Tootfinder

🧂 Cocaine trafficking in Colombia moves as much money as the construction industry
https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-09-19/cocaine-trafficking-in-colombia-moves-as-much-money-as-the-construc…

Cocaine trafficking in Colombia moves as much money as the construction industry
A new academic paper reveals that the drug trade generates annual revenues of $15.3 billion, equivalent to 4.2% of the country’s GDP

2/2 Reflection on #citizenship:
I do not treat the concept of “#democracy" lightly. I was born into the aftermath of centuries of totalitarian oppression that ended suddenly, leaving the nascent Ukrainian state of the late 90s and early 2000s floundering in the turbulent whirlpool of hopes and fears felt by millions of people who were finally allowed to ponder: how to build a free democratic state in the place of Soviet and imperial ruins?
I was taught the words "democracy", "citizen", "freedom", "voting", “liberty" (and more) by people who, less than two decades prior, weren't allowed to leave the borders of their country. I was told about self-determination by people whose political choices were ridiculed, punished, and eviscerated form most of their lives. The duty of governing ourselves felt to us ephemeral - a nice fantasy, akin to a fairytale or a utopia from fictional works.
And then I saw those same people fight with their bodies and souls once the previously unfathomable democracy was threatened. Protests in 2004, then again in 2014, then the unthinkable war against foreign invasion in 2022. Democracy no longer felt abstract or silly. It became as tangible as saying "I love you".
I write of Ukraine as I reflect on becoming a citizen of another country because the history and values of my adopted United States feel as real as the skin on my legs, the significance of its legacy lays as heavy as the weight of my waist-long hair, and the desire to uphold the freedoms of its Constitution burns my throat as harshly as dehydration after a long day in the sun.
People have asked me why I even want to join this country, when the present moment is shrouded in impenetrable darkness. And I answer: because I've felt the warmth of a newly lit fire of freedom breaking through shadows that for centuries looked like solid walls. I have seen kindness, and solidarity heal the fear and hate of oppression. I've seen liberty emerge from nothing but the human soul.
I am not a religious person, but I have faith. Faith in the ideals at the foundation of the American project. Faint but powerful recognition that "we the people" now includes me.
I love #America. And I hope to keep loving my home for the rest of my life.

Russia's summer offensive stalls as key objectives go unmet: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/17/russias-summer-offensive-stalls-as.html

caida_as: CAIDA AS graphs (2004-2007)
A sequence of 122 network snapshots denoting Autonomous System (AS) relationships on the Internet, from 2004-2007, inferred using the Serial-1 method from RouteViews BGP table snapshots and a set of heuristics.
This network has 22965 nodes and 94386 edges.
Tags: Technological, Communication, Unweighted, Temporal

Cesar Romero - "Joker" from 60s Batman - lived as "authentically" as he could for a gay man - LGBTQ Nation
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/09/cesar-romero-joker-from-60s-batman-lived-as-authentically-as-he-could-for-a-gay-man/

Sources: Nintendo has asked manufacturers to produce as many as 25M Switch 2 units by the end of March 2026, surpassing analysts' estimates of 17.6M (Bloomberg)

Nintendo Switch 2 Production Plan: 25 Million Units by March 2026
Nintendo Co. has asked suppliers to produce as many as 25 million units of the Switch 2 by the end of March 2026, setting the company up for record first-year sales of a console that’s already reached high-water marks for the global gaming sector.

This is powerful stuff and good on Auckland councillor Julie Fairey for writing it. https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/08-07-2025/as-a-councillor-ive-always-advocated-for-improved-road-safety-then-i-got-hit-by-a-car

On an island in the Arctic Ocean, in a region that is warming as much as seven times as fast as the rest of the planet, the food chain is being turned upside down.
Underwater kelp forests are surging into once-frozen waters, replacing other native species.
Reindeer, cut off from traditional foraging routes over vanishing sea ice, now graze on seaweed when they cannot reach inland grasses and lichen.
And polar bears, deprived of the ice platforms they once used to hunt seals, …

Curious Reindeer and Charging Polar Bears: The Changing Wildlife at the Top of the Earth
Climate change is transforming ecosystems in the far north. An international team of scientists has made some surprising discoveries.

Amazon deforestation spikes as Brazil blames criminal fires #Brazil

Amazon deforestation spikes as Brazil blames criminal fires
A new and alarming pattern of destruction is emerging in the rainforest, challenging Brazilian authorities ahead of COP30.

