Daily Tech News 18 May 2026

Top Story

• Agent harnesses like OpenClaw are changing how we build and run AI models. (The Register)
  
  Oh, are they?
  
  
  
• The creator of OpenClaw burned through $1.3 million in OpenAI usage in a single month. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Yes, that would certainly be a change. But I like not living under a bridge.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (102) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - May 17, 2026 [Doof]

From Nature Pictures

Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Sunday night ONT. You made a great choice for how to end your weekend. Open thread, as always. Fashion and music, as always. What's on YOUR mind tonight?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:10 PM | Comments (315) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Third May Edition!

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the Third May Edition?

Programming Note: I'll be in and out (mostly out) of the comments tonight, so pease don't burn the place down. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Posted by: Weasel at 07:00 PM | Comments (178) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Raw Tuna? Better Than NYC Salsa!

I went to my local (and fantastic) fish store for a piece of tuna to grill, because it was a beautiful day that would soon melt into a gorgeous evening. Along with the excellent tuna steaks they had just cut, they had trimmed out a piece of the belly from the loin, and had put it in the display case for a few intrepid souls, one of whom was me!

I guess that is the equivalent of Wagyu beef, and it is every bit as rich. I ate it as sashimi...sliced thin and served with a bit of soy sauce and some Japanese horseradish. The fancy stuff at sushi restaurants is cut perfectly and often frozen for perfect texture. This was fresh, and surprisingly firm, but still absolutely delicious!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (264) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

We have a twofer today!

Well...I guess it still works...a bit. That's a finishing nail punch that has seen barely 20 years of use. I am offended by the shoddy craftsmanship and substandard metallurgy!

Harrumph!

This isn't really a problem. In fact, I had exactly the correct two sizes of Allen wrench I needed to remove a fixture. Sadly, it was a German engineered and manufactured shower head, so the coupling between the shower head and the water line is impossibly complicated and would need to be cut off. You know..unique attaching systems are always cool! I am sure the engineer who designed it is pleased with himself.

It really is a pleasure having the correct tools, even when the end result is bitter disappointment.

Does anyone need a nice new shower head?

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (112) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Allies Are To Be Cherished, Not Sidelined And Treated Like Enemies!

There is a vast difference between our allies in Eastern Europe, and the apathetic, post-modern, welfare-addicted haters of Western Europe.

According to NATO, Poland spent 4.5% of GDP on defense in 2025, while the UK spent 2.3%, France spent 2.1%, Germany spent 2.0% and Spain spent 2.1%.

That is huge gap, and signals a clear dedication to the defense of the West on the part of Poland, and a mealy-mouthed, backstabbing, weaselly political game on the part of the nations of western Europe.

Poland has announced plans to increase their defense spending to 5% of GDP. And while the rest of NATO is mouthing platitudes and spouting grandiose plans about increasing defense spending to NATO's long-term plan of 3.5%, the reality is that it is just words. They have been shirking their responsibilities for 80 years, so why would now be any different?

So why send a message that Poland is to be lumped in with all of the rest of the malingering welfare queens of Western Europe?

Bipartisan Backlash Over Move to Pull Brigade From Poland

The Trump administration is facing criticism from lawmakers in both parties after the Pentagon canceled the deployment of an armored brigade of 4,000 troops to Poland, a move lawmakers said caught them and U.S. allies by surprise.

The administration has long signaled it wants European nations to take greater responsibility for their own defense and that the U.S. will reduce its military presence on the continent.

Yes, and Poland is doing exactly that! And their stance on Ukraine is perfectly understandable if one simply glances at a map. Poland is square in the path between Russia and the soft, squishy underbelly of Europe. Will Russia pivot and invade? No...almost certainly not, but Poland has some unpleasant history with Russia, and would rather be in the position to deal with them effectively. And one way to do that is to support Ukraine. Any differences compared to the Trump administration's stance on the Ukraine-Russia border war is easily understood.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a retired Air Force brigadier general, said the decision was "reprehensible" and an "embarrassment to our country." He said Polish officials told him Thursday they were "blindsided" by the decision.

Of course Mr. Bacon's hysteria is counter-productive, and a bit embarrassing. It is not an existential shift, and it can be remedied quickly and effectively, so Mr. Bacon... calm down.

