Dave's Crap - Two of our multiple personalities say hi. The third one is too busy with something else.
Nog TV with your host Fot Dandler
Fall Countdown!
This Month
We extend a special thank you to our visitors from Ascension Island, Great Britain, Japan, and the British Indian Ocean Territory. We love islanders!
According to Awstats, most visitors hailed from the US, Russia, India, Canada, and China. On Webalizer, most visitors were from Germany, China, Columbia, Mexico, and Vietnam.
An average visit lasted 153 seconds last month. Our crap was shared on Facebook 17 times. Our most popular pages were applications and the fashion page. Windows finally edged out Linux as the most popular OS. Somebody out there is still using Symbian OS and OS/2. Chrome remained the most popular browser. Netscape and MS Internet Explorer made the list.
Montag Thistlewhip produced a new essay. Given its low quality, we are sure it is not written by AI. Montag, why do you do it?
Montag: Do what, exactly?
The Magical Thinking That Powers The US Political Wars
Important Numbers for June 2026
| Metric | Current Rate |
|---|---|
| Unemployment Rate: | 4.2% (Down 0.1% from May) |
| Core Inflation Rate: | 2.9% (Available July 14th) |
| Monthly Inflation Rate: | 4.2% (Available July 14th) |
| Annual Global Birth Rate | 16.97 per 1000 people (a welcome 0.96% decline from 2025) |
| Annual Global Death Rate | 7.85 per 1000 people (a welcome 0.85% increase from 2025) |
Current U.S. Inflation Rates (2000-2026)
Anarcho-Capitalism Not Getting The Job Done
Argentina's inflation rate in May 2026 was 33.60%. Unemployment in the first quarter of 2026 was 7.8%.
Milei’s top aide and Cabinet chief resigns over spiraling corruption scandal
News
Gaming!
Xbox's Red Ring of Death still haunts gamers as Steam Machine owners report a "Red Line of Death" after GPU failures The article reveals one owner portrayed as an isolated incident, but its title suggests multiple owners. Which is it?
'Meh': Ex-PlayStation president Shuhei Yoshida weighs in on Valve's Steam Machine after a few hours with it Since the Steam Machine is once again a flop, Sony might consider releasing first-party content on the PC again. Thanks Valve and Linux!
Dating Coach Blaine Anderson Needs A Real Job
Good News!
Peter Thiel in Aspen: The pope is 'working for the Chinese Communists' A welcome descent into madness for a wayward oligarch
“Televised Nervous Breakdown”: CEO of Palantir Suffers a Bit of a Meltdown During Live Interview Claims: “American enterprises are run by the shrewdest, most widely intelligent people on the planet.” Explain Trump, Musk, and Sam Bankman-Fried then.
AI Billionaires Are Starting to Get Scared
Astronomy
Astrophysicists Puzzle Over Webb’s New Universe
How to find Uranus this week, the hardest planet I've ever tried to see Two full-length mirrors facing one another and a daring pose by the observer standing between them should suffice
Physics
How Many Elementary Particles Are There, Really? More complicated than I thought
Is Particle Physics Dead, Dying, or Just Hard?
Are Strings Still Our Best Hope for a Theory of Everything?
Artificial Intelligence Stupidity
'Meta will need to reduce or possibly stop AI investment in datacenters, as it already has excess capacity': The AI infrastructure bubble feels the heat The swine of Silicon Valley are on the ropes at last. Data center tech becomes obsolete within 3 years or maybe 6 if you push the depreciation schedule long enough.
Tech Stocks Are Abruptly Collapsing No worries. Nobody outside the tech sector should care. Our economy won't be destroyed.
Companies That Embraced AI Are Now Rotting Away in a Very Specific Way
Artificial Stupidity News Archive
Crypto
Trump earned over $1 billion from crypto ventures, new filings show And earned only a combined $182 million from his real estate, licensing agreements, and legal settlements
SBF Files Trump Pardon Application: Long-Shot Bid for Freedom? All the cool kids are doing it, the sentiment goes...
