stock as Profit Fell

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Rivian Just Unlocked Another $1B from Volkswagen

• Slate Auto crosses 100,000 refundable reservations in two weeks | TechCrunch

  Collecting 100,000 reservations so quickly is one sign of how much interest there has been in Slate since it revealed the truck, but it’s no guarantee those reservations will translate to sales. The company is only asking prospective buyers to plop down $50 to reserve their place in line to eventually order the truck; the fee is refundable.

• Chinese Cars Will Enter the U.S. Market, Say Auto Execs

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• The Vatican's Cyber Crusaders

• On Pope Leo's Desk: Fixing Vatican Finances

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Mississippi Schools Are Better Than Yours

• AI paper mills are swamping science with garbage studies

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Duolingo is replacing hearts with energy

• M&S says customer data stolen in cyber attack

  • UK's Marks and Spencer confirms customer data taken in ransomware attack

• Did Apple get too big for its own good? With Daring Fireball's John Gruber

• Google might replace the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button with AI Mode

• Microsoft removes a lot of features from the Edge browser

• 'Fallout' Renewed for Season 3

• VPN firm says it didn't know customers had lifetime subscriptions, cancels them

• TikTok Is Rewriting the Rules for Emerging Artists

• Google forced publishers to accept AI scraping as price of appearing in search

• Nvidia reportedly raises GPU prices by 10-15% as manufacturing costs surge — tariffs and TSMC price hikes filter down to retailers | Tom's Hardware

• Intel Arc B580 rumored to get custom dual-GPU version with 48GB memory

  • Intel Partner Prepares Dual Arc "Battlemage" B580 GPU with 48 GB of VRAM

• A Google Street View Car: A Celebrity on Wheels

• Apple Wants People to Control Devices with Their Thoughts

• Nintendo warns that it can brick Switch consoles if it detects hacking, piracy

• DJI is skipping the US with its most advanced drone yet

  • DJI Mavic 4 Pro review: A new standard for consumer drones

• Cartoon Network's Last Gasp

• Prepare for a scam gold rush with the App Store changes

• SoundCloud changes policies to allow AI training on user content

• 'The Office' Offshoot 'The Paper' to Premiere in September

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Linus Torvalds goes back to a mechanical keyboard after making too many typos

• Linux kernel to drop 486 and early 586 support

• The world could run on older hardware if software optimization was a priority

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Users are Suffering Rare Delusions After Intensive Use of ChatGPT

• ChatGPT Helped Get Me Pregnant

• Gen AI Makes People More Productive–and Less Motivated

• Fastino raises $17.5M to train small AI models on cheap gaming GPUs

• The Worst Thing About ChatGPT in Schools Is That It Kills Trust

• New attack can steal cryptocurrency by planting false memories in AI chatbots

• OpenAI's Stargate project struggling to get off the ground, due to tariffs

• AI therapy is a surveillance machine in a police state

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• NASA's Don Pettit Shot 220 Days of Photos from the ISS

Crypto con games

• Tether's $150B CIO Proved Himself Getting Cantor Backing

• An $8.4B Chinese Hub for Crypto Crime Is Incorporated in Colorado

• Crypto CEO's Daughter and Toddler Targeted in Failed Paris Kidnapping Attemp

  • Cryptocurrency boss' daughter escapes kidnapping attempt in Paris

Economicon / Business / Finance

• CPI for all items rises 0.2% in April, 2.3% YoY; shelter up

  • Despite Mainstream Panic, US Consumer Price Inflation Tumbles To Lowest In Over 4 Years | ZeroHedge

• Private equity affiliation among dentists increases

• Microsoft is Cutting 3% of All Workers

  • Microsoft laying off 6k employees

  • Microsoft is reportedly about to lay off 3% of its workforce

  • Microsoft cuts nearly 3% of global workforce, about 6k jobs, for efficiency

  • Microsoft to lay off 6k workers despite streak of profitable quarters

• Coinbase joins the S&P 500, another summit scaled on towards economic freedom

• Nissan to slash 11,000 jobs, close 7 plants

• Bosses weren't being paranoid: Remote workers more likely to start their own biz

• Tariffs Drive Honda to Move SUV Production from Canada to U.S.

  • Honda pauses planned EV factory in Canada amid tariff war

• UnitedHealth Group Abruptly Replaces CEO Andrew Witty

• The tariffs are here. Inflation isn't. What gives?

