‘In a scene that could have easily featured in an episode of the US television sitcom The Big Bang Theory, the late US physicist Richard Feynman once turned a visit to a Thai restaurant he often dined at into a mathematical riddle: how adventurous should we be in trying new dishes? Feynman promptly solved this on a sheet of paper.

Now, behavioural scientists have revisited Feynman’s solution — some of which had been obscured by his inscrutable handwriting — and found that his was indeed the optimal strategy….’ (S. Abbas Raza via 3 Quarks Daily)

‘In a forest north of Prague, in the Czech Republic, sits a beautiful castle that attracts thousands of visitors every single year, for it combines medieval history, supernatural tales and even Nazis.

With stories of a gateway into hell itself and occult experiments by occupying Nazis, Houska Castle has a place in European folklore, which raises the question about the truth behind this scenic old building….’ (Sam Farley via Far Out Magazine)

 

‘Ötzi the Iceman, Europe’s most famous mummy, hosts microbes—some ancient, some still alive after millennia, and some modern.

After dying in the Ötztal Alps, the Copper Age man lay frozen and forgotten for 5,300 years, until hikers found his freeze-dried remains in 1991. Since then, scientists have sequenced his DNA, studied his last meal and gut microbes, and examined his clothes and broken tools. Today, Ötzi rests in a high-tech chamber at Italy’s South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, where his body still shelters cold-adapted yeasts likely present since soon after his death….’ (Kiona N. Smith via Ars Technica)

‘There are several things to keep in mind when watching the surge of robot demonstration videos and even livestreams. First, such robotic demonstrations are not necessarily indicative of robots operating autonomously without human control or oversight, said Dipam Patel, a PhD candidate in computer science at Purdue University and a research assistant at the US Army DevCom Army Research Lab. Many demonstrations still rely on human operators directly controlling the robots’ actions through teleoperation.

“Unless a research paper or a company is explicitly mentioning that [the robot] is completely autonomous, you should take it with a very big pinch of salt,” Patel, also an IEEE Graduate Student Member, told Ars.

Another question to consider is whether the demonstration shows robots tackling a completely new test environment for the first time, or whether the robots are simply repeating a task they had already learned to do in that specific training environment. The new test environment would be significantly more impressive at showcasing robots capable of doing tasks autonomously in a generalized way, Patel said.

It is also worth checking the video playback speed for any robot demonstration, because “usually the robots are very slow” for safety and other reasons, Patel said. Companies may sometimes disclose that a robot demonstration video is running at two times or four times normal speed—meaning the robot could be taking twice as long or four times as long as a human to do the same task.

Robot demonstration videos can also vary wildly in their informative value and transparency. Some are clearly intended to be performative entertainment clips that can go viral on social media, or polished promotional videos from companies seeking new clients and investors. Others may provide more of a behind-the-scenes look at the robot training process while acknowledging robot mistakes along the way….’ (Jeremy Hsu via Ars Technica)

‘Institutions like The Late Show and 60 Minutes are no longer untouchable. That should frighten every single American. If scale and profit can’t save our most powerful voices, what happens to the rest of us?…’ (TC Sottek via The Verge)

‘CBP is conducting “systematic” searches of activists’ devices, using the language and tools of counterterrorism to target left-wing critics and activists, in keeping with President Donald Trump’s efforts to go after those he calls “Violent Left-Wing Extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists.”…’ (Gaby Del Valle via The Verge)

‘IN RECENT DAYS, a fantastical question has captured the attention of New Yorkers and local tabloids: Who is popping in and out of manholes across the city, and what are they doing in the sewer system?…’ (Caroline Haskins via WIRED)

‘…[H]ow long does it take protagonists in an existential crisis to embrace war of all against all, to start murdering their way towards refuge—or, having refuge at hand, to aggressively prevent others from joining them?…’ (James Davis Nicoll via Reactor)

‘Parents and caregivers have long reported that when some autistic people run a fever from an infection, their autism-related symptoms ease for a while.

MIT and Harvard Medical School researchers , backed by $2.1 million in grants from the Marcus Foundation, want to work out the biology behind this “fever effect” and eventually mimic it as a therapy.

A decade of work in mice by neuroscientist Gloria Choi and immunologist Jun Huh points away from the heat itself. They traced the improvement to an immune-signaling molecule called IL-17a, which appears to calm overactive brain circuits during infection. Injecting it directly into the brains of affected mice improved their symptoms even without any fever.

“Although it isn’t actually triggered by the fever, per se, the ‘fever effect’ is real, and it provides us with an opportunity to develop therapies to mitigate symptoms of autism spectrum disorders,” said Choi. The team now plans a “biobank” of blood and stool samples from volunteers to hunt for the same markers in people.…’ (Ellsworth Toohey via Boing Boing)

‘There are no atheists in foxholes. Soon, there won’t be any Wiccans, Rosicrucianism, shamanic faiths, Troth, Unitarian Universalists, Humanists, Heathens, or Astaru and a whole lotta Protestant denominations, either. According to Military.com, Whiskey Pete Hegseth has ordered the number of religions recognized by the Department of War brutally slashed from just over 200 to 31. This theocratic bullshit reverses changes made to the DoW’s religious affiliation codes. In 2017, the Chaplaincy’s recognized religions were massively expanded as an exercise of the rights the United States once stood for: if you’re willing to serve and potentially die for your country, you should be able to practice the freedom of belief enshrined in its constitution. I guess that was too much to ask for from an ass with a $300 haircut and Deus Volt tattooed on his chest….’ (Séamus Bellamy via Boing Boing)

‘The president has turned a solemn occasion into a Day of Trump….’ (David Frum via The Atlantic)

‘In his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell argued that bad writers “are nearly always haunted by the notion that Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones.” Today, artificial intelligence chatbots have fallen victim to the same blunder.

The idea that Latin-derived terms like “exhibit,” “triumph” and “consume” sound fancier than Germanic words like “show,” “win” and “eat” traces back to at least the Norman Conquest, when the previous Old English-speaking elites were suddenly replaced by a new French-speaking aristocracy. As Romance vocabulary became associated with the educated upper class, it increasingly took on a feeling of cultural prestige — a feeling that compounded as English borrowed additional waves of Latin loanwords during and after the Renaissance.

