2025-10-14

Horseshit

• After 2 decades, are promises of a graphene revolution coming true?

• The century-old ship sail technology catching on

• The Age of Enshittification

• Tweeting at night linked to worse mental well-being

• Tiny Homes Aim to Address Shortage on Lakota Reservation

• Social Media ‘Influencer’ Heads to Jail Over ‘Pranks’ Where He Stuck Random Strangers with Real Syringes.

• NYC Columbus Day Parade canceled due to NY’s state of emergency.

• San Francisco Wants to Destroy a 96-Year-Old's Defining Artwork

• Software update bricks some Jeep 4xe hybrids over the weekend

• The height at which a hill becomes a mountain, according to data

• He Won the $2B Lottery. Now He's Buying Up Lots Burned in the L.A. Fires

• never was: Is Kansas City Still the Barbecue Capital of America?

• The Scam That Duped Pokémon's Most Obsessive Card Collectors

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Algorithmic Censorship Changes the Way We Talk

  The kids these days have a lot of silly euphemisms. Porn becomes corn. Sex becomes seggs. Nipples are nip nops and a picture of an eggplant can stand in for a penis. Killing someone becomes unaliving them, and people kermit sewerslide instead of committing suicide. Everything slightly risqué or unpleasant becomes baby talk. But not because teens are overgrown infants—it's a bottom-up response to top-down censorship. As social media has become a bigger part of modern life, platforms have adopted elaborate policies to appease advertisers and politicians who might not be happy with the content that people organically share. Besides simply deleting content and banning creators, sites can subtly nudge users, algorithmically promoting certain sorts of content while demoting others. The policies are often frustratingly opaque, but many users have figured out well what will or won't anger the invisible censor.

Musk

• Elon Musk's SpaceX and XAI Are Buying Tesla's Unsold Cybertrucks

• Tesla Cybertruck sales are flatlining

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Will electric tractors gain traction?

  • Only in a few applications where ground pressure isn't a big concern; diesels are already heavy at the sizes we're running and require interesting tires to limit the compaction factor.

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences to J. Mokyr, P. Aghion and P. Howitt

  • Three Share Nobel in Economics for Work on How Technology Drives Growth

• The Nobel Prize in Literature Is Boring Now

• Nobel-winning economists Duflo and Banerjee will leave US for Switzerland

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Amazon Prime Video Removed Guns from James Bond Posters

• Arduino has a new job selling chips for its new owner Lets not pretend otherwise

• Hackers targeted JLR months before cyber attack that halted production

  • Russia may have been behind Jaguar Land Rover cyber attack

• Nintendo Lawsuit Demands $4.5M from Reddit Mod for Selling Switch ROMs

• Reddit stock falls as references to its content in ChatGPT responses plummet

• MTV had music? since when? MTV makes heartbreaking move to end 5 music channels

• Linus Tech Tips calls for major YouTube changes & removes members only videos - Dexerto

• The future of media sanitization at Google | Google Cloud Blog

  we are proud to announce that starting in November 2025, we will start transitioning our approach to media sanitization to fully rely on a robust and layered encryption strategy. This marks a move away from the "brute force disk erase" process we have used for nearly two decades. While overwriting data has been an effective method, the storage technology landscape has changed dramatically. This process is no longer sustainable due to the size and technological complexity of today's modern media. To address these challenges, we are embracing a more modern and efficient method of media sanitization: cryptographic erasure. By default, all user data in Google's services is protected by multiple layers of encryption. Cryptographic erasure leverages this encryption to sanitize media. Instead of overwriting the entire drive, we securely delete the cryptographic keys that are used to encrypt the data. Once the keys are gone, the data is rendered unreadable and unrecoverable.

  • "ransomware" has a positive side; now you can pay google not to lose your keys.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• The Thriller Writer Who Took on a Tech Giant

• Scientists use AI to detect ADHD through unique visual rhythms

• Florida boy arrested over ChatGPT joke

• OpenAI and Hollywood studios clash over copyrights and consent

• "Like putting on glasses for the first time": how AI improves quake detection

• AI boom propping up economy as some guardrails are coming off

• AI Is Juicing the Economy. Is It Making American Workers More Productive?

• AI Triples Stroke Recovery Rates

• Datacenter water use? California governor says don't ask, don't tell

• The AI water issue is fake

• OpenAI to purchase 10 gigawatts of chips from Broadcom

  • OpenAI Inks Deal with Broadcom to Design Its Own Chips for A.I

  • OpenAI and Broadcom to deploy 10 gigawatts of custom AI chips

  • OpenAI partners with Broadcom to design its own AI chips

• The Coming AI Backlash: How the Anger Economy Will Supercharge Populism

• Why AI Will Widen the Gap Between Superstars and Everybody Else

• America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

• How the AI Bubble Bursts

• Apple sued over use of copyrighted books to train Apple Intelligence

• New California law requires AI to tell you it's AI

• We're all going to be paying AI's Godzilla-sized power bills

• Is the AI Conveyor Belt of Capital About to Stop?