Coming soon (likely this afternoon, I’m writing tests and docs and updating examples as we speak)…
This is the sort of thing you’ll be able to do with Markdown pages. Just pop any arbitrary JavaScript you want in the new script block in the front matter and then import and use components as well as plain old JavaScript tagged template variable interpolation (not shown in this example) inside your Markdown.
The screen has all the code (sans the end of the last line of CSS and the…

"Starmer’s disgrace over Israeli visit grows as UN names Herzog as genocide-inciter
The PM has blood on his hands, and everyone knows it."
https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2025/09/16/starmers-disg…

Starmer's disgrace over Israeli visit grows as UN names Herzog as genocide-inciter
Just 6 days after Starmer met Herzog, the UN names the Israeli president as having "incited the commission of genocide"

Commanders RB Brian Robinson to sit out preseason game vs. Bengals as potential trade looms https://www.nfl.com/news/commanders-rb-brian-robinson-to-sit-out-preseason-game-vs-bengals-as-potential-trade-looms

Strong words at #ag2025goerlitz as the war against science by the current White House is also affecting German astronomy big time: in space as shown here as well as on the ground with dramatic cuts to the NSF.

"China’s exports of electric vehicles doubled in September as competition at home intensifies"
#China #EV #ElectricVehicles

China’s exports of electric vehicles doubled in September as competition at home intensifies
HONG KONG (AP) — China has reported that its electric vehicle exports doubled in September from a year earlier as its automakers expanded further into overseas markets. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Tuesday that exports of “new energy vehicles,” which include battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, jumped 100% last month to 222,000 […]

More reflections on the philosophy of #degrowth from the European periphery, by Mladen Domazet.
Struggle for Justice, Freedom and Beauty as Denial of Despair  - Kronika
https://

‘Push back – or they’ll eat you alive’: James Cromwell on life as Hollywood’s biggest troublemaker https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/17/push-back-or-they-will-eat-yo…

All of the following are appropriate protest attire:
- Yellow, as per request from No Kings organizers
- Nudity, as per Portland Naked Bike Ride
- Frog suits and other inflatables, as per Portland again
- Formal attire, as per 60s Civil Rights Movement
- Black Bloc attire, for those concerned about privacy
- Military attire, e.g. camo fatigues etc.
- Clerical attire, for those ordained
- Anything else you can think of that fits the theme
Wear what makes you feel comfortable!

"At the same time, we remain committed to this new chapter for Trello."
so, "lolz, fuck you; can't hear you over the sound of all these dollar billzzzzz - Atlassian"
https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/06/trello_redesign_as_bad_as/…

https://therecord.media/senate-confirms-sutton-dod-cyber-policy
Senate confirms Sutton as Pentagon cyber policy chief

Senate confirms Sutton as Pentagon cyber policy chief
Katherine Sutton most recently served as the chief technology adviser to the commander and director of Pentagon operations at U.S. Cyber Command.

Black-box Model Merging for Language-Model-as-a-Service with Massive Model Repositories
Shilian Chen, Jie Zhou, Tianyu Huai, Yujiang Lu, Junsong Li, Bihao Zhan, Qianjun Pan, Yutao Yang, Xin Li, Qin Chen, Hang Yan, Liang He
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.12951

Black-box Model Merging for Language-Model-as-a-Service with Massive Model Repositories
Model merging refers to the process of integrating multiple distinct models into a unified model that preserves and combines the strengths and capabilities of the individual models. Most existing approaches rely on task vectors to combine models, typically under the assumption that model parameters are accessible. However, for extremely large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4, which are often provided solely as black-box services through API interfaces (Language-Model-as-a-Service), model we…

You should give the Skate Story demo on Steam a spin. It is as intense of an experience as something like Sayonara Wild Hearts or Rez, and you are a skateboarding demon made of glass who wants to eat the moon. It is exactly as insane as it sounds. #gaming #SteamNextFest

As Zelensky travels to Washington for peace talks, Russia strikes Ukraine with ballistic missiles: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/17/as-zelensky-travels-to-washington.html

"Thousands of anti-Trump protesters march in London as king and senior royals host US president in Windsor"
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/sep/17/donald-trump-uk-state-visit-k…

