🚀 SpaceX Sabotage Rumors | 🔓 Gov-Grade Signal Clone Breached | 🛠️ Russian-Linked Go Library Alarm

🔥 Warm-Up

Hey there, bandwidth bandit—welcome back to the inbox where latency goes to die. Today we’ve got SpaceX dusting off a nine-year-old mystery, U.S. coders side-eyeing a Russian Go library, a “secure” Signal clone that forgot to lock the door, Volvo’s battery bet hitting the brakes, and a drone start-up literally trying to make it rain. Strap in.

🚀 Today in Tech

SPACEX REVIVES THE “SNIPER” THEORY

Source: https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/05/spacex-pushed-sniper-theory-with-the-feds-far-more-than-is-publicly-known/

TL;DR: Newly surfaced filings show SpaceX pressed regulators far harder than anyone knew to investigate whether a 2016 Falcon 9 pad explosion was sabotage—complete with rumors of a rooftop marksman across the bay. Musk still loves his plot twists.

EASYJSON, HARD PROBLEMS

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/easyjson-open-source-vk-ties/

TL;DR: Security researchers warn that the wildly popular Go serializer easyjson is maintained by devs linked to sanctioned Russian giant VK, arguing the package could become a sleeper-cell in U.S. critical systems. Open source, open questions.

TELEMESSAGE HACKED—ARCHIVED SECRETS SPILL

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/05/telemessage-a-modified-signal-clone-used-by-us-govt-officials-has-been-hacked/

TL;DR: A lone hacker vacuumed up chat archives from TeleMessage, the modded Signal used by U.S. officials, exposing contact lists and credentials. Even encrypted apps need parental controls—because when a secure clone gets grounded, the cipher sure hits the fan.

VOLVO’S NOVO ENERGY SLASHES STAFF AFTER NORTHVOLT WOES

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/volvo-cars-battery-company-novo-energy-cut-workforce-by-50-2025-05-05/

TL;DR: Novo Energy, Volvo’s Swedish battery venture, is laying off half its workers after partner Northvolt’s bankruptcy, yet still claims it’ll build that Gothenburg gigafactory—eventually. EV dreams meet cold-start reality.

RAINMAKER’S $25 M DRONE ROUND MAKES INVESTORS DROOL

Source: https://www.axios.com/pro/climate-deals/2025/05/05/rainmaker-25m-cloud-seeding-drones

TL;DR: Climate-tech startup Rainmaker scored a $25 million Series A to deploy swarms of cloud-seeding drones aimed at nudging precipitation where droughts bite. Forecast calls for scattered cash showers.

🎲 Link Grab-Bag

• Source: https://boingboing.net/?p=1077993 — Pong gets live play-by-play from an LLM that never runs out of dad-level enthusiasm.
  

• Source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/04/2350224/the-un-ditches-google-for-form-submissions-opts-for-open-source-cryptpad-instead — UN swaps Google Forms for open-source CryptPad, privacy nerds cheer.
  

• Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43881200 — Show HN: DIY air-quality monitor tracks everything from CO₂ to NOx on an ESP32.
  

• Source: https://boingboing.net/2025/05/04/please-enjoy-the-winners-of-the-2025-dance-your-phd-contest.html — Scientists explain theses via interpretive dance—peer review meets pirouette.
  

• Source: https://metatalk.metafilter.com/26632/MetaFilter-site-rebuild-update-5-2-2025 — MetaFilter posts progress on its long-awaited site rebuild; retro web heads rejoice.

🏁 Sign-off

Catch you tomorrow—until then, may all your packets find the fastest route. ✨