2026-04-30

Horseshit

• Electrical current might be the key to a better cup of coffee

• New study reveals why housing booms and busts are built into the system

• NBA proposes new '3-2-1' draft lottery system

• Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

• The Apocalypse Goes Mainstream

  About 40 percent of American adults believe that we are living in the “end times,” according to a 2022 poll. Where did that idea come from?

• The smelly baby problem

  A noteworthy success was in Puerto Rico, which Pampers entered in 1972. Although incomes were significantly lower than in the continental US, the island’s poverty actually favored disposables. Many families lacked easy access to washing machines, and line drying diapers was tough in the humid climate. ‘Puerto Rico became one of the most successful Pampers markets’, records Oscar Schisgall in Eyes on Tomorrow, a corporate history of P&G. Disposable diapers turned out to be a particular boon to poor families.

• Spooky feelings in old houses may be caused by boiler sounds, study suggests

• Can You Cut the Mold Out of Cheese—or Should You Throw the Whole Thing Out?

• Kon-Tiki Set Sail 79 Years Ago Today

• United flight from SFO disrupted by 'possible drone strike'

• Not again. it never works out well. A Scientist Says Humans Will Go Backwards in Time Within Just 3 Years

• Why US Trucking Is So Deadly

• Uber Can Bring You Dinner. Now, It Wants to Book Your Hotel Room

Epstein

• Jeffrey Epstein Encouraged Peter Thiel's Political Journey

Obit

• Nick Pope, UFO Sleuth Who Chased the Truth, Dies at 60

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• The world is rejecting science and truth, here are 5 ways to fight back

Musk

• The unflattering secrets revealed so far in Elon Musk's latest legal feud

  • Musk Testifies OpenAI Was Created as Nonprofit to Counter Google

  • At his OpenAI trial, Musk relitigates an old friendship

  • What Elon Musk's Clash with Sam Altman of OpenAI Is About

  • Sam Altman and his former hero Elon Musk are taking their toxic feud to court

  • Sam Altman and Elon Musk Sure Dislike Each Other

• SpaceX ties Musk compensation to Mars colonization goal

• Only Elon Musk can fire Elon Musk from SpaceX, filing shows

• A Falcon 9 rocket stage will hit the Moon this summer at Mach 7

  • Upper stage impacting the moon on 2026 August 5

Electric / Self Driving cars

• More Americans See Driverless Car Future; Few Show Interest

• California Issues New Autonomous Vehicle Regulations

Robot uprising / Humanioid Helpers

• Humanoid robots start sorting luggage in Tokyo airport test amid labor shortage

• Robot dogs with Musk and Zuckerberg heads roam around Berlin museum

• I've Covered Robots for Years. This One Is Different

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Dallas ISD book checkouts soar amid state's cellphone ban for public schools

• Third Editor Fired in Elsevier's Citation Cartel Crackdown

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• iPhone Memory Costs Set to Quadruple by 2027

• Mining magnate Andrew Forrest takes Meta to court over scam ads using his likenes

• Texas Instruments made a new flagship graphing calculator: the TI-84 Evo

• Ghostty Is Leaving GitHub – Mitchell Hashimoto

  I've felt this way for a long time, but for the past month I've kept a journal where I put an "X" next to every date where a GitHub outage has negatively impacted my ability to work. Almost every day has an X. On the day I am writing this post, I've been unable to do any PR review for ~2 hours because there is a GitHub Actions outage3. This is no longer a place for serious work if it just blocks you out for hours per day, every day. It's not a fun place for me to be anymore. I want to be there but it doesn't want me to be there. I want to get work done and it doesn't want me to get work done. I want to ship software and it doesn't want me to ship software.

