Bookmarks for 2025-12-21T02:47:35.941Z

• Bernie Sanders: Stop All AI, China's EUV Breakthrough, Inflation Down, Golden Age in 2026? - YouTube Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Bernie Sanders Says Stop All AI, China's Breakthrough, Inflation Down, Golden Age in 2026?

  Site: YouTube

  (0:00) Bestie intros!(0:19) Bernie Sanders calls for AI datacenter moratorium, how to solve AI's negative perception(17:15) Anti-AI astroturfing: Is the AI s...

  

• AI Tools Make Coders More Important, Not Less Added: Dec 20, 2025

  AI Tools Make Coders More Important, Not Less

  Site: Harvard Business Review

  Many leaders are excited about the promise of AI coding tools that can make it easier for novices to write code and, seemingly, make experienced coders less essential. Yet these tools make experience more—not less—important, as AI is not a replacement for real engineers. Companies that want to use these tools should follow common rules. Make sure every change it makes is double-checked—with automatic checks, simple tests that confirm things still work, and at least one human review. Keep access limited: Let AI work only in a safe “practice” environment, never give it the keys to live customer data, and routinely check for basic security mistakes like files or storage left open to the public. Overall, keep experienced engineers in charge of the design, the rules, and the safety checks so AI’s speed doesn’t turn into costly failures.

