Everyone is running around talking about fictional "existential risk" of "rogue AI" systems this week. It's never the "AI" doing something though, it's people using janky software in ill-advised ways. (On top of all the harms of producing the software, etc.)

Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 2w ago

I have been yelling since 2021 about how using synthetic text extruding machines for information access is a TERRIBLE IDEA. And yet and yet and yet: they are marketing so heavily that way that people keep falling for it. edition.cnn.com/2026/09/18/p...

"Pentagon investigators have discovered that flawed intelligence, outdated imagery and an overreliance on AI contributed to a missile strike that killed 123 children in Minab." www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Inside the US ‘Kill Chain’ That Destroyed an Iranian School

Pentagon investigators have discovered that flawed intelligence, outdated imagery and an overreliance on AI contributed to a missile strike that killed 123 children in Minab.

bloomberg.com

The backlash against data centers is not a backlash against AI qua *technology*; it’s rather that data centers have become a site of cathexis for people’s sense of powerlessness in contrast to the unaccountable power of the AI *companies* www.politico.com/news/2026/09...

Americans love AI. They don’t want the data centers that power it.

The disconnect is becoming a political problem for Trump and politicians in both parties as voters embrace AI tools while revolting against the infrastructure needed to power them.

politico.com

Hi friends and well wishes, we have a new research topic on human-water systems. If this sounds up ur alley, check out the link below, and please consider contributing. www.frontiersin.org/research-top...

Frontiers | Reviews in Water and Human Systems

Frontiers in Water is excited to launch “Reviews in Water and Human Systems”, a specialized series dedicated to publishing high-quality scholarly review pape...

frontiersin.org

Wtf. Kushner is part of a kleptocratic clan and cuts deal with corrupt autocrats around the globe. He is unvetted, unconfirmed. He has no official government position. Don’t legitimize him.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · last mo.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, met privately in recent weeks with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and top outside adviser, and discussed potential areas of common ground, according to people with knowledge of the meeting.

Carney: We’ve been under no illusions. We recognized from the start that America has changed

Love MARLON BRANDO’s reply to Connie Chung when she says “Don’t you realise that you’re thought of as the greatest Actor ever?”

From our spring issue: @andrespertierra.bsky.social on the mass emigration from Cuba. www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...

The Cuban Exodus - Dissent Magazine

So long as Cubans’ rage and despair remain, the government cannot afford to curtail emigration. And there is no end in sight.

dissentmagazine.org

Waaaay too many instances of people on the left overlooking crypto fascist assholes in their crew and Naomi has always been associated with that group who overlooks and I don’t accept this. How many times do you let it go ? What does it mean ??

Naomi Klein@naomiaklein.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I truly fucked up not doing my due diligence on Platner before offering high praise for his communication skills. Enough was out there at the time that I should have been more cautious. Especially because I met adventurer dudes like him reporting in Iraq. Deep respect to all who got it right. 1/2

This planter bullshit is so annoying bcs arrogant leftists so proud of their moral superiority can’t see a Nazi or hear a Nazi? wTF

Vocal fry

Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽@joshuaeakle.com · 3mo ago

Meet the team who vetted Graham Platner. Their reaction after the interviewer asks about the Nazi tattoo speaks volumes.

what a surprise. again, he reacted like this when the Nazi tattoo was revealed! he wasn't contrite, there was no actual acceptance or suggestion of change, it was pure entitlement and anger. All of this should have been obvious.

Ninth Grader Demi Johnson receives National Geographic award for plan to save Mississippi's oyster reef population. The ninth grader has produced 1,100 oysters that will in turn spawn millions of larvae into the ecosystem, a huge ecological impact

There's a war on for your mind. theonion.info

Live your life in such a way that the universe is sad when you get trampled to death by elephants

The Daily Beast@thedailybeast.bsky.social · 5mo ago

A millionaire big game hunter has been trampled to death by a herd of elephants.

"...periods of ultra-cheap—and sometimes effectively free—electricity have become a regular feature of life in parts of the region." Can't do that with fossil fuels.