There is a difference between expecting Europe to be the primary defender of itself, and America withdrawing completely from the continent. I am 100% in support of drawing down our troops and spending in France, UK, Spain, Germany, and any other European country that does not take seriously its own defense, and does not support the American effort in Iran and elsewhere. But isolationism is not the answer, and Having a military presence in Europe that rewards our stalwart allies is smart, both militarily and politically.

Poland will remain an an ally, and this mistake will be forgotten, but it is important to keep sight of the larger game, which is the defense of America AND the West, because we are inseparable.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (213) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 5-17-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: Biden's Dog)

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants... (goblin status--FOUND!)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (287) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 17 May 2026

Top Story

• If you're looking for an inexpensive CPU to soothe the bite of memory and storage prices, should you choose AMD's 7600X3D, or Intel's new 250K? (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Both have six full-speed cores and the AMD chip has an extra 64MB of cache, making it 10% faster for games.
  
  However, the Intel chip is 28% faster for single-threaded productivity tasks, which don't often take great advantage of the larger cache.
  
  And for multi-threaded tasks the Intel chip is 114% faster.
  
  On the fourth hand, AMD's socket AM5 platform currently supports Zen 4 and 5, and will see Zen 6 and probably Zen 7 in the future, so you have a plenty of upgrade options if you start with the 7600X3D. Intel's Socket 1851 ends with the 250K and 270K, there's a new socket and chipset out later this year.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (167) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Club ONT - May 16, 2026 [D & D]

Welcome to Club ONT - a collaboration of The Disco and The Dino. Come in in, grab a drink or 3.

Did you have any action on today's Preakness Stakes? If you won anything, please consider buying a round for your fellow Hordelings!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (458) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Music Thread: Culture Club? Seriously?

Boy George and Culture Club were not on my playlists when they were big, and they aren't now. Except...politics has destroyed my naiveté when it comes to entertainers, so I am in the unpleasant position of minimizing my consumption of certain people's work if they are vociferous in shoving their personal politics in my face. And the converse applies too.

Here is Boy George talking about Jews and Jewish friends. Is he a deep thinker? Uh...no. Clearly not. But he is clear in his rejection of antisemitism, and for that I respect him, and will consume his musical product. Just a little bit though; I am not going to become a born-again 1980s British (or any other) Pop Music aficionado. But I will put him on a playlist or two, and toss him a few cents pence.

Posted by: CBD at 07:30 PM | Comments (219) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - May 16, 2026 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. For this week, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) decided on a church theme for this Hobby Thread.

A church theme? What does that mean? Going to church is a "hobby"? The ways of the Wheel are strange and mysterious but there is a method to the madness.

[Top Photo: Wayfarers Chapel, Palos Verdes, California]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (172) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, May 16

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

Posted by: K.T. at 03:21 PM | Comments (95) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Garden, Home and Nature Thread, May 16

Iris 'Broadway Lights'

Isn't the iris above from badgerwx gorgeous? I was finishing a spring update from her, and somehow the entire thing was deleted. Drat! Even from the HTML translator! As she noted, gardening always comes with surprises! Next week, I hope! Here's another of her irises:

Posted by: K.T. at 01:42 PM | Comments (43) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Artificial Intelligence vs. Woke?

Joanna Maciejewska @AuthorJMac

Where are we gonna go with AI?

Posted by: K.T. at 11:12 AM | Comments (244) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

*****

Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few house keeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Plymouth)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice.
3) No running with sharp objects save that for next weekend.
4) Have a great weekend!

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:00 AM | Comments (230) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 16 May 2026

Top Story

• SpaceX has shown off its Starship V3 and is planning for a test flight as early as this week. (Teslarati)
  
  The upgrades include an improved PEZ dispenser.
  
  Disappointingly, the PEZ dispenser is the name given to the release system for satellite clusters launched to orbit and doesn't actually dispense PEZ.
  
  Starship V3 completed a static fire test last month and the test flight is scheduled for the 19th.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (106) | Trackbacks (Suck)

In Fair Verona, Where We Lay Our ONT

Hi everyone! Well, we made it through another week, time for the Friday ONT! Let's start with presents:

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (280) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Bird-Heavy Cafe

Special forces capture the World's Greatest Terrorist

Munching beaver.