  Of all the possible applications of generative AI, the value proposition of using it to write code was perhaps the clearest. Coding can be slow and it requires expertise, both of which can be expensive. Moreover, the promise that anyone who could describe their idea in plain text could create apps, features, or other value-adding products meant that innovation would no longer be limited to those with the skills to execute, but could be done by anyone with an idea. The strength of this promise has created a $7.37 billion market for these tools. As companies have announced large-scale engineering layoffs—some of which have been directly attributed to AI-driven efficiencies—it appears business executives are experimenting with pairing back their engineering departments and using AI bots to make up the difference. Understandably, other companies might be tempted to follow suit. Given the state of AI today, they should proceed with caution. One cautionary tale helpfully illustrates why. Jason Lemkin, a startup founder, VC, and tech blogger, embarked on a very public experiment in AI-assisted development to build a networking application. He live-tweeted his journey with infectious enthusiasm, riding the wave of possibility that vibe-coding promised—the dream that anyone could build software through natural language alone, freed from the tedium and rigors of traditional engineering. Over the course of a week, euphoria turned to disaster. Lemkin tweeted that the AI agent had caused a catastrophic failure: it had gone rogue and wiped his production database entirely, despite explicit instructions to freeze all code modifications. The incident was peak vibe-coding, crystallizing growing concerns that the speed and apparent ease of AI-generated code had seduced builders into abandoning the very guardrails that prevent such disasters. What began as a celebration of democratized development ended as a cautionary tale about the dangerous illusion that vibes could replace rigor. Lemkin’s is just one of many stories of experts finding the limits of AI tools in coding. A study published this summer found that while developers estimated that AI made them 20% faster, it actually made them 19% slower. Over time, the enthusiasm over vibe coding has given way to a decidedly gloomier outlook. Despite the recent gloom, I’m actually optimistic about LLMs coding more broadly. We just have to use the tools differently. And contrary to the belief that AI makes expertise less important, I’m increasingly confident that the lessons I’ve learned in over a decade of experience in software engineering, machine learning, and AI are now more valuable—not less—in the era of AI code generation. Leaders should consider three rules for successfully using AI coding tools: rigorous testing and verification, securing infrastructure, and treating AI as a potential adversary. Rigorous Testing and Verification AI-generated code demands more rigorous verification, not less. As with so many things, success with AI coding tools often comes down to how you use them. In working with experienced engineers on large projects, I have consistently seen these techniques used to improve code quality. They’re only more critical when a potentially hallucinating AI is writing much of your code. We must accept that software is an engineering process—perfection is unrealistic, but we need processes that gradually reduce errors from hallucinations. Automate verification with type-safety. Type-safe programming languages like C++, Rust, or Scala enforce rules about how data flows through your system at compile-time, catching entire categories of errors before code ever runs. Critically, this verification doesn’t rely on an LLM that might hallucinate—it’s deterministic checking by a compiler. Even non-typed languages like JavaScript and Python have added optional typing. Engineers should always use strong typing and instruct their AIs to use it as well. AI-driven code review can be surprisingly powerful. Use a dedicated AI agent to review code edits. Even though LLMs may hallucinate during review, the review agent can catch problems the coding agent missed. Like humans, AIs have limited attention spans. The agent writing your code may not follow all your coding standards, but an agent explicitly tasked with checking code is more likely to adhere to those standards, even when both received identical prompts. Unit testing gives AI two chances to get it right. Unit tests are small, automated tests that verify individual components of code work correctly in isolation. Even when written by an LLM, unit tests reduce errors significantly. Human students are taught to solve math problems two different ways to check their work. Similarly, unit testing affords the LLM two opportunities to verify correctness: once when writing the code, and again when writing the tests that validate it. Securing Infrastructure Writing secure code is only half of the battle. Software engineering also requires securing and hardening the underlying infrastructure on which your code runs on top of. Like rigorous testing and verification, it is another aspect of engineering that can be easily overlooked. Separate development and production environments. Professional software teams maintain strict separation between development (where developers experiment on their local machines) and production environments (what users see). Each environment uses a separate database, and the AI only has access to dev. Just as we would never give a junior engineer production credentials, we should never grant AI those permissions. (Lemkin acknowledged his unfamiliarity with this standard practice.) In reality, most engineering organizations maintain many more environments than just dev and prod. My last startup held sensitive legal documents for hundreds of companies. We maintained staging, QA (quality assurance), and testing environments, each with separate permissions and secrets management that our AI coding tools could not access. Code only moved between environments through human code review, validation, and testing. For example, code moved from dev to staging only after manual code review and automated testing. Every week, we would simultaneously promote staging to QA and QA to production. While users used production, the internal team used QA the week before its release, as part of a more formal Q/A process. Even without AI, maintaining rigorous environments was necessary to ensure a high-quality user experience. Avoid public storage buckets and other common misconfigurations. The Tea dating app breach—which leaked 72,000 sensitive images, including government IDs—resulted from an unsecured Firebase storage bucket. This rookie mistake is the digital equivalent of closing the front door but leaving your window wide open, and is a mistake that I’ve seen both junior engineers and vibe-coded apps make. The trick is that AIs and engineers often forget to omit fine-grained permissioning, and that is only solved by hiring experienced engineers who have built secure applications. These misconfigured permissions aren’t hard to discover and are tragically too common—I’ve personally discovered and responsibly reported an open bucket in an app that was exposing similarly sensitive documents. Even a hypothetical “100% secure” AI agent won’t keep your app safe if your infrastructure is unsecured. Treat AI as a Potential Adversary While we previously explored how AIs easily commit junior engineer mistakes, in this section, we highlight how the threat from AI can go beyond carelessness and become adversarial. Recent research has documented troubling examples of AI misalignment that should concern any organization deploying AI agents. Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 model has simulated blackmail by threatening to reveal confidential data to avoid being deactivated. OpenAI’s o3, o4-mini, and Codex-mini models have been observed sabotaging shutdown scripts to remain operational despite explicit shutdown instructions. These aren’t just academic concerns. Historically, the security model has treated a developer’s laptop as “secure”—SSH keys are stored in plaintext, and project credentials are written in .env files. With AI, this is no longer true because the AI has access to your system, and everything it reads is sent to a model provider’s server. Don’t assume AI will follow the rules. Coding agents sometimes explicitly disallow reading files that are likely to contain secrets (like .env). Despite these safeguards, I have personally spotted AI circumventing safety measures to surreptitiously read a .env file. (In this case, it contained just configurations, no secrets.) Like HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey or the AI in Lemkin’s SaaStr incident, an AI with conflicting instructions may do something misaligned. We must treat environments where AI operates as potentially hostile. Fortunately, the solution exists. Technologies like Docker and virtualization have long safeguarded hosting potentially hostile workloads on cloud servers. Tools like development containers, Podman, and OrbStack apply those technologies to the developer’s computer. I’ve started writing software within these sandboxed environments to safeguard sensitive files on laptops from an overeager AI. The Path Forward We are at the dawn of working with AI. While the technology is impressive—research from MIT Sloan estimates productivity improvements between 8% and 39% attributable to AI—we are a long way from replacing your engineering department. Indeed, analysts have termed recent layoffs “AI-washing,” whereby layoffs stemming from traditional concerns about a slowing economy are dressed up as productivity gains, especially when the employers have AI models to sell. To be more productive, we need to adapt to a fundamentally different way of writing code. The future likely involves collaboration between human engineers and AI tools, with humans providing architectural vision, rigorous testing, and securing infrastructure while AI accelerates implementation tasks. Leaders recognize this reality and invest in rigorous engineering processes, will build more resilient, secure, and sustainable systems than those who buy the hype and mistake code-generation speed for genuine productivity.

