The unimportant news thread

[Todd]

From Reuters: Tesla offers mammoth $1 trillion pay package to Musk, sets lofty targets

Looks like Elon will be OK.  Whew!

[Todd]

From MLB: Ohtani twirls 5 no-hit innings -- then hits 50th homer

Ohtani continues to deliver the goods.

[Todd]

From NBC: Nvidia to invest $5B in Intel and develop chips with onetime rival

For locals, the headline should read "Aloha to buy Hillsboro".

[Todd]

Tackling TP-ing: Iowa cities and schools working to keep homecoming safe

News sure to displease Beavis.

[Todd]

From The Irish Times: AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and ethnic minorities

The kinks will be worked out.  Or not.

[drogulus]

     Today is the Rupture. The world is ending again, and the Fed is behind the curve.

[Spotted Horses]

Today is the Rupture. The world is ending again, and the Fed is behind the curve.

Does the rupture come before or after the rapture?

[drogulus]

Does the rupture come before or after the rapture?

     I think so. Then it will be stagflation for eternity.

[Kalevala]

Does the rupture come before or after the rapture?

I too was wondering about that.  Does the rupture include the San Andreas Fault or just a flat tire and one is left stranded out in the middle of nowhere until Part B?

K

[drogulus]

     

I too was wondering about that.  Does the rupture include the San Andreas Fault or just a flat tire and one is left stranded out in the middle of nowhere until Part B?

K

     It's kind of like the world has a hernia. Then the Cenobites pop out and lower interest rates.

[Todd]

From Billboard: An AI Artist Signed A Multimillion Dollar Record Deal. What Does That Mean?

I all fairness, Xania Monet is no worse than Billie Eilish.

[Todd]

From the WSJ (originally): Jeff Bezos' dad hires a CEO to manage his multibillion-dollar fortune

I didn't get the job.  😢

[Mister Sharpe]

Vegan burgers are losing the US culture war over meat.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/sep/12/vegan-burgers-meat-vegetarian

Thank you for posting that, Dry, depressing as it is.  As a longtime vegetarian and someone who cares about animals and public health, it is beyond distressing.  Further evidence, if you ask me (and no one did) of our socio-pathological narcissism. It certainly does not help (unmentioned in the article) that Vegan products are waaaay overpriced. If meat alternative companies truly want to compete (which they often do in the taste and nutrition departments), they could do so by undercutting the price of meat.  Unfortunately, short-sighted greed reigns in the land of meat alternatives as it does everywhere else.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Amazon to pay $2.5bn to settle FTC lawsuit over Prime 'subscription traps'.


https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/25/amazon-prime-ftc-settlement

[Todd]

From Reuters: Nicolas Sarkozy's downfall: From presidential palace to French prison cell

[hopefullytrusting]

Magnus Nilsson makes porridge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTSDxhZnhYc

This might be the most expensive porridge ever - taking into consideration how high the production values are.

[Kalevala]

Vegan burgers are losing the US culture war over meat.



https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/sep/12/vegan-burgers-meat-vegetarian

I haven't tried any products like Beyond, etc. (and this has nothing to do with Pres. T being in office, etc.).  I've heard about products like theirs and others and felt uncomfortable with how they were created/made.  Going back years ago, I used to make a recipe from Moosewood Cookbook for a burger that (if I'm remembering correctly) contained things like lentils and walnuts (They also freeze well).  I enjoyed those--though they do have a tendency to fall apart easier than ones that you can find in the freezer section these days.  I've been tempted to revisit the recipe.  Tried Dr. Praeger's --the one that I had...well, to me it tasted like cardboard.  I do have a different variety of it which I should give it a go. 

There are a fair number of vegetarians, vegans and pescatarians in my neck of the woods.  I do love my veggies and have been cutting back on meat, so it doesn't sound like I fit in with the article's demographics.

In any event, not all hope is lost! 

K

[Todd]

From AI News: AI and Sustainability: Transforming Climate Action

From USA Today: The hidden environmental cost of generative AI and its toll on climate

It's still common to see catastrophists claim that AI represents some type of existential threat to humanity - presumably AI will morph into Skynet or a double WOPR with cheese, or some such - but here's a thought experiment: what if AI determines that AI represents an existential threat to not only ambulatory meatbags known as humans, but also to AI?  AI needs gobs o' energy, but as always, resources are limited, and exponential growth of AI would lead to a depletion of resources needed to power AI.  Would AI slow its own "growth"? 

Of course, there are people who see the technology as grossly oversold in terms of capability and see the current mania as a classic bubble driven partly by nearly two decades of expansionary monetary policy in all advanced economies and partly by good old fashioned Barnumism by leading executives and investors in the space.  Such folks are wrong, of course, and AI will be more socially transformative than the widespread adoption of modern water treatment.

[drogulus]

    A skull was found in China that shows that a sister species to Homo Sapiens may have emerged a million years ago. It's called Homo Longi and it's closely related to Neanderthals and modern humans.

[Todd]

From the WSJ via MSN: Debt Is Fueling the Next Wave of the AI Boom