  • HashiCorp co-founder says GitHub 'no longer a place for serious work'

  • Mitchell Hashimoto to move Ghostty off GitHub after repeated outages

• Indie music has been invaded by fake fans and cynical viral campaigns

• Apple Set to Become Third-Biggest Laptop Maker This Year

• New Steam Controller to Launch in May 2026

• Epic Games Wins Reversal of Stay in App Store Fee Legal Battle

• Facebook Has a Health Scam Problem

• Workers at Wizards of the Coast, Maker of Magic: The Gathering, to Unionize

• PS5 Linux loader goes public, turning console into full Linux gaming PC

• Ubuntu's AI Plans Have Linux Users Looking for a 'Kill Switch'

• Developer re-enables 3D printer features that Bambu Lab disabled, firm promptly threatens legal action — OrcaSlicer-BambuLab project now shuttered

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• I have a sign for this one

  • NASA chief Jared Isaacman says he's fighting for Pluto

  • NASA Boss: Make Pluto a Planet Again

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• AI Worries Have Returned to Wall Street. Now Come Earnings

• Amazon to offer OpenAI models on AWS after Microsoft exclusivity ends

• Amazon rolls out AI hiring software to automate job interviews

• Anthropic's Little Brother

• Workers Training Meta's AI Could Be Laid Off

  • The Downgrading of the American Tech Worker

• Study Finds a Third of New Websites Are AI-Generated

• IBM Bob: AI Development Partner

• Why AI Startup Offices in NYC Are Flashy but Mostly Empty

• Why Capitalism Can't Survive AI

• OpenAI Wants Codex to Shut Up About Goblins

• A town of 7k planned so many data centers, it's like adding 51 Walmarts

• The Bloomberg Terminal Is Getting an AI Makeover

• An OpenAI Bubble Is Not an AI Bubble

• School-shooting lawsuits accuse OpenAI of hiding violent ChatGPT users

  • OpenAI Sued by Seven Families over Mass Shooting Suspect's ChatGPT Use

  • Victims Allege OpenAI Is Responsible for Mass Shooting

  • Tumbler Ridge families seek US$1B in OpenAI lawsuit

• A.I.-Themed High School Is Put on Hold After Parental Backlash

• A.I. Bots Told Scientists How to Make Biological Weapons

• Behind the A.I. Boom, a Boring Business Is Soaring with Better Ads

• FDA launches effort to speed up clinical trials using AI

• Making AI chatbots friendly leads to mistakes and support of conspiracy theories

• Why AI companies want you to be afraid of them

• Larry's Risky Business

• Trump officials draft plan to bring Anthropic back amid Pentagon fight

• Google told staff it is 'proud' of Pentagon AI contract after internal backlash

• Pentagon AI chief confirms DoD's expanded use of Google Gemini

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• The players who lost big money on Peter Molyneux's failed Legacy

• Hackers steal nearly $300M in biggest DeFi exploit of 2026

Economicon / Business / Finance

• HUD Says Realtors Can Now Speak the Truth

  The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to real estate professionals clarifying they are not violating the Fair Housing Act when they share information with prospective homebuyers about neighborhood crime rates and school quality data.

• Lithium in Eastern States Could Replace Imports for a Century or More

• A giant succession wave is coming for family businesses

• Oil price jumps to $117 after reports of 'extended' Iran blockade

• IATA Chief Warns of Possible Jet Fuel Shortages This Summer

• Maryland becomes first state to ban surveillance pricing in grocery stores

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• For SF's public defenders, resistance is the new black

  In an act of silent protest against what they consider crushing caseloads and chronic underfunding, members of the San Francisco public defender’s office showed up to work on Thursday wearing one color: black.

• Google co-founder Sergey Brin says he fled socialism, rips billionaire tax

• CA will give DL info to a database that can be used for online age verification

• Key Bridge contract canceled: Gov. Wes Moore's 'fastest moving' claim tested

  Maryland’s plan to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge hit a major setback Tuesday, as state officials abruptly canceled a key construction contract, undercutting Gov. Wes Moore’s repeated claim that the project was the nation’s “fastest-moving” large infrastructure effort. The move forces Maryland back into the market for a new builder at a pivotal moment, as project costs have surged from roughly $1.8 billion to more than $5.2 billion.

