2025-06-06

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• A Look Back at Recent Car Carrier Fires

  The fire aboard the car carrier Morning Midas in the North Pacific Ocean marks the latest significant incident in the maritime industry’s ongoing challenges involving fires on vehicle carriers. The UK-owned, Liberia-flagged vessel caught fire on Tuesday, June 3, 2025, about 300 miles south of Adak, forcing all 22 crew members to evacuate. The vessel was carrying 3,159 vehicles—including 65 fully electric and 681 partial hybrid electric vehicles—when crew members spotted smoke coming from a deck containing electric vehicles. Despite immediately activating onboard fire suppression systems, the crew couldn’t contain the fire and had to abandon ship via life raft. They were safely transferred to a nearby good Samaritan vessel. This incident follows a concerning pattern of similar events in recent years, underscoring the shipping industry’s challenges with vehicle transport, especially those equipped with lithium-ion batteries. Each incident in this growing list of car carrier fires provides crucial safety insights.

Horseshit

• The Role of Social Media in Cartel Recruitment

• Where in the World Is the World's Fair?

  The 1964 World’s Fair promoted an attitude of total optimism about the future. The message couldn’t be clearer: Life will be getting better and better. Technology is our friend. And so our all the nations of the world. That happy optimism about the future is gone now—kaput! And even the phrase “World’s Fair” has been replaced. We are told to call them expositions now. And at Expo 2025—which opened seven weeks ago in Osaka, Japan—the theme is saving lives. Instead of international cuisine, music, and goodwill, the emphasis will be on sanitation, diet, disease, exercise, and other sober topics.

• Amazon prepares to test humanoid robots for deliveries, The Information reports

  • We're supposed to be a couple years into "drone deliveries" already...

  • Amazon 'testing humanoid robots to deliver packages'

• Swimming world body will banish participants in pro-doping Enhanced Games

• Magnus Carlsen might walk away from classical chess

• Ken Jennings: Trivia and 'Jeopardy ' Could Save Our Republic

• Want to Get Stronger and Avoid Injury? Try Eccentric Exercises

• Front Brake Lights Could Drastically Diminish Road Accident Rates

• Why Your Biometric Data Will Soon Be More Valuable Than Money

• Volvo's Latest Seatbelts Customize Their Protection Based on Crash Severity

• Why this American woman moved from California to Mexico 20 years ago

celebrity gossip

• Amelia Earhart's Reckless Final Flights

Obit

• Marc Garneau, first Canadian astronaut in space, dead at 76

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• The dark psychology of how people get drawn into cults

Musk

• Tesla loses another manager to layoffs – but this one quit due to morale

• Elon Musk shared my photos without credit, and then suspended my account

• Bloomberg Uses Old Tesla FSD Data to Question Robotaxi Safety

• Twitter's new encrypted DMs aren't better than the old ones

• Tesla is trying to stop certain self-driving crash data becoming public

• X changes its terms to bar training of AI models using its content

• SpaceX to build its own advanced chip packaging factory in Texas

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Naming Imane Khelif has caused ‘immeasurable psychological damage.’

• Many of Dead Sea scrolls may be older than thought, experts say

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Peer review is just internet trolls for science

• Nobel Prize winners convince court to revive CRISPR patent dispute

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Nintendo sells out Switch 2 console at global launch

  • Nintendo Switch 2 gets disassembled – Nvidia chip gets its close-up

  • How Nintendo dodged Trump’s tariffs and saved the Switch 2 release

• Nintendo Has Something to Sell You

• Nintendo warns Switch 2 GameChat users: "Your chat is recorded"

• Endangered classic Mac plastic color returns as 3D-printer filament

• PS5 shooter goes from 5 players to bestseller after devs defend game

• Court denies Apple appeal in Epic Games case, keeping App Store changes in place

• Lionsgate Boss Says AI Can Adjust a Movie's Rating, Create Kid-Friendly Cuts

• Apple Notes Will Gain Markdown Export at WWDC, and, I Have Thoughts

• Researchers uncover possible iPhone spyware campaign inside U.S.

