Tuesday No Heavy Lifting Roundup

I went to they gym today. I haven’t been inside a gym in many, many moons. Hard work was always my gym. I don’t have a house to bang on anymore, so I decided to lift someone else’s weights for a change. Apparently, a gym has morphed into a place where about fifty percent of the people sit stock-still on very expensive-looking equipment and diddle with their phone. The other half are girls who are the same dimension in every direction watching teevee while lumbering up stairmasters. Both the equipment and the patrons are mostly spangled with purple and yellow for reasons that escape me. My wife and I go together. Apparently, this just isn’t done. The women on the stairmasters look daggers at my wife when she wipes off the seat on my machine while she’s doing hers, too.

So nothing looked like the Nautilus machine in our high school weightroom, which was considered state-of-the-art back then. I don’t recognize about half of the exercises. I haven’t seen CNN since the 1980s, but it’s on half the teevees of the forty screens. The other half were tuned to ex-football players in loud suits two sizes too small incensed that there are only fourteen cameras available to decide if a player made a first down.

Then I walked in the Men’s locker room. Finally, something familiar. That sweatsock smell.

Let’s get on with our Tuesday link pruning:

Nvidia’s $589 Billion DeepSeek Rout Is Largest in Market History

Nvidia shares tumbled 17% Monday, the biggest drop since March 2020, erasing $589 billion from the company’s market capitalization. That eclipsed the previous record — a 9% drop in September that wiped out about $279 billion in value — and was the biggest in US stock-market history.

I am reminded of the 1980s version of this phenomenon. A Japanese man on the subway turned to the fellow next to him and said he owned a dog worth a million dollars. The guy next to him didn’t believe him. He explained that the dog must be worth a million dollars, because he had traded two $500,000 cats for it.

No, Wall Street, DeepSeek is not “far superior”

The results vary across benchmarks, but on average, GPT-4o and Gemini-2 are better. You can see this on ChatBot Arena, for example. Even in the results published by DeepSeek’s authors themselves, you can see that in several tests, the model lags behind GPT-4o from May 2024—which, mind you, is currently ranked 16th on ChatBot Arena.

I tried DeepSeek. It was comparable to the Open AI chatbot from about a year ago. It’s nowhere near the latest version. I asked it for investment advice and it suggested a conservative, sandwich heavy portfolio.

FTC Takes Action Against GoDaddy for Alleged Lax Data Security for Its Website Hosting Services

GoDaddy’s unreasonable security practices include failing to: inventory and manage assets and software updates; assess risks to its shared hosting services; adequately log and monitor security-related events in the hosting environment; and segment its shared hosting from less-secure environments, according to the FTC’s complaint.

Maybe they should also investigate them for being the Hotel California of web service providers. You can check out any time you want, but your credit card can never leave.

Crampons have been used in Norway for over 1,000 years. Espen Kutschera has tested Viking-era crampons.

In the Icelandic Eyrbyggja saga, written in the mid-1200s, we hear about Frøystein, who was a bit smarter than Steintor. The latter latter seemingly forgot to wear the proper footwear: ‘Steintor struggled to stand as the ice floes were both slippery and slanted, while Frøystein stood firm on shoe crampons and struck hard and often.’

Stupid Steintor. I’ll bet he didn’t even rape and pillage correctly. No, Steintor, Froystein would say, you kill the dogs and rape the women, not the other way around.

Suspects in killings of Vallejo witness, Vermont Border Patrol agent connected by marriage license, extreme ideology

Maximilian Snyder, a 22-year-old data scientist arrested in Northern California on Friday on suspicion of murder, and Teresa Youngblut, the 21-year-old computer science student charged last week in connection with the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland, appear to follow a fringe, self-described “vegan Sith” ideology that started in the Bay Area and has connections to violence, according to police records, an interview with a person familiar with the group, and years of social media and blog posts reviewed by Open Vallejo.

