A new element in #gymnastics is named after its performer, 18-year-old #Armenia|n gymnast Hamlet Manukyan. The element is named “Manukyan”. pic.twitter.com/DBQoLe16PP
— Karina Karapetyan (@KarinaKarapety8) September 13, 2025
Your Phone Already Knows Your Age, It Just Isn’t Telling You Technobezz
A New Hope for Life? Webb Telescope Reveals First Clues From Potentially Habitable World SciTech Daily
Project Xanadu – The Internet That Might Have Been Astral Codex Ten
Alcohol Escapes a Government Crackdown—for Now Reason
COVID-19/Pandemics
Bonkers CDC vaccine meeting ends with vote to keep COVID shot access Ars Technica
Internet use during pandemic illuminates urban–rural digital divide Phys Org
Climate/Environment
Report: Two-Thirds of Heat Deaths in Europe This Year Were the Result of Climate Change Mother Jones
Climate Activists Disrupt Fossil Fuel Executive at Harvard University Symposium Inside Climate News
Diet changes in food futures improve Swedish environmental and health outcomes Nature
South of the Border
US touts collaborative plan to tackle Mexico’s drug cartels – but initiative is met with denial and mistrust south of the border The Conversation
Venezuela urges UN investigation of US for ‘crimes against humanity’ Andolu Agency
U.S. Military Buildup in Caribbean Signals Broader Campaign Against Venezuela NY Times
China?
Lots of the anti-China trolls tell me I don’t show cities other than “First tier cities.”
This is Shijiazhuang. It’s a city of 11 million people, larger than New York city, and most westerners have never heard of it. It’s a second tier city and the capital of Hebei province. It… pic.twitter.com/g4ianX5Gzv
— Jason Smith – 上官杰文 (@ShangguanJiewen) September 20, 2025
Green Giant: China’s massive scaling of clean energy pays off for the whole planet.China limits the use of AI by clergy in efforts to regulate its ‘Temple Economy’ Cryptopolitan
China promotes direct-to-device satellite services with new guidelines and licensing Space News
Lawyers vs. engineers: Dan Wang sees U.S.-China dynamics in a new paradigm NPR
India
The Limits of Rapprochement Between India and China War on the Rocks
India-US airports in turmoil? Flight fares surge after Trump’s surprising H-1B visa move; ‘Extremely bad situation’ Hindustan Times
India’s influence in the Middle East: balancing energy, workers, and Saudi-Pakistan defense pact The Jerusalem Post
Africa
Africa’s future runs on water. So treat it as essential infrastructure Al Jazeera
Stability paves way for Somalia to become Horn of Africa’s new tourism gem Andolu Agency
How Many Countries Fit in Africa? Visualizing the Continent’s True Size Visual Capitalist
European Disunion
Airports across Europe face disruptions due to cyberattack DW
Trump faces challenge in convincing Europe to hit China over Russia The Hill
Europe’s Toxic Air: When the Clean Continent Isn’t So Clean EU Today
Old Blighty
Rachel Reeves warned her tax hikes risk sending UK economy into a ‘doom loop’ Daily Mail
‘It’s Fascism All Over Again’: The UK Is Following the US Down a Dark Path Zeteo
Israel v. Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran
Any person or entity that describes Israeli atrocities — Gazan journalists, human rights groups, western doctors and nurses — are instantly maligned as anti-Semitic liars.
