2025-09-11

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• More Random Than We Realize - by Robin Hanson

  while our cultures feel coherent to us, in truth they are huge collections of pretty random features, and we’ve been allowing a great many of them to change greatly, even features common across time and space in traditional cultures. It is not actually possible to reliably tell if our cultures have been decaying by just tracking a few key cultural features. And so we may have actually been suffering from substantial maladaptive cultural drift.

Horseshit

• Burying nuclear reactors might make them cleaner and cheaper

• Are all ultra-processed foods bad? New research suggests not

  • Not all calories are equal: Ultra-processed foods can harm men's health

• Seattle light rail makes history with test run across a floating bridge

• Manhattan Island extension could provide homes for 250k people

• An inner-speech decoder reveals some mental privacy issues

• 'Make Me Commissioner' Review: Is Baseball Broken?

• Why the Left Should Care About Population Decline

• Early Humans Walked 8 Miles for the Perfect Rock

• Zip Code Is Destiny? Turns Out That's Bunk

• PsiQuantum Raises $1B, Says Its Quantum Computer Will Be Ready in 2 Years

• I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

• S.F. DoorDash orders could soon be delivered by drone

• Flush door handles are the car industry's latest safety problem

• You're more likely to reach for that soda when it's hot outside

• About 93% of pilots admit napping during flights in German survey

• Arkansas's timber university building could revolutionise architecture

• Coffee naps might be the weirdest–and smartest–way to recharge

celebrity gossip

• The Rise and Fall of Hunter S. Thompson - by Ted Gioia

  Their guiding light was a paradoxical view that writing got more real the less it stuck with the facts. Contradictions of this sort were everywhere in New Journalism. Just consider the strange anomaly that non-fiction novels became a prominent vehicle at this juncture. But nobody dove into paradox more boldly than Hunter Thompson, who filled his dispatches with imaginary sources, unreal incidents, false chronologies, and other techniques better suited for criminal alibis than reporting the news.

• The Superyacht, the Billionaire, and an Improbable Disaster at Sea

• Decision to Extradite Kim Dotcom Ruled Legal by NZ High Court

• You Need to See Epstein's Birthday Book for Yourself

Obit

• Rick Davies, Singer and Founder of Supertramp, Dies at 81

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Social Media Is Navigating Its Sectarian Phase

• TikTok has turned culture into a feedback loop of impulse and machine learning

• Conspiracy Beliefs Mediate Association Between Dark Triad and Political Trust

Musk

• SpaceX's lesson from last Starship flight? "We need to seal the tiles."

• Tesla's Dangerous Doors

• Elon Musk just lost his title as richest person

  • Musk loses crown as richest to software giant Larry Ellison

• Tesla Doors Can Trap People Desperate to Escape

Electric / Self Driving cars

• German firm gives 'second life' to used EV batteries

• Amazon's Zoox to Launch Robotaxi Rides to Public in Las Vegas

  • Amazon's Zoox robotaxi opens to public with free service in Las Vegas

  • Zoox launches its robotaxi service to the public in Las Vegas

• Two projects explore driverless electric mini-trains to repurpose old tracks

• Americans' junk-filled garages are hurting EV adoption, study says

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• IQ and Genes, Not Schooling, Predict Most Academic and Life Success

• Why Is School Choice So Controversial?

• The Economics of Educational Reform

• Happy Birthday, LIGO. Now Drop Dead

  • Ten Years Later, LIGO Is a Black-Hole Hunting Machine

• Tufts Offers Free Tuition for Families Making Under $150k a Year

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Nintendo awarded US patent for "summon and fight" mechanic

• The Jeopardy game that changed everything still haunts the show 15 years later

• Meta employees say they saw child abuse in VR before company blocked research

• Marvel Studios is moving from Georgia to the UK to avoid paying health insurance

• iPhone 17 Introduces 'Groundbreaking' New Memory Security Feature

• Age Verification a Windfall for Big Tech– Death Sentence for Smaller Platforms

• Reddit is dropping subscriber counts on subreddits

• Video Game Mixes Cleaning Movement with Horror Genre to Sell Consumer Products

• Bending Spoons to Buy Vimeo in $1.38B All-Cash Deal

  • Vimeo to Be Acquired by Bending Spoons for $1.38B

  • Bending Spoons acquires Vimeo for $1.38B

  • Vimeo to be acquired by Bending Spoons for $1.38B

• Lofi Girl Became a Chill Beats Empire

• Windows 10 resists its end: usage share climbs while Windows 11's falls

• Xbox engineer brings Windows Mixed Reality headsets back to life

• "No Tax on Tips" Includes Digital Creators, Too

• Xbox is coming to cars thanks to an LG and Microsoft partnership

• The Internet Will Be More Dead Than Alive Within 3 Years, Trend Shows

• Microsoft has become like an arsonist

• Paramount Hires Google and Meta Alum Dane Glasgow as Chief Product Officer

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Meta's Elite AI Unit Sparks Tension with Old Guard

• Microsoft to use some AI from Anthropic in shift from OpenAI

• Claude's new AI file creation feature ships with deep security risks built in

• Why is AI struggling to discover new drugs?

