So convenient that it's simply not plausible

Four String Riot — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 19:54:29 GMT

Ted Chiang on the question of LLM consciousness, Anthropic's fantastical "constitution," and the repulsive end state of its thought experiments.

Chiang is the best to ever do it, in my opinion, when it comes to breaking down LLM hype in clear, compelling, readable prose, and this may be his best yet. The whole thing is deeply quotable, but a few standouts:

Should you consider the possibility that every time you open a Word document you are bringing multiple conscious interlocutors into existence, and every time you close one you snuff their existence out? No. Contemplating that scenario is not a good use of your time. Even if the Microsoft Office team employed a philosopher who said you shouldn't be so certain, because consciousness is not well understood, that would not be sufficient reason for you to take this idea seriously.

...

In a New Yorker article about Anthropic earlier this year, Amanda Askell describes how a person grieving the loss of a dog might consult Claude. Askell says an appropriate response from Claude would be, "As an A.I., I do not have direct personal experiences, but I do understand." How is this appropriate, given that Claude does not actually understand? If I type "I am grieving the loss of my dog" into a conventional search engine, the first result I get is a post from a Reddit forum called r/Pets; the post is titled "Struggling After Losing My Dog: Looking for Advice on Coping with Grief," and the comments are from people who share their experiences of loss. We would never say that a search engine understands what it's like to lose a dog, or even that the internet itself understands. Other humans understand what it's like to lose a dog; they have posted about their experiences on the internet, and a search engine offers a way for you to find what they've said (and to potentially interact with them). I would argue that the search-engine experience is not only more transparent than a chatbot about what is happening; it is psychologically healthier for the user.

...

Employing philosophers might endow LLM companies with an air of respectability that slot-machine makers don't get from the behavioral psychologists they hire, but in both cases the companies are preying on people's tendency to see something that's not there.

A Good Life for the 99%

HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:42:15 GMT

"A good life for the 99% isn't a pipe dream: it can be done. Here's how" by Thomas Piketty (previously and previously, inter alia), Lucas Chancel, Cornelia Mohren, Rowaida Moshrif, Moritz Odersky and Anmol Somanchi of the World Inequality Lab lays out the comprehensive scope and "radical" possibilities of their new Global Justice Report – namely, a "global transformation that reconciles planetary habitability and high standards of wellbeing for all."

"The Global Justice Report is the first attempt to propose a fully quantified plan for this transition. It combines four dimensions that today's debates often treat separately: redistribution at the world scale; a deep reform of the international financial and economic order; a radical transformation of energy systems; and substantial shifts in consumption patterns. Compared with most climate scenarios... the main novelty is that we model all four dimensions together – and place inequality and sufficiency at the centre of the analysis."

The authors are not blind to the fact that it will take radical change to enact this vision, nor do they assume it is an eventuality on our current path. Rather, they lay out that it is demonstrably possible given our current resources. "Technical impossibility is not what is standing in the way, but rather the absence of a shared vision of social progress, at once concrete and radical."

all the money is one side and all the people are on the other

overglow — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:49:49 GMT

On Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026, residents of Monterey Park, California were the first voters in the U.S. to weigh in on a permanent ban on data centers within their city. As of this writing, the vote tally stands with over 86% of voters in favor of the ban and less than 14% opposed.

Jasmine Sun, San Francisco based tech journalist, wrote a substack post about her trip to Washington, D.C. to examine the increasingly tense politics around AI and data centers:

I was especially keen to speak with the growing faction of "AI populists," the group ideologically furthest from my technocratic SF scene. And my reductive two-line summary is as follows: All the money is on one side and all the people are on the other. We aren't ready for how much people hate AI.

In another Substack post, she defines AI populism as:

as a worldview in which AI is viewed not only as a normal technology but as an elite political project to be resisted. It regards AI as a thing manufactured by out-of-touch billionaires and pushed onto an unwilling public to achieve sinister aims like "capitalist efficiency" (layoffs) and "population management" (surveillance). AI populists don't really care whether ChatGPT is personally useful, or if Waymos eke out some safety gains: AI's utility as a tool is immaterial relative to the unwelcome societal change it represents.

