— Science Girl (@ScienceThing5) July 18, 2026
Are Prediction Markets Doomed to Fail? Contrary Research
Humanoid Robots in 2026: What Is Actually Deployed Technology.org
Archaeologists Identify the First Classic Maya Astronomer Credited by Name ZME Science
Scientists Detect First Atmosphere on Rocky Habitable-Zone Planet, Boosting Hopes for Alien Life Gizmodo
COVID-19/Pandemics
COVID Nimbus Variant Now Leads the U.S. as Cases Grow in 27 States and Emergency Visits Rise Medical Daily
CDC warns of global measles threat after 22 million babies missed their vaccines during the pandemic CTV News
Climate/Environment
What to know about the Canadian and US wildfires and their impact BBC
Over 100 wildfires prompt Algeria to urgently recall civil protection personnel Andolu Agency
Wildfires, drought and storms hound Europe even as heatwave recedes Reuters
Interactive map predicts climate-driven farm decline by end of century Euronews
South of the Border
Senior defense officials looking at Cuba military options CBS News
Venezuela quake death toll tops 5,000 as IMF releases recovery funds France 24
Colombia: A Fractured Society Under U.S. Influence Counterpunch
China?
Fun fact.
BYD new factory in Zhengzhou will cover 50 square miles, which is larger than San Francisco’s surface at 46.9 square miles. pic.twitter.com/dXWwJ3xxiT
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 17, 2026
China’s AI models are shrinking US lead Yahoo FinanceChina Planted Billions of Trees and Scientists Just Found an Unexpected Advantage of These New Forests ZME Science
Did China steal 2020 US election data, as Trump claims? Al Jazeera
China’s Beidou Satellite System is a Game Changer in Iran’s War with the US Larry Johnson substack
India
India successfully launches first private orbital rocket Phys.org
New Delhi Air Pollution Index Further Pushes for EV Adoption in India Clean Technica
India’s monsoon rain depends on where air gets cleaner Phys.org
Africa
The New Malaria Vaccine Helps in Africa but Faces a Test: Completing All 4 Doses Medpage Today
As migrants await repatriation, South Africa faces persistent anti-immigration tensions Xinhua
Women are dying in Africa as US ramps up its global battle against abortion AP
European Disunion
Why the EU’s so-called Chat Control law has privacy experts up in arms Euronews
EU proposes slowing down cuts to carbon emissions for businesses BBC
EU targets 46% electrification to save $296B a year by 2040 Turkiye Today
Old Blighty
Reverse Brexit? Political winds in Britain are blowing toward Europe. The Christian Science Monitor
Dark day for the UK as Andy Burnham doubles down on disaster NY Post
Israel v. Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran
This is Houla, South Lebanon — before and after Israel’s genocide.
An ancient village that stood for more than 2,000 years.
Israel wiped it off the map.
A war crime. A crime against history. pic.twitter.com/3BCCvztIaO
— sarah (@sahouraxo) July 16, 2026
Israeli army destroys three schools in southern Lebanon, minister says Al JazeeraIsraeli army kills 8 Palestinians, expands occupied area in Gaza despite ceasefire Andolu Agency
U.S. Surges Aerial Refuelling Fleet in Israel to Prepare for Expanded Offensive Against Iran Military Watch Magazine
Israeli ministers announce plans for new illegal settlements in Gaza and West Bank The Guardian
New Not-So-Cold War
The European Right is turning on Ukraine UnHerd
Ukraine’s defense minister walked into Zelensky corruption buzzsaw Responsible Statecraft
Ten killed in Russia-Ukraine as protests continue over Kyiv defence revamp Al Jazeera
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Susan Shelley: From license-plate readers to phone taps, privacy rights are vanishing OC Register
Imperial Collapse Watch
BEEFED UP SECURITY: Walmart shopper fumes over ‘anti-theft beef’ as supermarket CHAINS UP steaks The U.S. Sun
SEE IT: Massive NYC homeless encampment fuels backlash against Mamdani NY Post
Trump 2.0
Can We Lose the Same War Twice? With Trump, Anything’s Possible The New Republic
Trump, not Iran, is the world’s greatest danger. He’s a one-man weapon of mass destruction The Guardian
Trump administration lifts ban on killing, trapping threatened species Andolu Agency
Trump’s rhetoric is more dangerous than voting machine flaws, experts say Politico
Musk Matters
Elon Musk’s AI Startup Is a Complete Disaster Behind the Scenes Futurism
Elon Musk says your Tesla will start to learn your individual preferences Teslarati
Democrat Death Watch
Rahm Emmanuel’s Israel-Endorsed ‘Opposition’ to Israel The American Conservative
‘It’s scary’: Scandal sends Wisconsin Dems into freakout mode over governor’s race Politico
Immigration
Stephen Miller says Trump administration is pursuing policy to debank illegal immigrants Fox News
‘Treating them like animals’: Migrant detainees face grim conditions in Miami federal jail Miami Herald
Fox News
Our No Longer Free Press
Trump administration drastically cuts length of foreign journalist visas The Guardian
6abc is warning viewers about the FCC taking away its TV license. Here’s what’s going on. Philadelphia Inquirer
Mr. Market Is Moody
Citi Raises Brent Forecast for 2026; Sees $150 Oil if Hormuz Disruption Persists EnergyNow
The Unanswered Questions Driving the Stock Market Drop Barron’s
Climate’s Compounding Financial Toll Is Becoming Harder to Ignore Time
AI
AI is changing what we can do. Who we become is still our choice Humanist Review
MARC ANDREESSEN WENT ON ROGAN FOR OVER 3 HOURS. HERE ARE THE 17 THINGS WORTH YOUR ATTENTION.
