Donald Trump believes he’s invincible. But the cracks are beginning to show.
‘We’ve both covered Trump long enough to know that his first word is rarely his final one. So at 10:45 on a Saturday morning in late March, we called him on his cellphone. (Don’t ask how we got his number. All we can say is that the White House staff have imperfect control over Trump’s personal communication devices.) The president was at the country club he owns in Bedminster, New Jersey. The number that flashed on his screen was an unfamiliar one, but he answered anyway. “Who’s calling?” he asked….’ via The Atlantic
‘Donald Trump is historically unpopular 100 days into his second term — but Trump, his allies, and conservative media are flooding social networks with claims that his first 100 days have been a huge success. To counter that nonsense, we’ve put together a social toolkit with stories about some of Trump’s most unpopular policies and biggest failures….’ via Indivisible
‘Social media posts about PublicSquare have gone viral as Trump critics use it to find companies not to support – the opposite of what the site was set up for….’ Jennifer Bendery via HuffPost
‘(As) detailed in a new paper published in the journal Nature, an international team of researchers says that it may be giving off a signal. So they want to build a new type of detector they liken to a “cosmic car radio,” that could listen to what the dark matter is saying and perhaps crack its mysteries.
Such a device would “tune in” to the frequency of axions, hypothetical particles that have emerged as one of the leading candidates for what dark matter is.
“We can now build a dark matter detector that is essentially a cosmic car radio, tuning into the frequencies of the wider galaxy until we find the axion,” said King’s College London researcher and coauthor David Marsh in a statement.
Axions are thought to be extremely light and only weakly interact with normal matter, which makes detecting them extremely difficult.
The proposed detector would use a special material to generate “axion quasiparticles,” (AQ) that according to the team could allow scientists to detect axions within the next 15 years…’ Victor Tangermann via Futurism
‘The search for life beyond Earth has led scientists to explore many suggestive mysteries, from plumes of methane on Mars to clouds of phosphine gas on Venus. But as far as we can tell, Earth’s inhabitants remain alone in the cosmos.
Now a team of researchers is offering what it contends is the strongest indication yet of extraterrestrial life, not in our solar system but on a massive planet, known as K2-18b, that orbits a star 120 light-years from Earth. A repeated analysis of the exoplanet’s atmosphere suggests an abundance of a molecule that on Earth has only one known source: living organisms such as marine algae.
“It is in no one’s interest to claim prematurely that we have detected life,” said Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and an author of the new study, at a news conference on Tuesday. Still, he said, the best explanation for his group’s observations is that K2-18b is covered with a warm ocean, brimming with life….’ Carl Zimmer via New York Times
“COULD THERE BE A FILAMENT OF MEMORY THAT PERSISTS THROUGH THIS BIOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION?”
‘Art can outlast the artist — but what about their artistic impulses?
A new art installation project in Australia, titled “Revivification,” raises this question with a very literal interpretation of “impulse”: using his DNA, the team behind the project have performed a quasi-resurrection of the late experimental American composer Alvin Lucier, creating a sort of brain that continuously composes music on the fly with its errant electrical signals.
“Revivification is an attempt to shine light on the sometimes dark possibilities of extending a person’s presence beyond the seemed finality of death,” the team, comprising three artists and a neuroscientist, told the Art Newspaper.
At the center of the piece is an “in-vitro brain,” grown from blood that Lucier, who passed away in 2021, donated in the final years of his life. Housed in a plinth, it’s grown on top of an electrode mesh that connects it to twenty large brass plates placed around the room. Visitors can listen as the brain fires off electrical pulses that trigger a transducer and a mallet behind each plate, striking them to produce sound.…’ Frank Landymore via Futurism
Sort of latest equivalent of ‘Keep Calm & Carry On’
‘In 2016, I accidentally became a bit character in UK history.