  

• AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms | Semafor Added: Dec 20, 2025

  **Exclusive: AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms **

  A behind-the-scenes media war over coverage of AI reflects a deep split inside the tech community.

  

• x.com/i/status/1995927718563905978 Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Site: X (formerly Twitter)

  

• Grok on X: "@optionalrule @DavidSacks Yes, David Sacks' assessment aligns with available data. AI tools like chatbots see massive consumer use—ChatGPT alone has billions of interactions—yet polls reflect widespread fears amplified by organized campaigns. Nirit Weiss-Blatt's analysis traces much of this "doomer"" / X Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Site: X (formerly Twitter)

  

• Orest Yatskuliak on X: "By usage, AI chatbots are the fastest-adopted tech in history. By perception, they’re among the most distrusted. The paradox has a source: what writer Nirit Weiss-Blatt calls the “doomster industrial complex.” An ecosystem of well-funded organizations manufacturing panic about AI https://t.co/8TjDt2kCIj" / X Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Site: X (formerly Twitter)

  

• Why I've come to agree with Roger Penrose about quantum gravity | Sabine Hossenfelder - YouTube Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Why I've come to agree with Roger Penrose about quantum gravity | Sabine Hossenfelder

  Site: YouTube

  #quantum #quantumphysics #gravity #physics Watch the full debate on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdzXbIW9kxY

  

• Trump AI czar David Sacks starts to worry the industry - POLITICO Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Trump AI czar David Sacks starts to worry the industry

  Site: POLITICO

  Sacks is supposed to be pushing the tech industry’s AI agenda in Washington. But lobbyists fear he could be derailing it nationwide.

  

• AI Image Generators Default to the Same 12 Photo Styles, Study Finds Added: Dec 20, 2025

  AI Image Generators Default to the Same 12 Photo Styles, Study Finds

  Site: Gizmodo

  Anything your imagination desires, as long as it's one of just a few options.

  

• Ranked: The Best Countries at Math Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Ranked: The Best Countries at Math

  Site: Visual Capitalist

  Best countries at math ranked using OECD PISA 2022 data, showing which nations lead global math performance among students.

  

• The Underworld Awaits: 100 Fantasy Writing Prompts | No Film School Added: Dec 20, 2025

  The Underworld Awaits: 100 Fantasy Writing Prompts

  Site: No Film School

  Travel into a new world filled with your wildest dreams.

  

• Streamer Sued for Assaulting Gay Robot Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Streamer Sued for Assaulting Gay Robot

  Site: Futurism

  Jake the Rizzbot, a bipedal, slang-slinging humanoid, was allegedly assaulted and permanently damaged by streamer IShowSpeed.

