2025-12-27

Horseshit

• Psychopathy as a potential survival adaptation to early adversity

• Why ice skating is a miracle of physics

• Historical mysteries solved by science in 2025

• The world’s first fully 3D-printed microscope blew up in 2025

  The real breakthrough, however, was that the team 3D-printed the microscope’s lens out of clear plastic – this is what made their microscope both more affordable and more accessible than more conventional devices. While such microscopes can cost thousands, creating the new one cost less than £50.

• The most friendless place on Earth

• Why Everyone Loves Japan

• The Secret Service Agent Haunted by His Failure to Save JFK

• How tax trackers influence wealthy Americans' holiday plans

• Two centuries ago, Russian revolutionaries tried to change the world

Epstein

• A case study in PDF forensics: The Epstein PDFs

  Since our original post, various social media and news platforms have also been announcing “recoverable redactions” from the “Epstein Files”. We stand by our analysis; DoJ has correctly redacted the EFTA PDFs in Datasets 01-07, and they do not contain recoverable text as alleged. As our article states, we did not analyze any other DoJ or Epstein-related documents.

  For example, the featured image in this Guardian news article (which was also picked up by the New York Times) corresponds to VOL00004\IMAGES\0001EFTA00005855.pdf, as can be easily determined by searching for the Bates Numbers in the EFTA “.OPT” data files. The information in this EFTA PDF is fully and correctly redacted; there is no hidden information. The only extractable text is some garbled text from the poor-quality OCR and, as expected, the Bates Numbers on each page.

  In the few reports we investigated, these stories misrepresent other DoJ files that were not part of the major DataSets 01-07 release on December 19 under the EFTA. These include “Case 1:22-cv-10904-JSR   Document 1-1,  Exhibit 1 to Government’s Complaint against JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.” (see page 41) and “Case No: ST-20-CV-14 Government Exhibit 1” (see page 19). These PDFs, previously released by the DoJ, do contain incorrect and ineffective redactions, with black boxes that simply obscure text, making “copy & paste” easy to recover the text that's otherwise hidden. Clearly, DoJ processes and systems in the past have inadequately redacted and sanitized information!

  The DoJ has clearly created internal processes, systems, and workflows that can sanitize and redact information prior to publishing as PDF. This includes converting JPEG images to low-resolution pixel-only bitmaps, largely removing metadata, and rendering page images to bitmaps. OCR appears to have been widely applied, but is of variable quality.

• Thomas Massie Hits Back at Trump With Obvious Epstein Question

Obit

• James Moylan, Engineer Who Designed Gas Tank Arrow Indicator, Has Died

Musk

• Tesla's European Sales Plunge

• Elon Musk drops sustainable from Tesla's mission as he completes his villain arc

  • Elon Musk Says He's Removing 'Sustainable' from Tesla's Mission

Electric / Self Driving cars

• First highway segment in U.S. wirelessly charges heavy-duty truck while driving

• Low-frequency noise can help electric vehicles stand out in busy environments

• Retreating from EVs could be hazardous for Western carmakers

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• China to deploy humanoid robot for patrolling at the Vietnam border

• Humanoid robots are still novelty acts, but investment is surging make them real

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Apple's App Course Runs $20k a Student. Is It Worth It?

• Brown U. janitor says he warned campus security about suspicious visitor twice in weeks leading up to mass shooting.

• NYC phone ban reveals some students can't read clocks

• Dyslexia and the Reading Wars

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Asus to Produce Its Own DRAM to Relieve Memory Shortage, Says Report

• Google to allow Gmail users to change their primary email address

  • Google is allowing users to change their Gmail address, per official Google Docs

• Mesh Networks Are About to Escape Apple, Amazon, and Google Silos

• Can Apple's AirPod Translation Get You Through Tokyo? We Tested It

• Amazon Prime slammed for streaming ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ with key scene cut out.

• iPhone Air 2 Could Still Launch Next Year

• Apple's M-series chip 5 years later

• Leaker Who Apple Is Suing Says 'Screw It,' Here's the Foldable iPhone Early

• New York to require social media platforms to display mental health warnings

• What's moving into the public domain in 2026?

