Former Norway PM Attempts Suicide After Epstein-Linked Raid, Corruption Charges
February 24th, 2026— cryptogon (@cryptogon) February 24, 2026
Via: ZeroHedge:
Norway’s former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland was hospitalized a week ago after a failed suicide attempt, days after he was charged with “gross corruption” after a police probe into his ties with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, local outlet iNyheter reports.
Jagland, 75, who gave Barack Obama a Nobel peace price less than nine months into his presidency, was charged on February 12 after police carried out an extensive search of his properties – including apartments in Oslo and in Risør.
‘Special Research for Artichoke’
February 24th, 2026The following is from a 1952 CIA document called, Special Research for Artichoke:
It is believed that specific research should be undertaken to develop new chemicals or drugs or to improve known elements for use in the Artichoke work. A study should be made to determine what drugs are best suited for direct use on subjects along the lines of amytal and pentothal and which drugs are best for indirect or lcng-range approach to subjects. This second type of drug should be one that could be administered over a considerable period of time, possibly being placed in food or water and would either have an agitating effect (producing anxiety, nervousness, tension, etc.) or a depressing effect (creating a feeling of despondency, hopelessness, lethargy, etc.). This study should include chemicals or drugs that can effectively be concealed in common items such as food, water, coca cola, beer, liquor, cigarettes, etc. This type of drug should also be capable of use in standard medical treatments such as vaccinations, shots, etc.
Via: Daily Mail:
A newly released CIA document reveals a chilling blueprint to manipulate minds through covert drugging experiments.
The report, added to the CIA’s reading room in 2025, details the government’s once top-secret Project Artichoke that ran from 1951 to 1956, focusing on behavior control, interrogation techniques and psychological manipulation.
The seven-page document, titled ‘Special Research for Artichoke,’ with an attachment labeled ‘Suggested Fields for Special Research Relative Artichoke,’ outlines proposals to develop chemicals capable of altering human behavior.
It discusses drugs designed for both immediate effects, like truth serums and long-term influence, potentially administered through food, water, alcohol or cigarettes.
Researchers also suggested that such substances could be disguised in medical treatments such as vaccinations or injections.
The CIA was also looking into methods beyond chemicals, listing hypnosis, sensory deprivation, gases and other psychological methods for interrogation and behavioral control.
Artichoke served as a precursor to the CIA’s MKUltra program, which later broadened mind-altering experiments on a larger scale.
“I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?”
February 24th, 2026Many AIs fail to answer the question correctly, but far more of a worry is that 28% of humans also get it wrong:
The most common pushback on the car wash test: “Humans would fail this too.”
Fair point. We didn’t have data either way. So we partnered with Rapidata to find out. They ran the exact same question with the same forced choice between “drive” and “walk,” no additional context, past 10,000 real people through their human feedback platform.
71.5% said drive.
Via: Opper:
The car wash test is the simplest AI reasoning benchmark that nearly every model fails, including Claude Sonnet 4.5, GPT-5.1, Llama, and Mistral.
Donut Lab Starts to Release Independent Test Results of Their Solid State Battery
February 23rd, 2026Donut Lab only released charge rate information so far, along with a countdown to the next release of test results. While they appear to want the controversy to drag on for as long as possible, at least they are moving in the right direction with the release of some information.
I was really hoping for confirmation of power density, but we’re going to have to wait for that.
Via: The Verge:
Since announcing earlier this year that it was on the cusp of a major battery breakthrough, Finnish startup Donut Lab has faced a lot of questions, and plenty of skepticism, about its production-ready, solid-state battery. Could the company really make a fast-charging battery at scale while avoiding some of the theoretical production headaches that have stymied past efforts? Today, Donut Lab sought to dispel some of the doubts with the release of the first independent test of its battery, evaluating its charging speed and the “thermal behavior” of its pack.
The test, which was conducted by state-owned VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, concludes that the battery is able to be charged significantly faster than a traditional lithium-ion battery. In several tests, the battery was able to charge from 0–80 percent in around 9.5 minutes, while retaining 100 percent of its capacity. In other tests, 0–80 percent was achieved in about 4.5 minutes while retaining 99 percent capacity.
U.S. Air Force Transports Compact Nuclear Reactor Aboard C-17
February 22nd, 2026Via: The Defense Post:
The US Department of Defense has airlifted a compact nuclear reactor from California to Utah, marking the first time a C-17 military transport aircraft has transported a nuclear microreactor.
In partnership with Hawthorne-based Valar Atomics and the Department of Energy, officials flew the unfueled Ward 250 reactor from March Air Reserve Base to Hill Air Force Base.
The reactor will then be moved to the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab for assessments, where it is expected to reach initial operations capability by July 2026 under Washington’s effort to accelerate domestic nuclear deployment.