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Astronauts plan to bake cookies on the ISS

• More Evidence Emerges That One of Saturn's Moons Could Harbor Life

• Voyager Budget Facing Reductions

  • this is pretty... which is more important when they have limited funding? NASA Exoplanet Travel Bureau Posters

Crypto con games

• 'My crypto life is over': sell-off triggers angst on Chinese social media

• $19B Wiped Out in Crypto's Biggest Liquidation

• A $131B Crypto Crash Has Traders Fearing Lasting Damage

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Mortgage tech firm, big lenders accused of nationwide price-fixing scheme

• Billion-Dollar Firms Saks, New Fortress Energy, Tricolor, First Brands Go Bust

• US Junk Bonds Post Worst Losses in Six Months, Spreads Widen

• S&P warns on US insurers' growing bet on private credit

• Congo's Cobalt Export Shock Spurs Rally and Doubts over Supply

• GM's Rare-Earth Gamble Pays Off as China Tightens Magnet Exports

• Major US online retailers remove listings for prohibited Chinese electronics

• In-person work takes big leap in the Bay Area

• U.S. consumers bearing more than half the cost of tariffs Goldman Sachs says

• Beyond Meat Debt Deal Rattles Investors

• K-shaped cars: New vehicle prices top $50k while auto loan delinquencies rise

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Wharton's Siegel says it's scandalous the US doesn't have a rare earths reserve

• Government shutdown could be the longest ever, Speaker Johnson warns

Trump

• Vance warns ‘deeper’ cuts ahead for federal workers as shutdown enters 12th day.

• Benioff retreats from idea of sending troops in to clean up San Francisco

• Trump may approve Tomahawks for Ukraine if Russia continues war

Democrats

• Gavin Newsom approves slavery reparations agency

• Social media must warn users of 'profound' health risks under new California law

Left Angst

• They Fought Outbreaks Worldwide. Now They're Fighting for New Lives

• Meta AI adviser spreads disinformation about shootings, vaccines, trans people

  A prominent anti-DEI campaigner appointed by Meta in August as an adviser on AI bias has spent the weeks since his appointment spreading disinformation about shootings, transgender people, vaccines, crime, and protests. Robby Starbuck, 36, of Nashville, was appointed in August as an adviser by Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other tech platforms – in an August lawsuit settlement. Since his appointment, Starbuck has baselessly claimed that individual shooters in the US were motivated by leftist ideology, described faith-based protest groups as communists, and without evidence tied Democratic lawmakers to murders.

• How the United States is eating Trump's tariffs

• Trump's iconic writing style partly due to Truth Social UIKeyboardType choice

• Silicon Valley Chronicler on the Politics of Musk, Sacks and Zuckerberg

• Google won't reveal if it lobbies Trump about YT's inclusion in OZ under-16s ban

• Steve Blank No Science, No Startups: The Innovation Engine We’re Switching Off

  The output of this university-industry-government science partnership became the foundation of Silicon Valley, the aerospace sector, the biotechnology industry, Quantum and AI. These investments gave us rockets, cures for cancer, medical devices, the Internet, Chat GPT, AI and more. Investment in science is directly correlated with national power. Weaken science, you weaken the long-term growth of the economy, and national defense.

• Moving NASA Space Shuttle to Texas from DC Could Damage It, Experts Say

• Amid shutdown, Trump administration guts department overseeing special education

• How Trump Is Making China Great

• Indian-Americans Are Holding Their Home Country at Arm's Length

• Analyzing Dominion Voting Systems sale to firm run by elections official

  • suddenly elections are vulnerable again and paper ballots are a good idea...

• Now the Left Is Trying to Give Biden Credit for Trump’s Peace Deal – PJ Media

  • Unbelievable: Antony Blinken Gives Biden Credit for Gaza Deal, and It Gets Worse From There – RedState

• Trump is threatening more tariffs. But it looks like China is winning trade war

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• The U.S. Army's Race to Catch Up in a World of Deadly Drones

• U-Hawk, a Battle-Ready Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

• One of EU's biggest farm machinery firms halts US exports over 'hidden' tariffs

  One of Europe’s biggest farm machinery companies, Krone, has been forced to pause exports of large equipment to the US because of “alarming” and little-known new tariffs that are hitting hundreds of products from knitting needles and hairdryers to combine harvesters. since 18 August, companies such as Krone and the construction company Liebherr in Germany have to provide an unprecedented level of detail to customs border authorities certifying the origin, weight and value of any steel in their products right down to nuts and bolts.

  • Almost as bad as sending US goods to the EU, in other words?

World

• German industrial output falls to 2005 levels as auto sector craters

• Mad Max comes to Canberra. Couldn't happen. Could it?