Blowin’ in the Wind: How Nordic Countries Made Electricity Free | Atmos

As wind and hydropower flood Nordic grids, electricity prices are plunging and offering a glimpse of a cheaper energy future.

atmos.earth

Péter Magyar, who unseated Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán Sunday in a landslide, shared a bombshell with reporters that the outgoing leader had diverted taxpayer funds to bankroll the American Conservative Political Action Conference. trib.al/ct7GGV3

Not saying things like war and AI and inflation aren't really important, but... Our civilisation-sustaining habitat is at risk of collapse, and every kilogram of carbon we choose to add to the atmosphere makes that collapse more likely www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought

Scientists say finding is ‘very concerning’ as collapse would be catastrophic for Europe, Africa and the Americas

theguardian.com

I know T is president but he’s just a perverted little do anything criminal raised up to some grand theory of personality because of his audacity that people find so compelling. Never seen so much written and published about a piece of poo who knows us better than we know ourselves apparently

Why do people who associated with Stein get away with it still..

Sophie Fullerton@sophiefullerton.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The only people who lied to you about Syria are figures like Stein who for years have pushed pro-Assad conspiracy theories that have whitewashed his worst atrocities, from mass his extermination campaigns to the his continued use of chemical weapons. (1)

MPs are not voting machines. When they cross the floor, or resign from cabinet, or vote against party lines, they are representing constituents and providing a vital check on leadership. Party leaders are powerful enough as it is. Taking such tools away reduces accountability between elections.

Thread 🧵

George Pearkes@peark.es · 6mo ago

(The answer to this is that the typical person can be seeing a higher standard of living over time, even as some much smaller and more vocal share of people experience absolute declines in standard of living and a larger share of people *perceive* they have a lower standard of living *relatively*)

I don’t get how the pope is always made out to be some hero when the church has some of the worst crimes to atone for against women and children ongoing. youtu.be/Hr2S-InN0q0?...

Priest Sexual Abuse Survivors Demand Accountability from New Pope: "Open Up Those Archives"

YouTube video by Democracy Now!

youtu.be

Except to me this trajectory of the right came directly from Reagan and Thatcher and Russia was still closed back then… Reagan was a racist who deregulated and Russia became a chaos oligarchy as the USA is now being looted by the exact same people who are no longer hiding who they are. Canada too.

Marie Le Conte@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 6mo ago

it feels quite bad that it's basically impossible to argue that much of the modern right in the west has become both entirely intellectually shallow and deeply, fundamentally morally corrupt without sounding like a tedious teenage tankie, because it is.....the factual truth

A crucial article, but one quibble. I've been arguing since 1997 that Frank Furedi, Claire Fox and the rest of the gruesome "Revolutionary Communist Party" goons were NEVER on the left: the RCP was a far-right front from the outset. No surprise when they started working for Orbán, Farage & Johnson🧵

Peter Geoghegan@petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 6mo ago

As Hungary votes, would recommend this piece about how Viktor Orban has used public money to bankroll an international ultraconservative network - including Roger Scruton cafes and €10k a month for failed Reform candidate Matt Goodwin democracyforsale.substack.com/p/orbans-brits

Trump: 51st state 51st state 51st state governor governor governor tariffs fentanyl Carney blow up NAFTA blow up USMCA blow up bridge 51st state National Review: Why is Canada so obsessed with Trump? www.nationalreview.com/2026/04/cana...

Canada’s Dangerous Obsession with Donald Trump | National Review

A fixation on Trump and American politics is blinding Canada and its allies to the challenges that will define the next quarter century.

nationalreview.com

It's not just that Orbán losing inspires hope in other competitive-autocratic countries ruled by right-wing nationalist authoritarians. It's that his loss materially changes things in those other countries, because he's been operating as a headquarters and funding source...

Vance, Trump, Putin and Netanyahu all support Orbán, which is all the evidence you need that he is way behind in the polls (which as a matter of fact he is) and running a wild campaign of lies (which as a matter of fact he is).

Anne Applebaum@anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 6mo ago

JD Vance is heading to Hungary to endorse Viktor Orban after Easter. Here is a description of the corrupt regime, and the post-reality campaign, that the US administration now supports: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

So nice Orban lost and our old PM Harper who helped get him into office can eat poops 💩 forever