2026-07-21

Horseshit

• 'Live' World Cup Broadcast Is Not Live

• Proving That America Can Still Do Big Things

• The World Cup Could Not Be Americanized

• Spain Beats Argentina In Extra Time To Win 2026 FIFA World Cup

• "Have we seen the last Einstein?"

• What I got wrong about FIRE

• Adversarial Clothing

• Meet the crypto billionaires building a world where money buys you a vote

• Mysterious little red dots at the beginning time may have an explanation

• Carmakers Don't Think They Should Have to Fix Blindingly Bright Headlights

• Is there a global loneliness epidemic? Research paints a complex picture

Musk

• Unplanned impact: NASA says SpaceX rocket parts could hit Moon

Electric / Self Driving cars

• UK confirms pay-per-mile tax start date for electric vehicle drivers

• Trial Lawyers Lobby Against Autonomous Vehicles

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• California reading scores are up, thanks to literacy investments

• DOJ Probes Harvard Financial Aid, Alleging China Donor Influence

• The biggest schools training America's doctors are in the Caribbean

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• The 2000s called. They want their digital camera back

• The head of SK Group, owners of Big Three memory maker SK Hynix, says that memory prices are too high and have to come down.

• FCC pays $340k/year to keep 100's of empty Alaska buildings wired for internet

• How smart tech is being weaponised in the home

• AT&T loses key ruling in bid to stop offering basic phone service in California

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• The Search for Another Earth-Like Planet Just Took a Big Step Forward

• India's first privately-developed rocket reaches orbit on dramatic debut launch

• Rocket launch costs have dropped 96% since 1960. How low can they go?

• An unlikely hero is saving a telescope from falling to earth

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• Who's Afraid of Chinese Models?

• AI is more likely than humans to form biases when hiring

• China's Moonshot pauses Kimi subscriptions amid hot demand, IPO push

• AI-Native Companies Have Tiny Staffs and Fewer Bosses

• Apple probably won't add Jony Ive to OpenAI trade secret theft suit

• Amsterdam activists throw acid at Microsoft datacenter project

  • Extinction Rebellion pelt Microsoft Dutch data center site with acid balloons

• Al-altered images on birdwatching forums putting research at risk

• New Mexico Denies Gas Pipeline Permit for Oracle Data Center

• Big tech needs to justify AI spending as investors dump stocks

• Meta Oversight Board: AI may be most perfect propaganda machine ever invented

• When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

• Rep Cammack says China has deployed 'digital twins' of every lawmaker

• Tech Workers Face Evaporating Financial Security as AI Transforms Industry

• Silicon Valley Has Lost Its Biggest Advantage

• Apple Reportedly Grabs The OG Team Behind Open-Source Qwen, Betting on Alibaba's AI to Rescue Siri in China

• The secret Trump administration battle to fight Chinese AI

• Major AI models are likely to refuse criticizing restrictive leaders or govts

• Big tech is now targeting Native American land for data centers

• A 600-acre AI data center could cost some Wisconsin residents their land

• Georgia residents homes seized by private company in $16B AI data center plan

• Homeowner may lose 1/3 of her property to data center high-voltage power line

• Can an Apple lawsuit derail OpenAI's hardware plans?

• Google Is Building an A.I. Fence Around the Internet It Once Championed

• American AI is locked down and proprietary. It's losing

• San Francisco restaurant gets angry backlash for AI menu images

• The AI layoff wave is becoming a powder keg

• The head of the US AI safety agency has resigned

  • Head of US Commerce Dept.'s AI safety arm resigns

• Google is building a chip with Gemini baked into the silicon

• The Supply Deals Feeding the AI Frenzy Are No Sure Thing

• US judge approves Anthropic's $1.5B settlement of copyright lawsuit

• AI Could Shrink Income Tax Revenue and Threaten Economies

• US administration considering ban on Chinese open source AI models

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• The 'Bad Blood' Between Polymarket's Shayne Coplan and Kalshi's Tarek Mansour

• France doubles down on restricting access to Polymarket

• Japan logistics provider for Amazon to use JPYC stablecoin in operations

Economicon / Business / Finance

• US gas prices hit an average of $4 a gallon again

• Swedbank fined $50M by New York authorities over Panama Papers revelations

  The Swedish group reached the settlement with the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), which first launched the investigation in 2019. The probe was into the bank’s anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing controls, and its disclosures to regulators between 2007 and 2019, according to a statement by Swedbank.

• ASML to offer employees €20k retention bonus for staying in 2027-2030

• Cut to the Bone: Farmers at the Mercy of the Meat Monopolists

• PayPal went from Wall Street favorite to unwilling merger target

• Judge orders pause to Paramount-Warner Bros merger as states argue antitrust law

• California to impose sales and use tax on digital products including SaaS

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• RNC Opens New Front in Election Integrity Battle Over ‘Never Residents’ Voting in 6 States.

• Fraud: More Than We Can Imagine?

  The U.S. government spends more than $900 billion annually on Medicaid. How much of that money is stolen by criminals? HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. pegs the theft total at $100 billion. The theft is incredibly brazen. And I suspect Kennedy’s $100 billion estimate may be low. In Minnesota, the authorities have estimated that at least one-half of the total spending on 14 Medicaid programs went to fraud.

