2026-03-04

Horseshit

• The Optimization Trap: Why the Birth Rate Can't Be Fixed

  The obvious counterargument writes itself: maybe education reduces fertility through delay, not formation. A woman who finishes her degree at 28 rather than entering the labor market at 18 has fewer fertile years, hits subfertility earlier, and simply runs out of calendar time for a third or fourth child.

• Low fertility may persist and could be good for the economy

  • The "Fertility Crisis" will be with us until we clean out all the people in power with a religious conviction that humans are bad and should not exist.

• Superagers' Secret Ingredient May Be the Growth of New Brain Cells

• Principles of Adult Behavior by John Perry Barlow

• Underground Salt Caverns Are Preserving Our History

• Disaster as fencing wire gets tangled in spinning car wash in North Carolina - ABC7 Los Angeles

  Kyle Corbett shared video of the aftermath on TikTok, writing, "Lesson today is don't go in the car wash with high tensile wire in the bed of your truck."

• Extremophile survives the pressures of impact-induced ejection from Mars

  we describe an experimental approach that allows us to subject microorganisms to controlled extreme pressures for short times, recover these impacted microorganisms, and then assess their rates of survival, structural damage, and their molecular response to these extreme events. We focused on Deinococcus radiodurans, an extremophile that is known to survive space-like conditions. Our results suggested that microorganisms can survive much more extreme conditions than previously thought, potentially surviving conditions that result in the formation of ejecta that can move across planetary systems.

  • I agree with the hypothesis; I think interstellar panspermia will prove out and squids infest at least this galaxy. However "We cooked some stuff here and that proves it could survive" is horseshit.

• Data centres in space: less crazy than you think

• Managing hostesses in Yakuza 0's cabaret club: a surprisingly feminist mini-game

  • Is this the "far-right Feminism" that the French Muslims are so bravely fighting? 'cuz up to now the whole field of pimping has been considered more "misogynist".

• We may soon have 70M boomers too old to drive, too car-dependent to stop

• Scientists Create Powerful New Form of Aluminum, Could Replace Rare Earth Metals

• A New Rembrandt Discovered

• Apartments set to take over empty office buildings with new L.A. ordinance

• Wellness peptide craze: Why people are injecting drugs not for human consumption

• Mayor’s frantic texts to family revealed after she was allegedly caught raping drunken 16-year-old at pool party

  A disgraced small-town mayor sent several frantic texts to her family and the mother of a 16-year-old boy after she was allegedly caught having sex with the teen at a booze-fueled pool party, according to a report. Misty Roberts, the 43-year-old former leader of DeRidder, La., texted her ex-husband Duncan Clanton after her own son allegedly caught her committing the disturbing sex crime at a 2024 party, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Daily Mail. “I need to talk to you,” Roberts texted Clanton, according to the court papers. “I just need to tell you in person.”

• People Really Are More Likely to Commit Crimes After a Cancer Diagnosis

• 'Silicon Valley's only contrarian': Amjad Masad on the cost of dissent in tech

Epstein

• Bill Clinton is smiling while looking back through old Epstein photos & nodding over memories

  His attorney snatches them out of Bill’s hands.

• Apollo sued for allegedly concealing Epstein business ties from shareholders

Electric / Self Driving cars

• An EV Prediction That Came 100 Years Too Soon

• US Automakers' Dilemma: Invest in New Tech or Stick to Gas Cars?

• What Military Drones Can Teach Self-Driving Cars

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Claims about gender, behavior fall apart when samples are ethnically diverse

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Florida public universities to pause hiring new H-1B workers

• Three scientists who said no to Epstein

  • "See it wasn't *everybody!" ... These folks party with Diddy then?

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Winners of the smartphone boom think they know what the next big tech gadget is

• The 'European' Jolla Phone Is an Anti-Big-Tech Smartphone

• Americans now listen to podcasts more often than talk radio, study shows

• Attempting to detect smart glasses nearby and warn you

• Resist 'dangerous and socially unacceptable' age checks for social media

• Entry-level PC market to 'disappear' by 2028 – memory prices strain PC market

• LexisNexis confirms data breach as hackers leak stolen files

• The Internet's Top Tech Publications Lost 58% of Their Google Traffic Since 2024

• More Than a Quarter of HBO Max Subscribers in the U.S. Have Paramount+

• M5 Pro and M5 Max are surprisingly big departures from older Apple Silicon

• A US Government iPhone-Hacking Toolkit Is Now in Foreign Spy and Criminal Hands

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• (2023) Python, C, Assembly – 2'500x Faster Cosine Similarity

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Former NASA chief turned ULA lobbyist seeks law to limit SpaceX funding.