Here are two very courageous Australian physicians in Gaza, describing the reality of the IDF. Listen: https://t.co/OOUfqwipzW
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 20, 2025
Israel’s Gaza City demolitions fan fears of permanent removal of Palestinians ReutersDemocrats rapidly shift on Israel amid Gaza assault, evidence of famine Washington Post
Over 50 Gazans Reportedly Killed by IDF, Including Family of Al-Shifa Hospital Director Haaretz
Israel’s attack on Yemeni newspaper complex kills 31 media workers The Guardian
New Not-So-Cold War
Zelensky plans to meet with Trump on sidelines of UN assembly as Russian strikes persist The Hill
Moscow launches large-scale attack on Ukraine as Kyiv continues attacks on Russian oil refineries Euro News
UK to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine war effort as world condemns Putin over Estonia incursion The Independent
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man The Guardian
Kmart broke privacy laws by scanning customers’ faces. What did it do wrong, and why? The New Daily
Imperial Collapse Watch
Woman struck in mass shooting at Minneapolis homeless encampment dies of her injuries CBS News
Santa Fe County sees 104% spike in overdose deaths as fentanyl potency increases Santa Fe Reporter
A record number of students lack basic reading skills. Can this approach help? WGBH.org
Trump 2.0
Trump basks in pageantry and praise – then leaves allies twisting in the wind Daily Mail
U.S. conducts fourth strike against vessel transferring drugs, Trump says Axios
A vengeful Trump props up the unproductive as his economy falls apart The Hill
‘Tidal wave of problems’: With harvest here, Trump’s trade war pushes some US farmers to the brink CNN
Charlie Kirk
Max Blumenthal: Charlie Kirk’s Story FALLS APART Dialogue Works, YouTube. If you are pressed for time, please at least listen to the section starting at 7:55.
Musk Matters
Elon Musk’s Neuralink plans a brain speech trial in October Engadget
Who is going to buy Elon Musk’s cars? Daily Press
Did Elon Musk Just Say “Checkmate” to Nvidia? The Motley Fool
SpaceX Files for 15,000 New Starlink Satellites to Boost Cell Connectivity WebPro News
Democrat Death Watch
NY Democrats hesitate to back Mamdani over Israel stance, Biden snub Jerusalem Post
From Biden to Buttigieg: All the Democrats Kamala Harris slams in her new memoir Politico
Immigration
Immigrant rights activists braced for crackdown as Trump threatens to target ‘leftwing’ groups The Guardian
Tear gas used on protesters at Chicago-area ICE site as immigration crackdown escalates NBC News
Our No Longer Free Press
In battles over free speech, comedians are often center stage AP
Trump’s New Restrictions on Pentagon Reporters ‘Should Alarm Every American’ Common Dreams
Mr. Market Is Moody
President Trump Owes His Base Strong Words About the Weak Dollar RealClear Markets
The Fed cut its interest rate, but long-term rates — including those on mortgages — went higher CNBC
Real estate stocks decline despite interest rate cut Seeking Alpha
AI
Microsoft AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman:
By the end of 2025, models will move from one-shot answers to continuous planning
With persistent memory and long-horizon planning, models will become deeply human-like
no new algorithm, mostly compute and scale pic.twitter.com/yPrvYvgtUh
— Haider. (@slow_developer) September 20, 2025
The Problem Isn’t AI Therapy. It’s That Most Therapy Is Trash. Pirate Wires
‘We should kill him’: AI chatbot encourages Australian man to murder his father ABC Australia
Why AI Safety Officials Keep Quitting Their Jobs Technobezz
World’s first AI-designed viruses a step towards AI-generated life Nature
The Bezzle
Congress Presses for Answers on Financial Fraud Mitigation ACA International
Social Media Tax Scam Epidemic Newswise
Guillotine Watch
Sky Pool is a swimming pool in Houston, Texas. Constructed on top of the Market Square Tower apartment complex, it’s 150 meter high with a glass floor
[📹 marketsquaretower]pic.twitter.com/W42XCh9NpR
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 18, 2024
Even if you don’t have a fear of heights, you probably won’t be able to try out the 82-foot-long, see-through swimming pool in London that sits more than 10 stories above the ground. Pool access is limited to select residents at a luxury apartment complex. https://t.co/9p4Q0JCba9 pic.twitter.com/BBCRnvehYW
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 2, 2021
Antidote du jour (via)
And a bonus:
Marylin Monrowl.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/JVNTcQ83R2
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) September 20, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
“Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man”
The spirit of Jeffrey Epstein is alive and well with Mark Zuckerberg and his Meta. Using images of 13 year-olds in school uniforms as bait for Threads? EEwwwwwww!! What’s Meta’s unofficial motto then – ‘Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed?’
Controversy over using very young models is nothing new.
