2025-07-08

etc

• Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi volcano erupts and sends searing-hot ash miles high

Horseshit

• As women have far fewer babies, the US and world face unprecedented challenges

• Airbus okays use of 'Taxibot' to tow planes to the runway

• The Tokyo capsule tower that gave pod-living penthouse chic

• Archaeologists unveil 3,500-year-old city in Peru

  • Archaeologists in Peru unveil 3,500 year old city that linked coast and Andes

• Wimbledon line-calling system under fire after major glitch

  • Game, set, botch: AI umpiring at Wimbledon goes long

  • Tennis players criticize AI technology used by Wimbledon

• James Dyson is robo farming strawberries in Lincolnshire

• Simulation of Crashed Air India Jet Puts Focus on Technical Flaw

• The untold story about how Olive Garden's most popular special came to be

• Think Work-Life Balance Is Overrated? You're Hired

• Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws' Endured a Hellish Production

• Figuring out why a nap might help people see things in new ways

• The ChompSaw: A Benchtop Power Tool That's Safe for Kids to Use

• Mental Illness, Political Ideology, and Holding False Beliefs

  Our recent Skeptic Research Center survey of over 3,000 Americans found that 67% of GenZ men and 72% of GenZ women (i.e., those born between 1997-2006) believe “mental health challenges are an important part of my identity.”7 It isn’t just young people, though. After all, American culture—and possibly that of most Western nations—is one dominated by therapy and psychiatry. So, while rates of identifying as mentally ill are higher in younger generations, we still found that over a quarter (27%) of Baby Boomer men and over a third (34%) of Baby Boomer women (i.e., those born between 1946-1964) believe that mental health challenges are an important part of their identity

• Older Coloradans are turning to the "Golden Girls" housing model

• Ageing bridges around the world have collapse risk. A way to safeguard them

• They keep surprisingly well unwashed: Should you keep eggs in the fridge? Short answer: Yes.

• Gen Z, the Useful Idiot Generation

• What is a micro-retirement? Inside the latest Gen Z trend

• Never employ a cat. They are 'unreliable, capricious and liable to absenteeism'

• Ultra-thin bendy solar panels are so light you can wear them

• Curious chimps and nosy kids: new study shows it's only natural to love drama

celebrity gossip

• DOJ, FBI conclude Epstein had no "client list," committed suicide

  President Trump's Justice Department and FBI have concluded they have no evidence that convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed powerful figures, kept a "client list" or was murdered, according to a memo detailing the findings obtained by Axios. The administration is releasing a video — in both raw and "enhanced" versions — that it says indicates no one entered the area of the Manhattan prison where Epstein was held the night he died in 2019. The video supports a medical examiner's finding that Epstein died by suicide, the two-page memo claims. The findings represent the first time Trump's administration has officially contradicted conspiracy theories about Epstein's activities and his death — theories that had been pushed by the FBI's top two officials before Trump appointed them to the bureau.

  • FBI Concludes Jeffrey Epstein Had No Clients, Didn't Blackmail Anyone, And Definitely Killed Himself | ZeroHedge

Musk

• How much of the media is spewing "free Palestine" and "Death to Israel" too? Musk's "Upgraded" AI Is Spewing Antisemitic Propaganda

  • 'Improved' Grok Criticizes Democrats and Hollywood's 'Jewish Executives'

• Tesla's autopilot turns off automatically a fraction of a second before a crash

• USAF halts plan for rocket landing pads on remote Pacific atoll amid backlash

• Tesla Stock Slides After Musk Says He's Creating a New Political Party

• Can Elon's America Party succeed where others have failed?

• Mexico Spars with Muck's SpaceX Over Rocket Debris

Electric / Self Driving cars

• EVs Will Decimate Big Oil

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• College degree no longer guarantees post-grad employment

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• TikTok to Launch New App for US Users in September

• Titan 2 is a modern BlackBerry with 5G, Android, and two screens

• Oracle Gives U.S. Government Discount on Cloud and Software

• NYC Audiences Will See 'Twin Peaks' Season 3 the Way Lynch Intended

• Jack Dorsey launches a WhatsApp messaging rival built on Bluetooth

• Ubisoft Wants Gamers to Destroy All Copies of a Game Once It Goes Offline

• The Media's Traffic Apocalypse

• AMD RX 9070 XT now faster than RTX 5070 Ti with 9% gain at 1440p since launch

• Threads is nearing X's daily app users, new data shows

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Gnome 49 Alpha Released with X11 Support Disabled by Default, Many New Features

• Why I used to prefer permissive licenses and now favor copyleft

  Glen Weyl-style economic arguments have convinced me that, in the presence of superlinear returns to scale, the optimal policy is actually NOT Rothbard/Mises-style strict property rights. Rather, the optimal policy does involve some nonzero amount of more actively pushing projects to be more open than they otherwise would be. Fundamentally, if you assume economies of scale, then by simple mathematical reasoning, nonzero openness is the only way that the world does not eventually converge to one actor controlling everything. Economies of scale means that if I have 2x the resources that you do, I will be able to make more than 2x the progress. Hence, next year, I will have eg. 2.02x the resources that you do. Hence...