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• OpenAI, Pentagon add more surveillance protections to AI deal

  • OpenAI makes changes to ‘opportunistic and sloppy’ Pentagon deal

  on Monday, Altman said the ChatGPT maker was working with the department to add terms to its contract to ensure “the AI system shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of US persons and nationals”. Intelligence services such as the National Security Agency will be excluded from the deal for the time being, he added.

  • OpenAI Amends A.I. Deal with The Pentagon

  • ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after DoD deal

  • OpenAI changes deal with US Military after backlash

  • OpenAI amends Pentagon deal as Sam Altman admits it looks 'sloppy'

  • Cancel ChatGPT AI boycott surges after OpenAI pentagon military deal

• Anthropic's Feud with Pentagon Earns It Fans Amid the Blowback

  • The Pointless War Between The Pentagon and Anthropic

  • Anthropic Made Pitch in Drone Swarm Contest During Pentagon Feud

  • Anthropic AI used in Khamenei elimination

  • US Military reportedly used Claude in Iran strikes despite Trump's ban

  • A Tale of Three Contracts - by Zvi Mowshowitz

  I strongly believe the situation can still be salvaged, if cooler heads can prevail. The rhetoric of the last week has been highly unfortunate but can be walked back. But I also strongly believe that, as of writing this, we are not yet out of the woods for the worst outcomes, including a potential attempt to murder Anthropic. I worry there are those on the government side who actively are working to engineer that outcome, directly against the wishes of POTUS and most of the DoW and administration, who do not care about or do not understand the dire consequences for America if that were to happen.

  • Sen. Wyden Warns of Mass Surveillance Amid Pentagon's Fight with Anthropic

• Google employees call for military limits on AI amid Iran strikes

• Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes

• How AGI-is-nigh doomers own-goaled humanity

• LLMs are living off the moral and intellectual capital of a pre-AI world

• Facing Its Third Data Center, an Iowa County Rolls Out Extensive Zoning Rules

• Ohio EPA weighs allowing data centers to dump wastewater into rivers

• Cisco Donates Project CodeGuard to Coalition for Secure AI

• India's top court angry after junior judge cites fake AI-generated orders

• Legal AI slop is becoming a real problem

• LLMs can unmask pseudonymous users at scale with surprising accuracy

• Anthropic's Claude sees 'elevated errors' as it tops Apple's free apps

• The AI Bubble Is An Information War

  Hey Sam, what does “the whole thing” refer to here? Because I know you probably mean the AI industry, but this sounds exactly like a ponzi scheme! Now, jokes aside, ponzi schemes work entirely through feeding investor money to other investors. OpenAI and AI companies are not a ponzi scheme. There’s real revenues, people are paying it money. Much like NVIDIA isn’t Enron, OpenAI isn’t a ponzi scheme. However, the way that OpenAI describes the AI industry sure does sound like a scam. It’s very obvious that neither OpenAI nor its peers have any plan to make any of this work beyond saying “well we’ll just keep making more money,”

• OpenAI releases GPT-5.3 Instant update to make ChatGPT less 'cringe'

• AI-generated art can’t be copyrighted after Supreme Court declines review

  • Supreme Court saves artists from AI

  • "Copyright can only originate with real people" might be a better expression; but the situation is unclear, even before the media clouds the issues.

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• Iranian cryptoasset outflows surge 700% following airstrikes

• Bhutan's crypto experiment shows how hard digital money is in the real world

• BTC miners pivoting towards AI

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Daily LNG freight rates jump over 40% amid Mideast strikes

• Paramount Won’t Sell Cable Networks After WBD Merger, Touts ‘Incredible Footprint’ Of Combined Linear Business.

  Pressed on whether there were any assets at all that feel non-core and could be divested to reduce leverage, he said, “No. Very simply, we have no divestitures planned at this time.”

• Activist investor Elliott boosts stake in Pinterest by $1B

• Jack Dorsey Blamed AI for Block's Layoffs. Skeptics Aren't Buying It

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• WA state DOR guidance on removal of the penny

  A rounding loss is a cost of doing business and may not be deducted from the seller’s gross income of the business. However, the department is aware of legislation that may affect the B&O taxability of gains or losses from rounding. Due to this uncertainty and the unique circumstances concerning the elimination of the penny, in the interim, the department will not take action to enforce B&O tax liability on gains from rounding on a prospective basis following the publication of final guidance.

• Banned in California

  The regulatory environment makes it effectively impossible to build new semiconductor fabs, automotive paint shops, battery gigafactories, or steel foundries. Tesla didn’t put its Gigafactory in Nevada out of affection for Reno. General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego can build destroyers only because it’s been grandfathered in since 1960. If it closed tomorrow, it could not be rebuilt. I get tired at all the discussion of tariffs and industrial policy and manufacturing. All of it is BS in comparison to the basics. We have the met the enemy and the enemy is us. Our future is in our hands. Is that optimistic or pessimistic? Either way complaining about China won’t fix our problems.

