This is a spooky side channel of history - whenever you read about the lives of the scientific and philosophical giants of the early 20th century, you get an anecdote about how they had to learn sufficient German to either read it or visit German universities. Then that just ... stopped.

Trump continues with his belief that you don’t need any talent or expertise to run things. The thinking of a privileged person who has always failed upwards.

This, really rather lovely, paperback edition is out in the UK on Thursday.

After ICE deported Wendy Hernandez Reyes, it turned her 3-year-old son Orlin over to her sister’s estranged partner, who tortured Orlin and beat him to death. I can’t say what I think should happen to those responsible without violating this website’s TOS. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

The result of a colossal, multi-decade, politics- & media-wide failure to place a people and parties who are very obviously xenophobic, racist, minority-hating and opposed to basic democratic values & rights behind a cordon sanitaire where they belong. A whole polity played right into their hands.

A bunch of US Far Right influencers, including Candace Owens, are currently in Russia at Putin’s expense. They’re all saying what a wonderful Christian country Russia is and how it should be a friend and ally.

In the face of frenzied right-wing attacks, this government has successfully executed one of the most ambitious climate change projects in the world. Time to give credit where it's due iandunt.substack.com/p/guest-post...

In case it's of interest to anyone, here's a regularly updated list of UK postdoctoral research fellowships - feel free to share/copy sites.google.com/site/blakemo...

May many follow Hungary's lead. @gabrielzucman.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

more trouble for universities www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Brexit is far from done www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Shorter explanation: A lot of white MN republicans are mad a white cop is in jail for killing a black man

plato already wrote this ("huge tease, never fucks me")

Breaking: Judge Jackson blocks NSF from dismantling NCAR. www.courtlistener.com/docket/72496...

This is absolutely nuts: hackers are hijacking high-profile Instagram accounts by simply asking Meta's AI chatbot to change the email on the account. Meta's AI does it, hacker gets password reset code, they're in. A staggering security issue www.404media.co/hackers-simp...

arXiv📈🤖 Estimating Earth's Temperature Response with Transformed and Augmented OLS By Sun

Nice work by Jared Polis.

but why would they want to serve under Trump and Hegseth?

Hegseth Strikes Female and Black Navy Officers From Promotion List. The net result: a slate of 22 new one-star admiral nominees that bears little resemblance to the broader force these officers will help lead. Of special note: The list has no women. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/u...

Who says LLMs can't be creative? Claude just created the neologism "spouse-father".

It seems we are now entering a new phase of the rise of inequality in the US. It's not just wealth and billionaires — it's a broader acceleration. Here's who benefited from economic growth in 2025, according to the latest estimates available on realtimeinequality.org

Uygur can be a bit rash, but is far less radical than, say, Farage. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...

Incentives to reproduce and replicate articles are so bad. Even when your comment leads to the retraction of a PLOS One article, the reward is a (10 days late) email with a thank you at the bottom. Retraction notice: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti.... But we are not complaining about PLOS One 🧵

This right here.

As Treasury Sec Bessent unveils new $250 bill with Trump’s image, Director of Bureau of Engraving and Printing gets reassigned after invoking law that bars a living president from appearing on currency.

The Coolidge coin is actually quite a rare collectible precisely because the public didn't like it and the Treasury eventually melted most of them down. As a result, the rule against living persons on coins was instituted soon thereafter.

Long, profound and devastating read for anybody who (still) cares about Higher Education in the UK.

Trump’s greatest skill: turning friends into enemies. Here’s the front page of Oman’s Al-Royah: “From the Omani People to President Trump: ‘The Sultanate of Oman is a Red Line.’”

All very funny, but recall Trump's remarks about airports in the Civil War? LLMs seem stupid because they've been trained on the words of people.

A man at a meeting I attended recently made a big deal about how his office door doesn't say "Professor", just his name, and that's how he encourages healthy research culture. I pointed out that that works for him because, unlike me, he probably won't be mistaken for his own secretary.

ditto for England sometimes the French have good ideas (e.g., separation of powers)

My fellow car drivers in Berlin, look elsewhere, do not read 👇🏻

Reportedly, US considers backing Viktor Orbán for senior position at the UN, which would grant him diplomatic immunity. This, as the current investigations into Orbán and members of his family are ongoing.

Always fun to look at projections of energy over time. This natural gas one has me somewhat puzzled. The change from 2025 to 2026 is rather...impressive. Do we really have any idea? www.theclimatebrink.com/p/nobody-kno...

DO YOU SING?

Putin will die before he goes to prison.

Ooooh.

MAGAts are gonna try and ban veganism, won't they.

Goodness gracious

I've reread this 2021 piece by Zeke literally 3-4 times, and as a nuts & bolt simulation & economic modelling mitigation person get something out of it each time.

The Pentagon is recruiting hundreds of junior troops to attend Trump’s embarrassing UFC event on the White House lawn, WaPo reports. Attendees must pay their own travel costs, wear dress uniforms, and meet current fitness standards, including height-to-waist requirements.

More of this please.

Trump couldn’t buy the opening of the Strait of Hormuz for $25B, so now he’s offering $300B in reparations. Art of the deal.

subtle.

Well, obviously. It was an aerial attack...

Trump seems to be having an amazing run of luck in the stock market over the past several months.

Hitchens fails to address that Phillips is a pro-Russian propagandist, literally partied with occupying forces in Ukraine, denied war crimes, and filmed tortured POWs, and proudly received medals from Russian backed military groups for his efforts.

The Freedom 250 State Fair has an open mic event, now perhaps longer than planned. freedom250.org/news/first-r...

Restore founder Rupert Lowe has insane reach on X — a sign of how Elon Musk’s support for the far-right nativist party translates into political and financial capital Lowe has had 10 posts w 10mn+ views since launching Restore in Feb. Farage, with 3x followers, has had 0 For @financialtimes.com

Article: The First Generation of African American PhDs in Economics: 1921–1943, by Malcolm Rutherford doi.org/10.1017/S105...