November 2, 2026

I DO NOT TRUST THE INTERNET OF THINGS: Shop freezers in seven European countries hit by cyber-attack.

Dozens of supermarkets across seven European countries have been hit by a cyber-attack affecting their refrigerators and freezers.

Around 40 Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, while a smaller number of shops were hit in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland.

Sabcobel, a Belgian company that manufactures some of the affected refrigerators, said the units’ evaporators were switched to defrost mode, causing them to warm up, in what is believed to be the same method used in last month’s incident that hit hundreds of French supermarkets.

Millions of euros worth of food had to be thrown away in October, local media reported at the time.

Stephan Moelans, the CEO of Sabcobel, which operates Delhaize’s systems, on Monday told the Belga news agency that the incident was a cyber-attack and that the company had been “working all night and morning to disconnect the affected units from the network”.

He said since the French attack in early October, the company had been working to “protect our customers fridges against this vulnerability” but that the units needed physical modifications, not just software updates.

Most supermarkets across Europe are linked to the internet, and maintenance and troubleshooting can be done remotely.

Bad things can be done remotely as well:

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Former MIT scientist wins $6M defamation verdict against colleague who accused him of sexual misconduct.

A former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientist won a legal victory this week after losing his position following sexual misconduct allegations made by a female colleague.

Dr. David Sabatini, a former MIT biology professor and prominent biomedical researcher, was awarded $6 million in damages Friday after a jury found that his former colleague, Dr. Kristin Knouse, had defamed him.

At the time of the allegations, Sabatini had led a research lab at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for approximately 24 years.

His work focused on cell biology and its connections to neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, aging and cancer.

In 2021, Sabatini lost his position at Whitehead following an internal investigation into allegations made by Dr. Kristin Knouse, a younger colleague who worked at the institute.

The pair met in 2012 and began a sexual relationship in 2018, which ended the following year, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital. Knouse later alleged the relationship was coerced.

Read the whole thing. As Richard Fernandez says, “Lysenkoism is alive and well and its new name is Wokism. The immense prestige of the Ivy League, Oxbridge and les grand ecoles attract not only the tall trees, but growing in its shadow, also the malignant creepers of envy, deceit and greed.”

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: The Eerie True Story of The Nightmare Face Haunting The Internet. “Among the hundreds of Loab iterations Supercomposite has summoned into being, many feature dismembered or screaming children in the background. Some AI-generated images were so grotesque that the artist decided not to share them publicly.”

Posted at 8:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

RICH-MOGGING BILL GATES:

Elon is always amusing.

Also, “I made Microsoft!” isn’t the flex Bill seems to think it is . . .

UPDATE: It’s fake, but it’s funny.

Posted at 7:20 pm by Glenn Reynolds

A GALLON WEIGHS ROUGHLY EIGHT POUNDS, SO THAT’S A GOOD PRICE. OR, ALTERNATIVELY, SHE’S DRUNK.

Posted at 7:14 pm by Glenn Reynolds

NO, IT’S NOT METFORMIN THIS TIME. Scientists Say This Medication Could Be the Next “Wonder Drug.” “Researchers at Michigan Medicine also found that sotagliflozin suppresses excessive platelet activity, a process that can block blood flow to the heart or brain. Published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the findings suggest a possible explanation for the drug’s ability to reduce heart attack and stroke risk beyond its effects on blood sugar.”

Posted at 7:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

MUST-READ LONG-FORM PIECE FROM DATA REPUBLICAN: The Shadow Cabinet of Soros. “Inside the Soros-Funded Nonprofit That Hand-Picked Biden’s National Security Team, Then Pretended to Dissolve.”

I’m just getting into this one, but can already tell you’ll want to block off enough time to do it justice.

Posted at 6:06 pm by Stephen Green

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Talarico Staffers Confirm His Moderation Is Fake. “He [Talarico] probably said that to try to make himself appear more centrist. He’s very liberaL… but we’ve got to get elected, so we can do something.”

Posted at 5:21 pm by Stephen Green

PRO TIP: If you’re waling on someone with a stout stick like this, jab it like a spear, don’t swing it. What this guy is doing will just leave some bruises. Jabbing would break ribs, and it’s harder to block.

Posted at 5:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: More Evidence Emerges That Dating Is Becoming a Bleak, AI-Powered Office Job. “The New York Times story about San Francisco’s singles scene is worth reading in full—particularly the sections about people making startup-style pitch decks for their friends at singles events, and about the tech entrepreneurs who can barely squeeze dating into their self-imposed ceaseless workdays.”

Posted at 4:50 pm by Stephen Green

AND ANOTHER ONE:

Posted at 4:34 pm by Stephen Green

PREPPING: Being Prepared is a Choice. So is Choosing Not to Be. “Most of us can probably get on board with the idea that our military bases, areas critical to our national security, should indeed be self-sufficient enough that they won’t collapse or become paralyzed by either cyber or kinetic attacks on the power grid, etc. In fact, we might ask, why is this even a question? Why aren’t all military bases already up to this standard? You can answer those two previous questions for yourself. However, the primary question we should all be asking is this; if the government/military is taking active steps to protect its people and places from cyber attacks, terrorism, etc. should we be concerned?”

Posted at 4:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

NEWS YOU CAN USE? McHaggis? Court Green Lights Lawsuit Alleging that the McRib Contains Non-Rib Meat. “Many were excited when McDonald’s recently announced, ‘The McRib is back.’ The question is whether it is really back or really a McRib. In an interesting decision out of Chicago, U.S. District Judge April Perry ruled that McDonald’s must go to trial on a class action lawsuit alleging that the popular McRib sandwich is made with non-rib meat. The lawsuit alleges that McDonald’s merely shapes the meat to look like ribs but uses shoulder, heart, tripe, or stomach — making it sound more like McHaggis. McDonald’s vehemently denies the accusation and stands by its representation that the only ingredients are ‘pork, water, salt, dextrose, and rosemary extract.’ The class action was filed under an array of tort, fraud, and misrepresentation theories. In the end, however, the impact on McDonald’s could have the same business impact that the ‘pink slime’ stories had on Taco Bell.”

Posted at 3:48 pm by Stephen Green

HE SEEMS NICE:

Posted at 3:32 pm by Stephen Green