• Nvidia CEO's net worth nears $120B as shares surge on Saudi chip deal

  • Nvidia sending 18,000 of its top AI chips to Saudi Arabia

• Student Loan Delinquencies Are Back and Credit Scores Take a Tumble

• Insurers seek to surcharge California homeowners for L.A. County fire costs

• Airbnb is trying to win travelers back from hotels

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Air Traffic Controller Hiring Supercharge at FAA Academy

  • It's Never Been Harder to Find Air Traffic Controllers – Look at Newark

• GOP Senator Introduces Bill to Make All Porn a Federal Crime

• Judge puts two-week pause on Trump's mass government layoffs

Trump

• Big Trump Action Goes Mostly Unnoticed - by Chris Bray

  On Friday, President Trump issued a new executive order with a remarkably broad scope and deep implications, under the title “Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations.” the order flatly declares, “It is the policy of the United States that…criminal enforcement of criminal regulatory offenses is disfavored,” while adding, “Agencies promulgating regulations potentially subject to criminal enforcement should explicitly describe the conduct subject to criminal enforcement, the authorizing statutes, and the mens rea standard applicable to those offenses.” Imposing a mens rea standard on federal prosecutions for regulatory offenses means that the government will be expected to stop prosecuting people who didn’t know they were doing something illegal, or people whose guilty mind — their knowledge that they were doing something illegal, and meant to — can’t be proved. It makes federal prosecution harder, less likely, and probably less common.

  • Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations

Democrats

• Biden aides discussed wheelchair use if he were re-elected, new book says

Left Angst

• Episcopal Church Announces It Will Not Help Settle South African Refugees Because They’re Too WHITE.

• FCC commissioner writes op-ed titled, "It's time for Trump to DOGE the FCC"

• Twitch star HasanAbi says he was detained, questioned by border agents

• U.S. EPA takes aim at start-stop systems in cars

  The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to roll back federal incentives for automatic start-stop technology in new vehicles. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced the move Monday on social media, calling start-stop systems a "climate participation trophy" that most drivers dislike.

• Opinion | Sally Quinn on the Fear and Isolation of Trump’s Washington - The New York Times

  Washington is a city in crisis. Physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. It’s as if the fragrant air were permeated with an invisible poison, as if we were silently choking on carbon monoxide. The emotion all around — palpable in the streets, the shops, the restaurants, in business offices, at dinner tables — is fear. People have gone from greeting each other with a grimace of anguish as they spout about the outrage of the day to a laugh to despair. It’s all so unbelievable that it’s hard to process, and it doesn’t stop. Nobody feels safe. Nobody feels protected. This is a city where people seek and, if it all goes well for them, wield power. But today in Washington those who hold — or once held — the most power are often the most scared. It is not something they are used to feeling. I lived through the paranoia and vengefulness of Watergate. This time in Washington, it’s different. Nobody knows how this will end and what will happen to the country. What might happen to each of us. Even those who work for President Trump are scared. The capricious and shambolic way he governed in his first 100 days has them all insecure in their jobs. Mike Waltz is out. Bets are on as to how long Marco Rubio will remain in all his roles and Pete Hegseth in his. Elon Musk is on his way out, though who knows whether he’ll be able to log back into the government’s most sensitive systems from wherever he is? Those most afraid are the Republicans on Capitol Hill. They are afraid of not just being primaried but also facing retribution. Lisa Murkowski said it out loud. “We are all afraid,” she said. “Retaliation is real. And that’s not right.”

• My Brush with Trump's Thought Police

• Political attacks could crush the mRNA vaccine revolution

• How the United States Gave Up Being a Science Superpower

• Why the Poor Vote for the Right (and Stop Demanding More Equality) - Bocconi University

  “Political polarization no longer revolves around wealth or income,” says Gennaioli, a professor at Bocconi's Department of Finance. “It has become a clash between opposing visions of society: on one side the multicultural progressives, on the other side the conservatives tied to local, religious and traditional identities.” “Those who identify as 'white, Christian, traditionalist' will end up placing less importance on redistribution and more on defending their values. Even if they are poor,” stresses Tabellini, a professor at the Bocconi Department of Economics.

• Why I'm Resigning from the National Science Foundation

• Ireland hopes to entice academics as US becomes 'a cold place for free thinkers'

• I Came to Study Aging. Now I'm Trapped in ICE Detention

• Fewer people want to work in the U.S., Indeed data shows

  The share of international job seekers looking to work in the U.S. has declined sharply this year, per a report from Indeed out Tuesday. The labor market is slowing down, and stricter immigration policy — beginning with the Biden administration and accelerating under President Trump — is further cooling demand for American jobs. Clicks from job seekers outside the U.S. started climbing in mid-2021 as the job market boomed in the pandemic recovery. They peaked in August 2023, at 2.4% of all postings, and declined to 1.7% by March 2025.