Even in the 21st century, this bias continues to permeate our social interactions. We’ll use more Latin terms when we want to speak formally or authoritatively; we’ll use Germanic words to sound crass or casual. I’m writing this article using Romance words like “permeate” and “authoritatively” because they make it sound like I know what I’m talking about. A new study from a group of researchers at Florida State University suggests that AI chatbots have also inherited this proclivity. After testing six AI models, the researchers found consistent favoritism for words coming from Latin and French over those with Germanic etymologies — even more than you would typically encounter in the English language….’ (Adam Aleksic via The Washington Post)

‘In Alan Watts’ book “The Wisdom of Insecurity” he points out that many people believe there are benefits to believing in God, but that is not nearly the same as actually believing in God. The mere fact we understand a belief would be beneficial to us doesn’t automatically make us sincerely believe it. Far from it! As Watts says:

It may be necessary for man to have a myth, but he cannot self-consciously prescribe one… man cannot for long knowingly and intentionally “kid” himself. Even the… most forceful arguments for some sort of return to orthodoxy are those which show the social and moral advantages of belief in God. But this does not prove that God is a reality. It proves, at most, that believing in God is useful… if the public has any suspicion that he does not exist, the invention is in vain.

That is: a belief isn’t a mere choice, something which can be adopted when it seems beneficial. Rather, it is something associated to a genuine, sincere, durable felt conviction. Indeed, that conviction may even be held despite it being inconvenient or even disadvantageous. If it is not possible to hold in the face of such challenges, then arguably it was not a belief. This lack of volition in either choice or rejection helps beliefs serve as durable glue binding communities.

So how do people come to believe? Tanya M. Luhrmann has written a beautiful book exploring this question, “How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others”. The book explores the idea that much of the purpose of religious practice is to help practitioners believe. This inverts conventional wisdom, with Luhrmann taking seriously the possibility that sometimes people aren’t worshipping because they believe, but rather believing because they worship. More generally: Luhrmann makes a compelling case that there is a much more complex relationship between belief and religious practice than you might naively suppose, and she explores some of that relationship….’ (Michael Nielsen via Michaelnotebook)

‘The bugs, broken apps, and nightmare customer-service bots we can’t escape, presented as a blessed and sacred addendum to Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on AI…’ (Brian Phillips via Theringer)

‘Illustrator  John Rooney has teamed up with the Middle East Children’s Alliance to produce and sell this Birds of Palestine print . Rooney on Instagram : “All profits will be going towards providing emergency assistance to children and families in what is still a dire situation in Palestine.”…’ (Jason Kottke via kottke.org )

‘As per Yahoo, as pockets of the crowd began to exit the venue in response to his comment, he added, “For those of you fucking booing us, some of us are not afraid. And we most assuredly are not fucking ignorant.” …

Recently, during a conversation with Mojo in March 2026, Robinson surprisingly commented: “I’m not interested in politics”. However, he followed it up, adding: “[But] I know what’s right and wrong – and this shit going on right now is wrong. Look man, I’m almost 60, all right. I don’t tell anyone what to do, because I don’t like to be told what to do. But I know right and wrong. The world’s teetering on the edge with all this bullshit, but if there’s a street fighting man out there, he’d got to be a young man, right? But these kids don’t seem to give a fuck.”…’ (Rachael Pimblett via Far Out Magazine)

‘Imagine Donald Trump receiving a Nobel Prize—not for championing peace, democracy, or global unity, but for inadvertently reminding the world just how vital those ideals truly are. This is the daring idea from veteran Italian journalist and media innovator Roberto Savio, founder of Inter Press Service (IPS) and publisher of Other News. In a widely shared personal appeal, Savio proposes an “Alternative Nobel Prize” for U.S. President Donald Trump—not as an honour, but as a sharp piece of political irony meant to spotlight the unintended consequences of Trump’s actions and words. The proposal walks a fine line between satire and seriousness. Beneath its humour pulses a deep worry about democracy’s health, the unravelling of international cooperation, and what Savio calls a rising tide of political subservience to a leader he sees as narcissistic, impulsive, and antagonistic to democratic values….’ (Ramesh Jaura via Eurasia Review)

‘A bear has injured four people near Fukushima city in Japan. Wildlife is surging in areas evacuated following the 2011 nuclear disaster.…’ (via Flipboard)

‘Don’t look now, but it appears that Congress is actually doing its constitutionally prescribed job: checking presidential power.

 

On Monday multiple outlets reported that President Donald Trump was backing off of his so-called anti-weaponization fund: the $1.776 billion discretionary account Trump functionally awarded himself as a result of his lawsuit against the IRS.

While it’s unclear whether this decision is permanent or final, the reporting all suggests that it is the direct result of an unusual revolt by Senate Republicans, who have openly defied Trump over the fund…’ (Zack Beauchamp via Vox)

Trump’s mortgage fraud czar is about to be overseeing America’s spy agencies. …’ (Cameron Peters via Vox)

‘Bill Pulte has no national-security experience, but he does have one qualification that might appeal to the president… Donald Trump’s pick to lead the intelligence community has no national-security experience, but he does have a history of clashing with colleagues and doggedly using his position to go after the president’s enemies.…’ (David A. Graham via The Atlantic)

‘Why Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is on the rocks…’ (Cameron Peters via Vox)

‘Trump’s Freedom 250 fest crashout proves he’s the only true MAGA celebrity

Trump loves stars. Too bad they all hate him.…’ (Constance Grady via Vox)

‘Pessimism is probably “a bigger problem than climate change”, said the novelist Ian McEwan on Monday afternoon, as temperatures broke May records in the UK.

McEwan “constantly” hears people say that they don’t “expect their children to have as good a life as they did”, but suggested that optimism is a “moral duty”.

McEwan’s latest book, What We Can Know, is partly set in 2119, in a Britain submerged by seas. He spoke at the Hay festival on a panel alongside the former NFU president Minette Batters and Sandi Toksvig, on a day that saw temperatures in London reach 34.8C, beating a May record set in 1922.

McEwan went on to say that optimism is an “exercise in rationality”, because it’s “quite possible” – given that “the world is big, cultures are diverse” – that “there could be a revolution happening and we don’t even know about it”.…’ (Ella Creamer via The Guardian)

‘In the event of an imminent nuclear apocalypse, we suspect that many people who have access to private jets will immediately take to the skies and escape city centers. This site tracks this indicator in realtime. The current emergency level is reported on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being an indicator of a likely imminent apocalypse. built by Kyle McDonald…’ (via ews.kylemcdonald.net

‘Democrats are in thrall to the idea that corporate consolidation is America’s biggest, and maybe only, problem.…’ (Jonathan Chait via The Atlantic)

Chait, who has had a career as a political reporter at The New Republic, New York and The Atlantic, argues that anti-monopoly thinking has become a dominant force in Democratic economic policy, driven largely by the Open Markets Institute and its central figure, Barry C. Lynn, who sees corporate consolidation as the root of much of America’s social, political, and economic dysfunction. In Chait’s view, this dangerously monocausal worldview moved antitrust politics to the center of the Biden administration, particularly through the influence of Lynn’s protégé Lina Khan, appointed to the Federal Trade Commission. For this movement, antitrust is not merely a narrow matter of consumer prices but part of a broader project to decentralize power and curb corporate dominance.