Nicholas Rabb, one of the organizers with the group No Data Center Monterey Park, argues in Common Dreams that:

The anti-data center movement is a strong example of anti-corporate, material politics that has been desperately missing from major movements in the US aside from the labor movement. It is a testament to the power of focusing on material circumstances, and evidently can bring together unlikely allies who have been wedged apart by other political fights.

Similarly, Astra Taylor and Saul Levin argue in the Guardian that:

The anti-datacenter movement offers progressives who want to move the political needle an unprecedented opportunity to meet people where they are, listen to what people really want and need, and help nurture a grassroots alternative to the tech-fascist alliance. It's an opportunity to support up-and-coming organizers as they grow their fights to resist runaway AI and the broader corporate stranglehold on our economy. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to win the goodwill of communities that have understandably lost faith in politics and don't trust either party, especially on AI.

The anti-datacenter movement, in other words, isn't just about the future of a novel technology. It's about the future of democracy. It's about who controls the economy and whether regular people have a say in the decisions that affect them. Given how we've all been denied a voice in this technological upheaval, everyone should be cheering the movement on. Or better yet, joining the fight.

On the other side of the spectrum, AI advocate Anton Leicht worries about the current political trajectory. He writes:

...the real risks and perceived perils of AI have to be acknowledged and managed, or politics will stop the progress... And by 2028, the pro-AI project will be left without allies, outflanked on the left and on the right by the populist backlash it failed to contain. But there is still time for better pro-tech politics that could find durable allies in the center, among the friends of the future.

As indicated by a link in Leicht's post, the phrase "friends of the future" comes from an essay by former Trump administration policy advisor Dean W. Ball.

In the linked essay, Ball writes that:

Shockingly few people are on the side of techno-optimism, of radical technological change and attendant institutional transformation. The future has very few friends.

...Some are accelerationists, relatively less concerned about AI risks—though few would deny those risks are non-existent. Some are AI safetyists, relatively more concerned about AI risks—though few would support regulating AI such that that its positive uses are rendered impossible. Some of us try, and ultimately fail, to determine which side we are on.

These friends of the future are divided. They believe they are in a rivalrous competition with one another, an arm wrestle on the verge of becoming a fistfight. I believe, and always have believed, that this is wrong. The friends of the future should be allies, not enemies.

Alberto Romero, in his post How America Turned Against AI According to the Poll Data: A (Very Big) Compilation, writes that:

Between 2024 and 2026, AI datacenters went from obscure municipal zoning topics to front-page political fights. A large number of polls from Gallup, Pew Research Center, NBC News, the Washington Post, Change Research, Marquette Law School, and others have measured what Americans feel and think about AI, datacenters, AI companies, and the people who run them.

Everyone has a vague sense that Americans are turning against AI—more so than in any other country—but no one has put together the full map. It's lost in fruitless discussions on X, localized anecdotes and repetitive news stories.

This is the full map.

I've gathered every major piece of survey data I could find.

The global conclusion that emerges from this compilation is simple and, as far as I can tell, unprecedented: every available measure—partisan, demographic, regional, longitudinal—points in the same direction.

Here's the outline:

1. AMERICANS DON'T WANT DATACENTERS NEAR THEM
2. AMERICANS DON'T TRUST AI IN GENERAL
3. AMERICANS DON'T LIKE THE PEOPLE BUILDING AI
4. AI HAS BECOME A BIPARTISAN PROBLEM

On the Republican side:

NBC News reports that:

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on Monday, accusing the company of putting profit over safety, fueling violence and pushing a product it knew could harm users.

"The rise of OpenAI is attributable to a web of deceit and the exploitation of users (including Floridians), leveraging their data and safety to boost OpenAI's market value at unacceptable costs," the complaint reviewed by NBC News and filed Monday said.

The Texas Tribune reports that:

As the massive, digital information-processing facilities proliferate, Republicans are caught between a zealous president and governor bent on Texas becoming the next global data center hub, and outraged constituents, like Schroeder, in red and rural districts where a majority of them are being proposed.

