2026-01-10

Horseshit

• Therapists are not parents – are we simulating family?

  One in four Gen Z adults went to therapy as teens, including 31% of young women. This compares to only 10% of Gen X and 4% of Boomers at the same age. I’ve spent a long time wondering what changed. Of course some of us are suffering and need professional help—but others talk to their therapists like friends, texting them obsessively. And lately I see something deeper happening too, something parental. I notice young people treating their therapists like family, going to them for praise, approval, affection, the things children need from parents.

• How online communities are helping women stay in the skilled trades

• Bluefors to Source Helium-3 from the Moon to Power Quantum Industry Growth

• Power, Not Economic Theory, Created Neoliberalism

• Why does mint make water taste so cold?

• People in Brazil are living past 110 and scientists want to know why

  • the usual answer is "poor record keeping"; ie they ain't that old.

• Noise complaints spark Vietnam pickleball wars

• New LA Home Designs, Reimagined by Fire

• Life after LeBron James: who will inherit the NBA's future?

• How Big Tech Killed Literary Culture

Musk

• Using Grok to Avoid Personal Attacks While Correcting Misinformation on X

• Elon Musk's X could be banned in Britain over AI chatbot deepfakes row

• Grok Is Creating Sexualized Deepfakes of Celebrities and Children

• Grok assumes users seeking images of underage girls have "good intent"

• Who's who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter

• Grok turns off image generator for most after outcry over sexualised AI imagery

• Elon Musk's X must be banned

• Democrats ask Apple and Google to remove X's undressing bot from app stores

• No 10: Grok changes 'insulting' and make deepfake creation a 'premium service'

• Decide on X ban within days, UK government tells regulator

• UK threatened with sanctions if Starmer blocks Musk's X

• Elon Musk's X threatened with UK ban over wave of indecent AI images

• Elon Musk's A.I. Is Generating Sexualized Images of Real People, Fueling Outrage

• Grok hasn't paywalled its deepfake image feature

• X UK revenues drop nearly 60% in a year as content concerns spook advertisers

• SpaceX Rockets Put Passenger Planes at Risk

• Are Tesla Gigafactory Berlin's days numbered?

Electric / Self Driving cars

• Nvidia wants to power robotaxi fleets with chips, software by 2027

• GM to take $7.1B hit from electric vehicle production changes, China

  • How much has the "EV religion" cost our world so far? How much more do we have to waste before we wake up?

• Advancements In Self-Driving Cars - by Zvi Mowshowitz

  Waymo is going to start using freeways in Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco. That’s a big deal for longer rides, but there is still the problem that Waymos have to obey the technical speed limit. On freeways no huamn driver does this, so obeying the technical speed limit is both slower and more dangerous. We are going to need a regulatory solution, ideally that allows you to drive at the average observed speed.

• Waymo Robotaxi Causes Traffic Jam in Miami Beach

• Ford Will Debut Eyes-Off Autonomous Driving on Its Upcoming $30K EV

• UK electric car charger rollout slows amid worries over EV switch

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• China's humanoid robots come out fighting

• A slim robot under $10k that can do laundry

• Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind partners on AI-powered Atlas robots

• Why robots still can't match humans – and what's holding them back

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• in the name of "Trans": Inside the women's prison where violent male inmates have their way

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Higher ed suffers ‘brutal year’ as 9,000 jobs cut (out of 4 million total).

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Bose has released API docs and opened the API for its EoL SoundTouch speakers

• Nintendo Switch 2 sales stumble over Christmas

• SFC vs. VIZIO: who can enforce the GPL?

• Is Craigslist the Last Real Place on the Internet?

  • The fakes, scams, and purity policing still feels like the old internet.

• SanDisk to double price of 3D NAND for enterprise SSDs in Q1 2026

• Fix Your robots.txt or Your Site Disappears from Google

• Apple's John Ternus Could Be Tim Cook's Successor as CEO

• Illinois man charged with hacking Snapchat accounts to steal nude photos

• CES 2026 was awash in bodily fluids

• The gap between premium and budget TV brands is quickly closing

• Americans Won't Ban Kids from Social Media. What Can We Do Instead?