• The Ultimate Bait and Switch of Trump’s Tariffs - The Atlantic

  All of this hullabaloo about nonsense deals with Britain and China rves to distract from the brute reality of the Trump and MAGA trade agenda. here are no real deals. Tariffs on U.S. imports from Britain and China, and the ensuing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports to Britain and China, are all higher than they were the day before Trump’s inauguration. Nothing has been achieved to promote trade, and indeed nothing has truly been tried, because trade promotion is not the goal. iscal redistribution from poor to rich: That is the goal. This goal is advancing. aximization of the president’s power—to punish enemies and sell favors—is also the goal. This goal is advancing even more successfully. Meanwhile, the deal patter of jingoistic rhetoric and confusing promises is deployed to conceal the real mechanics of plunder and profit. The only people who say otherwise are the hustlers and their touts. The only people who believe otherwise are the marks.

• GOP sneaks decade-long AI regulation ban into spending bill

  • Republicans Try to Cram Ban on AI Regulation into Budget Reconciliation Bill

• Elon Musk Brings Starlink to Saudi Arabia as US Oligarchs Join Trump in Mid East

• FDA and RFK Jr. aim to remove fluoride products used to protect kids' teeth

  • FDA moves to take prescription fluoride drops and tablets for kids off market

  • FDA moves to take prescription fluoride supplements off the market

• FCC threatens EchoStar licenses for spectrum that SpaceX wants to use

• Donald Trump’s gargantuan self-dealing

  Such deals are also hard to reconcile with Trump’s promise of “America First”. Should Qatar come good on its free jumbo jet, Trump’s so-called palace-in-the-sky would be at the expense of Boeing, which is under contract to resupply the ageing Air Force One fleet. How will Trump’s rash of impending Gulf towers and resorts serve America’s economic or diplomatic interests? That is open to debate. Yet the financial boost to Trump and his family is plain for all to see. The suspicion arises that the US president’s real agenda is Trump First. The rest is sleight of hand.

• Qatar's $400M jet for Trump is a gold-plated security nightmare

• Elon Musk's apparent power play at the Copyright Office backfired

• Trump's 'fear factor': Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• We haven't even had the Memorial Day leftist riots yet tho: No mass shootings so far this year in America

World

• Closing speech by President von der Leyen at 'Choose Europe for Science' event

• The public transport trend infuriating commuters amid calls for £1000 fines

• India-Pakistan Risks Loom

  • Airlines Prepare for Nuclear War

  • Narendra Modi says India has proved 'superiority' over Pakistan in clashes

• The online drug trade behind QR code stickers plastered on streets across the UK

• One of the Good Ones – mssv

  Britain benefitted immeasurably from its centuries of imperialism and colonialism. Many are deeply proud of this era and the resulting Commonwealth, but the moment they are asked to take responsibility, they look away. When white British people complain about cities being taken over by immigrants, do they mean we should bulldoze Chinatowns and curry miles? How many foreign restaurants in a row will they permit? Cutting immigration will cost the country dearly. And if the UK is indeed an island of strangers, it sure as shit ain’t because of immigrants, unless I missed the memo that all white Brits are dear friends.

• Montreal is about to unleash one of the toughest Airbnb crackdowns in the world

• Cyber attack: People 'turning up at farms' as Co-op shelves remain bare

• Peter Sullivan: Man jailed for 1986 murder has conviction quashed

  the statutory body set up to investigate potential miscarriages of justice - had referred Mr Sullivan's case back to the appeal court last year after fresh testing found a DNA profile pointing to an unknown attacker in semen samples preserved from the crime scene.

• Náhuatl and Mayan Language Renaissance Occurring in Mexico

Israel

• Google worried it couldn't control how Israel used its cloud, files reveal

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Poland to close Russian consulate in Kraków over Warsaw fire

China

• China Just Made the Fastest Transistor and It Is Not Made of Silicon

• China Makes High-Speed Laser Links in Orbit

• Chinese Weapons Gain Credibility After Pakistan-India Conflict

• China Removes Ban on Boeing Deliveries After US Trade Truce - Bloomberg

Health / Medicine

• New study sheds light on health differences between sexes

• The breakthrough blood test for Alzheimers

• Sleep apnea and memory impairments: clinical aspects, treatment, and mechanisms

• Golf course proximity linked to higher Parkinson's disease risk

• Ever wonder where the money for "Just Say No" came from? Alcohol use is declining. THC is swooping in

• Shingles vaccine reduces risk of heart disease by 23%, study of one million

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Two States With Greatest MMR Vaccination Rate Increase Also Report Most Measles Cases in 2025

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Netflix and Meta's Carbon Credits Snared in Dispute with Maasai Herders

• First commercial-scale e-methanol plant opens in Denmark

• Starch-based bioplastic may be as toxic as petroleum-based plastic

• Native Farmers Pair Ancestral Knowledge with Climate Expertise

• Less meat is nearly always better than sustainable meat