The Human Skill That Eludes AI - The Atlantic: Imitative AI imitates. It does not create.

Person, Place, Thing by Marissa Lingen : Clarkesworld Magazine – Science Fiction & Fantasy: Fun story.

A favorite NCAA Tournament pastime for players? Reading - The Athletic: The kids are all right.

Security Analysis of the Official White House iOS App | atomic.computer: What they found is incredibly distrubing.

Life (And Death) In Warframe: This story convinced me I am very old, but it is touching nonetheless.

That Knight’s a Fuckup (and I love him) - by Lyta Gold: Most interesting take on the new Game of thrones serious I have seen.

Opinion | Is It 1914 in America? - The New York Times: We are ruled by the worst people.

"CEO Said A Thing!" Journalism: The most accurate assessment of our tech and business media I have ever read.

YOU'RE ALL JUST JEALOUS OF MY JETPACK | My latest Guardian Books cartoon.: Heh.

What Memoir Scandals Tell Us about Two LLM Writing Scandals: A strong argument that authenticity matters.

How to Reclaim America From the Scammers and Frauds | The New Republic: We live in an age of scams, and the political party that becomes their scourge will own the next decade or two.

The Anti-Intellectualism of the Silicon Valley Elite | The Nation: Never trust people who do not read books.

Five questions for the guys who made a compass that points to the Times Square Olive Garden | The Verge: Finally, tech with no downsides.

Everest guides accused of poisoning foreign climbers to force fake rescues in $20m scam | The Independent: Absolutely insane story.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Woman Cured of Sickle Cell Disease and Lifelong Pain with New Treatment: Science will cure your disease.

Who’s Minnesota’s ‘Blanket Lady’? More than a superfan, she was a women’s basketball pioneer - The Athletic: Sports can be wholesome.

No officers will be disciplined after protesters falsely charged as gang members: These officers should be in jail.

Jessi Pierce will be remembered for the heart, humor and zest she had for the Wild — and life - The Athletic: Moving piece for their lost friend.

Confronting the CEO of the AI company that impersonated me | The Verge: They key to getting The Verge to take on tech CEOs to their faces is apparently to mess with their income potential.

Ghost in the Machine’s Valerie Veatch isn’t drinking the AI Kool-Aid | The Verge: Very disturbing information.

This Company Is Secretly Turning Your Zoom Meetings into AI Podcasts: AI is mostly about slop and extraction.

Meta misled users about its products’ safety, jury decides | The Verge: Now that Section 230 is no longer a blanket immunity, I suspect we will see many more of these verdicts.

Opinion | There’s a Reason Air Travel Is Such a Mess - The New York Times: We, as a nation, simply refuse to pay to keep our civilization.

Bombshell Jack Smith Report Reveals Why Trump Hoarded Classified Docs | The New Republic: Trump apparently stole the country’s most secret documents in order to make himself money.

Yankees’ Netflix debut is latest example of sports’ complicated TV landscape - The Athletic: Cable was so much better than streaming.

Ann Wolbert Burgess - by Erin C. Niumata - Erin’s Third Act: Fascinating bit of hidden history.

Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List - The New York Times: This admin is pure gutter racism.

Iran Is Winning the AI Slop Propaganda War: Interesting look at propaganda in the AI slop era.

AI companies try to pay staff in AI tokens, not money – Pivot to AI: Is this good? I’m not sure this is good.

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My fitness tracker is a secret weapon against my chronic illness | The Verge: Interesting look at how tech can be applied in unexpected but beneficial ways.

Emerging legislation would shield polluters from liability for climate change - Ars Technica: The GOP really hates your kids.

Does Generative AI “Work”? That’s a Misleading Question. | The New Republic: Interesting comparison between fossil fuels and imitative AI.

How To Read Sixteen Books at Once (At All Times) - Reactor: I cannot tell if this is genius or insanity.

Earth’s first major extinction was worse than we thought | Science | AAAS: Science will make you more extinct than you thought you were.

Ohio GOP Wants Every Pregnancy Reported to the State: The GOP really hates pregnant women.

Women are being abandoned by their partners on hiking trails. What’s behind ‘alpine divorce’? | Relationships | The Guardian: Not sure what is more infuriating: the men leaving behind people to suffer or the people making up a cutesy name for it.

Former NBPA Head Tamika Tremaglio Discusses The WNBA Labor Battle And The Art Of Bargaining | Defector: Fascinating for the ways in which the union has to fight to get the basics of the contract enforced.

ChatGPT did not cure a dog’s cancer | The Verge: It is more than a little sad that this has to be said out loud, but apparently it does.

Democrat Reveals Epstein File That Blows Huge Hole in Trump’s Story | The New Republic: I really didn’t think there was evidence against Trump in the files, assuming it would have leaked years ago. But, man, they really do act as if its hiding something terrible about him, don’t they.

Marc Andreessen is a philosophical zombie | The Verge: Brilliant diagnosis of the Tech Bro mindset.