1. AGI is already here, in his view. He says the line got crossed about 3 months ago with GPT-5.5, Claude 4.6, Gemini 3, and Grok 4.3, and nobody noticed because the field moves too fast… https://t.co/kNcZEYmH0t pic.twitter.com/yddmZnJ6Wr
— CyrilXBT (@cyrilXBT) July 18, 2026
Google just dropped a 1-hour course on agentic engineering from scratch:
00:00 – How to build your first AI agent
08:24 – Build agent memory (short, persistent, long)
28:34 – Agentic loops, long-running AI agents
40:04 – How to build MCP (MCP vs API)
1:00:22 – Multi-agentic… https://t.co/P5jrVeQvaO pic.twitter.com/uVbN2z1EHs— Rahul (@sairahul1) July 11, 2026
I let an AI take over my Google TV for a week — and it solved streaming’s biggest problem Android Authority
AI accelerates pace of scientific discovery: Nobel laureate Bastille Post Global
The Bezzle
Fraud expert warns AI is helping criminals outpace the government: ‘Don’t have the right tools’ Fox News
The data to find Medicaid fraud already exists, but no one is using it The Hill
Guillotine Watch
Most expensive sneakers
Which of these brands have you used? pic.twitter.com/g8mTtjQZzU— Darcie (@Darcie1387) April 10, 2026
Abstract socks is on its way to flip the world’s most expensive socks.
Already flipping most luxury brands.
Second only to Burberry. pic.twitter.com/8GplUaOoxJ
— Nezuron (@nezuron_) February 1, 2025
Antidote du jour (via)
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
‘Massimo
@Rainmaker1973
Fun fact.
BYD new factory in Zhengzhou will cover 50 square miles, which is larger than San Francisco’s surface at 46.9 square miles.’
Detroit, eat your heart out. You go through the replies to that tweet though, and a lot of people have been triggered – and with a side-dish of sour grapes to boot.
https://xcancel.com/Rainmaker1973/status/2078187980980949082
Re: data exists to prosecute Medicaid fraud but no one is using it
About a year ago, my husband received, unsolicited, a new Medicare card. No explanation offered. Then about three weeks ago, we received an explanation of benefits from our secondary insurance, FEP Blue, showing over $3000 in charges for medical supplies over a week’s time in Nov 2025. The provider was New England Medical Supplies, a non-participating provider. We called Blue Cross to report this because my husband hadn’t received any medical supplies. The person we spoke with said there had been similar calls recently. When we asked if they would report this to Medicare she said no, but we could. Which we did, only to be told maybe there was an ongoing investigation, maybe not, maybe we would hear back, maybe not. We contacted Glenn Ivey, our representative, and spoke with an aide about doing some follow up from the political side. He said several times they couldn’t do that, they weren’t investigators, they were legislators. But they could contact the legislative liaison office to ask them to look into it. He wouldn’t give us that contact number because it was “private”. And in order for the congressmen to contact that office, we had to fill out an electronic form. Which we did and this week we received an answer saying maybe there was an investigation, maybe not, maybe we would hear more, maybe not and if we felt our Medicare info has been compromised, we could ask for a new card. Is this a great system or what??
