2025-12-14

Horseshit

• Humans rank above meerkats but below beavers in monogamy league table

• Can We Really Claim That Civilization is on the Steady Path of Progress?

• The New Allowance

• Childhood instability accelerates women's sexual strategies, study suggests

• We've cracked how to make random numbers

• The surprising longevity lessons from the oldest animal

• Research Veteran Yardeni Ends 15-Year Tech Bet with Underweight Mag 7 Call

• Poor mental health linked to dark web use

• Playing Santa Does Things to a Man. What It Did to Bob Rutan Was Even Stranger

Epstein

• Unredacted Trump photos from Epstein files dump reveal glamorous group of adult models: ‘He was very gentlemanly.’

  Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a trove of images from Epstein’s estate Friday, including two shots of the president with women whose faces were blacked out — fueling speculation they could be the disgraced financier’s victims. But a pair of pictures obtained exclusively by The Post show Trump standing next to beautiful grown women. . . . The outlet reported the women were models representing the Hawaiian Tropic, the American suntan lotion brand, at an event at Trump’s Florida home.

celebrity gossip

• Elastic limbs, fantastical accents and crackling sexual chemistry: Dick Van Dyke turns 100 | Dick Van Dyke | The Guardian

• Michael Jordan was a basketball legend. Now, he's one in NASCAR too

Obit

• Peter Greene — 'Pulp Fiction' and 'The Mask' actor — found dead at 60 inside his NYC apartment | New York Post

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• ‘Animal Farm’ review: Director Andy Serkis softens George Orwell classic for family animation

  Originally conceived by George Orwell as a satirical allegory for the Russian Revolution and the subsequent struggles of the USSR under the rule of Joseph Stalin, Animal Farm’s political ire is redirected in this lively CG-animated adaptation directed by Andy Serkis. Rather than Stalinism, Serkis takes aim at greed, rapacious consumerism and corporate corruption and malfeasance. There’s also a timely dig at populist political movements.

• Want to sway an election? Here’s how much fake online accounts cost

Musk

• Musk's Mars mission adds risk to red-hot SpaceX IPO

• SpaceX Valued at $800B, as It Prepares to Go Public

• SpaceX plans to go public in 2026, seeks $1.5 trillion valuation: reports.

• Elon Musk's xAI Sues Apple and OpenAI over App Store Drama

Electric / Self Driving cars

• EV sticker shock: Solo drivers using California carpool lanes face hefty fines

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• Five Practical Robotics Applications Aimed at Reducing Environmental Impact

• $1,500 robot cooks dinner while I work

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Oliver Sacks put himself into his case studies. What was the cost?

• Columbia University Faculty Behaving Badly

  A new report out of Columbia University documents abuses of faculty prerogatives and general outrageous misbehavior on the part of full-time faculty, instructors, and graduate assistants. Academic freedom does not include being abusive to students, using your classes for political organizing, teaching material unrelated to your classes ideological reasons, and otherwise treating your classroom position as if its your personal platform to pursue an ideological agenda. All of these teachers should face sanctions ranging from suspensions to being fired, but I'm not holding my breath. While these incidents all involve misbehavior on behalf of "Palestine," it's reasonable to assume that it reflects a broader culture of politicization of the classroom and perceived impunity more generally, and not just at Columbia.

• More than 9M US borrowers miss student loan payments as delinquencies rise

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Liberating AirPods With Bluetooth Spoofing

  LibrePods lets you control noise reduction modes, use ear detection to pause and unpause audio, detect head gestures, reduce volume when the AirPods detect you’re speaking, work as configurable hearing aids, connect to two devices simultaneously, and configure a few other settings.

• Google and Apple roll out emergency security updates after zero-day attacks

• Doxers Posing as Cops Are Tricking Big Tech Firms into Sharing People's Data

• The Coupang data breach that hit two-thirds of South Korea

• Live Nation, Ticketmaster must face sprawling class action over prices

• Apple loses its appeal of a scathing contempt ruling in iOS payments case - Ars Technica

• YouTube's CEO limits his kids' social media use – other tech bosses do the same

  • They prolly bought their kids ponies and cars; too.

• Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options

  we created this non-smart TV guide that includes much more than dumb TVs. Since non-smart TVs are so rare, this guide also breaks down additional ways to watch TV and movies online and locally without dealing with smart TVs’ evolution toward software-centric features and snooping. We’ll discuss a range of options suitable for various budgets, different experience levels, and different rooms in your home.

• More reason for the above: LG TV's new software update installed MS Copilot, which cannot be deleted

• Samsung to halt SATA SSD production, leaker warns

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• OpenAI built an AI coding agent and uses it to improve the agent itself

• Meta's Pivot from Open Source to Money-Making AI Model

• Thought Colleague Was a Traitor for Teaching Students to Use AI. Then We Talked

• Could America win the AI race but lose the war?

• AI is making the workplace lonelier

• If AIs can feel pain, what is our responsibility towards them?

• AI is bringing old nuclear plants out of retirement

• China Is Worried About AI Job Losses

• AI Boom Threatens to Suck Resources Away from Road, Bridge Work

• OpenAI Ends 'Vesting Cliff' for New Employees in Compensation-Policy Change

Crypto con games

• Silk Road-linked Bitcoin wallets move $3M to new address

• Bitcoin creator Satoshi disappeared on this day 15 years ago

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Broadcom tumbles 11% after earnings as AI trade sells off

• The Invitation-Only Stock Market for the Wealthy

• Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan was investor and adviser to firm sanctioned for China deals

• Oracle's $300B OpenAI Deal Has Investors Worried About Its AI Spending

• How Resilient Will the U.S. Consumer Be Without a Job?

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Sec. Duffy threatens to pull $73 million from New York after audit finds 53% of state’s CDLs were given to illegals

• Feds Spent $27 million on Minnesota Somali Community Since FY2021

  Grants either directly address the Somali community in Minnesota or include the Somali community in other minority outreach or research efforts. Most funding ($14.3 million) was spent on various projects with the University of Minnesota. The university seems to have profited handsomely from initiatives addressing assimilation issues within the Somali community.

• 'Obvious Mental Disability': FBI Insider Raises Doubts About Man Charged As J6 Pipe-Bomber | ZeroHedge

  "The FBI employee disclosing this information to me doesn’t believe the FBI has arrested a person who is capable or motivated, or even interested enough in affairs outside of his own small world, to execute the J6 pipe bomb plot on his own," wrote Massie in a Friday afternoon thread on X, noting that this was Massie's "personal conclusion" about the whistleblower. Nearly five years after two pipe bombs were found at RNC and DNC headquarters on Jan 6, 2001, the FBI earlier this month arrested Brian J. Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Virginia. He was charged with transporting an explosive device across state lines with the intent to either kill, injure, or intimidate, or to unlawfully damage property. He was also charged with attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials. The arrest came after mounting doubts that the FBI and other authorities were earnestly investigating the crime. Many theorized that, even worse than slow-rolling the probe, the feds were actively covering something up.

  In what could prove to be a telling observation, the FBI employee told Massie that neighbors were not evacuated when the purported bomber's home was searched. Indeed, neighbors were ordered to stay inside their houses. "If the suspect had in fact been engaged in making bombs and stockpiling bomb materials, the proper safety precautions were not taken," said Massie, summarizing the FBI insider. This anomaly parallels oddly nonchalant behavior when the bombs were discovered on Jan. 6. Massie has previously said police waited to finish their sandwiches before taking action, after a plain-clothes officer alerted them to the nearby device.

Democrats

• Non-citizens Social Security numbers issued during the Biden Administration

  • 2021: 270,425
  • 2022: 590,193
  • 2023: 964,163
  • 2024: 2,095,247

Left Angst

• Breaking Down Trump's 2025 National Security Strategy

• The military's new AI says boat strike 'unambiguously illegal'

• Trump Pretends to Block State AI Laws; Media Pretends That's Legal

• Democratic states sue Trump administration over new $100k fee for H-1B visas

  • States lodge lawsuit against Trump's $100k H-1B visa fee

• The feds are asking universities to provide lists of Jews. This is never a good thing.

  • "lists of Jews who were assaulted during Pro Hamas protests"...

