A discussion of AI companions consider some, but perhaps not enough, of the downsides.
Sunday, July 13, 2025
Payday Loan Apps Cost New Yorkers $500 Million Plus, New Study Estimates
A new study estimates the cost of payday loans in New York as the state debates tightening rules on these fintechs beyond existing usury laws
House Speaker Johnson Threatens to Defund Federal Courts
The Trump war against the judiciary reaches a new fevered pitch, with Speaker Johnson threatening Federal court funding.
Ukraine Rare Earths Deal Is Nonsense To Mining Experts
Professionals try to put a stake in the heart of the Trump rare earths deal palaver.
Russia-US Negotiations: Trump Criticism Follows the Bad Sign of the Lack of a Joint Statement After Last Round and the Iran Angle
Having barely started, the US-Russia negotiaions are already going a bit pear shaped.
Biomedical Research, Its Funding and Its Practice: Where Do We Go from Here?
How biomedical research is funded by public institutions and performed in universities and research institutions, both now in danger
Yanis Varoufakis: Crypto’s Role in Trump’s Economic Masterplan (With Special Emphasis on Stablecoins)
Might there be more method in Trump’s crypto and dollar madness than most assume?
Extreme Heat, Hospital Crowding, and the Hidden Health Costs of Climate Change
A study confirms that extreme heat events stress hospitals so much that they produce non-heat excess deaths.
Coffee Break: Armed Madhouse – Missile Defense Pretense
Our warfare focused Coffee Break: The impossible dream of a national missile shield and the implications for Trump’s Golden Dome
Trump’s Desire to ‘Un-Unite’ Russia and China Is Unlikely to Work – In Fact, It Could Well Backfire
The oh-so-clever US intends to drive a wedge between China and Russia, after having been mean to Russia and still mean to China.
Five Reasons Why Euro Area Citizens Should Be Terrified By the ECB’s (Apparently) Fast Approaching Digital Euro
Imagine a technology that could facilitate the single greatest expansion of totalitarian power in history in the hands of the European Central Bank and EU Commission. What could possibly go wrong?
The Dark Enlightenment: The Tech Oligarch Ideology Driving DOGE’s Destruction
How DOGE isn’t just tearing down institutions but also laying the groundwork for an experimental new kind of authoritarian rule.