Just updated Tvmarks to 3.0 as I finally transition it to typescript.
I avoided typescript before as Postmarks was not and Glitch really struggled with the build step needed for typescript.
Typescript will only make adding new features easier as adding bugs will be harder.
I continue to love Tvmarks and I use it every day!
https://

Matt Eberflus 'grateful' for experience as Bears HC, lessons he learned https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/matt-eberflus-grateful-for-experience-as-bears-hc-lessons-he-learned

A template for data analysis projects structured as R packages (or not) #rstats #datascience

GitHub - Pakillo/template: A template for data analysis projects structured as R packages (or not)
A template for data analysis projects structured as R packages (or not) - Pakillo/template

Actually, I do want to come back to masculinity under patriarchy and whiteness under white supremacy because I think it's worth talking more about. The "man" under patriarchy (at least "Western" patriarchy) is represented as power and independence. The man needs nothing and thus owes nothing to anyone. The man controls and is not controlled, which is intimately related to independence as dependence can make someone vulnerable to control. The image of "man" projects power and invulnerability. At the same time "man" is a bumbling fool who can't be held accountable for his inability to control his sexual urges. He must be fed and cared for, as though another child. His worst behaviors must be dismissed with phrases such as "boys will be boys" and "locker room talk." The absurdity of the concept of human "independence" is impossible to understate.
Even if you go all Ted Kaczynski, you have still been raised and taught. This is, perhaps, why it is so much more useful to think in terms of obligations than rights. Rights can be claimed and protected with violence alone, but obligations reveal the true interdependence that sustains us. A "man" may assert his rights. Yet, on some level, we all know that the "man" of patriarchy acts as a child who is not mature enough to recognize his obligations.
White violence and white fragility reflect the same dichotomy. "The master race" somehow always needs brown folks to make all their shit and do all the reproductive labor for them. For those who fully embrace whiteness, the "safe space" is a joke. DEI shows weakness. Yet, when presented with an honest history adults become children who are incapable of differentiating between criticism and simple facts. *They* become the ones who must be kept safe. The expectation to be responsible for one's own words and actions, one of the very core definitions of being an adult, is far too much to expect. Their guilt needs room, needs tending, needs caring. White people cannot simply "grow the fuck up" or, as they may say of slavery, "fucking get over it."
And again, interestingly, it is *rights* that they reference: "Mah Freeze PEACH!" I find it hard to distinguish between such and my own child's assertion that anything she doesn't like is "not fair!" No, these assertions fail to recognize the fundamental fabric of adult society: the obligations we hold to each other.
At the intersection of all privilege is the sovereign, the ultimate god-man-baby. Again, referencing the essay (https://hexmhell.writeas.com/observations-on-domination-and-trump)
> This is where it becomes important to consider the ideology behind the sovereign ritual. Participation within the sovereign ritual denotes to the participants elements of the sovereign. That is, all agents of the sovereign are, essentially, micro dictators. By carrying out the will of the sovereign, these micro dictators can, by extension, act outside of the law.
While law enforcement is the ultimate representative of sovereign violence, privileges allow a gradated approximation of the sovereign. Those who are "closer" in privilege to the sovereign may, for example, be permitted to carry out violence against those who are father away. The gradation of privilege turns the whole society, except for the least privileged, into a cult that protects the privilege system on behalf of the most privileged. (And immediately Malcolm X pops to mind as having already talked about part of this relationship in 1963 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf7rsCAfQCo.)

Contractor Used Classified CIA Systems as ‘His Own Personal Google’ https://www.404media.co/contractor-used-classified-cia-systems-as-his-own-personal-google/

Hundreds arrested as Trump's Washington, DC, crime crackdown hits full stride (Fox News)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hundreds-arrested-as-trumps-washington-dc-crime-crackdown-hits-full-stride
http://www.memeorandum.com/250816/p67#a250816p67

Anyone remember the game where you had to search just two words to get one single search result?
Today's equivalent is "any prompt, as verbose as you like, that returns a given target page as top result."

#GoodNews
This New Superwood Is as Strong as Steel and 6 Times Lighter https://gizmodo.com/this-new-superwood-is-as-strong-as-steel-and-6-times-lighter…

This New Superwood Is as Strong as Steel and 6 Times Lighter
A university spinoff company has commercialized exceptionally tough wood. Our buildings and airplanes might one day be built from it.