• Hollywood Is Already Using AI (and Hiding It)

• California court says holding phone for maps while driving is illegal

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Universal Disk Format is a "dumpster fire" on all the main operating systems

  UDF has been relegated to a filesystem use on BD media to hold HD movies. That's it's home in 2025 and as a tiny handful of people across the planet want to make homemade HD movie discs there simply is nobody interested in letting anyone do that on Linux.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Meta is massively suspending Instagram accounts based on flawed AI

• Court Orders OpenAI to retain all chat logs

  • OpenAI slams court order to save all ChatGPT logs, including deleted chats

• Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai dismisses AI job fears, emphasizes expansion plans

  • Google DeepMind's CEO Thinks AI Will Make Humans Less Selfish

• Hugging Face says its new robotics model is so efficient it can run on a MacBook

• Claude Gov Models for U.S. National Security Customers

  • Anthropic unveils custom AI models for U.S. national security customers

• Datacenters have a public image problem: Most people are fucking scared of AI

• Therapy Chatbot Tells Recovering Addict to Have a Little Meth as a Treat

• AI firms say they can't respect copyright. These researchers tried

• How vibe coding is tipping Silicon Valley's scales of power

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• End of an Era: Landsat 7 Decommissioned After 25 Years of Earth Observation

Crypto con games

• Stablecoin Firm Circle Triples After IPO Priced Above Range

  • Stablecoin issuer Circle soars 168% in IPO debut, above expected range

  • Circle Internet shares soar 150% on NYSE debut

Economicon / Business / Finance

• There Aren't Enough Engineers to Meet Growing Hunger for Power

• Amazon to invest $10B in North Carolina to expand cloud, AI infra

  • Amazon to invest $10bi in NC to expand cloud and advance AI innovation

• Economists Raise Questions About Quality of U.S. Inflation Data

• Procter & Gamble to slash 7,000 jobs in cost-cutting drive

• 23andMe seeks new bids after $305M offer from its co-founder

  • Bankruptcy Was Good for 23andMe

• $1.7T sits in lost and forgotten 401(k) accounts

• US auto suppliers say immediate action needed on China rare earths restrictions

• BlackRock to Eliminate About 300 Jobs in Second Cut This Year

• Microsoft stock just hit a record high as it cashes in on the AI boom

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Statement on California State Senate Advancing Dangerous Surveillance Bill

• FDA rushed out agency-wide AI tool—it’s not going well

• Supreme Court Unanimously Rules for Straight Woman in Workplace Discrimination Suit - The New York Times

  The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously ruled in favor of a straight woman who twice lost positions to gay workers, saying an appeals court had been wrong to require her to meet a heightened burden in seeking to prove workplace discrimination because she was a member of a majority group. The decision came two years after the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions programs in higher education and amid the Trump administration’s fierce efforts to root out programs that promote diversity and could make it easier for white people, men and other members of majority groups to pursue claims of employment discrimination. The standards for proving workplace discrimination under a federal civil rights law, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote for the court, “does not vary based on whether or not the plaintiff is a member of a majority group.”

  • Supreme Court Unanimously sides with Straight Woman in "Reverse Discrimination" Case

• Galveston Gets First LNG Bunkering Permit on U.S. Gulf Coast

Trump

• Kill (The) Bill: Musk Goes Ballistic Against GOP Tax And Spending Package | ZeroHedge

• GOP rage with Musk spills out privately after break with Trump

  "He's a complete joke. He had no idea what the f*** he was doing, whatsoever," said one House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation from the billionaire Tesla owner. The lawmaker added: "Nobody really wanted him here. We couldn't wait to get rid of him." A second lawmaker pointedly noted electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla benefit from tax credits the bill would eliminate: "Some of the things he's advocating for now serve his own purpose. So I guess he's now lobbying just like everybody else."