• Canada eyes putting nuclear reactors on the moon

• British Judge Gives Protesters More Time in Jail Than the Sexual Abuser They Were Protesting Against.

• UK communications regulator confirms £20k 4Chan fine

  • Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

  4chan can stop the additional fines by providing copies of its illegal content risk assessments and information about its qualifying worldwide revenue to Ofcom.

  • 4chan fined $26K for refusing to assess risks under UK Online Safety Act

• Fujitsu pumps £280M into UK arm to keep lights on after Horizon scandal

• Tony Blair and Nick Clegg hosted dinner giving tech bosses access to UK minister

• More than 130k Vodafone customers report outage

  • National outage of Vodafone broadband in UK

• 47% of EU regions reached EU's employment rate target

Israel

• Coincidental, unrelated events: Hamas frees hostages and Israel releases prisoners as Trump visits the region

• Israeli hostages being released by Hamas as Gaza ceasefire remains in effect

• Hamas releases seven Israeli hostages after 738 days in hellish captivity as families who never gave up hope gather to welcome them home — and Trump arrives to oversee peace deal

• Hamas Releases Israeli Hostages

  President Trump declared the Gaza war over and received a standing ovation in Israel's parliament on Monday for his leading role in bringing about a ceasefire in the war-ravaged territory. In a crucial part of the agreement, Hamas released the last 20 living Israeli hostages who had been captive for just over two years. In turn, Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Most of the Palestinians were taken from Israeli prisons, placed on buses, and driven to either Gaza or the West Bank. They were greeted by cheering crowds, along with hugs from friends and family. Israel was also sending some abroad, effectively placing them in exile. All the hostages were men, and all were in their 20s and 30s, except for one, who was in his 40s. Hamas is also required to hand over 28 bodies of dead hostages, though the Palestinian group says it has not been able to locate all of them.

  Israeli troops pulled back on Friday, but still hold roughly half of Gaza. They are eventually supposed to carry out additional pullbacks, but there's no timetable for their full withdrawal. The ceasefire also calls for Hamas to give up its weapons and play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Hamas has not publicly agreed to this, and Hamas civilian police have already re-emerged on the streets of the territory. There is currently no other Palestinian group in Gaza that is capable of ruling the territory. The ceasefire calls for a group of Palestinian technocrats to run Gaza on an interim basis, but they have not been named and it is not clear what kind of authority they would have, if any.

• Joy in Israel as Hostages Return

• “Avinatan has come home”: Jensen Huang hails release of Nvidia engineer after two yea | Ctech

• Arab states expanded cooperation with Israeli military during Gaza war

• The Resurrection of the Two-State Solution

China

• Minister of Economic Affairs Invokes Goods Availability Act for Nexperia

  • Dutch government takes control of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia

  • Dutch government seizes Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia for national security

  • China's Wingtech Loses Control of Chip Unit After Dutch Govt Freezes Operations

  • Netherlands cracks down on China-owned chip firm over security risk

  • Dutch government takes control of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia

  • Dutch government ousts Nexperia (chipmaker) CEO over alleged China ties

  • Dutch govt takes control of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia

  • Dutch restrict Nexperia to keep its chip secrets outside of China

• Taiwan faces risk from China's rare earth rules

• Taiwan sees no significant impact on chip sector from China rare earths curbs

• Sending a message: Beijing issues documents without Word format amid US tensions

• China Detains Members of Underground Church

• China tries shock-and-awe on Donald Trump

• China could use U.S. farmland to attack America

Health / Medicine

• Is Dark Chocolate Healthy?

• Soft Drinks' Effect on the Gut Tied to Increased Risk for Major Depression

• Cancer: France must know why it has higher exposure rates

• Fentanyl overdoses among seniors surge 9k% – A hidden crisis few saw coming

• Yet another reason to stay away from them, even if you're of the class that's allowed in: Sharp global rise in antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals, WHO finds

• There's a secret superfood in white rice and pasta

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• A new island erupted from the sea

• Climate tipping points are being crossed

• Scientists seek to turbocharge a natural process that cools the Earth

• California is finally quitting coal. Here's what comes next

• First catastrophic climate tipping point: coral reefs facing widespread dieback

  • 'Tipping point' threshold reached for coral reefs, report suggests

  • Coral die-off marks Earth's first climate 'tipping point', scientists say

• Despite what's happening in the USA, renewables are winning globally

• Farmers, ranchers cut back Colorado River water use

• City lizards are more social

• 24 Years of NASA Satellite Data Suggest the World Is Getting Darker

• PFAS: A French region has banned tap water. A warning for the rest of Europe?

• Earth's Crust Is Breaking Apart Off the Pacific Northwest

• The EPA Hasn't Released a Toxicity Report on this Forever Chemical

• Warming induces unexpectedly high soil respiration in a wet tropical forest