2025-09-04

Horseshit

• Is 'The Wizard of Oz' at Sphere the Future of Cinema? Or the End of It?

• Why Are Kids So Funny?

• Students on this Quebec island commute to school by plane

• What two weeks of endless daylight in Norway did to me

• The Baby Died. Whose Fault Is It?

• The Millionaire Who Left Wall Street to Become a Paramedic

• How Jet Lag Cost the Global Face of Japan Inc. His Job

• We already live in social credit, we just don't call it that

• Philly's experiment giving cash to struggling renters is working

• Online cockfighting thrives in Philippines despite ban and murders

• The meditation app revolution is here, and it's backed by science

  • Zone out games by any other name...

• Sweeteners can harm cognitive health equivalent to 1.6 years of ageing

celebrity gossip

• Was Greta Thunberg A Globalist Propaganda Weapon  | ZeroHedge

• Epstein survivors float release of unofficial client list

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Human-like bot farms driving political echo chambers worldwide

Musk

• Tesla moves 'Robotaxi' safety monitor from passenger to driver's seat

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• Swiss Post tests use of robots for parcel delivery

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Handmaid's Tale Banned in Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) Schools

• Sweden moves students off digital devices and on to books and handwriting

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• What a Ruling to Fix Google's Search Monopoly Means for the Company

  • Google will not be forced to sell Chrome, US federal judge rules

  • Read our statement on today's decision in the case involving Google Search

  • A Judge Lets Google Get Away with Monopoly

  The rule of law is on tenuous grounds in America these days, with even easy stuff that might hinder the powerful running into serious obstacles. Today, the decade-long campaign to stop big tech from dominating our society took a significant step backwards, as the judge hearing the search case against Google, Amit Mehta, chose not to meaningfully constrain the firm’s illegal behavior. And to engage in such deferential behavior, he openly ignored Supreme Court precedent. You don’t have to take it from me. It’s Mehta who last year found Google to have violated the law. “Google is a monopolist,” he wrote, “and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act." It’s also Mehta who found the Supreme Court mandated what he called the “remedial objective” in monopolization cases, to “terminate the illegal monopoly.” But, Mehta wrote, “remedies designed to eliminate the defendant’s monopoly—i.e., structural remedies—are inappropriate in this case.” So there we go. Mehta understood the law mandates he terminate Google’s monopoly, but he just decided against doing so. This kind of lawlessness, incoherence and deference to big business is now routine among elites in our society, so I guess it’s not too surprising that it happened in this case.

  Mehta found that Google was doing illegal things to maintain its monopoly, but he didn’t force the company to stop doing those illegal things. Why not? Well, he said that new companies like OpenAI had emerged to potentially challenge Google, and he didn’t want to, and I’m not kidding, hinder Google’s ability to compete with them.

  • Google gets off easy in the most significant monopoly case since Microsoft trial

  • The worst possible antitrust outcome

• Cloudflare blocks largest recorded DDoS attack peaking at 11.5 Tbps

• Apple's Assault on Standards

• Delete and Report These Texts as Soon as You Get Them

  The Hampden County Sheriff’s Office’s Post in Massachusetts shared a statement about a new, popular text-messaging scam on Facebook. According to the post, “Criminals are sending alarming messages, claiming the recipient is under investigation and demanding a call back to avoid ‘legal action.’ These scammers may also include fake case numbers and links that could install malware.”

• Supermarket giant Tesco sues VMware for breach of contract

• Streameast – the largest illegal sports streaming platform – shut down

• The Last Days of Social Media

• Bringing BASIC back: Microsoft's 6502 BASIC is now Open Source

• SpaceNews going paywalled, and broader disregard for archiving in journalism

• Mis-issued certificates for 1.1.1.1 DNS service pose a threat to the Internet

• Newsmax Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Fox News

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• 16 years to emulate the Pioneer LaserActive

  In April 2009, a Sega fan decided to look into emulating the Mega LD, a quirky and little-known hybrid of Genesis and LaserDisc. This week he finished the job.

