What’s in my feed reader? - BlogFlock

The Spread between 10-Year Treasury Yield & Mortgage Rates Is Historically Wide and Widened Further: Some Thoughts - Wolf Street

2025-04-19T04:38:24.000Z

Mortgage rates are higher in relationship to the 10-year Treasury yield than they were most of the time over the past 50 years. There are reasons for that.

The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, March 2025: The Price Drops & Gains in 33 of the Largest Housing Markets - Wolf Street

2025-04-18T01:04:31.000Z

Metros with YoY price drops double to 14: Austin, Tampa, San Antonio, Phoenix, Dallas, Orlando, Atlanta, Miami, Denver, Raleigh, Houston, Birmingham, Charlotte. YoY gains narrow sharply in San Diego, Los Angles, Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Columbus... 20 below 2022 peaks.

Oh Elon! Tesla Crushed Further in California in Q1, Non-Tesla EV Sales Soar. Cybertruck Joining Failed Models of Automotive History? - Wolf Street

2025-04-17T18:16:04.000Z

Non-Tesla EV sales +36% YoY. Tesla sales plunge to lowest since Q3 2022. Cybertruck sales fall for 2nd quarter in a row.

Hello fellow kids! Doing crimes is TIGHT! - jwz

2025-04-17T17:09:40.000Z

Narc dot AI:

American police departments near the United States-Mexico border are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for an unproven and secretive technology that uses AI-generated online personas designed to interact with and collect intelligence on "college protesters," "radicalized" political activists, and suspected drug and human traffickers [...]
Massive Blue, the New York-based company that is selling police departments this technology, calls its product Overwatch, which it markets as an "AI-powered force multiplier for public safety" that "deploys lifelike virtual agents, which infiltrate and engage criminal networks across various channels." [...]
404 Media obtained a presentation showing some of these AI characters. These include a "radicalized AI" "protest persona," which poses as a 36-year-old divorced woman who is lonely, has no children, is interested in baking, activism, and "body positivity." Another AI persona in the presentation is described as a "'Honeypot' AI Persona." Her backstory says she's a 25-year-old from Dearborn, Michigan whose parents emigrated from Yemen, and who speaks the Sanaani dialect of Arabic. The presentation also says she uses various social media apps, that she's on Telegram and Signal, and that she has US and international SMS capabilities. Other personas are a 14 year-old boy "child trafficking AI persona," an "AI pimp persona," "college protestor" [sic], "external recruiter for protests," "escorts," and "juveniles.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Saint Acutis of Halo - jwz

2025-04-17T01:28:53.000Z

He was a kid, and now his body is coated in wax and dressed in a red track jacket, jeans, and Nikes and lies in a church in a tiny Italian hill town where people arrive on tour buses to kiss their fingers and touch the glass next to his head of thick black hair.

Before him, the most recently-canonized saints lived and died in the 1800s. Acutis is different: He had a phone! He made websites about miracles! He wore sneakers! He's "God's influencer." Supplicants see him as somehow both approachably normal and extraordinarily devout. He was reportedly "uninterested in the trappings common for a wealthy child in Milan," asking his parents to donate the money they would have spent on more designer sneakers to the poor and skipping ski trips to teach catechism instead. [...]
Coincidentally, technology is bedeviling Acutis' early days as a saint. On eBay, people are selling what they claim to be his "relics," tiny pieces of a saint's body. One anonymous seller was selling "supposedly authenticated locks of Acutis' hair that were fetching upward of 2,000 euros ($2,200 US), according to the Diocese of Assisi, before being taken down," the AP reported. "It's not just despicable, but it's also a sin," one reverend who has a tiny fragment of Acutis' hair in a chapel by his office told the AP. "Every kind of commerce over faith is a sin."
There is a lot of non-relic commerce happening at the Shrine of the Renunciation, however. It's free to enter the church, but there is a gift shop around the corner at the exit.

