2025-08-21

etc

• Rightness is a prison

  choices that really do matter to us are often circumscribed by a need to defend our past decisions. We might stay in a bad relationship we know we need to leave, cling to a house that’s a bad investment, or hold onto an ideology that doesn't fit the facts, all because we confuse changing our minds with losing our dignity. When you learn to admit that you’re wrong, you also learn to course-correct much faster. You’re not committed to the decisions of the you who existed yesterday, who had much less information than the you of today.

Horseshit

• People are having fewer babies: Is it the end of the world?

• Winged ferry that glides like a pelican tested for coastal transportation

• Our Shared Reality Will Self-Destruct in the Next 12 Months

  It is now possible to alter reality and every kind of historical record—and perhaps irrevocably. The technology for creating fake audio, video, and text has improved enormously in just the last few months. We will soon reach—or may have already reached—a tipping point where it’s impossible to tell the difference between truth and deception.

  • Another reason to value those old books we bought by the pound when the libraries divested their holdings

• Families caring for older adults at home say aging in place may be worth it

• Electric 'air taxis' could debut in Japan from 2027

Obit

• French streamer dies live on air after months of humiliation and abuse

• Missouri Man infected with brain-eating amoeba has died

Musk

• Elon Musk Pledged to Start a Political Party. He Is Already Pumping the Brakes

• Appeals court says NLRB structure unconstitutional, in a win for SpaceX | TechCrunch

  A federal appeals court handed SpaceX a win on Tuesday, in a ruling that prevents the National Labor Relations Board from prosecuting unfair labor practices against the company. The ruling by the Fifth District Court of Appeals, which suggests the structure of the NLRB is likely unconstitutional, could have far-reaching effects.

• Tesla Model 3: Indicator stalk returns in China, available as retrofit option

• Elon Musk's Self-Driving Tesla Lies Are Finally Catching Up to Him

• 370k Grok AI chats made public without user consent

  • Thousands of Grok chats are now searchable on Google

• Elon Musk's Boring Company Is Tunneling Beneath Las Vegas with Little Oversight

• Tesla may not get to sell energy in UK because Brits hate Elon Musk so much

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Why Can't the U.S. Build 5-Minute E.V. Chargers?

• Ford Seeks to Sell Excess Battery Supply in Weakened EV Market

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• In AI push, China holds the first sports event for humanoid robots

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• More than 2.8M people in US identify as trans

  • I'd bet that the overlap of that 1% with the 1% wealthiest and most privileged parts of society is almost total. Sure there's poor trans folks but only the rich will have taken it up with the recent fad.

• Pope Leo to share papal apartments with 'flatmates'

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Performative virtue-signaling has become a threat to higher ed

  We asked: Have you ever pretended to hold more progressive views than you truly endorse to succeed socially or academically? An astounding 88 percent said yes. These students were not cynical, but adaptive. In a campus environment where grades, leadership, and peer belonging often hinge on fluency in performative morality, young adults quickly learn to rehearse what is safe. The result is not conviction but compliance. And beneath that compliance, something vital is lost.

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Intel ghosts researcher who found web apps spilled 270K staff records

• Hacker exposes their bad security; McDonalds reacts by firing staffer who helped

• Facial recognition works better in the lab than on the street, researchers show

• Meta's First 'Real' Smart Glasses Have One Problem

• Glasses that make you a viber thinker. Never use your brain again

• Sony is raising PS5 prices, starting tomorrow

• Amazon looks to ditch homegrown software for Android in Fire tablet revamp

• Home Depot Sued for 'Secretly' Using Facial Recognition at Self-Checkouts

• How Americans View Journalists in the Digital Age

• Whistleblower Alleges Meta Artificially Boosted Shops Ads Performance

• Why Magic, Dragons and Explicit Sex Are in Bookstores Everywhere

  • It requires magic to survive sex with a dragon. they run hot and you are crunchy and tasty with ketchup.

• Oregon Man Accused of Operating One of Most Powerful Attack 'Botnets' Ever Seen

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• passive microwave repeaters

  For the telephone industry's many small players, and even the more rural Bell Operating Companies, another property of microwave became critical: with a little engineering, you can bounce it off of a mirror.

  In 1956, James Kreitzberg moved to Salem and the two brothers formed the Microflect Company. From the sidelines of McNary Field, Microflect built aluminum "billboards" that can still be found on mountain passes and forested slopes throughout the western United States, and in many other parts of the world where mountainous terrain, adverse weather, and limited utilities made the construction of active repeaters impractical.