A vegan sith. Okey dokey. Man, people who believe in nothing will believe in anything.

Google Maps to rename ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’ for US users

“As directed by the President, the Gulf of Mexico will now officially be known as the Gulf of America and North America’s highest peak will once again bear the name Mount McKinley,” the Interior Department said in a statement last week.

I’m a strict traditionalist in these matters. I suggested that the Gulf of Mexico be named “Here Be Monsters,” like it was originally.

US Balance of Trade In Goods By Country

The data is for the 11 months up to Nov 2024 and comes from the US census FT900 report. However, it should be noted that the data is for good only. The US actually has a slight trade surplus in services, but a very large trade deficit in goods.

Interesting map. For a country we’re supposedly sanctioning the bejeezuz out of, we’re running quite a trade deficit with Russia. And apparently, South America really likes Pepsi or shoulder fired missiles or something.

Big Brother Becomes Little Brother

Called Intelligence Community Directive 406, the order was signed on January 16 by then-President Biden’s Director of National Intelligence in the final days of the administration. It lays out new ways for spy agencies to capitalize on the information and expertise of these corporate superpowers, which could be anything from social media platforms to AI firms. It is not yet clear how the Trump administration plans to exercise these authorities.

In case the NSA is listening, I’d like to aver that I’m not currently doing anything wrong. But mostly because I’m kinda tired.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone.

The How Did It Get To Be Thursday Already Trash Day

Well, we went down the happiness rathole on Tuesday, and fell into a reverie. Languor like that is hard to achieve, so I let it ride. But we must clean out our bookmarks toolbar, or it gets backed up like Javier Milei’s shower drain. Let’s get to it!

How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

I work from home everyday, I am susceptible to eye strain, eye pain, and dizziness. Having a working environment that’s as easy on my eyes as possible is of critical importance. I hope that by sharing what I’ve learned, it can be helpful to you if you work from home, and like many, have experienced WFH eye strain.

Sometimes the eyestrain from my working from home setup is so bad I spill my tumbler of whiskey on my pajamas.

Florida man eats diet of butter, cheese, beef; cholesterol oozes from his body

What could go wrong with eating an extremely high-fat diet of beef, cheese, and sticks of butter? Well, for one thing, your cholesterol levels could reach such stratospheric levels that lipids start oozing from your blood vessels, forming yellowish nodules on your skin.

See, this is what happens if you skimp on bacon.

AI Mistakes Are Very Different from Human Mistakes

Humans may occasionally make seemingly random, incomprehensible, and inconsistent mistakes, but such occurrences are rare and often indicative of more serious problems. We also tend not to put people exhibiting these behaviors in decision-making positions. Likewise, we should confine AI decision-making systems to applications that suit their actual abilities—while keeping the potential ramifications of their mistakes firmly in mind.

I bolded that section to remind myself to ask this guy how long he’s been asleep. Van Winkle naps always leave you out of the loop.

‘Once-in-a-century’ discovery reveals spectacular luxury of Pompeii

Next door to this beautiful space, in a cramped room with barely any decoration, a stark discovery was made – the remains of two Pompeiians who failed to escape from the eruption. The skeleton of a woman was found lying on top of a bed, curled up in a foetal position. The body of a man was in the corner of this small room.

I’m put in mind of Twain’s visit to Pompeii in The Innocents Abroad:

But perhaps the most poetical thing Pompeii has yielded to modern research, was that grand figure of a Roman soldier, clad in complete armor; who, true to his duty, true to his proud name of a soldier of Rome, and full of the stern courage which had given to that name its glory, stood to his post by the city gate, erect and unflinching, till the hell that raged around him burned out the dauntless spirit it could not conquer.

We never read of Pompeii but we think of that soldier; we can not write of Pompeii without the natural impulse to grant to him the mention he so well deserves. Let us remember that he was a soldier — not a policeman — and so, praise him. Being a soldier, he staid, — because the warrior instinct forbade him to fly. Had he been a policeman he would have staid, also — because he would have been asleep.