Right tea break time - then we can start optimising the desktop and all the programs as well as moving over the files.
I guess that is where we will start to run into different problems.

This linux install is taking a lot longer than I'd hoped (which was probably unrealistic to be fair), but has been pretty smooth so far (once we left microsoft world at least)
14/n

😮‍💨 Diagnosing diabetes may soon be as easy as breathing into a bag
#sensors

Diagnosing diabetes may soon be as easy as breathing into a bag
In the U.S., one in five of the 37 million adults who has diabetes doesn't know it. Current methods of diagnosing diabetes and prediabetes usually require a visit to a doctor's office or lab work, both of which can be expensive and time-consuming. Now, diagnosing diabetes and prediabetes may be as simple as breathing.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music
Adrianne Lenker:
🎵 Sadness As a Gift
#AdrianneLenker
https://drowninginsecondperson.bandcamp.com/track/sadness-as-a-gift-adrianne-lenker-2024
https://open.spotify.com/track/1UpXhetX1s5OXTY5fRjWvu

"Truth is, on his smartphone, neither of these things were visible. Nor a push button, nor a shirt button, not a light switch, not a calculator button, not a door knob, not a push lever, nothing. What was visible was, instead, the blue word “Done” eerily floating in the top-right corner of the screen.
As my father said, there was no button."

The Button And The Spoon
As my father approaches his 80th birthday, his first contacts with the latest technologies become ever more interesting. As a pen-and-pencil architect and entrepreneur with 50 years of experience, technology is not a necessity; rather, just another useful tool. He setup his first fax machine at the end of the 90s, and got his first computer a decade after that. At some point in the 2010s he bought a smartphone, and one day asked me for help to finish some task on it. I remember his face when I …

Cybersecurity AI: Humanoid Robots as Attack Vectors
V\'ictor Mayoral-Vilches
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.14139 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.14139

Cybersecurity AI: Humanoid Robots as Attack Vectors
We present a systematic security assessment of the Unitree G1 humanoid showing it operates simultaneously as a covert surveillance node and can be purposed as an active cyber operations platform. Partial reverse engineering of Unitree's proprietary FMX encryption reveal a static Blowfish-ECB layer and a predictable LCG mask-enabled inspection of the system's otherwise sophisticated security architecture, the most mature we have observed in commercial robotics. Two empirical case studies expose …

VLMgineer: Vision Language Models as Robotic Toolsmiths
George Jiayuan Gao, Tianyu Li, Junyao Shi, Yihan Li, Zizhe Zhang, Nadia Figueroa, Dinesh Jayaraman
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12644

VLMgineer: Vision Language Models as Robotic Toolsmiths
Tool design and use reflect the ability to understand and manipulate the physical world through creativity, planning, and foresight. As such, these capabilities are often regarded as measurable indicators of intelligence across biological species. While much of today's research on robotic intelligence focuses on generating better controllers, inventing smarter tools offers a complementary form of physical intelligence: shifting the onus of problem-solving onto the tool's design. Given the vast …

"German far right setting agenda as opponents amplify its ideas, study finds
Normalisation of far-right stances likely to affect success of such parties at ballot boxes across Europe, say researchers"
https://www.theguardian.com/world…

Indian startup Kuku, which offers audio content and vertical dramas, raised an $85M Series C led by Granite at a $500M valuation and has 10M paid subscribers (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/15/indias-kuku-snags-85m-as-mobil…

India's Kuku snags $85M as mobile content wars intensify | TechCrunch
Kuku plans to expand beyond India with a U.S. launch slated for next year.

Not a lot of artists are live as good as Prince was in his days....
#prince

To state the obvious: this is bland stuff, clearly protected by the 1A and so very far within the bounds of what a non-authoritarian FCC would allow that it’s just comical. Kimmel is about as controversial as a goldfish here. They aren’t serious about it being a problem; the whole •point• is that it’s obviously •not• a problem.
They are using something extremely benign to test the waters of government repression of speech, to see just how much they can get away with — and ABC caved like 3rd-grade toothpick bridge.