  • Trump attacks Musk as public feud escalates over tax-cut bill

  • Trump and Elon Musk Spar Over Domestic Policy Bill as Relationship Frays - The New York Times

  President Trump and Elon Musk’s alliance dissolved into open acrimony on Thursday, as the two men hurled personal attacks at each other after the billionaire had unleashed broadsides against the president’s signature domestic policy bill. While meeting with Friedrich Merz, Germany’s new chancellor, in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump broke days of uncharacteristic silence and unloaded on Mr. Musk, who until last week was a top presidential adviser.

• Trump and Musk enter bitter feud – and Washington buckles up

• Musk Says SpaceX to Decommission Dragon Spacecraft Immediately - Bloomberg

  Elon Musk said he was going to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft that ferries cargo and people to the International Space Station for the US, escalating a dayslong spat between the billionaire and President Donald Trump. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is the company’s primary vehicle for sending astronauts and cargo to orbit. The company has billions of dollars in contracts with NASA to send the agency’s astronauts on periodic trips to and from the ISS, which allows the space agency to maintain an uninterrupted presence at the space station until its retirement in 2030. Musk’s pledge followed Trump’s threat to pull Musk’s governmental contracts, which was prompted by the near-incessant bashing of the president’s tax bill on X, his social media service.

  • SpaceX will begin decommissioning Dragon spacecraft

  • Musk: SpaceX will ground Dragon spacecraft used to shuttle astronauts to ISS

• Musk says Trump is named in Epstein files

  Billionaire Elon Musk alleged that President Trump has ties to convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein as the part of his growing feud with the president, a fight that boiled over and turned personal on Thursday. “Time to drop the really big bomb,” Musk wrote on X, the social platform he owns. “[Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.” Minutes later, he followed up: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.” Names of powerful people previously associated with Epstein — who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019 — including Trump, Prince Andrew and former President Clinton, have been mentioned in court documents related to Epstein’s decades of sexual abuse.

  • "Trump is in Epstein files." Reason why they haven't been made public

  • Elon Musk Suggests Trump Is in Epstein Files, a Source of Endless Conspiracy

• Trump Targets Musk's Federal Subsidies, Contracts as Feud Grows

  • Trump threatens to cut Musk's government contracts, escalating their public feud

  • Trump says Musk went 'CRAZY', suggests cutting contracts for his companies

  • Trump says Elon Musk “went CRAZY”

• Musk Calls for Trump to Be Impeached

  While Trump’s replies to Musk have been relatively muted compared to his typical insult approach, Musk is raising the stakes. His most recent example was Musk’s agreeing with Ian Miles Cheong, saying “Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him,” to which Musk quoted and replied saying “Yes.”

• Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States

Democrats

• Biden FBI’s Targeting Of ‘Traditional’ Catholics Was Bigger Than Previously Thought, Docs Show.

Left Angst

• Over $1B in federal funding got slashed for this polluting industry

  On Friday, the US Department of Energy announced that it was canceling $3.7 billion in funding for 24 projects related to energy and industry. That included nearly $1.3 billion for cement-related projects. Cement is a massive climate problem, accounting for roughly 7% of global greenhouse-gas emissions. What’s more, it’s a difficult industry to clean up, with huge traditional players and expensive equipment and infrastructure to replace. This funding was supposed to help address those difficulties, by supporting projects on the cusp of commercialization. Now companies will need to fill in the gap left by these cancellations, and it’s a big one.

• How NASA advisory committees are navigating a new political landscape

• The ideological rift on the tech right - by Paris Marx

  urely, such wealthy people have much more in common than they do separating them. But the exchange does expose an ideological rift that will likely only grow in the coming years as more of the tech industry openly aligns itself with the security state to pursue lucrative military contracts.

• Trump DOJ takes unprecedented step admonishing foreign judge in free speech case

• US science is being wrecked

• Trump Pushes to Restrict Harvard's International Students from Entering U.S.