  A key pressure that has prevented this dynamic from getting out of hand historically is the fact that we are not able to opt out of diffusion of progress. People move between companies and between countries and take their ideas and talents with them. Poorer countries are able to trade with richer countries and get catch-up growth. Industrial espionage happens everywhere. Innovations get reverse-engineered. More recently, however, several trends threaten this balance, and at the same time threaten other factors that have kept unbalanced growth in check.

  For this reason, I am increasingly okay with stronger efforts to make diffusion of progress something that is more actively incentivized or mandatory. Copyleft creates a large pool of code (or other creative products) that you can only legally use if you are willing to share the source code of anything you build on it. Hence, copyleft can be viewed as a very broad-based and neutral way of incentivizing more diffusion, getting the benefits of policies like the above without many of their downsides. This is because copyleft does not favor specific actors and does not create roles for active parameter setting by central planners.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• AI Is a Boon to 'High Agency' People

• Anthropic downloaded over 7M pirated books to train Claude, a judge said

• Google's 'AI overviews' sparked an antitrust firestorm in the EU?

• Xbox executive urges laid off employees to talk to Copilot for emotional support

  • Laid-off workers should use AI to manage their emotions, says Xbox exec

• The AI Birthday Letter That Blew Me Away

• AI sycophancy: The downside of a digital yes-man

• ChatGPT could pilot a spacecraft unexpectedly well, early tests find

• Tech Companies Have Created a Loneliness Doom Loop

• OpenAI spent 119% of revenue for employee stocks

• We Need an FAA for Artificial Intelligence regulation is needed to keep AI safe

Crypto con games

• Crypto, Startups and Banking Make a Scary Mix

• Bitcoin Faces Weakest Monthly Growth Since July as Whales Counteract ETF Inflows

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Online shopping sees biggest slowdown in over decade

• Why Austin Is Falling Out of Favor for Tech Workers

• America has two labor markets now

  Americans live in separate economic realities: Those with a job are likely to stay employed, but those without one are likely to stay unemployed. Welcome to the low-hire, low-fire labor market. Private-sector layoffs are at historic lows, but that masks a dreadful outlook for unemployed workers or those unhappy with their current positions. The labor market surprised in June with a better-than-expected payroll gain of 147,000, the government said on Thursday.

• Floor Traders Sue CME over Harm from Electronic Markets

• CoreWeave to buy Core Scientific in $9B deal to meet AI power needs

• Southwest Airlines' free bags perk is mostly gone – loyal customers are outraged

• Wall Street Builds S&P 500 'No Dividend' Fund in New Tax Dodge

• PepsiCo, Campbell’s shrinking packages with lower-price options to spur sales

  • Moar packaging means more profitsss...

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Texas officials face scrutiny over response to catastrophic and deadly flooding | AP News

  The National Weather Service office in New Braunfels, which delivers forecasts for Austin, San Antonio and the surrounding areas, had extra staff on duty during the storms, Runyen said. Where the office would typically have two forecasters on duty during clear weather, they had up to five on staff. “There were extra people in here that night, and that’s typical in every weather service office — you staff up for an event and bring people in on overtime and hold people over,” Runyen said.

  • NWS shares timeline of alerts ahead of deadly Texas flooding – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

• Seattle's $90M tax plan: Relief for small businesses, higher bills for big tech

• Numbers are in and NYC congestion pricing is a big 'success,' Hochul says

Trump

• Eyeing Arctic dominance, Trump bill earmarks $8.6 billion for US Coast Guard icebreakers.

• Trump Imposes 25% Tariffs On Japan, South Korea After Failing To Reach Deal | ZeroHedge

  White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that, alongside Japan and South Korea, a dozen additional countries will soon receive similar trade warning letters, each of which will be publicly posted on President Trump's Truth Social account.

  U.S. main equity indexes, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, fell to session lows after the Trump administration released tariff letters to a handful of countries, citing "persistent trade imbalances" and the failure to reach trade deals before the July 9 deadline. The tariffs are expected to take effect on August 1. The first two trade letters were sent to South Korea and Japan, imposing a 25% tariff on all goods, effective August 1.

  • Trump says will impose 25% tariffs on Japan, South Korea

Democrats

• Uncovering Soros/Singham NGO Soldiers

  There are big difference when the left and right have rallies. And that’s beyond the looting and arson that seem to accompany so many leftwing “peaceful protests.” If you visit a conservative or MAGA rally, people will be happy to tell you what they think and why they’re there. If you visit a left wing rally, it seems that they creepily tell you that actually talking to people “isn’t their role for the day.” That’s because paid protesters for the shady hard-left NGOs running the show don’t want you to know they’re taking money from Singham and Soros.