I had bumbled my way onto a British reality show called Come Dine with Me, where four strangers take turns hosting, attending, and rating each other’s dinner parties, and the person with the highest score at the end of the week wins an extremely modest £1,000. Usually, the show is low-stakes—its version of “drama” is when someone sticks a whole whisk in their mouth. It’s the kind of trashy, easy-viewing TV you might watch while you’re recovering from having your appendix removed.…’ via Experimental History
‘An international team of researchers aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor (too) launched the ROV SuBastion, which captured the first confirmed live sighting of the elusive colossal squid at 600 meters down in the midnight zone of the Atlantic Ocean near the South Sandwich Islands. This is the first confirmed live observation of the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, at depth in its natural habitat. Pilots filmed the young cephalopod at about 600m near the South Sandwich Islands as the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s remotely operated vehicle SuBastian descended…’ Lori Dorin via Laughing Squid
Three cases of the rare and fatal brain disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) have emerged in Hood River County, Oregon—a statistically improbable cluster in a population of just 23,000, given the disease’s global incidence of one to two cases per million and only 350 cases annually in the U.S. Reported over the past eight months, one case is confirmed and two are probable; two individuals have died, and test results are pending for the third. CJD is caused by misfolded prion proteins that create sponge-like holes in the brain, leading to rapid neurological decline with symptoms such as confusion, hallucinations, and loss of coordination. Diagnosis typically involves microscopic examination of brain tissue. Health officials are investigating potential links between the cases while maintaining family privacy.
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (also known as prion diseases) such as CJD can be transmitted by exposure to contaminated brain tissue, corneal grafts, pituitary growth hormone, or improperly sterilized electrodes or surgical instruments that have come in contact with infected tissue. It can also appear spontaneously from a mutation to the gene encoding the major prion protein. Humans can contract the disease from eating food from animals infected with their own versions of prion disease, e.g. bovine spongiform encephalopathy (“mad cow disease”), scrapie in sheep, or CWD (chronic wasting disease) in deer and elk. Prions cannot be transmitted by air, water, or casual touching. Kristine de Leon via Oregon Live
The Monday press conference with Bukele reveals how Tr*mp would like to rule… and why he may not be able to do so
Donald Trmp’s press conference with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele revealed a shared authoritarian mindset, especially in their dismissive handling of a court order involving a deported migrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Bukele, a strongman who openly defies legal limits, contrasts with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who subtly dismantles democracy under a legal guise. Trmp appears to be blending both approaches—Bukele’s overt force and Orbán’s legal manipulation—but lacks the discipline and context that made them effective in their countries. This unstable mix may provoke public resistance and ultimately help preserve American democracy. Zack Beauchamp via Vox
“Willful disregard” for the court; will not tolerate Justice Dept refusal to prosecute
Federal judge James Boasberg said today there was probable cause to find Tr*mp administration officials in criminal contempt of court for flouting his order to stop sending deportees to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg said the government had shown “willful disregard” for the court. The judge also warned that if the Justice Department refused to prosecute people for contempt here, he would tap a prosecutor to do so. via POLITICO
‘Why are incarcerated people dying from lack of food or water, even as private companies are paid millions for their care?…’ Sarah Stillman via The New Yorker
‘Tr*mp’s administration is only pretending to comply with the Supreme Court on the matter of a Maryland man it deported erroneously….’ Adam Serwer via The Atlantic
Donald Tr*mp and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele
‘Donald Trump didn’t seem to realize he was on camera when he told the president of El Salvador to make more prisons, this time for Americans. “Home-growns are next,” Trump told Nayib Bukele, who visited him in the Oval Office today. “You gotta build about five more places,” Trump added, before describing the El Salvador prison now housing the Venezuelans he deported (without due process) as “not big enough.”…’ via Boing Boing
‘Amid growing concerns over Big Tech firms aligning with Tr*mp administration policies, people are starting to move their digital lives to services based overseas. Here’s what you need to know….’ Violet Blue via WIRED
One of philosophy’s most disturbing ideas‘What if you don’t matter? What if all of your thoughts, precious feelings, great dreams, and terrible fears are completely, utterly, spectacularly irrelevant? Might it be that all of your mental life is just some pointless spectator, looking on as your body does the important stuff of keeping you alive and running about? What actually is the point of a thought?…’ Jonny Thomson via Big Think
’ There is no grand plan or strategic vision, no matter what his advisers claim — only the impulsive actions of a mad king, untethered from any responsibility to the nation or its people. For as much as the president’s apologists would like us to believe otherwise, Tr*mp’s tariffs are not a policy as we traditionally understand it. What they are is an instantiation of his psyche: a concrete expression of his zero-sum worldview. The fundamental truth of Donald Tr*mp is that he apparently cannot conceive of any relationship between individuals, peoples or states as anything other than a status game, a competition for dominance. His long history of scams and hostile litigation — not to mention his frequent refusal to pay contractors, lawyers, brokers and other people who were working for him — is evidence enough of the reality that a deal with Tr*mp is less an agreement between equals than an opportunity for Tr*mp to abuse and exploit the other party for his own benefit. …’ Jamelle Bouie via The New York Times Opinion
‘If there’s one thing I’d hoped people had learned going into the next four years of Donald Tr*mp as president, it’s that spending lots of time online posting about what people in power are saying and doing is not going to accomplish anything. If anything, it’s exactly what they want.