• Maryland Senators Approve Bill to Let Off-Duty Firefighters, EMTs Use Cannabis

Trump

• Trump says U.S. will cut all trade with Spain

  • Trump Threatens to Cut Off Trade After Spain Denies Air Base Use

  • Trump: 'We're going to cut off all trade with Spain'

  • Spain says we have the necessary resources to contain US trade embargo

• Trump Worries Iran's Leaders May Be Just 'As Bad' After War

Left Angst

• US President struggles to explain why he launched another Middle Eastern war

• Iran war heralds era of AI-powered bombing quicker than 'speed of thought'

• CBS Austin reporter brushes off directive to downplay pro-Trump rally after Iran strikes: 'They don’t want us to focus on this'

  A CBS Austin reporter was seen on a live Facebook stream appearing to get a directive from a superior to steer away from a pro-Israel, pro-US and pro-Trump protest behind him — and then refusing to go along with the instruction on camera. Vinny Martorano was outside the Texas Capitol on Saturday covering dueling demonstrations in the wake of US and Israeli strikes on Iran when a crew member handed him a phone with a message from an unnamed boss. After reading the screen, the reporter asked out loud, “What does that mean?” An off-screen staffer answered, “It means they don’t want us to focus on this.” “Well, I am,” Martorano shot back, continuing his coverage.

• U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for "Armageddon,"

  A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer. From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).

• Iran Is Only the Beginning

  Netanyahu and his circle are already speaking as if Iran and Hezbollah are just the first stage, not the last battle. Once the Shia resistance is broken or contained, the discourse in parts of the Israeli security establishment shifts seamlessly to “Sunni extremism” and the so called axis forming around Ankara, Riyadh, and, in the background, Pakistan. Former Israeli officials openly describe Erdogan’s Turkey as a new Iran, talk about a Sunni bloc with Saudi money and Pakistani nukes in the shadows, and hint that the next strategic problem sits in Ankara and the Gulf rather than in Tehran or Beirut. In that frame, Pakistan is the ultimate deterrent sponsor and Saudi Arabia the wallet. Modi’s eager appearance in the Knesset fits neatly into this picture. India is signaling that it wants a seat at the table of this emerging anti resistance coalition, locking in technology, intelligence, and leverage before the map shifts again.

• Military Leaders Say Iran War Is So Trump Can Bring About "Armageddon"

• Meteorologist warns federal cuts are undermining weather forecasts nationwide

• Labor Secretary's Top Aides Forced Out

  Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s chief of staff, Jihun Han, and deputy chief of staff, Rebecca Wright, were given 24 hours to resign after the White House told Labor Department leaders to fire them, one of the people said. Mr. Han and Ms. Wright could not be reached for comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Their departure was reported earlier Tuesday by The New York Post. The Post in January reported on a whistle-blower complaint with the inspector general’s office that claimed Ms. Chavez-DeRemer drank on the job, that she was having an affair with a subordinate — a member of her security detail — and that she used department resources for personal trips.

• How Many Countries Has the US Bombed Since 2001, and How Much Has It Cost?

• FCC Chair Wants Networks to Pledge Loyalty for America's Big Bday

• Justice Department Seeks to Reverse Course and Defend Law Firm Sanctions

• Why MAGA suddenly loves solar power

• Idaho considers an 'apocalyptic' choice for disabled people and families

  Home care is already underfunded, according to experts. Even a small reduction in services could drastically impact the lives of people with disabilities and the families who rely on them.

• El Paso ICE Camp East Montana under quarantine after measles outbreak

• Section 230 is the best protection we have from Trump's censorship

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• U.S. Marines Fire on Protesters in Karachi

  U.S. Marines fired on protesters who were storming the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, over the weekend, U.S. officials said. The protesters, some carrying Hezbollah flags, tried to enter the grounds and push through the consulate's gate

  • "11 killed, dozens injured"

• The US government is moving to ban memory chips from Chinese companies YTMC, CXMT, and SMIC... From government devices.

• Attacks on GPS Spike Amid US and Israeli War on Iran

• Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: CIA Station Hit in Drone Attack

World

• France Floats Nuclear Deployment Across Europe

  • 'To be free, we have to be feared,' Macron says in keynote nuclear speech

  • France will allow temporary deployment of nuclear-armed jets to European allies

• How close is the EU to break free from Visa and Mastercard's grip?