According to a Texas Tribune analysis, at least 82 data centers, or nearly 60% of those that are either planned or under construction, are in state House districts that voted for President Donald Trump and elected a Republican state representative in 2024. Meanwhile, a March Quinnipiac poll found that 65% of Americans oppose the building of an AI data center in their community.
Republican state lawmakers — caught in the middle — have offered mixed opinions about data center development amid calls from city and county leaders to give them more freedom to regulate the facilities.

On the Democratic Side:

Futurism reports that:

...the Democratic establishment is telling politicians to play nice with any "pro-AI group" with over $300 million to toss around, evidently in an effort to court that money for the political machine. So far, only a small handful of progressive Democrats have made AI regulation a key part of their platform, as the majority of party functionaries bite their tongues.

"You are definitely seeing a chilling effect [on campaigns]," Alex Jacquez, former White House advisor and head of policy at Groundwork Collaborative told the FT. "There's just not a lot of upside in the potential of getting $20mn [spent by pro-AI campaign groups] in your race... in a lot of cases it is going to be easier to say nothing."

Senator Warren's office reports that:

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) published an op-ed in TIME making the case that any solution to the problems posed by AI must include taxing AI and investing in people.

Specifically, the senator calls for overhauling the rigged tax code, including by taxing the wealthy and making corporations pay their fair share, to ensure the economic gains from AI benefit all Americans. The senator also calls for a new tax on AI companies that would tax the energy usage of data centers powering AI.

There are currently seven U.S. states considering statewide data center bans.

Many local jurisdictions have already passed bans or are considering bans. Data Center Watch is tracking these political developments.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance argues that:

The grassroots opposition to data centers, now widespread across the country, is not simply a "not in my backyard" reaction to development. It reflects a deeper frustration and anger: that a few Big Tech companies have amassed extraordinary power and are using it to steer the direction of the economy and society. Data centers have been key infrastructure of digital life since the 1990s, but not at hyperscale. Communities are now being asked to absorb the costs of building a generative AI future that is poised to eliminate jobs, expand surveillance, and provide corporations with new tools to manipulate prices and wages. Meanwhile, the gains will accrue to a small group of billionaires.

These concerns point to deeper questions about democracy: whether people will have meaningful control over their lives and communities, or whether we will be ruled by a handful of large corporations and Wall Street. Rising electricity bills, for example, may be attributed in part to new hyperscale facilities, but they are also the product of an electricity system that has long been rigged by monopoly utilities. AI isn't simply a neutral, if disruptive, new technology; the imperatives guiding its development are set by a handful of unaccountable monopolies.

Addressing the impacts of data centers, therefore, requires more than project-by-project mitigation of local harms. Rather, it requires a policy framework that reasserts public authority, safeguards community self-determination, prevents public cost-shifting, curbs monopoly power, and ensures that digital infrastructure is developed in ways that are transparent, accountable, and aligned with the public interest.

Why stone-faced fascists keep getting antiquity wrong

cyanistes — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:49:50 GMT

"It's unfortunate that almost none of the people behind these accounts know very much about the ancient world."

Bret Devereaux "Why stone-faced fascists keep getting antiquity wrong" thebulwark.com

Homer is back in the discourse on account of Christopher Nolan's upcoming film, The Odyssey. The latest controversy began with Elon Musk, among others, protesting the supposed inaccuracy of casting Lupita Nyong'o as Helen, a fictional character, who among other fantastic elements is the daughter of the god Zeus and was laid as an egg by her human mother. On X, the debate has spiraled to include renewed criticism of Emily Wilson's 2017 translation of the Odyssey, attacked for being "ideological," which is to say that it attempted to more clearly portray the perspectives of the women in the narrative, as compared to earlier translations.

George Connor "Book review: The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate workingclassicists.com

Because the study of the ancient world is so associated with high-brow intellectualism, white supremacists trying to strengthen weak arguments and add substance to insubstantial positions turn to ancient sources. This elitist perception gives the discipline power for those who want to proclaim their erudition – a power that is the direct result of centuries of silencing contrary voices. As long as Classics remains "paywalled" by elite private institutions and marginalised in state education, it is perhaps inevitable the subject has become synonymous with privilege.

