Bookmarks 2025-12-17T07:26:17.491Z
by Owen Kibel
26 min read
Bookmarks for 2025-12-17T07:26:17.491Z
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New Theory Casually Upends Space and Time | Universe Theories Added: Dec 16, 2025
New Theory Casually Upends Space and Time
Site: Popular Mechanics
Forget what you thought you knew about the universe.
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Why Consciousness Evolved - Neuroscience News
Added: Dec 16, 2025Why Consciousness Evolved - Neuroscience News
Site: Neuroscience News
New work explores why consciousness evolved and what observing birds can teach us about its biological purpose.
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A new way to prevent gum disease without wiping out good bacteria | ScienceDaily Added: Dec 16, 2025
A new way to prevent gum disease without wiping out good bacteria
Site: ScienceDaily
Scientists are uncovering a surprising way to influence bacteria—not by killing them, but by changing how they communicate. Researchers studying oral bacteria found that disrupting chemical signals used in bacterial “conversations” can shift dental plaque toward healthier, less harmful communities. The discovery could open the door to new treatments that prevent disease by maintaining a balanced microbiome rather than wiping bacteria out entirely.
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How Fast Were Dinosaurs? 120-Million-Year-Old Trackway Reveals Fastest Cretaceous Theropod Ran At 45 Kilometers Per Hour | IFLScience
Added: Dec 16, 2025Did Dinosaurs Get The Zoomies? New Trackway Reveals Fastest Theropod Ever Documented From The Cretaceous
Site: IFLScience
The dinosaur was running fast enough to catch a professional cyclist.
How fast were dinosaurs? If we're talking medium-sized theropods: very. That's according to a new fossil discovery that has become the fastest theropod trackway ever documented from the Cretaceous. By figuring out the size of the dinosaur that left behind the fossil footprints and the distance between each step, scientists were able to determine that it was dashing through the landscape at around 45 kilometers (28 miles) per hour. That’s about the same speed as a professional cyclist. Footsteps fall under an area of palaeontology known as ichnology, which looks at fossilized traces like footprints, swim tracks, and even marks left behind by dinosaur mating rituals. Such fossils can reveal a lot about dinosaur behavior if you know how to read them. A new trackway was recently uncovered in Mongolia in a sedimentary layer from the Lower Cretaceous. That means that whatever left the prints lived around 130 to 120 million years ago. The trackway isn’t a single set of prints, but instead two isolated trackways that have been attributed to a large theropod dinosaur (thought to be Chapus lockleyi ), and an as-of-yet-unidentified medium-sized dinosaur thought to belong to the Eubrontidae. Chapus lockleyi appears to have been moving through at a leisurely walking pace (as we would expect of a big dinosaur), but our Eubrontidae was absolutely gunning it. We can figure out the approximate speed an animal was running at based on its fossilized footprints by first figuring out how big it was and how large its strides were. If you then divide stride length by the animal’s hip height, you get its relative stride length, for which walking scores 2 or lower, trotting scores 2 to 2.9, and running scores 2.9. Our medium-sized dinosaur? It scored 5.25. Distribution map showing the trackway T1 and nearby footprints, (b) Photograph, line drawings, and false-colored depth maps of the first three footprints of T1 (with colors ranging from yellow to brown indicating increasing footprint depth). Image credit: ©Science China Press It's estimated to have been traveling at around 45 kilometers (28 miles) per hour – a running speed that must’ve been approaching its maximum. This is supported by the fact that the trackway is also very straight and has deep toe impressions, while the heels are pretty much absent, indicating a sprint-like gait pattern. “This speed represents the fastest known theropod trackway in the Cretaceous period,” write the study authors. “Biomechanical modeling consistently indicates that large theropod dinosaurs (particularly those weighing over 1,000 kg) typically employ walking or low-speed running gaits, whereas small and mid-sized theropods are capable of achieving greater running speeds.” “The running speed of the mid-sized theropod identified in this study aligns with predictions from existing biomechanical models for dinosaurs of comparable size, thereby providing substantial support for biomechanical research and further enhancing our comprehension of the locomotor capabilities of theropod dinosaurs.” So if any time travelers have plans to go back to the Cretaceous, my advice is to make sure you pack a car. Clearly, a bicycle isn’t going to cut it. The study is published in the journal Science China Earth Sciences.
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AI Industry Insiders Living in Fear of What They're Creating
Added: Dec 16, 2025AI Industry Insiders Living in Fear of What They're Creating
Site: Futurism
Top figures in the AI industry seem deathly paranoid about the apocalyptic risk of AI, but are they grounded in reality?
