never ending epistemic backstop crises time.com/7290050/veo-...

incredible... A man charged with assault and robbery tries to get his alleged victim deported (to prevent him testifying) by forging letters threatening the president.... but fails to consider that the victim doesn't speak English... ... and still gets his victim rounded up for deportation

seeking podcast recommendations: - case studies of advertising campaigns - the history of obsolete technology (especially industrial revolution vintage)

apartment building wifi naming drama comes for Korean Starbucks www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

but we tell people 'click through to the original source, don't just read the AI summary'

The playbook. (This was 2018.) www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/12...

Throughout the Cold War, America benefited enormously from its reputation as a place you could come to do science without ideological interference. Its edge in leading technology comes from that. Today the Trump administration ratified a new policy: if you want to do science, go somewhere else.

adobe acrobat AI saying this about a 20 page journal article is a form of violence

After years of bad takes from some corners of the left that blamed corporate greed for the effects of a worldwide flood of money supply & contraction of goods supply due to COVID, now we're getting bad takes from the insane right-wing president blaming corporate greed for the effects of his tariffs.

Why I find the 'free speech' debate so exhausting: Almost no one who says that are a free speech absolutist is actually a free speech absolutist. But you can only prove this about people once they are in power, denying free speech. quillette.com/2025/05/16/i...

If you are desperate for applause, one strategy is to threaten to make things much worse, let the tension build, and then suddenly make things only moderately worse.

this is the only acceptable pun

I did laugh, but actually the thought that the Pope is now someone with whom I might have shared cultural reference points is really messing with my head

Nearly 200 years ago, Samuel Morse - yes, the Morse Code guy - published a book claiming that the Pope had directed a vicious Catholic conspiracy to seize control of the United States. I wish Morse could be resurrected, just for today, to see how things have turned out.

a remarkable demonstration of how, for some people, 'free speech' was only about their personal freedom to speak certain words the tell is when she says she uses the n-word 'when appropriate' and when pressed which situations are appropriate says 'anytime I feel like it' pure egoism

if you follow Trump on PravdaSocial, you can document America's move toward Soviet policy day by day.

Over and over, the Trump admin sounds like 1970s Soviet leaders. Not buying things you want is a savings. The children will get by with two dolls. Coming soon: The ration lines aren't as long as the lamestream media wants you to believe.

okay Bezos, all is forgiven

news about subs exploring the Yorktown wreck led me to a wikipedia page that answers a question I'd never known I had: what happens if you try to land your fighter plane on the other side's aircraft carrier?

Peak Canada

“If I let you ride my back across the river, you must promise not to get any weird slime on me,” said the tiger. “We promise,” said the frogs. But as they were halfway across, the tiger felt some weird slime,

ah April. when the sun strengthens, the birds flutter, and an old man's fancy turns to thoughts of... Columbus Day

At least 1% of American voters think that Trump's presidency is *both* scary and exciting. the jump-scare constituency is what decides close elections. It's also, indirectly, what decides who gets to be Fed chair

At long last someone has identified RFK Jr.'s support base: the 9% of people who have a favorable opinion of the Black Plague

If you have any identifiable connection to Pete Hegseth - same college, same dentist, same bartender- then you should now assume that several nations' intelligence services are spending huge resources to plant spyware on your phone, personally. You should assume they will succeed.

That’s called a “Staten Island book club”

People are sharing this because they think it’s cute but PLEASE DON’T, Popes only do this when they’re in deep distress

Biggest commitment to a 3 second joke I've ever seen

when you have five months to write the final paper but instead stay up all night before the deadline sustained by red bull and zyn

in a friend triangle, is it better to be feared or loved?

this week in the TLS I consider whimsy, deception, and things that purportedly float www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-feat...

“MY WIFE DOESN’T KNOW” I text to my wife

please don’t text me war plans, because I’m actually at capacity right now and I don’t think I can hold appropriate space for you. do you have someone else you could reach out to?

Both of these won the Booker Prize. So by induction, a novel called ‘The Sea, The Sea, The Sea’ would also win the Booker Prize

"I could make your end swift, Mr. Bond. But it is important to me that you first witness my hour-long soliloquy concerning the correct pronunciation of 'gif'."

the pandemic will echo for a long time

A view into the contemporary state of American politics.

trashing one of the most successful partnerships in world history because... the map doesn't look incredible enough

no one: no one: no one: Trump: guys it's monday I'm bored migratory birds: oh no

The Platonic ideal of philosophical writing is cold rationalism from the pen of a warm person: Annette Baier, Korsgaard, Scheman. I can’t help but be taken in by someone calmly destroying reductive empiricist frameworks in the name of clear but flexible human(e) ones.

I can't believe Big Balls, the Douche and Tommy Tuna could make a mistake like this, given their combined year of work experience.

Okay it's genuinely funny that 'Gulf of Mexico' is on this list. Like finding a yuppie in a Woodstock group photo.

If you believe in the wisdom of crowds, here is a signal. Tesla stock catapulted in value after the US election. Investors bet Musk would use his new-bought influence on Trump to benefit his companies. Today the price sank back to pre-election level. Wall Street crowd no longer sure Musk is wise.

An intriguing puzzle for future extraterrestrial visitors: why is the dead and unapproachably radioactive blue planet orbited by a rock full of unclaimed aerospace debris?

lakoff's razor: when a political faction primarily debates messaging and framing, they are not only losing but also searching for their keys under the streetlamp

I've been thinking about this a lot lately: how much of the present political moment in USA is a direct result of accidentally rich Silicon Valley people buying the power to harm people who look like someone who mocked them on Twitter 14 years ago.

An unnamed source near the family says that the baby also intends to resign.