Nevada Court Shuts Down Police Use of Federal Loophole for Civil Forfeiture

The case arose from the 2021 seizure of retired Marine Stephen Lara’s life savings during a traffic stop. Without any evidence that Lara committed a crime and without even charging him with a crime, NHP handed his money to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), bypassing Nevada’s stricter forfeiture protections. Lara had to fight for months to get his money back, exposing how police used the federal program to sidestep state laws that require higher proof to seize property and give property owners the right to much more quickly present their case to a neutral judge.

I’ve had my life savings seized during a traffic stop, too. At a toll booth.

Miracle Cures and Murder For Hire: How A Spoon-Bending Turkish Magician Built A $600 Million Nasdaq-Listed Scam Based On A Lifetime Of Lies

Invoking his close friendship and mentee relationship with Dr. Anthony Fauci and his relationship with Bill Gates, Dybul called Gumrukcu a “rare genius” who had come up with platforms to cure HIV, hepatitis B, all strains of influenza, Zika, dengue fever, and COVID. Dybul also wrote that the now-accused murderer was “deeply compassionate, empathetic, and approachable”, providing his “strongest recommendation”. In February 2017, Gumrukcu was arrested by authorities after the State of California accused him of a slew of white-collar crimes, including fraud, identity theft, and check kiting – a total of 14 felonies.

I once received a resume from a job applicant that said he had worked for Bin Laden. I thought it might have been better for him if he left that off. But I think I’d rather put that on my resume than mention those two guys.

How shutdown Bay Area tech companies ditch their fancy gear fast

“Most companies, to be honest with you, don’t have any plan,” Carroll said. “When you get your VC funding, you go out and you spend like mad, and next thing you know, ‘We’re running out of money.’ But had you gone and bought $200,000 worth of furniture from an auction, you could have saved $150,000.”

Well, on second thought, let’s not go to Camelot San Francisco. It is a silly place.

1995-2025: The Decline of Germany & Japan vs US & China. Can All-Purpose Robots Fuel a Comeback?

In 1995, in terms of nominal gross domestic product (GDP), a combined Germany and Japan were almost 1:1 economically with a combined USA and China, according to IMF (see chart above). Only 3 decades later, this ratio is now down to 1:5! Self-replicating AI-driven all-purpose robots may be the answer. Around 2000, Japan still was the country with the most robots; Germany was 2nd. Today, China is number 1. However, most existing robots are dumb. They are not adaptive like the coming smart robots that will learn to do all the jobs humans don’t like, including making more such robots.

No.

Well, he asked, so I told him. This is not going to save Germany:

People Are The New Brands

One might argue that Abby Phillip is a person. But this neglects the intimate nature of podcasting as a medium. Abby Phillip reads off a teleprompter, wears makeup and a suit, and sits in a multimillion-dollar production studio. Rogan wears a T-shirt and talks with his buddies in a room that looks like a converted garage. For millions of Americans, Rogan isn’t a newscaster or even a celebrity, he’s a friend. And you will find this dynamic at all the top podcasts in America. (Side note: I surveyed 10 friends on their preference between Abby Phillip vs. Joe Rogan; none of them knew who Abby Phillip was.)

Neither did I. Then again, I only know Joe Rogan as the electrician on NewsRadio.

MasterCard DNS Error Went Unnoticed for Years

The payment card giant MasterCard just fixed a glaring error in its domain name server settings that could have allowed anyone to intercept or divert Internet traffic for the company by registering an unused domain name. The misconfiguration persisted for nearly five years until a security researcher spent $300 to register the domain and prevent it from being grabbed by cybercriminals.

I think it’s amusing that web developers are Exhibit A. for people who say proper spelling is unimportant. By the way, MasterCard didn’t even thank the guy who alerted them to this.

Have a good Tuesday, everyone. It should be easier now that you have two days experience at dealing with it.