Chait regards this emphasis as useful but badly overextended. He argues that it neglects other sources of contemporary dysfunction, including inflation, social-media addiction, cultural alienation, political polarization, and the Democratic Party’s loss of working-class support. If allowed to dominate policy, he warns, the anti-monopoly framework would be intellectually erosive, politically divisive, and likely to fail. Its vocabulary of resentment toward concentrated power may be emotionally satisfying, but Chait sees it as risking the rupture of older Democratic coalitions while failing to deliver the salvation it promises.

I am reprinting this, from colleague Dr Henry Abraham, in its entirety. He thoughtfully articulates concerns I share. 

Dear Dr. Barbabella:

I am concerned that you have examined President Donald J. Trump for the third time since last January, even as the White House called your assessment on May 26 an “annual dental and health checkup,” and despite the president’s claim that “everything checked out PERFECTLY. Three days after your evaluation you claimed that he “remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall physical function.”

The American people don’t seem to be buying that story. A recent poll showed that 59% of Americans feel he lacks the mental acuity for his position, hardly a vote of confidence in the president’s self-assessment.

In my experience as a physician, it’s uncommon for a healthy person to require a medical evaluation three times in a year. Certainly the ecchymoses in his hands are a tell. It may be a sign of aging. If it’s from handshaking, as you suggested, why in both hands? If it’s from prescribed aspirin, Harvard emergency physician Jeremy Faust wondered if a high dose was because you were trying to prevent a heart attack. What about his edematous ankles? Venous insufficiency is your diagnosis, but that’s relatively uncommon in men. Have you ruled out right sided heart failure, or is he taking a drug like amlodipine that also causes swollen ankles? Your credentials as a combat surgeon are exemplary, but there may be other medical specialists who might help in dealing with an especially challenging case.

As a psychiatrist I have concerns about his mental status which appears to have worsened in the last year. Why has he taken the MOCA test of cognitive abilities three times since 2018? Is the president slowly declining, or is his mental function dropping off a cliff? The danger posed by his apparent psychiatric decline is compounded by his unfettered access to our vast nuclear arsenal. Like any patient with advancing dementia, there’s a time when the car keys have to be taken away. I fear the president is at that point, and should be lawfully removed from office. I base this extraordinary request on my observations of his increasingly poor judgment, reduced impulse control, rage attacks, grandiosity, feelings of omnipotence, and his growing intoxication with nuclear weapons over which he alone has control.

As a specialist in substance use disorders I recommend, if you have not already done this, a urine tox screen on the president. He has an admittedly thinly sourced history of abusing psychostimulants since 1992. I have previously described a photo of the president with dilated pupils, a singularly abnormal finding in an elderly man under normal room illumination. Was this from a stimulant? In my clinical experience a tox screen would be indicated in any patient presenting this way, especially if he described nocturnal tweeting frenzies, grandiosity, paranoia, and daytime sleepiness consistent with stimulant withdrawal.

Other specialists who may be helpful in this complex case include hematologists, neurologists, and infectious disease experts. His black and blue hands bespeak a bleeding disorder. Aggressive use of aspirin may be the culprit, but have you ruled out blood dyscrasias such as the leukemias or platelet disorders?

While there are a number of red flags that appear to presage dementia, such as difficulties in speech, logic, calculations, and orientation in space, they are intermittent. You might argue that occasional mental lapses are part of being nearly 80. But a cluster of them even when intermittent is worrisome, especially when mixed with disinhibition, rage, and access to weapons of mass destruction. Missing from the public record are the actual scores of his three prior MOCA screens for cognitive decline. As you know the MOCA is a rapid screen taking ten or so minutes to complete. I strongly recommend a more thorough neuropsychological battery to assess the president’s ability to remember, pay attention, solve problems, and use language.

The patient’s father developed a dementia in later life which was diagnosed as “Alzheimer’s disease.” But his emotional disinhibition was more consistent with frontotemporal dementia, or FTD. The frontal lobes of the brain, shown below in dark blue, help you plan, organize, observe social graces, and exert good judgement. The temporal lobes, in light blue, deal with memory, language, and modulating anxiety and rage.

If his father’s dementia was the FTD type, the president has a 25 to 50% chance of developing the same illness. FTD patients exhibit apathy, poor judgement, and speech difficulties.

As you know, there are other causes of dementia. e.g. the vascular type from small blood clots in the brain. Brain imaging can put those concerns to rest, and so I was disappointed when last October you elected only to perform an MRI study of the president’s cardiovascular system. Brain MRI, PET, and/or SPECT scans are long overdue.

Last on my short list of rule-out diagnoses is neurosyphilis which in the U.S. from 2019 to 2023 increased 61%. It is not a stretch of one’s imagination to consider that the current president has a history of unprotected sex with infected partners. Neurosyphilis can linger for years without being detected. Undetected it can progress to a dementia with an expansive demeanor and grandiose delusions, symptoms we see in Donald Trump today. A simple blood and spinal fluid test can lay this possibility to rest.

Most importantly is that while you have a duty to protect the president’s privacy, you have a far greater duty to protect the common good. You have served your country on the battlefield. Now you are called upon to render Americans and the world a far greater service.

Sincerely,

Henry David Abraham, M.D.

Trump Urges Canceling Freedom 250 Concerts After Artists Drop Out

‘The president had earlier said on social media that he should take the place of “these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’” saying he gets “larger audiences than Elvis.”…’ (Derrick Bryson Taylor via The New York Times)

Kennedy Center Must Remove Trump’s Name From Building, Judge Orders

‘Mr. Trump railed against the judge’s ruling in an incensed social media post, suggesting that he was considering casting the Kennedy Center aside as one of his personal projects. The president wrote that unless he was free to decide the center’s trajectory, he had “no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey.”

“Unfortunately, Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of, much as I have done, in many cases, throughout my life,” he wrote.…’ (Julia Jacobs via The New York Times)

‘A huge noise rattled part of the state on Thursday. Multiple theories have been put forward, but the mystery remains.…’ (Victor Mather via The New York Times)

Unlike today’s event off the Massachusetts coast, NASA said Thursday’s was not caused by a meteor, having received no reports of a fireball and no satellite detection of a meteor in the area. 

