randycupertino

> Japan has been fighting a brutal losing battle against its demographic clock for decades. With one of the oldest populations on the planet and entire regions turning into ghost towns (Kochi barely scrapes 650,000 inhabitants and continues to decline), the state has tried everything: from tax-funded blind date events to massive awareness campaigns. This new approach of directly paying for digital memberships exposes the immense level of government desperation to reactivate births before the system collapses due to a lack of a young workforce.

They are blaming "endless shrimp" for the recent bankruptcy, but really it was more private equity selling off their assets and making them rent it back:

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/private-equity-rol...

> When a private-equity firm bought the iconic seafood chain in 2014, it sold the real estate under the restaurants for $1.5 billion. Then the restaurants struggled to pay the rents.

Less regulation and less oversight, easier to access and give unapproved treatments, less training and licensure requirements, less safety and compliance, less meddling medical authorities wanting to ensure safety and efficacy.

I'm reminded of "Dr. Death" aka Paolo Macchiarini, the former stem cell surgeon who washed plastic tracheal implants in a "stem cell bath" that did absolutely nothing to the plastic then inserted in people's throats only to cause them to choke to death. He was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison by a Swedish court for aggravated assault against patients he treated, but before the medical board finally took action against him he was heralded as a stem-cell revolutionary.

https://www.science.org/content/article/disgraced-surgeon-pa...

Answer: faulty stem cell injections from "stem cell injector to the stars" Dr. Adeel Khan

> they defrauded investors and lenders by fabricating "virtually all" of the now-bankrupt company's customer relationships and revenue.

> According to the indictment, the defendants used forged sham contracts to make it seem that iLearning's customers were real, and used "round trip" transfers of investor and lender funds -- meaning they sent money to purported customers, who then returned it to iLearning -- to manufacture revenue.

> At least 90% of iLearning's $421 million of reported revenue in 2023 was fabricated, the indictment said.

> The company went public in April 2024, and its market value on the Nasdaq peaked at $1.5 billion before a prominent short-seller questioned its reported revenue.

For the record the short sellers who blew up the fraud were Hindenburg Research. This is the second AI company they've discovered that is a scam, the other being Super Micro with their chip-selling scam: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2026/03/20/super-mic...

Here is the store in question: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g189135-d21213...

Looks fun, I'd buy a can or two. I tend to like anchovies better than sardines.

> The government lawyers wrote that the statements should be part of the trial because they are “candid, internal messages” in which Ben Baker “calls fans ‘so stupid,’ explains that he ‘gouge(s)’ them, and brags that Live Nation is ‘robbing them blind, baby.’”

> In the submission to Judge Arun Subramanian, the lawyers noted that Baker made the statements while he was a regional director of ticketing with responsibility for a large amphitheater in Florida but has since been promoted to head of ticketing for Venue Nation with responsibilities relating to all of Live Nation’s venues.

> They said the employees were discussing Live Nation’s price for access to the VIP area of a show at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa when Baker wrote that the prices are “outrageous,” that “these people are so stupid” and that “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them” before writing, “BAHAHAHAHAHA.”

https://apnews.com/article/livenation-antitrust-ticketmaster...

I just went and saw Project Hail Mary last week and I was all worried I'd be late after navigating the parking situation, arriving at 7:35 for a 7:30 show. My worry was needless as after the ads and previews the actual show didn't start until 8:15! I could have even stopped and gotten popcorn instead of rushing in afraid I'd missed the beginning of the film.

> YouTube (and other content creation platforms in general) are just a better deal for many people than traditional forms of entertainment.

I think a big factor is that it's low friction. Just open the link or search whatever you want and it plays. It's not like cable where you need to sign up for a service, or Netflix where you need to scroll around in previews selecting for your next show, it's always on your phone, laptop or TV fast and free.

It's successful because it's mindless, people can just pull something up and consume content. If they start pushing more unskippable ads, or requiring subscriptions or accounts to view, their viewership would go way down and people would move on to next easier thing.

Note the owner of the auto body shop and alleged leader of the fraud ring was indicted for murdering one of his co-conspirators who flipped and was becoming a witness:

https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/witness-in-louisian...

> Ryan Harris and Jovanna Gardner were indicted Monday for witness tampering through murder and conspiracy to retaliate against a witness through murder in addition to mail and wire fraud for their alleged participation in the staged wrecks.

> The pair are accused in the Sept. 22, 2020, execution-style shooting of Cornelius Garrison, who had secretly been cooperating with the FBI, was a major setback as authorities tried to climb the ladder from small-time scammers and street-level organizers to the attorneys and doctors whom they say raked in millions of dollars through bogus lawsuits and even unnecessary surgeries.