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The AI doomers feel undeterred Added: Dec 16, 2025
The AI doomers feel undeterred
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The trouble with idioms: How they can leave even fluent English speakers behind Added: Dec 16, 2025
The trouble with idioms: How they can leave even fluent English speakers behind
Site: The Conversation
Idioms are an often invisible barrier to understanding and inclusion for second-language speakers because their meanings rely on shared culture as well as language.
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Candace Owens Audience In Revolt After Erika Kirk Meeting, Claim She Got The Call - YouTube Added: Dec 17, 2025
Candace Owens Audience In Revolt After Erika Kirk Meeting, Claim She Got The Call
Site: YouTube
MyPillow.com/Tim OR mypillow.com Promocode Tim for up to 80% OFF And FREE SHIPPINGSUPPORT THE SHOW BUY CAST BREW COFFEE NOW - https://castbrew.com/Join - htt...
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The Hilariously Easy AI Jailbreak (No Coding Required)
Site: YouTube
the truth about AI safety: why most models can’t detect malicious intent when it’s written as arthow poetic prompts are quietly breaking every AI security fi...
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Tucker Carlson Accused of Being A Clone For Changing Political Opinions, Insane Claim
Site: YouTube
MyPillow.com/Tim OR mypillow.com Promocode Tim for up to 80% OFF And FREE SHIPPINGSUPPORT THE SHOW BUY CAST BREW COFFEE NOW - https://castbrew.com/Join - htt...
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Addie LaMarr - Embrace technology to live your dream life
Added: Dec 17, 2025Addie LaMarr - Embrace technology to live your dream life
Site: Addie LaMarr - Embrace technology to live your dream life
Embrace technology to live your dream life
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MIT FUSION SCIENTIST ASSASSINATED
Site: YouTube
Go to https://BackyardButchers.com/TIM and enter promo code TIM for 30% off — plus a FREE turkey or ham with your purchase.Become A Memberhttp://youtube.com/...
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I Replaced Suno with Ace Studio 2.0 and Got This
Site: YouTube
Replace Suno with Ace Studio 2.0 and get all the functionality of Suno and so much more! https://bit.ly/4do6MtwDiscover the power of Ace Studio 2.0! In this ...
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Why is the Anti-Tail Sunward-Jet of 3I/ATLAS Tightly Collimated? | by Avi Loeb | Dec, 2025 | Medium Added: Dec 17, 2025
Why is the Anti-Tail Sunward-Jet of 3I/ATLAS Tightly Collimated?
Site: Medium
My latest essay on the 14th anomaly of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS (available here) focused on the alignment of its rotation axis with…
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A 14th Anomaly of 3I/ATLAS: Alignment of Its Rotation Axis with the Sunward Direction at Large…
Site: Medium
The new paper (accessible here) reporting the detection of a periodic wobble in the anti-tail jet of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS…
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The Anti-Tail of 3I/ATLAS Wobbled Before Perihelion
Site: Medium
A new paper (accessible here) reports the detection of a periodic wobble in the anti-tail jet of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS with a…
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7 Reasons Windows Subsystem for Linux Works For Me
Added: Dec 17, 20257 Reasons Windows Subsystem for Linux works for me
Site: How-To Geek
You don't always have to choose between Linux and Windows.
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Photographer Defends His Vanity Fair Photos of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt | PetaPixel Added: Dec 17, 2025
Photographer Defends His Vanity Fair Photos of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
Site: PetaPixel
Some have called the photo 'diabolicall.'
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Bernie Sanders Calls for AI Data Center Moratorium / X Added: Dec 17, 2025
Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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The Year in Computer Science | Quanta Magazine
Added: Dec 17, 2025The Year in Computer Science | Quanta Magazine
Site: Quanta Magazine
Explore the year’s most surprising computational revelations, including a new fundamental relationship between time and space, an undergraduate who overthrew a 40-year-old conjecture, and the unexpectedly effortless triggers that can turn AI evil.
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Vought says National Center for Atmospheric Research will be dismantled - POLITICO Added: Dec 17, 2025
Vought says National Center for Atmospheric Research will be dismantled
Site: POLITICO
Loss of the program would mean “public safety is at risk and science is being attacked,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) said in a statement Tuesday.
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Google launches Gemini 3 Flash, makes it the default model in the Gemini app | TechCrunch
Added: Dec 17, 2025Google launches Gemini 3 Flash, makes it the default model in the Gemini app | TechCrunch
Site: TechCrunch
Google is making Gemini 3 Flash the default model in the Gemini app and oAI model for Search
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No AI Slops! GNOME Now Forbids Vibe Coded Extensions
Added: Dec 17, 2025No AI Slops! GNOME Now Forbids Vibe Coded Extensions
Site: It's FOSS
New policy targets low-quality AI-generated code while still allowing AI as a learning tool.