How about them miracles? Wikipedia:

Luciana Vianna had taken her son, Mattheus, who was born with a pancreatic defect that made eating difficult, to a prayer service. Beforehand, she had prayed a novena asking for the teenager Acutis's intercession. During the service, Mattheus had asked that he should not "throw up as much". Immediately following the service, he told his mother that he felt healed and asked for solid food when he came home. After a detailed investigation, Pope Francis confirmed the miracle's authenticity, leading to Acutis's beatification. [...]
A Costa Rican woman named Valeria had fallen off her bike and suffered a brain haemorrhage with doctors giving her a low chance of survival. Valeria's mother, Lilliana, prayed for the intercession of Acutis and visited his tomb. The same day, Valeria began to breathe independently again and was able to walk the next day with all evidence of the haemorrhage having disappeared. [...] Pope Francis presided at an Ordinary Consistory of Cardinals, which approved the canonization of 15 people, including Blessed Carlo Acutis.

Well there you have it! That's just SCIENCE.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

The numbers are mysterious and important. - jwz

2025-04-17T01:05:28.000Z

ExponenTile:

Previously, previously, previously, previously.

Foreign Investors Massively Bought US Treasury Securities in February: China, Japan, Canada, Euro Area, UK, Financial Centers, Taiwan, India, even Brazil - Wolf Street

2025-04-16T23:39:36.000Z

Biggest increase since June 2021. And they mostly bought long-term Treasury debt. No major holder dumped.

Drunken Sailors Back in Splurge Mode, Retail Sales Surge. Even at Restaurants & Bars not Part of Frontrunning Tariffs - Wolf Street

2025-04-16T18:37:08.000Z

The recession is going to have to get back in line and wait.

"Thank you, Simone." - jwz

2025-04-16T05:17:33.000Z

Previously, previously, previously.

Nvidia Makes Mess Afterhours, Discloses $5.5 Billion in Charges due to US Export Restrictions on its H20 Chip for China - Wolf Street

2025-04-16T02:01:56.000Z

Stock down 6.5%, Nasdaq futures down 1.5%.

DNA Lounge: Wherein the new toilets are installed, the new toilets are installed! - jwz

2025-04-15T21:53:02.000Z

It is finished! A huge thank you to the generous donors who made this bathroom remodel possible! We managed to cover the entire cost of this project with donations, and we can't thank you all enough for that. May your butts ride eternal, shiny and chrome.

As a part of this project, we also re-built the floor in the Lounge bathroom, which apparently had been sealed poorly, with resulting leaks on the Men's Room ceiling downstairs. We also replaced the Lounge sink, which had seen better days (and had been fucked off the wall at least twice. Please stop fucking on the sinks, thanks.)

It is a universal law that any time a contractor opens things up (whether they are a plumber, electrician, whatever), the first thing they say is, "Wow, whoever was in here before was an idiot." You hear it every time, you get used to it. But the spaghetti mess of drainage they found under the Womens' Room floor was really quite something. There was a lot of, "Why, why in the world would you do this??" Oh, also the clean-out ports for the drains were tiled over. No wonder we couldn't find them.

I've mentioned before that I suspect the plumber we had back in 2000 was actively trying to sabotage us. His crew were all his idiot sons and nephews, and multiple times I witnessed a failson spend all day laying pipe, then at the end of the day Daddy finally looks at it and says, "That's wrong, do it again". Oh, I'm so happy to be your learning experience. Anyway, how do you draw the line between incompetence and malice with someone like that? Fuck you, Benny. It's been 25 years and I'm still holding a grudge because I'm stil dealing with the aftermath.

Anyway! Beautiful, shiny new toilets! With seats!

For those of you who sponsored a toilet and purchased naming rights, the plaques should be going up this week. Keep an eye out!

The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in Canada, March 2025: Sales Plunge, Supply Surges, Overall Prices Drop to Multi-Year Lows, Driven by Toronto - Wolf Street

2025-04-15T18:35:20.000Z

But in some metros, prices continued to spike. By Metro: Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec City.