Exclusive - Binance set to lose permission to operate in EU, sources say
Elon Musk
Tesla caps employee AI spending at $200/week except for Grok And Grok has turned out badly for Tesla's purposes
Elon Musk Is Crashing Out Badly Elon no like reality 'cuz hurts. Mommy say I good boy.
SpaceX Investors Are Losing a Colossal Amount of Money Reality checkmate!
Taking a Musk right now? The Musk Archive!
Meta
Mark Zuckerberg Just Got Rather Badly Humiliated
Mark Zuckerberg Is Selflessly Building Yet Another Horrible Product Nobody Asked For
Tiny Tim Sweeney
Tim Sweeney on the future of games, AI, and whether Valve will ever join forces with Epic: 'It's now clear that nobody's going to end up with an absolute monopoly' Unwisely opens huge mouth again. Like that other time...
Too Stupid For Words But Here Are Some Anyway
Anthropic Hires Economist Who Says 33 Percent Chance of Human Extinction Is Acceptable A male bimbo posing as an economist? Who would think it?
Larry Summers Resigns From Harvard Over Jeffrey Epstein Ties
Man Behind Simulation Hypothesis Warns That Extinction of Humanity Is a Risk We Have to Take
Yuck!
A Startup Has Been Quietly Pitching Cloned Human Bodies to Transfer Your Brain Into
And the first person who would likely sign up for this is...
Lots of Blah, Blah, Blah
The UAP Science Advisory Council
A UAP is an unidentified aerial phenomena. The government has formed the UAP Science Advisory Council to report on them. How bad is the UAP Science Advisory Council, headed up by Dr. Avi Loeb, a Harvard astronomer treading dangerously close to the reputation Richard Hoagland gained? Not that bad. Dr. Michael Shermer, a prominent sceptic, is on the council for one and appears to be the only member not fervently grasping for a low-probability research finding. The council has scant funding and reports to a board comprised of members of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the White House, the FBI, and the intelligence community, all of whom remain unidentified. Most UAPs are high-altitude balloons, and the Pentagon is far more concerned with terrestrial threats than with low-probability alien interlopers. Out of the mountains of fanciful speculation and suspect anecdotes the Council might compile, a tiny nugget of useful information to further science is possible. Now, consider the boondoggles that preceded this one:
Avi Loeb’s journey to the ocean floor cost $1.5 million and turned up nothing. It was wrong to describe Loeb’s efforts as a failure before the search even began, but it would have been correct to characterize them as low probability. It was even more inappropriate of Loeb to fend off his critics by alluding to NASA’s doubts about his findings as “arrogant.” Doubts in science are good. To lift those doubts, you need better findings.
Harvard prof finds alien life evidence in ocean and says NASA is 'arrogant' for doubting
The link above is misleading. Loeb didn't find any convincing evidence of alien life.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) ran from 2007 to 2012. It considered a lot of low-probability, outside-the-box musings revolving around invisibility cloaks, antigravity devices, star gates, negative energy, high-frequency gravitational wave communications, warp drives, dark energy, the manipulation of extra dimensions, and traversable wormholes. Tunneling through the moon using nuclear explosives to access super-light, super-strong metal alloys was also considered.
US gov't report proposed nuking the moon, newly released documents reveal
Further studies by the AATIP sound very much like the claims offered up by so-called alien abductees, including pregnancies:
UFOs left 'radiation burns' and 'unaccounted for pregnancies,' new Pentagon report claims
Why was the program formed at all? Robert Bigelow, the head of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, was awarded a $10 million contract by his friend Senator Harry Reid to provide the program’s first year of research. All of the above considerations are predicated on low-probability ideas that have little chance of producing something now. They could turn out to be compelling discoveries or advances in the future, but a great deal of work lasting many years stands in the way of their possible realization.