Authoritarians and tech CEOs now share the same goal: to keep us locked in an eternal doomscroll instead of organizing against them, Janus Rose writes…’ Janus Rose via 404 media
‘Researchers have found that the amount of microplastics in our brains is rising at an alarming rate.
As The Guardian reports, scientists examined postmortem brain tissue from dozens of human bodies between 1997 and 2024. They found that the concentration of microplastics increased consistently over that time period, with a particularly dramatic surge over the last eight years.
As detailed in a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, a team led by University of New Mexico toxicologist and professor of pharmaceutical sciences Matthew Campen concluded that the average brain now contains the equivalent of one plastic spoon, or seven grams, worth of plastic. And it’s not just the brain. Scientists also found significant concentrations of microplastics in the liver and kidney.…’ via Neoscope
‘Why do some ideas spread like wildfire, while others resist being seen — despite their importance? A new book by Nadia Asparouhova explores the emerging phenomenon of antimemetics. Published by the Dark Forest Collective. …’ via Metalabel
‘On the walk to the six buildings in which every U.S. senator and House representative offices, CBF’s director of advocacy, Jennifer Hawks, casually mentioned to me that — given my interest in Christian nationalism — I might be interested in seeing the Christian nationalist flags some of these politicos choose to fly alongside the American flag outside their offices.
Of course I was interested.
This is how I ended up spending six hours walking a total of 19 miles through the six office buildings at the Capitol. I walked by every single elected official’s office to document exactly which of them fly these flags….’ Mara Richards Bim via Baptist News Global
‘The White House moves to classify thousands of living immigrants as dead to cancel their Social Security numbers and pressure them to “self-deport”…’ via AP News
‘In 2017, historian Timothy Snyder wrote the concise book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, which went on to become a New York Times bestseller. A historian of fascism (then at Yale, now at U. Toronto), Snyder wanted to offer Americans a useful guide for resisting the country’s drift towards authoritarianism. It was handy then and even handier now–especially as the feds bear down on different institutions undergirding American civil society. Law firms, universities, corporations, media outlets–they’re all getting squeezed, and many have already violated the first of Snyder’s 20 lessons: “Do not obey in advance.” Above, you can hear actor John Lithgow read a condensed version of Snyder’s lessons. You can order a copy of his book online, or explore here a related video series that Snyder produced a few years back. Find a cheat sheet below.
Another of my favorite singers, both eccentric and inspirational, dies at 83
Mr. Hurley in performance in 1994. He recorded about 30 albums but remained somewhat under the radar for his entire career.
‘Michael Hurley, a singer and songwriter whose music — an idiosyncratic kind of folk mixed with a variety of other styles — made him a revered elder to younger artists like Cat Power, Devendra Banhart and the band Yo La Tengo, died on April 1 in Portland, Ore. He was 83. Mr. Hurley’s family announced the death but did not specify the cause.
