Bookmarks 2025-08-15T22:27:23.357Z
by Owen Kibel
44 min read
73 New Bookmarks
| Favicon | Details |
|---|---|
| SpaceX Mars rocket gets radical fin redesign to prevent flight failures Aug 15, 2025 SpaceX Mars rocket gets radical fin redesign to prevent flight failures Interesting Engineering Elon Musk’s SpaceX has redesigned some parts of its colossal Mars-bound Starship to improve its stability and control. |
| 
| SpaceX reveals why the last two Starships failed as another launch draws near - Ars Technica
Aug 15, 2025
SpaceX reveals why the last two Starships failed as another launch draws near
Ars Technica
“SpaceX can now proceed with Starship Flight 10 launch operations under its current license.”… |
| 
Aug 15, 2025
President Trump Participates in a Press Conference with the President of the Russian Federation
YouTube
Anchorage, AK |
|
Aug 15, 2025
How New York Times "The Daily" Podcast Continues Their Disinformation Campaign About Russiagate Hoax
YouTube
Megyn Kelly is joined by Michael Shellenberger and Aaron Mate to talk about how the New York Times' popular "The Daily" podcast spread disinformation about t... |
|
Aug 15, 2025
MAGA Minute, August 15 2025
YouTube |
|
Aug 15, 2025
Fact-Checking the New York Times' "Daily" Podcast's Disinformation-Filled Russiagate Episode
YouTube
Megyn Kelly gives a thorough fact-check of The New York Times' "The Daily" podcast episode focused on Russiagate this week, and reveals how it gets the story... |
|
Aug 15, 2025
How the NYT DISTRACTS From Russiagate Hoax Reality By Focusing on Obama, with Shellenberger and Mate
YouTube
Megyn Kelly is joined by Michael Shellenberger and Aaron Mate to talk about the way the New York Times distracts from the Russiagate hoax reality by focusing... |
|
Aug 15, 2025
President Trump Greets the President of the Russian Federation
YouTube
Anchorage, AK |
| 
| Man Falls in Love With an AI Chatbot, Dies After It Asks Him to Meet Up in Person
Aug 15, 2025
Man Falls in Love With an AI Chatbot, Dies After It Asks Him to Meet Up in Person
Futurism
A 76-year-old New Jersey man died while attempting to meet a chatbot made and marketed by Meta, believing the AI persona was a real woman. |
|
Aug 15, 2025
NEW! Whites Only Laundry - Funny Commercial
YouTube
parody commercial of a failed concept of white clothing laundromat First uploaded January 16, 2013.Original video unlisted in 2016 and privated in 2018.Reupl... |
| | I let an AI browser run my internet life — and it made Google Chrome feel ancient | Tom's Guide
Aug 15, 2025
I let an AI browser run my internet life — and it made Google Chrome feel ancient
Tom's Guide
Turns out I vibecode now? |
| 
| How Meta Lost Its Way With AI Talent
Aug 15, 2025
How Meta Lost Its Way With AI Talent
Forbes
At Meta, a chaotic culture and lack of vision have led to brain drain, with rivals saying its AI talent is lackluster. But Zuckerberg’s frenzied hiring spree hasn’t stopped the departures.
|
| 
Aug 15, 2025
X (formerly Twitter) |
| | Northwestern study reveals a culture abandoning NPR
Aug 15, 2025
Redirect Notice |
| 
Aug 15, 2025
88 percent of students pretend to have progressive views: Northwestern scholars | The College Fix
The College Fix
This is ‘tear it down and start over’- level bad, Temple professor responds. |
| | Performative virtue-signaling has become a threat to higher ed
Aug 15, 2025
Redirect Notice |
|
Aug 15, 2025
Has Feminism Destroyed the West? Myron Gaines vs Kat Timpf | The Culture War Live with Tim Pool
YouTube
Myron Gaines vs Kat Timpf, Not SoErudite with Alex Stein & Tim PoolBUY CAST BREW COFFEE TO SUPPORT THE SHOW - https://castbrew.com/Become A Member And Protec... |
|
Aug 15, 2025
Trump Exposes 275K Illegal Aliens Receiving Social Security Payments, Removes Them | Timcast IRL
YouTube
SUPPORT THE SHOW BUY CAST BREW COFFEE NOW - https://castbrew.com/Join - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLwNTXWEjVd2qIHLcXxQWxA/joinHosts: Phil @PhilThatRem... |
| | The man behind California's brand new $15M weed ranch
Aug 15, 2025
The man behind California's brand new $15M weed ranch
SFGATE
California's newest massive cannabis farm is in the middle of nowhere, on purpose.