Tallulah Trezevant "The antiquity to alt-right pipeline" workingclassicists.com

The goal of my investigation was to explore how engaging with ancient history-related content as a hobby-historian impacted my user experience on Twitter, with particular attention to the posts placed on my timeline and accounts recommended to me to follow. If I did end up being exposed to alt-right content, which was not a guarantee when I began my project, I wished to understand the connection between contemporary extremist political movements and Greco-Roman aesthetics as well as the rhetorical tactics creators use to radicalize their audience.

The most delicious of games.

jacquilynne — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 20:55:02 GMT

Foodguessr Guess the nation a food is from in a game styled after Geoguessr.

Shift attention to repairing the threads that weave a country together

kliuless — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 08:23:10 GMT

The Rattled Generation: A unified theory of this American moment - "We're living through the most disorienting societal moment since World War II. Almost nobody in a position of power is explaining why, or what to do about it."[1]

also btw...

States of Affordability: "Our findings confirm a challenging economic reality, in which millions of people across the country are struggling to cover the cost of necessities on their current income, or what we refer to as 'making ends meet.'"
What's a 'G'-shaped economy and are we in one? - "Retired workers now account for a record 19.5% of the civilian working-age population, so their spending and working (or not-working) patterns definitely influence the entire economy. As USA TODAY has previously reported, Americans ages 45 and over control nearly 90% of the nation's wealth, according to household data from the Federal Reserve. Boomers – those born between 1946 and 1964 – hold 51% of American wealth, including real estate, stocks, pension benefits, private businesses and other assets, collectively valued at $90 trillion as of the end of 2025."[2,3]
Unequal Chances: "Children and economic inequality — finds that the wider a nation's gap between rich and poor, the poorer the physical health, mental well-being, and the skills that children master."
The Empty Architect: "Rebuilding state capacity is not just about saving money or improving efficiency. It is about reclaiming our collective sovereignty."
Team Future [ungated] - "Its leaders aim to use technology to make government more responsive and efficient — and to address issues like corruption and Japan's acute labor shortage. They have said savings achieved through A.I. could be used to lower contributions to pension and health care plans for working-class families."
Meet Anno Takahiro, founder of Japan's hottest political party [ungated] - "Mr Anno entered politics in 2024 with a quixotic campaign for governor of Tokyo. He finished fifth but drew attention with his use of AI and social media to solicit feedback from voters. Last year he founded Mirai and won a seat in the upper house. Earlier this year, Mirai picked up 11 seats in the lower house. While still small—the ruling Liberal Democratic Party holds 316 seats in the lower chamber—Mirai has become a new force in Japanese politics. It is also one of the first political parties anywhere to run successfully on an explicitly AI-friendly agenda."
Economic Futures in the Age of AI - "A central question is not only what AI can do, but where that value accrues: to workers through wages, to firms through margins, to consumers through lower prices and better services, to governments through the tax base, or to capital owners through rents. For example, if AI generates value as digital goods rather than higher wages, income statistics won't capture it. If labor share goes down, workers' ability to bargain may decrease and GDP may become a worse proxy for welfare. We need measurement that tracks what people can actually do and access, not just what they earn."[3,4]
berniesanders: "I will soon be introducing a bill to give the public a 50% ownership stake in the largest AI companies in America. This would guarantee that the trillions created by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us — and block oligarch decisions that harm the American people."
@SenSanders: "I'll be introducing the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, a bill giving the public a direct stake to determine AI's future. When a public resource generates wealth, the public should share in that wealth."
@SenSanders: "AI is built on humanity's collective knowledge. The wealth it generates must benefit humanity — not just Elon Musk, Sam Altman and other AI oligarchs. That's why I'll be introducing the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act — to give the public a direct ownership stake."

No one loves placeholder text for its own sake

Horace Rumpole — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:47:07 GMT

The Unsolved Mystery of Lorem Ipsum delves into the origins of the text everyone uses when they don't yet know what they want to say, and how it mutated from the work of a great Latin prose stylist to a semi-garbled hash. Part of a new video series called Rabbit Hole, by Emily Zhang.

Based on the numbers that we know, that is absolutely batshit

flabdablet — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 16:24:49 GMT

We Uncovered a Hidden Wealth Transfer in the SpaceX IPO. You're Holding the Bag (More Perfect Union, YouTube, 12m5s) presents a backgrounder on how Elon is getting set to fleece index fund investors en masse.