The extended molecular gas of the Circinus galaxy and NGC 1097 as seen by APEX
Akhil Lasrado, Claudia Cicone, Axel Weiss
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10982 https://

The extended molecular gas of the Circinus galaxy and NGC 1097 as seen by APEX
The outer region of the interstellar medium (ISM) is witness to dynamically important events in a galaxy's evolutionary history such as outflows, inflows, tidal interactions, and mergers, as well as dynamical structures affecting its current evolution such as bars and spiral arms. Studying imprints of these processes in the diffuse, extended molecular gas is best achieved by a single dish telescope which can cover a large field of view with good sensitivity to large-scale structures. In this wo…

The language in NSPM-7 is culture war language bleeding into operating law,
and the problem with that is, culture war stuff isn’t describing anything real
https://therealnews.com/no-kings-protests-to-sweep-us-as-trump-attacks-activists

‘No Kings’ protests set to sweep US even as Trump increases attacks on activists
Republicans are already smearing the protesters, but their intimidation tactics are out of touch with reality.

Trump-Putin summit as Russia advances in Donetsk Oblast | Ukraine This Week: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/17/trumpputin-summit-as-russia-advances.html

Neuralink filed on April 24 as a "small disadvantaged business" that could give it preferential access to federal opportunities, before being valued at $9B (Lora Kolodny/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/17/elon-musks-neurali…

Elon Musk's Neuralink filed as 'disadvantaged business' before being valued at $9 billion
Neuralink labeled itself in April as a "small disadvantaged business" in a federal filing with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

petster: Pet owner social networks (2016)
A network of friendships among users on catster.com and dogster.com. Node represents a user, and edge exists if two users self-identify as friends on either website. The dogster/catster network also contains family links between dog and dog, cat and cat, as well as dog and cat.
This network has 623766 nodes and 15699276 edges.
Tags: Social, Online, Unweighted

📈 Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 Hits Record Output as Ice Conditions Ease
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Russias-Arctic-LNG-2-Hits-Record-Output-as-Ice-Conditions-Ease.html

Russia's Arctic LNG 2 Hits Record Output as Ice Conditions Ease
Russia's Arctic LNG 2 project lifted production to record levels in late August as summer ice conditions opened the Northern Sea Route, allowing additional cargoes to reach Asia

"MPs condemn badger cull as ineffective – Badger Trust urges cattle-focused TB measures"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Badgers #Animals

MPs condemn badger cull as ineffective – Badger Trust urges cattle-focused TB measures
Badger Trust welcomes MPs’ condemnation of the badger cull and calls for urgent, cattle-focused action to tackle bovine TB

3rd Tank Brigade Reformed as Heavy Mechanized Unit: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/18/rd-tank-brigade-reformed-as.html

Matt Eberflus 'grateful' for experience as Bears HC, lessons he learned https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/matt-eberflus-grateful-for-experience-as-bears-hc-lessons-he-learned

Western countries can watch this genocide unfold without lifting a finger. That is their prerogative. But what they cannot do – what they will never again be able to do – is to pretend that they give a damn about human rights or democracy or international law. What they cannot do is claim to be civilised.
If you cannot or will not stop genocide, you are not a civilised society.
You cannot lecture anyone on ethics or morals or values. You are barbarians who have accepted the law o…

Palestinians march south as Israel ethnically cleanses Gaza City
Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza’s north are making the journey south in a mass exodus with no guarantee of safety.

Vikings' Carson Wentz drawing rave reviews as he prepares for his first meaningful start in nearly three years

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/v…

“I would suggest the intent is to ensure that any individual person who’s acting under color of law or as an agent of the state has as much leeway to act out their personal bigotry as they want, without any concern about consequences”
DHS Orders Airlines To Disregard "X" Passport Markers - Joe.My.God.
https://www.joemygod.com/2025/10/dhs-orders-airlines-to-disregard-x-passport-markers/

Habba announces departure as U.S. Attorney (David Wildstein/New Jersey Globe)
https://newjerseyglobe.com/national/habba-announces-departure-as-u-s-attorney/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250718/p37#a250718p37

AIM-Bench: Evaluating Decision-making Biases of Agentic LLM as Inventory Manager
Xuhua Zhao, Yuxuan Xie, Caihua Chen, Yuxiang Sun
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11416 https://

AIM-Bench: Evaluating Decision-making Biases of Agentic LLM as Inventory Manager
Recent advances in mathematical reasoning and the long-term planning capabilities of large language models (LLMs) have precipitated the development of agents, which are being increasingly leveraged in business operations processes. Decision models to optimize inventory levels are one of the core elements of operations management. However, the capabilities of the LLM agent in making inventory decisions in uncertain contexts, as well as the decision-making biases (e.g. framing effect, etc.) of th…

Rex-Osprey launches the first spot dogecoin and XRP ETFs in the US after the SEC approved generic listing standards, paving the way for speedier ETF listings (Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy/Sherwood News)
https://sherwood.news/crypto/sec-paves-way…

SEC paves way for speedier crypto ETF listings as XRP and dogecoin ETFs launch
Rex Osprey launched the first spot XRP and doge ETFs today, while Grayscale will soon launch its just-approved multi-asset fund.

