2025-06-17
Worthy
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epic rant. long, but worthy Sincerity Wins The War
The metaverse was a joke! It never existed! Meta bought a company that made VR headsets — a technology so old, they featured in an episode of Murder She Wrote — and an online game that could best be described as “Second Life, but sadder.” Here’s a piece from the Washington Post agreeing with me! The metaverse never really had a product of any kind, and lost tens of billions of dollars for no reason! Here’s a whole thing I wrote about it years ago! To still bring up the metaverse in the year of our lord 2025 is ridiculous!
Just to be clear, and I quote Palmer Luckey, the helmet that will feature an “ever-present companion who can operate systems, who can communicate with others, who you can off-load tasks onto … that is looking out for you with more eyes than you could ever look out for yourself right there right there in your helmet.” This is all going to be powered by Llama? Really? Are we all really going to accept that? Does nobody actually think about the words they’re writing down?
The illuminati doesn’t need to exist. We don’t need to talk about the Bilderberg Group, or Skull and Bones, or reptilians, or wheel out David Icke and his turquoise shellsuit. The media has become more than willing to follow whatever it needs to once everybody agrees on the latest fad or campaign, to the point that they’ll repeat nonsensical claim after nonsensical claim.
The cycle repeats because our society — and yes, our editorial class too — is controlled by people who don’t actually interact with it. They have beliefs that they want affirmed, ideas that they want spread, and they don’t even need to work that hard to do so, because the editorial rails are already in place to accept whatever the next big idea is. They’ve created editorial class structures to make sure writers will only write what’s assigned, pushing back on anything that steps too far out of everybody’s agreed-upon comfort zone.
what people are hurting for right now is actual, real sincerity. Everybody feels like something is wrong. The products they use every day are increasingly-broken, pumped full of generative AI features that literally get in the way of what they’re trying to do, which already was made more difficult because companies like Meta and Google intentionally make their products harder to use as a means of making more money. And, let’s be clear, people are well aware of the billions in profits that these companies make at the customer’s expense. They feel talked down to, tricked, conned, abused and abandoned, both parties’ representatives operating in terms almost as selfish as the markets that they also profit from. They read articles that blandly report illegal or fantastical things as permissible and rational and think, for a second, “am I wrong? Is this really the case? This doesn’t feel the case?” while somebody tells them that despite the fact that they have less money and said money doesn’t go as far, they’re actually experiencing the highest standard of living in history. Ultimately, regular people are repeatedly made to feel like they don’t matter. Their products are overstuffed with confusing menus, random microtransactions, the websites they read full of advertisements disguised as stories and actual advertisements built to trick them, their social networks intentionally separating them from the things they want to see.
Horseshit
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Honda Japan confirms end of production of iconic Honda Civic Type R sports car
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AI-powered aerial imagery helps insurers speed up disaster claims
Near Space builds and deploys autonomous devices with proprietary cameras and sensors that capture all kinds of ultra-precise data from disaster areas. The devices, known as Swift robots, travel in the stratosphere — higher than airplanes — at a vantage point that makes it easy to map large areas more cost-effectively than planes or drones.
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Why are some Iraqis so good at figuring out when a person is lying?
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Amazon is reportedly training humanoid robots to deliver packages
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People who are 'allergic' to humans
Maura believes condoms saved her life. Now 43 and living in Ohio, US, Maura says the problem first started in her twenties, when it slowly crept up on her. “I noticed that my genitals burned after [unprotected] sex," she recounts. Maura (whose name has been changed to protect her privacy) didn't feel comfortable mentioning it to her partner. So, she'd wait until he left and then wash herself thoroughly. She tried changing the personal care products she was using, from soap to lubricant. But the problem only worsened, extending to swelling and redness. And it only happened after she came into contact with semen.
Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
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College Baseball, Venture Capital, and the Long Maybe
Early on in my own son’s journey — as he was navigating different junior college options in the spring of 2022 — it struck me that the experience of the college athlete does have a clear analogue, and it is in fact one in which I do have recent and germane experience: becoming a college athlete (especially for revenue sports at the highest levels of play) looks uncannily like raising a round of venture capital.
Raising a round of venture capital and landing a college roster spot are, in the abstract, both a kind of asymmetric, non-linear coupling. In both cases, you have an institution that is placing a bet on the future. (And the future is — as baseball player Yogi Berra famously quipped — especially tough to make predictions about!) The bet, once placed, can’t be taken back: once the money is wired or the roster slot is given, a die is cast. The decision isn’t forever, of course (you can choose not fund subsequent rounds and you can make future roster adjustments) but in both cases there is an opportunity cost associated with the decision that is irreversible. And the stakes are high. In both cases, the institution is results-oriented: venture capital firms need to deliver for their limited partners and have a constant eye on raising their next fund; coaches need to win and constantly fear for their job security. For the counterparty, the stakes are differently high: the athlete — like the entrepreneur — is trying to manage their own fate rather than a portfolio; they don’t get to apply portfolio theory to the one career they get to live.
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
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Oblivion Remastered is selling new horse armor like it's 2006
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People can be identified by their breathing patterns with 97% accuracy
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Cyberattack on Washington Post Strikes Journalists' Email Accounts
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WhatsApp is getting ads using personal data from Instagram and Facebook
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Makers of air fryers and smart speakers told to respect users' right to privacy
TechSuck / Geek Bait
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
Crypto con games
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Walmart and Amazon Are Exploring Issuing Their Own Stablecoins
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Crypto group Tron to go public after U.S. pauses probe into billionaire founder
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This is nuts. When’s the crash?
One of the current market mysteries is why people are paying approximately $2 for $1 of bitcoin. After MicroStrategy discovered it could buy bitcoin in a recursive loop using money raised by selling shares and weird convertible debt at a premium to its net asset value, lots of companies have been doing the same thing.
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Stablecoin firm Circle adds to stellar first day gains with another stock surge
Economicon / Business / Finance
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Warner Bros: fright night for bondholders
Warner Brothers Discovery is breaking up and bondholders have been left carrying the baby. Specifically, a US$37bn bundle of debt joy that will essentially now be supported by only one half of the business. The rating agencies have reacted with horror by placing Warner’s ratings on review for downgrade and signalled that not only is this business not investment grade but that its bonds could fall as far as the single-B range.
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Reward program locks man out of $43K account without warning or explanation
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Founder of 23andMe buys back company out of bankruptcy auction
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Amazon Signs 141,000 Square Foot Silicon Valley We Work Lease Amid RTO Mandate
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Novo Nordisk will lose billions because it didn't pay a couple hundred dollars
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
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New York Is Not a Democracy - The Atlantic
former Governor Andrew Cuomo is in an improbably close race for mayor with Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist and member of the state assembly. In recent weeks, Cuomo has whipped up cowbell-ringing members of the carpenters’ union in Hudson Square and Mamdani has railed against corporate power in a church in the West Village. They traded barbs with smiles on a debate stage before marching down Fifth Avenue in the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. They are leading a field of a dozen mayoral candidates who will face off in a ranked-choice election for the Democratic primary on June 24. (Because the city has six times as many registered Democrats as registered Republicans, the Democratic primary is generally the de facto mayoral election.) Instead of picking one person to lead the city, voters will rank up to five candidates. This process is wonkish and confusing. But it ensures that similar candidates do not split a constituency. This, proponents of ranked-choice voting say, is the most democratic form of democracy. Cuomo is likely to get more first-choice votes than any other candidate. But he’s not projected to win an outright majority, meaning that the ranked-choice system would kick in. Candidate after candidate would get knocked out, and their supporters’ votes reapportioned. In the end, the political scion with a multimillion-dollar war chest and blanket name recognition could lose to the young Millennial whom few New Yorkers had heard of as of last year. One new survey, by Data for Progress, shows Cuomo ultimately defeating Mamdani by two points, within the margin of error. Another poll shows Mamdani with more support than Cuomo.