Scientists Once Dropped Gophers on a Volcano. Now They’re Heroes.: Still don’t want them in my yard, though.

I was struggling to understand my autistic son - until we watched an episode of Doctor Who | Doctor Who | The Guardian: Lovely little story.

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Procurement, Capacity and Soverignity - by Don Moynihan: Interesting argument.

The Cynical, Gullible American Man - The Atlantic: I do wonder if any kind of democracy can survive unregulated social media.

How to Talk to Someone Experiencing 'AI Psychosis': With great difficulty, apparently. Important article.

Guess What Moderate Democratic Voters Aren’t Anymore? Moderate. | The New Republic: People really, really hate the status quo.

The Passengers a Norwegian Cruise Ship Left Behind: Avid cruise goers are the saddest cult imaginable.

The Submarine of Czechia: Or, The Life of a Spy at Mar-a-Lago • Buttondown: Excellent story.

“A spate of outages, including incidents tied to the use of AI coding tools”, right on schedule: The hype is going to break a lot of things.

Grammarly Is Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Over Its AI ‘Expert Review’ Feature | WIRED: Tech firms are convinced there will never be consequences.

Donald Trump, Oil Market Obliterator - The American Prospect: We are ruled by idiots.

I Watched 6 Hours of DOGE Bro Testimony. Here's What They Had to Say For Themselves: We are ruled by idiots, part two.

My Year as a Degenerate Sports Gambler - The Atlantic: Gambling should be illegal.

‘We’re in a downward spiral’: Inside the high-stakes battle to reform WorldTour cycling - The Athletic: Cycling likely requires stakeholders to give up some money, so its likely doomed.

Collections: Warfare in Dune, Part II: The Fremen Jihad – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: Really fine article.

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Post by @spikermonster.bsky.social — Bluesky: I had no idea this videos existed and now I love it.

How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance | The Verge: OpenAI is allowing the Trump administration ot use its tools to decide on targets and to spy on Americans.

The Fashionable Notion of 'Free Speech Culture' Is Justifying State Censorship, Ironically: Thoughtful look at how the free speech panic of the last ten years has worked to undermine real free speech.

Blackhawks player poll results: Connor Bedard’s chirps, Tyler Bertuzzi’s style and more roasting - The Athletic: Artyom Levshunov is a giant puppy dog and I love him for it.

The Mournful Ballad Of Punch The Monkey | Defector: Fascinating look at monkeys.

Deadline set for FIFA’s $7.8m World Cup row with Foxboro, games at risk as town stands firm - The Athletic: Good for the selectmen not bending to power and money.

‘Students can’t reason’: Teachers warn AI is fueling a crisis in kids’ ability to think | Fortune: If you love your kids, keep AI as far away from their education as possible.

Your 2026 Winter Paralympics Primer: The Olympics are not yet over!

What A Week Of Freedom Can Do For A Lab Mouse | Defector: It can change all of medical science, apparently.

Fireside Friday, March 6, 2026 – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: Cannot imagine why I find this relevant.

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

How to Film ICE | WIRED: Advice for those who might need it.

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) | The Guardian: Aside from the destruction of the tourism industry, which employees more people than, say, coal mining, the human cost is intolerable.

Post by @reasie.bsky.social — Bluesky: Facebook is like this because it is allowed to be an unregulated monopoly.

Child’s Play, by Sam Kriss: If you love your kids, you will keep them as far away form imitative AI is humanely possible.

Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web: This needs to be made illegal with life as the punishment.

How far back in time can you understand English?: This is extraordinarily cool.

A war foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them | Ukraine | The Guardian: Interesting look at the run up to the invasion of Ukraine. A bit CIA-pilled, but fascinating nonetheless.

What Not Reading Does to Your Writing - by Lincoln Michel: TV is not the same as books, and you should not write as if they are.

beast lightin', go beast lightnin' - by Allison Epstein: I love these Dirtbag Through The Ages so much. Go subscribe, of you haven’t already.

The Case For Billionaire Realism - by Brian Beutler: Very good look at why billionaires must be dealt with.

Are Autonomous Vehicles Safer Than Human Drivers? We Don't Know Yet - Bloomberg: Nope. At least, not in any provable way.

DOJ removed, withheld Epstein files related to accusations about Trump : NPR: Trump certainly acts as if he did something horrible.

The Epstein Scandal Reveals the Dark Side of Bipartisanship | The New Republic: Long past time for our elites to be held accountable.

The GOP’s Nazi Problem - The Atlantic: The wealthy and the press in this country made it a scandal to be to the left of JFK while supporting fascists garnered merely a shrug. And now they wonder how we got here.

AIs can generate near-verbatim copies of novels from training data - Ars Technica: Imitative AI is a plagiarism machine.

DCCC Scores Massive Palantir and SpaceX Lobbyist Cash Haul: Sigh. we have so, so much work to do.

The Epstein class - by Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims: Again, our elites need disciplining immediately.