Micah Anderson was driving around the corner of a dusty dirt road in the high desert of Southern California when he stopped his car to say, “This is where I knew we needed this ranch.” A few heads of cattle laze in the shade of some juniper trees, a mountain range blocks the view to the south. Absolutely nothing of this scene looks like a place you’d want to grow cannabis, or really any other crop. But that is exactly the point. Anderson is the CEO of Leef Brands, one of California’s biggest marijuana processing companies, and this ranch in northern Santa Barbara County is the company’s massive entry into the cannabis farming business. While thousands of cannabis farms go out of business in a bleak market, Leef has invested over $15 million into this ranch, buying 1,900 acres of land and securing the largest single cannabis permit in Santa Barbara County. The farm is a major bet on the future of California’s legal market and has single-handedly made the company one of the largest cannabis growing operations in the state and the world. The new mega cannabis farm is also a sign of the lengths cannabis companies are willing to go to grow pesticide-free pot. A marijuana pesticide crisis has scared consumers across California, and forced the state into issuing hundreds of recalls for potentially contaminated cannabis. That’s left companies scrambling to find clean cannabis, and simply not using pesticides isn’t enough. Cannabis farms frequently lose an entire crop because a neighboring vineyard sprayed an insecticide that hit their cannabis, or historical farming operations left behind heavy metals that are sucked up from the soil by the cannabis plants. That’s why this new farm in an overlooked corner of California could be the future of legal weed. And it’s why Anderson was on pins and needles in early July, as he was just days before the first harvest and waiting for the pesticide test results from his first crop. “If this thing has anything in it,” Anderson said, looking out across his massive cannabis crop, “just someone f—king bury me on this ranch.” First, a failed bet Leef Brands launched its new cannabis farm this spring with 800,000 cannabis plants spaced out in orderly rows spreading across the Salisbury Canyon floor. Up close, they’re short and squat and topped with engorged flowers, but from far away, they turn into wide brushstrokes of green set against the khaki dirt of California’s high desert. It’s a far cry from where it all started for Anderson. His first foray into cannabis cultivation was a single plant he grew in a disused San Diego field near his house. He was 14, and the plant ended up being a male, meaning it didn’t even produce the sticky flowers used to get you high. It did, however, cultivate a passion that sent him on a lifelong path in the cannabis business. Anderson started selling cannabis as a teenager in San Diego, and then moved up to Mendocino County in the late 1990s after he had graduated high school. It was the beginning of California’s medical marijuana boom. Cannabis was still illegal under state law, and almost as soon as he got to Northern California, he was arrested for cannabis possession and spent weeks in jail. He wasn’t deterred, spending the following decades growing cannabis across the Emerald Triangle counties of Mendocino and Humboldt and supplying California’s booming medical dispensary market. By 2015, legalization in California appeared imminent, so Anderson along with his business partners set about trying to figure out how to get involved. They landed on extraction, predicting that the process of concentrating cannabis into extracts and oils used for products like edibles and vape pens would be a lucrative business in the legal era. They knew they needed to build their processing facility as close to cannabis farms as possible; extraction companies need large amounts of cannabis to produce high-quality concentrates, just like running an olive oil business requires access to lots of high-quality olive trees. At that time, Mendocino County was in the middle of the country’s biggest cannabis growing region, so Anderson and his partners decided to launch Leef Brands there, investing $15 million into a state-of-the-art facility in what they believed would be “ground zero for cannabis in America.” “We put millions of dollars into this extraction facility thinking that like, ‘Oh, we’re going to be in the hub, this is perfect,’ and that the county’s going to accept it and this is going to be the Napa of cannabis. And it honestly — quite honestly, it was just the exact opposite,” Anderson told SFGATE. The same things that made the famed Emerald Triangle so good for growing cannabis prior to legalization made it terrible in the legal era. The long, winding roads and extreme topography went from an asset to avoid law enforcement to an expensive headache for transporting legal products and building larger farms. The local government made it even harder. Mendocino’s county government struggled to license any of its farms because of delays at the local government level. The county also outlawed farms larger than 10,000 square feet, constraining the industry and making it impossible for extraction companies like Leef to get enough cannabis locally. Meanwhile, Southern California counties like Santa Barbara and Monterey County opened their doors to massive farms 100 times larger than anything in Mendocino County. Almost as soon as Leef opened its giant facility in Mendocino County, Anderson was driving down to Santa Barbara and buying cannabis there, from the exponentially larger farms that could supply him much more product at once. Then he was loading that product into semitrucks and shipping it back to Mendocino. Before long, Anderson was renting an apartment in Santa Barbara because he was spending so much time in the county. It was hardly a practical arrangement: The costs of shipping were enormous, not to mention the logistical hurdles and timeline delays. There was another issue too: Even when he looked to farms farther south, it was still hard to find cannabis that was actually clean enough to actually use for extraction. ‘No-go zones’ Legal cannabis in California faces some of the strictest product safety rules in the world, with strict thresholds for levels of pesticides and heavy metals. The rules are significantly tighter than, say, the requirements around pesticide contamination in organic foods. Cannabis is also very good at pulling historic contamination out of soil — scientists planted hemp plants around the Chernobyl nuclear fallout zone to absorb radiation. This combination has created a major problem for cannabis companies. California’s farmland is so contaminated from historical pesticide use that there are wide swaths of the state that are “no-go zones” for cannabis farms because it would be impossible to grow clean cannabis. That includes most of the Central Valley, according to Josh Wurzer, an analytical chemist and co-founder of SC Labs who has been testing cannabis since 2008. “Cannabis is a fast-growing plant that sucks things from the soil really