Mostly Peaceful Riots
Trump
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Nearly 1 million illegal immigrants have ‘self deported’ under Trump, which has led to higher wages.
The Washington Post claims “a million foreign-born workers have exited the workforce since March.” The Post frames this as “a sign of the weakening labor supply.” Yet the paper also notes, “Average hourly wages accelerated, rising by 0.4 percent over the month, to $36.24 in May, as earnings continue to beat inflation in a boost to workers’ spending power.” In other words, with fewer illegal immigrants, businesses had to raise wages to attract workers.
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Trump Tax Bill to Boost Biden's Semiconductor Tax Credit to 30%
Left Angst
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Trump Organization enters phone market with $499 Trump Mobile device
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Trump Mobile Launches a Bold New Wireless Service for Americans
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The Trump Organization is debuting a cellular phone service called T1 Phone
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Trump Organization announces new 'Trump Mobile' phone service
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Trump Mobile launches, hyping $499 US-made phone amid Apple threats
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Trump Mobile's made-in-US iPhone 17 competitor is made in China
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The FCC Builds a Firewall Around US-Bound Electronics
On May 22, 2025, the FCC voted unanimously to ban telecommunications certification bodies or testing labs directly or indirectly owned by an enterprise on the Covered List or exerting at least 10% control. The decision contains another aspect, enforced as part of its efforts to improve its oversight of the equipment authorization program. It would require telecommunications certification bodies and testing laboratories to report all entities holding at least a 5% direct or indirect equity or voting interest in them.
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Trump's FTC may impose merger condition that forbids advertising boycotts
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Six Tools for Tracking the Administration's Attacks on Civil Liberties
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Australian denied entry to US after being grilled about Israel-Gaza views
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
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Suspected political assassin Vance Luther Boelter was captured Sunday following an intense manhunt for the gunman accused of murdering a Minnesota state lawmaker and wounding another, state officials announced. Boelter sent a text to his best friends and roommate after the shootings, allegedly admitting to the heinous killings.
“David and Ron, I love you guys. I made some choices, and you guys don’t know anything about this, but I’m going to be gone for a while. May be dead shortly, so I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish it hadn’t gone this way,” Boelter told David Carlson, according to KARE.
A motive for the shootings is not yet known, though it’s believed to be politically charged. Boelter served on a 60-member state workforce development board with Hoffman, according to records. The accused murderer allegedly listed roughly 70 names of Minnesota lawmakers and abortion advocates in a “manifesto” discovered by investigators inside the faux cop cruiser. The politicians, activists and reproductive health care clinics are believed to have been his other targets had he not been intercepted by police at Hortman’s home.
David Carlson said Boelter had conservative political views, but rarely talked about politics and didn’t seem overtly political. “He was a Trump supporter. He voted for Trump. He liked Trump. I like Trump,” he said.
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
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The U.S. Navy is more aggressively telling startups, 'We want you'
- Consider how well they maintain the fleet; do you want these folks involved in your business?
