2025-08-09

Horseshit

• AKA "Kid's Menu": As Ozempic Shrinks Appetites, Some Restaurants Offer Miniature Meals

• How America’s greatest architect doomed his masterpiece

  the leakiness at Fallingwater is something architecture buffs are willing to forgive. “He was pushing the boundaries of the traditional ways of building,” Gunther said. “That meant there were always some challenges with keeping the water out.”

• How did a debate over housing become a call to end the anti-monopoly movement?

• (Apr 2025) The End of Chicken-Breast Dominance

• The Troubling Decline in Conscientiousness

• Job Hunting for 21 Months

• Presumption. we understand less than we like to think: Ancient Romans Loved Fossils as We Do, May Not Have Understood What They Were

• Self-cleaning glass uses electric field to remove dust particles within seconds

• Chilling 66M-year-old discovery rewrites primate origin story

• Who Will Be the Next Air Bud? Nationwide Search for Star Golden Retriever Begins

• Nobody Has a Personality Anymore

• Someone keeps stealing, flying, fixing and returning this man's plane. But why?

• Fears of population collapse in the US are based on faulty assumptions

• Stressed adults use pacifiers for comfort, sleep

  That’s the surprising stress-busting move thousands of young adults in China are making — swapping melatonin and meditation for an adult-sized binky. Once a niche quirk, the silicone soothers are supposedly now big business on Chinese e-commerce giants like Taobao and JD.com, where they are priced anywhere from a budget-friendly 10 yuan ($1.40) to a luxury 500 yuan ($70). They’re sold as sleep aids, stress relievers, even smoking-cessation tools — and shoppers are gobbling them up.

• My ancestors fought in WWII. Hiroshima is plagued by shallow reading

• Is Gen X Nostalgia Just Trauma-Bonding?

  • Yes. We were the innocent victims of Disco; unable thereafter to evince that vital faith in the shared delusion of "culture". Having seen exposed the bones of the industrial machinery built around it, feeding greedily of the dreams of earnest youth.

• Hackers Sought a Backdoor in High-Tech Safes – Now Can Open Them in Seconds

• Pedestrians walk faster than NYC crosstown bus

• Green dildos are raining down on WNBA courts. Why? Crypto memecoins, of course

Obit

• Mary Shields, First Woman to Finish the Iditarod, Dies at 80

• Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell has passed away

  • Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell dies

  • Apollo 13 moon mission leader James Lovell dies at 97

• William Webster, only person to lead both the FBI and CIA, dies at 101

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Resonant Awakenings: The Social Lives of Conspiracy Theorists

• The Aryan Freedom Network is riding high

Musk

• Tesla shuts down Dojo, the AI training computer that is key to full self-driving

• Air Force buying two Tesla Cybertrucks so it can learn to destroy them

• Firefly lights the markets up; SpaceX starts selling trips to Mars

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Fraudulent scientific papers are booming

• Decolonize scientific institutions, don't just diversify them

• Princeton Eliminates Tuition for Families Making $250k a Year

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• KLM, Air France latest major organizations looted for customer data

• AWS Lambda now supports GitHub Actions to simplify function deployment

• Malicious Ruby Gems Used in Targeted Credential Theft Campaign

• HBO Max is going to get more annoying about password sharing

• Linux Desktop Share Tops 6% in 15M-System Analysis

• Bluesky and Enshittification

  But here's the thing: all those other platforms, the ones where I unwisely allowed myself to get locked in, where today I find myself trapped by the professional, personal and political costs of leaving them, they were all started by people who swore they'd never sell out. I know those people, the old blogger mafia who started the CMSes, social media services, and publishing platforms where I find myself trapped. I considered them friends (I still consider most of them friends), and I knew them well enough to believe that they really cared about their users. They did care about their users. They just cared about other stuff, too, and, when push came to shove, they chose the worsening of their services as the lesser of two evils.

• Meta Details Ultra-Wide FOV and "Hyperrealistic VR" Prototype Headsets

• Google ending Steam for Chromebook support in 2026

• Microsoft biometrics Hello loophole may let a rogue admin inject new facial scan

• Ex-White House expert: Microsoft considers security an annoyance, not necessity

• Wheelchair Users Are Finally Winning the Right to Repair

  • E-bikes and robotics have made the hardware more accessible than ever before. There's no reason there shouldn't be custom hotrod shops making dragster scooters for old folks everywhere in America.

• Millions are flocking to grow virtual gardens in Roblox game created by teenager

• How The Black Cauldron became a notorious Disney flop

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• Default tab size changed from eight to four on GitHub

• Floats Don’t Work For Storing Cents

  • Good to have it explained occasionally. There used to be x86 instructions for BCD "Binary Coded Decimal" for doing that kind of work.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Illinois becomes the first state to regulate AI for mental health services

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says GPT-5 scares him – 'what have we done?'

