‘As scientists use machine learning to decode the sounds of whales, dogs, and dolphins, opinions vary on how best to deploy the technology.…’ Isaac Schultz via Gizmodo
‘President Tr*mp campaigned on a pledge to fight antisemitism.
“Antisemitic bigotry has no place in a civilized society,” Tr*mp said at an event in 2024.
Tr*mp nominee gives misleading testimony about ties to alleged ‘Nazi sympathizer’
However, the president’s critics question whether antisemitism may have found a place within his administration.
NPR has identified three Tr*mp officials with close ties to antisemitic extremists, including a man described by federal prosecutors as a “Nazi sympathizer,” and a prominent Holocaust denier…’ Tom Dreisbach via NPR
‘On May 8, political scientists Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt published an op-ed in the New York Times reminding readers that most modern authoritarian leaders are elected. They maintain their power by using the power of the government—arrests, tax audits, defamation suits, politically targeted investigations, and so on—to punish and silence their opponents. They either buy or bully the media and civil society until opposing voices cave to their power.
Levitsky, Way, and Ziblatt call this system “competitive authoritarianism.” A country that has fallen to it still holds elections, but the party in power has so weighted the system in its favor that it’s virtually impossible for it to lose.
The way to tell if the United States has crossed the line from democracy to competitive authoritarianism, the political scientists explain, is to see if people feel safe opposing those in power. Can they safely protest? Publish criticism of the government? Support opposition candidates? Or does taking a stand against those in power lead to punishment either by the government or by government supporters?
Looking at the many ways the Trump administration has been harassing critics, law firms, universities, judges, and media stations, they conclude that “America has crossed the line into competitive authoritarianism.” …’ Heather Cox Richardson
‘Here is how proponents describe the alleged phenomenon:
“Brainspotting makes use of this natural phenomenon through its use of relevant eye positions. This helps the Brainspotting therapist locate, focus, process and release a wide range of emotionally and bodily-based conditions. Brainspotting is also a brain-based tool to support the therapy relationship. We believe that Brainspotting taps into and harnesses the body’s natural self-scanning, self-healing ability. When a Brainspot is stimulated, the deep brain appears to reflexively signal the therapist that the source of the problem has been found.”
This is all complete and utter neurological rubbish from beginning to end, but let’s break it down. The idea is that trauma (not necessarily traumatic memories, but “trauma” in the abstract sense) is somehow located in specific spots in the deep brain, such as the brainstem. This is an extraordinary claim, and it is coupled with another equally extraordinary claim – that where your eyes physically look also maps to specific subcortical locations. These overlapping maps can then be used to locate the “trauma”.
Of course these maps do not exist. There is no neuroanatomical correlate to either component of the core principles of brainspotting. The anatomy of eye movements is fairly well understood, and does not correlate in any way with this core notion of brainspotting.…’ Steven Novella via Science-Based Medicine
Martian Night Sky Seen Turning Green in a Stunning First
‘An aurora gently glowing in wavelengths visible to the human eye has been captured on Mars for the first time – and a robot was the only one to see it live.
On 18 March 2024, as the night sky over Jezero Crater turned a faint, luminous green, the Perseverance rover sat ready with its eyes peeled. What it recorded opens new ways to study Mars. Although Mars is known to have auroras of various kinds, all the others we’ve seen have been in invisible hues of ultraviolet.…’ Michelle Starr via ScienceAlert
‘As part of the red-carpet treatment, Saudi officials arranged for a fully operational mobile McDonald’s unit to accompany President Trump during his stay.…’ Charlie Warzel via The Atlantic
‘Rolling Stone reached out to all 53 GOP senators after the president said he didn’t know whether he needs to honor the nation’s founding document. None replied…’ Ryan Bort via Rolling Stone
He doesn’t know his olive oil from his elbow. He uses an embarrassing espresso machine. And his utility knife is either insanely expensive or insanely cheap. via Financial Times
‘Inside a laboratory nestled above the mist of the forests of south Dakota, scientists are searching for the answer to one of science’s biggest questions: why does the Universe exist?
They are in a race for the answer with a separate team of Japanese scientists – who are several years ahead….’ via BBC
‘Schumer also called on [Attorney General Pam Bondi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pam_Bondi) to testify before Congress and answer a number of questions related to the potential gift.…’ Rebecca Shabad and Frank Thorp V via NBC
Related: How corrupt is Tr*mp’s acceptance of $400 million Qatari jet?