Seen and heard up and down the Eastern Seaboard from Quebec and northern VT down to Delaware and Maryland (via American Meteor Society; thanks, Abby)

‘The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening. Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine (Fall 2006 page 14), described the instinctive drowning response like this:

1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.…’(via Mariovittone)

(via Reddit)

• ‘The global average Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) score fell to 42 out of 100, the first decline in more than a decade.
• Only five countries now score above 80, down from 12 a decade ago.
• The U.S. ranks 29th with a score of 64, its lowest-ever result in the index.…’ (Srijaa Chatterjee via Visual Capitalist)

‘We critically examine proposals for the so-called warp-drive spacetimes and classify these models based on their various restrictions within the framework of General Relativity. We then provide a summary of general formalism for each class, and in the process, we highlight some misconceptions, misunderstandings, and errors in the literature that have been used to support claims about the physicality and feasibility of these models. On the way, we prove several new no-go theorems. Our analysis shows that when the principles of General Relativity are applied correctly, most claims regarding physical warp drives must be reassessed,
and it becomes highly challenging to justify or support the viability of such models, not merely due to the violation of energy conditions.…’ (via Arxiv)

‘For some Americans’ finances, the Iran war was over almost as soon as it began. Those with access to stocks — a majority of Americans have some, though the ultrawealthy have most — saw the S&P 500 dip about 8% when the war started, only for it to bounce 19% starting in late March, more than making up its losses. The index is now up 10.7% for the year, which if it held would make for the fourth consecutive year of double-digit stock increases.

President Donald Trump has been quick to trumpet these gains. “We have 401(k)s at their all-time high, highest they’ve ever been, and that goes along with the stock market, which is the highest it’s ever been,” Trump said at a televised Cabinet meeting this week, repeating a refrain he has adopted to celebrate market wins. That is all despite the war, he said. 

But as Trump — along with anyone who has to put gas into their car — also knows, the real economic weight of the war is much heftier than lofty stock prices would suggest. The war is heightening an already historic disconnect between those who can share in the affluence spun off by U.S. financial markets and those who can’t. That is aggravating Americas’ frustrations with the president’s economic performance, and likely will weigh on his fellow Republicans’ performance in November’s midterm elections. …’ (Matt Peterson via CNBC)

‘Particles of light cannot be divided into smaller particles, but if you try to snip off the end of one, instead of shortening it multiplies…’ (Karmela Padavic-Callaghan via New Scientist)

‘For years now, President Donald Trump has been showing off a signature dance move at events and campaign rallies, jerking his bent arms and clenched fists forward and backward, often to the sound of the Village People’s “YMCA.”

 

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The dance is a regular feature when he’s onstage — so much so that it has become part of his signature brand, experts told HuffPost.

“It’s typically the same exact song and it’s the same exact set of moves, and he’s typically doing it when he’s wearing the blue suit, the white shirt and the red tie, so it’s part of his brand,” said Patti Wood, a body language expert and author of “Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma.” “One of the reasons it is so interesting to observe is that we know exactly what he’s going to do, and yet we look at it every time [and try] to understand.”

This “very on brand for him” move is even a “visual version” of his speech patterns, said Denise Dudley, a clinical psychologist and behavioral expert. “If we think about it a certain way, he dances like he talks,” Dudley said. “It’s super repetitive, it’s really simple. I mean, it’s not complicated at all.”…’ (Jillian Wilson via HuffPost)

‘In 2024, Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex. (Trump received a no-penalty sentence, or unconditional discharge, just 10 days before his January 2025 inauguration to a second term.)…’ (via The Boston Globe)

‘A new study suggests ChatGPT may stereotype you based on where you live, with the artificially-intelligent model classifying some locations as smarter, some as smellier and some as uglier or stupider.

Researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Kentucky asked OpenAI’s GPT-4o-mini model over 20 million questions between March and May of last year. They got the ChatGPT model to compare two places in order to get “a single, unambiguous consistent answer” about how it classifies certain states, according to researchers…’ (Monica Torres via HuffPost)

‘Belarus’ president has been accused of flagrant human rights violations and enabling Russia’s war in Ukraine. That hasn’t served as a barrier to his friendship with Donald Trump.…’ (Yuliya Talmazan via NBC News)

‘”Sand and dust storms do not just mean dirty windows and hazy skies.”…’ (Joe Wilkins via Futurism)

‘[W]hat is going on and what can we do about it? I put these questions to Laurie Santos. Santos is a cognitive scientist and professor whose class on happiness quickly became the most popular in Yale’s history. And through her podcast “The Happiness Lab” and her free online course called “The Science of Well-Being,” Santos’s reach has extended far beyond the classroom.

I wanted to understand what history and science say happiness really is, how that connects to loneliness and American ideas about productivity and why, with so many happiness tips flooding our feeds, it has still been so hard for me, and many others, to do the things that will actually make us truly, deeply happy.…’ (Lulu Garcia-Navarro via The New York Times)

‘A Canadian man who ran online businesses that shipped toxic salt to people in 40 countries pleaded guilty on Friday to 14 counts of aiding suicides in Ontario, prosecutors said.

British prosecutors said that the man, Kenneth Law, 60, of Mississauga, a city just west of Toronto, had also formally admitted to causing the deaths of 79 people in Britain as part of the proceedings in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket, Ontario.

The deaths in Britain were recognized in the Canadian court, which will sentence Mr. Law in September “on the basis that he distributed lethal products internationally, knowing they were likely to be used to end lives,” Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.…’ (Michael Levenson via The New York Times)

‘The first sign that the tree was in trouble was the scent — a musty odor that cut through the warm forest air.

“It smelled like mushrooms but worse, like decomposition,” said Cyrille Cornu, a French researcher who visited the tree, an ancient baobab that locals call Tsitakakantsa, last October in southwest Madagascar. Approaching the massive trunk in the island nation’s Andombiry Forest, Mr. Cornu’s heart sank. A dark, foul-smelling liquid was seeping from the base of the tree.

“I was surprised because I never saw this before,” said Mr. Cornu, who specializes in baobabs and has visited the tree several times over the last 15 years. He thought to himself: “Something is wrong.”…’ (Jonathan Wolfe via The New York Times)

‘In a bid to remake the country’s top-rated news program, Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News, on Thursday unveiled an overhaul of “60 Minutes,” replacing the show’s executive producer with a tech journalist and firing two of its on-air correspondents.

Ms. Weiss named Nick Bilton, a former New York Times technology columnist and a filmmaker who has directed and produced documentaries for HBO and Netflix, as her pick to lead the 58-year-old Sunday show. Mr. Bilton, who has never worked in traditional broadcast news, will replace Tanya Simon, who had been at the show for more than three decades.

CBS News also fired Cecilia Vega, the program’s first Latina correspondent, and Sharyn Alfonsi, whose segment on torture in Salvadoran prisons was pulled off the air abruptly last year by Ms. Weiss, who requested more reporting. It aired in full at a later date. Draggan Mihailovich, the executive editor of “60 Minutes,” was also fired, as was Matthew Polevoy, a senior producer.

Ms. Weiss, an opinion journalist with no prior experience in television, has made major changes at CBS since being appointed last year by the tech scion David Ellison. She has named Tony Dokoupil to helm “CBS Evening News,” hired new on-air contributors and personally booked some guests for interviews, a departure from the industry norm…’ (Benjamin Mullin via The New York Times)

‘A new book looks into the long history of people who have opposed vaccines…

Facts and figures can demonstrate how many lives have been saved by vaccines. But they will never be an effective counterargument to “the government can’t tell me what to inject into my kid.” The only potential argument to sway someone who fervently believes that is appealing to their sense of solidarity—to the obligations that every member of society has to every other, to the sacrifices that everyone must make to ensure that society is safe for all. Alas, that sense of solidarity… does not seem to be at its peak in the US right now.