Armed ICE officer in Portland called 911 during confrontation: ‘I’m going to have to shoot this kid’ - OPB: This loser had no compulsion about telling a dispatcher, as he is being recorded, that he as going to shoot a kid for following him on a bike. Abolish ICE is the compromise position.

Boston’s World Cup games hang in balance amid finger pointing over a missing $7.8m - The Athletic: Good for Foxboro.

Almost No One Needs College Algebra Anymore | Washington Monthly: A really interesting argument.

How America Chose Not to Hold the Powerful to Account - The Atlantic: Elite impunity has destroyed this country.

Collections: Warfare in Dune, Part I: Fighting Faufreluches – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: A fun look at how plausible Dune’s militaries actually are. More than I thought, it turns out.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

How to Film ICE | WIRED: Advice for those who might need it.

Mogul skiers have shown speed and grace at Milan Cortina but what about their knees? - The Athletic: This looks both cool and like a full employment plan for knee-replacement surgeons.

‘A great wee place’: the small Scottish factory crafting Olympic curling stones | Curling | The Guardian: Craftspeople are cool.

The Trump admin argument that masks "are for officer safety reasons" is actually an admission: Good point.

Ranking the Olympic men’s hockey goal songs, from ‘Free Bird’ to pizza menus - The Athletic: We need more of this kind of hard-hitting journalism.

The Pepe Silvia Guide to ChatGPT Psychosis - by Lyta Gold: Chatbots should be banned.

Ford is focusing on efficiency to make its 2027 $30,000 EV pickup affordable - Ars Technica: Interesting look at how Ford is trying to make an affordable car.

The Quintessential Epstein Files Email - The American Prospect: Epstein survived, in part, I think, because he provided funding to attack the people the wealthy did not like.

‘Muppet Treasure Island’ at 30: Tim Curry on His Pirate Role - The New York Times: Tim Curry is the best.

Humans Used to Sleep Twice Each Night. Here's Why It Vanished. : ScienceAlert: Insomnia used to be normal, kinda?

A gate-crashing dog steals the show at the Olympics : NPR: All Olympic events should have dogs.

Opinion | How We Resist ICE: Car Pools - The New York Times: Moving story of real people standing up to the Administration’s child-kidnapping goons.

They Banned Woke And Suzy Still Can’t Read: Huh. Turns out putting anti-education twerps in charge of education doesn’t improve schools.

I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI - and it only took 20 minutes: It is disturbingly easy to get imitative AI to repeat lies.

ICE deports asylum seeker to Africa where abuser who bought her as ‘wife’ is waiting to kill her, lawyers claim | The Independent: ICE is deliberately trying to get immigrants killed.

finally we have created the silver bullet: Really interesting perspective on what imitative AI is likely to change in work.

Exclusive | OpenAI Employees Raised Alarms About Canada Shooting Suspect Months Ago - WSJ: OpenAI knew a shooter was possibly planning real violence and did nothing.

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) | The Guardian: ICE is just evil for the sake of being evil.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

How to Film ICE | WIRED: Advice for those who might need it.

Opinion | The Finance Industry Is a Grift. Let’s Start Treating It That Way. - The New York Times: This is from a conservative economist.

Former ICE Facility Worker 'saw people laying in feces' at Baltimore Detention Center | wusa9.com: Abolish ICE and start prosecuting people.

Swansea man's surprise after finding abandoned Welsh village: Man stumbles into the start of a horror movie and we are all doomed.

You may not know these 3 Olympic men’s hockey players, but soon you just might - The Athletic: Olympics are awesome.

AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It: Imitative AI is simply not good enough to justify its cost.

Which Other Olympic Mascots Could Italian Stoats Tina And Milo Slaughter In Cold Blood? | Defector: Defector always covers the most important stories.

Super Bowl runner-up rings: What NFL players really think - ESPN: I think this is kind of cool, actually.

At Winter Olympics, drone cameras are pushing limits for viewers — and athletes - The Athletic: And this are definitely cool.

No, bears don't actually hibernate | Popular Science: Everything we have ever been taught is a lie.

What Is Affordability? | Washington Monthly: Nice look at how people actually experience the economy.

Instead of Pandering, Democrats Should Try Changing Voters’ Minds | The New Republic: People’s minds can change.

I Have Seen Video Game Industry Hell, And Now You Must Also Gaze Upon It: Capitalism might have been a mistake.

Mogul skiers have shown speed and grace at Milan Cortina but what about their knees? - The Athletic: I still think most of these people’s knees are going ot fall off when they are 60.

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

How to Film ICE | WIRED: Advice for those who might need it.

Why MLB stars are being told they can’t play in the World Baseball Classic - The Athletic: Money ruins everything.

NHL arenas of yore: Here are some of the fun quirks and features we miss - The Athletic: I only managed to go once, but the Chicago Stadium was an amazing venue.

this ain't a queen, it's an arms race - by Allison Epstein: More dirtbags from history! Also, buy her book!