Mr. Hurley was visibly ill during his final shows — two on March 28 and 29 in Knoxville, Tenn., as part of the Big Ears Festival, and the third on March 31 in Asheville, N.C. — before flying back to Portland, said Regina Greene, the booking agent for his Southeast shows. Mr. Hurley stopped breathing on the ride to his home in rural Brownsmead, Ore.,…’
‘…our findings suggest that the mere inclusion of abbreviations, although seemingly benign, start feeling like a brush-off. In other words, whenever a texter chops words down to their bare consonants, recipients sense a lack of effort, which causes them to disengage….’ David Fang *via The Conversation*
‘The simplest way to read this is that Tru*mp has blinked. I’ve written previously that Trump, despite his obsession with strength, almost always folds. He’s actually not much of a negotiator at all, and can be induced to back down pretty easily. Bill Ackman, the activist investor and Democrat turned Tr*mp cheerleader, has spent the past few days freaking out on X about “a self-induced, economic nuclear winter.” Today, trying to save some dignity for himself and perhaps for the president, he posted, “This was brilliantly executed by @realDonaldTr*mp. Textbook, Art of the Deal.”
This assumes that Tr*mp has gotten something in return. If that is true, no one seems to know what it is, and Tr*mp is not usually shy about proclaiming his achievements. He said last night that foreign leaders “are dying to make a deal. ‘Please, please, sir, make a deal, I’ll do anything, I’ll do anything sir.’” But no new agreements have been announced yet, and Europe was on the verge of retaliation. Tr*mp hasn’t totally given up his leverage—the 90-day pause allows him to bring the tariffs back later—but it removes a great deal of urgency for foreign negotiators….’ David A. Graham via The Atlantic
‘Physicists claim they may have found a long-awaited explanation for dark energy, the mysterious force that’s driving the accelerated expansion of the universe, a new preprint study hints….’ Andrey Feldman *via Live Science*
‘Guess which special birthday boy is getting his own four-mile-long tank parade that is going to cost many, many millions of your tax dollars?
As reported in Washington City Paper, Generalissimo Tr*mp, fresh off his recent Pentagon purge of anyone who might say no to him, is finally getting the military parade he’s been demanding ever since watching France do it in 2017.…’ Ellsworth Toohey via Boing Boing
‘AI animator Hoog created an old-school style PSA that warns of the dangers of robotic quadruped dogs, their ability to carry weapons and other accoutrements, how they move autonomously as a pack, how to protect yourself from them, and how to disable these robotic dogs from attacking you and those you love. …’ via Laughing Squid
‘As a scholar who explores posthumanism, a philosophical movement addressing the merging of humans and technology, I wonder if critics have been unduly influenced by popular culture, and whether their apprehensions are misplaced….’ Billy J. Stratton via The Conversation
‘Colossal, a genetics startup, has birthed three pups that contain ancient DNA retrieved from the remains of the animal’s extinct ancestors. Is the woolly mammoth next?…’ D. T. Max via The New Yorker
‘The best way to avoid this nightmare is to not be a member of the military. You and I may disagree about many issues: about which past actions of the US military have been good or bad, moral or immoral; or even about the degree to which the US military is inherently moral or immoral. Those are important debates to have, but they are not why I am writing this piece today. I am writing this piece today for the simple reason that we are, right now, living under an extremely unstable, vindictive, and dictatorial Commander-in-Chief of the US military who is likely to order the military to do things that will be judged by history to be unconstitutional and immoral. And even if you are a soldier who has supported America’s wars of the past few decades, there is now a distinct possibility, verging on a likelihood, that within the next few years, the US military will be used as a tool to directly oppress Americans at home. For anyone who is of an age to be a member of the US military today, there has never been a higher risk that you will be placed in a situation in which you will be ordered to do things that will make you a villain….’ Hamilton Nolan via How Things Work
Jay North, Child Star Who Played ‘Dennis the Menace,’ Dies at 73
‘Mr. North played the towheaded Dennis Mitchell, who roamed his neighborhood, usually clad in a striped shirt and overalls, with his friends, and often exasperated his neighbor, a retiree named George Wilson, who was played by Joseph Kearns. Herbert Anderson played Dennis’s father, and Gloria Henry played his mother. Dennis winds up causing lots of trouble, usually by accident.…’ via New York Times)
‘Those of us who have lived in countries terrorized by a secret police force can’t shake a feeling of dreadful familiarity….’ M Gessen via The New York Times
Donald Trump believes he’s invincible. But the cracks are beginning to show.