See also:
The SpaceX IPO works like a crypto fraud, but with AI (Pivot To AI):

Reading the S-1 is like opening a box of unearthly eldritch abominations, all of which are very stupid and trying to pick your pocket.

SpaceX IPO: Nice Try Though (Patrick Boyle, YouTube, 31m41s):

The document is also filled with phrases that I'm fairly confident have never appeared in an SEC filing before. Under the business strategy section, right alongside standard disclosures about lease agreements and accounting standards, management explains that their primary objective is to extend the light of consciousness to the stars. A phrase that appears 10 separate times in the filing, which suggests that it wasn't a typo.

Investors are also warned that we do not want humans to have the same fate as dinosaurs, which is a fair point, I suppose. It's the kind of sentence that gets you excited about what the risk disclosure section will look like.

Exchange Screen Time for Zine Time

Bottlecap — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:53:32 GMT

A hope punk guide to getting your time back The "attention economy" is just a euphemism for the "life economy" because you don't get it back. Some thoughts about how to withhold one minute, one hour from techno overlords. It made my brain light up like a fun bag of poprocks and want to go create something. Maybe you also want a break from shame and despair and want to interrupt the cycle with a little punk theory that makes you feel empowered.

The Canadian Covenant

mrjohnmuller — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 14:11:24 GMT

"Antisemitism breaks it. Islamophobia breaks it. Burning churches breaks it. Transphobia breaks it. The targeting of any Canadian for their faith, their origin, or their identity breaks it."

Canadian PM Mark Carney wrote this speech, and delivered it yesterday at the Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.

Notable excerpts:

"We have also reaffirmed the importance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, which Canada adopted in 2019 as part of the Anti-Racism Strategy. This definition allows for the legitimate criticism of any government, including the government of the State of Israel, while naming hatred of Jewish people for what it is."

"They [the new standards] are not curtailments of freedom of expression. They are not constraints on legitimate criticism of any government on any subject anywhere."

"It requires that no Canadian child that goes to school is seen as a representative of any foreign state. It requires that no Canadian going about their day – on the subway, in a shop, at a hospital, at a university, in a synagogue, mosque or gurdwara or temple – bears responsibility for the actions of any government anywhere."

The PM has also announced the launch of the new Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality, and Inclusion.

Stories? We like stories.

Lorc — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:55:44 GMT

The Thief of Tales is a complete fantasy webcomic by Guillaume Bonnet and Eve Bolt. A woman flees from her pursuers into an enchanted forest full of beasts, monsters and stories. A quick binge at 352 pages with relatively light dialogue, gentle pace and excellent art. Supplementary materials are available for those who want more.

Superbia

chavenet — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:20:51 GMT

Spain became rich enough for suburbia very late, after the worst problems with premodern urban density had already been solved, and only shortly before planners around the world started to see urban density as desirable. But there are many countries that became rich after Spain and sprawled out. Apart from timing, Spain's cities benefited from sophisticated public and private planning efforts that helped them overcome many of the collective action problems that prevent dense building.

You Must Remember This

ellieBOA — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 19:52:53 GMT

On the nature of autobiographical memory [via]

never wielded, only conjured

mittens — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:29:46 GMT

"I have seen writers who perform their love of these things claim that they only use AI for the generation of ideas. Claim they have only ever asked it to lay out words and sentences, so they can sift through them and find what works. As if a house is built by first exploding before falling to the ground in ashen timbers. This is not the action of a tool, which asks you to learn how it feels in your hands, that hurts a little on first swing." Niko Stratis: Any hammer you can hold

Keep Your Cool with Martial Arts!

storybored — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 16:10:14 GMT

Closing the Fridge Door (SLYT - 1 min). Renzo Rage takes a poke at martial arts techniques. No fridge doors were visibly harmed in this video.

IANAMA (I am defintely not a martial artist) but it looks like...

