Fascinating perceptual story! So grateful I get to see colors that can’t be displayed on a screen all the time at Kua Bay.

By Jim Benton

Juvenile kestrels surprised by a butterfly. Original post

@catgyoung.bsky.social www.npr.org/2026/06/01/n...

Another thing about AI writing is that while a single instance of AI writing on a topic may be fine, any situation where lots of people use AI to respond to a particular prompt (comments sections, homework, admissions essays) the similarities among responses is tediously obvious.

I'm going to try something next month. AI deskilling is real. I'm going a month without it. blog.stephenturner.us/p/ai-dry-july

I wrote a new post on what we need to keep human and what to hand over to AI, with forays into experiments in education, consulting, and the the latest controversy over literary prizes. www.oneusefulthing.org/p/choosing-t...

I feel like the photographer could have gotten a little closer tbh

The honest tension: Not quantifiable, not statistically provable, but a real gut feeling—more than vibes—that anyone who's used these tools quietly recognizes. arxiv.org/abs/2501.15654

Go for it. I don't even care any more.

BLACK SWAN says BEEP BEEP

#books #read #write #authorlife #blueskywriters #booksky

Whoa, this is a cool story! www.fastcompany.com/90375440/the...

Two nights ago, I said Trump had been using our troops as pirates in Iran and a Republican got mad. Well… the president just admitted it. He literally bragged about doing piracy.

With alt text, because the Butlerian will be accessible or not at all.

This is an actual line that was added to the official system prompt for Codex for GPT-5.5 by OpenAI. Usually the system prompt is as minimal as possible, so I assume it would otherwise mention goblins a lot. AIs are weird.

I'll say it again, one of the worst things this rampant push to cram "generative AI" into everything has done is make people suspect bright kids of cheating when they're just nerdy or bookish or neurodivergent, sanding down their unique edges to fit into people's lowered, homogenized expectations.

This is NOT AI. These are green dragontail butterflies (Lamproptera meges), native to S & SE Asia. They compensate for undersized wings with long 'swallowtails' to generate lift. Butterflies that fly in cursive, swimming like fish through the air. (📷: Center for Biological Diversity)

WaPo website replaced search with AI and it's going great

Hey #datascience people, new blog in which I aim to describe the complexities of being a Staff+ data science (and adjacent) roles. Let me know what I missed. brandonrohrer.org/ds_roles

Our PhD student Kennedy Orwa, who studies applications of AI to health care, was hastily deported today to Kenya along with his 13-year-old son without opportunity to speak to legal counsel. King 5 reports that he held a valid visa that was rescinded without explanation.

So pro-life means jailing women who miscarry but shrugging when the deranged president says “a whole civilization will die tonight.” Do I have that right?

Update: current headline:

🎨 @wizardofbarge.bsky.social

Saw this perhaps of interest (or not) www.wsj.com/health/welln...

forget looksmaxxing you need to be booksmaxxing

Hegseth firing Generals who wouldn't go along with his purge of Black and female officers www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/u...

Somebody is making a fortune on the war with inside information and it is grotesquely corrupt.

Trust me--read this. You'll be glad you did. and thank you Dr. Bennet for writing it. 🧪

Sometimes, lose the ground. . Wish 6”x6” oil

Every day is a good day for sharing one of the most useful papers about research data ever written. PLEASE get your people to understand and follow this advice. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

📣 Reminder: #ISMB2026 is accepting abstracts for talk and poster presentations until Thursday, April 9, 2026. 📥 Submit here: https://www.iscb.org/ismb2026/call-for-submissions/abstracts

It is the anniversary of the My Lai massacre today. I'd say that even more than most years, it's important to remember what happened. And the role Hugh Thompson, an active serviceman, played in both stopping and publicising it. Despite enormous military, political and public pressure to stay quiet.

Nearly six months behind bars. No bail. When they finally dismissed the charges they released her in North Dakota with no winter clothes & no means of getting back home to Tennessee. They upended this woman's life.

A dude in Texas who makes bomb shelters for nuclear war has seen his business skyrocket this week. Recent clients include 2 Trump admin members, and the rest were almost all “Christian, conservative CEOs,” which included “several of the wealthiest men on the planet." www.rawstory.com/iran-war/

"The most effective consumer boycotts in history share two qualities: they are narrow and they are easy," writes @rutgerbregman.com

Polymarket has created a betting market on the use of nuclear weapons. Everyone involved in this should be put in prison for life.

The headline reads "Meta workers say they're seeing disturbing things through users' smart glasses." In a moment of uncharacteristic incredulity I assumed it was badly written. Why would Meta *workers* being seeing things through Meta *users'* glasses? SILLY ME. www.msn.com/en-us/news/t...

The funniest thing about modern AI-powered Google Translate is that it will interpret any fake-sounding Latin

Henrietta Lacks' immortal cell line was never not-for-profit. Many people made vast sums of money from it. Except for the Lacks' family. They had to sue over it. The 2nd of those lawsuits literally just settled. As in like on Friday.

New piece on @mcsweeneys.net! "New Protein Menus"! People are saying it's "funnier than 'Hamnet'"! www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/new...

An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump. n.pr/4qTItsU

Whoa

Of so many things to be infuriated about, this is perhaps my biggest gripe. Pancreatic cancer patients, who face a future without hope, are being denied a potential game-changing therapy www.mskcc.org/news/can-mrn...

Homeland Security does not want ICE officers to show their faces but wants to see everybody’s social media accounts.

In terms of what cures are being lost: - Epstein-Barr virus is perhaps the major trigger for multiple sclerosis - herpes simplex virus causes cold sores, genital herpes, infections in babies, deadly meningitis - shingles virus causes an intensely painful disease

Give this post a publishing deal immediately