Do most people not realize they are now captured minds fully running the optimization algorithms of other people who care not a bit about them? It’s moved beyond propaganda into possession. We’ve summoned demons from the nether realm and allowed them to irrupt into our most sacred place and rampage with no control and no restraint.
What are we thinking? We aren’t; not any longer.
Google wants to give Chrome access to even more of your private data.
YouTube secretly tests AI video retouching without creators’ consent.
New England warming faster than most places on Earth, study finds.
The Supreme Court Is Poised to Revive a Key Feature of Nixon-Era Corruption.
Modi mocks Putin by speaking Ukrainian during two-day India visit.
Even modest strength training can counter age-related decline.
The last act of the feature film.
Trump’s Self-Imposed Economic Trap.
A massive, Chinese-backed port could push the Amazon Rainforest over the edge.
Trump Tried to Brag About Black Friday. The Truth Is Far More Grim.
Health-care costs are about to spike in a way that Americans can’t afford.
One of the best things about Tom Petty’s songwriting is that he deeply liked and had great empathy for women.
Definitely. It’s become professionalized and corporatized.
The truly exceptionally-skilled people who were not well-socialized have been pushed out, mostly. Thus, the average level of talent has decreased by a whole lot. Contributing to this is that those like me who grew up with real computers and excellent troubleshooting skills are starting to age out.
This means that the average skill level is a lot lower, and most managers are not as competent. Relatedly, there is vastly more attention paid to the appearance of things (not software or design, I mean socially). The put-up-with-no-bullshit greybeards and (more rarely) doyennes have nearly all departed — what’s left are gladhanders, ass-kissers, corporate social butterflies and sycophants of all stripes.
It was a lot better field 15-20 years ago is what I am saying. There is no nearly no one left at my level any longer. Which means there is no competition but it’s also very lonely. Those with actual impressive skills aren’t present anymore, and the juniors coming up can’t troubleshoot their way out of a wet paper bag.
It’s been sad to witness.
For the first time in history, I keep seeing computer science and engineering degrees referred to as “useless.”
That’s a sign and harbinger of something. Something not good at all.
Women who see themselves as the prize are in truth invariably one of those presents that explodes glitter everywhere; maybe pretty, but a huge mess and not worth very much.
Women who see what you build together as the prize is where it’s at. You end up with limitless wealth and no glitter bombs.
It’s not racist to have more trouble telling people apart you’re not used to being around. It’s just normal and human.
When I first went to China, I had trouble distinguishing some of my first acquaintances from one another, especially at a distance. But then I got to know them and even from 300 meters, I was like, “Oh, hey, Ling Ling, we’re over here!”
Or, “That’s Xiao Mai on the way. I see her down the street.”
It took me about a month to get a lot better at distinguishing Chinese faces. And then I couldn’t believe after that I’d had any trouble. Noticing human differences and acknowledging them is not racism; that’s just life and reality. The left would do a lot better to accept that and deal with it like adults.
Among the many mistakes of the left, it was a pretty big one portraying all immigrants as faultless saints while characterizing anyone born in the US as a hopelessly hateful hillbilly.
And that went about as well for them as the rest of the idiotic shit they’ve done.
State Department to deny visas to fact checkers and others, citing ‘censorship.’
How Elites Could Shape Mass Preferences as AI Reduces Persuasion Costs.
The Age-Gated Internet Is Sweeping the US. Activists Are Fighting Back.
RAM is so expensive, Samsung won’t even sell it to Samsung. Glad I bought two machines with 128GB of RAM each (one Mac, one server) when RAM was cheapest.
Trump’s boat strike playbook was written by Obama. Yes.
Israel’s Latest Military Tech: Tested in Gaza, Wanted by the West.
American Shahed-136 Clones Sent To Middle East Have Satellite Datalinks, Swarming Capabilities.
Two Steppes forward, one step back: parsing our Indo-European past.
The Ingratitude of the Well-Fed. Or How to Cultivate Gratitude for Progress.
Cloudflare Has Blocked 416 Billion AI Bot Requests Since July 1.
Regulators Relax Rules on High-Risk Lending for Banks.
Wealthy ranchers profit from public lands. Taxpayers pick up the tab.
Traffic congestion hits a record high, spreading to more hours of the week.
Rare set of varied factors triggered Black Death.
California unemployment set to rise as the economy continues to suffer.
Goals for the next year:
1) Teach donkeys to yodel.
2) Start an intentional community based on worshipping muffins.
3) Bring back carburetors. Mandate all cars have them. I don’t know why, I just like carburerators.
4) Drill for oil on the Moon. Just for funsies.
5) Convert all Waffle Houses to boxing gyms. They can still serve food. Very little will have to change.
I did not believe this for a long while, but now I do: I think the left actually intends to let in the very worst immigrants possible both to punish everyone here for our supposed sins and to attempt to deliberately destroy the nation-state altogether. It sounded outlandish to me years ago but by now I think the evidence is pretty clear that this outcome (destroying the US, other Western countries) is the actual desired end result.
Some on the left do indeed have suicidal empathy. But many others have active malice and evil intent. I say, ship them all to Somalia. Load up the boats and planes.
I do like California, but fighting for six months with the Franchise Tax Board whether I’d paid my taxes or not (I had, overpaid!) soured me on the California government right quick. Nothing like wasting vast amounts of time on something completely pointless and that’s a deadweight loss for everyone involved.
By the way, I pay ~52% of my income in taxes. And that’s a lot. Luckily that’s because I earn a ton, but still…ain’t nobody shirking here.
Satellite captures the first detailed look at a massive tsunami.
UPS put profits over safety before plane crash that killed 14, lawyer alleges. Well, profits are forever. Lives are all temporary. Right?
Sky King. He’s probably the only human being to ever have done a barrel roll in that aircraft.
The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine. Moronic.
Homo sapiens-specific evolution unveiled by ancient southern African genomes.
RSV prevention—a remarkable medical achievement finally realized.
The Middle Class Is Buckling Under Almost Five Years of Persistent Inflation. And yet econs say all is peachy. If you can afford a peach, that is.
Politics and Capitalist Stagnation.
Layoff announcements top 1.1 million this year, the most since 2020 pandemic, Challenger says.
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself.
In 1995, a Netscape employee wrote a hack in 10 days that now runs the Internet. And we still all hate him for this mistake.
Scientists document over 16,000 footprints in the world’s most extensive dinosaur tracksite.
Sweden with fewer than 11 million people has granted citizenship to 63.000 Somalis, while Poland with 38 million has granted it to 17. How come? pic.twitter.com/zt5nozHMuW
— Michael A. Arouet (@MichaelAArouet) November 29, 2025
Because Poland doesn’t want to be invaded and overrun. It might end up being the last bastion of Western Civilization, if Russia doesn’t clobber it.