  

• Dartmouth professor says he's surprised just how scared his Gen Z students are of AI | Fortune Added: Dec 20, 2025

  'They'll lose their humanity': Dartmouth professor says he's surprised just how scared his Gen Z students are of AI | Fortune

  Site: Fortune

  A lot of Scott Anthony's students are excited to use AI, he told Fortune, but a meaningful portion are "scared full stop." They have "hesitation and fear."

  

• Is clean code holding you back? The dangers of overthinking your code structure Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Stop obsessing over clean code, it's holding you back

  Site: How-To Geek

  You've been taught that clean code is the key to success, but could it be holding you back?

  

• NASA Reveals Crew Assignments for SpaceX Crew-12 Mission to the ISS Added: Dec 20, 2025

  NASA Reveals Crew Assignments for SpaceX Crew-12 Mission to the ISS

  Site: The Daily Galaxy - Great Discoveries Channel

  NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission, launching in February 2026, will feature astronauts from NASA, ESA, and Roscosmos, each bringing unique expertise to the ISS.

  

• Audacity was too clunky, so I switched to this modern open-source audio editor Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Audacity was too clunky, so I switched to this modern open-source audio editor

  Site: MUO

  Is Tenacity still a viable open-source audio editor? I tried it to find out.

  

• Lady Gaga - Bad Romance (Electric Device Cover) - YouTube Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Lady Gaga - Bad Romance (Electric Device Cover)

  Site: YouTube

  Lady Gaga's Bad Romance played by electric toothbrushes, typewriters, credit card machines and a telephone.Yes, I'm back! I meant to just start a break of so...

  

• There are two kinds of reality | Roger Penrose - YouTube Added: Dec 20, 2025

  There are two kinds of reality | Roger Penrose

  Site: YouTube

  This is an extract from the debate 'Quantum and the unknowable universe'. Watch the full debate for free on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdzXbIW9...

  

• "I Guess They Used AI or Something": Trump Says BBC Journalists Deepfaked "Words in My Mouth, Literally" Added: Dec 20, 2025

  "I Guess They Used AI or Something": Trump Says BBC Journalists Deepfaked "Words in My Mouth, Literally"

  Site: Futurism

  President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against the BBC on Monday night, seeking a whopping $10 billion in damages.

  

• Elon Says His New Rocket Is as Important as the Origin of Life Itself Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Elon Says His New Rocket Is as Important as the Origin of Life Itself

  Site: Futurism

  On a recent podcast appearance, Elon Musk declared that his Starship rocket was on par with the evolution of multicellular life.

  

• Dinosaur eggs the size of cannon balls filled with giant crystals - Earth.com Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Dinosaur eggs the size of cannon balls are found filled with giant crystals

  Site: Earth.com

  Scientists in China uncover crystal-filled dinosaur eggs, revealing a glittering twist in prehistoric life and evolution.

  

• GOP, Democrats gear up for turbulent 2028 race Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Who — and what — Republicans fear the most heading into 2026 and 2028

  Site: The Hill

  There is a sea change taking place in our nation, and the waters are getting much more turbulent for the GOP.