  In practice, a passive repeater functions a bit like an active repeater that collects a signal with a large antenna and then reemits it with a smaller directional antenna. To be quite honest, I still find it a bit challenging to intuit this effect, but the mathematics bear it out as well. Interestingly, the effect only occurs when the passive repeater is far enough from either terminal so as to be usefully approximated as a point source. Microflect refers to this as the far field condition. When the passive repeater is very close to one of the active sites, within the near field, it is more effective to consider the passive repeater as part of the transmitting antenna itself, and disregard it for path loss calculations.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Senior, 76, died while trying to meet Meta AI chatbot which he thought was real

• MIT 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing

• OpenAI eyes largest valuation for private company in stock sale talks

• Silicon Valley Is Drifting Out of Touch with the Rest of America

• AI-enhanced hackers are stealing billions

• OpenAI's Altman warns the U.S. is underestimating China's next-gen AI threat

• DeepSeek's next AI model delayed by attempt to use Chinese chips

• It's happening: People are starting to talk like ChatGPT

• OpenAI Is Poised to Become the Most Valuable Startup Ever. Should It Be?

• Churches use data and AI as engines of surveillance

• Economics and AI take off

  We stand on the cusp of another industrial revolution, poised to increase GDP again by many times over. Maybe this time we’ll finally run out of things to spend money on and be forced to retire? I doubt it.

• Oracle Rides Major Deals with OpenAI, Nvidia to Turn Around Cloud Business

• OpenAI logged its first $1B month

• Is the A.I. Sell-Off the Start of Something Bigger?

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Pre-Sputnik Earth-Orbit Glints - by Robin Hanson

  The First Palomar Sky Survey, using the 48-inch Schmidt telescope at Mount Palomar 1949-1958, was the first comprehensive photo survey of the entire northern sky. It took almost 2,000 square photos, each covering about 6° on a side. Typically, each region was photographed twice in a row, once using a plate sensitive to red light for ~50 min, and then one sensitive to blue for ~10 min. These plates were later digitized, and recently the VASCO project has looked for “transients”, i.e., objects seen in the red but not blue plates. For example, three close transients appear in the middle of the left plate but don’t appear in the right. And, as usual, they are never seen by any later telescopes. We have good reasons to think most of these transients are brief glints of sunlight off of flat reflective objects in the rough ballpark of Earth GEO, as opposed to being defects in the photo plates, self-illuminating sources like stars, or sources much closer or further.

  These glints also seem to have a significant date correlations with nuclear tests and UFO reports. Glints were 45% more likely (p = 0.008) on dates within one day of nuclear tests, and there was a significant (p<.001) correlation between the number of UFOs reported and number of glints on each date. In fact the cluster of three close glints above appeared on July 19, 1952, during one of the most famous UFO events of the era at Washington DC. (They were 2km apart if at GEO.)

  it seems we must take seriously the claim that these were glints off of big flat reflective parts of advanced devices from an alien civilization. That kinda hurts to type, knowing that many of you will respect me less for saying so. But I gotta go where the evidence leads.

• NASA starts bolting together Artemis III Moon rocket

Crypto con games

• Crypto groups accuse banks of attempting to 'relitigate' stablecoin law

Economicon / Business / Finance

• SoftBank and Trump may not be enough to save Intel

  • Intel's Move Toward Nationalization Won't Work–At Least for the Long Haul

• Palantir stock slumps 9%, falling for a fifth straight day from record

• US Marshalls asked to safeguard Maryland data center survey crews

• Big Tech contribute the same amount of GDP growth as the consumer base

• Yieldstreet real estate bets leave customers with losses

• Florida insurance company proposes 'significant premium decrease'

• Foreigners Are Buying US Homes Again While Americans Get Sidelined

• Beef prices are spiraling. Meat lovers aren't deterred – yet

• FTC sues LA Fitness for making it exceedingly hard to cancel gym memberships

• Nuclear can dial down/up 80% on hourly basis

• US tech slide extends into second day as concerns over AI rally rise

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Oregon city agrees to provide 150 camping spaces

• Eric Adams Advisor Handed a Reporter Cash Stuffed in a Bag of Chips

Trump

• Trump bans debanking as bank executives confirm Obama, Biden pressure | Fox Business

  In the wake of President Donald Trump's executive order outlawing debanking, major bank executives told Fox News Digital that they were under pressure by the Obama and Biden administrations to deny services to individuals and businesses for political reasons. "Those pressures were very, very real. When your regulator gives you a suggestion, it’s not a suggestion, it’s an order. The political stuff is very real, those pressures are real," a senior banking executive told Fox News Digital. (we) spoke with two executives at leading U.S. banks, who asked to remain anonymous, fearing reprisals. The executives said that ambiguity in federal laws was exploited by regulators under the Obama and Biden administrations in order to pursue political objectives.