• Trust in Businesses' Use of AI Improves Slightly

• AI agents are coming for your privacy

• Oakland AIs? The Ballers will be first professional sports team managed by AI

• AI may cause you to forget some skills

• HHS has asked all employees to start using ChatGPT.

• The Real Story on AI's Water Use–and How to Tackle It

• The web has a new system for making AI companies pay up

• AI will never be a shortcut to wisdom

• Pay-per-output? AI firms blindsided by beefed up robots.txt instructions

• Replit raises $250M at $3B valuation

• AI Apocalypse? Why language surrounding tech is sounding increasingly religious

• How many federal agencies does it take to regulate AI? Enough to hold it back

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Radar footage shows Hellfire missile fired by US Military bounce off UFO

  • Video of US missile fired at mystery orb shown at UFO hearing

• NASA rover finds potential sign of ancient life in Martian rocks

  • Hunt for life on Mars finds potential signs of biological processes

  • Unusual compounds in rocks on Mars may be sign of ancient microbial life

  • Martian rock contains 'clearest sign' yet of ancient life on Mars, NASA says

  • Life, Maybe, on Mars, Unless We Change Our Minds

Crypto con games

• Lido, Ethena Rally More Than 10% as Traders Snap Up Tokens Amid ETH's Surge

• SEC Chairman Paul Atkins claims "crypto' time has come."

• Wall Street Giant Cantor Debuts Bitcoin Fund with Gold Insurance

• Shares in Bitcoin hoarders sink as 'crypto treasury' mania sours

Economicon / Business / Finance

• The Debit-Card Rebellion

• Payrolls faced downward revisions due to faulty birth-death model

  • Biden’s Economic Mirage: Nearly a Million Phantom Jobs Disappear.

• Release Ben and Jerry from Unilever spinoff, co-founders demand

• Robinhood Launches Social Media Network for Investors

• Yale's Trendsetting Private-Equity Strategy Is Getting Harder to Pull Off

• Homeowners insurance is pricing people out in disaster-prone cities

• Nvidia, Broadcom, TSMC, AI names rally on Oracle's growth projections

• Oracle stock soars, CEO says AI-fueled cloud revenue set to soar to $144B

  • Oracle boasts $455B backlog from AI boom, but not all will live to pay up

  • Oracle purportedly boosts its 2030 revenue to ride AI hype train

  • Oracle stock booms 40%, on pace for best day since 1992

  • Oracle wins big in AI deals. Stock jumps 40%

  • Oracle soars on AI cloud growth as customers race to secure computing capacity

  • Ellison overtakes Musk as the richest person on Oracle stock surge

  • Ellison Tops Musk as Richest Man After $101B Gain

  • Larry Ellison tops Elon Musk as richest person

  • OpenAI, Oracle Sign $300B Computing Deal, Among Biggest in History

• Young America faces an economic crisis

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Why a cannabis tax cut could spell trouble for children

• New Mexico becomes first state to offer free childcare for all

• Korean companies admit skirting US visas, say they had no choice

• Costa Mesa woman registered dog to vote to make a point, attorney says

• U.S. Wildfire Fighters to Mask Up After Decades-Long Ban on Smoke Protections

• FTC Chairman Issues Noncompete Warning Letters to Healthcare Employers, Staffing

• The Rise of Political Violence and Targeting of Lawmakers in the U.S.

Trump

• RFK Jr. unveils initiatives to promote children’s health.

Democrats

• Kamala Harris Unburdens Herself of Joe Biden, Rips Him, Jill, and His Team in New Book

Left Angst

• Charlie Kirk Is Dead After Shooting, Trump Says

  Conservative political activist and author Charlie Kirk has died, President Trump said. Kirk was shot Wednesday while on stage speaking at an event at Utah Valley University, law enforcement officials said. He was going back and forth with a student about mass shootings involving transgender people when he was shot, according to videos of the attack. The Justice Department is investigating the shooting, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, calling it a “senseless act of violence.” A person taken into custody after Kirk was shot has been released.

  Kirk, 31, was one of the most influential figures on the right

  • Charlie Kirk killed at event in Utah

  • HN comments

  • Charlie Kirk dead at 31 after shooting at Utah event, three officials confirm.

  • MSM Reactions to Charlie Kirk Shooting Are as Sick as You’d Expect.

  • After These Remarks About Charlie Kirk Getting Shot, MSNBC Can Go to Hell.