• People in northeast BC say rest of province should embrace year-round time zone

• Porn depicting sex between step-relatives set to be banned in the UK

• Jacinda Arderns move to Australia spotlight on New Zealand's brain drain problem

• Moving to Sweden as an American

  Interview at the embassy (3 months after applying) Wait for Migrationsverket's decision via email (in my case: arrived 6.5 months after applying)

• EU MEPs let Chat Control fail

• Qatar Shuts World’s Largest LNG Export Plant

• Wolt pulls out of Japan amid DoorDash exit from some Asian markets

• Telegraph censured for story of fictional family's struggle to pay school fees

Iran / Houthi

• Iran unleashes Shahed drones aimed at targets across Middle East

  • AWS outage due to drone attacks in UAE

  • Amazon says drone strikes damaged 3 facilities in UAE and Bahrain

  Amazon Web Services said late Monday two of its data centers in the United Arab Emirates and a facility in Bahrain were damaged by drone strikes, taking the facilities offline. The incident occurred Sunday morning, with the company posting to its AWS health dashboard at the time that “objects” hit data centers in the UAE, causing “sparks and fire.” AWS also said it was investigating power and connectivity issues at a site in Bahrain. The company’s latest update at 7:19 p.m. EST acknowledged the outages were caused by drone strikes tied to the “ongoing conflict in the Middle East.”

• Iran executes Khamenei’s plan to spread regional war

  Iranian forces have launched a plan devised by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s top commanders to sow chaos across the Middle East, create upheaval in global markets and raise the stakes in the hope of pressuring the US and Israel to halt their attack. A regime insider told the FT that the supreme leader — who was killed in the first wave of strikes on Tehran on Saturday — and his lieutenants began working on a “detailed” plan after Israel’s devastating 12-day war against the republic last June. “We had no choice but to escalate and start a big fire so everyone would see,” the regime insider said. “When our red lines were crossed in violation of all international laws, we could no longer adhere to the rules of the game.” The plan has been implemented despite Khamenei’s death and that of at least half a dozen top Iranian military and intelligence officials, including the defence minister and head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, in the US’s and Israel’s massive bombardment.

  • Is that why the reporting for the last two days has gone to ludicrous length to avoid saying "Iranian attacks"? The reporters needed the official OK to say they're Iranian Attacks?

• Israel hacked Iran to locate, kill Ali Khamenei

  • Hacked traffic cameras & US Intel: How plot to kill Iran's leader came together

• Israel bombs council choosing Iran's next supreme leader, official says

  • Israel bombs Iran’s top mullahs as they count votes for next supreme leader

  • Israel strikes Iranian leadership meeting choosing Khamenei successor

• Iran war heralds era of AI-powered bombing quicker than 'speed of thought'

• IOC announces principles of neutrality during aggression against Iran

Israel

• Israeli military says it killed Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander in Lebanon.

• Saudi Arabia, Qatar arrest Mossad agents planning 'terror attacks': Report

China

• China's 450kmph bullet train is the fastest ever built

• Beijing Doesn't Think Like Washington–and the Iran Conflict Shows Why

Health / Medicine

• Rectal cancer rates are rising in U.S., driving an increase in illness in younger adults.

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• From oil to wind energy: Germany exceeds 10k MW of offshore capacity

• Drinking newer groundwater linked to up to 62% higher Parkinson's risk

  Drinking water drawn from carbonate aquifers was associated with a 24 percent higher risk of Parkinson's disease when compared to other aquifer types--and this rose to 62 percent when compared to drinking waters from glacial aquifers. Newer groundwater—from the past 75 years, in carbonate systems—was found to be associated with an 11 percent higher risk of Parkinson's compared to groundwater from the ice age, i.e. that older than 12,000 years.

• Buckle Up for Bumpier Skies

• Startup claims it can stop lightning and prevent catastrophic wildfires

• Though Mining Is Banned, Antarctica's Mineral Riches Exposed as Climate Warms

• We're about to turn night into day. Is that a good idea?

• Why I Don't Believe The Latest Climate Change Economic Damage Estimates

  The central conceit of RCP 8.5 - or of the earlier A1FI that it is based upon - is that the world refuses to use unconventional oil and gas - fracking that is - and also doesn’t build out wind, solar, geothermal and the rest and so reverts back to coal usage to power society. We end up, in this scenario, using not just vastly more coal but more coal as a portion of energy supply than we ever have done. A1FI - or RCP 8.5 etc - is just about feasible to use as an oh my God this is going to be terrible outcome. Maybe. But it’s near lunatic to use it as something that is going to happen. Or even is possible to happen. Given that solar is now cheap, we have gone fracking, we’re not turning back to coal and so on.

• Scaling up enhanced rock weathering for equitable climate change mitigation