• %CPU Utilization Is A Lie - Brendan Long

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Is the Bubble Bursting?

  Even Open AI boss Sam Altman is now talking about an AI bubble. Of course, he knows better than anyone because he is seeing it up close—the disappointing release of ChatGPT-5 played a key role in setting off the current turmoil. It’s now clear that recent events have made this analysis more timely than it was a month ago.

• Goldman Sachs warns AI bubble could burst datacenter boom

• Australian lawyer penalised for using AI-generated false citations

• Salesforce CEO confirms 4k layoffs 'because I need less heads' with AI

• Investors throw another $13B on the Anthropic cash bonfire

• AI-Powered Drone Swarms Have Now Entered the Battlefield

• Bill Gates says that AI will never replace programmers, even in 100 years

• Meta is adding free LLM-powered conversational NPCs to Horizon Worlds

• Apple Plans AI Search Engine for Siri to Rival OpenAI; Google-Siri Talks Advance

• Wired, Business Insider Duped by 'AI' Using 'Journalist', Made Up Towns, People

• The Fever Dream of Imminent Superintelligence Is Finally Breaking

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Satellite Companies Are Ignoring Astronomers' Calls to Save the Night Sky

• Data from defunct NASA lander paint a new picture of Mars's interior

Crypto con games

• Crypto collapse? Get in loser, we're pivoting to AI

• Trump Family Amasses $5B Fortune After Crypto Launch

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Amazon cracks down on Prime free shipping sharing

  • Amazon ends shared Prime free shipping

• Meet the revenge quitters: why people are ditching jobs & refusing to go quietly

• America is in a serious jobs slump

  • Job opening data falls to levels rarely seen since pandemic

• American Bitcoin Debuts on Nasdaq as "ABTC"

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• The CDC’s in-your-face double standards lost America’s trust — winning it back will be tough.

  During COVID, the CDC ordered us to stand aside as our loved ones died alone in hospitals, and made us postpone or downsize weddings and funerals. Based on CDC guidance, states and cities canceled our church services and even punished us for going outdoors without masks. But monkeypox was different: “You know, one person’s idea of risk is another person’s idea of a great festival or Friday night,” Daskalakis said breezily as he explained why the CDC didn’t order the shutdown of gatherings where mpox was spreading. “So we have to sort of embrace that with joy.” As Will Chamberlain noted on X, “The CDC is utterly useless if it is not seen as credible by the majority of the country, and yet they employed a guy with massive satanic tattoos who wore bondage gear during a photo shoot as their point person on immunization.”

• Trump unlawfully canceled Harvard's research grants, US judge rules

  • Judge says Trump administration unlawfully blocked $2B from Harvard

Left Angst

• So You Want to Abolish Property Taxes

  A lot of people in the Republican party have been talking about abolishing property taxes lately. This is a bad idea with unintended consequences, and they shouldn’t do it. Doing so would undermine economic growth and housing affordability gains certain red states have recently seen. Worse, we’ve already run this experiment and know where it leads: a California-style de-growth death spiral that slams the door in the faces of young working families.

  • If I start reporting that "a whole lot of Republicans" want to nationalize McDonald's; do you think anyone would believe it? If they said "income tax" that could fly. Property taxes have more logic and longer tradition than most of the other forms of taxation.

• India Was the Economic Alternative to China. Trump Ended That

• Pentagon plans for 600 military lawyers to replace immigration judges

• A Florida Judge Tried to Strip Me of My Law License

  I am licensed to practice law in Illinois and in Virginia. I have never appeared before any judge in Florida, much less handled any Florida case or client. Why was a Florida Judge filing an attorney misconduct claim against an Illinois based attorney by going after my Virginia law license?

• Big shakeups to the childhood vaccination schedule could be nearing

• Trump's EPA Hid Risks at the Steel Plant That Just Exploded

• CA, OR, WA to launch Health Alliance to uphold science in public health

  • Remember when states decided not to participate in COVID lockdowns and all the liberals supported "State's Rights" and federalism? Me neither. Much of the overheated reporting about "governors killing the citizens with reopening" has been scrubbed from the net now.