‘Presidents can’t keep gifts that are worth more than $480 unless they buy them. This plane costs about $400 million.…’ Abdallah Fayyad via Vox
RFK Jr and grandkids celebrated Mother’s day with a swim in a sewage-filled creek
‘Vaccine denialism and now just simple reckless disregard for National Park Service warnings to stay out of the water. RFK Jr has some belief he and his progeny are immune to these things, and I hope for the kid’s sake he isn’t proven wrong this time. Sounds like an awful place to swim.…’ Jason Weisberger via Boing Boing
‘Our bodies emit a stream of low-energy photons, and now experiments in mice have revealed that this ghostly glow is cut off when we die…’ Alex Wilkins via New Scientist
Physical basis for the parapsychological concept of the aura?
‘Donald Tr*mp’s administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus – the right of a person to challenge their detention in court – one of the US president’s top aides has said.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, told reporters on Friday that the US Constitution allowed for the legal liberty to be suspended in times of “rebellion or invasion”.
His comments come as judges have sought to challenge some recent detentions made by the Trump administration in an effort to combat illegal immigration, as well as remove dissenting foreign students.
“A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not,” Miller said…’ via BBC
‘New research has identified 17 overlapping factors that affect your risk of stroke, dementia, and late-life depression, suggesting that a number of lifestyle changes could simultaneously lower the risk of all three.
Though they may appear unrelated, people who have dementia or depression or who experience a stroke also often end up having one or both of the other conditions, said Dr. Sanjula Singh, a principal investigator at the Brain Care Labs at Massachusetts General Hospital and the lead author of the study. That’s because they may share underlying damage to small blood vessels in the brain, experts said….’ via The New York Times
‘The causes of this divide are complex and have been endlessly discussed. There’s social media and the existence of “manosphere” content creators like Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan, who promote right-wing parties and ideas. Additionally, widespread isolation, especially for the youth, means that social media now has an outsized impact, leading to a distorted public sphere where preferences are distorted by biased algorithms. There is, of course, a gendered backlash aspect: Women have made notable advances in the public sphere over the last five years, and Trump has capitalized on anxieties about such gains, as well as longer-simmering grievances and tensions, to advance his reactionary agenda.
But while much of the debate has centered on electoral strategy, social issues like transgender rights or Me Too, and chastising activists for their unproductive work, the truth is somewhat more nuanced. Younger men are more conservative on some issues, but men’s and women’s differing votes don’t seem to be based on policy differences: Surveys of American voters point to men and women largely agreeing on which issues they find most important, and they mostly seem to trust the same parties on each of those issues.
The best way to understand the growing gender divide isn’t the culture war. It’s how the economy has shifted over the past half-century.…’ Maia Mindel via Vox
‘OpenAI’s tech may be driving countless of its users into a dangerous state of “ChatGPT-induced psychosis.”
As Rolling Stone reports, users on Reddit are sharing how AI has led their loved ones to embrace a range of alarming delusions, often mixing spiritual mania and supernatural fantasies.
Friends and family are watching in alarm as users insist they’ve been chosen to fulfill sacred missions on behalf of sentient AI or nonexistent cosmic powerse — chatbot behavior that’s just mirroring and worsening existing mental health issues, but at incredible scale and without the scrutiny of regulators or experts….’ Victor Tangermann via Futurism
‘Residents of an upscale enclave outside Austin, Texas, learned the hard way what it’s like when a multibillionaire moves into the mansion next door. Some of them have started a ruckus over it….’ via The New York Times
‘The comment came as Tr*mp remained adamant that he wanted to ship undocumented immigrants out of the country and said it was inconceivable to hear millions of cases in court, insisting he needed the power to quickly remove people he said were murderers and drug dealers.
“I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it,” he said.
Pressed on whether he still needs to abide by the Constitution, he said, “I don’t know.”…’ Matt Viser via The Washington Post
‘Tr*mp seems to know little, and he has grown increasingly incoherent and rambling, often wholly detached from reality.…’
For example, this, in response to a question about border security:
“I built hundreds of miles of wall, and then (Biden) didn’t want to, and we had another, an extra hundred miles that I could have put up because I ordered it as extra. I completed the wall, what I was doing, but we have, I wanted to build additional because it was working so well. Rex Hippie via USA Today
His administration is great at breaking things — but it’s failing in its bigger goal.
‘There is an established playbook for turning a democracy into an authoritarian state, used in countries ranging from India to Hungary. It requires a leader to:
Remove formal limits on their own powers.