• Trump is demanding a Panama-China break-up

• Trump Embarks on $104M Bond-Buying Spree While in Office

• Lutnick says Intel has to give government equity in return for CHIPS Act funds

• Trump confirms US is seeking 10% stake in Intel. Bernie Sanders approves

• Trump says U.S. will not approve solar or wind power projects

Democrats

• The Biden Administration's Gamble to Freeze China's AI Future

• Biden-era USPS Fleet Contract for EVs Has Failed to Deliver, Time to Pull the Plug?

  $10 billion contract awarded by the Biden administration for the production of 35,000 electric vehicles (EVs) to replace the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) aging fleet has produced only 250 new vehicles in more than 2 years. Despite receiving billion of dollars in contracts and government subsidies and building a new plant, Oshkosh Defense has failed to deliver the 3,000 battery electric vehicles it promised to have produced by late 2024.

Left Angst

• America Is Abandoning One of the Greatest Medical Breakthroughs

• The Troubling Lines That Columbia Is Drawing

  by adopting an overly broad and controversial definition of antisemitism, the university is putting both academic freedom and its Jewish students at risk.

• Senate Probe Uncovers Allegations of Widespread Abuse in ICE Custody

• ‘Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story’ Filmmakers on How They Believe the Actor Would’ve Stood Up to Donald Trump Today

• How the Tech Titans Can Save Social Security

• Trump administration to vet immigrants for 'anti-American' views

• US Health Secretary Ends Decades of Research into Environmental Causes of Autism

• Phone Searches at the US Border Hit a Record High

• FEMA Now Requires Disaster Victims to Have an Email Address

• Google Head Calls Trump Admin's Climate Denialism "Fantastic"

• Europe’s Free-Speech Problem

  American officials are waging a multifront attack on Europe’s approach to free speech. This month, a congressional delegation traveled to Dublin, Brussels, and London to probe and decry European regulations on digital speech. A State Department human-rights assessment issued last week pointed to objectionable “restrictions on freedom of expression” in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. All of this follows Vice President J. D. Vance’s speech in February at the Munich Security Conference, where he accused European leaders of retreating from the continent’s “most fundamental values,” including free expression. These assessments might seem untrustworthy, given the flagrant transgressions against free-speech principles from the Trump administration and its allies. But the fact is that European leaders are corroding the right to free expression, and show every sign of sliding further down a slippery slope into illiberalism.

• NSA's Acting Director Tried to Save Top Scientist from Purge

• Texas Energy Crunch to Worsen as Trump Policies Target Solar and Wind Power

• A Tale of Two Jurists in the Trump Era

• Steam's Content Removal Could Be a Wider Consequence of Project 2025

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• US warships sail in vicinity of disputed shoal where Chinese ships collided

• The US Navy is building a drone fleet to take on China. It's not going well

• Microsoft Failed to Disclose Key Details About Use of China-Based Engineers

• How North Korea's IT army is hacking the global job market

World

• Primary school pupils in white working-class regions 'among worst performing'

• If Indian goods cannot go to the US, they can head to Russia

• Brazil's Financial Stocks Drop on Magnitsky Sanctions Fears

• Empty homes are on the rise. Why not use them for the housing shortage?

• The Man Who Saw the Future of Africa

• UK independent space agency scrapped to cut costs

• India moves to ban online real-money gaming including betting apps

• Met police's facial recognition plans fall foul of European law, says watchdog

• Empty homes in England on rise, but not being used to solve housing shortage

• Vienna has been declared a renters' utopia – here's why

Israel

• Israeli official planned to meet decoy posing as 15-year-old in Las Vegas sting

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Punishing Putin's Enablers India and China

• Why Is the US Punishing India – But Not China – For Buying Russian Oil?

• The Civilian Death Toll Russia Caused in Ukraine

• Russia hijacks satellite to broadcast Victory Day parade in Ukraine

• Unknown object explodes in cornfield in eastern Poland

  Polish military authorities said they had not detected any violation of the NATO ally's airspace after an explosion in a cornfield in eastern Poland left a large crater and smashed nearby windows. The incident, under investigation by police and the army, happened in the village of Osiny in the early hours of Wednesday, August 20. Nobody was injured.

  • Russian drone fell in eastern Poland

• FBI: Russian spies exploit 7yo Cisco bug to slurp critical infrastructure config

China

• China's youth unemployment hits 11-month high as graduates joins job hunt

• The reason the West is warmongering against China

  capitalists in the core states are now desperate to do something to restore their access to cheap labour and resources. One option – increasingly promoted by the Western business press – is to relocate industrial production to other parts of Asia where wages are cheaper. But this is costly in terms of lost production, the need to find new staff, and other supply chain disruptions. The other option is to force Chinese wages back down. Hence, the attempts by the United States to undermine the Chinese government and destabilise the Chinese economy – including through economic warfare and the constant threat of military escalation. Ironically, Western governments sometimes justify their opposition to China on the grounds that China’s exports are too cheap.