Our Drunken Sailors Are Back: Sales of Used Vehicles Surge in March, same as New Vehicles. Retail Sales Might Look Good - Wolf Street

2025-04-14T18:01:11.000Z

Despite their foul mood, consumers are splurging on vehicles and may also be splurging on other products.

Is this the worst most boring election campaign ever? Will voting make any difference? | First Dog on the Moon - First Dog on the Moon | The Guardian

2025-04-14T06:59:17.000Z

The nation is still forced to play election campaign bingo

Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published
Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints

SHIELD GONE - jwz

2025-04-13T21:08:25.000Z

Welp, now Star Wars is dead again too. That lasted like... a day.

The game was running but the screen was black. Then as I was moving the cabinet, I discovered that "percussive maintenance" made the screen come back on for a few seconds. So something is loose, but I can't tell what. When the monitor blacks out, the game continues playing; the LEDs are lit on the deflection board's low voltage supply; and spot killer is not active, so it's getting signal.

Anyway, like I said last time, while I am happy to continue to sink money into these weird old artifacts so that future generations can experience them, I really need to find someone I can pay to fix them when they regularly break, because I'm not good enough at that. Help me find that person.

NOTE: Understand this request as if I were asking, "Do you have a local dentist that you like?"

If your answer is of the form, "No, but have you tried contacting the CEO of the American Dental Association? They probably know Hot Dentists In Your Area", or, "No, but most major metropolitan areas have dentists", you are not helping.

In fact, any answer that starts with "No but" or "Have you" is almost certainly not helping.

I shouldn't have to say this, but apparently I have to say this.

Previously, previously.

Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons hacked to imitate Musk, Zuckerberg - jwz

2025-04-13T20:07:50.000Z

"Ethical use of AI doesn't exi...."

"It's normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every facet of your conscious experience. And I just want to assure you, you don't need to worry because there's absolutely nothing you can do to stop it."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

10-Year Treasury Yield Snaps Back to February’s 4.5%, Yield Curve Re-Un-Inverts, Mortgage Rates Back at 7% - Wolf Street

2025-04-13T01:33:02.000Z

The aggressive Bash-Down by the White House of long-term Treasury yields and the dollar since January worked. Until it didn’t.

Tiny work lights - jwz

2025-04-12T19:07:23.000Z

Here's some nerd-bait for you:

I like the form factor of this kind of work light, of which there are 10,000 no-name Chinese-junk resellers -- folds up tiny, magnetic base, 360° rotation, USB rechargeable.

But is there something like this that has exactly two modes, "off" and "on", so that I don't have to click 3 or 4 times to turn it off? They all have the same firmware which makes you cycle through "uselessly dim", "disco blink", and "pinhole spotlight so dim you won't notice it, but it totally will drain the battery".

The "off" switch is a lost goddamned art.

"Yes, I would like my work light to be dimmer" -- statements dreamed up by the absolutely deranged.

Previously.

Great Moments in Sorting - jwz

2025-04-12T17:01:11.000Z

Anyone ever figure out how to make Mail.app stop losing its mind on sorting? Clicking the "Date" header fixes it momentarily but this insanity comes back the next time I reselect the folder. "Rebuild mailbox" does not fix it.

Previously, previously, previously, previously.

Tempest, Pac-Man - jwz

2025-04-12T07:17:04.000Z

Dear Lazyweb,

I got Tempest working again, but I can't get it out of "free play" or in fact get any of the dip switches to do anything. Like, I can't even set it to Spanish. However, the test screen that shows the current dip switch settings registers changes in realtime as I flip them. So the switch block is fine, the game is just ignoring all of them. What would cause this?

I had Pac-Man working for a day, but now it boots to a black screen with half an image of a Pac-Man sprite on it. So, the monitor is fine and this sounds like an underpowered board, maybe? But I have a modern switching power supply in there so that should be good. I tried upping the voltage a hair and that didn't help either.

I need to find someone I can pay to maintain these things for me.

I am moderately capable of doing it myself, but it takes me a long-ass time because I'm not that good at it, and also, I just don't enjoy it. Someone, please, take my money.

(Star Wars seems to be fine so far...)

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.