Tootfinder

Roblox plans to require all users to undergo an age estimation process to access chat features, starting January 2026, in an effort to enhance child safety (Jay Peters/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/822718/roblox-age-estimation-verification-chat…

Roblox will require age estimation to chat starting next year
After scrutiny over its ability to protect children on the platform, Roblox is making a big change.

Health insurance prices for next year under the Affordable Care Act
are now available in about a dozen states,
giving Americans their first look at the sharp increases many will pay for coverage
if Congress does not extend subsidies that have made some plans more affordable.
The annual enrollment period for Obamacare is expected to begin Nov. 1,
but the costs for some Americans are becoming publicly available piecemeal through some state marketplaces.
The…

Higher Obamacare Prices Become Public in a Dozen States
Consumers are facing greater costs for their 2026 A.C.A. health coverage as Congress continues to debate whether to extend subsidies that help people afford their premiums.

self esteem issues are the mind-killer. self esteem issues are the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my self esteem issues. I will permit them to pass over me and through me. and when they have gone past I will turn the inner eye to see their path. where the self esteem issues have gone there will be nothing. only I will remain. and hopefully i'll be cute

Extended AND expanded!
Court extends restraining order to shield more feds from shutdown RIFs
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-shutdown/2025/10/court-extends-restraining-order-to-shield-more-feds-from-shutdown-rifs/

Slow Radiolysis of Amino Acids in Mars-Like Permafrost Conditions - Applications to the Search for Extant Life on Mars: #Mars? Check the ice, researchers say: https://www.psu.edu/news/earth-and-mineral-sciences/story/are-there-living-microbes-mars-check-ice-researchers-say - intact biomolecules from dormant microbes degrade far slower in pure water ice than mixed soil samples.

Interesting 👀 https://social.zarchbox.fr/notes/agclhhyre66bnqz3
Extension from @… :

This graph says it all: instead of starting to go down, the *annual increase* of atmospheric CO2 is setting new records. We're making climate change worse at a record rate.
Turning this around should be our top priority, and it's not.
From: https://www.

Met Office: Atmospheric CO2 rise now exceeding IPCC 1.5C pathways - Carbon Brief
The rate at which atmospheric CO2 is increasing is now outpacing the pathways set out...

This is a subtweet...
People who are not anti-capitalist sometimes wonder: "Why is there a monopoly on X life-critical thing?" (E.g., epipens, insulin, web search).
This one is really simple actually: because monopolies are more profitable than competition, and the foundation of capitalism is that capital = power.
Various societies have recognized the necropolitical outcomes of monopolies and have tried to erect barriers to monopoly; we all know that monopolies are bad, death-and-suffering-causing things. But since these societies mostly remain capitalist, they allow these barriers to be eroded by the power of capital (to do otherwise would be to repudiate capitalism because it puts a limit on the power of money). The barriers are ineffective, and the capital = power equation holds, and monopolies result and get to do their killing & maiming thing (remember: even things like social media monopolies that you wouldn't expect to pay for political assassinations like a mining company still profit from inciting genocides). *Sometimes* there are oligopolies instead of monopolies, but instances of really competitive markets are pretty rare for things that are widely sought-after.
The "government will manage the markets to prevent bad outcomes like monopolies" strategy has failed repeatedly, spectacularly, and almost universally. To actually prevent monopolies you need a population that no longer believes that money should equal power, it's that simple. Sadly, it's actually not that simple, since all of the alternatives which equate something else to power, like "the king" or "party loyalty as judged by the supreme leader" have the same problems or worse. The attitude you need to cultivate is "nobody should have power," which is hard because *all* of the power-systems we have constantly propagandize against this attitude in myriad ways. Still, in the future once we've broken free of this age where hierarchy is accepted, people will look back and wonder whether the historical records are even credible given how much needless death and suffering were endured with little resistance.
#anarchy #capitalism

French government always talks about technological sovereignty…
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/12/15/us-tech-firm-palantir-extends-deal-with-french-intelligence-agency_6748523_7.html

Four Republican lawmakers have signed onto
a Democratic-led discharge petition,
which aims to force a vote on a bill to restore tax credits for millions of Americans who receive health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Thot credits are set to expire at the end of this year, unless legislation can be passed to extend them.
Ordinarily, the speaker of the House of Representatives can block legislation from being considered.
But a discharge petition,…

4 House Republicans Join Democrats to Force Vote on ACA Tax Credits Extension
Millions of Americans' health insurance premiums could double if the credits aren't renewed by the end of this year.