What a “Melania” Cinematographer Hoped to Accomplish | The New Yorker: “I can outthink Issac Chotiner” level arrogance should be a recognized mental illness.

A century of hair samples proves leaded gas ban worked - Ars Technica: The EPA has made us smarter. Literally.

How does someone get into Olympic skeleton? For Mystique Ro, it wasn’t love at first sled - The Athletic: Winter Olympic sports are all based on a drunken dare and I do so love them for it.

ICE tear gasses children in Portland | The Verge: What braze, strong men defending us from kids in little, pink sweaters.

How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism - Boston Review: thoughtful look at how ot rise to the occasion.

The Real Cause of Grade Inflation | Washington Monthly: Convincing argument. Always did think all classes should just be pass/fail.

Why Literature Needs a Punk Rock Mindset: Just what the man said.

Opinion | This Is Just Who Trump Is - The New York Times: Truth.

Opinion | The Finance Industry Is a Grift. Let’s Start Treating It That Way. - The New York Times: You know things have gone sideways when a conservative economists is like “yeah, fsck finance and private equity”

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Quick question: I list these as I encountered them rather than in categories. That is deliberate, an attempt to mimic the same serendipity that brought them into my life. Would you prefer categories or the more random experience you get today?

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

How to Film ICE | WIRED: Advice for those who might need it.

OpenAI's Marketing Efforts Are Embarrassingly Ineffective, New Consumer Research Finds: So did ChatGPT write their terrible new ads?

We Begin Where Infinity Ends by Somto Ihezue : Clarkesworld Magazine – Science Fiction & Fantasy: A wonderful little story about fireflies, friends, and changing.

The corporate enablers of the ICE crackdown - by Judd Legum: A list of people we should avoid giving money to.

Trump DOT Plans to Use Google Gemini AI to Write Regulations — ProPublica: This is going ot get people hurt. The lack of concern expressed by the Administration in this article for the problems this can bring is chilling.

Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong - The Atlantic: People are generally not nasty and brutish. People are generally decent and helpful.

He Leaked the Secrets of a Southeast Asian Scam Compound. Then He Had to Get Out Alive | WIRED: An amazing, heartbreaking, exciting story.

How the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program works, from consultation to treatment to release - The Athletic: Interesting look at how the league tries ot help players. This kind of thing should be society wide.

I grew up with Alex Pretti | The Verge: Heartbreaking reminders that the people in the news, even the heroes, are people first.

How a high school English teacher banned AI from her classroom : NPR: You cannot use AI if you do not understand what the output is supposed to be, therefor, using AI in schools inevitably leads to dumber kids since they haven’t learned enough to know when AI is lying.

The Myth Of Cops Overdosing From Touching Fentanyl Persists For A Reason | Defector: Panic attacks, as terrifying as they may be, are not overdoses.

After Charles Tillman transformed football, he joined the FBI. Then the immigration raids started - The Athletic: A man named Peanut has more courage than most.

The Means-Testing Industrial Complex - by Luke Farrell: “Since Georgia implemented work requirements in 2020, they have spent twice as much on Deloitte consultants and administrative costs as on healthcare for people.” Pure evil.

xkcd: mRNA Vaccine: best explanation of how these work I have ever seen.

"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos: Interesting take on what the bubble is driving.

ICE Pretends It’s a Military Force. Its Tactics Would Get Real Soldiers Killed | WIRED: Accurate.

Parenting in ICE-occupied Minneapolis | The Verge: This is the world MAGA wants.

How often do AI chatbots lead users down a harmful path? - Ars Technica: Quite a bit, it seems.

How AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills \ Anthropic: This warning comes form one of the premier coding model makers, so the reality might be even worse.

Collections: The Late Bronze Age Collapse, A Very Brief Introduction – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: Another fascinating overview by Dr. Devereaux. The internet is largely a mistake, but it does allow us all to take classes from a great teacher.

Melania review – Trump film is a gilded trash remake of The Zone of Interest | Melania | The Guardian: There is nothing quite like a viciously honest review.

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

In My Country by Thomas Ha : Clarkesworld Magazine – Science Fiction & Fantasy: Disturbingly topical story.

Archaeologists find a supersized medieval shipwreck in Denmark - Ars Technica: Science will find you the big ass boats.

the real tin thing - by BDM - Notebook: A moving tribute to a teacher.

Driverless cars promise a revolution. But can they handle the British weather?: Probably not.

Your Guide To Bluesky, The Official App of Sports: Bluesky really does have the sense of community that Twitter used to around sporting events.

Dr. Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Made GPS Possible, Dies at 95: An amazing woman and one of the people who made it possible for you to never get lost.

Behind the disturbing image of ICE snatching a half-naked, elderly Hmong American from his home: Well reported story on the kind of abuse ICE puts even citizens through. Ms. Kabas is well worth the price of a subscription.

boulder and wiser - by Allison Epstein: Another great dirtbag story from the funniest historian on the internet. Another subscription well worth your money.

