AI has definitely made the bad students worse, whereas the good students remain the same. I think cognitive atrophy has harmed them esp foreign language students who are translating everything with AI and not practicing English. They are bombing in person exams

A man who is literally bribed by billionaires, whose wife's life's work is based on hostility to the Americans, has the gall to talk of cynicism: "A spirit of 'cynicism, rejection, hostility and animus' toward America—by Americans—has taken hold, Thomas said in remarks carried live on CSPAN."

This week, my state of Maryland became the first U.S. State to get an official state shark! I wrote about why Megalodon is awesome, how we know that it's extinct, and what having a state shark means for modern-day shark science and conservation I'm fine, everything is fine. 🧪🌍🦑🦈

People in Indonesia were amazing. Same in Malaysia.

Today's exhibit of Things Can Always Get Worse and Probably Will: "In a thinly veiled critique of the war in Iran, China’s leader said the world could not risk reverting “to the law of the jungle.”

Bill Clinton, 2000. WSJ, 2026.

“AI Is Bound to Subvert Communism—China seeks to control it, but the idea of freedom is baked into its training on all human knowledge.” 哈哈哈哈 www.wsj.com/opinion/ai-i...

Fraud? This guy?

Trying to track down this alleged letter from Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun to the White House. Doesn't appear in any Chinese official sources, and it seems to be fake. No clarification yet from Chinese authorities. First mention I can find is this post on X:

Quick update from the HR team on our social media policies:

Bloomberg gets real.

I think there was a case to be made in 2016 that, by character and temperament, Trump was uniquely positioned to end the forever wars. But the very same qualities make him uniquely dangerous wrt starting and catastrophically mishandling new wars, and things were very different in 2024 than in 2016.

Magyar: “No mercy, they will need to take responsibility for all their actions.”

He’s announced that Hungary will join the European Prosecution Office so anyone in the country can be charged.

Péter Magyar: “Our country wants to live again. It wants to be a European country again.”

Péter Magyar FB: “Prime Minister Viktor Orbán just called to congratulate us on our victory.” IT'S DONE. IT'S DONE.

GUARDIAN: "Viktor Orbán is now speaking at Fidesz’s election night and he says the election result is “clear” as he concedes defeat." www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Here's the map with 1/3rd of the votes counted. Tisza = blue; Fidesz = orange. The strength of the color tells you how far ahead the lead party is. It's a blow-out. Fidesz strongholds are falling to Tisza.

Orban has not appeared on tv - he sent his chief of staff looking ashen. In the meantime, challenger Peter Magyar appeared on tv to claim that this is a historic day. There are no exit polls in Hungary but here are projections from a respectable researcher based on pre-election polls.

"To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago." If you think it is necessary to be on Twitter to communicate your fact-based worldview, the reality is that worldview is being smothered.

Sounds dangerous. I would feel much safer if he he's joined by this guy

the time has come to send elon to the strait of hormuz

Is there a good open letter or well-written argument about why it is very bad to use X that I can send to some friends who can't quit? (Or do I need to write one? Gonna need some help!)

More than 2,000 mathematicians signed a petition calling on IMU to move its quadrennial conference outside the United States" over fears of ICE harassment & the Iran war, noting IMU canceled conference in Russia after Ukraine invasion. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

the push for impeachment needs to continue. trump’s body count grows every single day lawmakers allow him to stay in power. this is no way to live and this is no way to die.

A Baltimore-based thread to explain one singular, overriding reason why American journalism is incapable of compassing and explaining the astonishing misrule and the implosion of all our governing norms. To wit: A few decades ago, as a police reporter covering the Baltimore department, a new...

I find the news very frightening right now, but one thing that helps me is noticing the birds all around me Do you want a reason to spend 10 minutes a day noticing your local birds? Then join me for this spring’s #TenMinMerlin, using the (free) app Merlin to notice birds. No experience needed! 1/5

Need a thorough investigation, especially given how many Chinese scholars have been harassed by the feds over the past decade

"(...) and even reverently calling him the “core” of the leadership — a term Vietnam has never formally used before but is instantly legible to anyone who has watched China’s political vocabulary migrate across borders. The message wasn’t subtle." carlrobinson.substack.com/p/vietnams-o...

We have an Iranian friend in Tehran who has devoted his career to translating Thoreau for an Iranian readership. Starting with 'Walden,' through Thoreau's anti-slavery works and essays on civil disobedience, the lot. We have not heard anything from him since the bombardment began.

...the fake gold flaking off the White House Ballroom walls,... What do we want humanity to miss about U.S. civilization? Or do we want the world to remember the courage of "We The People" who finally stood up? #USA

Here are the stories of some of the human beings who died horrific deaths from preventable disease because Trump and Musk and their flunkies decided to murder them by gleefully destroying USAID and the entire global aid system:

The abyss has no bottom 低處未見低

Things can always get worse. And they probably will.

Every single paragraph from this story contains worse news than the one that preceded it. apnews.com/article/news...

Since Artemis will orbit the moon today, sharing one of the all-time great Chinese propaganda posters, in which the moon rabbit gives a bouquet to the world’s most cherubic astronaut. The late scholar Stefan Landsberger used this as the cover of his wonderful book of Chinese posters.

SOme friends and I made a silly little science fiction short film 11 years ago in Beijing. Feeling a bit more real this morning:

Correct. It's also remarkable that Iran's actual response to the Pakistani overture was something most US media (WSJ excepted) decided that Americans didn't need to know. They said that Witkoff and Kushner were dishonest and were focused on self-dealing. bsky.app/profile/bgru...

sick! www.opentools.studio

💯 It’s nothing more than sports betting. If people legitimately need to hedge the financial impact of events on exchange rates, interest rates, inflation, share prices, commodity prices, etc there are already plenty of ways to do it.

An interview about China's relationships in the Middle East and with Iran, and how Beijing sees the U.S.-Israel war, and what's next.

See also @noahbarkin.bsky.social:

This brave librarian stood up to the bigots.

The Iran war is a debacle and a judge just ordered a stop to the the construction of the Dear Leader's new ballroom. What anrgy madness will he let loose this week?

""It is difficult to conceive of clearer evidence that a government action is targeted at viewpoints that the President does not like and seeks to squelch," Moss said." www.npr.org/2026/03/31/n...

If you're interested in reporting from the ground in Middle East as opposed to the Baghdad Bobbery coming out of the White House, Al Jazeera's English channel is really good. This is an easy, free way to watch:

Online summer Manchu from the Manchu Studies Group is back! Apply now or share with your students/colleagues/friends! www.manchustudiesgroup.org/2026/03/23/s...

Zap! Another key ingredient of American success vaporized.

I have reached the stage of internet fatigue where I really do not want an invite to that new thing

This is a *must listen*. It feels all early pandemic to me when a severe shock was coming and we were happily paddling through the air for a month