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The Pentagon is gutting the team that tests AI and weapons systems
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Nimitz sails to Middle East as fighting between Iran and Israel intensifies
World
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BBC examining plans that could lead to US consumers paying for its journalism
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German police commissioner calls for purge of AfD members from police ranks
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Policymakers who think AI can help rescue flagging UK economy should take heed
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Europe-wide takedown hits longest-standing dark web drug market
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Spaniards use waterguns on visitors in Barcelona and Mallorca to protest tourism
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Tourists damage crystal-covered chair in Italian museum by sitting on it
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The East Asian high-rise development model is catastrophic for birth rates
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Dutch cabinet to advise parents to ban social media before age of 15
Iran / Houthi
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After Saturday reports widely said that Israel requested direct US military assistance in attacking Iranian nuclear sites, President Trump in fresh comments to ABC News has begun to change the White House tune a little, as he now says it's 'possible' the US 'could get involved' in the Israel-Iran conflict. He told ABC's Rachel Scott that "it's possible we could get involved" - however he emphasized that the US military is "not at this moment involved" in the conflict. He pivoted to calling for peaceful resolution, saying the US would be "open" to Russian President Vladimir Putin being a mediator in. "He is ready. He called me about it. We had a long talk about it," Trump said. Of course, he campaigned against new wars starting and said these major conflicts would not have happened if he was president. Regional sources are reporting on Sunday the highest number of observed strikes in daylight in an around Tehran. Israel's military says that over 80 sites were hit overnight, and has vowed to "hunt down" ballistic missile launchers in western Iran. Radar and anti-air defense batteries were also struck "as part of the IDF’s aerial superiority in Iranian airspace."
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Iran uses video game clip as 'proof' it took down Israeli fighter jet | The Jerusalem Post
Iran initially claimed to have shot down a jet and captured a pilot. The news was denied by Israel, which spoke bluntly of fake news. A few hours later, a new announcement from Iranian sources: an Israeli plane was shot down and there is also a video. The clip bounces on social media, showing a jet being hit by anti-aircraft fire. There is something wrong, however. The doubts are more than well-founded. The clip is nothing more than an excerpt from a video game, Arma 3. The realistic images, among other things, are cyclically re-proposed to document alleged jet shootdowns. Further detail: the plane inserted in the video game is not even Israeli but, apparently, it would be a Russian model...
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Israeli jets bomb building of Iran state broadcaster in Tehran; anchor flees studio in mid-broadcast
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IAEA chief: Likely all machines at Iran’s main enrichment plant ‘severely damaged.’
Russia Bad / Ukraine War
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Russian Troops Are Lobbing Chemical Rockets in Eastern Ukraine
The rusty brown smoke billowing from the BM-21 as it exploded was a dead giveaway. Nitrogen-based chemical agents including nitric acid burn brown when struck. “I assume they wanted to neutralize our infantry,” the drone operator added. “That’s the first time I’ve seen this kind of tactic.”
Health / Medicine
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A New Obesity Pill May Burn Fat Without Suppressing Appetite
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Rosemary: The herb linked to better memory, lower anxiety and Alzheimer's protection
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This is what happens to women who drink coffee
In short, the women in the study who habitually drank at least one cup of coffee a day were statistically much more likely to be among those 3,706 women who stayed strong, mentally sharp, and healthy as they grew older.
Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp
Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda
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Delightfully irreverent Underdogs isn't your parents' nature docuseries
Most of us have seen a nature documentary or two (or three) at some point in our lives, so it's a familiar format: sweeping majestic footage of impressively regal animals accompanied by reverently high-toned narration (preferably with a tony British accent). Underdogs, a new docuseries from National Geographic, takes a decidedly different and unconventional approach. Narrated by with hilarious irreverence by Ryan Reynolds, the five-part series highlights nature's less cool and majestic creatures: the outcasts and benchwarmers, more noteworthy for their "unconventional hygiene choices" and "unsavory courtship rituals." It's like The Suicide Squad or Thunderbolts*, except these creatures actually exist.
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Vienna Could be the model for how to tackle the housing crisis, climate change
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The Herbicide Diquat Poisons the Gut, Leading to Multiple Organ Dysfunction
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Probiotics Slow Spread of Deadly Disease Decimating Caribbean Reefs
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Truckloads of Scotland's rubbish will be sent to England, experts say
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Global warming may increase the burden of obstructive sleep apnea
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Scientists genetically engineer a lethal mosquito STD to combat malaria
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Fashion demands it: Should Wyoming Ranchers Paint Zebra Stripes on Their Cows? Science Says Yes