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U.S. Trade Deficit Soaring Despite Tariffs

January 29th, 2026

Via: CNBC:

The U.S. deficit with its global trading partners nearly doubled in November as the shortfall with the European Union swelled and the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs worked their way through the economy, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.

Following a month where the trade deficit hit its lowest level since early 2009, it shot up to $56.8 billion, an increase of 94.6% from October. Of that gain, about one-third came with the European Union, where the goods deficit rose by $8.2 billion. The goods deficit with China decreased by about $1 billion to $13.9 billion.

On a year-over-year basis, the deficit through November stood at $839.5 billion, or about 4% higher than the same period in 2024.

The increase in the deficit counters Trump’s efforts to use tariffs to reduce imbalances around the globe.

Gold-To-Silver Ratio Under 50

January 29th, 2026

Via: Forbes:

The gold-to-silver ratio (the price of an ounce of gold divided by the price of an ounce of silver) has dropped below 50 for the first time since March 2012. In simple terms, that means silver is trading at its highest level relative to gold in nearly 14 years amidst a rally that has seen gold rise by more than 80% over the last year to $5,100 an ounce while silver has surged 250% to $110 an ounce, both all-time high prices.

…

History shows how unusual this is. Since 1985, the ratio has averaged about 70 and has slipped below 50 on only about 6% of trading days. That does not mean it has to snap back right away, or at all. Wars, debt and inflation are still sending money into metals. Still, when a number almost never shows up, investors notice. And when enough of them do, it can start to shape what happens next.

So what would normalization of the gold-to-silver ratio look like right now?

The numbers can rebalance in two directions. If gold does not move much from around $5,100 an ounce, silver would have to fall to about $72 to restore the long-term average ratio of 70. That would be a drop of roughly 35%. If silver stays at $110 instead, gold would have to climb to about $7,700 an ounce.

Microsoft’s Windows 11 Mess Sending Users Back to Windows 10 and Windows 7

January 29th, 2026

This is absolutely wild.

I’ve started getting used to ZorinOS, just in case…

Via: TweakTown:

The data comes from Statcounter, which outlines that in October, 2025, Windows 11 held 58.18% market share, compared to Windows 10’s 41.17%, but then in November 2025, Windows 11 dropped down to 53.7%, compared to Windows 10’s 42.7%. While this is only a change of a few percent, it represents millions of users, especially considering Microsoft said Windows is currently active on over 1.4 billion devices worldwide.

Notably, Windows 7 increased its user base by roughly 3.9% during the same period. Data as of December 2025 indicates Windows 11 has 50.7% of the market, while Windows 10 increased to about 44.6%, and the remainder is Microsoft’s previous operating systems.

The loss in users for Microsoft’s most recent operating system comes at a time when the company is catching some heat for faulty Windows 11 updates, which were officially recognized by the company, and a revelation that Microsoft would hand over BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI if requested.

Related: Microsoft Stock Loses 11% in One Day

Eugenics: IVF “Genetic Optimization”

January 28th, 2026

Via: CBS:

Big leaps in science have made a once-impossible, much-debated question come to life: Would you design your unborn child?

Kian Sadeghi, the 25-year-old founder and CEO at Nucleus Genomics, believes every parent has a right to do just that, selecting qualities they desire – from height to weight to intelligence. He calls it “genetic optimization,” and it’s part of a Silicon Valley push to breed “super-babies.”

Sadeghi dropped out of the University of Pennsylvania and started the company in 2021, inspired by a cousin who died of a rare genetic illness. Backed by investors and prominent tech entrepreneurs like Peter Thiel and Alexis Ohanian, Sadeghi says his company has already helped thousands of families.

…

For $30,000, Nucleus offers a program called IVF+, which includes full DNA scans of both parents and up to 20 embryos conceived through in vitro fertilization. The results come back in the form of a sleek, user-friendly menu.
Advanced DNA screenings

The company screens embryo samples for more than 2,000 traits and conditions, including eye color, hair color, intelligence – even acne. It also can estimate genetic predisposition to medical conditions such as depression, autism and bipolar disorder.

Sadeghi says this “genetic optimization” allows parents to minimize disease while maximizing traits they prefer. However, critics have drawn comparisons to a different term: “eugenics.”

Research Credit: Skeletor322

Tesla Ending Models S and X Production, Converting Factory Lines to Make Optimus Robots

January 28th, 2026

Via: CNBC:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday that the automaker is ending production of its Model S and X vehicles, and will use the factory in Fremont, California, to build Optimus humanoid robots.

“It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge,” Musk said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “If you’re interested in buying a Model S and X, now would be the time to order it.”

…

Tesla is developing Optimus with the aim of someday selling it as a bipedal, intelligent robot capable of everything from factory work to babysitting. The company said in the release that it plans to unveil the third generation of Optimus this quarter, its “first design meant for mass production.”

Musk said on the call that Tesla is replacing its production line for S and X in Fremont “with a 1 million unit per year line of Optimus.”