What the SpaceX IPO and Star Citizen have in common
The SpaceX IPO made Elon Musk a trillionaire on the basis of expectations. A share price is a speculative bet on the future. It doesn’t have a lot to do with how a company is performing now. The difference between reality and the lofty expectations of speculators is the price-earnings ratio. The bigger the PE ratio is, the wider the gulf is between where a company is now and where speculators expect it to be based on their hopes and dreams. Fueling those hopes and dreams are a lot of promises that will probably go unfulfilled. Elon blames his faulty forecasts on his optimism. Really, he’s sending marketing messages to speculators that are never concretely justified using reliable data or formulas. He’s really good at understanding what speculators want to hear. What he’s not good at is improving the companies he runs in a way that rapidly bridges the gap between earnings we see today with earnings hoped for in the future. As of June 23, 2026, Tesla’s PE ratio is 350.10. What speculators are saying is that they expect Tesla’s earnings to be 350 times more than what they are today. Is that realistic? Hardly. The IPO price presented for SpaceX stock is 93.7 times greater than what the company earned in 2025. Under Musk, X (formerly Twitter) lost over 75% of its value after it went private. xAI has become a money pit. Both X and xAI were folded into SpaceX before it went public.
Pro-business outlets like Forbes and Inc. try to make the argument that a share price is solidly based on fundamentals when it’s really based entirely on a future bet. Wired, Forbes, and Inc. all want access to Musk for interviews and publicity. They also want to maintain the loyalty of their readers. So, Musk’s dubious efforts are framed as the desirable outcomes of a capitalist meritocracy even when the fundamentals never reflect the lofty future Musk presents. It could happen this way according to Musk, but it probably won’t. The present hasn’t matched his past promises.
If you regularly pull your hair out over share prices, this hopefully clears things up.
In a very similar vein, Star Citizen’s $1 billion crowdfunding haul is fueled by the hopes and dreams of its backers. It isn’t based on Star Citizen’s current value proposition. Star Citizen is not a scam. It is a poorly run software project. As of June 23, 2026, it has raised $1,022,574,958 from 6,593,725 backers. On average, each backer has contributed $155.08 to a game that has remained in alpha for nearly 14 years. Recently, Cloud Imperium Games offered backers the Anvil Odin, a $5000 spaceship that can’t be used in the game right now. Would you spend $5000 on the promise of using a spaceship for a game that remains unfinished? You would if your hopes and dreams for Star Citizen are strong enough. It’s a bet on the future of the game. Five grand for a spaceship the developers can easily replicate once the code is completed.
If you rip your hair out after arguing with Star Citizen’s fans about where the project stands today compared to where they expect the project to be if it is ever finished, this hopefully makes things clear. They are gambling.
A better question to ask about all of the above is if it matters. It matters only if you heavily gambled on any part of it. If Cloud Imperium Games, Tesla, or SpaceX goes under, there are lots of companies capable of filling the void left behind. If you get financially wiped out because you are very gullible, you don’t deserve sympathy and there is no guarantee you learned anything.
Ignoring Logistics In Astronomy
It’s not a problem to suggest that something could be done in space. Instead, we need to ask ourselves if a proposal is practical at all given the time, cost, risk, and distance involved. There are excellent reasons why aliens wouldn’t bother trying to conquer the Earth militarily or why they wouldn’t harvest high-energy plasma from black hole jets. We could hitch a ride aboard a rogue exoplanet hurtling through our galaxy, but it’s a fantastically poor idea. We could terraform Mars, but it won’t be easy or quick in the slightest. This latest proposal regarding Titan, a moon orbiting Saturn, throws logistical challenges to the wind as if they were nothing.
Saturn’s Icy Moon Is the Perfect Place to Settle, NASA Scientist Argues
The view from Titan presented in the article doesn’t look like that at all. The surface looks like this instead.
It’s a really poor idea on many levels. Titan doesn’t have a magnetic shield. Therefore, colonies have to be constructed underground. Titan’s liquid methane is flammable, colorless, and odorless; it can crowd out oxygen and suffocate your colonists. You must constantly filter it and any hydrocarbons out from your environment. That means no leaks and no lasting contamination introduced by explorers or resupply missions.