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New Rule Forbids GNOME Shell Extensions Made Using AI Generated Code - Phoronix Added: Dec 17, 2025
New Rule Forbids GNOME Shell Extensions Made Using AI Generated Code
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President Donald J. Trump Designates Fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction
Site: YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
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Trump's new National Security Strategy targets Western Hemisphere threats | Fox News Added: Dec 17, 2025
Trump's new National Security Strategy targets Western Hemisphere threats | Fox News
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GOP centrists help Democrats defy Mike Johnson on ACA in stunning revolt Added: Dec 17, 2025
House Republican centrists help Democrats defy Mike Johnson on ACA in stunning revolt
Site: Axios
The move ensures a House vote on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years.
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SATA SSDs are finally dying, and it's about time
Added: Dec 17, 2025
SATA SSDs are finally dying, and it's about time
Site: How-To Geek
It's time for NVMe to fully take over.
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Medical cannabis not as effective as many assume, new UCLA study suggests | Fox News
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Fossilized Bee Nests Inside Skeletons Are Unlike Anything We've Seen Before Added: Dec 17, 2025
Fossilized Bee Nests Inside Skeletons Are Unlike Anything We've Seen Before
Site: Gizmodo
In a first, burrowing bees have been discovered nesting inside the fossil remains of other mammals.
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Donald Trump, Stark Raving Maniac | National Review Added: Dec 17, 2025
Donald Trump, Stark Raving Maniac | National Review
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Trump's Post on Rob Reiner Death: If Only the Presdient Was Just a Meathead | National Review
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Experts and ideologues broke literacy. Here’s how to fix it. Added: Dec 17, 2025
Experts and ideologues broke literacy. Here’s how to fix it.
Site: The Hill
Restoring literacy demands we treat reading as more than a skill, but as a gateway to wisdom and understanding.
In October, the Washington Post declared the victory of phonics over whole language instruction. California was bowing to reality, joining red states like Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana in restoring traditional reading education. The re-ascendancy of phonics is a necessary first step to improving reading, but it's not enough on its own. Restoring literacy demands we treat reading as more than a skill, but as a gateway to wisdom and understanding. Reform can’t happen soon enough. Literacy rates have plummeted over the past decade. Thirty-three percent of eighth graders are unable to read above a basic level. In every single percentile of test takers in fourth grade, scores continued the decline that began in 2019, while the gap between high and low-performing students is widening. Meanwhile, many students who can read at the sentence and paragraph level remain unable to tackle complete works. Even at elite institutions like Berkeley and Columbia, professors have come to accept that their students can only handle excerpts. Decades of educational experimentation, the lowering of curricular standards and the outright removal of the Western canon from many schools have left our students underprepared to understand texts and engage with ideas.Restoring literacy demands addressing all three of these issues. This begins with phonics, a method proven to cultivate reading fundamentals. Literacy rates are declining largely because the faulty whole language approach that supplanted phonics persists in classrooms despite being debunked. Whereas phonics helps children decode words by showing the relationship between sounds and letters or groups of letters, whole language emphasizes context and visual cues, encouraging students to recognize words as wholes. Promoted by educational theorists as progressive and research-backed, the method was never properly vetted. As whole language swept across classrooms — a saga chronicled brilliantly by the Sold a Story podcast — the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported significant drops in reading scores, illustrating how untested, “expert-driven” pedagogy can have disastrous consequences. A second error came in forgetting that sounding out a word correctly is merely the foundation of reading. True literacy requires not just reading, but reading comprehension. In 2024, three professors published an experiment conducted in their undergraduate English classes. Given dictionaries and unlimited time, how many students could rewrite the first seven paragraphs of Charles Dickens’s “Bleak House” in plain English? The results were stunning. Only 5 percent of these college-aged students were up to the challenge. Fifty-eight percent “understood so little of the introduction to “Bleak House” that they would not be able to read the novel on their own.” The problem was not that these students were unable to sound out or define words, but that they lacked the background knowledge to understand what the words meant together. There are only two ways to respond to this problem: Help students gain knowledge or pretend the problem doesn’t exist. The first response fills students with thoughtful texts, opening them up to new experiences and modes of expression while cultivating their ability to read even more. The other response systematically removes richness and depth from the curriculum, focusing ever more narrowly on the “skill” of reading without worrying about context and meaning. Unfortunately, leading educators too often choose the latter. Case in point