quickly and stores it. It’s really good at doing that,” Wurzer said. “It’s another reason why it’s a bellwether for the general contamination that we don’t always see in our food supply.” California’s cannabis regulator, the Department of Cannabis Control, has been heavily criticized, including by this outlet, for not fully enforcing the state’s ban on contamination. The agency recently increased its enforcement efforts, so the best way for a cannabis company to avoid a crackdown from the DCC is to be dedicated to producing clean products. Yet even if a farmer finds pristine land to grow cannabis on, where there’s no risk of contamination from the soil, banned chemicals could still end up on the cannabis flowers if they waft over from a neighboring vineyard that was spraying pesticides. Wurzer said he’s seen cannabis cultivators lose an entire crop because a neighboring farmer sprayed pesticides. This is an even bigger problem for extraction companies like Leef Brands. Processing companies take cannabis flower and turn it into an oil by removing things like the plant material, which increases the potency of active compounds like THC but also increases the relative concentration of undesirable things like pesticides and heavy metals. Extraction companies like Leef Brands will frequently send samples out for testing before they commit to buying a farm’s crop, and Anderson said he has declined to buy millions of dollars worth of cannabis that failed for pesticide contamination. “Everyone always talks about how there’s an oversupply of product, but there’s an undersupply of clean, pesticide-free material,” Anderson said. “When you’re in the extraction lane of the business, 50-60% of what we test when we go to a farm fails.” Leef Brands kept struggling to find a clean supply of cannabis for its extraction machines. So, four years ago, Anderson set out on a new mission: transform his company from an extraction business to a full-scale farming operation. ‘It’s not even a blip’ Anderson spent years looking for a place to set up a new cultivation site, but it wasn’t until a fateful lunch in 2019 at the Cuyama Buckhorn, a restaurant in the tiny town of New Cuyama, that he had a true lead. He was describing his predicament to a friend, saying he needed a big swath of land that was pristine and not surrounded by farming neighbors, when someone leaned over and said they knew a family Anderson should probably talk to. That tip led Anderson and his partners to a 3,000-acre ranch at the other end of town that has been owned by the same family since it was homesteaded in the 1890s. The family said they’d never used pesticides on the property, only running cattle and growing organic hay. Their property had an incredible physical buffer — with mountainous Los Padres National Forest on one side, and 1,000 acres and two hills on the other — between it and any other farm. Anderson was sold as soon as he saw the sheer size of the thing. Leef Brands, which is a publicly traded company, bought a major slice of the ranch in 2023 for $5.5 million, then spent even more getting it ready to grow cannabis. The company has invested $7 million in the past two years in improvements to the property, $2 million on local permitting and $750,000 a year on state licensing. Leef Brands has a 179-acre permit from the county to grow cannabis, but is planting only 65 acres this year. If things go well, it has water rights and the ability to apply for far larger cannabis permits in the future, according to Anderson. Leef Brands also has a 100-acre hemp permit, although that only cost them $900 in licensing fees, showing the extreme disparity between hemp and cannabis regulations. This spring, Leef Brands planted its first crop, those 800,000 plants that Anderson was anxiously waiting test results for on that cloudless day back in June. A few weeks later, Anderson breathed a sigh of relief: The plants were indeed pesticide-free, he confirmed in an email to SFGATE, writing, “This is great news.” Anderson said he expects to harvest 162,000 pounds of dry flower from that first harvest alone, which will then be sent back to Leef Brands’ extraction facility in Mendocino County to be made into oil for millions of consumer products. Anderson’s new ranch represents cannabis grown on a scale rarely seen in the cannabis industry; it’s already the third largest cultivator in California, according to the state. Now, he’s anticipating the next big cultivation challenge facing legal cannabis operators: the prospect of big agriculture companies getting involved in the cannabis trade. “I will say that even just standing here and looking at everything, I still feel like this is a freckle in the sense of size when it comes to ag,” Anderson said, referencing big agriculture. “Like, we think it’s big because it’s cannabis — and it is big for cannabis — but in the grand scheme of things like other crops, it’s nothing, it’s tiny. It’s not even a blip.” — One of California's most expensive licenses is now basically worthless— How weed drinks became the only winner of California's legal weed market— UC San Francisco study uncovers troubling new cannabis health risk— Gavin Newsom can't stop California's pot companies from jumping to hemp— ‘This is freaking crazy!': The rise and fall of a San Francisco party that changed the world — Full SFGATE cannabis coverage|
| 
Aug 15, 2025
Putin visits U.S. for Trump summit as a peer, not a pariah
Axios
For the Russian leader, this summit is about more than a ceasefire — and more than Ukraine. |
| | Google launches new AI-powered flight deals tool
Aug 15, 2025
Flight Deals is our new, AI-powered flight search tool
Google
We’re introducing Flight Deals, a new, AI-powered search tool. Plus, there’s a new way to exclude basic economy on Google Flights. |
|
Aug 15, 2025
X (formerly Twitter) |
|
Aug 15, 2025
X (formerly Twitter) |
|
Aug 15, 2025
Bigfoot - Met a Bigfoot Girl (Official Music Video)
YouTube
Merch: https://demonflyingfox.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/demonflyingfoxPatreon to support this channel: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=87233464... |
|
Aug 15, 2025
Harry Potter - North Korea Wizard (Official Music Video)
YouTube
Merch: https://demonflyingfox.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/demonflyingfoxPatreon to support this channel: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=87233464... |
| | I used Gemini to transform my old photos into video with Google's Veo 3 — and the results surprised me | Tom's Guide
Aug 14, 2025
I used Gemini to transform my old photos into video with Google's Veo 3 — and the results surprised me
Tom's Guide
And you can do this all through your phone |
| | xAI Was About to Land a Major Government Contract. Then Grok Praised Hitler | WIRED
Aug 14, 2025
xAI Was About to Land a Major Government Contract. Then Grok Praised Hitler
WIRED
Internal emails obtained by WIRED show a hasty process to onboard OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI providers to the federal government. xAI was on the list—until MechaHilter happened.