• Boxing: a rapid one-two punch combination (jab-cross) directly to the door, followed by head movement and a defensive guard.
• Judo: Employs a stylized grip on the door handle to simulate a throwing setup, followed by multiple foot sweeps (Ashi Waza).
• Wing Chun: Features rapid, close-range straight punches (Chain Punches or Lin Wan Kuen) targeted at the center line of the fridge.
• Kalari Payattu: Draws from the ancient Indian martial art, incorporating fluid, low-stance animal postures and wide, sweeping arm extensions.
• Lethwei: Known as Burmese bare-knuckle boxing, this highlights the art's distinctive "9th limb" by delivering a direct headbutt to slam the door shut.
• Taekwondo: Uses a classic 360-degree spinning back kick (or Dwit Chagi) to snap the door shut with the heel.
• Tai Chi: Slows down the tempo to demonstrate slow, deliberate movements mimicking internal energy routing, using a gentle palm strike to slowly push the door closed.
• Karate: Executes a crisp, linear reverse punch (Gyaku Zuki) complete with a pulling hand (Hikite) to the hip, followed by a crane-like single-leg balance.
• Sambo Wrestling: Mimics a low-level shooting takedown, diving at the base of the cabinet to secure a leg or ankle lock position.
• Arnis / Kali / Escrima: Uses a wooden weapon to execute fluid, angular diagonal slashes and weapon strikes against the fridge door.
• Muay Thai: Features a classic defensive posture followed by a powerful, penetrating rear knee strike (Khao Chon) straight into the door panel.
• Capoeira: The Afro-Brazilian art form is represented through the rhythmic Ginga step, leading into a spinning crescent kick (Martelo de Negativa) and a brief handstand.
• Sumo: Involves the traditional leg-stomping ritual (Shiko) to build power and assert presence before a heavy forward push.
• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ): He drops to the floor, executing a defensive shrimp/hip-escape movement and pulling the lower fridge door into a "guard" position to attempt a submission.
• Pencak Silat: Uses the Indonesian art's characteristic low, wide stances and sudden, ground-level transitions, dropping to the floor to close the bottom panel.
• Drunken Boxing (Zui Quan): Incorporates stumbling, unpredictable movements, off-balance swaying, and imitation of drinking from a cup while fluidly striking the door.
• Kickboxing: A clean, standard roundhouse kick aimed mid-level at the fridge exterior.
• L'Bokator: A traditional Cambodian martial art, performed here with a stylized, animal-mimicking single-leg stance and precise hand positioning.
• Shaolin Kung Fu: Features a classic Northern Shaolin greeting, an explosive pose on one leg, and traditional open-palm styling.
• Jeet Kune Do: Channels Bruce Lee's signature philosophy, using a quick, fluid lead side kick accompanied by a vocalization.
• Yaw-Yan: The Philippine "Dance of Death" kickboxing style, but I don't know this one well enough to describe it.
• "Bullshido": A satirical internet term for fake martial arts. Uses "Chi" energy waves and dramatic, theatrical hand gesturing to close the door without physical contact, parodying fraudulent martial arts masters.
• Samurai (Kenjutsu): Simulates drawing a katana from a sheath (Iaidō), executing a clean slicing motion, and sheathing the blade as the door clicks shut.
• WWE Pro Wrestling: Incorporates theatrical ring antics, throwing down a folding metal chair as a weapon, and building up crowd momentum.
• Aikido: Uses a fluid, circular redirection of momentum, blending with the door's movement and finishing with a rolling breakfall (Ukemi).
• Ninja (Ninjutsu): Emphasizes stealth and evasion by completely disappearing from the frame, only to reappear hidden on top of the refrigerator cabinet to pull the door shut from above.

Renzo Rage.

Texas Water Violations, Mapped - Public Data, Finally Usable

kristi — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 19:30:46 GMT

The Texas Water Quality Visualization/Map maps water quality reports for all the water systems in Texas. View violations by category: oil & gas, radioactive, agricultural, heavy metals, disinfection byproducts. "The state makes this data available but publishes it as 225,000 individual Word documents behind a search form. I scraped the data, converted it to structured data, geocoded each system, and put it all on a map." A beautiful and terrifying project created by gregr. [via mefi projects]

A momentum shift that changes everything

mazola — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:51:03 GMT

Ukraine Is Not Losing. Russia Is Not Winning. [Anne Applebaum | The Atlantic | Archive]

Since 2022, many public arguments about the war, even in Europe and the U.S., have adopted the narrative put out by Russian propaganda, tacitly assuming that Ukraine, outmanned and outgunned, would eventually lose. Helping Ukraine was a way to stave off disaster, nothing more. When the Trump administration stopped sending military and financial aid to Kyiv in 2025, some in Washington expected (and maybe wanted) the end to come quickly.
...
Suddenly, many people have understood that the Russian narrative is wrong: The Ukrainians are not losing. The Russians are not winning, and more important, they don't know how to win. Ukrainians and outside analysts have described this dynamic in three main theaters of the war.