More:
Department of War Partners With Department of Energy in Historic Nuclear Energy Initiative
Iran (So Far Away)
February 22nd, 2026The RAMpocalypse. No hard drives. GPU and SSD prices through the roof?
Worth it.
Via: Dr Phoxotic:
In case you don’t know what inspired the AI slop above: A Flock Of Seagulls – I Ran (So Far Away):
Man Accidentally Gains Control of 7,000 Robot Vacuums
February 22nd, 2026Via: Popular Science:
A software engineer’s earnest effort to steer his new DJI robot vacuum with a video game controller inadvertently granted him a sneak peak into thousands of people’s homes.
While building his own remote-control app, Sammy Azdoufal reportedly used an AI coding assistant to help reverse-engineer how the robot communicated with DJI’s remote cloud servers. But he soon discovered that the same credentials that allowed him to see and control his own device also provided access to live camera feeds, microphone audio, maps, and status data from nearly 7,000 other vacuums across 24 countries. The backend security bug effectively exposed an army of internet-connected robots that, in the wrong hands, could have turned into surveillance tools, all without their owners ever knowing.
Florida: U.S. Secret Service and Law Enforcement Officers Killed Armed Man Attempting to Enter Mar-a-Lago
February 22nd, 2026Update: Suspect, Austin Tucker Martin
Via: Daily Mail:
An armed young man identified as Austin Tucker Martin was shot and killed on Sunday morning after entering President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Martin, the 21-year-old North Carolina native, was killed at around 1.30am on Sunday at Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, after entering with a gas can and a shotgun, according to Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesperson for the US Secret Service.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said that, after entering near the north gate of the resort, Martin was confronted by two Secret Service agents and a deputy with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department.
He pointed the shotgun at them, and was quickly neutralized by the officers.
Martin was reported missing by his family and was believed to have picked up the shotgun on his way down South. Guglielmi said that a box for the weapon was found inside Martin’s car, which his family identified as a 2013 silver Volkswagen Tiguan.
His family said on Facebook that Martin was last heard from on Saturday just before 8pm after he left his $1.1 million home in Cameron, North Carolina, at around 1pm.
‘This is not like him at all,’ his devastated aunt wrote.
Martin lived with his parents at the secluded, countryside home – and the man had a fascination with drawing golf courses in his spare time, an Instagram account linked to him showed.
‘I specialize in pen illustrations centered around landscapes, architecture, and scenery,’ he wrote in a brief description of his skills.
—
Via: USA Today:
A man is dead following an overnight break-in attempt at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
A man in his early 20s breached the perimeter at Mar-a-Lago carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel can, according to authorities. Two U.S. Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy spotted him near the property’s north gate and ordered him to drop his weapons.
The man lowered the gas can but, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, raised the shotgun “into a shooting position,” at which point law enforcement opened fire, killing him.
Something Was Making Stone Tools In China 600,000 Years Before Homo Erectus Showed Up
February 22nd, 2026Via: StudyFinds:
Stone tools discovered in China date back as far as 2.4 million years. The oldest confirmed human fossils from the same region? Only 1.77 million years old. That gap, now significantly narrowed by new research, leaves one question stubbornly unanswered: who, or what, was already there?
Tech Billionaires Shielding Their Children From The Products That Made Them Rich
February 22nd, 2026Via: Fortune:
As far back as 2010, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs told a New York Times reporter his kids had never used an iPad and that, “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”
Since then, the trend of Silicon Valley billionaires keeping their families away from technology has become even more pronounced, thanks in part to the rise of social media and short-form video.
Excessive device use among children has become more common in recent years as busy parents turn to screens to find some peace. The trend has accelerated so much that some young children accustomed to extensive screen time are dubbed “iPad kids.” On average, children in the U.S. ages 8 to 18 spend 7.5 hours per day watching or using screens, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
YouTube cofounder Steve Chen said at a talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business last year that he wouldn’t want his kids consuming only short-form content, noting that it might be better to limit kids to videos longer than 15 minutes.
“Shorter-form content equates to shorter attention spans,” he said.
At the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, early Facebook investor and billionaire Peter Thiel joined Chen among the ranks of tech leaders who are setting strict limits on screens. Thiel said he only lets his two young children use screens for an hour-and-a-half per week, a revelation that prompted audible gasps from the audience.
Other tech CEOs, including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Snap’s Evan Spiegel, and Tesla’s Elon Musk, have also spoken about limiting their children’s access to devices. Gates has said he did not give his children smartphones until age 14 and banned phones at the dinner table entirely. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, in 2018, said he limits his child to the same 1.5 hours per week of screen time as Thiel. And finally, Musk, who bought the social media company X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, said it “might’ve been a mistake” to not set any rules on social media for his children.
2011: Some Parents Who Work for Elite Silicon Valley Firms Send Their Children to School with No Computers