Compromise independent power centers such as the press and courts.
Win compliance with the new regime from social elites and the mass public.
Tr*mp has attempted all of these things. He has taken actions, like unilaterally declaring an end to birthright citizenship, that clearly violate the Constitution. He has targeted alternative power centers, launching an investigation into a Democratic fundraising platform and threatening the press. He has imposed sanctions on prominent law firms and universities in a bid to force compliance, and he has sold it all to the public as evidence he’s getting things done.
Yet in each arena, Tr*mp is facing effective and mounting pushback. He is routinely losing in court. He is failing to silence the media. And he is losing support among the elite as his poll numbers plummet…’ Zack Beauchamp via Vox
‘If you receive a text from a number you don’t know, don’t respond, as doing so validates your phone number. Even if you don’t engage in this exchange any further, you may be targeted again in the future (and by different unfamiliar numbers).
You also don’t need to try to find out who they are or whether you know them—if someone actually needs to reach you, they are likely to follow up with multiple messages or calls beyond a single “Hey, how are you?” And as with any scam, be wary of communication that provokes an emotional response or a sense of urgency.
You should mark wrong number messages as spam in your messaging app. In Messages on iOS, tap the Report Junk link that appears at the bottom of messages from unknown senders, then hit Delete > Report Junk. If you haven’t opened the message yet, you can also swipe left and tap the Trash icon > Delete and Report Junk. (Note that you can’t report a message if you’ve replied to it, which is another reason not to do so.)
On Android, you can block and report conversations in Google Messages: tap and hold, then tap Block > Report spam > OK. If you’ve already opened the conversation, hit More options > Details > Block & report spam > OK.
You can also forward spam messages to 7726, which helps wireless companies identify and block scams.…’ Emily Long via Lifehacker
Tr*mp underwater in most policy areas, including immigration
Buffoon-in-chief
‘A New York Times poll finds Donald Tr*mp achieving a record low rating for a president 100 days into their administration, with 42% of respondents approving of the job he’s doing and 54% disapproving. Moreover, he’s underwater in every policy area they cared to chart, including the one that’s supposedly his strongest: immigration.…’ via Boing Boing
‘…(O)ver the last few months, it has occurred to me that, for all the hype about generative AI systems “hallucinating,” we pay much less attention to the fact that the current President does the same thing, nearly every day. The more you look at the way Donald Trmp spews utter nonsense answers to questions, the more you begin to recognize a clear pattern — he answers questions in a manner quite similar to early versions of ChatGPT. The facts don’t matter, the language choices are a mess, but they are all designed to present a plausible-sounding answer to the question, based on no actual knowledge, nor any concern for whether or not the underlying facts are accurate.
This pattern becomes impossible to unsee once you start looking for it. …’ via Techdirt
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
Illustration: white dwarf draws material from red giant star
The nearby T Coronae Borealis system could still explode any day now, but calculations suggest the next best chance for fireworks is later this year.
‘Sky watchers were disappointed last night when a binary star system didn’t erupt in a nova explosion that was predicted to take place on Thursday. But fear not, the famous blaze star is still due for its recurring nova to erupt any day now.…’ Passant Rabie via Gizmodo
A red giant star and white dwarf orbit each other in this animation of a nova similar to T Coronae Borealis.
‘Astronomers have been watching a small constellation in the night sky, waiting for a nearby binary star system to explode. The wait may finally be over: A numerical estimate predicts the rare nova eruption could happen on Thursday, March 27.
T Coronae Borealis (T CrB), also known as the Blaze Star, is a binary star system located 3,000 light-years from Earth. It periodically explodes in a recurring nova every 79 years or so, and it’s due for an impending eruption.
The Blaze Star has spent the past decade behaving much like it did in the lead-up to its last visible eruption nearly 80 years ago, according to NASA. The current window for the rare astronomical event opened in February 2024 and remains open. Astronomy enthusiasts have been keeping a close eye on the skies since last year, waiting for that stellar boom. A paper published last year in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society estimated that the star is likely to explode on Thursday, March 27—so get ready to look up…
The nova will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere in the Corona Borealis constellation, which forms an arc shape in the night skies. You can spot the stellar explosion without a telescope for several days after it happens. The star system will then begin to dim and won’t brighten again for roughly another 80 years, so make sure you catch this rare celestial event…’
‘Two days after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, the Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer took to the air waves. Before his radio broad cast was cut off, he warned his countrymen that their führer could well be a verführer, or misleader. Bonhoeffer ’s anti-Nazism lasted until the end of his life in 1945, when he was executed by the regime for association with the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler. Even while imprisoned, he kept thinking about the origins of the political mania that had overtaken Germany. The force of central importance to Hitler’s rise was not evil, he concluded, but stupidity.