I keep saying the same thing over and over with my kids: you don't make decisions with your voice, you make them with your body.
"I want to go to the park."
"Ok, put your shoes on."
"I want to go on my play date."
"Put on a jacket and get in the bike."
"I don't want to be late to school."
"I don't control time, if you don't want to be late you have to brush your teeth."
There's a fundamental truth underlying this concept though, one that I hadn't really thought about. On some level, I feel as though, any choice you can't make with your body isn't a real choice. If you're begging someone to do something for you, it's ultimately not something you control.
As I'm compelled, by threat of violence against my family, to pay for war against my comrades and to kill people I don't even know, I think about that. How far is our concept of freedom from the police state we are taught to imagine as the global beacon of liberty. My participation in the violence had always been compulsory.
Perhaps we could do better than just #NoKings.
#USPol

The Russian Orthodox Church as part of Russia's war strategy – How does it work in Europe?: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/17/the-russian-orthodox-church-as.html

caida_as: CAIDA AS graphs (2004-2007)
A sequence of 122 network snapshots denoting Autonomous System (AS) relationships on the Internet, from 2004-2007, inferred using the Serial-1 method from RouteViews BGP table snapshots and a set of heuristics.
This network has 21245 nodes and 84962 edges.
Tags: Technological, Communication, Unweighted, Temporal

‘The dungeon’ at Louisiana’s notorious prison reopens as Ice detention center
The Louisiana state penitentiary at Angola – the largest maximum security prison in the country – was out of bed space for “violent offenders” who would be “transferred to its facilities”,
the governor warned in an executive order.
The emergency declaration allowed for the rapid refurbishing of a notorious, shuttered housing unit at Angola formerly known as Camp J
– commonly referred to by p…

Zelensky doesn't see corruption as a problem, prosecuted activist says: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/18/zelensky-doesnt-see-corruption-as.html

Should the Dallas Cowboys be concerned about Joe Milton as their backup QB? https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/should-the-dallas-cowboys-be-concerned-about-joe-milton-as-their-backup-qb

Commanders' Brian Robinson Jr. will not play vs. Bengals as trade speculation ramps up, per report

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/command

Study Warns of “Ultimate Extinction” as Dolphin Lifespans Plummet
https://scitechdaily.com/study-warns-of-ultimate-extinction-as-dolphin-lifespans-plummet/

A look at AI-powered stuffed animals like Grem, Grok, and Gabbo, which are being promoted as an alternative to screen time for children as young as 3 (Amanda Hess/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/15/arts/ai

They’re Stuffed Animals. They’re Also A.I. Chatbots.
New types of cuddly toys, some for children as young as 3, are being sold as an alternative to screen time — and to parental attention.

Trump's approval hits new low as Epstein pressure mounts (G. Elliott Morris/Strength In Numbers)
https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trumps-approval-hits-new-low-as-epstein
http://www.memeorandum.com/250718/p24#a250718p24

🧽 Indoor surfaces can act as massive sponges for harmful chemicals
#airquality

Indoor surfaces can act as massive sponges for harmful chemicals
Indoor surfaces have an unexpectedly strong ability to absorb and hold harmful chemical compounds that can threaten human health for as long as a year, according to air chemistry researchers at the University of California, Irvine.