  • Federal agency sues Penn, alleges Univ. withheld information in antisemitism investigation - The Daily Pennsylvanian

  The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against Penn alleging that the University failed to provide documents requested for an investigation into its handling of antisemitism complaints from Jewish faculty and staff on Tuesday. The Nov. 18 complaint — which was filed in a Pennsylvania federal court — claimed that Penn “refused to comply” with a July subpoena seeking discrimination complaints filed by Jewish employees, membership lists of Jewish-related campus groups, and Jewish Studies Program employee names. In a response to the suit, Penn wrote that it has “cooperated extensively with the EEOC, providing over 100 documents, totaling nearly 900 pages.”

• Wait, weren't they all in on "free trade" last year? RIP American Tech Dominance

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Multiple Chinese Nationals Indicted on Charges Related to Theft and Re-Sale of Restaurant Cooking Oil

  the charged Defendants committed thefts of used cooking oil, which can be refined into biodiesel fuel and re-sold. Defendants drove trucks to restaurants and stole and attempted to steal cooking oil from oil collection tanks located at restaurants throughout Iowa, and in Tennessee, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kentucky. Defendants then transported the stolen cooking oil to warehouses in Nevada and Ankeny, Iowa; Lewisburg, Tennessee; Dora, Alabama; and Tipp City, Ohio. Defendants subsequently sold the stolen cooking oil and laundered the proceeds.

• Multiple Victim Mass Shooting at Brown University.

  • Brown University shooting: At least 2 killed

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• RTG: How Did the C.I.A. Lose a Nuclear Device in the Himalayas? - The New York Times

  One misplaced foot, one careless slip, and it was a 2,000-foot drop, straight down. Just below the peak, the Americans and their Indian comrades got everything ready: the antenna, the cables and, most crucially, the SNAP-19C, a portable generator designed in a top-secret lab and powered by radioactive fuel, similar to the ones used for deep sea and outer space exploration. The plan was to spy on China, which had just detonated an atomic bomb. Stunned, the C.I.A. dispatched the climbers to set up all this gear — including the 50-pound, beach-ball-size nuclear device — on the roof of the world to eavesdrop on Chinese mission control.

• U.S. removes Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes from its sanctions list - CBS News

  A senior Trump administration official said the sanctions were lifted since the U.S. saw the passage of an important amnesty bill by Brazil's lower house as a signal that lawfare conditions in Brazil are improving. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's views on foreign policy interests.

World

• Online gaming escaped Australia's social media ban-critics say just as addictive

• UK developing urgent plan for conflict, minister says

• UK Lords propose ban on VPNs for children

• EU Council introduces a €3 customs duty on every parcel. Starting July 1, 2026

• Berlin Approves New Expansion of Police Surveillance Powers

  One of the most controversial elements is the expansion of police powers under paragraphs 26a and 26b. These allow investigators to hack into computers and smartphones under the banner of “source telecommunications surveillance” and “online searches.” Police may now install state-developed spyware, known as trojans, on personal devices to intercept messages before or after encryption. If the software cannot be deployed remotely, the law authorizes officers to secretly enter a person’s home to gain access.

• Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did it get so bad?

• Where are all the Canadians going?

• Australian teens were kicked off social media this week. Some are back already

Israel

• Life in Gaza under Israel's all-encompassing surveillance regime

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• African athlete lured to Russia for work, ends up on front lines of Ukraine war

China

• Clean, Limitless Energy Exists. China Is Going Big in the Race to Harness It

• What is "involution", China's race-to-the-bottom competition trend

• China has invented a whole new way to do innovation

Health / Medicine

• Gut microbial imbalance can impact memory, says study

• Man shocks doctors with 254/150 blood pressure, stroke from energy drinks

• Review of Medical Cannabis Use Finds Little Evidence of Benefit

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Why mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• 'Food and fossil fuel production causing $5B of environmental damage an hour'

• India Is a Rising Power, but Breathing in Its Capital Is Hazardous

• Clean energy found in old coal mines

• Air passengers exposed to high levels of ultrafine particles, study

• Ancient lake that vanished 100k years ago returns to California

• More atmospheric rivers coming for flooded Washington and the West Coast

• Google plans to power a data center with fossil fuels with almost no emissions

• UN: World must tackle climate change, pollution, biodiversity and land loss