It's true: A guilty dog cannot look its master in the eye. How human. (Well, I mean "human" for non-sociopaths. Candace Owens can stare you right in the eyes while lying.)

Weird: All-time pin-up Betty Page dancing to "Goodbye Horses."

Bryan Adams vs. Metallica.

FAQ: Where do I get my adverbs from?

Crows mouthing off./a>

Raven steals things to get attention.

Emu shenanigans.

Rescuing a cute orphaned baby owl.

The life.

ICYMI: Dog sees an intruder from the spirit world and says "not on my watch, sister."

Yellow lab adopts a chick.

Rescuing a flying fox that fell the ground and can't fly.

Old but good: Bear does highway work.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (214) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Week In Woke

Blue states are hemorrhaging population and even worse, trillions in dollars of wealth they need to steal to fund their communist pipe-dreams.

Blue states have bled $2 trillion in wealth to red states in the last decade -- and New York leads the pack.New York had the biggest fall in cumulative adjusted gross income (AGI) -- losing $660 billion between 2012 and 2023.

California came next with $503 billion in the same time period.

In contrast, Florida gained $1.3 trillion, and Texas gained $371 billion between 2012 and 2023.

It comes as billionaire bigwigs are beginning their Big Apple exodus as a result of Mayor Mamdani's wealth-bashing agenda.

Hedge fund titan Ken Griffin and Marc Rowan both announced recently that they will move jobs out of New York in response to Mamdani's calls to "tax the rich."

From Ed Morrissey, Steve Jobs' Useless Widow's Vanity Project The Atlantic says that Democrats must reduce the toxicity of their brand by denouncing racist preferences, but will not.

Racial preferences in college admissions have long been deeply unpopular, and three years ago, the Supreme Court declared them unlawful, in a sweeping ruling that portended doom for other race-conscious policies to promote diversity or remedy past discrimination. Some research indicates that, in the aftermath of the civil-rights era, the achievement gap between rich and poor students now dwarfs the gap between white and Black students. Even so, well-intentioned blue-state Democrats keep pushing for race-based affirmative action, to their own political detriment, rather than supporting a much fairer policy of providing a leg up to economically disadvantaged people of all races.

In February, the California State Assembly passed, by a 54--14 vote, a measure seeking to place on the November ballot a change in the state constitution to allow racial preferences in K--12 education and in higher-education scholarships. (The state Senate has not yet acted on the measure.) In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a 375-page Racial Equity Plan last month that said, "New York's history has been one of colonization, exploitation and racial oppression"; among other measures, the plan reaffirms the city's intent to steer contracts to minority-owned businesses. Late last year, Democratic supermajorities in the Maryland House and Senate overrode Governor Wes Moore's veto of legislation to study reparations for the descendants of enslaved people.

In huge swaths of the country, the Democratic brand has become anathema. The party will struggle to recapture the White House and reclaim the Senate unless it can persuade some red-state voters to take a fresh look at it. One obvious move would be for the Democrats, who have hemorrhaged working-class voters, to abandon their stubborn support for politically radioactive racial preferences. Significantly more Americans believe that economically disadvantaged people of any race deserve special consideration in admissions and employment decisions, and such efforts do not run afoul of laws against racial discrimination. Nevertheless, many Democrats cannot bring themselves to accept the Supreme Court's ruling--or the public's attitude--even when doing so would help their prospects immensely.

Blue cities built dozens of monuments to obese drug addict George Floyd of the Sacred Cardiac Myopathy, but putting up a single mural honoring the slain immigrant Iryna Zarutska is too "divisive" to let stand.

A mural painted to honor Iryna Zarutska -- the Ukrainian refugee who was murdered while riding a North Carolina train -- is being taken down after outrage in Providence, Rhode Island.

On Tuesday, a construction crew was seen near the exterior of The Dark Lady, an LGBTQ+ club in downtown Providence, working to remove the partly finished mural. The mural, which was painted on canvas, was lowered to the ground, folded up and taken away, WJAR-TV reported.

Artist Ian Gaudreau confirmed the news that the artwork was going to be removed after local outrage.

"A lot of people voiced their frustrations, and voices were heard, and the work is coming down as a reaction to that," Gaudreau told WJAR-TV Monday.