As Levenson makes clear, these three arguments have been plied for as long as vaccines have. But there are a couple of key differences now. The first is that 300 years ago, people who claimed that vaccines were either ineffective or harmful could be forgiven for thinking they had a point. But we now have germ theory to explain exactly how vaccines work and centuries of data showing how infection and death rates from every disease have plummeted once a vaccine was introduced to counter it. We know better.

The second is that now, arguments against vaccines tend to be touted by only one particular subgroup of people: Republicans. And that has come with predictable consequences. “In the US from 2021 onward,” Levenson writes, “being a Republican has become a measurable risk factor for illness and death.”

Levenson teaches in and has directed the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT, so you might expect his writing to be clear, concise, engaging, and informative, with an effective mix of statistics and anecdotes. You’d be right. And despite the incendiary nature of his topic, his tone remains measured throughout; he never descends into anger or ranting. A new book looks into the long history of people who have opposed vaccines.What does come through is his anguish that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s lies and policies will cause kids to needlessly be sickened by and die from diseases we have the tools to prevent….’ (Diana Gitig via Ars Technica)

‘“No one knows what is going on, which is leading to a lot of anxiety,” said a Republican operative who works on House races, who like some others interviewed for this report spoke on the condition of anonymity to frankly discuss a sensitive issue within the GOP conference. “There is a total information void.”

The operative added: “We cannot hold the majority without this seat. And folks need to know if he is capable of running for reelection and winning. … You can’t just go missing for months and tell people they just need to be patient and wait without any accountability.”…’ (Dan Merica via The Washington Post

‘Scientists believe there are almost certainly hundreds, if not thousands, of undiscovered animal species living in the middle of New York, among the city’s parks, gardens, and streets. I’m not talking about the big stuff — birds, frogs, and so on — but small critters, including flies, wasps, and other insects.

It’s not that NYC is some sort of global bug hot spot. (Despite what it might feel like in the summer, it is not.) Rather, the bulk of species in many insect groups, wherever they’re found, remains unknown. As one example, there may be as many as 1.8 million species globally in a single fly family called Cecidomyiidae, known as the gall midges. Yet only about 7,000 of them have been described in the scientific record and are thus known species. Broadly speaking, taxonomists estimate that as much as 90 percent of all animal species on Earth are still unknown….’ (Benji Jones via Vox)

‘One of the most trusted forms of protection against the dreaded mosquito might have an unexpected weakness. Research out today shows that mosquitoes can actually learn to love the presence of DEET, a common ingredient in insect repellents. Scientists in the U.S. and France conducted lab experiments with Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, a species well known for spreading various diseases, including yellow fever and dengue. They successfully reversed the mosquitoes’ aversion to the chemical, even making them more willing to approach a human wearing DEET. Though DEET remains a valuable anti-mosquito measure, the findings suggest people should be especially mindful about using it as instructed, the researchers say. “DEET is still the gold standard of mosquito repellents,” study author Clément Vinauger, an associate professor in the department of biochemistry at Virginia Tech, told Gizmodo. “Our work is an important reminder to carefully read the manufacturer’s recommendations regarding dosage and application frequency to ensure these products are as effective as possible.”…’ (Ed Cara via Gizmodo)

‘I have many thoughtful friends who are depressed about the state of the world. I am less depressed than they are — not because I’m an optimist, or because I deny the evil and stupidity in our political system that are causing so much harm, but because I believe history reveals a pattern that leaves reason for hope.…’ (Danny Hillis via NOEMA)

‘There’s an old line, sometimes attributed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, that the best way to solve a difficult problem is to make it bigger. That might be the most generous interpretation of how the Trump administration is approaching its ongoing peace talks with Iran.

Over the weekend, the news around the talks followed what has now become a familiar pattern. On Saturday, the two sides were reportedly close to a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and lift the US blockade on Iran. Then on Sunday, President Donald Trump said he had told his negotiators “not to rush” into a deal. On Monday, the United States launched a new round of what it called “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran. The current message from the White House is that they’re giving talks another few days, and continue to believe believe a deal is likely, but haven’t taken a return to full-scale war off the table.

Then in a rambling Truth Social post on Monday morning, Trump enlarged the problem by saying that it “should be mandatory” that as part of any peace deal, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey sign on to the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations with Israel. This is unlikely: Saudi-Israeli cooperation against Iran has been the worst kept secret in the Middle East for years, but the international outcry over the war in Gaza has made it politically untenable for these countries to publicly embrace Israel. It’s unclear just how seriously Trump will press for this, but the fact that at this phase in negotiations he’s bringing up new demands sure to irritate his own allies, suggests he’s not exactly desperate to wrap these talks up.

The fact that a deal still hasn’t been signed — despite the fact that the underlying dynamics of the conflict haven’t changed much since Iran and the United States signed the current ceasefire agreement in early April — as well as the fact that Trump seems to be expanding rather than narrowing his demands suggests two things that turn the recent weeks of negotiation reports on their head: First, Trump does not believe that he is losing this war. Second, he is still hoping to reach a mega-deal to reset the politics of the entire region. RELATED5 ways the Iran standoff could end Trump doesn’t think he’s losing Before the war began, Trump told a concerned Tucker Carlson that despite predictions warning that attacking Iran could destroy his presidency, he was confident everything would be okay “because it always is.” The war certainly hasn’t gone as easily as expected, but it’s very possible Trump still believes he has the upper hand and that everything will work out….’ (Joshua Keating via Vox)

‘Hengefinder is an app that, given times and places, can help you experience “stunning moments when the sun or moon aligns perfectly with city streets and buildings.” A “henge” is when the sun or moon is perfectly framed by a street or appears to sit on top of a building … Astronomical calculations combined with road data deliver instant results. Works worldwide. Sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset—all at your fingertips. It’s available for iPhone and on the Google Play Store, but is based on open-source software posted to Github by Victoria Ritvo. It’s on the web at hengefinder.rcdis.co; my street gets henged in September, weather permitting!…’ (Rob Beschizza via Boing Boing)

‘In a previous piece, The Duty to Warn, I argued that by remaining silent, physicians risked far greater harm to potential victims of a nuclear attack than by assessing one president’s mental condition based on the public record. In last week’s piece I combed the historical record over the prior forty years of the President’s life for possible clues of his psychiatric instability which could lead to a catastrophic failure over his command and control of nuclear weapons. This week there is more evidence.

