2025-09-27

etc

• Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part IVd: Spinning Plates

  Barber identifies readily what I think is the structuring reason behind that division of tasks: children. As we noted in part III, sustaining a peasant population under pre-modern mortality conditions required having a lot of children. The precise numbers will vary with small adjustments to things like mortality rates, but there’s clearly a lot of infant and childcare that needs to happen in these societies. In particular, for many of these societies – I won’t say ‘all,’ but certainly ‘most’ – there really is no ‘spinster’ class: functionally all women (and usually functionally all men) get married and at least attempt to have children and the typical couple needed to have quite a lot of children – we estimated around nine pregnancies – to maintain the slow population growth we see from these societies.

Horseshit

• Origin of our own species pushed back by half a million years

  • Million-year-old skull rewrites human evolution, say scientists

  • A skull unearthed in China challenges the timeline of human evolution

• Exposure to Gun Violence Is Associated with Insufficient Sleep in Teens

• 800k tons of mud probably just made electronics more expensive

• Meet the People Who Eat 100-Year-Old Military Rations

• Fertility Declines Are a Cultural Problem

• Ancient Olympians wouldn't qualify for today's Games

• The Exacting Magic of Film Restoration

• Tony Hawk skateboard from first 900 sells for $1.15M

• How aesthetics destroyed privacy and polarized us

  Collectively, our society has shifted towards signs and abstractions for decades; now, social media allows us all to abstract ourselves. Corporate social platforms reduce us to a profile and our activity feed; other people construct and classify us based on a composite of our posts, interactions, and overall activity. The internet amplifies and decontextualizes aesthetic signals. Offline, aesthetics emphasize tangible signals like clothing and possessions; online, the way we write, the articles (and memes) we share, and who we follow builds atop photos or videos of tangible signals from offline life. Social media broadens the range of potential signals to encompass our entire lives: what we post about, where we spend time, what we do online and off (pics or it didn’t happen). Corporate platforms encourage us to aestheticize formerly private endeavors, like reading, so they can become signals too. Our overall online activity — which platforms we use, which sources we read — becomes another abstracted signal; sharing a Fox News video sends the opposite signal as linking a Jacobin article. Speech itself has become a powerful aesthetic signal.

• Why September 27, 2025 is the 'coolest mathematical date of our lifetime'

• McLaren Racing Announces Groq as an Official Partner of McLaren Formula 1 Team

• From Liverpool to Wrexham, are U.S. owners taking over English football?

• How to Spot a Genius

• HSBC unleashes yet another "qombie": a zombie claim of quantum advantage

celebrity gossip

• Rare Access to Cormac McCarthy's Personal Library Reveals the Man Behind TheMyth

• Elon Musk and Prince Andrew named in latest Epstein files release

  • Elon Musk and Prince Andrew named in new Epstein files

  • Musk, Thiel, Bannon named in partially redacted Epstein documents

Obit

• Assata Shakur, an icon of Black liberation who was exiled to Cuba, dies aged 78

Electric / Self Driving cars

• The Extraordinary Rise of Electric Cars in Developing Countries

• Gatik expands autonomous truck fleet with Loblaw to be largest in North America

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Europe's largest paper mill? 1,500 research articles linked to Ukrainian network

• Where are they now? Urban public schools see steep fall in enrollment.

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Neon takes down app after exposing users' phone numbers, recordings, transcripts

• Microsoft agrees to 11th hour Win 10 end of life concessions

  • Microsoft forced to make Windows 10 extended security updates truly free in EEA

• Children's names, pictures and addresses stolen in nursery chain hack

• Among Us accidentally violated the Geneva Conventions

• Broadcast TV Is Obsolete. Let's Auction the Public Airwaves

  • Note no one actually wants to have public broadcasting: let actualy individual people speak widely to whomever may hear them... That goal was only desirable for about 30 minutes during the rise of the Internet.

• Ubuntu 25.10's Rust Coreutils Is Causing Major Breakage for Some Executables

• What happens when an AI-generated artist gets a record deal? A copyright mess

• Martin Shkreli can be sued for copying unique Wu-Tang Clan album, judge rules

• Supermicro server motherboards can be infected with unremovable malware

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• David, please stop posting

  Let's be realistic: DHH isn't going anywhere. He owns the trademarks, he controls the Rails Foundation, he sits on the board of Shopify, and he doesn't give a shit about you. In fact, he seems positively giddy at the idea of people being driven away by his occasionally repugnant blog posts and xeets. I'm sure he'd very much like an ideologically pure userbase for Rails, the same way he'd love for Britain to only contain native brits, wink wink. If that means the "Rails community" becomes a small stagnant pool of people getting paid to cheer for him and Tobi, that's clearly a price he's willing to pay! He'll be staying on, whether you like it or not.