• The Rise of Silicon Valley's Techno-Religion

• OpenAI gets caught vibe graphing

• New Copilot for Gaming Aims to Save You Time, Help You Get Good

  • AI Teammate Has Arrived: Xbox's New Gaming Copilot Is Here

• The New ChatGPT Resets the AI Race

• AI is polytheistic, not monotheistic

• OpenAI beats Elon Musk's Grok in AI chess tournament

• OpenAI looking to spend after GPT-5 launch and is 'willing to run the loss'

• AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified

• ChatGPT is bringing back 4o as an option because people missed it

• Could AI help America out of its debt hole?

• 'I Feel Like I'm Going Crazy': ChatGPT Fuels Delusional Spirals

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Why blow up satellites when you can just hack them?

• NASA's New CLD Strategy Will Lose Mars, Leo to China

Crypto con games

• Why struggling companies are loading up on Bitcoin

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Loyalty programmes are keeping America's airlines aloft

• McKinsey and its peers need a strategic rethink

• U.S. Preparing IPO for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Later This Year

• Toyota to raise US auto prices by average $270 from July

• The Mother of All Currency Crises Is on the Horizon

• Firefly Aerospace soars over 30% in market debut to land at $8.5 billion valuation.

• A message from Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to all company employees

• How to Navigate the Jungle of Online Job Postings

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Amazon's cloud business giving federal agencies up to $1B in discounts

• The BLS Can't Be Replaced by the Private Sector

• Reconsideration of Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Standards

• California Supreme Court Requires New Review of Rooftop Solar Policy

• The Machine remains in control: Judge Detested by Trump Will Oversee Epstein Files Case

  • FOIA Lawsuit from 2017 exposes 170-page index to EpsteinFiles

• FDA launches program to encourage American drug manufacturing: ‘Over-reliance’ on foreign drug makers carries national security risks, agency says.

• Ain't holding my breath: Map Shows States Where Property Tax Could Be Repealed

• Texas politicians warn Smithsonian it must not lobby to retain its space shuttle

• The FCC Will Review Emergency Alert Systems in the US

Trump

• US Adds Surprise Gold Bar Tariff in Blow to Switzerland

  • Gold futures jump to record high after US tariffs on cast bars

• Trump opens door for 401(k) plans to invest in crypto

• US Executive Order: Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking

• Trump demands 'highly conflicted' Intel CEO resign over China ties

• Trump signs executive order going after debanking

• US appeals court blocks Trump contempt proceedings ordered by Boasberg | Fox News

  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 Friday that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg cannot move forward with possible contempt proceedings against the Trump administration. The case involves the administration’s alleged violation of an emergency court order blocking the administration from using a 1798 law to summarily deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador — the latest in an evolving, high-stakes court clash that has played out for months in various courts.

Democrats

• The disappearing court packers

  At the time, Just Majority argued that court packing was merely “court expansion,” a supposedly practical and nonpartisan necessity to bring the Court into the modern era and save our democracy. But Just Majority and the component partners have been conspicuously quiet about the idea since last fall.

• Miranda Devine: Biden abused his authority by turning FEMA into a far-left political machine

  The Biden administration abused its power by turning the entire mechanism of the federal government into a Democratic voter mobilization campaign, according to newly unearthed White House documents viewed exclusively by The Post. The worst offender was FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, under the Department of Homeland Security, which was controlled for four years by Biden’s Machiavellian border buster Alejandro Mayorkas. When responding to an emergency or a natural disaster, FEMA employees were directed to make voter registration a “key priority.” FEMA employees were so fixated on voter outreach that, when they visited hurricane-ravaged Florida last October, they didn’t even bother knocking on the doors of houses that had Trump signs in the yard. Instead of assisting Hurricane Milton survivors, they were instructed to “avoid homes advertising Trump,” according to an Office of Special Counsel complaint.

• Newsom says CA will hold special election to combat Trump, TX redistricting

  Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced that he and California legislative leaders will ask voters in November to approve a one-time redrawing of the state’s congressional districts in an effort to add Democratic seats in Congress. The move is aimed at countering President Donald Trump and Texas Republicans’ plan to add five House seats to the GOP column ahead of next year’s midterm elections. “It's not about lines, it's about drawing a line, and it's all about elevating a deeper consciousness of the line that Donald Trump continues to cross,” Newsom said. “It's not about him playing by a different set of rules. There are no rules for Donald Trump. This is a serious moment in American history.”

Left Angst

• US to rewrite its past national climate reports

• Take Back Our Digital Infrastructure to Save Democracy

  Watch the tech oligarchs who lined up behind Donald Trump at his inauguration, and you’ll see the most important story of our time: the fascists are winning because they’ve built a direct pipeline from concentrated technological power to concentrated political power. This isn’t about technology being inherently dangerous—it’s about how distorted Wall Street incentives drove us toward digital infrastructure that mirrors authoritarian power structures. Through bullying, threats, and coercion, Trump moved to turn the chokepoints of the centralized internet to his advantage. The MAGA world discovered that when digital platforms become centralized and authoritarian, democratic institutions will follow.