Oxygen is a very precious commodity. There’s no reason to get excited about any propane, butane, gasoline, or kerosene on the moon’s surface because using any of that as fuel consumes oxygen. None of that will function as fuel outdoors for any purpose because there is no oxygen.
Then there is the suggestion that Titan’s hydrocarbons could be harvested and refined to produce a wide range of products. Just producing plastic is an enormous undertaking.
Even if you transplanted those hydrocarbons and delivered them to Earth, doing so wouldn’t be worth it. Titan is three years away using our current technology. How exactly would anything on Titan be a benefit to anyone whether they lived there or not?
The devil in the details revolves around logistics. The infrastructure, risk, launch costs, and time demands for this latest proposal make it impractical. There’s nothing to get excited about.
Confirmation Bias In Science Research
Some scientific research suffers from bias. Meditation studies that conclude that meditation offers benefits are often conducted by researchers who meditate. Obviously, there’s a problem there. Similarly, a recent study concluded that smoking pot benefits the brain’s cognitive powers. It was conducted by Carl Hart, a Columbia University psychologist and neuroscientist, who also smokes weed and advocates for its decriminalization. The linked article below doesn’t disclose Hart’s drug use, but it certainly needs to mention it.
Research Suggests the Older You Get, the More Weed You Should Smoke
Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb is so desperate to find aliens that practically any event or finding that hints at advanced alien civilizations gets him unreasonably excited.
Harvard prof finds alien life evidence in ocean and says NASA is 'arrogant' for doubting
Science is based on probabilities. Tentative doubts about everything are core to its use as a tool for discovery. What is arrogant about calling Loeb’s conclusion into doubt? British astronomer Fred Hoyle was so in favor of his steady state universe proposal that his approach suggested that he advocated his viewpoint simply because he found it more entertaining than boring. A steady state universe is certainly more comforting than one that dies after 10^100 years, but it faces formidable problems such as the need to create matter endlessly. Simulation Hypothesis is an interesting proposal, but it presents daunting challenges that its champions refuse to recognize. If your aim is to prove Simulation Hypothesis against all other considerations no matter how reasonable they are, you aren’t any better than a rabid conspiracy theorist or an intelligent design advocate who refuses to admit he or she could be on the low-probability path.
Science research goes wrong when the researchers are already strongly in favor of whatever conclusion they are pursuing. That isn’t to say the above examples might not become high-probability ideas in the future, but they face too many significant obstacles today that interfere with their widespread scientific acceptance.
Science test design is another problem, particularly in gender studies. You aren’t doing real science if you aren’t willing to challenge assumptions. Men and women who are approached by suitors are equally judgmental and selective about the people seeking them out. Most experiments had the men approach the women instead for reasons of convenience. Women were found difficult to read not merely by men but by other women as well. No one could easily figure out if they were interested in someone or not. If women can’t tell the difference between other women’s friendly or seductive overtures, it indicates the problem lies with how women communicate with others. It’s not merely a problem to be laid at the feet of clueless men.
"I Drive Better Drunk And Write Better, Too"
Are Writers Intrinsically Vulnerable to Alcohol and Drugs?
This goes along with we wrote earlier about the writing profession.
The Math Of Writing And Acting
The article above it focuses on published authors, but plenty of authors finding no meaningful success (98% of writers) could wind up with nothing but their addiction to cement their legacy. Writing is such a bad profession with high barriers to entry that it is hard to recommend it at all, whether you are rich enough to find success or not. We understand the therapeutic effects of writing to calm a fevered mind, but writers conflate their emotional state brought on by addiction with positive outcomes regarding the quality of their work.
That same misappropriation happens with notions of success. Steve Jobs was a horrible human being who got lucky so tech founders want to be horrible people to achieve that same success. The logic doesn't hold up at all. Neither does celebrating the success of people who were born rich. People who send sites like Farnam Street money ignore the role luck plays in building fantastic wealth. The only person who might make an excellent living from published self-help advice is the person selling it.