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• The Hacker Manifesto turns 40

• (2022) Kevin Boone: How problematic is resampling audio from 44.1 to 48 kHz?

• See it with your lying ears - lcamtuf’s thing

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Google Is Adding an 'AI Inbox' to Gmail That Summarizes Emails

  • Google is unleashing Gemini AI features on Gmail. Users will have to opt out

• Rise of AI chatbots for shopping boosts analyst hopes for Shopify's growth

• Why AI is pushing developers toward typed languages

• Meta Announces Nuclear Energy Projects, Unlocking Up to 6.6 GW

  • Meta lines up supply of nuclear power to energize AI data centers

  • Meta Signs Multi-Gigawatt Nuclear Deals for AI Data Centers

• AI Models Are Starting to Learn by Asking Themselves Questions

• Your next primary care doctor could be online only, accessed through an AI tool

• How the AI 'bubble' compares to history

• It seems inevitable that all the GPUs are going to live in space

  An infrared radiator, like the ISS uses, but more efficient. I believe the radiator has to be about a quarter the area of the solar panels.

  • Hmmm.... I wonder if it would be possible to use a powerful IR laser array as the downlink. "cooling lasers" is still a dream AFAIK but it might not be in 20 years.

• Amazon has big hopes for wearable AI – starting with this $50 gadget

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• NASA orders "controlled medical evacuation" from the International Space Station

  The space agency has said little about the incident, and officials have not identified which crew member suffered the medical issue. James “JD” Polk, NASA’s chief health and medical officer, told reporters Thursday the crew member is “absolutely stable” but that the agency is “erring on the side of caution” with the decision to bring to return the astronaut to Earth. The Crew-11 mission is led by commander Zena Cardman, 38, who is wrapping up her first mission to space. Second in command is pilot Mike Fincke, a 58-year-old astronaut on his fourth spaceflight. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, 55, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, 39, round out the crew.

  After Crew-11’s departure, the space station will operate with a smaller crew of three until the arrival of SpaceX’s Crew-12 mission with a fresh team of astronauts next month. Isaacman said NASA and SpaceX are looking at options to move up the launch of Crew-12 from its current target date of February 15. Until then, the station’s crew will consist of NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian cosmonauts, who launched to the space station in November on a Russian Soyuz vehicle. Williams and his crewmates—Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikayev—have their own lifeboat in the Soyuz spacecraft, so they will still have a ride home in the event of a future emergency.

• A lot could happen in space this year

• Final Steps Underway for NASA's First Crewed Artemis Moon Mission

Crypto con games

• Small-time crypto investors are facing violent attacks

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Google reclaimed crown as second most valuable company

• December Employment 50 thousand Jobs, 4.4% Unemployment Rate

• Fitness tracking app Strava confidentially files for IPO, Information reports

• What's algorithmic coercion, and why is it making things we buy more expensive?

• The Average American Spends $748 per Month to Finance a New Car

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• I tried to be the government. It did not go well

• Clear Thinking on the Childhood Vaccine Schedule

  In 1980, American children following the CDC immunization schedule received 23 vaccine doses in 7 shots against 7 different diseases plus 4 polio vaccine drops. In 2024, the recommended number of routine vaccines had risen to at least 84 vaccine doses in at least 57 shots for 17 diseases, plus the RSV monoclonal antibody immunization for a total of 18 diseases.

  • US to slash routine vaccine recommendations for children

• Google Guys Say Bye to California

  • Larry Page leaves California to protect $12.5B from proposed wealth tax

• Trump spectrum sale leaves airlines with $4.5B bill for altimeter do-over

• NYC to quadruple intersections with red light cameras

• White House architect says West Wing additions considered for 'symmetry'

• California's high-speed rail – $135B price tag, years of false starts

Trump

• Bessent: if you’re on public assistance, you can’t wire money out of the country

  • I can only find stories on this from the Right; the Left's media isn't talking about it. The "action forums" are; they're talking how to use crypto and other remittance alternatives. "Getting EBT money out of the country will still be possible just harder".