• Palantir inks $300M deal with USDA to safeguard food supply

• North Carolina Elections Board Finds 34,000 Deceased People on Voter Rolls.

• Pennsylvania is updating its voter registration system but won't reveal progress

• Virginia Supreme Court Denies Dem AG’s Attempt To Ram Through Gerrymander Vote Certification

• Attempt to repeal Colorado's right-to-repair law fails

• California high-speed rail price tag jumps to $231B, nearly 7x 2008 estimate

• Missouri voters will get to decide whether to eliminate the income tax

• Supreme Court appears split over controversial use of 'geofence' search warrants

• Court Rules 2nd Amendment Covers Firearms Parts Good News Those Who Build Guns

• Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana’s Congressional Map in Major Voting Rights Ruling

• ‘Major scandal:’ Feds and Sen. Johnson allege government coverups of COVID origins, vaccine deaths

  "The FDA knew" COVID vaccines were "showing safety signals for mass death," Johnson told the Just the News, No Noise television show Tuesday night, saying his hearing Wednesday will reveal FDA staff making similar statements about withholding "sensitive information" from emails that could encourage vaccine hesitancy. "We've gotten documents" showing the authors of the "analytical algorithm" in the government's passive Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System warned then-Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Peter Marks in March 2021 that it would "mask" adverse events, and offered Marks an "updated version that will unmask" safety signals. The updated version found "49 cases of extreme masking, 25 safety signals, including sudden cardiac death, pulmonary infarction, Bell's palsy, 25 of these types," Johnson said. "And the FDA ignored it, and they continue to say, well, we're not seeing any safety signals," he said. "This should be a major scandal."

• Jerome Powell says he's staying on as a Fed governor

Left Angst

• The American Left Is In Thrall To Political Violence

  In the immediate aftermath of the fourth assassination attempt on President Trump this past weekend at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, we heard the familiar chorus of voices in the corporate media and political establishment calling for calm, for unity, for lowering the temperature, toning down the rhetoric. We heard the same thing after Charlie Kirk’s assassination last September, and after Trump was shot in the face by a would-be assassin on the campaign trail in July 2024. As always, the people saying this pretend it’s a “both sides” problem, that the political left and right are both at risk of becoming dangerously violent, and that for the sake of our democracy we all need to calm down. What nonsense. There is only one side in America today that has a persistent and very real-world problem with political violence, and everyone knows it’s the left. It’s the left that has produced four would-be assassins of President Trump. It’s the left that produced Charlie Kirk’s assassin and the sneering online hordes who celebrated his murder. It’s the left that produced Luigi Mangione, who allegedly killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in cold blood, and overnight became a folk hero to his fellow travelers. The left riots and burns down cities in a way that makes Jan. 6 look tame, and the corporate press justifies it as a form of political speech. The left regularly threatens conservative speakers and events, forcing organizers to provide a level of security that liberal events never need. The left foments violence not just by spreading false propaganda about conservatives but by funding the supposed right-wing extremists they warn about, as the recent federal criminal indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center has shown.

• The Secret Group Chats Fueling MAGA's Messaging Machine

• Anti-Trump Instagram pic of seashells now enough to indict ex-FBI directors

  • FBI head James Comey charged with threatening Donald Trump's life

• Trump admin pays wind developers to quit, back fossil fuel projects

• White House Captions Photo of Trump and King Charles as 'Two Kings'

• Trump: Australia's media bargaining laws 'foreign extortion'

• US to issue new 'America250' passports featuring Donald Trump's image

• State Dept. Finalizing Plan to Put Trump Picture on U.S. Passports

• The Lost Idealism of Heartland Rock

• Why Wealthy Elites Come to Regret Their Bargains with Authoritarians

• How much can Trump screw with the midterms?