Health / Medicine

• FDA Advises Not to Eat Certain Imported Shrimp Due to Radioactive Contamination

  • FDA warns public not to eat possibly radioactive shrimp sold at Walmart.

  • FDA issues warning over possible radioactive shrimp

  • Walmart recalls potentially radioactive shrimp sold in 13 US states

• Eye movement patterns reveal subtle signs of cognitive and memory decline

• Is Modern Medicine a Sham?

  Did you know that the largest lobby we have in the United States is the pharmaceutical industry? It is the largest, by a long shot, as it solidly towers over all of the others. Let me share some numbers with you. Pharma spends approximately $380,000,000 (three hundred eighty million) every year lobbying Congress. To give you some perspective, the second largest lobby industry in our nation is the electronics manufacturing industry, and it spends about $250,000,000 million a year lobbying Congress. The third largest is the insurance industry which spends about $150,000,000 million a year lobbying Congress. All the other industries that lobby simply pale in comparison. These statistics alone reveal so much.

  • Better than that: It's a system for turning the best intentions and efforts into the worst outcomes; at scale. Truly an amazing edifice.

• Pine nuts and goat's milk should get allergy labels, say experts

• The benefits of doing nothing. Literally ... nothing.

• In Defense of the Amyloid Hypothesis

  Opponents call the amyloid hypothesis zombie science, propped up only by pharmaceutical companies hoping to sell off a few more anti-amyloid me-too drugs before it collapses. Meanwhile, mainstream scientists . . . continue to believe it without really offering any public defense. Scott was so surprised by the size of the gap between official and unofficial opinion that he asked if someone from the orthodox camp would speak out in its favor. Alzheimer’s isn’t my field, but I got very interested in it, spent six months studying the literature, and came away believing the amyloid hypothesis was basically completely solid.

• Blurred Lines Between New Psychoactive Substances and Potential Chemical Weapons

• How harmful is blue light for sleep?

• American Millennials Are Dying at an Alarming Rate

• Lesser-known food allergens are behind many serious reactions

• Health Canada approves Ozempic to reduce kidney deterioration in diabetes

• Researchers discover what saves babies' lives. It's not medical, it's money

• Study Reveals Vitamin D May Slow Biological Aging

• Chronic inflammation messes with your mind

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2

• The Covid Vaccine Situation for the Fall Is a Complete Mess

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Building Ultra Cheap Energy Storage for Solar PV

  Our technology works by storing energy as heat in the least expensive storage material available - large piles of dirt. Co-located solar PV arrays provide energy (as electricity) and are simpler and cheaper than grid-connected solar farms. Electric heating elements embedded in the dirt piles convert electricity to heat. Pipes run through the pile, and fluid flowing through them removes heat to supply the customer.

• Oregon Activist Using Decades-Old Policy to Stall Rural Green Energy Projects

• Making Roman concrete produces as much CO2 as modern concrete

• EPA's move to greenlight controversial dicamba herbicide sparks outrage

• Heat claims more than 175,000 lives annually in Europe

• Earth system models project start of Amazon dieback within 21st century

• Why you can’t grow cool-climate plants in hot climates

  Since moving to Deep South Texas 4 years ago I've come to realize that many plants I used to love growing in the cool mild maritime climate of the SF bay area are impossible to grow where I live. This is not just because of the high daytime heat. It's not as simple as that. Specifically, it is the high heat during the night (and those warm nights are a direct result of the humidity) that causes cool-climate and cool-season plants to eventually die here. That's a bummer for somebody who loves plants from places like cloud forests of Central America, the Páramo of Ecuador, Alpine plants from the Rockies or Southern Andes, etc. This phenomenon is also quite fascinating however, and goes far to explain why growing certain plant species or even entire clades (evolutionary groups) of plants is so impossible outdoors in certain climates.

• The Secret Gardens Saving the Rarest Plants

• Dramatic slowdown in melting of Arctic sea ice surprises scientists

• Monkeys falling from trees and baking barnacles: how heat is driving extinction

• I Tracked a Wild Salmon from Sea to Plate – What I Learned Surprised Me

• Installing Heat Pumps in Factories Could Save $1.5T–and 77,000 Lives

• A Climate of Unparalleled Malevolence

• Misinformation Rises, Climate Fades; Global Risk Is Now a Popularity Contest