Appalling, Kafkaïan, the best money can buy…
“Toronto, New York and Washington top list of most polluted cities as wildfires burn”
Trump is still blaming the Canadians for not keeping the smoke on their side of the border. Maybe he expects Canadians to go out in-between fires with rakes to rake the forest floor. But I just saw this on Trump’s Truth Social account-
‘Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Tim Sheehy is GREAT. A Winner!!! President DJT
In that post, Tim Sheehy accuses Canada of blocking US firefighters while sending government-subsidized aircraft to the US to cheat American taxpayers saying it is being run like a Chinese extortion racket-
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116938579137506694
And the guy’s Wikipedia page does not exactly cover him with glory either-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Sheehy
Re: Stephen Miller planning to de-bank illegal immigrants: what about their valuable dental gold?
Re: Marc Andreesen and AI,
My main use of AI personally is for scientific programming. It may be true that if I hired a software engineer for $200,000 and gave him six months, he’d do a better job than I can do with Claude in a few weeks, but I have neither $200,000 nor six months, nor would I ever get the first one. And even if I did, it would then be impossible to maintain the code, as I wouldn’t be able to hire that software engineer back.
The other uses are more worrisome. For example he suggests AI therapists for CBT. I have no doubt that this will be the norm. They will first make it cheaper to render therapists unemployed and to shift the policies of insurance companies, but then they will make it more expensive. And the CBT will be different. They’ll be programmed to encourage people to be good worker bees and good consumers. Some therapists will argue that’s what CBT is though, and that real problems take more time to solve.
Given the quality of most online therapists, whose main goal seems to be to curry the client’s favor by affirming their every thought, it wouldn’t be much of a change. Reflective listening has become affirming listening.
I know what you are doing Haig. You are an agent provocateur posting here the “vision”, rather hallucination, of, for example, an individual named Andreessen whose business model depends on hallucination with his 17 BS bullet points to spread such bullshit in every direction. Not that statistical analyses called “AI” cannot help in tasks that require analysis of lots of data. Yes it can, but the moment you are reduced to rely only in such tool Is when Artificial General Idiocy starts.
Ignacio: As I read the seventeen points, my strongest impression is of a super-number-cruncher but not much else. People like Andreessen think that they are dealing with intelligence in a human sense when they dealing with output that is more complicated because it has pulled in more data bases and has an on-line component.
I am reminded of when we were all buying our first personal computers, around 1991. At work, we were using a Wang (remember those?), which was an interconnected word processor. Then a whole “Wang” could go into a personal computer, although in 1991, I had some friends who still had external hard drives, that is, floppy disks. Think of how little memory a 1991 computer had. When I had to upgrade, I bought little bug-like enhancements from Zeos (yep, I had a Zeos computer) and popped them into the motherboard.
The prodigious amounts of electricity being used by this AI software indicate that it is just another step in computer processing and computer memory, like the jump to the Macintosh after the Lisa didn’t pan out.
Hallucination? More like hype. This is what happens when all computers have an internal modem, I s’pose. I remember the olden days when the modem sat alongside the computer, one turned it on, and the modem made screechy noises like a Silicon Valley zillionaire.
What say you?
Yes hype is much better qualifier than hallucination. My limits with English usage (never resorting to AI and sometimes to dictionaries when I can’t recall the precise word I want to use). Yet between hype and hallucination the limits can be blurred. I wonder whether AI can distinguish or not.
I go back a generation earlier: Apple II+. We bought it in 1982 for around $2,000, a paltry sum considering the II+ sported a powerful 8-bit processor that could address a huge 64k of RAM. It worked well as a word processor, and you could play that fun helicopter rescue game.
Three years later, my spouse worked for a New Mexico ski resort owned by Dan Lasater, the Clintons’ coke importing pal from Little Rock. Of course, they sold time shares, and every morning, the office had to type up long sales reports on a Xerox Memorywriter, a torture device if there ever was one. They had a “minicomputer” in a climate controlled room, but nobody knew how to get it to do anything. She talked them into buying a Mac to which a 10 MB (WOW!) external drive was added. We set-up the sales report spreadsheet using the “Jazz” software that came with the Mac, and a job that took 3 people half the morning took one person 10 minutes to produce.