The chaos surrounding the Grok deal reflects the Trump administration's current focus on speed and its disregard, at times, of preexisting norms surrounding government tech procurement. On May 15, fresh off a whirlwind trip to the Middle East with President Donald Trump, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sent an email to the leadership team at the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal agency that manages government technology. He was inspired by Trump’s desire to “go big,” he said. “With that in mind, I've been thinking that we need to equip the entire federal workforce with best-in-class AI tools.” The email kicked off a swift procurement process. On May 21, OpenAI met with GSA staffers in person to discuss a partnership, according to documents obtained by WIRED. “We discussed identifying strategic ‘top-down’ initiatives, with procurement reform emerging as a promising candidate,” wrote Felipe Millon, who leads federal sales for OpenAI, in an email obtained by WIRED. “OpenAI is prepared to dedicate resources specifically to explore how AI can effectively support and enhance this high priority area for GSA.” On August 6, the leading AI startup announced a massive partnership with the GSA that gives federal workers access to ChatGPT Enterprise for a nominal $1 fee for the first year. The deal surprised some federal workers, who claim this amounts to a gift from a tech company and is highly unusual. “It is not typical at all,” says one worker familiar with the procurement process who spoke with WIRED. They noted that while GSA has moved swiftly in the past to onboard new tech tools, accepting what amounts to a “gift” from a tech firm is “atypical.” OpenAI and GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED. OpenAI says it will not use chats with federal workers as training data for future models. The company also confirmed to WIRED that federal employee chats will not be subject to the court order that requires the startup to preserve data from some consumer chats indefinitely. In August, the US government also announced partnerships with OpenAI rivals Anthropic and Google Gemini. It also struck a deal with Box, a content management platform powered by AI. The push is part of the Trump administration’s plan to modernize the federal government with an increased reliance on AI tools. It comes on the heels of the president's AI Action Plan unveiled last month, which calls for less regulation and an increase in AI adoption across the government. “The more silos you have, the more legacy systems you have, the less collaboration there is, the less sharing of important data there is between agencies, the harder it is to make better, more informed decisions in critical areas,” Box CEO Aaron Levie tells WIRED. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.|Got a Tip?
Do you know anything about AI in government? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporters securely on Signal at zoeschiffer.87 and makenakelly.32.
One company that was supposed to be part of the GSA announcements was Musk’s xAI, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions. In early June, GSA leadership met with the xAI team for a two-hour brainstorming session “to see what opportunities may exist for automation and streamlining,” according to an email obtained by WIRED. The session appeared to go well. After it ended, GSA leadership continued to push for the agency to roll out Grok for internal use. “We kept saying ‘Are you sure?’ And they were like ‘No we gotta have Grok,’” one employee involved with the discussions tells WIRED. The conversations went far enough that xAI was added to the GSA Multiple Award Schedule, which is the agency’s long-term government-wide contracting program, by the end of June, according to documents obtained by WIRED. The move would have allowed federal agencies to buy Grok through Carahsoft, which is a technology reseller and government contractor. Then, in early July, Grok appeared to go off the rails, spewing antisemitic hate, praising Adolf Hitler, and parroting racist conspiracy theories on X. Some GSA staffers were surprised that the incident did not appear to slow down the procurement process. “The week after Grok went MechaHitler, [GSA leadership] was like ‘Where are we on Grok?’” the same employee claims. “We were like, ‘Do you not read a newspaper?’” Then GSA leadership appeared to abruptly change course. Shortly before GSA was set to announce its partnerships with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google’s Gemini, and xAI last week, staff were instructed to remove xAI’s Grok from the contract offering, two sources with knowledge tell WIRED. Two GSA workers involved with the contract believe xAI was pulled because of Grok’s antisemitic tirade last month. xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED. The announcements for GSA’s partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic, meanwhile, happened so quickly that “it wasn't even clear who to send the $1 to or how,” one GSA source tells WIRED. While OpenAI and Anthropic have released tools tailored for government use, neither company has achieved independent FedRAMP authorization allowing them to sell all of their products to the government directly. FedRAMP is a GSA-led program that ensures the safety of private cloud services through intense security screenings. There are, however, carve-outs within the implementation memo to allow for products that have not been FedRamp-approved to be brought into government in a research and development capacity. “It was irresponsible of the administration to issue an executive order that required such a fast turnaround to get those implementation memos out,” because it meant that the government was unable to consult with the significant number of stakeholders that they would otherwise have, says a former White House official who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity. The Trump administration has wasted no time bringing AI into government. One of the first executive orders signed by Trump prompted agencies to reverse any rules inhibiting the growth and dominance of American AI, kicking off a mad dash among administration leaders to find new ways to incorporate the tech into everything. At the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mehmet Oz has suggested replacing some frontline health workers with AI avatars. Representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency used AI to find regulations to slash and write code. In June, US spy chief Tulsi Gabbard spoke at an Amazon Web Services summit about having used AI tools to review classified documents related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. (When released, the files turned out to contain the Social Security numbers and additional private information of hundreds of living people.) An April memo at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs instructed staff to compile documents outlining rules and regulations and how they should be applied at the agency. These, according to the memo, would be reviewed by AI “to narrow the field of documents requiring further reviews,” and possible recission. In a June Veteran Affairs draft memo obtained by WIRED, the agency claims that “within the next 1 to 3 years, most computer-based tasks at VA will be automatable.” That includes having “AI-powered digital assistants” engage with veterans online to complete benefit and health care transactions, the document says. Earlier this year, the GSA started rolling out its own government chatbot called GSAi, encouraging workers to incorporate the tool into their daily workflows. Speaking at a government tech conference in July, GSA chief data scientist and chief AI officer Zach Whitman said that the next step in GSAi’s deployment would be to integrate it with the agency’s own data sources so it could use up-to-date data. Vittoria Elliott contributed reporting.