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• My insulin pump controller uses the Linux kernel. It also violates the GPL

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Our king, our priest, our feudal lord – how AI is taking us back to dark ages

• If AI Becomes Conscious, We Need to Know

• One view on why computers cannot be conscious

• AI Boom Adds $500B To Net Worth Of US Tech Billionaires In 2025

• As A.I. Companies Borrow Billions, Debt Investors Grow Wary

• Hollywood cozied up to AI in 2025 and had nothing good to show for it

• When it all comes crashing down: The aftermath of the AI boom

• Our king, our priest, our feudal lord – AI is taking us back to the dark ages

• Nvidia-Groq deal is structured to keep 'fiction of competition alive'

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Hubble Sees Possible Runaway Black Hole Creating a Trail of Stars

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Luxury Apartments Are Bringing Rent Down in Some Big Cities

• Another U.S. liquor brand files Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

  A.M. Scott Distillery, which offers a collection that includes our vodkas, two gins, and three bourbons, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A.M. Scott Distillery has struggled in recent months as its founder has faced legal problems. Troy businessman Anthony Michael Scott, owner of A.M. Scott Distillery, and former owner of The Mayflower, is facing felony charges in Mercer County.

• Rolex Tries to Beat Watch Flippers at Their Own Game

• Oracle stock on pace for worst quarter since 2001, AI concerns

• Nike's Crisis and the Economics of Brand Decay

  The most significant strategic shift came in 2020 when Nike hired John Donahoe, a former Bain consultant and eBay CEO, to replace Mark Parker. Donahoe accelerated the direct-to-consumer transition, terminating hundreds of wholesale accounts. The theory was sound: wholesale margins are 30-35% after retailer markups, while direct sales can reach 50% or higher. But retail shelf space is a zero-sum game. When Nike pulled out, competitors immediately filled the void. Running brands like On and Hoka, which had been developing new sole technology and cushioning systems, suddenly had access to prime retail real estate. On’s CloudTec and Hoka’s maximalist cushioning gained visibility precisely when Nike was reducing its retail presence. Nike improved its direct-to-consumer margins but reduced its total addressable market. The company assumed consumers would follow it online, but many didn’t. Instead, they discovered alternatives in physical stores.

  Nike systematically weakened its competitive advantages and then tried to maintain premium pricing without the product foundation to support it. The market responded predictably and retailers quickly filled shelf space with other brands. Athletes left for companies that were actually developing new products. Recovery will be harder than the decline because the structural advantages that made Nike dominant might no longer exist.

• Mortgage Rates Dip To 3-Year-Lows As Home-Sellers Outnumber Buyers | ZeroHedge

  The weekly mortgage rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.18 percent for the week ending Dec. 24 as the housing market continues to lean in favor of buyers. The recent rate decline comes as the U.S. housing market registered 37.2 percent more sellers than buyers in November, real estate brokerage Redfin said in a statement on Dec. 23. The 37.2 percent gap translates into 529,770 more sellers in the market.

• Silver rises 9% to hit fresh record high

  The white metal was at a record high of $78.53 an ounce. Other precious metals also gained on Friday, with spot gold at an all-time-high of $4,549.71/oz and platinum at a record high of $2,454.12/oz after a 10% climb. Spot palladium registered a more than 14% gain on Friday, and was last at $1,924.03/oz.

  • Actual delivery of physical product costs even more, apparently.

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Next Year Is Americas 250th Birthday. Meet the Person Behind the Celebration

  At the center of those preparations is Rosie Rios, a former U.S. treasurer under President Barack Obama who has led the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission since 2022. Rios, 60, was appointed by former President Joe Biden to lead the bipartisan commission, which includes 16 private citizens and eight members of Congress appointed in equal numbers by House and Senate leaders of both parties,

• A Wealth Tax Floated in California Has Billionaires Thinking of Leaving

Left Angst

• Brown shooting suspect: gruelling academic climate may have taken mental toll

  As investigators in Massachusetts work to piece together a motive for the murders of two Brown University students and an MIT physics professor, former classmates of the suspected gunman and one of the victims have been asking if the roots of the tragedy lie in their shared experience at a top university in Portugal. The suspected gunman, Cláudio Valente, and one of those killed, Nuno FG Loureiro, studied at the prestigious and notoriously challenging University of Lisbon engineering and technology school, known locally as Técnico, both graduating in 2000. Contemporaries of the two men describe the academic environment as emotionally gruelling. Only one was willing to go on the record, but several others expressed similar opinions.