“Because it is a completely new supply chain,” Musk said, “there’s really nothing from the existing supply chain that exists in Optimus.”

Langley Plants The Flag: CIA Takes Point In Post-Maduro Venezuela

January 28th, 2026

Via: ZeroHedge:

The CIA is “quietly working” to establish a permanent footprint inside Venezuela to shape the country’s post-Maduro trajectory, according to a CNN report Tuesday – or rather it’s not-so-quietly, with sources saying Washington intends to run Caracas much the way it penetrated Ukraine after 2014.

While the State Department is planning an eventual reopening of a formal US embassy, setting up a CIA annex has been elevated to “priority number one,” an unnamed US official told CNN – though there are serious questions as to why the agency would want to advertise this all over CNN.

From that base, agency operatives would engage with the interim government of Delcy Rodríguez, cultivate opposition factions, and “target third parties who may be threats,” according to the source.

A former US official described the annex as a workaround to traditional diplomacy:

“Before diplomatic channels the annex can help set up liaison channels… that will allow conversations that diplomats cannot have.”

In other words, the intelligence apparatus moves first, with formal diplomacy to follow. According to the unnamed official:

“State plants the flag but CIA is really the influence,” one source familiar with the planning process told CNN, noting the agency’s near-term objectives include setting the stage for diplomatic efforts – including relationship building with locals – and providing security.

Of course, no thinking person was entertaining any illusions that it would be anything less than a Langley outpost in Latin America. This is par for the South American course.

Planned Obsolescence Documentary: The Light Bulb Conspiracy

January 28th, 2026

Via: Documentary For Better World:

Related: Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America by Giles Slade

AI Found 12 Vulnerabilities in SSL

January 27th, 2026

If this was the case with OpenSSL…

Via: AISLE:

AISLE’s autonomous analyzer found all 12 CVEs in the January 2026 coordinated release of OpenSSL, the open-source cryptographic library that underpins a substantial proportion of the world’s secure communications. Some of these vulnerabilities had persisted in OpenSSL code for decades, evading the notice of thousands of security researchers.

Finding a genuine security flaw in OpenSSL is extraordinarily difficult. Even a single accepted vulnerability represents a rare achievement. The library’s maturity and the community’s vigilance make new discoveries exceptionally uncommon. This makes the January 2026 release an important milestone for autonomous security systems. As Tomáš Mráz, CTO of the OpenSSL Foundation, says,

“One of the most important sources of the security of the OpenSSL Library and open source projects overall is independent research. This release is fixing 12 security issues, all disclosed to us by AISLE. We appreciate the high quality of the reports and their constructive collaboration with us throughout the remediation.”

“Scientists Use AI to Create a Virus Never Seen Before”

January 26th, 2026

Via: Daily Mail:

Lab–grown life has taken a major leap forward as scientists use AI to create a new virus that has never been seen before.

The virus, dubbed Evo–?2147, was created by scientists from scratch using new technologies that could revolutionise the course of evolution.

With just 11 genes, compared to the 200,000 in the human genome, this virus is among the simplest forms of life.

However, scientists believe that the same tools could one day create entire living organisms or resurrect long–extinct species.

This artificial virus was specifically created to kill infectious and potentially deadly E. Coli bacteria.

Based on a wild virus known to infect bacteria, scientists used an AI tool called Evo2 to create 285 entirely new viruses from scratch.

While only 16 were able to attack the E. Coli, the most successful were 25 per cent quicker at killing bacteria than the wild variants.

However, previous research has raised concerns that AI–designed pathogens could themselves become a deadly threat to humanity.

LED Lighting (350-650nm) Undermines Human Visual Performance Unless Supplemented by Wider Spectra (400-1500nm+) Like Daylight

January 26th, 2026

Via: Scientific Reports:

Life evolved under broad spectrum sunlight, from ultraviolet to infrared (300–2500 nm). This spectrally balanced light sculpted life’s physiology and metabolism. But modern lighting has recently become dominated by restricted spectrum light emitting diodes (350–650 nm LEDs). Absence of longer wavelengths in LEDs and their short wavelength dominance impacts physiology, undermining normal mitochondrial respiration that regulates metabolism, disease and ageing. Mitochondria are light sensitive. The 420–450 nm dominant in LEDs suppresses respiration while deep red/infrared (670–900 nm) increases respiration in aging and some diseases including in blood sugar regulation. Here we supplement LED light with broad spectrum lighting (400–1500 nm+) for 2 weeks and test colour contrast sensitivity. We show significant improvement in this metric that last for 2 months after the supplemental lighting is removed. Mitochondria communicate across the body with systemic impacts following regional light exposure. This likely involves shifting patterns of serum cytokine expression, raising the possibility of wider negative impacts of LEDs on human health particularly, in the elderly or in the clinical environment where individuals are debilitated. Changing the lighting in these environments could be a highly economic route to improved public health.

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