An AI image he posted this week underscored Donald Trump’s intoxication with nuclear weapons. The image seemingly touted the Space Force on Truth Social features Trump with his face with a vengeful grimace, his fingers hovering over a glowing button, with explosions already occurring around him. In the posting Trump has become Shiva, the destroyer of worlds, without the capacity for remorse of an Oppenheimer.

This post from a United States president is not normal. This is a man-child playing a game called “I Can Start a Nuclear War Any Time I Want To.” This is also the ultimate call for physicians to warn.

The fifteen signs and symptoms of Trump’s mental instability I had previously published on Substack are…’ (Henry Abraham via Substack)

‘When scientists first discovered the insulin secretion effects of gut hormone GLP-1 in the 1980s, it seemed like the automatic gateway toward a landmark diabetes treatment. GLP-1, or glucagon-like peptide-1, slows digestion, signals the pancreas to release insulin, and even makes you feel full after a meal. If that peptide could be turned into a medication, experts theorized, GLP-1 could revolutionize pharmaceuticals..

But there was one major problem stumping researchers: GLP-1 lasted mere minutes in the body. Bodily hormones quickly break down both naturally produced and synthetic GLP-1, and that left drug developers unable to determine if a consistent dose of the peptide could effectively regulate insulin. It seemed, at the time, that GLP-1 was the miracle hormone that vanished too fast in the body to even be useful as a medication.

What GLP-1 lacked, however, is what another peptide had.

Enter exendin-4, composed of 39 amino acids and a close match to the sequence of GLP-1. As told in this Popular Mechanics feature, researcher Jean-Pierre Raufman and endocrinologist John Eng discovered exendin-4 in the 1990s in the most unlikely of places: the venom of the thick-skinned Gila monster. Turns out, the venom proved useful as a blood sugar and appetite regulator. Raufman’s years of studying animal toxins led to the uncovering of exendin-4 and eventual production of type 2 diabetes drug Byetta—and it’s a breakthrough that kick-started the entire GLP-1 drug industry.’ (Ashley Tysiac via Popular Mechanics)

‘Donald Trump’s reputation and political career were built on his dealmaking prowess, yet the president keeps demonstrating that he is a terrible negotiator…’ (David A. Graham via The Atlantic)

‘Researchers who have tested Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 say their hacking capabilities are a “game-changer.”…’ (Maggie Miller via POLITICO

( via Current Rothko)

‘On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Republicans held a hearing to discuss, as they put it in the hearing’s official title, “a threat to the Supreme Court’s legitimacy.” The threat to which they referred, though, was not the Court’s myriad ethical scandals, or its efforts to gut both the Voting Rights Act and the Fifteenth Amendment, or its 200-plus-year track record of concentrating power in the hands of well-connected white guys named John. Instead, the threat that had House Republicans all riled up is the idea of increasing the number of justices on the Court. On its website, the Judiciary Committee promised during the hearing to “examine the history and perils of court packing,” as well as “other policy proposals that threaten to undermine the integrity of the judicial branch.”…’ (Allegra Kirkland via  Talking Points Memo)

‘Democrats are still unwilling to seriously reconsider their worst political liability.

The autopsy, written by Paul Rivera and not endorsed by the DNC, went on and on about bolstering political efforts on the local and state level, even in red states—advice Democrats would do well to consider. It suggested focusing on economic issues, another salient point. It also recommended reaching out to male voters.

Yet the document tiptoes around the key reason why Americans are rejecting the Democratic Party. Woke ideology is a 10-ton albatross around the party’s neck, and until Democrats get serious about reconsidering it, they’ll just keep sinking into the mud….’ (Tyler O’Neil via Daily Signal)

‘Tesla is rumored to have believed that the numbers three, six, and nine had special powers. Allegedly, he once said, “If you only knew the magnificence of the three, six, and nine, then you would have a key to the universe.”

Historians have not found a definitive source for this quote, but that hasn’t stopped it from taking off and sparking a great deal of speculation among those looking for a cheat code to the cosmos.

The number three has long been recognized as a powerful digit. Sacred trinities—like the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost in Christianity—appear frequently across various religions. Tesla himself reportedly cited “energy, frequency, and vibration” as the three elements that he believed held the key to understanding the nature of the universe.

The inventor certainly had a well-documented interest in the number three. In Tesla’s life, this interest led to an obsession with the number that some have connected to possible OCD. Tesla would often walk around blocks three times before entering buildings, and would use 18 napkins—a multiple of three—to wash his dishes. He also insisted on staying in hotel rooms with room numbers that were divisible by three, and died in room #3327 of the New Yorker Hotel in 1943….’ (Eden Gordon via Mental Floss)

‘Over the past 16 months, Trump and his appointees have so profoundly undermined the United States government that different words should be used to describe them than have been used to describe all previous administrations.

To begin with, they shouldn’t be called an “administration” at all. They should be referred to as a regime: A regime flagrantly defies court orders, as have Trump and his appointees.

…Secondly, this regime is not headed by a “president,” as the constitution of the United States and America’s laws and history have designated the head of the executive branch of the US government. To put the term “president” before Trump’s name defiles the constitution.

…Thirdly, Trump and his regime’s disregard for law is so monumental that it negates what we have come to understand as a “government of laws”. A better word for it is lawless. Consider that by the end of January, eight people had died in their dealings with ICE this year. Thirty-two people died last year in the custody of ICE. That’s more than in the preceding 20 years. People only suspected of being in the US illegally have been detained or deported by masked and armed immigration agents, without a hearing. People suspected of smuggling drugs have been murdered by the US military in international waters, in violation of international law. Meanwhile, Trump is accepting gifts from foreign powers, in open violation of the constitution. He has blatantly promoted his family’s crypto business and implemented policies favorable to it.

…All of this goes way beyond specific illegal acts. A different term should be used to describe what Trump and his regime are doing to the law. They are lawless.

Finally, the true test of a successful president of the US and his (eventually her) administration is not how much power he accumulates or how much he gets done. The real test is how much better off are the American people and how much stronger is our democracy.

By these measures, Trump and his regime are not just lawless. They are a catastrophe.…’ ( via The Guardian)

‘Tech experts and reviewers say the long-delayed $500 phone has high costs, middling specs and murky origins…’ (Garrett Owen via Salon.)

‘Musk has been bemoaning N’yongo’s casting for months. The manchild mogul, as well as conservative pundit Matt Walsh, recently griped that it’s unfair that N’yongo, who is of Kenyan and Mexican descent, was cast as the most beautiful woman in ancient Greece — because, they argued, actor Sydney Sweeney would never be cast as “the most beautiful woman in Africa.” Back in February, Musk accused Nolan, whose last film, “Oppenheimer,” won Best Picture, of losing his “integrity.”

