2025-11-22

Horseshit

• Superman Comic Found in Attic Sold for $9.12M

  • Superman comic found in attic sells for $9.12M, most expensive ever sold

• Swedish musician teaches a highly intelligent octopus to play piano

• 'Bull riding is a drug': rodeo embraces its sports science era

• And expense! Terahertz Radar: A New Era in Auto Safety

• Can donated organs carry memories?

• The Largest Afro Took Three People to Measure It

• How do you replace a CEO like Tim Cook or Warren Buffett?

• When the bubble bursts

  If I sound jaded, it’s because the AI bubble has demonstrated how disconnected the tech industry, garbed in the authoritative trappings of science, is from actual scientific expertise. Who wants to hear caveats when you have a product to sell? Yet when the bubble bursts, we will all pay the price. Perhaps, however, a lesson will be learnt. There’s a danger that the nascent quantum computing industry might become caught up in another cycle of over-promising and hype, when the reality is that these futuristic-sounding machines, “faster than the best supercomputer”, could simply be of great value to a relatively limited range of problems. Don’t get fooled again.

• Hot Takes to Fight About at Thanksgiving

• (Sep 2025) Replication of Quantum Factorisation Records with an 8-bit Home Computer, an Abacus, and a Dog

  This paper presents implementations that match and, where possible, exceed current quantum factorisation records using a VIC-20 8-bit home computer from 1981, an abacus, and a dog.

  As has been previously pointed out, the 2001 and 2012 quantum factorisation records may be easily matched with a dog trained to bark three times. We verified this by taking a recently-calibrated reference dog, Scribble, depicted in Figure 6, and having him bark three times, thus simultaneously factorising both 15 and 21. This process wasn’t as simple as it first appeared because Scribble is very well behaved and almost never barks. Having him perform the quantum factorisation required having his owner play with him with a ball in order to encourage him to bark.

• Ex-Van Drew staffer staged fake attack, writing ‘Trump Whore’ across her stomach and alleging men held her down and cut her body.

• The senior population is booming. Caregiving is struggling to keep up

• A Tap-to-Pay Society Is Leaving New Yorkers Behind

celebrity gossip

• Erik Prince, America's most notorious mercenary, spies opportunity in chaos

Obit

• Victor Conte, architect of infamous sport steroids scandal, dies aged 75

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Why more social interactions lead to more polarization in societies

Musk

• Study finds 41% of EV drivers would avoid Tesla over politics

• Newest Starship booster is significantly damaged during testing early Friday.

  Post-incident images showed significant damage, perhaps a crumpling of sorts, to the lower half of the booster where the vehicle’s large liquid oxygen tank is housed. Neither SpaceX, nor company founder Elon Musk, had commented on the failure within a couple of hours of its occurrence on Friday morning. This is the first Starship Version 3, which was intended to have many design fixes and upgrades from the previous iterations of Starship vehicles to improve the reliability and performance of the massive rocket. The Booster 18 problem on Friday appeared to cause less damage to test infrastructure, and no Raptor engines had yet been installed on the vehicle.

  • Looks like the LOX tank imploded during purging, before filling.

  • SpaceX's upgraded Starship suffers explosion during testing

• France will investigate Musk's Grok chatbot after Holocaust denial claims

• Elon Musk says that in 10 to 20 years, work will be optional and money will be irrelevant thanks to AI and robotics.

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Zoox kicks off robotaxi rides in San Francisco

• 'Robotaxi has reached a tipping point': Baidu, Nvidia leaders see momentum

• Waymo cars flock to quiet Palo Alto street

• Porsche Cayenne Electric Is a $111,000 EV That Can Charge Wirelessly

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• The male boom in Orthodox Christianity in the U.S.

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Nursing Excluded as 'Professional' Degree by Department of Education

• Gaps in youth sex education linked to relationship struggles in adulthood

• 1 in 8 freshman at UCSD don't have middle school math skills

• What happens when even college students can't do math anymore?

• The Harvard Endowment's Biggest Public Investment Is Now Bitcoin

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• HP and Dell disable HEVC support built into their laptops' CPUs

• OnlyFans Will Start Checking Criminal Records. Creators Say It's a Terrible Idea

• Former Google chief accused of spying on employees through account 'backdoor'

• Netflix, Comcast and Paramount Submit Warner Bros. Discovery Bids

• Stack Overflow is remaking itself into an AI data provider

• Meta Learns That Nothing Is a Monopoly If You Just Wait Long Enough

• Roblox Will Analyze Users' Faces to Verify Age

• The Arduino Terms of Service and Privacy Policy update: setting the record straight

  Let us be absolutely clear: we have been open-source long before it was fashionable. We’re not going to change now. The Qualcomm acquisition doesn’t modify how user data is handled or how we apply our open-source principles.

  • they do not address any of the specific concerns that have been raised so far as i see.

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• It's hard to build an oscillator

  The most common category of oscillators you can find on the internet are circuits that simply don’t work. This is followed by approaches that require exotic components, such as center-tapped inductors or incandescent lightbulbs. The final group are the layouts you can copy, but probably won’t be able to explain to a friend who doesn’t have an EE degree.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Big Tech's Debt Binge Raises Risk in Race to Create an AI World

• Microsoft Exec Asks: Why Aren't More People Impressed with AI?