Re Dark day for the UK as Andy Burnham doubles down on disaster NY Post
Wow, quite the foaming at the mouth piece. One claim that is particularly amusing is the double standard complaint that there should be a general election in the event of a change of prime minister. Amusing in the sense that right wing media made no such fuss of not having a mandate every time the previous Conservative government changed leader/prime minister since Cameron resigned after losing the brexit referendum. May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak (have I missed any?) all reached the top of the greasy pole without a general election.
FWIW, I very much doubt Burnham will make any big difference compared to Starmer. Maybe a slight change of style but the substance will remain the same.
Today El Pais run a piece on Burnham describing him as the potential next hero of UK politics who, in contrast with Starmer or all those conservative PM you listed, is someone who still keeps links with the populaces and it is not as detached from reality as the typical professional politician. Knowing El Pais this very much sounds like the next bored exaltation of the following blairite Neoliberal who will fail like the few others before did, including the very same Anthony Boring Blair.
The writer of this article is also author of a book called “After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation” which, judging by the title and the available reviews, appears to argue the thesis that any scruple, opposition, or distaste a person might feel in regards to Israel’s actions subsequent to October 7th is tantamount to the embrace of “fascism”, the abandonment of Enlightenment values, and the collapse of Western civilization. So probably not a writer from which one should really expect good faith argumentation.
Re: AI and Marc Andreesen
Does anyone believe any of this crap? None of it justifies spending trillions. Rogan’s fallen a long way from being a persistent, savvy interviewer into tech bro booster.
“Trump administration lifts ban on killing, trapping threatened species”
This is great news this. Especially for all those that want to shoot a Bald Eagle so they can have it stuffed and mounted in their den. Should be quite the conversation piece and you can’t get more patriotic than that.
Is Politico wholly owned by The Blob, or is it just trying to curry favor with the elites?
The subhead on their voting machine article is ludicrous. The only security that’s been beefed up is in how to keep Republicans from seeing the raw data. Strangely enough, the article does not name a single state or city that’s moved away from electronic voting and I certainly cannot think of any such legislative debate having occurred, let alone anytihng that resulted in fewer electronic votes.
I suspect the word “devices” is doing a lot of work here. No, we’re not voting by phone, is that what they mean? Because using paper ballots that are electronically tabulated is no different than using a machine that counts the votes as they’re cast. Both are highly susceptible to manipulation as has been proven by ethical hackers over and over again. The swells claim the paper ballots can be inspected but then throw major hissy ifts if you actually try to see those ballots.
Paper ballots, hand counted in full view of the public. Everything else is just fraud waiting to happen.
This org tracks the machines: https://verifiedvoting.org
I found Marc Andreesen’s contention that AGI is already here interesting, if not convincing.
My first thought was “Who is he trying to sell this to?”
Andreesen has a habit of talking his book and generally speaking he has been more credible than Elon Musk when it comes to claims about what his tech can do.
Which makes him slightly more credible than a weasel on crack.
I trust Andreesen as I would adders fanged …
Tucker Carlson interviews Roger Waters.
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters on 9/11, JFK, Gaza, and Why the Israel Lobby Is Trying to Destroy Him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaKuo6w9TnA
“China’s Beidou Satellite System is a Game Changer in Iran’s War with the US”
And as the linked Kevin Walmsley video points out, this all stated way back in 1993 when the US killed the GPS of a Chinese ship called the Yinhe, threatened to sink it, tried to stop food and water going to it and all because the US had intel that the ship was carrying illegal cargo. And after this siege when this ship was inspected and showed zip, not only did the US not apologize but they accused the Chinese of originally supplying the dodgy intel. I have linked this tweet thread before but it is well worth reading-
https://xcancel.com/CarlZha/status/1131548592810876928
It is from this humiliating incident that the Chinese got serious about their own GPS. Same way that the Chinese got serious building up their military after the US deliberately bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade a few years later. I guess that the Chinese reckoned that they had gone through one century of humiliation so were not inclined to put up with a second one.
That ScienceGirl vid of the clam-like creature has to have been be AI generated. Or very oddly and unfortunately edited.
What part don’t you believe. The blue eyes, the sensory tentacles or the sudden movement? These are all indeed true characteristics of some scallops.
There are two vitally important reasons to use Electronic Voting machines, one is fraud and the other is graft.
There’s simply not enough $ in paper ballots, hand counted in public to fund much in the way of graft while voting machines are expensive enough that there is.
Fraud has benefits as well, the companies who build these machines own the source code and it is proprietary information, private enterprise doing what it does best.