Democrats

• Minnesota governor authorizes National Guard as protests erupt after fatal ICE shooting

• The Quiet Evolution of Joe Kennedy III

Left Angst

• Renee Nicole Good was Minneapolis 'ICE Watch' 'warrior' who trained to resist feds before shooting | New York Post

  Renee Nicole Good, the mom who was killed by a federal agent after veering her car toward him, was an anti-ICE “warrior” and was part of a group of activists who worked to “document and resist” the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, The Post can reveal. Good, who moved to the city last year, linked up with the anti-ICE activists through her 6-year-old son’s woke charter school, which boasts that it puts “social justice first” and prioritizes “involving kids in political and social activism,” multiple local sources said. “She was a warrior. She died doing what was right,” a mother named Leesa, whose child attends the same school, told The Post at a growing vigil where Good was killed Wednesday.

  • SUV involved in Minneapolis ICE shooting registered in Kansas City, Missouri

  • AI images and internet rumors spread confusion about agent involved in shooting

  While the agent wore a mask in eyewitness videos taken of the event, he appeared to be unmasked in many of the social media posts. That image appeared to have been generated by xAI's generative AI chatbot, Grok, in response to users on X asking the bot to "unmask" the agent. NPR is publishing both images to show how AI is being used to manipulate real evidence of news events, but using AI to try to "unmask" anyone is ill-advised, according to experts.

  Meanwhile, the Star Tribune and others, including NPR, have identified the name of the ICE agent as Jonathan Ross. Court documents show Ross was dragged by a car during another traffic stop in June of last year in Bloomington, Minn.

  • Videos Contradict Trump Administration Account of ICE Shooting in Minneapolis

  • How many ICE employees have been hit by cars this year? How Dangerous Is It to Work for ICE?

  • ICE agent who opened fire on Renee Good was dragged, hospitalized by illegal migrant driver last year.

  • Stunning new footage shot by ICE agent who killed Renee Nicole Good shows what REALLY happened

  Renee Nicole Good, 37, could be seen smiling at Jonathan 'Jon' Ross while sat in her Honda Pilot on Wednesday afternoon and saying 'That's fine dude. I'm not mad,' in a video shot by Ross that was obtained by Minnesota outlet Alpha News. Her wife Rebecca Good, 40, could be heard urging Ross to 'show his face' as she asks him 'You want to come at us?' 'You want to come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch big boy,' Rebecca said, with her own cellphone in hand. 'Go ahead.' As the tension mounted, Good was told to get out of the car, but ignored orders.

  She began revving the engine and drove off during what the Trump administration says was part of a protest against the planned detention of Somali migrants in the area. Ross's camera then jerked. It is unclear if he was struck by the car or jumped to get out of its way.

  The ICE agent fired three shots, including one through the front windshield of the Honda, that struck and killed Good. Moments later her car crashed into the back of two cars parked nearby, with the shocking chain of events quickly dividing the United States.

  • Video filmed by ICE agent who shot Minneapolis woman emerges

• Tips for How Not to Be Killed by a Police Officer

  Immediately obey any orders from a police officer without argument or resisting. If you don’t like an order, talk to a lawyer later and sue. If you are right, you will get a lot of money.

• The Theory That Gives Trump a Blank Check for Aggression

• How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance

• Do not mistake a resilient global economy for populist success

• The Early Days of American Imperialism

• Organ Meat Is All the Rage Thanks to MAHA and the Natural Food Fad

  • RFK Jr.'s dietary guidance: Food funnel features slab of red meat, butter

  • Agriculture secretary says new dietary guidelines are a ‘flipping of the narrative.’

