Thoughts on family background. www.splicetoday.com/writing/reco...

"How did the US run out of missiles in Iran?" www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/how-did-th...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: When the Artemis II crew became the "most distant humans ever" in last week's moon flyby, @planet4589.bsky.social wondered where the corresponding "farthest" humans were back here on Earth. Turns out they weren't on Earth at all! www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

“An 86-year-old French woman who moved to the US to marry her 1950s sweetheart is being held in a crowded detention centre in Louisiana after she was arrested by immigration agents and cuffed by her hands and feet.” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

www.splicetoday.com/politics-and... "The Weakness of 'Strongmen'."

www.splicetoday.com/politics-and... "The Weakness of 'Strongmen'."

Illiberalism is not Inevitable www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

"If we were characters in a Dan Brown novel trying to decode the sinister machinery behind current events (and I’m not saying we’re not!), Hungary would be the overlooked puzzle piece that ties all the nefarious schemes together." www.salon.com/2026/04/12/m...

Destroying science is back on the agenda. www.scientificamerican.com/article/whit...

"Two weeks ago, he was heckled at one of his own rallies, a scene some compared to the pivotal moment when Romanians booed the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who tried to flee the country the next day." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/o...

"Now Orban faces a possible rebuke from his own citizenry. And in a poetic coincidence, he’s faltering at the same moment that the intellectual vanguard of the MAGA movement is cracking up under the weight of Trump’s destructive, humiliating war in Iran." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/o...

"The Iranian people were as close as they’d come since 1979 to overthrowing their torturers and oppressors. Then Trump got involved."

>"The Secretary of Culture Wars is waging an internal battle," they said, referring to Hegseth. "This can only accelerate the brain drain we're already seeing."< www.npr.org/2026/04/10/n...

Richard Haass assesses which countries gained the most from the US-Israeli campaign, and which are worse off.

Man, this is so good—and morally urgent—from @mattjj89.bsky.social in @theunpopulist.net Share this one widely

The ceasefire is on Iran's terms, promising to lift sanctions and accept Iran's control of Hormuz, and getting nothing. So in this article I ask: is this America's worst loss ever? 1812 and Korea were more like draws. Vietnam and Afghanistan didn't make any big concessions to geopolitical rivals.

Maybe the Gulfies should have spent more on air defense and less on bribes and destroying freedom in the USA.

so this is interesting: a former prof of mine finds that the internet has become such an unreliable source of information that AI and access to the internet doesn't mean all his students do the same on open-book quizzes

This, in its own way, is as delusional and disastrous as his pledge to wipe out their civilization just yesterday.

Consequences of folly. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...

Observations from a trip to England. www.splicetoday.com/writing/vign...

There’s a reason people read the classics.

"Iran becomes the first Middle Eastern regime to withstand a combined attempt at regime change from Israel and the United States." open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

I look at a lesson of the Iran War. www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

I look at a lesson of the Iran War. www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

Trump Casts His Drama-of-the-Day Spell While the World Moves On talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump...

I review a film on a big question. www.splicetoday.com/digital/will...

I review a film on a big question. www.splicetoday.com/digital/will...

"We are losing a war we didn’t need to fight because we are led by idiots and crooks. And the longer it goes on, the further our position will deteriorate." Agreed. open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

The permanent solution is to transition away from oil. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

How to explore black holes. www.splicetoday.com/writing/prob...

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a... Agree.

Plausible. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/o...

I'm not a political consultant but i feel like dems could probably get a lot of leverage out of pushing for green technologies that would wean the us off being dependent on oil in this particular moment

Interesting. www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

"For Israelis, then, the future looks bleak. Absent a dramatic change in course, the country will become poorer, less democratic, and more fragmented in the years to come. It might also become more militaristic." www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/two-i...

Watching Trump teeter on the edge of blowing up the world economy because of a combination of hubris, strategic incoherence, mendacity and outright stupidity, might be the most extraordinarily depressing thing I have observed in my entire life, or read about in any other period.

"If anything, the president has deeply underestimated his legal and political peril." newrepublic.com/article/2073...

open.substack.com/pub/thegrimh... Incisive.

🎁link - share.inquirer.com/ea8CS6

Warnings from history. www.splicetoday.com/writing/warn...

Extraordinary folly and also not surprising. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The lack of preparation and strategy that went into this is incredible. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Weird back to back conversations earlier today. First, a long time Democrat took my head off bcuz I’m a proud Zionist and a huge supporter of Israel. And then a Trump supporter yelled at me bcuz I oppose Trump’s illegal/stupid war and I think Netanyahu has to go. Gonna go walk the dogs.

Look for peace in the year 2073.

www.splicetoday.com/politics-and... Notes on reality, anxiety, and Emma Stone.

"A state that learns to remove people by terror, coercion, and paperwork does not stop with foreigners. It learns something far more dangerous: that law is not a limit on power, but a weapon that can be selectively wielded against anyone." www.theunpopulist.net/p/every-elem...

You can have the best armed forces in the history of the world, but if you are an incompetent criminal without a plan, you can still lose a war, and rather quickly.

A good picture of Trump’s ignorance, confusion, recklessness, incompetence and fantasy of being the unstoppable action-hero king of the world. And of advisers too scared to be tell him the upsetting plain truth. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/u...

Q: You said the war is 'very complete.' But your defense secretary says 'this is just the beginning.' So which is it? TRUMP: You could say both