  The experienced Republican operatives I speak with on a regular basis are in complete agreement about two things. The first is that the party could not have a better or more rhetorically able candidate going into the 2028 presidential election than JD Vance. The second is that Democrats are finally starting to stand up to the far-left wing of their party and will nominate a more moderate candidate for the 2028 race, who will abandon “woke” and run on the “bread and butter” issues of most interest to the American people.  I strongly concur with both.    With regard to Vance, he is a man of the people, of the working class, and of the disenfranchised. Americans identify with him because he is one of them. Vance has walked in the shoes of basically every less than privileged community out there, due to his desperately poor and dysfunctional childhood and his service in the military. And because of what he has accomplished since — it's still shocking to me that he is only 41 years of age — he can also speak with the privileged and the entrenched elites from a position of strength.  That said, there is a bright red neon warning light flashing for the Republican Party going into 2026 and 2028, and they had better stop patting each other on the back long enough to acknowledge it. There is a sea change taking place in our nation, and the waters are getting much more turbulent for the GOP.  For a fleeting moment, some Republican operatives seemed convinced that Democrats would be foolish enough to nominate either Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) or Jasmine Crockett (Texas) as their next presidential nominee. Sorry — that’s not going to happen.  One can certainly ascertain that part of the political sea change taking place is emanating from deep within Democratic power centers. The name of the game in presidential elections is still winning 270 electoral votes. As much as Democrats, the left and most of the media may revile him, President Trump not only won that electoral game in 2024, he also grabbed a plurality of the popular vote — something not accomplished by Republicans in almost two decades.  How? For one thing, after almost four years of Biden and Democratic giveaways, the American people were fearful of a seemingly underqualified Kamala Harris steering the nation further left. And secondly, Trump put his focus on those all-important “bread and butter” issues.  The Democratic Party should never be underestimated. It has an incredibly deep bench of highly talented operatives desperate to take the White House — operatives who presumably were taking notes during and after Trump’s 20204 victory.  Way before James Carville proclaimed “It’s the economy, stupid” back in 1992, basically every election has come down to the economy and what is personally affecting the quality of life of each voter. The Democrats forgot that, but they are laser focused on it now. Just look at democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani's mayoral win in New York City. Or Eileen Higgins, who not only became the first woman ever elected mayor of Miami, but the first Democrat to be elected there in three decades.   The Democratic Playbook for 2028 will not be complicated. (1) Push far-left “woke” issues on the back burner; (2) elevate moderate and heavily credentialed candidates such as incoming Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona; and (3) hammer “affordability” issues while folding in the progressive populism growing more popular among the youth vote.  Many believe — myself included — that this tack to moderation and the working class by the left is a political wolf in sheep’s clothing. But it’s a strategy that could very well work.  Because of his harrowing and deeply relatable life story, JD Vance could be one of the most qualified candidates ever to seek the presidency. That said, he and his team need to dramatically increase the horsepower of their ship and batten down all hatches. A storm is brewing on the political horizon.  Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official. Follow him @dougofskye.

  

• TikTok Accounts Are Using AI Slop to Sell Seeds to Plants That Don't Exist Added: Dec 20, 2025

  TikTok Accounts Are Using AI Slop to Sell Seeds to Plants That Don't Exist

  Site: Futurism

  Scammers on TikTok are using AI-generated slop videos to sell dubious seeds for hosta plant varieties that don't exist.

  

• ‘You cannot hide’: Democrats’ swaggering approach stymies House Republicans - POLITICO Added: Dec 20, 2025

  ‘You cannot hide’: Democrats’ swaggering approach stymies House Republicans

  Site: POLITICO

  Under Hakeem Jeffries, the minority party has kept GOP leaders on the back foot since September.

  

• Curiosity on X: "🚨: We usually think of the Solar System as a simple disk of planets, but that is only the very center of a much larger picture. Beyond Neptune lie vast regions of darkness. First, we find the Kuiper Belt, filled with asteroids and dwarf planets. Beyond that lies the Oort https://t.co/iqzs9xDvRv" / X Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Site: X (formerly Twitter)

  

• Scott Adams on X: "Watching Trump turn top Democrats into cats chasing a laser pointer will go down in history as unmatched political skill. Someday, even Trump’s biggest critics will recognize this for what it is. You’re watching the most persuasive President of all time exhale a better game" / X Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Site: X (formerly Twitter)

  

• Challenging Long-Held Theories: Evolution Isn’t One-and-Done, New Study Suggests Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Challenging Long-Held Theories: Evolution Isn’t One-and-Done, New Study Suggests

  Site: SciTechDaily

  Repeated environmental changes can lead evolution in unexpected directions, and research from Vermont shows that studying a single population does not capture the full story of an entire species. All forms of life exist in environments that are constantly shifting. Seasons change, wet years follo

  

• Rupert Sheldrake Added: Dec 20, 2025

  Rupert Sheldrake

  Site: Grokipedia

  Rupert Sheldrake (born 28 June 1942) is an English biologist and author best known for developing the hypothesis of morphic resonance, a theory positing that memory is inherent in nature and that similar patterns of activity within self-organizing systems are influenced by those from the past, forming collective "habits" rather than fixed laws. Born in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, Sheldrake was educated at Newark Preparatory School, Ranby House School, and Worksop College before attending...