• We've all had enough of this nonsense

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• 'ChatGPT, what stocks should I buy?' AI fuels boom in robo-advisory market

• Former CEO of Canadian AI unicorn gets arrested for fraud

• Meta launches 'Vibes,' a short-form video feed of AI slop

• Spending on AI Is at Epic Levels. Will It Ever Pay Off?

• A.I.'S Environmental Impact Will Threaten Its Own Supply Chain

• How to stop AI's "lethal trifecta"

• OpenAI's historic week has redefined the AI arms race

• Latest argument against regulating AI: that would be the Antichrist

• Jensen Huang Says OpenAI Will Be the Next 'Multi-Trillion-Dollar' Company

• OpenAI Needs a Trillion Dollars in the Next Four Years

• AI companions are not your child's friend

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• NASA: Nuclear Explosion Could Save Moon from Asteroid Strike in 2032

• Space weather satellites blast off to study the sun

• First radar images from satellite showcase Maine coast and North Dakota farmland

Crypto con games

• Crypto's Big Anchor Buckles as Corporate Treasury Buying Plunges 76%

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Amazon will refund $1.5B to 35M customers allegedly duped into paying for Prime

• Starbucks permanently closes both Seattle Reserve locations

• FAA to let Boeing to sign off on 737 Maxes, 787s

  • FAA Statement – Boeing Airworthiness Certificates

  • Boeing May Be Getting Too Much Leeway from the FAA

• Starbucks is closing Government Center's iconic steaming kettle location

• Videogame Giant Electronic Arts Near Roughly $50B Deal to Go Private

• Bosch to cut 13,000 jobs to save billions in costs

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Ex-Meta workers tell Congress tech giant stifled research on youth harm

• US plans to require 1:1 ratio of domestic to imported chips

• US Cities Are Paying Too Much for New Transit Buses

• The United States Has Spent $110 Billion on AIDS Prevention. Less Than Half of the Money Went to Medical Supplies and Health Workers, a State Department Audit Found.

• NYC passes new appliance mandate that critics argue will make rent, other costs skyrocket.

• TikTok to Be Sold for $14B

  • TikTok's algorithm will be overseen by Oracle in the US

  • Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

  • TikTok Sold for $14B

  No representatives from ByteDance were present at the signing, and the company hasn’t acknowledged that a transaction is taking place. No purchase price was mentioned, and there’s no indication that the Chinese government has made changes to laws that would be necessary for a deal to take place.

  • Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Saves TikTok While Protecting National Security – The White House

  • ByteDance expected to maintain big role in new US TikTok, sources say

  • ByteDance to Get About 50% of TikTok US Profit Under Trump Deal

  • Trump Clears Way for Cronies to Buy TikTok for $14B

• FMCSA issues emergency rule restricting non-domiciled CDLs - FreightWaves

  The rule, effective immediately upon publication in the Federal Register on Sept. 29, limits non-domiciled CDL eligibility to foreign nationals holding H-2A agricultural worker visas, H-2B temporary non-agricultural worker visas, or E-2 treaty investor visas. Employment Authorization Documents alone will no longer qualify applicants for the specialized licenses. FMCSA’s decision to skip the typical notice-and-comment period stems from what the agency characterizes as a “two-front crisis” involving both overly broad eligibility requirements and systemic implementation failures by state licensing agencies. The agency’s 2025 Annual Program Reviews uncovered alarming compliance rates. In California alone, approximately 25% of non-domiciled CDLs were improperly issued, with some licenses extending four years beyond the holder’s authorized employment period. FMCSA has identified similar violations in Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Washington.

• 'Inflation refund' checks coming to New Yorkers' mailboxes

Trump

• Trump says US will impose new tariffs on heavy trucks, drugs, kitchen cabinets

• Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence

• FBI had 274 plainclothes agents embedded in Jan. 6 crowds, congressional source says | Blaze Media

  • 274 agents sent to Capitol for J6, many later complained they were political ‘pawns.’