> So far, the case has led to 52 people being indicted and 44 of them pleading guilty, but only a single attorney, Danny Patrick Keating, has entered a guilty in exchange for his cooperation.

If the Paramount Warner deal is approved, MAGA David Ellison will own roughly 2/3rds to 3/4 of all US influential media, including TikTok, Paramount/CBS, WB and a large ownership stake in X. It will essentially give conservatives control of what is reported and pushed through algorithms to the nation/world.

Note their takeover of CBS news is killing it - viewership is at historic lows since the conservative shift and down over 4 million.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/tony-dokou...

Phoebe Gates insisting she wants her app Phia to stand on its own, completely separate from her last name and privilege. Hailey Bieber just invested in their $8 million round: https://www.businessoffashion.com/news/technology/phoebe-gat...

> Roche had the most drugs in development, 262, largely because former pace-setter Pfizer axed assets, according to the report. Pfizer fell to No. 3 in the rankings after cutting its R&D pipeline from 271 to 257 molecules. AstraZeneca leapfrogged Pfizer and Novartis, adding 20 candidates to its pipeline to climb to No. 2.

> Novartis fell to No. 5 after trimming 10 programs, overtaken by Sanofi’s expanding pipeline.

Large drugmakers typically disclose programs only after they enter the clinic, meaning the data offer an incomplete snapshot of how pipelines are changing.

> Across the 25 companies with the largest pipelines, the total number of assets in development increased by 32. However, that figure is inflated by the addition of 30 programs to BioNTech’s pipeline. Among the top 15 companies, the number of active assets fell by 10.

Notably, a lot of smaller biopharmas are going under as their runways dry up.

I will say the "Gen Z stare" is an actual phenomena that happens irl. I just got it at the deli counter last weekend. I was trying to order a tuna sandwich and just got stared at back with the most blank deadpan unmoving expression, he didn't do anything to confirm or approve my order (or start making it). When I got home I told my partner about it and they laughed, "oh you got the 'Gen Z stare!' and so I googled it and that is EXACTLY what happened!

Here are few good examples of it: https://www.tiktok.com/@dantejamees/video/752596765491436263...

I have a coworker who purposely cuts off, road rages and hostilely engages with Waymos and Cybercabs. He views it as his civic duty against machines taking over, and arrives to work all amped up having messed with a Waymo on his morning commute. He basically is like "the machines deserve it! Put THIS in your ai, mfers" after he cuts them off. Over coffee one time I was telling him maybe it's not that good for his mental health to rage against machines every morning. He responded, "therapy is not enough, I need to fight for humanity."

I wonder if these Philly robot attackers feel similarly.

> The acquisition is expected to add over $125 million in annualized run rate revenue, instantly scaling Chewy Vet Care’s footprint from 18 to 47 locations nationwide, and is expected to be EBITDA-dollar neutral in 2026 on a pro forma basis. Modern Animal clinics have historically matured over two to four years with a clear line of sight to EBITDA-dollar contribution beginning in 2027.

> In addition to fast-scaling net sales, Modern Animal clinics demonstrate attractive unit economics, with over 2x above-industry-average revenue per location and EBITDA margins exceeding 20% for mature clinics. Supported by disciplined operations, clinical excellence and purpose-built technology, the returns align with Chewy’s de novo clinic model.

United updated their website a few weeks after this lawsuit, now when you try and book row 11 wall-seat it notes there is no window.

Full interview: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DWy_5iREYsX/

> “I blame it all on my mom, because she told me, ‘Don’t talk with your mouth full.’ And I think probably in that case, I should have just said, ‘you know what? To hell with it. I’m gonna go talk with my mouth full,” he stated.

Private browsing bypasses Rueter's paywall but here is a link: https://archive.is/Hmj4A

and the text:

> NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) - Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab said on Thursday its pharmacy unit will stock Eli Lilly's (LLY.N), opens new tab new weight-loss pill at kiosks located at some of the company's primary care clinics and offer same-day delivery of the drug. Amazon Pharmacy began delivering GLP-1 medications in 2021, but does not stock injectable versions of the drugs in kiosks because they need to be refrigerated. No need for cold storage is "what allows for broader access and for them to be stored safely in a kiosk for dispensing," Tanvi Patel, a vice president at Amazon Pharmacy, said of the pills.

