Oh, look at that ... it's TACO Thursday, like it's an emergency naked bike ride.

Donald Trump canceled plans for a deployment of federal troops to San Francisco that had sparked widespread condemnation from California leaders and sent protesters flooding into the streets.

The Bay Area region had been on edge after reports emerged on Wednesday that the Trump administration was poised to send more than 100 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other federal agents to the US Coast Guard base in Alameda, a city in the East Bay, as part of a large-scale immigration-enforcement plan. By early Thursday morning, hundreds of protesters had gathered outside the Coast Guard base, holding signs with slogans such as “No ICE or Troops in the Bay!”.

But just hours later, the president said he would not move forward with a “surge” of federal forces in the area after speaking with the mayor, Daniel Lurie, and Silicon Valley leaders including Marc Benioff, the Salesforce CEO who recently apologized for saying Trump should send national guard troops, and Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia.

Lurie said he spoke with the president on Wednesday night, and that Trump told him he would call off the deployment.

Apple has patented a new AirPods sensor system that integrates active and reference electrodes into the housing and tips to measure brain activity and other biosignals¹. The system can monitor electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), and electrooculography (EOG) through electrodes placed around the outer ear².

The technology uses dynamic electrode selection, intelligently choosing specific electrodes based on user parameters and wearing conditions to optimize accuracy². Users could potentially activate measurements through simple gestures like tapping the AirPods tip².

However, experts note significant challenges - current in-ear EEG systems require patient-specific 3D ear scans and careful cleaning procedures that may not align with Apple's consumer product approach³.

1. LinkedIn - Apple's AirPods Revolution: New Patent for Measuring Biosignals and Reading Minds ↩︎
2. Medium - Apple's Next-Gen AirPods with Brainwave Monitoring ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
3. Manifold Markets - Will Apple Airpods have EEG based BCI control features by 2026? ↩︎

In case you haven't seen an architect's model of this hemorrhaging monstrosity (included in story), it's going to make the White House look like the smaller, incidental other thing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

When Barack Obama roasted Donald Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the icing on the cake was a cartoon illustration of what the White House might look like if Trump ever became US president.

The name “Trump” was emblazoned across the top in giant capital letters, followed by “the White House” in lurid purple cursive, then “hotel casino golf course” and “presidential suite”. The parody imagined gold pillars, a giant crystal chandelier and two scantily clad women sitting at reception.

Fourteen years later, Obama’s vision looks increasingly prophetic as Trump, twice elected and determined to expand presidential power, puts his golden stamp all over the White House. Most dramatically, this week he sent in a wrecking crew to demolish the facade of the East Wing so he can build a $250m ballroom.

The image of broken masonry, rubble and steel wires at America’s most famous address was reminiscent of a disaster movie and struck a chord even among people who have become accustomed to shrugging off Trump’s outrageous antics. White House alumni and presidential historians led the chorus of disgust.

Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

BlueMonday1984

2025-10-12 23:00:04

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 19th October 2025

Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

https://awful.systems/post/5853532

Remember, folks: This is the junta that says fetuses deserve more protections than anyone who has previously exited a womb.

Pregnant women have reported bleeding, miscarriages, being shackled and other instances of medical neglect while in US immigration custody, according to a group of prominent civil rights organizations.

The groups – which include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its Louisiana chapter, the National Immigration Project, Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, Sanctuary of the South and Sanctuary Now Abolition Project – sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Senate committees on Wednesday, describing interviews with more than a dozen women.

“ICE has issued detainers, arrested, and taken pregnant individuals into custody, even after they have informed officers of their pregnancy, in violation of agency guidance,” the letter said.

It noted in particular that ICE had “detained several cases of pregnant individuals arising from domestic disputes. This practice endangers survivors of domestic violence, particularly pregnant individuals, who are more vulnerable to abuse and violence.”