Not to victim blame but this balloon does feel like it's asking for trouble

Counterpoint: no. 💀

An excellent example of how modern interconnectedness ratchets up hysteria about how awful everything is, just to break through the noise, even though the situation is objectively better than it was throughout the Cold War www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

30 percent of Americans are against [squints at notes] the Pope urging peace

"Mycopunk Principles: A work-in-progress to explore the principles of mycelial networks applied in socio-technical systems." mycopunks.gitbook.io/mycopunk-pri...

This is quite the life. I had no idea he was responsible for Monty Python! www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

"Researchers into the twilight eras of political periods in history will recognize that difficult-to-describe sense of fading, when the old power has not yet vanished, but has ceased to be seen as natural or self-evident." carnegieendowment.org/russia-euras...

Egon Schiele Port of Trieste (1907)

American students are falling behind, and the most common explanations overlook the main problem, Idrees Kahloon argued in 2025:

The key to earning the loyalty of your team is inflicting polygraphs on them whenever you freak out about bad press.

“It’s a really cool idea, and there’s a hint that this might be going on ... If this mechanism is true, every time you see a lightning flash, there is a physical connection to a dying star somewhere in the galaxy.” www.quantamagazine.org/what-causes-...

what's great about this photo is it captures a truism of life in 2026: everything's very expensive and deeply concerning with no real path toward it getting better but also the memes are usually pretty good

International travel is so illuminating, you get to see how the rest of the world lives

This is amazing. Honestly, grudging respect www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

In the "I should re-read @rezendi.com's Swarm from... going on 15 years ago" department. spectrum.ieee.org/autonomous-d...

That's right, it's MY COVERRRR! LOOK at how pretty! ADMIRE the deep bluey green color, an ornament to all shelves! MARVEL at how Matt Curtius managed to evoke my story, which does in fact include a lot of music and also harpies! PREORDER today! or, you know, a different day soon!

I could be wrong, and I'll certainly go see it, but based on the trailers so far this looks like it might be Nolan's first real misstep. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yfy...

1/ Ukraine is systematically attacking Russian forces with AI-controlled kamikaze drones. Russian warbloggers are seriously worried, calling them a "scourge", and say it's no longer safe within 150 km (93 miles) of the front line. ⬇️ bsky.app/profile/the-...

Frank Lloyd Wright compared the Sonoran landscape to the sea bed, all flat bottom and rocky relief, the cactus as diverse and monumental as coral... and bro was cooking

HBO should greenlight a show called "The Pendulum" and air it right after The Pitt. 🤔

"It’s worth pausing on the math. For less than the cost of a single night in many American hotels, a person can legally live on public lands in the desert for seven months." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

happy birthday to Gene Wolfe!

The new Banksy is artfully placed

Lovely review of an important figure in conservation whose work protected huge tracts of land all over the globe. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/b...

This book and the whole Thessaly series are among my favorite books ever. Grab it up!

Cosigned www.theguardian.com/football/liv...

"This is a lot of water for you and me, but pales (pails?) compared to total human water use in California ... So AI use is about 0.055 percent of annual human water use in California, and is probably among the more economically effective uses of water." californiawaterblog.com/2026/04/26/a...

"If they think you're technical, go crude. If they think you're crude, go technical. I'm a very technical boy, so I decided to go as crude as possible. These days, though, you have to get pretty technical before you can even aspire to being crude." - @greatdismal.bsky.social

Dawkins used to be a leading expositor of the very basic evolutionary biological principle that apparently ordered, complex structures and behaviors do not in fact require consciousness

Submissions for The Protopian Prize Fiction Contest are now officially open! (through July 31st) 🔗 protopianprize.moksha.io/publication/... We can't wait to read your stories of achievable, hopeful futures and the work it takes to get there.💪📚🤓

I did not expect goblins to be such a delightful illustration of reinforcement learning reward hacking openai.com/index/where-...

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU remains the greatest movie of the 2010s. Also Boots Riley clearly has a very fine haberdasher.

Why Zambia? www.404media.co/rightscon-hu... I mean I like the place, been there a couple times, but it seems like a pretty impractical choice even before the sudden cancellation

My best craft advice is "Put a giant worm in it." You can never go wrong with a giant worm. Sci-fi: Giant worm on an alien planet Fantasy: Giant worm in mountain sitting on a pile of gold Horror: Giant worm (eats people) Romance: Giant worm causes third-act breakup Mystery: Giant worm investigates

Also, it should be Snowball—not Lucky!—coming back, with a sombrero and a magical ice-pick that shoots blue lightning, to save the day.

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills

Simeone calls Arteta to discuss the defending in the PSG v Bayern match.

Today Anthropic announced that Claude will now be able to connect and automate work in tools from Blender, Autodesk, Adobe, Canva, and others. Anthropic says “Claude can't replace taste or imagination, but it can open up new ways of working” which is a savvy stroking of its target audience’s egos.

I do wish everyone who cites Ed Zitron would read this piece. I like Ed! But he is no longer a serious person on the subject. As Kelsey says, we desperately need better skepticism. www.theargumentmag.com/p/ais-bigges...

1/ Russian warbloggers are increasingly speculating about what will happen after the war ends and/or the fall of Putin. They predict chaos, disorderly struggles, repression, and not least their own violent elimination. ⬇️

Companies, like people, follow emotional laws of conservation ok f drama. OpenAI will never not be a high-drama company. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...

Introducing, coming to Winnipeg this summer: Other Places Books. A bookstore specializing in science fiction and fantasy. opbooks.store

Intelligent

"David Chase won the argument. Tony Soprano murdered the snitch – and "College" has been cited as one of the best episodes in television history, the best episode of the entire Sopranos series and Chase cites it as his favourite." www.cbc.ca/radio/undert...

Only 30%? Come on GenZ! Those are rookie numbers. britbrief.co.uk/education/gl...

mr vader has been employed by the emperor to conduct a cross functional review of naval operations to align resource expenditures with strategic priorities by “right-sizing” certain departments and their leadership

lol the shooter has a BLUE SKY ACCOUNT, well here’s one excuse that won’t work:

"Missions to the clouds of Venus are either going to find life or some kind of brand new chemistry, either of which will be a breakthrough discovery in planetary science. There’s basically a guaranteed Nobel prize waiting in the skies of Venus" mceglowski.substack.com/p/why-not-ve...

Appreciate this detail from CBS News reporter Jennifer Jacobs. It's an important part of the story that seems to be missing from a lot of comments & coverage.

🆕 EU Longest Train Journey 🆕 Kemijärvi 🇫🇮 - Lagos 🇵🇹 🦅 Geodesic: 4088.33km 🛤️ Route-km: 6251.5km ⏱️Trip time: 87 hours 29 minutes 🚆Trains: 16 💶 Cost: around €400, with Interrail All mapped and explained here 👇 eulongesttrainjourney.jonworth.eu