The mural's removal came as residents and elected officials complained about the artwork. The office of Mayor Brett Smiley told Fox News that he wanted the artwork taken down, saying that the art is "divisive and does not represent Providence."

"The murder of the individual depicted in this mural was a devastating tragedy, but the misguided, isolating intent of those funding murals like the one across the county is divisive and does not represent Providence," Smiley said in a statement.

...

Chairman of the Narragansett Republican Party Anthony D'Ellena created a petition in an effort to keep the mural of Zarutska in Providence.

"This is exactly what Democrats do -- they try to erase the memory of their victims and they don't fix their soft-on-crime policies," D'Ellena told WPRI-TV. "They erase the evidence, so no one sees the deadly price of their policies."

...

Records from the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction show Brown has a prior criminal history, including convictions for larceny, breaking and entering and armed robbery.

"Iryna was riding home on the train when a deranged monster, who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no-cash bail, stood up and viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body," President Trump said.

Don't worry: They have a new killer they're going to have to bury the evidence about.

They always have a new killer.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (187) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Biden Loyalist and Registered Democrat Eric Ciaramella Perjured Himself in Denying Coordination with Adam Schiff Before Launching ImpeachmentGate 1.0

This guy was a key cog in nearly every anti-Trump conspiracy in government.

A former inspector general who fast-tracked a "whistleblower" complaint that led to the first impeachment of President Trump in 2019 knew the whistleblower was a registered Democrat and Joe Biden loyalist yet still determined his complaint was "a matter of urgent concern that appeared credible," according to newly declassified documents.

The documents also reveal the anonymous whistleblower secretly met with the Democratic staff of former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff prior to submitting his complaint in August 2019.

Yet under direct questioning, the whistleblower -- later identified by RealClearInvestigations as intelligence analyst Eric Ciaramella -- failed to disclose those contacts in interviews with IG investigators or on whistleblower forms, according to more than 350 pages of intel briefings Schiff classified as secret and locked up in a Capitol vault.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford released the papers Monday morning after National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard declassified them late last week. Justice Department insiders say the documents factor into an ongoing grand jury investigation into an alleged "grand conspiracy" by former Obama and Biden officials to illegally target Trump in political espionage activities.

Nonetheless, IG Michael Atkinson, then the intelligence community's top watchdog, did not question the whistleblower's political motivations, truthfulness or credibility.

This is the guy who rewrote the rules of what makes a "whistleblower" so that he could accept this second-hand hearsay and investigate it -- and then claimed the fact he changed the definition in the days after Eric Ciaramella whined to him was just a coincidence.

Atkinson conducted no investigation of his interactions with Schiff staffers to see if political bias played a role in the preparation of his complaint, which alleged that Trump "had clearly committed a criminal act" in a 30-minute phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During that call, which was reported listened to by dozens of people, Trump told Zelenskyy "I would like you to do us a favor," and help investigate Biden's son's role in the Burisma scandal. It was later alleged that Trump held up Ukraine funding to force that assistance, which never came. The whistleblower was not in the White House at the time to witness the phone call and relied instead on the account of former White House colleague and political ally Alexander Vindman, who is now seeking a U.S. Senate seat in Florida as a Democrat.

Second-Hand Hearsay

An Obama holdover, Atkinson formally notified Schiff of the complaint in September 2019, paving the way for its release to the public.

By allowing a second-hand hearsay complaint to be processed, Atkinson bent the longstanding rules of his office, according to the declassified briefings.

He also transmitted the information to Schiff over the objections of then-acting National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire, who had a legal opinion from the DOJ which overruled Atkinson's determination that the complaint was credible and urgent enough to warrant disclosure to Congress.

"The complainant's allegations appear credible to me," Atkinson insisted in a Sept. 19, 2019, briefing before Schiff's committee.

Atkinson called then-FBI Director Christopher Wray's chief of staff and briefed him on the complaint before filing a criminal referral with the bureau to investigate the allegations.

Atkinson also testified about the whistleblower and his complaint during a classified session held on Oct. 4, 2019, during which he stated, "The complainant was not politically biased in any way."

...

Atkinson refused to disclose the identity of the whistleblower "even now in a classified setting," because he said he felt compelled to "honor" his "request for confidentiality" -- even though the IG has the authority to disclose such information in the course of an investigation.