According to the article, it seems the main problem is that a lot of parents weren’t paying attention to their privacy settings. I haven’t seen any of the pictures, but I doubt they are purposely provocative in the matter of Paris Vogue (see link above).
But those weren’t young models. None of them were. They were just images of young schoolchildren that often showed their faces and even their names. One mother said her account was set to private but Meta still swiped that image. And one section of that article said-
‘With 267 followers, her Instagram account usually had modest reach but the post of her child attracted nearly 7,000 views, 90% from non-followers, half of whom were aged over 44 and 90% of whom were men.’
Yeah, I’ve got a problem with that. Zuck is a sleazebag.
No argument about Zuckerberg. And I’m not on Instagram, but based on previous experiences with that organization, I wouldn’t be surprised if they made their privacy settings very granular and what someone thought was private wasn’t actually private because they missed a few of the checkboxes.
That organization is well known for this approach to privacy, and I wonder what percentage of parents who were complaining actually closed their free accounts after this. Probably a very low percentage.
soybean purchases by China were supposed to happen this weekend with the TikTok deal. With sales and production going to Brazil, corn will get sold first and further depress that market. What is unclear is can Chinese soya buyers hold out until Brazil harvest begins in late january. With congress cutting food stamps, dems won’t be in any mood to cooperate, but a big bailout is coming. Across the board grain farmers are hurting. In the CNN article one farmer talked about buying future votes, he said that was last time, this time not so much. livestock producers will gladly feed a cheap corn crop and we still won’t see replacements climb, party on!
What will happen to soybeans that just don’t sell because the Chinese are going with more “reliable” markets? Will American farmers just have to plow them into the ground?
the crop will get harvested and a big push for biofuels with mandates, subsidies will happen. But next year will see monkeywrench plans, other crops, huge financial headaches from farm to banks to communities to farm equipment. Easy to imagine a farm depression akin to the 80’s
Next year I would not count on much help from Trump – unless he remembers that he needs the farmer votes for the midterms. He might just come out with a campaign based around It’s Morning In America 2.0-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa8Qupc4PnQ (1:01 mins)
Curious why there would be a need to bail out farms that produce goods for foreign markets? If it was farm producing crops vital for domestic needs it would make sense. Or, if the “bailout” was formulated to redirect them toward producing for domestic needs that would make sense as well.
Not my area of expertise by any measure though so happy to be educated on this by those that know more than nothing about the subject.
New YouGov poll paints a somewhat different picture about Charlie Kirk’s influence over young people than the narrative would have us believe. The numbers show that favorable opinions of him increased with age and income. Additionally, race and party affiliation were strong indications about favorable/unfavorable views.
The link opens PDF and the relevant tables are on pp. 12-13.
Streisand Effect. Kirk was polarizing deeply but narrowly.
He probably was on track to be another Ralph Reed, but is now James Dean
“Your Phone Already Knows Your Age, It Just Isn’t Telling You”
I wonder what your phone would make of this conversation then-
https://xcancel.com/JoshWalkos/status/1968683565249421502#m
Confirms my prejudice against using the phone for anything other than calls.
Scorched earth!!?! More like a sad combination of whining and second rate blame shifting for most of these excerpts. No one really cares except Harris that people didn’t immediately start cheering her being foisted onto everyone as Biden’s replacement candidate. Unless Harris goes deeper into actual backbiting destructive Democratic infighting, this is at best weak tea, that is not going to redeem her or absolve her from a deeply embarrassing campaign and loss.
To me the most astonishing thing about Harris’ book is that it wasn’t self published. That someone at Simon & Schuster still wanted to waste money on her. (I don’t suppose she is putting any part of an advance or royalties towards the campaign debt she keeps begging for help with.)
Not mentioned in that article but brought up by Alex Christoforou is how Biden was constantly trying to sabotage Harris’s campaign in that book. And I do remember Biden doing this last year which I put down to spite on Biden’s part. I take satisfaction in reading the other day how Biden cannot raise the money for his Presidential Library as his former donor’s are not simply interested.
I have wanted the Presidential Library scam ended for a long time. This won’t do it, but you are right that it is satisfying that not even those who foisted “President” Biden on us want to spend more on funding and edifying that horrid human waste of space.