• New executive order puts all grants under political control

• FCC Democrat: Trump admin is declaring "Mission Accomplished" on broadband

  • Obviously untrue: There's billions more to waste to no end!

• Krugman: It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Stagflation

• 'Stagflation is coming to the U.S.,' says this economist. Here's what it means for the dollar, bonds and stocks. | Morningstar

• Supreme Court Prepares to End Voting Rights as We Know Them

  The Republican-appointed justices have decided it is time to fully destroy the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Sixty years ago, the Voting Rights Act ended the Jim Crow regime and transformed the country, finally, into a multiracial democracy—albeit an imperfect one. But, with the court’s quiet announcement it would return to a paused case, the justices are now preparing to take us back to a time when elected officials at all levels of government were white, and the rights of minorities were trampled. The court’s eventual decision will impact how political maps are drawn, and will certainly hasten the precipitous decline of American democracy. Under the Roberts Court, equal protection has become a sword to wield against programs, policies, and laws intended to create an equal system. The lingering Louisiana case now presents the Republican justices an opportunity to hollow out one of the few remaining protections of the VRA, the requirement of minority-majority districts, under this twisted reasoning.

• A little-known approach to infertility is complicating White House's IVF push

  Since he campaigned on the issue last year, Trump’s push to support IVF has been complicated by backlash from conservatives and anti-abortion groups who see IVF as unethical, as well as members of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement who view the pharmaceutical industry as having undue influence over fertility care. Many of these groups have instead suggested that Trump redirect his attention to a little-known holistic approach called restorative reproductive medicine. The underlying philosophy is that doctors can identify and treat the root causes of infertility, often with less invasive and more affordable methods than IVF. But restorative reproductive medicine isn’t formally recognized as a medical specialty in the U.S. and has not been evaluated as extensively as IVF has. Many fertility doctors worry that holistic methods are being presented to patients as a better alternative to IVF, thereby denying patients access to a proven option in fertility care.

• Why the Far Right Hates Churchill

• Trump Wants UCLA to Pay $1B to Restore Its Research Funding

  • Trump administration seeks $1B settlement from UCLA

  • Administration seeking $1B settlement from UCLA

• Trump threatens Harvard patents worth hundreds of millions

• EPA plans to end a program that makes solar available to low-income Americans

• Trump to blame for high cost of living, Americans say in new poll

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• The CIA Spy Who Thwarted Taiwan's Nuclear Plans

World

• Hotels in Europe to sue Booking.com over 'abusive' practices

• Do anti-bribery laws work when doing international business?

• Prohibition never works, but that didn't stop the UK's Online Safety Act

• Labour must create green jobs or lose voters to parties who oppose net zero

Israel

• Israel’s security cabinet approves plans to take over Gaza City.

  • Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Military Takeover of Gaza City

• Starmer urges Netanyahu to ‘reconsider’ Israeli offensive in Gaza

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Could the U.S. Have Saved Navalny?

China

• Faith in Finance? China's Temples Embrace Consumer Culture

• China Tells Brokers to Stop Touting Stablecoins to Cool Frenzy

Health / Medicine

• Nearsightedness increase in youth make back-to-school eye exams important

• Are nightmares bad for your health?

• Study finds flavor bans cut youth vaping but slow decline in cigarette smoking

• Food companies aren't giving up the chemical that turns products white

• Medicaid cuts are likely to worsen mental health care in rural America

  • We gots all kinds of mental health care: beer, likker, herb, and even meth! Or if you really got problems you can talk to the cows. cows know everything.

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Nature study on economic damages from climate change revised

  Bearpark, Hogan and Hsiang, the authors of the Matters Arising, highlight errors in the underlying economic data from Uzbekistan in the period 1995-1999, which had a disproportionate influence on the results. They further argue that correlations across regions imply larger statistical uncertainties, an issue also raised with the authors independently by a colleague. The authors’ revised version corrects the underlying economic data, introduces additional controls to limit the influence of data anomalies and accounts for correlations across regions. The revised analysis in response to the critique indicates that:

  • Global economic output in the middle of this century could be 17 percent lower than without further climate change, instead of the 19 percent found in the original calculation (populated-weighted average of the percentage losses in all regions worldwide). +The unequal distribution of damages across the globe is now found to be even more pronounced, with poorer regions suffering more in percentage terms.

• Advertising and deepfakes: Why have blue whales stopped singing? The mystery worrying scientists

• Lee fire in northwestern Colorado grows to 60k acres

• Rats wreaks havoc on California almonds – industry suffers $300M in damage

• Toxic convenience: what science tells us about plastic's hidden costs

• Adding limestone to farmland boosts carbon capture and crop yields

• The US has a bullfrog problem