“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than mal ice,” Bon ho ef fer wrote in a letter to his co-conspirators on the tenth anniversary of Hitler’s accession to the chancellorship. “One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless.” When provoked, “the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.”…’
‘On Wednesday, it was reported a French scientist was denied entry to Houston after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers found messages criticizing President Donald Trump’s cuts to science funding. Photos on another visa holder’s phone allegedly showing support for Hezbollah saw her denied reentry into the U.S.
Immigration attorneys have also reported increased scrutiny of visa holders’ messages and social media accounts at official ports of entry, including airports.
“I’ve told my clients to be very careful about their use of electronic devices and bringing electronic devices like phones and laptops through the border, to make sure they haven’t unintentionally saved photos to their phone that might be controversial, even though they don’t think they are,” Elissa Taub, a partner at immigration law firm Siskind Susser in Tennessee, told Newsweek.…’
Trump bashes Dem Gov. Polis over “bad” portrait of himself — even though Republicans commissioned it
‘A rabid Donald Tr*mp unleashed his fury at Colorado Gov. Jared Polis last night for allowing a “bad picture” of himself to hang in the state Capitol — even though the portrait was commissioned by Republicans in 2018, before the governor took office.…’
Pete Hegseth accidentally texts U.S. war plans to Atlantic editor, says new report
‘On March 15, the U.S. bombed Houthi rebels in Yemen — but Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg knew specific details about its “secret” war plans hours beforehand, thanks to an extremely careless text he received by controversial Trump-pick Pete Hegseth.
“The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming,” Goldberg explained today.
“The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing,” he said.
And it wasn’t just the incompetence of Hegseth — a former Fox News host before Donald Trump thought him worthy enough to become U.S. Secretary of Defense — that led to the security breach. It was more of a group effort, that started with Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.…’
‘Assuming that the judge — Judge Boasberg or any other judge for that matter — eventually concludes that the government deliberately violated a court order, what are the judge’s options?
I can tell you that every former judge I know has been asked this question by somebody in the media, including me. I think the only real option is civil contempt.
The reason why it cannot be criminal contempt is generally that would be referred to the Justice Department to prosecute. So you might have a lawyer, a witness that you direct to answer [a question], they refuse, and/or they lie. If you want to charge them with criminal contempt, you have to get the U.S. Attorney’s office or Main Justice to prosecute, and clearly the Tr*mp Justice Department, or the Bondi Justice Department, is not going to prosecute.
Then you get that question, which was raised in the Eric Adams case, could you appoint a special prosecutor? That’s tricky because of separation of powers, so I think criminal contempt is off the table.
I think civil contempt, however, is something that could be done if the facts are fairly straightforward. The remedy in civil contempt, believe it or not, can include incarceration.
Usually it’s fines. If it was a lawyer, you might file a grievance against the lawyer. That could be done if these lawyers either lie to the court or personally violate the order — you might want to bring a grievance before the grievance committee of the local bar where they’re admitted, something like that.
So it could be fines, could be a grievance, but in theory, it could also be jailing somebody. I did that only once in my time on the bench. In a civil contempt case, I actually put somebody in jail because he was so defiant, and then … he did what he was told to do.
You could also sanction the person, and that’s always interesting, because you could have fines that double every day, so it can get serious fast. I don’t know how good at math you are, but a $1,000 fine doubling every day can quickly add up to real money — not for the United States government, but for an individual. If somebody was individually sanctioned, that adds up.
How would incarceration work in civil contempt? Wouldn’t you still need the involvement of the executive branch?
Well, you need the person taken away by the U.S. Marshal. That’s the problem, right?
When I held someone in civil contempt, I had to say, “Marshal, take this person across the street to the jail.”
That is part of the executive branch — just the U.S. Marshal escorting the person over to the federal facility. So it still has that problem, but you don’t need a prosecutor.…’
(Ankush Khardori, a former federal prosecutor, interviewing former federal judge Shira Scheindlin via POLITICO)
New data suggests the unknown, unobservable force responsible for the universe’s expansion may be weakening.
A visualization of a 3D map of the universe, with Earth at the center and every dot representing a galaxy.
