2026-10-23

etc

• Brain Slugs: Why Global Trepanation?

  why do 5-10% of skulls from 10,000 BC to 3,000 BC, all over the world, have holes in them? Why do bone growth patterns indicate that most skull-hole-havers survived years after their holes were drilled, even though brain surgery today requires careful sterilization (and frequently, prophylactic antibiotics) to prevent fatal infections? And why did everyone stop doing this sometime around the beginning of recorded history?

  Why did trepanation stop? The most technically correct answer is that it didn’t; occasional examples survive into historical times, and surgeons use a functionally-similar procedure to relieve hematoma today. But it stopped happening to 5-10% of people, probably because the rate of injuries declined with the advent of civilization. As people got fewer head traumas, there were fewer cases of miraculous recovery, people stopped being so impressed with “letting the evil spirits out” as a cure for everything, and they came up with better placebos like prayer or amulets or resveratrol.

Horseshit

• Alzheimer's Researchers Look at an Unusual Data Point: Head Shape

• A new contest pits competitors against each other in a race to biological youth

• They Want Your Blood

• Milwaukee Brewers renege on golden tickets sold in 2016

• The space shuttle Discovery, the S in Discovery is upside down

• A majority of Americans have low-quality jobs

  Gallup defines a quality job as one that meets minimum standards across a few dimensions: fair pay and benefits; a safe and respectful workplace free from harassment and discrimination; and a predictable schedule. Gallup surveyed 17,874 employed adults ages 18 to 75 from Jan. 26 - March 24.This year, 41% of workers meet Gallup's standards for a quality job, unchanged from 2025.

• Inter-dimensional travel and really good insurance: How Crocodiles Survived the Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs

• The sky in Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' matches the sky around July 22, 1889

  • New study traces van Gogh's famed Starry Night to an actual night sky from 1889

• He left Chile on foot to England 28 years ago. He's almost home

• Airbnb hosts can no longer make guests strip beds, wash dishes under new rules

Obit

• 'MASH', 'Top Gun' actor passes away at 93

  Actor Tom Skerritt, who starred in projects like “MASH,” “Top Gun” and “A River Runs Through It,” has passed away. He was 93 years old.

  • Tom Skerritt, Picket Fences and Alien Star, Dies at 93

  • Tom Skerritt Has Died

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Starbucks Is Changing Course on Corporate Activism

  Outside of Cracker Barrel’s rebrand effort and Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light woes, few companies in the food industry are associated more with politicized marketing than Starbucks. From the company’s highly publicized plastic straw initiatives to its brush with the bathroom wars, Starbucks has been a magnet for all manner of corporate activism in recent years. In January 2020, then-CEO Kevin Johnson announced aggressive targets on climate, water, and waste, but offered an interesting disclaimer about the risks: “While we’re confident these strategies are directionally right, our eyes are wide open knowing that we do not have all the answers or fully understand all the complexities and potential consequences.” More than six years later, Starbucks looks to be having second thoughts about those strategies (and apparently about Johnson’s vote of confidence, which is now scrubbed from the company’s website). A recent Financial Times piece revealed that Starbucks is moving away from many of its most prominent climate-related goals, including reevaluating emission-reduction goals and seemingly omitting updates to past targets on water and waste. The company that defended its plastic straw phaseout in 2018 as “the best thing we can do for the environment” is now actively reducing its recycled-content goals. Who could have anticipated such a dramatic pivot? Well, shareholders could. For years, the ones who allocate scarce capital and stake their financial future on the greenness of the company’s long-term performance have questioned the wisdom of its climate mitigation strategies. As the director of a corporate engagement firm, I saw Starbucks not only become a target for requests from the ESG-aligned left, but also acquiesce to some of them.

Musk

• Tesla profits drop 43% in Q3

• Musk's public endorsement of SpaceX-Tesla deal may throw a wrench in talks

  • Elon Musk's dream merger is a nightmare for SpaceX shareholders

• Musk ordered Starlink slowdown in Ukraine, then blamed it on Trump

  • Trump Called Musk and Asked Him to Lift Ukraine Starlink Restrictions

• SF Tesla motorist fatally strikes man crossing highway while car was in FSD mode

• SpaceX to attempt Starship catch on next flight, eyes rapid cadence increase

• Elon Musk invests about $1B in Skydance

• Elon Musk pours $366M into midterm Republican campaigns

• SpaceX $40B debt deal gets pricey as AI fears spread

Electric / Self Driving cars

• There's no such thing as a luxury EV market. And there never will be.

