Humans evolved a cognitive 'social proof' system for establishing what's true (if enough of the people around me believe something, I'll go along) and media fragmentation + social media has completely and totally hijacked it Feels like AI will only make this worse

It's not profitable to save women's lives. #America 1/ "The technique, known as IORT, has numerous benefits, surgeons say, but it generates less money for hospitals and radiation oncologists." www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

Maybe 'bottomless' was the problem?

New Yorker cartoons nail it again.

“In contrast, in 2025, the protesters have numbered in the few dozens on most nights and their activity has largely been confined to a two-block radius of the building’s front driveway. Approximately 60 people have been arrested in the past four months…” www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...

As bad as this headline is, the details are worse. Russel Vought is trying to roll back SS for the elderly, the disabled, the widowed and orphaned and FURTHER cut food stamps. Make sure to read and share this gift link: wapo.st/4qa8yoq

"Burning to the ground," I tell ya...

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

I thought he and NYC Mayor Adams were cool though

The aptly-named human foible around which this essay is formed applies, imo, more equally all political persuasions than suggested by the author, however her core insight is a valuable analytical lens through which the motivation of much harmful groupthink can be discerned and dissected

my buddy had a dream about "newport snows" which where like, spearmint, not menthol so i made it for him in photoshop and got carried away

This essay is important, in that it clears out all the bullshit and lays out the obvious first principles upon which a decent society depends. S tier

Some big implications for journalism, too, where reporters often mistake trending posts as a reasonable reflection of public opinion.

Sometimes I reason that if the nation is becoming more unkind, those of us who object to that must make an effort to be that much more kind in our daily lives.

I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)

An Anti-Zohran PAC just dropped $250k on ads featuring 'New Yorkers' who say they won't vote for Zohran. Except they're all stock models.

More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

Just now, 11 state and city lawmakers were arrested by DHS police on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza after a hour of demanding access to the ICE lock up on the same floor. @thecity.nyc

Bunch of folks pointed to Paul Krugman’s depressingly plausible answer, which is that in the case of extraordinary disruptions, markets are biased toward pretending things are normal until it’s undeniable, then tanking. paulkrugman.substack.com/p/why-arent-...

Can anyone please explain what this even means?

I've seen people say the Trump administration campaign against campus antisemitism is working to expand the range of what qualifies as antisemitism. This is exactly the wrong way to look at it. They are trying to shift and shrink that range, so that *only* anti-Israel protests count as antisemitism.

I considered writing a long carefully constructed argument laying out the harms and limitations of AI, but instead I wrote about being a hater. Only humans can be haters.

As one can imagine, I have some thoughts. Here’s a thread no one asked for: 1. SCIENCE IN THE US IS POLITICAL. No matter how much you want to ignore that fact, it is supported by taxpayer dollars and is therefore, political by nature. 2. BUT it has had bipartisan support for decades, which…

Maxwell said she never saw Trump do anything “inappropriate.” She also said she never saw *anyone* do anything inappropriate. CASE CLOSED!

BREAKING: Kilmar Abrego has been RELEASED from prison and is headed home to Maryland to be with his family. Judge Xinis has an order in place requiring a 72 hour notice if ICE decides to detain and deport him to a third country. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Winnie Greco simply gave money to somebody without stating a specific favor she wanted, but expecting that they would understand that they were expected to return the favor when given the opportunity. In her American culture, this is a practice known as "lobbying."

This week I dug deep into the Paradox of Tolerance. We might hope still to build a new house to replace the one abusive bullies are burning down, after centuries of decades of being enabled in the name of civility. If we do, the new house will need new locks. www.the-reframe.com/change-the-l...

JAMES BOND (Tom Holland): (into smart watch) Alexa, I need your help! I can’t get into the Amazon fulfillment centre to save the Prime Minister! There’s a large group of pro-union protestors blocking the way! MILF YOUNGLY (Lauren Sanchez): Perhaps I could be of service, Mr. Bond. I am 24 years old.

What if the real superpower of AI is its ability to impress and manipulate people? What if it can't do anything useful in the real world outside of highly prescriptivized and directed pattern matching? For good or ill, awing and proselytizing people can move mountains, but that's not the claim

the biggest force for rural resentment of cities in the last three decades is that cities got way better and the countryside got way worse.

A core use case for bots’ emotional resonance with the user is psychological addiction. Human interaction is often messy and emotionally painful. Bot interaction, if coded properly, can feel less painful—even soothing—to the user, making it addictive. Addiction is profitable.

When people no longer believe private property is sacrosanct, they'll rush for the exits

GPT-5 regularly asks you why you are not citing its work. GPT-5 always believes your estimator is biased. GPT-5 has more of a comment than a question. Sometimes GPT-5 tells you stories about grad school and expresses regret about getting a PhD. GPT-5's mom wonders when it will start making money.

This is the US Constitution page @ the Library of Congress Sections 9 and 10 have been removed 9 includes habeas corpus, the courts' review of unlawful detention & imprisonment This gov't can't change the Constitution w/ sneaky editing, but it's a new low: constitution.congress.gov/constitution/

Everyone says Leon is a master of PR, but this? What if he opened a diner that had spectacular food, sold at a loss? He could even claim he discovered efficiencies that the rest of the restaurant world didn't know about. Woulda given him a boost. Nope, too dumb even for that

The most important thing for cybertruck owners to do is to wash it regularly with saltwater and lemon juice, especially in the first six months. This will preserve the finish

Pass it on!

Du Bois on what these assholes were really like

The Feral Govermnent

Here’s your free link to the Trump/ Epstein story www.wsj.com/politics/tru...

BREAKING The WSJ has reviewed a book put together for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, as part of that book a letter was submitted by Donald Trump. Trump’s letter features a drawing of a naked woman and this text which imagines a conversation between Trump and Epstein. Full Story: bit.ly/45bmsxO

Public cloud, public social media, public dating apps. It sounds unhinged at first but tbh I think creating alternatives with no profit motive could have extremely positive downstream effects to every aspect of society.

Q: What should you do if someone swindles you out of your cherrystones? A: Take them to small clams court

This will (hopefully) never cease to be staggering to everyone else in the world.

One would hope the obvious fact that a crazy racist billionaire can reprogram an AI bot to also be crazy racist in the blink of an eye will make anyone pause just a sec before they open up any other AI tool and treat it as gospel.

AOC: "On this point of tax on tips, as one of the only people in this body who has lived off of tips, I want to tell you a little bit about the scam ... the cap on that is $25,000 while you're jacking up taxes on people who make less than $50,000 across the US ... while kicking them off the ACA."