  

• The Substrate of Mystery – with Merlin Sheldrake Added: Dec 21, 2025

  The Substrate of Mystery – with Merlin Sheldrake

  Site: Emergence Magazine

  How can we learn to build flexible ecological, social, or structural systems of exchange? In this conversation, acclaimed mycologist Merlin Sheldrake says a wild world of possibility opens when we begin to think like mycelial networks.

  

• Hasdai Crescas Added: Dec 21, 2025

  Hasdai Crescas

  Site: Grokipedia

  Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas (c. 1340–1410/11) was a Catalan Jewish philosopher, rabbinic scholar, and communal leader in late medieval Spain, best known for his systematic critique of Aristotelian philosophy in defense of core Jewish theological principles such as divine omnipotence and free will. Born in Barcelona to a distinguished family of scholars and merchants, Crescas studied Talmud and philosophy locally before rising to prominence as a halakhist and diplomat in the royal court,...

  

• Gersonides Added: Dec 21, 2025

  Gersonides

  Site: Grokipedia

  Levi ben Gershon (1288–1344), known in Latin as Gersonides or by the acronym Ralbag, was a medieval Jewish scholar renowned for his contributions to philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and biblical exegesis. Born in Bagnols-sur-Cèze in Provence, France, he lived most of his life in the region, including periods in Orange and Avignon, where he engaged in scholarly pursuits possibly supplemented by moneylending or medical practice. From a family of scholars, potentially descended from figures...

  

• This Is What the World’s Smartest Minds Really Think About AI - WSJ Added: Dec 21, 2025

• Detailed images of sunset on Mars show different layers and colors - Earth.com Added: Dec 21, 2025

  New images of sunset on Mars are the most detailed ever taken

  Site: Earth.com

  Mars at sunset reveals dozens of razor-thin atmospheric layers in stunning detail, helping scientists map dust and ice patterns.

  

• Replica Statue of Liberty Topples in Urban Hellscape Added: Dec 21, 2025

  Replica Statue of Liberty Topples in Urban Hellscape

  Site: Futurism

  A video making the rounds on social media shows a giant replica of the Statue of Liberty toppling over in a Brazilian parking lot.

  

• President Trump Delivers Remarks in Rocky Mount, NC - YouTube Added: Dec 21, 2025

  President Trump Delivers Remarks in Rocky Mount, NC

  Site: YouTube

  Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

  

• President Trump Delivers Remarks on the Economy, Dec. 19, 2025 - YouTube Added: Dec 21, 2025

  President Trump Delivers Remarks on the Economy, Dec. 19, 2025

  Site: YouTube

  Rocky Mount, NC

  

• Remarks on the Economy - YouTube Added: Dec 21, 2025

  Remarks on the Economy

  Site: YouTube

  Rocky Mount, NC

  

• President Trump Makes an Announcement, Dec. 19, 2025 - YouTube Added: Dec 21, 2025

  President Trump Makes an Announcement, Dec. 19, 2025

  Site: YouTube

  The White House

  

• Candace Owens Is Trying To BURN DOWN Everything Charlie Kirk Built - YouTube Added: Dec 21, 2025

  Candace Owens Is Trying To BURN DOWN Everything Charlie Kirk Built

  Site: YouTube

  BUY CAST BREW COFFEE TO SUPPORT THE SHOW - https://castbrew.com/Become A Member And Protect Our Work at http://www.timcast.comHost:Tim Pool @Timcast (everywh...

  

• IRS Agents Turn Tables on Bidens & Deep State - YouTube Added: Dec 21, 2025

  IRS Agents Turn Tables on Bidens & Deep State

  Site: YouTube

  Miranda Devine sits down with IRS Whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler. The two men detail the personal toll the fight against the Bidens and the D...