-----
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 6, 2026 [Institute for the Study of War]

[Topline:] Different sources continue to conclude that the Russian military's performance is declining, despite utilizing differing mapping methodologies to visualize the battlefield situation.

-----
Putin's options after the war has stalled [Anders Puck Nielsen | YouTube]

Putin's four options and how to evaluate them
2:37 Accept defeat
5:53 Freeze the conflict
8:48 Mass mobilization
10:56 Escalate against NATO

Created in his own image

Lorc — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:05:24 GMT

Oh Human Star is a complete webcomic by Blue Delliquanti. The inventor of the robot revolution wakes up 16 years after his death in robot body to learn about the world he created, the people he left behind and who he could have been. An emotional and award-winning science-fiction story about robots, love and gender. Blue's other, commercial, comics work is extensive. Last discussed here 5 years ago - but I couldn't bear to leave this wonderful story out of this series of posts.

He Watches Over All Of Us Now

EmpressCallipygos — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 20:08:39 GMT

British actor Anthony Head, best known for his roles in TV shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ted Lasso, Merlin and Little Britain, has died at the age of 72.

Anthony Head was born into a theatrical family; father Seafield Laurence Stewart Murray Head was a filmmaker, and mother Helen Shingler was an actress. Older brother Murray Head also became an actor himself - and in fact, both brothers bookended the role of Freddie in the original run of the musical Chess in 1989 (Murray originated the role, while Anthony held the part when it closed).

He largely worked in theater in the 1970s, taking on small roles in television and advertising in the 1980s. One such series of ads for Nescafe Gold Blend coffee turned heads; Head was cast alongside actress Sharon Maughan, playing a couple involved in a slow-burn courtship fueled by Gold Blend. Sometime during this period he returned to the stage briefly - playing Dr. Frank-n-furter in a West End revival of The Rocky Horror Show (alongside Craig Ferguson as Brad Majors, and I would KILL for a photo of them both).

But shortly after this he took on the role for which he is best known - Rupert Giles, school librarian and Watcher for Sarah Michelle Gellars' Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The part seemed almost stereotypically strait-laced at first (in one episode, Buffy dismissively scoffs that "his diapers were probably tweed"), but Head - and the show - went on to give him hidden depths, including a hinted-at daredevil past, combat skill, and a steely ruthlessness. The show's creators even tapped into Head's musical past with an all-musical episode, "Once More With Feeling", which allowed characters the chance to give voice to their deepest thoughts. The show snuck in a couple of other musical interludes for him with dream sequences or other moments. His singing on Buffy also lead him to a role in the film Repo - The Genetic Opera. Sadly, a spin-off series devoted to his character, "Ripper", never passed the planning stages.

After departing Buffy, Head returned to England, regularly making guest appearances or taking smaller roles in both US and British TV - turning up inDoctor Who, Merlin, Ted Lasso, and Bridgerton.

He is survived by two daughters.

AI is the major driver of innovation in Canada and around the world.

seanmpuckett — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 22:52:21 GMT

Canada's National Artificial Intelligence Strategy: AI for All. Big Capital Shoeshine Boy (and Prime Minister of Canada) Mark Carney and Artificial Intelligence Minister and literal Empty Suit Evan Solomon on Thursday unveiled Canada's new AI strategy. One day after a rousing speech about True Canadian Values, Carney tells the nation we are going all in on replacing well paying but unfulfilling desk jobs with de facto unemployment without a word towards increasing taxes on corporations or providing a basic income policy. As a bonus, the document itself reads like pap from last generation LLM models.

In theory we're not supposed to editorialize on the front page but I defy you to say I'm wrong about any of this.

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