Cars and RVs surged into Yosemite national park throughout the weekend,
as visitors from around the world came to enjoy the crisp autumn weather,
undeterred by a lack of park services and the absence of rangers.
National parks have largely been kept open through the lapse in US federal funding that has left workers furloughed and resources for the parks system more scarce than usual.
But as the US government shutdown enters its third week and legislators warn that the…

Palo Alto Networks founder Nir Zuk retires and steps down as CTO and board member; Chief Product Officer Lee Klarich becomes CTO and joins the board (Dean Seal/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/palo-alto-networks-founder-retires-as-technol…

Brock Purdy injury update: 49ers QB has 'chance' to play vs. Cardinals as he works back from turf toe

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/brock-p

Elon Musk: Tesla reportedly cuts UK monthly lease fee as sales drop
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/18/elon-musk-tesla-reportedly-cuts-uk-monthly-lease-fee-as-sales-drop.html

Most see the federal shutdown as a problem and think there is plenty of blame to go around (AP-NORC)
https://apnorc.org/projects/most-see-the-federal-shutdown-as-a-problem-and-think-there-is-plenty-of-blame-to-go-around/?doing_wp_cron=1760630978.8367290496826171875000
http://www.memeorandum.com/251016/p150#a251016p150

Russia weighs tax increase as economic pressures mount, Reuters reports: https://benborges.xyz/2025/09/18/russia-weighs-tax-increase-as.html

NFL teams don't use game-day roster flexibility with emergency QBs as often as one would think https://www.foxsports.com/articles/nfl/nfl-teams-dont-use-gameday-roster-flexibility-with-emergency-qbs-as-often-as…

Over 100 liberal philanthropies,
including those that are being targeted by the Trump administration as part of an expected crackdown after the killing of Charlie Kirk,
are banding together to try and stave off attacks on the nonprofit sector.
The institutions, including the Ford Foundation and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations,
on Wednesday pushed out an open letter that forcefully defended the philanthropy sector,
even as its list of signers doubled as a…

100 Liberal Philanthropies Prepare to Push Back Against Trump Crackdown
The institutions published an open letter to defend their missions amid fears the Trump administration could target their tax-exempt status.

wiki_users: Wikipedia user interaction (2011)
A network derived from interactions between editors of the English language Wikipedia, as derived from the edit histories of 563 wiki pages related to politics. A positive sign indicates positive links such as trust or similarities, and a negative sign indicates distrust or disagreement.
This network has 138592 nodes and 740397 edges.
Tags: Social, Online, Signed

Explosions rock occupied Crimea as Ukrainian drones hit oil depot and ammunition site: https://benborges.xyz/2025/10/17/explosions-rock-occupied-crimea-as.html

Why Patriots QB Drake Maye feels more comfortable with Josh McDaniels as play-caller

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/why-patriots-qb-drake-may…

FBI Director Fast-Tracks New Agents as Firings and Departures of G-Men Tied to January 6 and Trump Prosecutions Accelerate (Daniel Edward Rosen/New York Sun)
https://www.nysun.com/article/fbi-director-fast-tracks-new-agents-as-firings-and-departures-of-g-men-tied-to-january-6-and-trump-prosecutions-accelerate
http://www.memeorandum.com/250816/p68#a250816p68

OpenAI hires former xAI CFO Mike Liberatore as business finance officer, reporting to CFO Sarah Friar, to oversee infrastructure spend; he left xAI in July (MacKenzie Sigalos/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/15/openai-hires-former-xai-cfo-a…

OpenAI hires former xAI CFO as Altman-Musk rivalry escalates
OpenAI has hired former xAI finance chief Mike Liberatore as business finance offer, responsible for managing the company's soaring compute spending.

Bellevue is a relatively wealthy city, so when "residents claim a large presence of homelessness and crimes related to unhoused people [and] Bellevue crime statistics show otherwise", you know it isn't about crime, it's about othering the poor.
Bellevue neighbors voice safety concerns as city defends housing campus | Northwest | ncwlife.com
https://www.ncwlife.com/news/northwest/watch-bellevue-neighbors-voice-safety-concerns-as-city-defends-housing-campus/article_a139af5e-cc3d-58e5-b4ca-d47fd4238908.html

😎 Edible microlasers made from food-safe materials can serve as barcodes and biosensors
#optics

Edible microlasers made from food-safe materials can serve as barcodes and biosensors
If you've ever consumed food made with olive oil, there's a good chance you've unknowingly ingested materials capable of producing lasers. Researchers have recently demonstrated edible microlasers—tiny lasers made entirely from food-safe materials—that can be used for food monitoring, product authentication and tagging. These edible microlasers are composed of droplets of oil or water–glycerol mixtures doped with natural optical gain substances, such as chlorophyll (the green pigment in l…

ChatGPT 5 power consumption could be as much as eight times higher than GPT 4
— Research institute estimates medium-sized GPT-5 response can consume up to 40 watt-hours of electricity

ChatGPT 5 power consumption could be as much as eight times higher than GPT 4 — research institute estimates medium-sized GPT-5 response can consume up to 40 watt-hours of electricity
But the figures rely on hardware and usage assumptions that may be inaccurate.

