Facts. Parenting definitely underscores the under appreciated point of basic needs being not *basic* at all but really important. Let’s get everyone an abiding sense of safety, a good meal, some exercise, calm reassurance, and a nap then poof 80% of problems disappear.

Imagine if we could look at each other with the love and sense of fun with which we (at least we olds) look at kids. Why don’t we? As I get older even twenty-somethings seem pretty adorable. Where does that love go, and why? What would the world be like if we learned to keep it going?

RFS alum and Michigan Senator Mallory McMorrow pulled up to our last staff meeting of the year and reminded us why this work matters. Local power. Real impact. Built to last.

"I have information vital to the survival of your species. Also, are there treats."

Plato argued in the Republic that the 'tyrant,' or someone with unlimited wealth and power, would live the worst possible life because his soul would be devoured by lawless, unlimited desires that could never be sated. I think we've gotten confirmation of this from more cases than Trump lately

(The answer, for anyone blessedly too young to remember is: Yes. Yes it did.)

MAKE ETHICS A THING AGAIN

I was a kid once. And my biggest regret in life is that I never got a childhood without pain. Politicians should never insert themselves into the personal health care decisions of patients, parents, and their providers—and that includes trans Americans.

The Kant Car

I reskeeted this a couple of months ago, but I'm reskeeting it again because it's so good. It is well worth the 90 seconds it takes to watch it. Basically, stop trying to make sense out of adult toddlers' behaviors. Stop projecting your adult worldview onto grown adults who are not adults.

A new poll shows Zack Polanski is the most popular leader in the UK. The UK is so tired of the lies and politics of hate from Labour, Reform and the Tories. We’re ready for hope, honesty, and integrity and that’s what we get with Zack.

It’s gonna be fuckin METAL.

This paper contains some good arguments about an issue that concerns me a lot when I hear my colleagues talking about LLM use in developing their research: Whose ideas are you presenting as your own? (Though the fatalist argument the authors make at the end of paper is disappointing/bizarre.)

My position on taking action. And on the important space between everything and nothing.

YOU ARE NOT HERE TO PUT YOUR MILITARY ON THE BLOCKCHAIN YOU ARE HERE TO PUT THE OTHER POOR DAMN BASTARD'S MILITARY ON HIS BLOCKCHAIN

As I never tire of reminding people, the two plausible alternatives to automated traffic enforcement are that we either rely on the discretion of individual police officers or we simply don't enforce traffic laws at all. We have been trying both alternatives now and they are failing us.

I took a detour to the edge of the city to take a picture of these amazing sundogs over Winnipeg caused by ice crystals blowing around in the sky.

As a Buddhist, I am supposed to oppose lying. Here, it might be useful to consider that the question they are asking is, “may we discriminate against you on the basis of your age?” Answering “no” to this might be considered truthful.

How are you supposed to enjoy life if you’re constantly in fear of death? Most of us are distracted from it enough that we notice and enjoy other stuff, but if you’re a billionaire you have everything but freedom from that. It’s possible to stop fearing death, but they don’t think of that.

the reason that it's so disturbing when Newsom/Buttigieg/Harris say that they want to force trans ppl out of sports is that it signals that they don't want to fight for trans rights at a time when there is a massive genocidal campaign against trans people. 1

This is a really great article to read, almost as a practice prompt. There is lots of good discussion about how to practice, and also she quotes Rob Christ on a topic I can really relate to: the problem of spiritual rigidity and the damage it does to your ability to develop and maintain faith.

This is the moment postmodernism was invented

Okay, but what exactly do you mean by "journalism," Mr. Karpf? Is that even a thing? A cynical person at this moment in history would probably say "no."

Cory Doctorow, on "Surveillance Infantilism": pluralistic.net/2025/08/20/b...

One personally frustrating thing about the big AI push is that it forces people to assess it in a hurry, which makes people careless. It kinda smells like a scam to me if someone’s hurrying you along, cultivating urgency in you, well before you know where they’re taking you.

I'm re-reading The Big Con, by David Maurer, because I love the argot of early 20th century confidence men, but also because a book about how grifting works holds great explanatory power generations after it was written.

“Deciding that you will become an independent voter is not the smart move in response to your frustration. All that will do is disqualify you from voting in Democratic primary elections. That means you will have forfeited the opportunity to transform the Party” sherrilyn.substack.com/p/now-what

This showed up in the latest Crypto-gram, and I think is worth considering: spectrum.ieee.org/responsible-ai

Water utilities don’t emit carbon dioxide or sell guns, and therefore come up fairly frequently in ethical investment packages. That is, um, probably not ideal.

Same.

Exactly a week ago tonight, I bought an outstanding quesadilla from a food truck around the corner from my house. Sometime today, the man who smiled warmly and provided my meal to me, and literal shelter from a rainstorm, was kidnapped by paramilitary forces.

One of the things that Elon Musk has done for me is to teach me the absurdity of reading science fiction. So many of the things he’s touted have seemed like science fiction, and then you see them realized (or attempted) and think, “Oh. No, that’s just a bad idea.” Sigh.

The idea that an argument can be “decisively won” is delusional and incredibly damaging. You win the argument, great. Now do the work to keep bringing the next generations on board and adapt to their new concerns. Otherwise your victory will be forgotten. This is what we are seeing 30 years on.

Dude, we are just happy for you. They have to do what works. There is no sorrow in that. May we all be so fortunate. :)

This is an insanely great illustration of what a push poll is and why they are toxic to reason.

Good grief why is Stellan Skarsgård cooking so hard?

This is part of my concern around the focus on who ICE recruits, because while the recruits are not good people, they are also easy targets. The people setting the budget and hopping onto cable news to defend the policies are harder targets, but they’re much more responsible.

Love this!

Platner could survive this scandal, but I doubt it. The reason I doubt it isn’t just the scandal itself. It’s that he’s used the scandal as a way to insist that any accountability for his behavior is unfair and part of a conspiracy. To me, that’s disqualifying. (And it is for many Dem voters.)

We are being erased in real time, our history, the laws created to protect our status as citizens. Emboldened white supremacists disparage us openly & on TV. The President calls us low IQ.Our Dad & Moms are being kidnapped by ICE in front of their children. We will not ignore a Nazi tattoo. No.

Great article in @lemonde.fr on asset inflation and what this does to people who do value-producing as opposed to asset-producing labor. Paywalled, but I recommend subscribing if you're in the US—we are so starved for decent journalism. www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/a...

Even mildly annoying forms of public antisocial behavior are deeply corrosive to community building and destroy the consensus necessary for progressive policy. Left anarchism is incompatible with social democratic economics because people vote their annoyances, not their material needs.

The day you learn that nonfiction books are only fact-checked if the author has $10,000 of their own money to pay a fact-checker is the day you realize the world is full of goddamn lies

I've meaning to transfer my playlists off of Spotify for a while, and the ICE ads finally gave me the nudge I needed.

Really great video about the things that have frustrated me my whole life living in America. All the reasons that we are so much less free in America, despite the propaganda. He gets a bit choked up at the end about how his mom just can’t understand because she’s never left the country.

What could change that is any kind of clear positive feedback: a straightforward connection between a certain electoral outcome and an unambiguous positive impact on their material condition. This is something that vast majority of the electorate hasn’t experienced in quite some time.