are standardized tests like the SAT and ACT, which replace rich, classic texts with short, technical passages. Instead of lifting students with a deficient educational background to a higher bar using worthwhile texts, educators lowered the bar for everyone to remove seemingly unfair advantages. As a result, literacy became divorced from civilization itself: no longer a gateway to ideas, history and human experience, but a sterile technical exercise. Students were taught to “read” in theory while being denied the very content that would make reading meaningful. Classical education offers a solution to all of these educational failures. First, it promotes phonics as a solid foundation, ensuring that students can decode words accurately and confidently. But it does not stop there. Classical curricula immerse students in rich works, full of characters and stories that reveal the world’s richness and depth — from Homer to Shakespeare, from Plato to the Federalist Papers. In embracing these works, students gain not only vocabulary but the experiences and knowledge embedded in the texts themselves. As students engage with profound works, they develop the ability to trace a story, a theme, an argument or a character arc across paragraphs, chapters and entire works. These students can read a manual or the back of a shampoo bottle, but they know that reading is for more than that, too. We cannot fix literacy by merely tweaking isolated skills or revisiting phonics. We must reclaim classical pedagogy that teaches students not only to read words, but to understand great works. Only then can we cultivate a generation of literate citizens whose eyes are opened to the breadth and beauty of human experience every time they open a book. Kathleen O’Toole is the associate vice president for K-12 Education at Hillsdale College and a high school teacher at Hillsdale Academy.
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Nvidia plans heavy cuts to GPU supply in early 2026 - OC3D
Added: Dec 17, 2025Nvidia plans heavy cuts to GPU supply in early 2026 - OC3D
Site: OC3D
Nvidia reportedly plans to axe as much as 40% of its GeForce RTX 50 series GPU production in early 2026. Why? Memory costs...
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Google's vibe-coding tool Opal comes to Gemini | TechCrunch
Added: Dec 17, 2025
Google's vibe-coding tool Opal comes to Gemini | TechCrunch
Site: TechCrunch
The company on Wednesday said it is integrating the tool, which lets you build AI-powered mini apps, inside the Gemini web app, allowing users to create their own custom apps.
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Senate GOP grows uneasy as Pentagon’s Kelly investigation escalates
Site: The Hill
Senate Republicans are growing increasingly uneasy with the Pentagon’s investigation into Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced his office is escalating its probe…
Senate Republicans are growing increasingly uneasy with the Pentagon’s investigation into Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced his office is escalating its probe into him. The Defense Department announced Monday the review of Kelly has risen to an “official Command Investigation,” intensifying the feud between the two sides over Kelly’s role in a video he and other congressional Democrats made to remind service members of their duty to disobey illegal orders. The news has also given a number of Republicans pause as they question whether this is a prudent decision by the Pentagon against one of their colleagues. “I think it’s a terrible idea,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said. Paul was one of five Senate GOP members who expressed reservations about the Hegseth-led investigation into Kelly, a retired Navy captain. Kelly has been under fire by the administration for nearly a month after he, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Democratic Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Chris Deluzio (Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (N.H.) and Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.) appeared in the video that set off the series of comments. Trump also called for the execution of the half-dozen lawmakers — a remark he walked back. Days after the Democrats released the joint video, the Defense Department said it received “serious allegations of misconduct” against Kelly and that it kicked off a “thorough review” of the allegations. Hegseth ordered the Navy to finish the review and submit it to the Defense Department by Dec. 10. The Navy submitted the report on potential punishments against Kelly to the department's Office of General Counsel last week. The content and the scope of the report are unclear. What isn’t being walked back is the probe, which some Senate Republicans believe likely does not have merit. “I’m not,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said when asked whether she is comfortable with the expansion of the probe. “He is protected by the speech and debate clause.” Hegseth appeared Tuesday on Capitol Hill alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio to brief lawmakers on the administration’s targeting of boats near Venezuela. Hegseth and Kelly got into a “long back-and-forth” during the briefing, according to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). According to one Senate Republican, the spat started with a reasonable question on Kelly’s end but eventually turned into a protracted discussion with GOP members complaining he was “filibustering” during a classified briefing when other attendees had questions. Kelly said Hegseth brought up “talking points” about the video when he was asking the Pentagon chief about the strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. “I think, with regards to me, [Hegseth] kind of walked in there with a little speech that he wanted to give,” Kelly said after the briefing, adding, “I'm