• Gemini 3 is almost as good as Google says it is

• DeepSeek writes insecure code if prompt mentions topics restricted in China

• Tipping Point or Bubble?

• The Most Joyless Tech Revolution Ever: AI Is Making Us Rich and Unhappy

• AI data centers are straining power grids, environmental resources and markets

• Google must double AI compute every 6 months to meet demand

• There Is Only One AI Company

• JPMorgan says Europe has its own AI play

• Why an AI 'godfather' is quitting Meta after 12 years

Crypto con games

• Altman's eye-scanning startup told workers not to care about anything but work

• Crypto's connections to the rest of the financial system

• Cryptocurrencies Whipped by Flight from Risk

• Crypto plunge wipes out nearly $400B in a week

• Visa and Mastercard Are Moving Fast into Stablecoins

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Michael Burry takes aim at Nvidia after its earnings blowout

  • Nvidia crushed its quarter–and CEO Huang said 'the market did not appreciate it'

• US economy adds 119,000 jobs in September as unemployment rate rises

• Wall Street is banking on too many Federal Reserve rate cuts, Vanguard warns

• SEC dismisses case against SolarWinds, top security officer

• Berkshire's Alphabet Buy Doesn't Sound Like Buffett

• McDonald's is losing its low-income customers: a symptom of the wealth divide

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• The Housing Strategy That Has California NIMBYs in a Corner

Trump

• Trump calls Democrats message to troops seditious behaviour, punishable by death

• The Trump Administration's Order on AI Is Deeply Misguided

  • Trump's support for pro-AI proposal fuels Maga backlash

• Trump Calling Reporter 'Piggy' Was 'Frankness,' White House Says

Democrats

• Short on Cash, D.N.C. Took Out $15 Million Loan in October

Left Angst

• New US rules say countries with diversity policies are infringing human rights

  • Racial quotas enshrined in law are no less racist. "Content of character, not color of skin"

• US cancels October's employment report after shutdown prevented data collection

• The Saudification of America is under way

• Larry Ellison discussed axing CNN hosts with White House in takeover bid talks

• Nancy Pelosi defends calling Trump a 'vile creature' and 'worst thing' on Earth

• The FBI spied on a Signal group chat of immigration activists, records reveal

  • Currently more likely to violate the law than Catholic congregations, no?

• Trump admin attempts to open pristine Alaska wildlife refuge to gas/oil drilling

• Trump administration eliminates protections for endangered species

• CDC to end all monkey research; will phase out HIV, infectious disease studies

  • CDC to end monkey research programs

• How Cops Are Using Flock's ALPR Network to Surveil Protesters and Activists

• In red states, many academic researchers feel fear–and resolve

• FCC rolls back cybersecurity rules for telcos despite state hacking risks

• Researcher’s Smuggling Arrest Casts Light on Dispute Over Chinese Students

  As some lawmakers press U.S. universities to curtail ties with China, a postdoctoral student’s prosecution raises questions about how big the danger actually is.

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• New Jersey high court first in US to ban Shaken Baby Syndrome testimony.

  • New Jersey high court first in US to ban Shaken Baby Syndrome testimony

• Afghan National Sentenced to 15 Years After Plotting Election Day Terror Attack

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Nation-state actors bridging cyber and kinetic warfare

• US Pushing Ukraine to accept deal by Thanksgiving or lose support

  • Trump peace plan for Ukraine includes NATO-style security guarantee

  • Trump's Devastating Plan for Ukraine

• China and Russia can detect F-35 (and B-2) using VHF radar

World

• Biggest prostate cancer screening trial in decades begins in UK

• Germany: States Pass Porn Filters for Operating Systems

• What the UK can learn from 1914 war preparations

• Brexit Hit to UK Economy Double Official Estimate, Study Finds

• How a French judge was digitally cut off by the USA

• UK minister ducks cost questions on nationwide digital ID scheme

• UK to Create New Fast-Track Residency Path for High-Earners

• UEFA orders Scotland fans to remove celebration videos from X

• EU eases AI, privacy rules as critics warn of caving to Big Tech

• UK bar bans solo-drinkers to 'protect customers'

• Europol and partner countries combat online radicalisation on gaming platforms

• Brazil charges 31 people in major carbon credit fraud investigation

• Reform UK's former Wales leader jailed for taking bribes for pro-Russia speeches

• Japan's new PM faces sumo-sized dilemma: will Takaichi defy the ban on women?

Iran / Houthi

• Iran's Capital Is Moving. The Reason Is an Ecological Catastrophe

Israel

• Anonymous site offers $100k for execution of Israeli academics

Health / Medicine

• How Children die from Indian cough syrup

• How to lower America's soaring health-care costs

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• COVID vaccine under new scrutiny after studies reveal possible health risks.

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Whitehorse residents baffled by 'annoying hum' that no one seems able to explain

• UK climate aid is lining the pockets of billionaires

• Giant oarfish, 'palace messenger' of doom, washes up on Tasmanian beach

• The Dirty Secret of Biodegradable Plastic

• The Strange and Totally Real Plan to Blot Out the Sun and Reverse Global Warming