What might really matter is the vector for addiction rather than activity that obstensibly benefits from it. "I have to drink and use drugs to succeed at writing." It's offered as a matter of causation rather than correlation. It reinforces the idea that addiction is an existential consideration. Without it, I'm nothing. Writing becomes an excuse for excess after the writer begins his descent into debauchery and diminished output. In the end, the addiction overtakes everything.
No, we aren't addicts. We aren't writers. We have real jobs.
Intelligence Test
Study this pattern for 10 seconds.
Did you find the image dazzling and a bit disorienting? If so, you are clearly too intelligent to be wasting your time here.
Community Profiles
That picture of Orchid Radowski is strangely mesmerizing and hypnotic. It isn't of Elizabeth Holmes, unless she did modeling work for Adobe Stock before heading up Theranos. It's surprising what you can end up with when you just screw around with photo stock.
The one of Feline Cordoba is even stranger to us. It's like experiencing wincing pain and pleasure all at once.
Feline Cordoba - My issues are solved with facial tissues
Likes solo sychronized underwater dancing, startling others using fake knife jabs, and posing as an online proxy for long-dead celebrities
Seeks a Tylenol for her crushing headache and parkour between her home's rooftop and attached garage
Relationship Status: Single. I feel safe enough to laugh cruelly in your face. Thank you. That made all the difference.
Dave's Crap High Fashion
This just in...
Star Trek fan back to asking cast members about their transporter experiences. "Physiologically, what were the side effects?"
Clinically depressed woke liberal and rage-fueled QAnon psycho argue about whether Trump or Biden exhibit the most mental deterioration
No-holds barred action movie ammended to indicate that select holds were prohibited during production
Steam Machine praised as an expensive, quiet, small-form-factor living room paperweight by reviewers. "Detachable panels allow it to blend in perfectly alongside your neglected exercise equipment."
Avi Loeb, head of the UAP Science Advisory Council, releases a fresh photo of advanced alien technology traversing his backyard
"To be rich is to embrace genius. To be poor is to suffer stupidity. To be fired, just disagree with anything I say."
Tech executive sues his female co-workers over a lack of sexual harassment. "The neglect was palpable and dehumanizing, your honor."
Santa fielding a lot of requests for a red wave midterm election result. "Ladies and gentlemen, there's a little issue with the timing of your wishlists."
Trump-loving QAnon conspiracy theorist awaiting a presidential pardon so that he can finally finish the job assigned to him by God
Militant feminist ordered to stand down by her superiors after mishandling her mouth while engaging the enemy
Singer proposes love is the answer for all problems requiring food, money, shelter, and luck instead
The Year Of The Linux Desktop and The Virginity Of The Linux Fan expected to share an inverse relationship if the former ever happens
Manhood graciously downgraded from King Size to Fun Size by tell-all female co-worker following a date
Dorky, annoying kid no one can stand refuses his school-issued lab safety glasses that make him feel uncool
Why do we have a Web 1.0 site in a Web 3.0 world? We aren't trying to make money. We also don't want to take up the responsibilities of moderating any forums. Web 2.0 created all kinds of problems by introducing user engagement. Zero user engagement avoids problems like this one:
If you guys want to fight and complain about stuff instead, that's why they made Reddit.
Speaking of Reddit...
Heard around the web...
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- Clurge790
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- TheFrederick
"I found davescrap the same day my girlfriend picked up a carton of cigarettes at 7-11. Coincidence? Absolutely! My point? No point. Just saying."
- RivetHead
"Dave's Crap is one of billions of websites on the world wide web that are available. That's about as strong a recommendation I can give it."
- Rhee Rhee
Rhee Rhee, the web has only 1.34 billion websites. Of those, only 15% are actively maintained.
Dave's Crap, this is Rhee Rhee. I still hate your stupid website along with anyone else who has been here.