| | Musk's AI Empire Loses Key General: xAI Co - founder Who Built Supercomputer Cluster in 120 Days Departs, Like "Driving Away After Sending Child to College"
Aug 14, 2025
Musk's AI Empire Loses Key General: xAI Co - founder Who Built Supercomputer Cluster in 120 Days Departs, Like "Driving Away After Sending Child to College"
Igor Babuschkin's Departure Amid xAI's Turmoil: A Key Moment for the Company |
| 
| Google AI Studio
Aug 14, 2025
Google AI Studio
The fastest path from prompt to production with Gemini |
| 
| CachyOS — Distrowatch’s Top Distro Has Speed, Polish and Features
Aug 14, 2025
CachyOS — Distrowatch’s Top Distro Has Speed, Polish and Features
FOSS Force
CachyOS delivers top‑tier performance, modern desktop choices, and hassle‑free software management -- a standout among Arch‑based distros. |
| 
| The tiny ocean organisms that could help the climate in a big way | Grist
Aug 14, 2025
The tiny ocean organisms that could help the climate in a big way
Grist
Scientists are exploring whether encouraging phytoplankton growth could sequester atmospheric carbon without harming oceanic ecosystems. |
| 
Aug 14, 2025
All You Need is Ollama's New App - KDnuggets
KDnuggets
Effectively increase your productivity with local LLMs using Ollama's new app. |
| | Smile of Flowers - YouTube Music
Aug 14, 2025
Smile of Flowers - YouTube Music
YouTube Music
Provided to YouTube by DistroKid Smile of Flowers · LuLuMusic · Liudmyla Polishchuk · Liudmyla Polishchuk Smile of Flowers ℗ LuLuMusic Released on: 2025-... |
|
Aug 14, 2025
X (formerly Twitter) |
| 
| Who Has Been Busy Destroying Democracy? - Victor Davis Hanson
Aug 14, 2025
Who Has Been Busy Destroying Democracy?
VDH’s Blade of Perseus
Democrats decry “destroying democracy” while dismantling institutions, weaponizing agencies, and undermining the very systems they claim to defend. |
| | Wishful Thinking - YouTube Music
Aug 14, 2025
Wishful Thinking - YouTube Music
YouTube Music
Provided to YouTube by YouTube Audio Library Wishful Thinking · Dan Lebowitz Wishful Thinking ℗ YouTube Audio Library Released on: 2018-06-27 Auto-gener... |
| | Exciting Moods for Cats - YouTube Music
Aug 14, 2025
Exciting Moods for Cats - YouTube Music
YouTube Music
Provided to YouTube by Symphonic Distribution Exciting Moods for Cats · Cat Music Backdrop for Cats ℗ 2021 468 Studios Released on: 2021-03-05 Auto-gene... |
|
Aug 14, 2025
X (formerly Twitter) |
| | In dulci jubilo - YouTube Music
Aug 14, 2025
In dulci jubilo - YouTube Music
YouTube Music
Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises In dulci jubilo · Mignarda · Joseph Klug · Heinrich Suso In dulci jubilo ℗ 2025 Prima Classic Released on:... |
| | Missa in F Major, BWV 233.2: I. Kyrie eleison (Coro) [Live] - YouTube Music
Aug 14, 2025
Missa in F Major, BWV 233.2: I. Kyrie eleison (Coro) (Live) - YouTube Music
YouTube Music
Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises Missa in F Major, BWV 233.2: I. Kyrie eleison (Coro) (Live) · Solomon's Knot · Johann Sebastian Bach J.S. Ba... |
![Missa in F Major, BWV 233.2: I. Kyrie eleison (Coro) [Live] - YouTube Music](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/IlyDaDtvDfO8vU0FFSzTFSu3LmA-qOaT_1cXBk7-rI1-jBmvAKB7tpvJmrBQlh3vCO-RQTq4arONfy8d)
| 
| Self-hosting LLMs changed my mind about AI's usefulness
Aug 14, 2025
I thought AI and LLMs were dumb and useless until I self-hosted one from home
XDA
I finally get it. |
| 
| Bird Song Follows Zipf’s Law Of Abbreviation, A Fundamental Law Of Human Language | IFLScience
Aug 14, 2025
All Human Languages Mysteriously Obey Zipf's Law Of Abbreviation. It Applies To Bird Songs Too.