• An Elderly Lawmaker’s Staff Keeps Walking Back Things She Tells Reporters. Should They Keep Quoting Her?

Left Angst

• Real Men Burn Stuff

  Honestly, I think this is a case where the usual logic of money-driven policy is trumped (Trumped?) by irrational, psychological — you might even say psychosexual — issues. We know that Trump himself has a weird thing against wind power, insisting that wind turbines massacre birds and kill whales. This appears to stem from the refusal of the Scottish government to cancel an offshore wind farm he thought ruined the view from one of his golf courses. But it’s not just Trump. There is, it turns out, a strong link between the manosphere — the online movement promoting “masculinity,” misogyny and opposition to feminism — and anti-environmentalism. For example, in 2023 Jordan Peterson convened a high-profile conference to declare that concerns about climate change are a “conspiracy run by narcissistic poseurs.”

• Comey Don't Play That: Former FBI Goon Writes Crime Novel About Saving the World from MAGA 'Mouth Breathers'

• FDA Layoffs Could Compromise Safety of Medications Made at Foreign Factories

• Trump and Congress finalize law that could hurt your Wi-Fi

• ICE Using Border Facial Recognition Tech to ID Protesters and Activists in US

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Catalytic converter theft is down by 80% in NYC

• McAllen police chief provides update following deadly shooting near McAllen airport

  According to McAllen police spokesman Sgt. John Saenz, the disturbance was reported Monday at around 6 a.m. at the Border Patrol building located near the airport. Saenz confirmed that there are injuries in connection to the disturbance, but information is limited.

  • Man With Rifle Ambushes Border Patrol Agents in McAllen, Texas.

  • Gunman Ambushes Border Patrol Agents In Texas Amid Anti-ICE Rhetoric From Democrats | ZeroHedge

  Melugin noted that "No federal agents injured. I'm told a McAllen police officer may have been shot, but is in stable condition."

• Teens Almost Got Away with Murder. Then Police Found Their Google Searches

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• 'Cyber security' behind decision to end defense satellite hurricane data sharing

World

• Apple Appeals 'Unprecedented' €500M EU App Store Fine

  • Apple appeals against 'unprecedented' €500M EU fine over app store

• Erin Patterson found guilty of mushroom murders

• Greggs advert slapped over defibrillator in Gorleston

• Japan to punish longer-term foreign residents in arrears

• Study flags Canada's growing burden of chronic gut disease

• Meta's grand WhatsApp fintech experiment in India has fizzled

• Greece imposes work breaks as a heat wave grips the country

  Authorities in Greece imposed mandatory work breaks on Monday in parts of the country where temperatures are expected to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), with the heat wave forecast to last through Thursday. The labor ministry ordered the work stoppage, in effect from midday to 5:00 p.m. (0900–1400 GMT), for outdoor manual labor and food delivery services, primarily in central Greece and on several islands. Employers were also asked to offer remote work options.

• Xi, Putin Absent As BRICS Nations Meet In Rio.

• Jane Street's Indian Options Trade Was Too Good

  • Jane Street to contest Indian regulator's manipulation charges

• Paris' popular bike share program has a big sticky finger problem

• Australia Wants to Bar Children from Social Media. Can It Succeed?

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russian minister dies by suicide hours after getting fired by Putin, officials say | CNN

China

• Report on China Eastern 5735 Crash Withheld over National Security Concerns

• China's Rare Earth Origin Story

• The latest threat from the rise of Chinese manufacturing

Health / Medicine

• Psyllium husk is being touted as nature's Ozempic

  • The world needs "Super Colon Blow 2000"

• Medical Risk-Aversion Can Kill, Too

• Evidence our brains make neurons in adulthood may close century-old debate

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Measles 'out of control,' experts warn, as Alberta case counts surpass 1k

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Poland's clean energy usage overtakes coal for first time

• 'Tipping points' experts issue urgent message to world leaders

• Can we afford to be afraid of nuclear power?

• Southern Ocean Circulation Reversed

• Microplastics discovered in human semen and follicular fluid in new research

• Interaction with megafauna in S. America earlier than widely accepted theory

• Sheldon Whitehouse's Three-Hundredth Climate Warning

• A conceptual breakthrough has emerged for the Colorado River's future

• Chantal makes landfall near Myrtle Beach and now moving inland as a rainmaker

• 'Completely unexpected': Antarctic sea ice may be in terminal decline

• A Trojan horse': toxic sewage sludge became a threat to the future of UK farming

• Earth is going to spin much faster over the next few months

  Earth is expected to spin more quickly in the coming weeks, making some of our days unusually short. On July 9, July 22 and Aug. 5, the position of the moon is expected to affect Earth's rotation so that each day is between 1.3 and 1.51 milliseconds shorter than normal.

• Bear-Sized Giant Beavers Once Roamed North America