N’yong’o didn’t comment directly on Musk’s reaction to her casting, but her response centered on a simple fact about the source material. “This is a mythological story,” she reminded her interviewer for Elle. “Our cast is representative of the world. I’m not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not.”…’ (David Moye via HuffPost)

‘In hours of underwater video footage from a New York aquarium, a beluga whale named Natasha stretches her neck, pirouettes, nods, and shakes her head in front of a two-way mirror. Her daughter Maris does much the same. According to a new study published in PLOS One, both animals show the behavioral hallmarks of mirror self-recognition—a cognitive ability long considered a marker of self-awareness, and one that had never before been documented in beluga whales.

If the result holds up, belugas join a remarkably short list. The mirror self-recognition test (MSR) has been passed, with varying degrees of confidence, by humans (starting around age two), a handful of great apes (chimps, bonobos, orangutans, and—somewhat contentiously—gorillas), Asian elephants, bottlenose dolphins, probably magpies, possibly orcas, and, if you can believe it, a cleaner wrasse. That’s it. No dogs, no cats, no monkeys. Plenty of species we had assumed were self-aware have been tested and failed….’ (via Ars Technica)

‘Jailbreakers rarely ask a model to break its rules outright. Instead, they cajole, coax, flatter, and trick a chatbot into lowering its guard, making the forbidden thing look acceptable, even desirable, given the context of the conversation. Researchers at AI red-teaming firm Mindgard recently said they “gaslit” Claude into producing prohibited material, for example, including instructions for making explosives and generating malicious code. The hack was the latest in a widening class of exploits using conversation as a weapon to trick or steer a chatbot past its own boundaries….’ (Robert Hart via The Verge)

‘A gunman known to the U.S. Secret Service opened fire near the White House and was shot and killed by federal officers. President Trump was in the White House at the time…

…Within the last month, two people have been arrested after opening fire in the vicinity of top U.S. officials.

On April 25, a man from California who was armed with a shotgun, handgun and several knives charged past a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where Mr. Trump was due to speak, before being subdued by Secret Service agents.

On May 4, a man from Texas was wounded during an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service officers near the Washington Monument, accused of making vulgar statements about the White House afterward, as he was being taken to a hospital in an ambulance…’ (Campbell Robertson via The New York Times)

‘AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM of astrophysicists has found evidence that the universe recycles black holes, merging them to form even larger ones. Gravitational waves recorded in recent years show that some of the heaviest black holes within star clusters exhibit clear signs of being “second-generation” black holes—products of past collisions—and therefore could not have originated from the collapse of a massive star.

The evolutionary theory of stars explains that, at the end of the lives of the most massive stars, their cores compress until they form a point so dense that it curves space-time to infinity. This is the classic black hole, with masses 10 to 40 times that of the sun. There are also supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies, with millions or billions of solar masses, whose origin is related to processes that occurred in the earliest moments of the universe.

Between these two extremes lies a contested category: black holes with masses between 40 and 100 solar masses. They are too heavy to be born after the death of a star, but they do not reach the necessary dimensions to emerge from the collapse of a gigantic cloud of matter. Conventional stellar physics considers them “impossible,” yet they appear frequently in detections.

Astrophysicists propose that these massive black holes could form by the merging of two or more smaller, ultradense objects. The idea was plausible, but it needed evidence. Until relatively recently, there was no way to obtain it….’ (Jorge Garay via WIRED)

‘Republicans called Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing to go after the Southern Poverty Law Center, but Jamie Raskin showed up to talk about something far bigger. Armed with the Constitution and a list of names he wanted subpoenaed, the Maryland Democrat turned his opening remarks into a full-scale takedown of what he called one of the most corrupt financial schemes the Trump administration has pulled off yet — a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that Raskin argued was nothing more than a taxpayer-funded reward for Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers. He laid out exactly where the money came from and who he believed was responsible. “The Trump administration is perpetuating a fraud against America by taking nearly $1.8 billion of our money from the U.S. Judgment Fund and without any legal authorization from Congress, purporting to use it to pay off his once and future private militia,” Raskin said….’ (Jaidyn Bridgeforth via Atlanta Black Star)

‘.In the book “The Echoing Universe: How Radio Astronomy Helps Us See the Invisible Cosmos,” astrophysicist Emma Chapman describes the hidden corners of space that only radio waves can reveal — and makes the case for contacting aliens..’ (Emma Chapman via Live Science)

‘It’s a measure of Donald Trump’s low regard for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as well as its soon-to-be former occupant, that while the commander in chief was making final preparations to invade Venezuela and kidnap its president, Tulsi Gabbard was posting photos of herself from a beach in Hawaii.

Gabbard, who informed Trump of her resignation today, spent 15 months as the director of national intelligence—on paper, at least. By law, the DNI is supposed to serve as the president’s chief intelligence adviser. Gabbard never was, and many of her stances were at odds with administration actions. Trump was contemptuous of even her modest efforts to speak truth to power. In the spring of 2025, when Gabbard testified to the intelligence community’s consensus view that Iran “is not building a nuclear weapon,” Trump replied, “I don’t care what she said.” Gabbard has long opposed U.S. military intervention in Iran and did not publicly come out in support of Trump’s decision to go to war. One of her top lieutenants quit in protest of the war.…’ (Shane Harris via The Atlantic)

‘There is no cure and no vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, which has caused two outbreaks in recent decades. Health leaders and scientists are now racing to understand where the virus is spreading and attempting to stop it – but the US is notably absent in these efforts.

In the past year, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been dismantled, thousands of staff at US health agencies were laid off, communications stalled and key scientific research canceled.…’ (Melody Schreiber via The Guardian)

‘A woman who had her breasts removed after identifying as “nonbinary” has reached a confidential settlement after suing her mental health providers. Camille Kiefel, 36, filed a malpractice lawsuit against two Oregon therapists whom she alleges inappropriately approved her for the surgery after brief telemedicine sessions, despite her history of mental health diagnoses that included trauma, depression, suicidal ideation and ADHD….’ (Kristine Parks via Fox News)

‘On Thursday, the Commission of Fine Arts signed off on Trump’s plans for a massive 250-foot-tall triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC, which critics warn would dwarf its surroundings and “fundamentally [alter] a meticulously preserved skyline.” Trump has said the arch, intended to mark America’s 250th anniversary, would also celebrate himself. 