• The Kindling Is a Lot Drier Than It Used to Be

  How does political violence come to an end? It’s been a lingering question the last few years in the wake of shocking episodes like the Jan. 6 Capitol riot or the assassination attempts on Donald Trump. And it’s become newly pressing following the antisemitic fallout of the Israel-Hamas war on American soil. In the last two weeks, we’ve seen two Israeli embassy workers fatally shot in Washington, D.C. and eight members of the Jewish community burned in an attack in Boulder, Colorado. There has also been violence against Muslims and people of Palestinian descent since the war began. William J. Bernstein, a neurologist and the author of The Delusions of Crowds, a book about the consequences of mass hysteria in history, expects the waves of political violence to eventually stop — but perhaps not until we reach a terrible episode that serves as a tipping point.

• "Another blow": How Trump's latest travel ban could harm research

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• City halts police license plate reader program after public pushback

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• OpenAI takes down covert operations tied to China, Russia, Iran

• Chinese couple charged with smuggling crop-killing fungus into the US

• The U.S. Plan to Hobble China Tech Isn't Working

World

• Euthanasia Advocate Who Assisted in Woman's Suicide Dies in Germany

• UK tech job openings climb 21% to pre-pandemic highs

• Consumer groups filed a complaint against SHEIN for dark patterns

• Panjandrum: The 'giant firework' built to break Hitler's Atlantic Wall

• Japan's births in 2024 fall below 700k for first time

  • Japan annual births fall to new record low

• TechCrunch rocks industry with European shutdown: 'A gut punch to the ecosystem'

• Brewed from rice, water and tomatoes: The growth of 'craft sake'

• Can Europe Unplug from Trump's America?

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• 2010 U.S.-Russia Treaty Helped Kyiv's UAVs Destroy Russian Nuclear Bombers

• Ukraine's Operation "Spider's Web" Redefines Asymmetric Warfare

• How Ukraine's Drone Arsenal Shocked Russia and Changed Modern Warfare

China

• Xiaomi among Chinese tech groups set to be hardest hit by US chip software ban

• China hopes to power AI boom with green energy in new data centre strategy

• US Tariffs Are Forcing Strategic Overhauls at Temu and Shein

Health / Medicine

• Breakthrough in search for HIV cure leaves researchers 'overwhelmed'

• Neuralink competitor Paradromics completes first human implant

• Parasite Infecting Up to 50% of People Can Decapitate Human Sperm

  Male fertility rates have been plummeting over the past half-century. An analysis from 1992 noted a steady decrease in sperm counts and quality since the 1940s. A more recent study found that male infertility rates increased nearly 80% from 1990 to 2019. The reasons driving this trend remain a mystery, but frequently cited culprits include obesity, poor diet and environmental toxins. Infectious diseases such as gonorrhea or chlamydia are often overlooked factors that affect fertility in men. Accumulating evidence suggests that a common single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii may also be a contributor: An April 2025 study showed for the first time that "human sperm lose their heads upon direct contact" with the parasite.

• Cancer more deadly when tumours lack Y chromosome – the loss could be contagious

• Longevity Is Now a Factor When Picking an Embryo for IVF

• Millions in west don't know they have aggressive fatty liver disease, study says

• Man who considered assisted death after bedsore: you have to fight for care

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• A Massive Cloud of Saharan Dust Is About to Hit The United States.

• Sydney's sulphur-crested cockatoos spotted using drinking fountains

• An "ice battery" system is being used to cool buildings and lower energy costs

• It's Not Just Poor Rains Causing Drought. The Atmosphere Is 'Thirstier.'

• Elephant barges into convenience store, grabs a trunkful of snacks

• Occasional paper: The impossible predicament of the death newts — Crooked Timber

  The world’s most toxic newt is Taricha granulosa, the Rough-Skinned Newt, a modest little amphibian native to the North American Pacific Northwest, west of the Cascades from around Santa Cruz, CA up to the Alaska Panhandle. It’s so toxic that the poison from a single newt can easily kill several adult humans. You could literally die from licking this newt, just once. (But note that the newt is toxic, not venomous. It doesn’t bite or sting. You could handle one safely, as long as you washed your hands thoroughly afterwards. Very, very thoroughly.)

• US oil firms pumping secret chemicals into ground and not reporting it

• Rare black iceberg spotted off Labrador coast could be 100k years old