‘Observable matter–everything from the coffee cup on your desk, to distant planets, to the largest and most ancient galaxies—makes up just 5% of the cosmos, meaning that dark energy is responsible for a whopping 68% of everything we think exists in the universe.
The notion of dark energy as a constant—which is to say, it manifested the same way 10 billion years ago as it does today, and as it will 10 billion years from now—is “baked into” the predominant model of the universe, Lambda-CDM, according to Rossana Ruggeri, a physicist at the University of Queensland who was involved in the DESI analysis.
“Results from the first batch of data gave a hint that dark energy might not behave like a simple cosmological constant—but it wasn’t strong enough to draw firm conclusions,” Ruggeri said in The Conversation. “Now, the second batch of data has made this evidence stronger.”
Though the data does not yet meet the statistical threshold physicists require to firmly declare a bona fide new discovery, the data strengthen physicists’ resolve that something is going on that will mean the model needs to be revised. “If dark energy is changing over time, it could have profound implications for the ultimate fate of the universe,” Ruggeri wrote.…’
— they probably won’t magically catalyze a mass movement against Tr*mp but are still wildly important
‘I wrote this for people who, like me, have spent much of the past few weeks hoping that somebody else would do something bolder in this political movement. We are downtrodden because we’re full of rage and heartbreak, but the polls tell us that our neighbors don’t share those feelings. We realize we’re seeing something that so many aren’t, but we’re not sure how to bridge the gap. We have wished (appropriately) for bravery from our media, from elected Democrats, from public officials in general. However fair those wishes are, they come with a risk: that we miss the opportunity to be the lonely voice for justice in our own community, the person who makes it a little easier for a second and third and fourth lonely voice to start perking up by our side.
I don’t pretend that all it takes for a social movement to succeed is a bunch of individuals throwing the activist equivalent of spaghetti at so many isolated walls. Nothing I offer here will be enough. And yet, so many of us are waiting for something we can join, which presents a true opportunity to be the first person in your circle welcoming fellow travelers into halting, shaky, earnest action.…’
‘From 1942 to 1945, the Navajo Code Talkers were instrumental in every major Marine Corps operation in the Pacific Theater of World War II.
They were critical to securing America’s victory at Iwo Jima.
Axios identified at least 10 articles mentioning the Code Talkers that had disappeared from the U.S. Army and Department of Defense websites as of Monday.
The Defense department’s URLs were amended with the letters DEI, suggesting they were removed following Tr*mp’s executive order ending federal diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives….’
‘New research this month shows that the experimental antiviral obeldesivir prevented up to 100% of deaths in monkeys infected with the deadliest species of Ebola.…’
Leader of the Youngbloods, and then an enduring prolific solo singer-songwriter career
‘Jesse Colin Young, whose sincere tenor vocals for the Youngbloods graced one of the most loving anthems of the hippie era, “Get Together,” a Top Five hit in 1969, before he went on to pursue a solo career that lasted more than five decades, died on Sunday at his home in Aiken, S.C. He was 83.
His death was announced by his publicist, Michael Jensen, who did not specify a cause.…’
‘Again and again, audiences have been spoon-fed the same story: a character can only be explained by a past trauma, tantalisingly revealed in the last episode. Has the trope reached a tipping point?…’
‘…[I]t’s worth noting for context that there is another prominent international figure who routinely references an “artificial” line between his country and his neighbor: Vladimir Putin has used the same rhetoric in recent years when describing the border between Russia and Ukraine.…’
Write negative coverage about Dictator Tr*mp, and you’re breaking the law.
‘At least that’s what the highly sensitive MAGA man said when speaking to reporters today.
“I believe that CNN and MSDNC [sic], who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party,” Trump said, seeming to forget the name of MSNBC. “And in my opinion, they are really corrupt and they are illegal. What they do is illegal.” (See video here, posted by Aaron Rupar.)