And I too remember how often something came out of the White House undermining any traction the Harris campaign might be making among the undecided.
I take it for granted that big advances for political memoirs that will never sell are a form of post-dated bribery. Simon and Schuster, Harris’s publisher, is owned by private equity giant Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts, so we can safely assume it paid for services satisfactorily rendered in the past.
They must have been real happy to pay Barry some $65 million after he left the Presidency for his book. For “services rendered.”
An obscene payout but to be fair it did end up becoming a record breaking memoir with millions sold. And he’d previously had hit books. For better or worse Obama had a diehard loyal fan base (cult) – and he actually had won elections.
The kind of money tossed around for big names to write books (or sign their names to a ghost written book) is obscene though. Maybe people read them? It’s been long known that conservative best sellers are often artificially inflated by bulk sales from religious orgs and PACs so wouldn’t be surprised if Dems have similar means of funneling money and hype to their people and using the publishers as a tool of brand marketing (these books often just seem like an excuse to do media tours and promote a politician more than anything else).
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/474662-the-myth-of-the-conservative-bestseller/amp/
If she’s gonna name names it would be good to know whose idea it was to send Bill Clinton to Michigan to scold voters there, and who told her to attach herself to Liz Cheney like a conjoined twin.
Either way it will be fun seeing this in airport books stores with 80% off stickers by the end of the month. Can’t imagine anyone other than a masochist reading this for any reason. I’d be more interested in a memoir from the Senate Parlimentarian since they clearly had more political impact than Harris.
Like so so many in both the political and media world, they never do anything when they had the chance and complain about it later
But it seems like she just ended her chance at another presidential run. Hopefully
Always inspiring leadership to complain after the fact about how everyone else failed you. The buck stops there!
Kamala..yeah..I remember her…she was the genocide-wine lady right?
Irrelevant person from an obsolete political party.
As ever, wake me up when there’s a policy that improves the material (or even emotional ffs) condition of the people.
A friend has an apartment in the London sky pool building. I’ve not been for a dip yet but the fees seemed steep to me (£20 for a guest) until I tried to swim at the local council swimming baths and paid £12.90 because I didn’t yet have a residents’ card!
Perhaps the real guillotine watch is how austerity has put swimming, not just gimmicky pools, above the reach of ordinary people?
I think to the cashless advance registration barriers are to keep the homeless out. A homeless lady was being pushed out shouting the guard should understand as a woman so I guess she wanted to use the facilities for menstrual reasons ….
I don’t think the guillotine is going to fall because a non-resident couldn’t get a better price. What was the price for a resident?
In Bogota as a non-resident I paid less than $7 an hour to swim laps in an olympic sized pool, as part of a Beautiful wellness complex that is apparently part of the health benefits package for workers. https://maps.app.goo.gl/fx8pfHyEniWoftB69
– ‘Max Blumenthal: Charlie Kirk’s Story FALLS APART’ – Dialogue Works, YouTube.
This is a very good overview of the key issues, in my opinion. Regarding the murder itself, since the beginning I’ve been waiting for information about this “extremely cooperative” roommate. Maybe I’ve missed it, but I’d sure like to know about his (her?) background, how they met, politics, etc. Obviously the autopsy is pretty crucial as well; I hope we find out the results, and perhaps just as important – who conducted the autopsy and under what conditions.
As Max himself says, for most of us our default position is to accept a simple “lone nut” scenario. But when we start being fed all this contradictory BS, we start asking questions, starting with cui bono?
“US touts collaborative plan to tackle Mexico’s drug cartels – but initiative is met with denial and mistrust south of the border”
As I said the other day, if Mexico agreed to this then there is no telling if Trump will blow up some random truck along a highway saying that it was full of drugs on its way to the US border. Since Trump has already blown up four random boats at sea and JD Vance is making jokes about the hazards of being a fishing boat in this region, how could they trust Trump to not blow up random trucks or perhaps a villa in the hillsides that Trump claims is a Cartel headquarters. This is what happens when your foreign policy is inspired by Tom Clancy-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_and_Present_Danger