A timely and multifaceted reality check www.thewikipedian.net/p/grokipedia...

If I were running in next year's midterms, I'd be saying: Aussies are getting free electricity, and we're getting huge price spikes. Because they built solar, and Trump is blocking it. open.substack.com/pub/billmcki...

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

At least the Romans waited to be sacked by the Visigoths. This is being done from inside the White House.

Perhaps baby steps for ebooks + AI, but in the right direction: "Amazon is introducing a new “Recaps” feature for Kindle users to help them recall plot points and character arcs before picking up the latest book in a series. [...] Amazon confirmed to TechCrunch that recaps are AI-generated."

"The approaching 250th anniversary of US independence has the opportunity to be a turning point—the first chapter in an American democratic renewal that shines a light of freedom into even the darkest corners of the planet. We need the clarity to see the path and the courage to lead the way."

Final paragraphs from a timely Elon Musk reality check by Jill Lepore -- gift source article link in reply

Google Gemini 2.5 is the first public AI model to definitively beat the performance of human PhDs with access to Google on hard multiple choice problems inside their field of expertise (around 81%). All AI tests are flawed, but GPQA Diamond has been a pretty good one. & conducted independently.

"When you describe your topic, NotebookLM gathers hundreds of potential web sources in seconds. It analyzes them and picks the most relevant ones based on your defined topic. It presents up to 10 source recommendations, each with an annotated summary explaining its relevance to your topic."

"You have to wonder whether Elon Musk’s Dunning-Kruger kids are now producing tariff numbers." [...] "If you had any hopes that Trump would step back from the brink, this announcement, between the very high tariff rates and the complete falsehoods about what other countries do, should kill them."

Consider the shameless greed of the tech billionaires and venture capitalists who are plundering #Wikipedia —nonprofit, crowd-sourced, and one of the wonders of the modern world—only to convert its highly reliable information into a far less reliable mash-up. #AI

This is, in large part, pandemic revenge. As far as these oligarchs are concerned, all science does is tell them stuff they cannot do. They can't keep spewing carbon. They can't keep businesses open as usual when millions are dying. They have concluded that research is the enemy of profit.

Excerpt:

Check the source for an 8-part podcast episode series on Elon Musk by Jill Lepore.

Here is my best guidance for action, rendered beautifully by the great John Lithgow. I first published these lessons more than eight years ago, in late 2016. They open the twenty chapters of "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century." snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...

Elon Musk has been a walking SEC violation for a decade and no one cared. The entire Trump era could have been avoided if the US took white collar crime anywhere near as seriously as it does low level drug crime.

These guys inherited one of the most functional state apparatus in the history of the world and they are inhabiting it like a crack house. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Final paragraph from a stark Elon Musk business empire reality check:

World’s worst parent and it’s a high bar.

Excerpt:

A timely NotebookLM update/overview

It turns out rule of law was on the ballot.

My generous estimates, based on where SpaceX is with Starship & Tesla with Optimus. Mission launches 2026:40%, gets on trajectory to Mars:20%, Optimus demos in flight:5%, Starship soft lands:0.2%, Optimus walks on surface:0%. www.foxnews.com/tech/spacex-...

Short thread by @samuelwa.de worth reading: Demolition of Radio Free Asia / VOA / etc is more self-lobotomization by US. (Not saying Trump/Doge are paid agents of Xi and Putin. But if CN and RU could buy control of US govt, this is their dream version of what their minions might do.)

A nonsensical threat to: One of the most important advances in biotechnology of our time, already being used to successfully treat refractory cancers, enable genome editing, develop vaccines for infectious diseases for which there are none, treat autoimmune diseases, and more.

Dangerous madness. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/u...

Excerpt: "[...] what happens now that Trump has intentionally disobeyed a court order. The short answer is that the federal judges must hold Trump and subsidiary officials in civil contempt. The Supreme Court must affirm those findings. Civil contempt is not a pardonable offense."

9 years ago, Musk got big coverage for saying that his target for manned flights to Mars was 2025. 2025 has arrived. Those flights to Mars have not. Instead Musk has destroyed a social media co, is destroying a car co, and is wrecking US govt + US economy. www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-swi...

Interesting that not only Twitter is down, but also Grok web interfaces. Bigger infrastructure problem across the X-iverse than expected. I would have thought the systems more separated.

how about we compromise

Excerpt: "This infection of Western chatbots was foreshadowed in a talk American fugitive turned Moscow based propagandist John Mark Dougan gave in Moscow last January [...] when he told them, “By pushing these Russian narratives from the Russian perspective, we can actually change worldwide AI.”"

Excerpt from another timely Paul Krugman reality check: "Does Trump know that he’s participating in a giant pump-and-dump that will benefit insiders while effectively stealing small investors’ savings? I have no idea, but there’s no reason to believe that it would bother him if he did know."

Investors, consumers and companies are showing the first signs of souring on Donald Trump’s vision. With his aggressive and erratic protectionism, he is playing with fire econ.st/41tx87X

Wow if this turns out to be an advanced inside tip from someone, it's going to really set back the years of progress the crypto community have made in carefully establishing a reputation for trust and trans- Nah, I'm just kidding, this just tracks. See you at the next pump and dump everyone!

Warren Buffett, the famed investor who runs the sprawling conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, described tariffs as “an act of war” in an interview with CBS.

Excerpt: "It's tempting to see the crypto scam only as a theft of money. But remember: These guys already have tons of money. Now they want power, and they see weakening the dollar and pumping crypto as keys to world domination."

Here Will Lockett gives a rather unfavorable comparison of the 1960s Saturn V (13/13 successful launches to orbit, 8 crewed to the Moon, including first crewed flight) and SpaceX Starship (0/7 to full orbit so far), and underperforming payload compared to promises. medium.com/predict/spac...

Timothy Snyder: "Wars are hard to end. Peace is easy to say but difficult to achieve. [...] I spell out five logics that a successful mediator seeking peace would take into account: the state of law; the beginning of the war; calculations of the future; paper vs. reality; and ceasefire vs. peace."

Great news for money launderers!

As you watch the Trump regime wreck everything in sight, you should be regularly asking yourself this question: If the stated goal was to end democracy, ruin the economy, shred human rights, and aid our adversaries -- would the regime be doing anything differently?

quote of the day www.ft.com/content/4221...

From a stark Timothy Snyder reality check (link in reply):

If the market continues to trend down, and the Atlanta Fed turns out to be right, the midterms will be very interesting. The battle between republican self preservation and MAGA will be intense

Gift link (episode also available on Apple Podcasts and elsewhere)

"Where is this uncertainty coming from? That’s easy: The U.S. government is currently under the control of a deeply ignorant, vengeful megalomaniac with zero impulse control. And it’s not just Elon Musk: Trump shares the same characteristics."

It’s not cute to accidentally cancel Ebola prevention — a virus with a 50% fatality rate.   It’s even less acceptable when it turns out you didn’t “restore” the prevention for Ebola like you claimed.

Tesla lost enough value today that it could have fully funded USAID for a year.

We’re witnessing a Brexit-level instance of completely unnecessary economic destruction. A country that’s not hit by any shock, but simply chooses policy self-harm.

President Trump & Elon Musk want to dismantle the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That would eliminate free public access to weather forecasts, hurricane tracking, and wildfire alerts. Act now to protect NOAA! act.ucsusa.org/3D9MkPy