At the same time, however, Atkinson revealed that the whistleblower disclosed under questioning by his team of three investigators that he was "a registered member of the Democratic Party [and] had a prior professional relationship with one of the Democratic presidential candidates for the 2020 election."

Ciaramella is listed in voting records as a registered Democrat. He worked directly with Vice President Biden on national security issues involving Ukraine and Russia. Ciaramella was even involved in internal Obama White House discussions over Burisma and Hunter Biden, as RCI also first reported.

These facts did not raise flags with Atkinson.

"There is no indication of any misconduct by the complainant related to this disclosure," Atkinson briefed the committee, adding that "the complainant has played by the rules."

...

Then-House Intelligence member John Ratcliffe, now CIA director, said Schiff's office coached the whistleblower on how to file a complaint under intelligence community whistleblower protections before steering him to Atkinson, who facilitated the processing of his complaint, despite numerous alarms sounded by career Justice Department lawyers who reviewed it.

The department's Office of Legal Counsel ruled that the complaint involved "foreign diplomacy," not intelligence, contained "hearsay" evidence based on "secondhand" information, and did not meet the definition of an "urgent concern" that needed to be reported to Congress. Still, Atkinson worked closely with Schiff to pressure the White House to make the complaint public.

Former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz said cloaking the Biden CIA detailee in the whistleblower statute provided him cover from public scrutiny. By making Ciaramella anonymous, he was able to hide his background and motives.

More: the phone call that was the subject matter of ImpeachmentGate 2.0 -- the post-2020 election impeachment -- was, get this, illegally recorded.

Newly released depositions in Georgia confirm Federalist reporting that Democrats' attempt to imprison President Donald Trump for his 2020 election challenge in the state was based on a misinterpreted and illegally recorded phone call.

For years, Democrats and the propaganda press claimed President Donald Trump had asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to steal the election, and further claimed their allegations were supported by a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between the two men. In fact, Trump asked Raffensperger to take seriously the legal challenge that his campaign had made, which cited numerous areas where votes were in question. The call became the foundation for an impeachment effort and for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' since-discredited and dismissed racketeering case against Trump and his allies.

The newly released testimony transcript confirms what The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway reported in 2024: The call wasn't just misconstrued, it was illegally recorded by Raffensperger's "second in command."

Jordan Fuchs -- Raffensperger's deputy chief of staff -- admitted under oath that she recorded the call while she was in Florida, a two-party consent state that requires all parties on a call to consent to a recording.

During the deposition, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who was also Fani Willis' lover, noted that Fuchs received "use immunity" to testify before the grand jury, meaning she could admit what she had done without being prosecuted for any crime.

"I recorded the phone call," Fuchs admitted to the grand jury, shortly before admitting she immediately leaked it to The Washington Post, which had won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for its role in perpetuating the lie that Trump stole the 2016 election by colluding with Russia.

The call was the centerpiece of Democrats' and the propaganda press's "Get Trump" lawfare. Fuchs provided another leak to The Washington Post about another phone call from Trump a few days later. The Post later admitted its source -- Fuchs -- had provided false information about that call.

"The Post misquoted Trump's comments on the call, based on information provided by a source. Trump did not tell the investigator to 'find the fraud' or say she would be 'a national hero' if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find 'dishonesty' there. He also told her that she had 'the most important job in the country right now,'" read The Washington Post's correction.

"Several other major media outlets -- including NBC, ABC, USA Today, PBS, and CNN -- 'confirmed' the fabricated quotes from the Post's anonymous source by, get this, citing their own anonymous sources," Mark Hemingway explained. House Democrats would go so far as to cite the fake contents in their impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Raffensperger's office and the media they leaked to made it seem as though Trump was asking Raffensperger to commit fraud or do something illegal. But as The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway pointed out, "Anyone familiar with the lawsuit knew Trump was saying his team had already 'found' nearly 150,000 irregular or fraudulent votes and simply needed the secretary of state's office to agree ... just that fewer than 10 percent of them were problematic." The provision of information from the secretary of state's office was sought in part because of the urgent timing issues in play. The court date the Trump team had secured for their legal challenge was Jan. 8, after Congress was scheduled to certify the Electoral College votes.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:30 PM | Comments (176) | Trackbacks (Suck)