NeurIPS research papers contained 100+ AI-hallucinated citations, new report claims | Fortune: Is flooding scientific papers with bullshit helping science? Cause it really doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.

Are 'Jeopardy!' Contestants Really That Bad At Questions About Sports? | Defector: They aren’t, but the real fun in this article is the look at how Jeopardy structures its question list.

Silk Roads and So. Many. Mountains. | Patreon: Interesting look at how historical maps are drawn.

Elon Musk’s Grok A.I. Chatbot Made Millions of Sexualized Images, New Estimates Show - The New York Times: X is a non-consensual and child porn creation platform at this point and any decent society would have already arrested the people, including Musk, responsible.

Rollback Racket | Washington Monthly: Hey, despite what conservative lawyers want you to believe, it turns out monopolies are bad for consumers! Who knew?

Turns out David Brooks didn’t really mean any of it: The rot in our elite runs deep.

America Needs Greenland. No—Iceland. Actually, Never Mind! - The Atlantic: Alexandra Petri is a national treasure.

The scientific case for ping-pong: Why athletes — and you — should play more table tennis - The Athletic: Science will get you to play a game.

The extraordinary story of a soccer coach, a kidnapping and a Saudi job that didn’t exist - The Athletic: Amazing story.

Kash Patel’s FBI Is Making America Less Safe, Current and Former Employees Say - The New York Times: Actual FBI agents detail just how much damage Kash Patel and Donald Trump are doing to your safety.

The Five Farcical Principles of the ‘CBS Evening News’ - The Ringer: Unsurprisingly, the principles are empty nonsense.

AI bot swarms threaten to undermine democracy: This seems bad.

Michael Connelly Should Stick To Fake Crime | Defector: I dislike true crime in part because of stories like this.

We Must Establish The Run Against Authoritarianism: Good advice for these terrible times.

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Blue Cross Defrauded Breast Cancer Center, Must Pay $421M, Jury Finds — ProPublica: Private health insurance is a scam.

Why Vance Committed So Hard to the Minneapolis Shooter - The Atlantic: Vance has no morals.

[2601.02671] Extracting books from production language models: LLM based AIs are plagarism machines.

NFL wild-card playoffs: What went wrong for five losing teams? - ESPN: ESPN is generally a shadow of its past self, but Barnwell, Mina Kimes and Dominique Foxworth are the best football analysts around.

How to build a radically truthful news outlet: The standards we should be holding all news orgnizations to.

The Tiger Is Paper - by Brian Beutler - Off Message: Excellent analysis.

Roblox’s AI-Powered Age Verification Is a Complete Mess | WIRED: I suspect Roblox is fine with this as they make a ton of money off kids.

Does Congress Even Want Power Anymore? | The New Republic: Our Constitution is broken.

Cop Used Flock to Wrongfully Accuse a Woman Then Refused to Look at Evidence That Exonerated Her, Body Camera Shows: Policing is completely broken in this country.

The Liam Coen-Lynn Jones moment, the backlash and why journalism is still worth defending - The Athletic: Important defense of journalism

Joiner and Rust - Reactor: Sweet story.

Do I Like It? Reflecting on Divergent After 15 Years: Fascinating look by an author of a successful, but critically mixed at best, series of books on those books now that time has passed.

Resisting AI Mania in Schools - Rethinking Schools: AI requires people who understand things to be even remotely useful, but if you don’t train people without AI, they don’t learn and therefor cannot make AI even remotely useful.

More Paul - by Lindsey Adler - Critical Thinking: Thoughtful look at Paul McCartney’s legacy.

Could a Simple Nasal Drop Treat the Deadliest Brain Cancer?: Science will save your life in new and interesting ways.

Bots All the Way Down - Lightspeed Magazine: Our future is terrible and amazing.

Renfrew Christie Dies at 76; Sabotaged Racist Regime’s Nuclear Program - The New York Times: There need to be sttues to this man.

How Polymarket and Kalshi Have Taken Over the World - The Ringer: Gambling is destorying this country.

Trump-Administration Officials Describe an Elementary-School Drop-Off - The Atlantic: Where is the satire?

Ciji Graham Died Unable to Get Heart Care or an Abortion in North Carolina — ProPublica: Abortion is healthcare, and if you don’t get healthcare, you can die.

David Nozzolillo's wild night as an EBUG for the Chicago Blackhawks - ESPN: EBUGs are the greatest rule in sports.

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We Are the Bad Guys - by Hamilton Nolan - How Things Work: Truth.

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time: Science will save your life.

The $30 Billion Identity Theft of Venezuela - The American Prospect: Capitalists will ruin your country.

Opinion | There Is a Sickness Eating Away at American Democracy - The New York Times: The lack of elite accountability is killing our country.

apocalypse thou - by Allison Epstein: Yeah! New Dirtbag Through the Ages!