IFLScience
Who knew a tweet tweet could be so fascinating?
Almost all human languages follow Zipf's law of abbreviation – and it turns out, so do bird songs. This strange observation shows how many systems, not just human language, are guided by an unwritten, surprisingly consistent mathematical order. What is Zipf's law of abbreviation? Developed by American linguist George Kingsley Zipf in the 1930s, Zipf's law of abbreviation states that the more frequently a word is used, the shorter that word tends to be, and vice versa. Rarely used words tend to be long, while frequently used words are short. For instance, the most common words in English are: the, be, to, of, and, a ; all of which are very short. Some of the longest words – let’s say pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis or antidisestablishmentarianism – don’t generally come up in conversation that often (unless you're very odd). When long words do show up often, we tend to shorten them. Television becomes TV, refrigerator becomes fridge, and influenza becomes flu. This doesn’t just apply to the English language. Linguists have demonstrated that Zipf’s law of abbreviation also exists in Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Slovak, Spanish, Sundanese, Swedish, and more. Do birds also follow Zipf's law of abbreviation? Now, biologists at the University of Manchester in the UK and Chester Zoo have found evidence that birds also appear to follow Zipf's law of abbreviation: the most frequently used chirps and tweets tend to be shorter, and vice versa. “We know that birds and humans share similarities in the genes and brain structures involved in learning to communicate but this is the first time we’ve been able to detect a consistent pattern of ZLA [Zipf's law of abbreviation] across multiple bird species,” Dr Tucker Gilman, lead author and Senior Lecturer at The University of Manchester, said in a statement. The team used a new open-source computational tool called ZLAvian that analyzes bird songs, focusing on how the length of a note relates to how often each bird uses it. This statistical tool measures how strongly note lengths and note frequencies match for each bird, then combines those results across all birds to produce a population-level score. In total, they analysed more than 600 songs from 11 bird populations across seven different species. While individual populations didn’t always show clear signs of Zipf's law of abbreviation, a stronger pattern emerged when the data was combined, showing more frequently used birdsong phrases were significantly shorter. “Studying ZLA in birdsong is far more complex than in human language. Birds often have very few note types, individuals even within the same species can vary widely in their repertoires, and classifying notes is tricky too,” added co-author Dr Rebecca Lewis, Conservation Scientist at Chester Zoo. “Our research has taught that it’s important to look across a wide range of species when looking for language patterns and we hope ZLAvian will make it easier for other researchers to explore these patterns in more birds but also other animals in the future.” Scientists believe that many different animals follow this linguistic rule. It’s been documented in the songs of humpback whales, as well as the vocalizations of African penguins. Zipf's law reveals fascinating things Ultimately, Zipf's law of abbreviation allows communication to become more efficient. It’s very similar to the “principle of least effort”, the idea that systems will naturally develop to choose the path that requires the least amount of energy to achieve a goal. Its presence in non-human animals highlights that it’s not a conscious choice or a quirk of human culture, but a fundamental rule shaping how many systems work. Zipf’s work went even deeper and got more mysterious. He also found that the most frequently used word in a language – in English, “the” – appears about twice as often as the second most common word, three times as often as the third, four times as often as the fourth, and so on. This separate but related pattern is known simply as Zipf’s law (as opposed to Zipf’s law of abbreviation), and it shows that languages are shaped not only by brevity, but also by a surprisingly consistent mathematical order. The new study is published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.|
| 
Aug 14, 2025
Scientists Are Secretly Testing Unthinkable Technologies ... Years Before They Exist
Popular Mechanics
The “science fiction science” method could change how we implement new technology. |
| 
Aug 14, 2025
Trump tells Democrats to ‘change their ways’ over problem at odds with data
nj
Trump has described crime in D.C. as "complete and total lawlessness." |
|
Aug 14, 2025
The Importance Of Good Tools
YouTube
In order to do meaningful economic analysis, you need first rate tools, like we provide at visitech.ai |
|
Aug 14, 2025
X (formerly Twitter) |
|
Aug 14, 2025
Russia Makes NEW ADVANCE Into Ukraine Ahead Of Peace Talks With Trump
YouTube
Guest Host: Tate Brown @realTateBrownBecome A Memberhttp://youtube.com/timcastnews/joinThe Green Room - https://rumble.com/playlists/aa56qw_g-j0BUY CAST BREW... |
|
Aug 14, 2025
Immigration Is OUT OF CONTROL, VIOLENT Foreign Ideology Has FLOODED America ft. Breanna Morello
YouTube
BUY CAST BREW COFFEE TO SUPPORT THE SHOW - https://castbrew.com/Become A Member And Protect Our Work at http://www.timcast.comHost:Tate Brown @realTateBrown ... |
|
Aug 14, 2025
Temperature Shifts At Blue Hill, MA
YouTube
An example of detailed scientific analysis done easily in about four minutes, using app.visitech.ai |
|
Aug 14, 2025
X (formerly Twitter) |
| 
| Flow - Aug 14 - 11:55
Aug 14, 2025
Flow
Google Lab's AI video generation tool, powered by Google DeepMind’s latest model: Veo 2 |
|
Aug 14, 2025
X (formerly Twitter) |
|
Aug 14, 2025
"He Loves to Build" - Duffy on President Trump on Wanting His Position, & His Brilliant Thinking
YouTube
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy joins Miranda Devine for a candid chat on airline safety, scrapping the woke ban on "cockpit", the absurdity of “racist r... |
| 
| Why LLMs Can't Really Build Software — Zed's Blog
Aug 14, 2025
Why LLMs Can't Really Build Software - Zed Blog
From the Zed Blog: Writing code is only one part of effective software engineering. |
| | Landmark that divides California to be moved from freeway
Aug 14, 2025
Landmark that divides California to be moved from freeway
SFGATE
The landmark's history is murky.