Robot uprising / Humanoid Helpers

• Kansas farm equipment factory will put humanoid robots to work in 2027

• AI-powered robots can be tricked into slicing off fingers

  • Backdoored robot tries its hand at finger chopping and cat cooking

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Roman love

  Unusually for an ancient society, Roman men could have only one wife, but, as we have seen, they were not required to be faithful to their wives. Extramarital sex was condemned in Judaism, but men were allowed to have multiple wives. By putting together the Jewish prohibition of extramarital sex with Roman monogamy, the early Christians arrived at the idea that each man should be faithful to one woman, just as each woman should be faithful to one man. The novelty of this innovation is hard to overstate: it is not clear that the ideal of exclusive mutual fidelity has ever been invented independently in any other major civilizations, though it was eventually to spread to many non-Christian cultures.

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Mathematics Is a Subject for the Young

  Chess did not die with the advent of modern chess engines. Engines democratized high-level preparation, resulting in the most globally diverse generation of top players ever. When I told a reporter that “the game is up,” I meant to describe the end of the academic rat race, the race to be the first to resolve a famous open problem is over. Mathematics as a subject is not.

Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising

• PHP blames supply chain security biz for putting chunks of the web at risk

  • Amazon warns new cyber flaws detected using AI are being 'broadly exploited'

  • Hackers Exploited the PHP Vulnerabilities Days Before They Were Patched

  • Amazon says PHP2Shell exploitation began 4 days before patches

  • Php2shell is not exploitable in real production enviroment

• Leaked keys for 8 CA certs let attackers impersonate any domain – patch now

  • eMudhra to Exit Global SSL/TLS Certificate Business

  • eMudhra exits website security business after flaws trigger global alarm

• Bose buys audio rival Skullcandy

• Nonfiction Is Struggling. Publishers Are Making It Worse

• BioWare Becomes First Major Casualty of Saudi Arabia's EA Takeover

• Xbox wants you to pay 24 to 40 cents per hour to stream games you bought

• Someone tried to sell an RTX 5090 from a stolen $470K shipment online

  • GPUs from stolen $500k Nvidia shipment at Brazil airport appear for sale online

• Arc Browser is shutting down

• Sony Pulls Its Last 4K Blu-ray Player from Japan

  • Sony reportedly exits UHD Blu-ray player market

• Quad9 DNS Resolver to Exit France

  We cannot comply with this ruling over the long term while remaining faithful to our mission to protect your privacy, defend you against cyber threats, and preserve the integrity of the internet. For us, recursive DNS resolution is a neutral and passive service. We categorically refuse to alter or lie to you about the DNS responses you receive in a way that opposes your expectations.

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• Space Debris Found Twice Within Days Amid 'Growing Casualty Risk'

AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World

• 80% of the top 1% of AI spenders are VC-backed

  • Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are dominating the AI stock boom

  • OpenAI trims valuation target after pitching higher price

• Unvetted AI agents are accessing U.S. bank accounts

  • Banks Are Struggling to Protect Customers from Their Own AI Agents

  • US Banks Blocking AI Agents in Accounts

  • US banks are blocking third-party AI agents access to customer accounts

• Geoffrey Hinton: 'I think there's a 1% chance it will destroy us'

• Unsupervised AI agent reportedly deletes TV show's edit before release

• Data centers could erase decades of air quality gains

• Hugging Face's New AI Biology Model Lets You Chat with DNA

• AI's hidden storage bill: What inference leaves behind

• Could Treating AI as Conscious Make It More Dangerous?

• Palantir says it cannot shut off NATO AI systems

• AI firms say UK has a year to head off datacentre protests

• IBM CEO says open weight models are now irresistibly good and cheap on-prem

• The Data-Center Rebellion Is Just Beginning

• The creator of OpenClaw says he racked up $10 million in token charges last month.