Who’s who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter: the Financial Times, God bless them, chose violence. And truth.

Pardon my coup - by G. Elliott Morris - Strength In Numbers: Never forget what they did and what they excuse.

The hell of being a ‘Kavanaugh stop’ victim: Kavanaugh belongs with Taney in the annals of infamy.

Dell's CES 2026 chat was the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I've had in maybe 5 years | PC Gamer: Dell understands that they should be selling computers with features people want, not features that get in people’s way.

The nation’s strictest privacy law just took effect, to data brokers’ chagrin - Ars Technica: Data brokers should be illegal, but this is the bare minimum we should expect nationwide.

Snatching Maduro was all about the spectacle | The Verge: We have an admin run by internet poisoned children.

Justin McDaniel Found a Way to Make Students Read Again: A story about the most Divorced Man in history.

I Tried to Be the Government. It Did Not Go Well. - The Atlantic: Weakening the government means making your life harder and less safe.

In Defense of Pretexts - by Brian Beutler - Off Message: Not sure I agree, but it is thought provoking.

Reality still matters in Minneapolis | The Verge: When we get through this, we need to erect statues to the observers and protestors.

The One Simple Thing That Makes the U.S. Economy Unmanageable: So much of our economy is broken, but fixing this would help.

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The Brazen Illegality of Trump’s Venezuela Operation | The New Yorker: It is not unprecedented, but it is different and it is worse.

‘Painful to hear!’ How podcasts’ rush to video is turning them into dreadful listens | Podcasts | The Guardian: First world problem, but this is annoying.

Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again | WIRED: This is good news for safety.

The NYT Recruiting Brochure for New College: The NY Times cannot handle right wing misinformation.

My Open Letter To That Open Letter About AI In Writing And Publishing – Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds: Chuck Wendig and his cats that never existed would like to discuss the usefulness of AI.

Alzheimer's Fully Reversed in Mice, Scientists Say: Science is awesome.

Medical breakthroughs in 2025 - by Saloni Dattani: Science found many ways to make you healthy.

Robot Coffee Cups? Self-Driving Trivets? AI Researchers Made It Happen - CNET: Maybe we really are out of ideas.

College football bowl games remind us of the joy of having fun, going home, and moving on - The Athletic: Bowl games are fun, and sports are supposed ot be about fun.

PodCastle 611: Yo, Rapunzel! - PodCastle: Cute story.

New Acquisitions: Tolkien and Éowyn Between Two Wars (PPP Moot Keynote) – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: Thoughtful read on Tolkien and the different ways in which he understood war.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

The Illiberal's Dilemma: Why illiberalism cannot deliver on its promises.

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Conservatives Want the Antebellum Constitution Back - The Atlantic: The Conservative legal movement is best explained as the Confederate rearguard, doing its best to ensure that the Constitution is no longer the source of liberty it was after the Reconstruction Amendments passed.

Why are shots on goal disappearing across the NHL? - The Athletic: I had noticed this anecdotally, but it is interesting to read how technology is changing how we understand the game.

'Family kept me going' - Irish woman after ICE detention: ICE needs to be abolished.

The best books, films and TV that tackled AI + tech in 2025: Good list to spend your holiday gift money on.

Chipwrecked: Can Nvidia avoid the crash? | The Verge: Imitative AI seems a race between the founders’ ability to cash out and investors’ patience with respect to profits.

The Kill Switch - by Parker Molloy - The Present Age: The Trump Admin now controls almost all mainstream media in this country.

Presenting The 2025 Shams Charania Award For Excellence In Divulging Of Information Through Syntax Comprehended By Many | Defector: Writing is hard. And funny.

How AI broke the smart home in 2025 | The Verge: APIs are always better for well defined task than probabilistic systems.

How Rep. Dan Goldman’s Office Became a ‘Triage Center’ for ICE Detainees: Good people doing good work.

The Year “6 7” Ate Parents’ Minds - The Ringer: The point of children is to mystify adults.

Republicans Who Backed Afghan Visas Are Mum as Trump Halts Them - The New York Times: This is pure evil and everyone who supports this needs to be hounded from public office.

Being Santa Claus is a year-round calling - Ars Technica: Some people are devoted to the most wholesome things.

Salesforce regrets firing 4000 experienced staff and replacing them with AI: Probabilities are not a replacement for expertise.

There Is No Mary Problem in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’: Don’t really agree with this, but its an interesting perspective nonetheless.

Dingus of the Year: Pete Hegseth | Patreon: I would have gone with JFK jr, but this is a strong case.

‘Heated Rivalry’ Is Bringing Me Back To Hockey | Defector: Hockey is the best sport with the worst league and possibly the worst culture.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Posha review: this robot chef cooks better than me | The Verge: Tech firms should spend less time on the AI bubble and more time on stuff like this.

Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal — ProPublica: ‘For my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law’

Rural Fire Departments Squeezed By Software Prices As Investors Profit - The New York Times: This really feels like a place for open source.