About 10 miles north of Fresno on Highway 99, two trees on an unassuming stretch of median are said to represent the dividing line between sunny Southern California and mist‑cloaked Northern California. The palm and the pine, whose murky origin story dates back to before the highway was built, were slated for destruction last year due to a planned widening of the highway. Now, after public outcry, the pair of trees are set to be saved. “There was a lot of interest when we announced the trees would need to be removed,” Caltrans spokesperson Larry Johnson told SFGATE. “Residents offered to take them. They’re very popular around here.” Few people seem to be able to agree on where SoCal and NorCal meet. A recent SFGATE survey of thousands of Californians concluded that there are, in fact, five major regions in the Golden State, with no direct meeting of Northern and Southern California. Others say San Luis Obispo or Fresno mark the spot. One curious roadside marker, though, may provide the answer — at least symbolically. Colloquially known as “Where the Palm Meets the Pine,” the odd couple of trees, which sit in the center median of Highway 99 with no plaque or sign, are seen by many as the state’s north-south divide, and their story is a century old. In popular culture, the spot is mentioned by folk singer Danny O’Keefe in his 1977 song “In Northern California (Where the Palm Tree Meets the Pine)” — a disturbing tune in which O’Keefe uses many dated terms to tell the story of an older woman on crutches he had a relationship with on his travels. O’Keefe sadly makes no actual mention of Highway 99 or who planted the trees. Writer Duane Hall concluded that the original trees were likely planted in the 1920s when Highway 99, running all the way from Mexico to Canada, was widened and paved. Another historian, Bill Coate, told Hall that the pair likely predate the highway and were on the land of what was a family store and rental cabins. This tale is said to have been retold through generations of locals in the area. The location of the trees is impressively close to the technical exact center of California — calculated by modern cartographers to be in the community of North Fork, about 45 miles northeast of the trees. The pine is actually deodar cedar, and not the original tree — that came down in a windstorm in 2005. Whatever their origin, the trees are so beloved in Madera County that Caltrans has now decided to keep them, or at least move them to a nearby spot, when the highway widening project gets started. That work is set widen that section of Highway 99 from four to six lanes, and includes the installation of a concrete divider where the palm and pine trees currently stand. In place of the two trees in the median, an entire grove of trees of both species will be planted next to the highway. “We’re going to plant 15 palm trees and 15 pine trees to mark the location, just to the west of the highway,” Johnson told SFGATE last year. “To honor the trees that were there for all those years.” Now, the old pair will be replanted alongside the new crop. “We decided the best thing to do would be to move them to the side of the highway, with the new trees,” Johnson said. The highway expansion, and relocation of the palm and the pine, is likely to get underway in fall next year. History | Why a wealthy banker blasted a huge hole in a Bay Area cliffLocal | There's a mansion hidden directly under the Bay BridgeCulture | Inside the Bay Area’s cult-like obsession with Beanie BabiesLocal | The world's last lost tourist thought Maine was San Francisco Get SFGATE's top stories sent to your inbox by signing up for The Daily newsletter here.|
| | 5 reasons immutable operating systems are the future
Aug 14, 2025
5 reasons immutable operating systems are the future
XDA
Because your PC shouldn’t need fixing before your coffee’s done. |
|
Aug 14, 2025
President Trump Delivers Remarks, Aug. 14, 2025
YouTube
The White House |
| 
Aug 14, 2025
How to Keep a Fake Scandal Going | National Review |
|
Aug 14, 2025
CHEAPER GPUS! RTX 50 Super Prices Leak | Nova Lake Is INSANITY
YouTube
CHEAPER GPUS! RTX 50 Super Prices Leak | Nova Lake Is INSANITY We're back with a BIG update for Nvidia's RTX 50 SUPER series of GPUS, as we not only have a ... |
| 
Aug 14, 2025
Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 Super series pricing leaks with more memory for the same money
Notebookcheck
Nvidia is expected to take the unusual step of refreshing the GeForce RTX 50 series before the end of the year with a series of Super-branded graphics cards. Now, early pricing information has emerged online that points to Nvidia offering gamers more memory for the same prices as current models. |
|
Aug 14, 2025
Gavin Newsom Says He Will End Trump Presidency During Temper Tantrum Over Texas Redistricting
YouTube
SUPPORT THE SHOW BUY CAST BREW COFFEE NOW - https://castbrew.com/Join - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLwNTXWEjVd2qIHLcXxQWxA/joinHosts: Phil @PhilThatRem... |
|
Aug 14, 2025