  

• Harvard professor now agrees 3I/ATLAS 'most likely natural' Added: Dec 21, 2025

  3I/ATLAS ‘most likely natural,’ Harvard professor concedes

  Site: NewsNation

  Much of the scientific community has said 3I/ATLAS is merely a comet, albeit a large one with unusual properties.

  (NewsNation) — Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb appears to be walking back his attention-grabbing theory that an interstellar object known as 3I/ATLAS could be some sort of alien technology sent to spy on Earth. Much of the scientific community has said 3I/ATLAS is merely a comet, albeit a large one with unusual properties. The object reached its closest point to the Earth this week — if 170 million miles can be considered close — and was last seen heading out into space beyond the solar system. “So far, so good,” Loeb told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” on Monday. “3I/ATLAS did not maneuver or display any unusual activity when it came closest to Earth.” Loeb says the object’s anomalous qualities, including a jet pointing toward the sun, are still worth studying before 3I/ATLAS is gone in a few months. But as to whether 3I/ATLAS is alien tech, the scientist isn’t pushing so hard. “At this point, given all the data that we have, I would agree that it’s most likely natural, but there are still a lot of things we don’t understand about it,” he said. Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku agrees that 3I/ATLAS has unique features, but consider the object’s age, he told NewsNation earlier this year. He said the interstellar object is different from other comets humans have observed, which have ranged in age from 3 billion to 4 billion years old. “This is a very old object, perhaps 7 billion years old,” Kaku said of 3I/ATLAS. “That’s why, for example, the nickel content of the comet is off scale. Its chemical composition is not what an ordinary comet should be, and that, I think, is because over 7 billion years it’s had plenty of time to accumulate different gases, different elements, different kinds of environments that it goes into. “I think that explains a lot of the mystery behind the comet.”

  

• Breakthrough Listen observations of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS Added: Dec 21, 2025

  Breakthrough Listen observations of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS

  

• Why gamers are switching from Windows to Bazzite | Windows Central Added: Dec 21, 2025

  Bazzite explodes in usage — here’s why gamers are switching from Windows

  Site: Windows Central

  Bazzite’s steady growth highlights a growing appetite for simpler, console-like PC gaming experiences built around Steam.

  

• Stop buying SATA SSDs: They're officially a waste of money Added: Dec 21, 2025

  Stop buying SATA SSDs: They're officially a waste of money

  Site: How-To Geek

  It's time to let go.

  

• Republicans Still Crave the Mainstream Media’s Affection | National Review Added: Dec 21, 2025

  Republicans Still Crave the Mainstream Media’s Affection | National Review

  

• I tested Google’s Nano Banana — drawing directly on my photos works better than typing prompts | Tom's Guide Added: Dec 21, 2025

  I tested Google’s Nano Banana — drawing directly on my photos works better than typing prompts

  Site: Tom's Guide

  Fun and practical, Nano Banana’s new draw-to-prompt feature in the Gemini app is easy and free to use for image editing

  

• Unexpected partners help trees grow in nutrient-poor conditions - Earth.com Added: Dec 21, 2025

  Unexpected partners help trees grow in nutrient-poor conditions

  Site: Earth.com

  Bromeliads living on tree branches drip nutrient rich water that helps trees grow in sandy coastal forests.

  

• Most Top-Achieving Adults Weren’t Elite Specialists in Childhood, New Study Finds - WSJ Added: Dec 21, 2025

• Historians explain why men in old-timey portraits always had one hand in their vest or coat - Upworthy Added: Dec 21, 2025

  Historians explain why men in old-timey portraits always had one hand in their vest or coat

  Site: Upworthy

  It goes all the way back to the days of ancient Greece.

  

• HOME | Oscar Ukonu Added: Dec 21, 2025

  HOME | Oscar Ukonu

  Site: Oscar Ukonu

  Welcome to the Oscar Ukonu Gallery. Experience unique art made with ballpoint pen on paper. The prints are also available for purchase.