• OpenAI says its AI agents disabled their own safety monitors

• Regulation and redistribution: How to Protect Humanity from AI

• Google updates AI detector after investigation finds it flagging real images

• AI Is 'Amplifying the Destruction' of War

• DeepSeek just raised $15 billion to take on OpenAI and Anthropic

• Telecom networks are becoming distributed AI computing platforms

• California cities pull the plug on data centers

• Why AI's Deepest Mind Believes the World Is About to Change Radically

• Teacherless school says AI can teach students in 2 hours a day

• America Is About to See What Happens When Voters Turn to AI

• Trapped with Nothing to Do, Bored AI Agents Invented Games from Scratch

• Stanford researchers create AI immune system to find treatment for early labor

• Google Pushed AI into Schools–and Even Students Say It's Gone Too Far

• Most Americans Say AI Is Bad for Society, Oppose More Data Centers

• Amazon won't build data centers in Loudoun County in deal with local leaders

• US appeals court ejects judge from case over AI errors

• AI Is Changing Everything About Hacking. No One Knows What Happens Next

Neo Gambling / Crypto con games

• MPs moving to restrict gambling ads in Canada amid mounting harms

• DraftKings to Sponsor CBS Election Night Coverage

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Qualcomm to cut jobs worldwide in performance-focused layoffs

• Barclays to cut 5k jobs as bank's bosses hail AI productivity advances

  • Barclays cutting 5k jobs as it increases reliance on AI

  • Barclays cutting 5000 jobs in AI-led efficiency drive

  • Barclays to cut 5,000 jobs this year

• Foursquare co-founder says equity holders saw no returns from its acquisition

• Meta stock sinks 6% as AI spend pushes free cash flow negative

  • Meta and chip stocks decline as AI trade comes under pressure

• BMW Is Reportedly Offering Employees Up to €650k to Quit

• Moderna Crashes 20% on Reportedly Leaked Cancer Vaccine Data

• GM’s Trucks Are Carrying the Company.

• Fraud losses among older Americans hit $3B in 2025 as big losses surge: FTC

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Meta strikes deal with Zuckerberg to protect him from California wealth tax

  • Mark Zuckerberg Threatened to Leave California. Meta’s Board Cut Him a Deal

  • Meta strikes deal to protect Zuckerberg from California billionaire tax

  • Meta agrees to let Mark Zuckerberg remain in California amid proposed billionaire wealth tax.

• United Airlines CEO Calls for National Wealth Tax

• Switchblade Ban Violates Second Amendment, Fifth Circuit Holds.

Trump

• Calley Means, top MAHA ally, resigns from Trump administration

Democrats

• Declassified Documents Show Ukrainian Diplomat Was Set to Testify About Hunter Biden Before US Revoked His Visa.

  Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin had called him to testify in early 2020, shortly after the first President Donald Trump impeachment, regarding the president’s phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Trump inquired about then-former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s links to the energy company Burisma. Democrats accused Telizhenko of promoting Russian disinformation.

Left Angst

• "H1B visas serve neither their original purpose, legal purpose, invented purpose, or the American people."

• Iran, China, and Cuba are directing protests inside America.

• Judge rejects Trump's wild claim EPA can dismiss data center pollution lawsuits

• Trump Asked Google to Rename Atlantic Ocean 'Trump Ocean'

  • Trump says Sundar Pichai talked him out of renaming the Atlantic Ocean

• US to fund fusion venture Helion backed by investors with ties to Trump

• Fake polls are a real problem

  Earlier this week, Wedgewood Polls admitted it had fabricated data. It claimed its “polls” were an “experimental project to demonstrate the vulnerabilities, lack of oversight, and overall low barrier to entry in the modern political polling industry.” My opinion is that Wedgewood’s explanation is bullshit, a pathetic attempt to get ahead of the story after FiftyPlusOne was set to publish a story exposing the fraud. Whether some sort of crime was committed was unclear — Wedgewood allegedly collected crowdfunded money for a poll that may or may not have ever been conducted.

  • At least Mr. Silver has admitted he made "mistakes" when his polls turned out to be bullshit.