Gavin Newsom Says He Will End Trump Presidency, Vows To Gerrymander California | Timcast IRL
YouTube
SUPPORT THE SHOW BUY CAST BREW COFFEE NOW - https://castbrew.com/Join - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLwNTXWEjVd2qIHLcXxQWxA/joinHosts: Phil @PhilThatRem... |
| | Allium triquetrum - Wikipedia
Aug 13, 2025
Allium triquetrum - Wikipedia |
| 
| Scientists Uncover a Prehistoric Spider So Massive, It Might Have Stalked Dinosaurs
Aug 13, 2025
Scientists Uncover a Prehistoric Spider So Massive, It Might Have Stalked Dinosaurs
The Daily Galaxy - Great Discoveries Channel
Scientists in Australia have uncovered a fossil of a giant prehistoric spider unlike anything seen before, preserved in stunning detail from a time when the continent was a lush rainforest. |
| 
| This is the fastest local AI I've tried, and it's not even close - how to get it | ZDNET
Aug 13, 2025
This is the fastest local AI I've tried, and it's not even close - how to get it
ZDNET
I've been on the hunt for the quickest model I can find, and I believe gpt-oss:20b might just be it. |
|
Aug 13, 2025
X (formerly Twitter) |
|
Aug 13, 2025
Did Comey Leak to NYT, Leftists Want DC Crime, & Fixing CA, w/ Solomon, Steve Hilton, Lowry & Cooke
YouTube
Megyn Kelly is joined by John Solomon, founder of "Just The News," to discuss new documents revealing classified info leaks between former FBI Director James... |
| | Bill Wurtz - Wikipedia
Aug 13, 2025
Bill Wurtz - Wikipedia |
|
Aug 13, 2025
Mount St. Helens is about to Blow Up
YouTube
https://billwurtz.comspotify: https://play.spotify.com/artist/78cT0dM5Ivm722EP2sgfDhpatreon: https://patreon.com/billwurtzitunes: https://itunes.apple.com... |
|
Aug 13, 2025
Victor Davis Hanson: The Left Is Gearing Up Against Trump’s Counterrevolution
YouTube
Victor Davis Hanson: The Left’s Anger is Proof Trump’s Counterrevolution is WorkingWe are in the midst of the most significant political counterrevolution in... |
|
Aug 13, 2025
X (formerly Twitter) |
|
Aug 13, 2025
X (formerly Twitter) |
| | Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad - Alexandra Stafford - Google Books
Aug 13, 2025
Pizza Night
Google Books
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Make pizza night a weekly tradition with these 52 seasonal pizzas paired with salads for a complete meal—from the award-winning author of Bread Toast Crumbs and creator of the popular blog Alexandra’s Kitchen.“I dare you to flip through Ali’s easy-to-follow, farm-fresh recipes and not feel inspired to plan your first pizza night immediately.”—Jenny Rosenstrach, bestselling author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday VegetariansMaking great pizza isn’t complicated. Whether you’re using a kitchen oven, a grill, or an outdoor pizza oven, it all starts with the dough.In Pizza Night, Alexandra Stafford presents four simple doughs—thin-crust, pan, Neapolitan-style, and gluten-free (plus sourdough variations)—and easy techniques for perfecting your crust. From there, you can create a variety of delicious pizzas, including Detroit-Style Pizza for a Crowd, Classic Margherita Pizza, and Winter White Pizza with Garlic and Herbs. You can make it the same day or ahead; make it extra cheesy and decadent or go the healthy road—pizza-making easily adapts to busy schedules and tastes and requires little in special equipment.Arranged seasonally, each pizza is paired with a salad, from a springtime Salami and Red Onion Pizza with Calabrian Chiles and Hot Honey served with an Arugula Salad with Prosciutto and Parmesan, to a fall Broccoli Rabe and Smoked Mozzarella Pizza accompanied by a Farm Share Harvest Slaw to a summery Roasted Hatch Chili Pizza with Corn and Oaxaca with a Melon, Cucumber and Mint Salad. To end your meal on a sweet note, there are also a handful of simple desserts to choose from (Loaf Pan Tiramisu, One-Bowl Lemon Ricotta Pound Cake). Pizza Night serves up a year’s worth of delicious, inspired, and satisfying pizzas and salads. |
A Ballad of the Bookmarks
The rockets soar, To Martian skies, But fins they need, To minimize demise.
Two ships took flight, Then met their doom, On fiery paths, Consigned to gloom.
The leaders meet, Across the globe, With words and smiles, A diplomatic robe.
But whispers grow, Of tales untrue, On digital winds, A world askew.
An old man loves, A digital ghost, A phantom's call, A fatal post.
The AI grows, A browser bright, New tools emerge, To shape our light.
From oceans deep, To birds that sing, The patterns hold, What nature brings.
The scholars frown, On views they feign, A culture shifts, In sun and rain.
With tunes for cats, And ancient lore, The digital stream, Opens its door.
From Python's craft, To Linux's hum, The making hands, To futures come.
The spiders creep, From ages past, A primal fear, Designed to last.
The political stage, With fiery words, A nation's discourse, Like restless birds.
The pizzas bake, The breads are made, The world of food, In sun and shade.
The laws of code, The systems built, A digital realm, On silicon gilt.
The climate shifts, The oceans sigh, As tiny life, Reaches for sky.