• FCC orders early license renewal for ABC stations following Kimmel's joke

  • FCC orders review of ABC licenses after Kimmel joke offends Trump and First Lady

• Push for raw milk intensifies across the US, despite illness outbreaks

• Fidelity Won't Let Fund Holders Donate to Southern Poverty Law Center

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Civil Rights Division Sues Cloudera for Excluding U.S. Workers

• Upstate New York man pleads guilty to stealing more than $50M in Ponzi scheme

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Five takeaways from the King's historic address to Congress

  The current state of US-UK relations is strained – a reflection of British reluctance to fully back the joint US-Israeli war against Iran. So the King's goal has been to ease those tensions with a royal charm offensive, most notably with his joint address to Congress on Tuesday afternoon. There is some reason for hope. President Donald Trump has a notably mercurial personality. Warm relations can turn chilly in a flash. But the reverse is also true, and former antagonists can be rehabilitated, welcomed once again into the president's good graces. But there were also some lines in the King's speech, the first royal address to Congress since Queen Elizabeth II spoke at the Capitol in 1991, that may have buoyed Democrats – and raised eyebrows in the White House.

  • Where's all them folks shouting about "No Kings" when we need them?

• U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official

• China Is America's Military Equal Now and in Future Fights, Marine General Warns

• Pentagon spending on drones jumps from $225M to $55B in one year

World

• The EC is turning Google Search into a privacy and national-security risk

• Wire to Replace Signal as Standard in the Bundestag

• India's major airlines on 'verge of closing down' as high fuel costs sting

• Meta found in breach of EU law for failing to keep children off platforms

  • Meta isn't doing enough to keep kids off Facebook and Instagram, rules EU

• The UK's Answer to DARPA Wants to Rewire the Human Brain

• Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity

• Australia moves to tax Meta, Google and TikTok to fund newsrooms

• Britain Has a Tiny-Window Epidemic, and Old Ladies Are to Blame

• Australia: Social media ban for youth has little effect

• Two Jewish men stabbed in north London

  Police say they're working with the security services and "one of the lines of inquiry is whether this attack was deliberately targeting the Jewish community in London" The victims, in their 70s and 30s, are in a stable condition. The suspect, aged 45, also attempted to stab police officers. He was Tasered and has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

• Most Swiss back initiative to cap population at 10M

• France unveils plan to phase out fossil fuels by 2050

Iran / Houthi

• Iran on brink of ‘irreversible’ damage to oil fields as storage runs out during blockade.

• Iran selected for a vice presidency post at UN’s nuclear non-proliferation confab.

• A free diver visited the Strait of Hormuz. Here's what he saw

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• The Most Potent Weapon in Russia's Disinformation War

China

• China's Meta Backlash Renders Manus Model 'Officially Dead'

• Beijing Auto Show: more EV models in each of 17 halls than in the US

• Goldman Staff in Hong Kong Lose Access to Anthropic's Claude

• Chinese team pioneers path to turn carbon dioxide into jet fuel as prices soar

• U.S. Wants to Ban China's High-Tech Cars, but They're Already Here in El Paso

• China freezes new robotaxi licenses after Baidu chaos

Health / Medicine

• Could At-Home Brain Stimulation Reduce Psychiatry's Reliance on SSRIs?

• FDA grants quick review for 3 psychedelic drug trials

• Losing My Friend over Wegovy

• Knee surgery for cartilage damage does not benefit patients, study suggests

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Death Valley is blooming

• The scientists turning recycled ocean plastic waste into roads

• Higher temperatures spur Alaska's invasive pike to eat more, bad sign for salmon

• World’s largest wildlife crossing finally has an opening date

  The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, north of Los Angeles, is expected to open on Dec. 2, four-and-a-half years after work began, project leaders announced Wednesday during an Earth Day news conference.

• It's time to make a plan for nuclear waste

• Renewable energy just broke a 100-year-old streak

• City birds more afraid of women than men, scientists have no idea why

• Do octopus brains work like humans' – or is there another way to be smart?

• Colombians are divided over the fate of Pablo Escobar's hippos

• Timmy the whale rescue attempt begins off coast of Germany – in pictures

• Kyoto cherry blossoms now bloom earlier than at any point in 1,200 years