• Oooo heads assplode Florida will work to eliminate all childhood vaccine mandates in the state

  • In win for infectious diseases, Florida to end all school vaccine requirements

  • Florida to end all vaccine mandates

  • Florida Says It Plans to End All Vaccine Mandates

• Trump Accused of Sharing Bogus Video of Deadly Drug Boat Strike

• How the Democrats keep copying the MAGA influencer playbook (and failing)

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Homicide at Burning Man

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Venezuela's president thinks American spies can't hack Huawei phones

World

• The Arrest That Demonstrates Europe's Free-Speech Problem

  • Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan arrested at Heathrow over posts on X

  • I Posted on X. The British Police Arrested Me

  • England’s Arrest of Graham Linehan Was an Act of Calculated Tyranny

• Sri Lanka's crisis shows how debt is devouring the Global South

• UK Mandatory digital IDs considered to crack down on illegal immigration

• No place in children's hands: <16s in UK to be banned from buying energy drinks

• Six candidates from Germany’s right-wing AfD party die 13 days apart in lead-up to local elections: reports.

  Ralph Lange, 66, Wolfgang Klinger, 71, Stefan Berendes, 59, and Wolfgang Seitz, 59, all kicked the bucket within two weeks of each other, the European Conservative reported. Two reserve candidates also died over the same period. German officials stated that two of the deaths were a result of natural causes, but have not commented on the cause of the others.

  • Germany's far-right AfD suffers series of candidate deaths ahead of local vote

• Tesco trials avocado ripeness scanners

• EU stands its ground on digital rules

• Conviction of Colombia's ex-president is a sign of hope amid autocracy's rise

• France's data protection authority fines Google 325M euros

Israel

• Far-Right Israeli Minister Calls for West Bank to Be Annexed

China

• Hot mic picks up Putin and Xi discussing organ transplants and immortality

  • Putin anx Xi talk about immortality

  • Hot mic catches Xi and Putin discussing organ transplants and immortality

  • Hot mic catches Putin and Xi discussing organ transplants and immortality

  • Putin tells Xi organ transplants could offer immortality

• Beijing tightens control ahead of Xi's big moment on world stage

• US Pulls TSMC China Waiver

• In a Rare Sign of Protest, a Chinese Activist Challenges the CCP

• China Plans to Outpace Neuralink

• A Hidden Camera Protest Turned the Tables on China's Surveillance State

• China has mandated a digital watermark for all AI-generated content

• H1 2025: China installs more solar than rest of the world combined

• China 'unstoppable', says Xi with Kim, Putin at his side

• WWII anniversary, China seeks to erase U.S. role in victory

• China's Latest Missiles, Drones and Submarines, Up Close

• Kim Jong Un arrives in China in luxurious armored train

Health / Medicine

• Scientist May Have Discovered a New Drug That Makes Up for Lost Sleep

• WiFi signals can measure heart rate–no wearables needed

• Nutrition Myths Experts Wish Would Die

  • The biggest myth is that statistical nutrition data from a large population has any relevance to a single individual within it. the "average healthy diet" is probably not great for any given person.

• Are ultra-processed foods so unhealthy? What the science says

• FDA approves at-home Alzheimer's shot to effectively slow disease

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• OTC nasal spray seemed to cut Covid infections by 67% in mid-sized trial

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Chimps, Humans and Macaques All Have a Drive to 'People Watch'

• Panama’s ocean upwelling fails for the first time in 40 years

• Extreme Heat Makes Your Body Age Faster

• Exxon and California Spar in Dueling Lawsuits over Plastics

• Biggest iceberg breaks up after 40 years: 'Most don't make it this far'

  • Once king of the seas, a giant iceberg is finally breaking up.

• Earth's capacity to store carbon could max out surprisingly soon

• Hungry Worms Could Help Solve Plastic Pollution

• Seed-dispersing animals are in decline, impacting forests and the climate: Study