• Ed Feulner, Ed Meese and the Heritage Foundation's Exodus

• America must embrace the Electric Age, or fall behind

  Elon Musk is America’s China. That sounds like a silly thing to say, but what it means is that what the entire economy of China is set up to do — scale up high-tech manufacturing businesses — is something that only one man in America knows how to do. Only Elon has built China-like manufacturing businesses in America, and he has done it twice now — SpaceX and Tesla. When something like that happens twice, it wasn’t a coincidence.

• America's new dietary guidelines ignore decades of scientific research

  • And the people who paid for the research are pissed off; that was the best marketing money they'd ever spent.

• Who is going to trust the USA again?

• DHS Invokes Immigration Enforcement to Justify Gathering Americans' DNA

• A New Anti-Political Fervor

  It’s said that we live in a crisis of democracy, but it would be better stated that we live in a crisis of politics. Throughout the world, and especially in the West, an anti-political mood has taken hold.

• Why Are Federal Agents Using GoPros, Smart Glasses, and Phones to Record Us?

• National Park Service will void passes with stickers over Trump's face

• Neo-Royalism, the Trump Administration, and the Emerging International System

• Washington National Opera Is Leaving the Kennedy Center

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• The Rise and Fall of the US Army Camel Corps

• USA TODAY mapped the potential consequences of a strike on US missile silos

• U.S. mandates more foreign travelers to pay $15,000 visa bond deposits

• 'Buying' Greenland Is Not an Option

World

• EU considers designating WhatsApp as large platform

• Dutch set to outlaw fireworks after more new year chaos

• Belgian court jails wife who boiled, starved, and caged her husband with their 60 chihuahuas

  The judge dismissed the mitigating remarks and sentenced the defendant to seven years in prison. She had also previously been fined €3,600 for the mistreatment of the dogs.

• EU envoys provisionally approve signing of record Mercosur trade deal

  • EU states' nod on Mercosur trade deal ends 25-year wait

  • EU countries approve Mercosur trade deal after 25 years of talks

  • EU countries green light Mercosur free trade deal

• Why young people are the big losers in Europe's dysfunctional housing system

• Italy Fines Cloudflare €14M for Refusing to Filter Pirate Sites on 1.1.1.1 DNS

• How women are defying the Taliban's brutal crackdown on protest

• Why is Japan souring on foreign workers and tourists?

• The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app

• Australia's social media ban, one month on

Venezuela

• Satellite Images Reveal Venezuela's Methane Problem

• US seizes fifth oil tanker linked to Venezuela, officials say

• The US hacked Venezuela grids before Maduro raid

Iran / Houthi

• Anti-government protests in Tehran and other Iranian cities, videos show

• Iran vows regime will "not back down" as web blackout continues

Israel

• As bombs fell, we committed an act of rebellion: we planted a garden in Gaza

China

• MiniMax, China's second 'AI tiger' to go public, soars in Hong Kong debut

  • MiniMax jumps 54% in Hong Kong debut after US$619M IPO

• Chinese Demand for Copper Vanishes After Prices Hit Record

• China begins choking off exports of rare earths to Japan

Health / Medicine

• What if ADHD risk isn't fixed at birth

• Why women experience more gut pain

• Link found between gut microbes and symptoms in auto-brewery syndrome

• People who come off slimming jabs regain weight four times faster than dieters

• Common food preservatives linked to cancer and type 2 diabetes

• Face masks 'inadequate' and should be swapped for respirators, WHO is advised

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Long Covid may be fueled by inflammation and tiny clots

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Giant phantom jellyfish spotted deep in Pacific

• Photographing the hidden world of slime mould

• Got milk? UW-Platteville professors turn spoiled dairy into sustainable plastic

• Amazon Sponsors AI Energy Summit Featuring Climate Deniers

• Iceberg A-23A Turns Deep Blue in Final Days, Marking End of a Forty-Year Giant

• Unique 'mugging' behaviour attracts intrigued whale watchers to Queensland