Ben Johnson not worried about pregame production meeting with Tom Brady as Bears-Raiders in Week 4 looms

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ben-joh

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 121755 edges.
Tags: Biol…

Indian startup Kuku, which offers audio content and vertical dramas, raised an $85M Series C led by Granite at a $500M valuation and has 10M paid subscribers (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/15/indias-kuku-snags-85m-as-mobil…

India's Kuku snags $85M as mobile content wars intensify | TechCrunch
Kuku plans to expand beyond India with a U.S. launch slated for next year.

Saints QB competition: Tyler Shough starts but Spencer Rattler comes up clutch as battle remains tight

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/saints-

Trump says no NATO path or Crimea return for Ukraine as Zelensky comes to Washington for peace talks: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/18/trump-says-no-nato-path.html

Watchdogs urge new prime minister to appoint economic bureau chief as reform is blocked: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/18/watchdogs-urge-new-prime-minister.html

As Democrats walk out, Republicans advance judicial nomination of Emil Bove
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday morning to advance Donald Trump’s controversial judicial nominee
Emil Bove -- amid objections from Democratic senators,
who walked out of the hearing in protest before the vote.

Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated to serve on U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, must now be approved by the full Senate.

Bove faced whistleb…

As Democrats walk out, Republicans advance judicial nomination of Emil Bove
Bove, a top Justice Department official and Trump’s former personal defense attorney, was nominated to serve on U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.

Sources: Indian digital payments company Pine Labs aims to raise as much as $700M from an IPO in the second half of October, down from an earlier $1B target (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-18/paypal…

Moscow expands censorship as Ukrainian strikes reach deeper into Russia: https://benborges.xyz/2025/09/18/moscow-expands-censorship-as-ukrainian.html

Niamh Sweeney, Facebook's former head of public policy in Ireland, is appointed as Ireland's new Data Protection Commissioner, starting October 13 (Peter Flanagan/The Irish Times)
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2025/09/17/ex-t…

Ex-tech lobbyist named as Ireland’s new Data Protection Commissioner
Niamh Sweeney to take up role in October

Netskope priced its IPO at $19 per share, at the top of its targeted range, valuing the company at $7.3B, and raised $908.2M in the offering (Samantha Subin/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/17/netskope-seeks-7point3-billion-valuation-…

Netskope prices IPO at $19, valuing company at $7.3 billion
The IPO market is experiencing a revival after a yearslong drought, with notable debuts from CoreWeave, Circle and Figma.

Ex-Intel engineer Varun Gupta was sentenced to two years' probation and a $34K fine for stealing trade secrets and sharing them with his new employer Microsoft (Maxine Bernstein/Oregonian)
https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2025/0

Former Intel engineer sentenced for stealing trade secrets for Microsoft
Varun Gupta, now 45, apologized to Intel and Microsoft, as well as the government for the time and resources it has spent “because of my bad decision.”

As Ukraine hopes for Tomahawks, what to expect from Zelensky-Trump meeting: https://benborges.xyz/2025/10/16/as-ukraine-hopes-for-tomahawks.html

Filing: Insight Partners says a ransomware attack on its systems between October 2024 and January 2025 affected 12,600 people, including limited partners (Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/17/vc-giant…

VC firm Insight Partners says thousands of staff and limited partners had personal data stolen in a ransomware attack | TechCrunch
The venture capital giant, behind cyber giants Wiz and Databricks, notified current and former employees, as well as the firm's limited partners, that their data was stolen in a January cyberattack.

Ukraine reports gains near Pokrovsk and Dobropillya as Azov says six villages retaken: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/17/ukraine-reports-gains-near-pokrovsk.html

Klarna, which is planning a potential NY IPO as soon as September, is focusing on its banking push to boost revenue while shedding its image as a BNPL phenom (Aisha S Gani/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-11/klarna-r…

Klarna Revives Its IPO, But This Time as a Bank
As the payments giant prepares an IPO, it’s trying to persuade millions of consumers to use its debit cards.

Zelensky ally appoints himself as Odesa's acting mayor: https://benborges.xyz/2025/10/16/zelensky-ally-appoints-himself-as.html