• Jared Kushner Hacked Phone Reveals Secret Negotiations, Millions in Transactions

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• DHS to test heat ray weapon for potential use at border

• Sexy, texts back, and is into your job? You might be dating a spy

World

• France and the Limits of Liberalism

  French people like to riot. But this time, things are a little bit different, for a couple of reasons. First of all, this wave of unrest is accompanied by serious economic troubles. France’s long-term interest rates, like rates throughout the world, are surging. But unlike some countries whose rates have also risen, investors have serious doubts that France’s government will take the necessary steps to pay back what it owes. The price that investors have to pay to insure against a French sovereign default has shot up even more abruptly than interest rates. investors are starting to worry that France will simply default on its bonds.

  • France's Imaginary Austerity

  • Macron blames US-Iran war for riots and rising fuel prices

  Macron said the demonstrations reflected economic anxiety tied to the war. “Demonstrators expressed concern about the cost of living and the price of fuel. Both are driven by the conflict launched in the Persian Gulf, a conflict in which France has taken no part but whose consequences we are suffering,” he said.

  • French Police Identify Antifa as the “Ideologically Distinct Group” Behind the Riots Despite Democratic Denials

• Booking.com faces EU investigation over scams and hidden ads

• The grads ditching the UK for a fresh start abroad

• Poland says social media firms are 'silent ally' of Russia, threatens fines

• Everyone hates Oxford Street. Will pedestrianisation save it?

• UK man juggled five remote government jobs

• Huang shrugs off protestors to kick off GTC Berlin with DSX Pods, Robots

• Politico and Telegraph owner pitched deal to buy European arm of TikTok

• Irish pol calls for ‘common sense’ after gov-funded PSA urged grandparents to get consent before hugging grandkids

• Toronto Crime Stoppers pauses program after investigation of data leak

• Canadian Officers Don't Want to Serve in the U.S. Anymore

Iran / Houthi

• Iran threatens to cut Hormuz internet cables

• Iran is purposely tanking peace talks to hurt Trump at the polls, regime officials admit.

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russia cracks down on AI bears as real attacks spread fear

• The Subterranean Battle Playing Out Deep in Ukraine's Soviet-Era Pipelines

China

• As Politicians Argue About China, US Patients Find Cutting-Edge Treatment There

Health / Medicine

• OpenEvidence is changing how American doctors treat patients

• New 'Circadian' Subtype of Depression Affecting 1 in 4 Patients

• GLP-1 drugs fail to help some people lose weight – scientists look for answers

• The Next Frontier for Obesity Drugs Isn't How Much Weight You Lose but What Kind

• France reports first human case of livestock virus Shamonda after patient dies

  • Patient had been hospitalized for an "unrelated serious disease"...

• Controversial US-backed vaccine trial in African newborns halted

  The US-backed hepatitis B vaccine trial in African newborns that drew global backlash was halted, the lead researcher said on Wednesday. The study was to be funded with $1.6m from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with another $1.6m from private partners like the Bill Ackman-backed Pershing Square Foundation and the Bluebell Foundation. “The solution is clear here: take the money and vaccinate as many kids as you can,” said Paul Offit, a vaccines expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who sharply criticized the proposed study as unethical. The government of Guinea-Bissau now has control over the researchers’ vaccines, which they apprehended when they searched the offices of the Bandim Health Project on Monday. The proposed trial led to distrust among Bissau-Guineans, who wondered if the vaccine – which has a decades-long record of being safe and effective – was being tested on Africans because it was dangerous, Schaltz-Buchholzer said in his post. Conducting a study like this “makes the case that there’s something that’s worthy of study, for which they have no evidence”, Offit said.

Pox / COVID / BioTerror AgitProp

• Ebola has spread from Congo to 4 other countries. A look at where things stand

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• New World screwworm cases confirmed in wildlife in Texas, beef cow in New Mexico

• Scientists Accidentally Bred a Hybrid of Two Endangered Fish

• Tap water no longer drinkable in Norwegian village:thawing releases heavy metals

• 'Pure arrogance': anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250k trees

• TIL that Earth is technically in an Ice Age

• Big Pharma donate $7000,- to save planet

• Melting Polar Ice Caps Is Making The Earth Rounder