“And it has to stop,” he added, via The Hill, after comparing television news outlets to political operatives. “It has to be illegal. It’s influencing judges and it’s really changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal, and they do it in total coordination with each other.”…’
‘Dr. Emily Zarka of the PBS series Monstrum looks at the phenomenon of seeing a shadowy man wearing a wide brim hat appearing during terrifying episodes of sleep paralysis. This so called “Hat Man” is so prevalent that restless sleepers have seen this or other frightening images just before they fall asleep. Zarka also examines the physiology behind these frightening episodes…’
‘Elon M*sk is many things—the richest man in the world, an internet-addled conspiracy theorist, the controller of six companies, perhaps even the shadow president of the United States—but most importantly, he is an idea. The value of M*sk may be tied more to his image than his actual performance. He’s a human meme stock….’ (Charlie Warzel via The Atlantic)
‘Known more formally as osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis (OOKP), the surgery has been performed successfully in a handful of countries over the last five decades…
Developed in Italy in the 1960s, tooth-in-eye surgery is a multi-step process that starts with extracting one of a patient’s canine teeth. Surgeons then shape the tooth into a rectangle, drill a hole into it and glue a plastic optical lens inside the hole. They then surgically embed the tooth into the patient’s cheek so that a layer of tissue can grow around it. During the same procedure, they also cut a flap of skin from inside the patient’s cheek and surgically attach the skin to the front of the patient’s eyeball.
Then, they wait. Three months later, if all goes to plan, they embark on the second phase of the operation. They pull back the flap of skin from the eye, then remove any previously damaged tissue, like the lens and the iris. Next, they remove the tooth from the patient’s cheek and surgically embed it into the eyeball. They then lay the flap of skin back over the eyeball and cut a small hole for the patient to see out of.
When the multi-step procedure is complete, patients have a pink tissue with a black dot in the middle where their eye used to be. “It won’t look like a normal eye… The eye will look pink with a small dark circle in the middle.”
The patient’s vision usually comes back within a month of the second phase of the surgery…. Afterward, patients can’t see perfectly—they have a narrower field of vision, similar to peering through a porthole—but they can usually resume some of the activities they had to stop when they went blind. One woman in Australia started skiing again, reports CBC Radio’s Sheena Goodyear.
Surgeons use teeth because of their strength and durability. Teeth are made of dentin, which is one of the hardest substances in the body. And, since they are part of the patient’s own body to begin with, teeth are not typically rejected after the surgery.
“We are trying to really just replace a clear window on the front of the eye… The tooth is the perfect structure to hold a focusing piece of plastic or a telescope for the patient to see through…’ (Sarah Kuta *via Smithsonian *)
‘The country’s bitterly tribal politics are spilling into text chains, social media posts and heated conversations as Americans absorb the reality of cost-cutting measures directed by President Donald Tr*mp and carried out by billionaire Elon M*sk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Expecting sympathy, some axed workers are finding family and friends who instead are steadfast in their support of what they see as a bloated government’s waste….’ (via AP News)
The contest for the worst opening sentence in literature is being shut down. Fortunately, access to their archive will be preserved. (via Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest)
‘Firefly’s first mission to the Moon touched down on the lunar surface on Sunday at 3:34 a.m. ET. The Texas-based company released a clip of Blue Ghost’s descent toward the Moon followed by a smooth landing. The footage is a masterclass in lunar landings, capturing striking views of the lander emerging from a cloud of dust, its shadow stretching across the Moon’s surface in a superhero-like stance….’ (via Gizmodo)
‘A review of Steve Benen, “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past” (Harper Collins, 2024) and Jason Stanley, “Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future” (Simon & Schuster, 2024)….’ (Abby Smith Rumsey via Lawfare)
‘What started as musings at a dinner party evolved into a radical takeover of the federal bureaucracy. It was driven with a frenetic focus by Mr. M*sk, who channeled his libertarian impulses and resentment of regulatory oversight of his vast business holdings into a singular position of influence….’ (via The New York Times)
In a way, M*sk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter was practice, or an opening gambit in a meticulously planned coup.
‘Never mind, we can’t get our act together. Sorry that Trump is ruining the country but we’ll be back next year in time for the midterms…’ (Susan B. Glasser via The New Yorker)
Donald Trump believes he’s invincible. But the cracks are beginning to show.
‘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
‘Dr. Emily Zarka of the PBS series Monstrum looks at the phenomenon of seeing a shadowy man wearing a wide brim hat appearing during terrifying episodes of sleep paralysis. This so called “Hat Man” is so prevalent that restless sleepers have seen this or other frightening images just before they fall asleep. Zarka also examines the physiology behind these frightening episodes…’
‘The country’s bitterly tribal politics are spilling into text chains, social media posts and heated conversations as Americans absorb the reality of cost-cutting measures directed by President Donald Tr*mp and carried out by billionaire Elon M*sk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Expecting sympathy, some axed workers are finding family and friends who instead are steadfast in their support of what they see as a bloated government’s waste….’ (via AP News)