• Trump says TikTok should be tweaked to become "100% MAGA"

• Trump Takes Aim at Chip Makers with New Plan to Throttle Imports

• Trump calls for the firing of Lisa Monaco, Microsoft president of global affairs

Left Angst

• James Comey Indicted on False Statement Charges

  • The Comey Indictment Is Not Just Payback - The Atlantic

  President Donald Trump recently ordered his attorney general to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, and tonight, the Department of Justice delivered an indictment of Comey for lying to Congress. Comey, for his part, insists on his innocence. But the charges against Comey are not just about the president’s abuse of his power for personal retribution. They represent a test of the president’s plans for the future.

  • Former FBI chief Comey charged as Trump ramps up campaign against critics

  • Trump Gets the Retribution He Sought, and Shatters Norms in the Process

  • "No one is above the law!" only applies when Democrats decide what the law is?

  • Brief Thoughts on the Indictment of James Comey

• Greenspan and all former Fed chairs tell SC that Lisa Cook should keep her job

• Senate staff probes DOGE, finds locked doors and windows covered with trash bags

• The Confessions of a 'Premature Anti-Fascist'

• The Path to the American Dream Is Narrowing for Indian Tech Workers

• New Jersey public television channel will cease operations

• Pregnant Liberal Women Pop Tylenol to Rebel Against Trump’s Autism Announcement

• Federal agencies DOGE questions about what cost-cutting team is doing

• Local TV Giant Sinclair Ends Jimmy Kimmel Boycott

• Corporate America Is Caving to Trump, Not Just Because of a Lack of Backbone

• Gabbard Ends Intelligence Report on Future Threats to U.S.

• Daily Caller Opinion Column 'Explicitly' Calls for Violence

• Lower Than Cowards: The Surrender of America's Elites

• As Trump Tightens Visas, China Woos Science Graduates

• GOP Plan on Pesticides Faces Revolt from MAHA Moms

• Trump Is Shutting Down the War on Cancer

• Canadians are taking a big step back from the U.S. Here's the data to prove it

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Extremists used Discord to recruit American youth, officials warned this year

• Gunman in shooting at NFL headquarters had CTE: Medical examiner

• Money manager Howard Rubin arrested on sex trafficking charges

• 'Biometric Exit' Quietly Expands Across U.S. Airports

World

• Former French president Sarkozy given five-year sentence after Libya case

• Google likely to be hit with first EU antitrust fine under new EU law

• All British adults to require a digital ID 'Brit Card'

  • Starmer says people will not be able to work in UK without digital ID

  • The UK announces mandatory digital ID plans

• Can groups with different values work together against Britain's far right?

• Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month

• Instagram's 'pay or consent' approach to ads is coming to UK

• The Gentrification of Mexican Wrestling

• German state investigates drone sightings for possible espionage

Israel

• Civilian injuries in Gaza similar to those of soldiers in war zones, study finds

• Hundreds of Diplomats stage walkout from UN as Netanyahu enters to speak

• Israel PM says they used phones in Gaza to stream speech

  • AP: Israel takes over phones of Gaza residents to carry Netanyahu speech live

  • Netanyahu says UN speech broadcast on tapped cell phones, loudspeakers in Gaza

  • Israel hacked every Gaza cellphone to stream PM Netanyahu's UN Speech live

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Ukraine's Plan to Starve the Russian War Machine

• Russia is helping China to prepare for a potential invasion of Taiwan

China

• China's latest GPU arrives with claims of CUDA compatibility and RT support

• America's nightmare: China is moving at lightning speed to control the future

• China's mega iPhone factory: long hours, discrimination and delayed pay

• Does China Have More Freedom Than the United States?

• There Are More Robots Working in China Than the Rest of the World Combined

• China launches campaign to keep pessimism off the internet

Health / Medicine

• Pharma Is Pushing $200k Cancer Drugs When Cheaper Doses May Work

• Rheumatoid arthritis begins long before symptoms, opening door to prevention

• Is Nitrous Oxide Food?

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Halal concerns drive vaccine hesitancy as Indonesia fights measles outbreak

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Microplastics Found Deep Inside Human Bones, Scientists Warn

• 'Independent' auditors overvalue credits of carbon projects, study finds

• Wildfires in the western United States may improve air quality

• Chronic risks from single-use plastic water bottles are dangerously understudied

• Climate action can feel slow–but the fastest energy leap in history has begun

• An eco-friendly way to see in the dark

• Carbon cycle flaw could push Earth into an Ice Age; overcorrects for warming

• Sunken World War II Debris Has Become Surprisingly Useful for Sea Creatures

• Polar Researchers Fear an Ecological Collapse in the Arctic