The FBI Spent a Generation Relearning How to Catch Spies. Then Came Kash Patel.: The focus here is Patel’s sabotage of this work, but the whole story is fascinating and it really does seem as if the FBI has to relearn these same rules every generation or so.

Last Call for Mass Market Paperbacks: Part of the reason reading has declined is that capitalism has decided that its not worth trying to sell affordable books to the mass market.

Man shocks doctors with extreme blood pressure, stroke from energy drinks - Ars Technica: This is fascinating and a touch scary.

Orcas team up with dolphins to hunt salmon, study finds | Environment | The Guardian: Science is cool and eating fish for dinner tonight.

Will a reporter ever tell Trump to f– off? - by Mark Jacob: Why the press never pushes back on Trump’s boorish behavior.

this is such a painful loss. my heart is broken. – WIL WHEATON dot NET: Lovely tribute to Reiner.

How Mayor Brandon Scott Curbed Violent Crime in Baltimore | The New Republic: Excellent story on how one city has brought down violent crime with nary a National Guardsman in sight.

Meta’s “Trusted Experts” helped me run scam ads on Facebook and Instagram | Reuters: The culture at Meta is clearly hurt anyone for a buck.

Amazon Has Been Conning School Districts out of Millions - The American Prospect: This kind of pricing should be illegal.

Pam Bondi wants a bounty on people who support trans rights | Advocate.com: Can you feel the free speech?

AI’s water and electricity use soars in 2025 | The Verge: Imitative AI is literally reversing our progress on climate change.

Microsoft made another Copilot ad where nothing actually works | The Verge: The desperation to push these tools out, even when they do not work, is not a sign of a healthy market.

Does swearing make you stronger? Science says yes. - Ars Technica: Science: fsck yeah!

Let's talk about Goodreads. - by Nicole Brinkley: Long but really fascinating look at what Goodreads does and does not do for books, authors, and readers and why.

We Let Anthropic’s Claude AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars. - WSJ: I wish more vending machines would order live fish. And giver away PS5s.

Coin Flip – Flash Point Science Fiction: Fun story.

DP FICTION #129A: “When Eve Chose Us” by Tia Tashiro – Diabolical Plots: Good story about grief and friendship.

Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications | The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives: The lack of ethics and commonsense involved in this story is astonishing.

the death of the mother is the death of the world: A lovely tribute to a lost mother and on living through death. Go buy her book — its really one of the best things I have ever read.

Have the best possible week everyone, and I hope you enjoy whatever holiday, if any, you celebrate.

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If He Builds It, Tear It Down - by Hamilton Nolan: Ayup.

No, Progressives Don’t Want “Purity.” They Just Want Some Courage. | The New Republic: Conor Lamb, the center-ist center that ever did center will get my donations for whatever he runs for in PA not because I approve of his policies but because from day one, he’s fought Trump.

Rare set of varied factors triggered Black Death - Ars Technica: Science is cool and will conspire with volcanoes to give you the plague.

a sad song’s best for winter - by BDM - Notebook: The sentiment is spot on, even if the song they chose for illustrative purposes is … not the one I would have chosen.

Millions of children and teens lose access to accounts as Australia’s world-first social media ban begins | Social media ban | The Guardian: A very nuanced and thoughtful look a the social media band for kids in Australia.

At will? Whose will? - by Don Moynihan: Great explainer of why the Supreme Court’s imminent decision to allow Trump to fire civil servants is anti-democracy.

That Personalized Email About Loving and Marketing Your Book Is a Scam - Electric Literature: A new scam for authors to be aware of one. One day, I will be published enough for scam artists to try and steal from me ….

NHL’s most punchable face? From Cousins to Marchand to Makar, who players picked — and why - The Athletic: Yeah, this is about right.

Firewood Banks Aren’t Inspiring. They’re a Sign of Collapse. | The New Republic: The United States is a failed nation, part one billion.

The end of optimization - by Dave Karpf: Great look at why tech is actively hostile to its users.

‘For the Reinvention of Man’: How a Conservative Debating Society at Harvard Pushed Women From Its Ranks | News | The Harvard Crimson: It is bad that equality is not even given lip service by so many conservatives any more.

Power Dynamics, Bad Faith, And The War on Christmas: We don’t have to take bad faith seriously.

Billionaire AI Brain Rot - Will Lockett’s Newsletter: Not sure I agree, but its an interesting perspective.

Guidelines for Female Protagonists in Hallmark Christmas Movies: Remember, woman’s equality is anti-Santa, at least according to Hallmark.

A New Report Reveals the Real Reason Democrats Lost in 2024 | The New Republic: Voters do not think like consultants want them to think, so consultants cannot understand why campaigns failed.

Madison Square Garden’s 5-story entrance ramp is the steep price of admission for visiting athletes - The Athletic: The idea that MSG has an elevator for the home teams but make the away teams walk up a five-story ramp is just perfect sports pettiness.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all - The Washington Post: They must be held to account for this.