not going to waste my colleagues' time with something that is specific to me.” Kelly told reporters following the briefing the Pentagon still has not reached out to him about the investigation and argued the department is targeting him “for something I said that was lawful.” “This is all a bunch of bulls‑‑‑, and the reason why, I think, is because this is just about sending a message to retired service members, active duty service members, government employees: Do not speak out against this president, or there will be consequences,” he said. Paul Fishman, Kelly’s lawyer, warned that action by the Pentagon against the Democrat “would be unconstitutional and an extraordinary abuse of power.” “If the executive branch were to move forward in any forum — criminal, disciplinary, or administrative — we will take all appropriate legal action on Senator Kelly’s behalf to halt the Administration’s unprecedented and dangerous overreach,” Fishman wrote. When reached for comment, the Pentagon said it did not have further remarks and referred The Hill to Monday’s statement. Senate GOP members are concerned Hegseth’s actions are setting a precedent that could boomerang on Republicans. “These members are going to be here after this administration’s gone. We’re creating a precedent that everybody should expect could be used against them,” one GOP senator told The Hill. “Yeah — he made a video,” they continued. “But I don’t think it rises to the level that they’re trying to make it. It really seems to me like vindictive prosecutions, and that’s a bad message to send to the American people.” Kelly is the only one of the six lawmakers who falls under the Defense Department’s purview. Four of the others are former military members but are not retired like Kelly is. Slotkin is an ex-CIA official. Even some Republicans who are more ardent supporters of the president indicated they have questions about whether the investigation is warranted. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters he didn’t believe taking part in the video was “very wise” on Kelly’s part. “But I don't know if it broke any laws,” he added. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a retired Marine, similarly criticized Kelly's participation. Nevertheless, he cautioned he believes the investigation is not a “good use of the Pentagon’s time.” “While Senator Sullivan believes the message in the video was irresponsible and politically driven, he does not believe it is a good use of the Pentagon’s time to investigate Senator Kelly — who served honorably in the Navy — under the UCMJ [Uniform Code of Military Justice], particularly given that the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause would likely take precedence over any UCMJ provision,” a spokesperson for Sullivan said in a statement. “Such an investigation has the potential to turn into a major distraction for our military,” they continued. “After four years of Biden’s woke military, the Department of War needs to stay laser focused on lethality and war fighting.”
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Gemini 3 Flash is now available in Gemini CLI - Google Developers Blog Added: Dec 17, 2025
Gemini 3 Flash is now available in Gemini CLI
Gemini 3 Flash is now in Gemini CLI, offering Pro-grade coding, low-latency, and lower cost for high-frequency dev tasks. Upgrade today.
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Scientists pinpoint four simple habits that can 'de-age' your brain by eight years Added: Dec 17, 2025
Four simple habits that can 'de-age' your brain by eight years
Site: Mail Online
A fresh study has revealed four simple habits that can 'de-age' your brain by up to eight years.
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6 jarring quotes from Trump's chief of staff in Vanity Fair
Site: Axios
She said Trump, who doesn't drink, has an "alcoholic's personality."
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‘Extremely demoralizing’: Republicans respond to the bombastic Wiles interview
Site: POLITICO
The chief of staff’s Vanity Fair interview raises questions about why the White House even participated.
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The Lesson of Minnesota’s Fraud - WSJ Added: Dec 17, 2025
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Trump’s Blue-Slip Blues - WSJ Added: Dec 17, 2025
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Rise of the Mamdani Clones - WSJ Added: Dec 17, 2025
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Republicans Reboot Healthcare - WSJ Added: Dec 17, 2025
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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3I/ATLAS Maintained a Sunward Jet After Its Gravitational Deflection by 16 Degrees at Perihelion
Site: Medium
The near alignment of the rotation axis of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS with the sunward direction at large distances (as discussed…
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Karoline Leavitt’s White House briefing doublethink is straight out of Orwell’s ‘1984’
Site: The Conversation
A historian analyzes how White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s claims about her boss and his administration are ‘doublespeak’ straight out of the pages of George Orwell’s ‘1984.’
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Laura Beers (@fieryparticle.bsky.social) — Bluesky
Added: Dec 17, 2025Laura Beers (@fieryparticle.bsky.social)
Site: Bluesky Social
Historian. Occasional podcaster. Author of Your Britain; Red Ellen; and Orwell’s Ghosts. Runner. 🤓📚🏃♀️ Agent: David Higham, https://rb.gy/t8twa https://linktr.ee/lbeers
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Sometimes animals enjoy life more than humans
Site: YouTube
#Crow #SmartAnimals #AnimalMoments #NatureIsAmazing #FunnyAnimals #Wildlife #AnimalJoy #ViralReels #Shorts #Reels #Unexpected #NatureLovers