• Trump Administration to Overhaul Lottery System for H-1B Visas

• Judge Blocks Detention of British Researcher Who Scrutinizes Online Hate

• UK campaigner targeted by Trump accuses tech giants of 'sociopathic greed'

• How the far right stole Christmas

  Far-right parties are claiming the festive season as their own, recasting Christmas as a marker of Christian civilization that is under threat and positioning themselves as its last line of defense against a supposedly hostile, secular left.

• Teacher ‘likened to terrorist’ after showing Trump videos to students

  Henley College, a sixth-form in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, with more than 2,000 students, reported the politics lecturer to the local child safeguarding authority, which concluded a referral to Prevent, the Government’s counter-terrorism programme, was a “priority”. The teacher was accused of causing his A-level students, aged 17 and 18, “emotional harm”. In one document, seen by The Telegraph, local officials in charge of child protection suggested the showing of the videos could amount to a “hate crime”.

• Right-wingers branded danger to children

  Free speech campaigners said spurious safeguarding concerns were increasingly being deployed to “silence” people with “patriotic views” in a “scandalous abuse of the system”. One campaign group has identified more than a dozen cases in which laws intended to keep children safe from harm from adults are being used to crack down on Right-wing views.

• ICE's interest in high-tech gear raises new questions: 'What is it for?'

• The DHS Data Grab Is Putting US Citizens at Risk

• The Apocalyptic Shortage That Never Happened: Democrats' Tariff Doomsday Narrative Imploded   | ZeroHedge

  Remember earlier this year when President Trump was locked in a tit-for-tat trade war with China? Then, a broad coalition of Democrats, corporate media outlets, mainstream economists, and left-leaning think tanks warned that higher tariffs would spark pandemic-era supply-chain chaos and trigger price spikes for consumers. Two quarters later, those dire predictions have yet to materialize.

• Trump Invited White South Africans to America. One Ended Up in Detention

• Conservative and Christian? US right champions psychedelic drugs

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Police Say He Killed in Self-Defense. His Phone Tells Another Story

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• FinCEN Announces Data-Driven Border Operation to Address Potential Money Laundering

  a multi-tiered operation targeting more than 100 U.S. money services businesses (MSBs) operating along the southwest border. These MSBs—which provide financial services outside of a formal bank—are being examined for potential non-compliance with regulations designed to detect money laundering and combat illicit finance. FinCEN’s operation resulted in the issuance of six notices of investigation, dozens of examination referrals to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and over 50 compliance outreach letters.

• Why is the US bombing Nigeria?

  • Trump supporters hail US strikes in Nigeria as ‘amazing Christmas present’

World

• From Pariah to Power: The Hindu Right's 100-Year Quest to Reshape India

• Starmer considers Australian-style ban on social media

• 8 killed, 18 wounded in mosque bombing in Syria

Israel

• Israel becomes first country to recognise Somaliland as sovereign state

• Israel becomes first country to formally recognise Somaliland as state

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russia's attempt to rein in illicit market for leaked data backfires

• Ukraine delivers humiliating Christmas Day blow to Putin by recapturing key city

China

• China hits US defence firms with sanctions over arms sales to Taiwan

  • China Sanctions Boeing, Other U.S. Companies over Taiwan Arms Sale

• China is building most powerful hydropower system deep in the Himalayas

• China's control of battery supply chain a critical risk for US Military

• China isn't just dumping cheap goods anymore – it's sending caviar

• Chinese Cargo Ship Packed Full of Modular Missile Launchers Emerges

Health / Medicine

• New science points to 4 distinct types of autism

• Tramadol: Pain killer taken by millions linked to deadly heart conditions, study finds

• Three-quarters of the global population are not getting enough Omega-3

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• The paints, coatings, and chemicals making the world a cooler place

• Fish-Inspired Filter That Removes over 99% of Microplastics

• Bugs selected on Bt corn have wing shapes better suited to long distance flight

• More Than 80% of New California Properties Are in High Fire-Risk Areas

• Deep-sea gas hydrates and chemosynthetic fauna discovered on the Greenland Sea

• Reality crushed Ÿnsect startup that had raised over $600M for insect farming