The vote is another rubber stamp from a group eager to let Trump remodel DC as he sees fit: Earlier this year, the commission also approved Trump’s plan for a new ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing of the White House and a commemorative gold coin bearing the president’s scowling face. The panel’s eagerness is unsurprising, as all seven members were appointed by Trump earlier this year. The committee’s vice-chair, James McCrery II, was the original architect for Trump’s ballroom, while another member, Chamberlain Harris, currently works in the White House….’ (Cameron Peters via Vox)

‘In an interview with POLITICO Magazine in his Capitol Hill Office, the retiring North Carolina Republican said his criticism — whether it’s directed at White House “sycophants” or an “incompetent” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who he wants to see fired — has the same end game: protecting Republicans’ Senate majority and Donald Trump’s legacy….’ (Jordain Carney via POLITICO)

‘The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it will not decide Hamm v. Smith, a case involving a genuinely difficult constitutional question about whether an Alabama inmate may lawfully be executed. The immediate upshot of this decision is that Joseph Clifton Smith, who’s at the heart of this case, will not be killed. Smith prevailed in the federal appeals court that previously heard his case. And the fact that the justices decided not to decide Hamm — they dismissed it “as improvidently granted,” to use the Court’s precise legal terminology — means that Smith’s victory in the lower court stands….’ (Ian Millhiser via Vox)

‘At 7,570 metres tall, Bhutan’s Gangkhar Puensum mountain poses three summits, none of which have been scaled yet—and likely never will be….’ (Ria Gupta via Architectural Digest India)

‘

‘An American infected with Ebola is being treated in Berlin, while another exposed to the deadly virus is being sent to Prague after the White House reportedly resisted allowing citizens to return to the US for care and monitoring.

According to The Washington Post, five people close to the Ebola response said that, over the weekend, the Trump administration resisted allowing the return of Peter Stafford, a 39-year-old surgeon working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amid a raging Ebola outbreak. The resistance allegedly delayed Stafford’s evacuation and care, risking his health, as experts note that early treatment is critical for Ebola, which can turn deadly in days.

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Stafford had developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive for Ebola late Sunday. In a press briefing on Wednesday, Satish Pillai, the CDC’s incident response manager for the Ebola outbreak, said Stafford had arrived in Germany and is in stable condition. His wife, Rebekah Stafford—also a doctor who was exposed to the virus in DRC but is asymptomatic—along with the couple’s four children, have been flown to Germany as well.

Another doctor, Patrick LaRochelle, who worked with the same Christian missionary group as the Staffords, called Serge, was also exposed to the virus but remains asymptomatic. He is being transferred to Prague for monitoring and care. According to the Post, his wife and children, who were with him in the DRC, were flown to the US after the CDC concluded that they had not been exposed to the virus.

The Ebola outbreak, caused by the uncommon Bundibugyo virus strain, was first confirmed on Friday and has quickly escalated to a public health emergency of international concern, according to the World Health Organization. On Friday, there were 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths; the latest numbers, as of Wednesday, from WHO stand at 528 suspected cases and 132 deaths.

It’s unclear when US officials learned of Stafford’s exposure, but upon receiving the information, a back-and-forth discussion on his evacuation began. “The president and his people did not want him back in the United States,” one source told the Post. Another confirmed, “They would not allow him to be transported to the United States.” Trump has previously criticized decisions to bring American Ebola patients back to the US during earlier outbreaks.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai denied that the administration didn’t want to accept Stafford and attacked the Post. “This is absolutely false and another reason why the Washington Post is no longer worth the paper it’s printed on,” Desai wrote in an email. He said the Trump administration’s top concern is ensuring the health and safety of citizens and praised the quality of the German hospital treating Stafford.

The US has multiple centers and hospital systems with specialized facilities capable of providing safe, high-quality care for Ebola patients….’ (Beth Mole via Ars Technica)

‘In a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, they detail a process they say causes bones, joints, and ligaments to regenerate in mammals which otherwise would not be able to regrow tissue…’ (Joe Wilkins via Futurism)

‘Joe Biden became quieter, while Donald Trump grows even louder.…’ (Jonathan Lemire via The Atlantic)

‘For decades, Antarctica seemed to defy global warming. Since satellites began monitoring the poles in the late 1970s, the seasonal growth and retreat of Antarctic sea ice – frozen seawater that expands around the continent each winter – appeared remarkably resilient. It was often described as the “heartbeat of the planet”. Unlike the Arctic, where sea ice declined rapidly as the planet warmed, Antarctic sea ice showed little overall loss. It even expanded between 2007 and 2015. But that resilience has now broken….’ (via  ScienceAlert)

‘THE PENTAGON’S TOP watchdog says cuts to civilian harm mitigation and response efforts have been so severe under War Secretary Pete Hegseth that the United States cannot adequately protect civilians in conflict zones. Thursday’s scathing analysis by the Department of War’s inspector general came on the same day that the top U.S. commander overseeing the war in Iran dismissed reports of civilian casualties and said the U.S. had no means to corroborate reports of strikes on hospitals and schools. The inspector general specifically notes that the military stopped funding a database that tracks civilian harm that could be used for such verification….’ (Nick Turse via The Intercept)

‘THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION last week unveiled its “2026 Counterterrorism Strategy,” a 16-page collection of threats, grievances, hyperbole, and lies. The memo is a truly foundational document and a striking distillation of Trumpism as an ideology, movement, and system of governance. It also serves as a new declaration of war on the Trump administration’s enemies — foreign and domestic, real and imagined. The brainchild of National Security Council official Sebastian Gorka, the “Counterterrorism Strategy” weaves together Trump’s war on the wider world — which stretches from interventions and wars in Yemen and Iran to Nigeria and Somalia to Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea — with the administration’s war on dissent at home, which has targeted immigrants, legal observers, activists, protesters, and the press. Under the guise of protecting America, it takes aim at wide swaths of Americans, putting targets on the backs of the most vulnerable….’ (Nick Turse via The Intercept)

‘As the president threatens to wipe out Iran and attacks the pope, even some former allies and advisers are questioning whether he has grown increasingly unbalanced, describing him as “lunatic” and “clearly insane.”…’ (Peter Baker via The New York Times)

‘This is not simply a matter of affordability, the buzzword so often invoked to explain why people are choosing to have smaller families. Government support for parents can help, but overall, people are having fewer children both in countries that offer very little and in those renowned for their generous family benefits; moreover, the trend holds among those who are struggling to make ends meet and among those who, like the Riveras, have advanced degrees and salaried jobs. What unites these disparate cultures, policy environments and demographics, researchers are now realizing, is young people’s inescapable and crushing sense that the future is too uncertain for the lifelong commitment of parenthood. Call it the vibes theory of demographic decline….’ (Anna Louie Sussman via The New York Times)

‘All told, it’s a fascinating reflection on the tenuous nature of scientific insight and consensus. One of the most earth-shattering developments in physics, the uncertainty principle, is that there’s a limit to what we can know about the smallest particles that underpin our reality. There’s only so much we can confidently glean about the cosmos from our tiny outpost in space….’ (Frank Landymore via Futurism)

‘The feature quietly stores information linked to your Gmail account including searches, YouTube history, voice commands, Maps activity, and more. For some users, opening the page for the first time can feel genuinely unsettling as it reveals just how much of their digital life has been logged over the years. And once people start scrolling, it quickly turns into a bizarre trip down memory lane filled with forgotten searches and random internet rabbit holes….’ (Daisy Edwards via tech.supercarblondie)