> About half of customers in the U.S. have access to same-day delivery, and the company aims to expand that, Patel said. All customers receive their medications within four days. Amazon Pharmacy fulfills prescriptions made through Eli Lilly's direct-to-consumer pharmacy platform LillyDirect and has been stocking Novo Nordisk's (NOVOb.CO), opens new tab Wegovy pill at its kiosks since January. Patel said Amazon benefits from being Lilly's dispensing pharmacy because of the Indianapolis-based drugmaker's early direct-to-consumer focus. Lilly said last week it would begin selling its newly approved Foundayo weight-loss pill directly to cash-pay customers through LillyDirect at $149 per month for the lowest dose.

> Customers can also access Amazon's same-day delivery through Lilly's prescribing partners, such as WeightWatchers (WW.O), opens new tab, said Patel. Novo's rival Wegovy pill, which began selling in January, is currently stocked in five kiosks in California, where customers can pick up the drugs at Amazon's One Medical locations following a medical appointment. Amazon last year announced the kiosks for selling widely used medications such as antibiotics, blood pressure medicines and asthma inhalers, saying the option would reduce barriers to access and limit shipping costs. Patients without a membership to One Medical, Amazon's primary and urgent care business, can still book an appointment and use the kiosks. A one-year One Medical subscription fee costs $199. As the kiosks are introduced beyond California, Patel said, their locations may expand to other providers or clinics, if allowed by state regulation.

> Amazon invested over $4 billion in 2025 in an effort to triple its company-wide delivery options this year, targeting underserved small towns and rural areas. By the end of 2026, same-day delivery access should reach 4,500 locales, Patel said.

Paywall link: https://archive.is/20260408123832/https://www.detroitnews.co...

> PepsiCo Inc.’s chips prices had gotten too high. Walmart Inc. had been telling the maker of Doritos, Lay’s, Cheetos and many other beloved snacks that was the case for more than a year.

> Executives at PepsiCo knew it, too. Sales at Frito-Lay, the company’s snacks powerhouse, were plunging. Some of its chips cost more than $7 a bag; at Walmart, Doritos prices had jumped nearly 50% from 2021, according to Attain, which tracks consumer spending data.

> Yet, even when Walmart cut Frito-Lay’s shelf . space — giving it to its own cheaper, in-house brand and competitors like Takis — price tags didn’t go down. Finally, in February PepsiCo announced it would slash prices by up to 15% on some salty snacks. By then, Frito-Lay had missed internal revenue targets for two years in a row by over $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

> The retailer updated its terms and conditions on March 22, stating that if a customer authorizes the Gemini agent to act on their behalf, any transaction performed by the AI would be "considered transactions authorized by you."

> Essentially, the T&Cs state that even if the bot orders the wrong items, you'll still have to pay for them. The terms add that users are responsible for reviewing activity performed by the Agentic Commerce Agent.

Serious toxicities shown in all patients, yikes. In vivo cell therapy is very interesting in theory but going to take a lot more trials before any clinically safe, commercially viable and regulatory approved treatments.

HN generally downvotes and/or flags anything that paints ycombinator in a bad light. As Altman was president of yc from 2014 to 2019 that could be why this is getting downvoted.

Articles critical of Airbnb, one of yc's biggest wins, also get flagged and taken down.

> A 26-year-old dental student in Connecticut died in an intensive care unit that was overseen by a remote "tele-health" doctor who pronounced him dead on a video screen after failing to "effectively communicate" his medical needs, a lawsuit says.

> Conor Hylton's parents are suing Yale New Haven Health, which owns and operates the Bridgeport Hospital Milford Campus where their son died in 2024, and Northeast Medical Group — which is also part of Yale New Haven Health — for negligence that they say ultimately led to his death.

They're using euphemisms, the "virtual fence" is just shock collars.

> A former US air force master sergeant who nicknamed himself “Al Capone” has pleaded guilty to defrauding the military branch out of $37m by inflating the cost of IT contracts – and giving some of the extra money to an individual he called “Godfather”.

> Alan Hayward James, from Texas, ran a nine-year scam, beginning in April 2016, which also saw him funnel excess funds to himself, his family and his co-conspirators.

> Monarch Tractor raised over $240 million for its self-driving, electric tractors guided by artificial intelligence that debuted in 2023. That year, Time called the vehicle one of the year’s greatest inventions, and Forbes predicted that the company would become the world’s next billion-dollar startup. The company was later valued at $518 million. Now, the company has abandoned its Livermore headquarters after laying off its entire staff last year and warning it may “shut down.”

The instagram video of a farmer trying it out is interesting- the farmer noted it was dangerous and the only thing he could successfully get it to do was split logs: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWec9aukq-Q/