Trump

• Trump imposes 50% tariff on Canadian goods

  • Trump to hit Canada with new 50% tariff

  • US imposes new 50% tariffs on some Canadian products

Left Angst

• Trump pushes UN 'free speech' declaration in veiled attack on EU tech regulation

• Google Is Censoring Reviews of ICE Detention Centers

• The Rise and Gruesome Implosion of 'Woke Capital'

• Until the next Democrat administration: The ACLU Is Arming Lawyers to Expose State Surveillance Secrets

• Police searched Twin Cities Flock cameras during ICE surge

• Trump's War on the Future, Monetary Edition

• NYC smoke bomb: Man in custody after fire set outside 26 Federal Plaza immigration building in Lower Manhattan

  Police say a man armed with a collection of weapons started a fire outside 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan on Monday morning. Officials said two people had minor injuries and the incident is being investigated as a possible act of terrorism. Video showed him pouring some kind of flammable liquid outside the building and then setting it on fire. The flames quickly spread but they were put out before they reached the building where immigrants are processed and FBI and ICE officers are located. Police say the person is believed to be a protester with a history of anti-ICE activity.

• Admin officials kill proposed rules for PFAS-contaminated sewage fertilizer

• Federal cuts threaten wildfire research as Western fire risk rises

• Trump administration Sought Phone Records of Times Journalists

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• Controversial program paying drug users for used syringes becomes permanent in NYC. The $3M budget line uses opioid settlement money critics say should go to addiction treatment services instead.

• Four Farmers Faked a Drought and Stole Millions in Crop Insurance

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• The Pentagon Is Finally Buying (Some) Weapons from Startups

• Fighter Jets Are Passé

• Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

• Apps Marketed to US Troops Are Shipping Chinese and Russian Code

World

• EU slaps €550M fine on AliExpress over illegal and counterfeit goods

  • Alibaba Fined Record €550M by EU for Illegal Sales

  • Commission fines AliExpress €550M for breaching the Digital Services Act

  • AliExpress hit with record $629M fine for counterfeit and illegal goods

  • AliExpress fined €550M by EU for failing to stop sale of illegal and fake goods

  • AliExpress gets record €550M fine from EU for allowing sale of illegal products

• EU Exempts Apple Watch and AirPods from Battery Removal Requirements

• Britain: A Cautionary Tale for America

  A data point that gets thrown around a lot is that the UK is as poor as Mississippi. In GDP (PPP) terms, that’s true — Mississippi’s income per capita is about $56,000, roughly similar to the UK. That doesn’t mean life is equally as good in the two countries — Mississippi is more violent and less healthy than Britain. But unless you think that Britain had to sacrifice a significant portion of its material wealth in order to be safer and healthier, this is a bit beside the point. France and Germany, which are just as safe and healthy as the UK (if not more so), also have significantly higher incomes.

• Thousands of students are attempting to march to India's parliament

• Stagnant Germany Considers the Unthinkable: Sunday Shopping

• Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database

  The hack has brought Romania's entire real-estate market to a standstill as official apps and websites have been offline for a week. Notaries can't record new transactions while citizens can't obtain proof of ownership or detailed land records. Since the hack, officials restored their website and posted a message announcing they are rebuilding the agency's entire network from scratch. Even if the hacker claims they deleted backups, the agency appears to have had an offline copy, otherwise things would have gotten really messy over the coming months in Romania.

• Ireland: E-scooters set to be banned for under-18s

• Lammy and Reeves among first senior ministers to leave after Burnham takes power

• Italy passes obesity law to prevent cardiovascular disease across Europe

Iran / Houthi

• U.S. Marines Board Wen Yao Tanker as Washington Steps Up Maritime Pressure on Iran.

• A Modest Proposal for the Strait Dispute: A Shared Pact Among Gulf States

China

• China's mysterious new billionaires are conquering the world

• Chinese firm seeks compensation over British Steel nationalisation

• Food delivery rider wins China's top literary prize

• China bans AI "boyfriends" and "girlfriends" over addiction, birth rate concerns

• Dutch chip sector at high risk of Chinese interference, gov's study warns

Health / Medicine

• Identical quadruplets in 'one of the rarest births in the world'

• Capping the price of healthcare is a mistake

• What's Behind the Rise in Mild Autism?

• Inhaling high-dose CO2 clears Alzheimer's proteins from the brain

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• US health agency says cyclospora finding at produce company was false positive

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on ‌Sunday that laboratory experts rechecked lettuce sample results ​in the Taylor Farms ​cyclospora investigation and concluded the finding ​should be considered ⁠a ⁠false ‌positive. As of Sunday, there were no ⁠confirmed positive sample results for cyclospora, the FDA ‌added.

  To be clear, at this moment, FDA has not identified ⁠a single positive product test result for cyclospora," the company said in a statement. Taylor Fresh Foods added that it had completed a voluntary recall of iceberg ‌lettuce from central Mexico out of an abundance of caution based on the initial information given.

  • FDA says Taylor Farms cyclospora finding was a false positive

• It Might Be Time to Grow Your Own Lettuce

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Remarkable icefish nests found under Antarctic ice

• World shift to clean energy is unstoppable, IEA report says

• Majority of US voters link extreme weather to climate crisis

• We can now track animal panic from space. Here's why it matters

• Landmark Science Report Confirms Big Oil's Fingerprints on Extreme Weather

• The 'anti-Greta Thunberg' weather nerd debunking climate myths

• EU to give industry more time to pollute and more funds to clean up

• Researchers found a new species of monkey deep in the rainforest

• Pension Funds Try to Come to Grips with the Scariest Global Warming Scenario

• Chunk of sea ice has not refrozen in West Antarctica, satellite images show