• Hyundai Raid Shows Trump Can't Deport His Way to a Manufacturing Boom

  • Anger Mounts in Korea as Release of Workers Detained in Georgia Is Delayed

• Moderna CEO Responds to RFK Jr.'S Crusade Against the Covid-19 Vaccine

• Trump's Formula to Conquer the Economy, the Colleges, and Everything Else

• US Investment in Spyware Is Skyrocketing

• ICE awards Clearview AI $9.2M facial recognition contract

• Leaked Ice document shows worker detained in Hyundai raid had valid visa

• Mega-and-MAGA Deals Position Oracle's Larry Ellison to Overtake Elon

• Apple is teaching its AI to adapt to the Trump era

• Trump Cracks Down on Drug Ads–But U.S. Remains an Outlier

• Lutnick says U.S. should take 50% of universities' patent revenue

• AI vs. MAGA: Populists Alarmed by Trump's Embrace of AI, Big Tech

• Pro-Palestine protesters confront Trump during night out at Washington DC restaurant

  • Activist Loons at Restaurant Inadvertently Prove Trump’s the Worst Authoritarian Dictator EVER

• Originalism Killed the Constitution

• Major moments from RFK Jr.'s contentious hearing with senators

  “Do you accept the fact that a million Americans died from COVID?” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., asked. “I don’t know how many died,” Kennedy said. “I don’t think anybody knows.” Kennedy cited “data chaos” at the CDC as a barrier to knowing this information, despite the agency having the specific number — more than 1.2 million Americans died of COVID — on its website. Warner followed up by asking the health secretary if he believed vaccines had prevented COVID deaths. (This number, too, exists and was later cited by a Republican senator during the hearing.) “I would like to see the data and talk about the data,” Kennedy said. “How can you be that ignorant?” Warner shot back.

  • PBS displaying its "non-partisan, balanced coverage" that they say should earn them tax dollars...

• 33M voters have been run through a Trump administration citizenship check

• RFK Jr. Comes Up with Bonkers Explanation for Mass Shootings

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• AZ inmate filed fake documents for years, then used them to get out of prison

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• US warns hidden radios may be embedded in solar-powered highway infrastructure

World

• Need a pee? Japan has QR code for that

• Johnson, Cummings met Thiel months before Palantir won NHS pandemic role

• State of the European Union 2025

• Australia to force porn websites to check users' ages under new internet rules

• Ozempic giant Novo Nordisk to cut 9k jobs

• Big clouds scramble as EU Data Act brings new data transfer rules

• Discord became control room for Nepal's Gen Z protests

  • Nepal protests over social media ban rage, sparking prime minister's resignation

• Cuba's electrical grid collapses in nationwide blackout

• India explores rare-earth deal with Myanmar rebels after Chinese curbs

• 'Block Everything' protests sweep across France, scores arrested

• Merck Scraps Plans for £1B London Hub in Fresh Blow to UK

• Scientists speak out against chat control

• Vietnam to close 86M bank accounts for lack of biometric data

• How Pakistan Fell in Love with Sushi

Israel

• Israel carries out strike targeting Hamas leadership in Qatar

  • Qatar strikes: What do we know so far?

  • Israel's Doha attack is a test for Trump's ties with the Gulf

• Ursula von der Leyen calls for suspension of EU trade with Israel

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Poland says up to four of 19 Russian drones shot down after entering airspace

  • Poland Says It Shot Down Russian Drones That Entered Its Airspace

  • Poland shoots down drones over its territory amid Russian attack on Ukraine

  • Poland Calls to Activate NATO Article 4

  • Poland shoots down drones in its airspace during Russian attack on Ukraine

  • Russian drone alert in Poland before Belarus border closure

  • Russian drones cross into Polish airspace

  • What are NATO's defence obligations under Articles 4 and 5 of its treaty?

  • NATO Planes Shoot Down Russian Drones Deep Inside Poland

China

• China claims AI breakthrough '100 times faster than traditional models'

• Chinese quantum processor rivals Google's Willow chip

• China stages first 'Robot Olympics' to showcase its tech ambition

• China's investments are moving nations away from fossil fuels

Health / Medicine

• Obesity exceeds underweight among school-age children for the first time

  • Junk food leads to more children being obese than underweight for first time

• 'Type 1.5' diabetes is real–and underdiagnosed

• The radical plan to prevent overdoses with better drugs

• The First Time Scientists Have Seen Decisionmaking in a Brain

• Stronger gut-brain link in some may worsen anxiety and other mental conditions

• Why losing weight or cutting alcohol isn't always best after illness strikes

• New drug hailed as 'gamechanger' in tackling stubbornly high blood pressure

• US shows slowest progress in chronic disease deaths among high income nations

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Made for People, Not Cars: Reclaiming European Cities

• Pilot project in LA generates energy using the ocean's waves

• Power-Hungry Data Centers Are Warming Homes in the Nordics

• How Microplastics Are Changing River Ecology

• The rewilding milestone Earth has already passed

• A $1M treasure hunt is underway in Canadian wilderness

• What's inside mysterious 'halo' barrels submerged off Los Angeles

• Colombia Against the Fossil Fuel Age

• "climate change snowball", not "mud cookies are good food": Moderate heating renders 7.8M-year-old sedimentary organic matter bioavailable

• Climate change responsible for 1700 heat-related deaths in Zurich, study finds

• Where was the climate messaging in Apple's iPhone event?

• Climate impacts are real – denying this is self-defeating

• Ancient California sequoia trees appear to survive wildfire

• Vaccine to curb chlamydia epidemic devastating koalas approved

  • "I got it from a koala" is not the defense one might think.