Lane Kiffin’s latest leap shows why the college player revolution was needed - The Athletic: Great read on the hyperventilation around college football.

The Conservative Grievance Business Is Always Hiring | Defector: Roth gets to the heart of the matter.

Olivia Nuzzi’s RFK affair book was going to be self-serving. It’s so much worse than that.: An incredible review of an apparently terrible book by a definitively terrible person.

One reason to say ‘no thanks’ to all 32 NHL teams after Thanksgiving - The Athletic: Okay, enough of that holiday cheer and fellow-feeling.

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself: An incredibly important read.

ChatGPT Told a Violent Stalker to Embrace the ‘Haters,’ Indictment Says: OpenAI does not provide much evidence that it cares if you live or die.

Elon Musk’s Grok AI Is Doxxing Home Addresses of Everyday People: X needs to be shut down.

Vital Cat Update – Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds: Is imitative aI wrong, or is Chuck Wendig going through a suspicious number of cats?

The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner Interviews Santa Claus - McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Never did trust that oversized elf.

Jets’ Gabriel Vilardi opens up about mental health struggles: ‘You just see the negatives’ - The Athletic: Always nice to see athletes attacking the stigma of mental health issues.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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A Lost Planet Created the Moon. Now, We Know Where It Came From.: Science will ID the dead planet that gives you tides. And werewolves.

Tatiana Schlossberg on Being Diagnosed with Leukemia After Giving Birth | The New Yorker: A heartbreaking, beautiful, infuriating read.

Taking “Affordability” Seriously - by Brian Beutler: Excellent understanding of the vibes in politics.

Part 1: My Life Is a Lie - by Michael W. Green: Some of the math here is a off, in my opinion, but the general point holds, I think: its more expensive to feel secure than we generally understand.

Meta had a 17-strike policy for sex trafficking, former safety leader claims | The Verge: Meta needs to be destroyed.

How Australia’s creative industries defeated the tech giants on AI copyright - Mumbrella: Organizing works

xkcd: Fifteen Years: Here is to at least fifteen more

The AI boom is based on a fundamental mistake | The Verge: This somehow makes it all even worse.

Voyager 1 Is About to Reach One Light-day from Earth: Science takes us places we have never been.

Headless bodies hint at why Europe’s first farmers vanished | Science | AAAS: Science will scar you for life.

People in China lived alongside ‘chicken-killing tigers’ long before domestic cats arrived | Live Science: Science will get you cool cats.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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The Shocking Truth About Gen Z Voters Is That They’re Pretty Great | The New Republic: The kids aren’t terrible.

How to find music you will love without the algorithm | The Verge: Life outside the computer.

Has Legalized Gambling Poisoned the Sports Atmosphere?: It absolutely has.

Good Boy Is a Horror Film About Grieving: I love Noah’s film criticisms. They always have something thoughtful to say about the work.

A ‘Death Train’ Is Haunting South Florida - The Atlantic: The solution is simple. We just won’t pay for it.

How Jeffrey Epstein used SEO to bury news about his crimes | The Verge: Fascinating look at how Google is used to manipulate information.

Meet CoreWeave, the AI industry’s ticking time bomb | The Verge: It is wild half the stuff alleged in here is remotely legal, but it all apparently is. This bubble is getting uglier and uglier.

Jeffrey Epstein, King of the Dweebs: We are ruled by the worst people.

romantasyzing yr world - by Lyta Gold - Lyta’s List: More great criticism from Lyta Gold. Buy her excellent book and subscribe to her excellent newsletter.

Talking to Windows’ Copilot AI makes a computer feel incompetent | The Verge: AI agents do not work.

Moral rot in elite journalism is killing the whole field: We have the worst elite journalists.

What Tom Holland’s historic lip-sync showcase taught us about stormwater management | by Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District | Medium: We should instead be ruled by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District

Opinion | The White House Gold Rush Is On - The New York Times: Trump is the most corrupt President in history.

In Texas, Tierra Walker Wasn’t Offered an Abortion Before a High-risk Pregnancy Killed Her — ProPublica: Abortion bans kill.

Camp Mystic lawsuit paints heartbreaking picture of girls’ last moments during the the Texas floods | CNN: Infuriating story.

At Loyola Marymount’s KXLU, College Radio Keeps Its Cool - The New York Times: The best radio station in my area is the local college station.

The NFL’s most anonymous men are also the happiest: ‘My life’s not real’ - The Athletic: Fun look at an under-appreciated position.

Hold Their Manhoods Cheap - by Timothy Burke: The real crisis in masculinity is how few man are willing to stand up for right.

First revealed in spy photos, a Bronze Age city emerges from the steppe - Ars Technica: Science is cool.

Iran president says capital move now a necessity as water crisis deepens | Iran International: But climate change is a myth.

I have stumbled on incontrovertible proof that the hockey gods hate the loser point - The Athletic: As do all right thinking people.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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