"Pentagon Removes Decades of Weapon Test Reports From Public View"

Pentagon Removes Decades of Weapon Test Reports From Public View

The Pentagon has quietly removed decades of weapons testing publications from its public website, saying adversaries could exploit the data with artificial intelligence even as critics said the move r...

bloomberg.com

quote cont. "...The epistemic requirements of scholarly inquiry may be fundamentally at odds with profit-driven, black-boxed systems whose training data, architecture, and governance remain inaccessible to most researchers."

only just catching up with @alondra.bsky.social 's important article on social science and AI in Daedalus. A lot in it, but the following quote stood up for me: "There is a strong case that social science should refuse proprietary AI models entirely....

Encouraging people to drive differently doesn’t work and sharing fatality facts don't work, what does work? Treating SUVs similar to other things that pose harm to society (ala smoking) - higher taxes & fees, change designs, limit advertising Read the study here. www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office...

Experts lead call for tougher restrictions on SUVs as public fail to understand risks of larger cars

Nearly two-thirds - 66 per cent - of British driving licence holders don’t understand that sports utility vehicles pose a greater danger to pedestrians and cyclists than smaller cars, according to new...

swansea.ac.uk

There's also a massive knowledge gap: 66% of drivers didnt know large SUVs pose higher risks for VRUs More shockingly - 86% of current SUV owners don't know that a child hit by an SUV is 82% more likely to die than one struck by a smaller car, with the risk increasing to 130% for under 10.

A UK study found that telling potential SUV buyers that those vehicles directly result in higher fatalities for pedestrians, cyclists and children had zero effect on their decision to buy them. What does work? Financial penalties: Increased fees, taxes, parking. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

SUV buyers undeterred by warnings of risk to pedestrians, UK study finds

Exclusive: Research suggests financial penalties necessary if number of large vehicles on roads is to be reduced

theguardian.com

I had a great time talking corvids with Caitlin Gibson for her new article in the Washington Post about befriending crows. Gift link.

Caitlin Gibson@caitjgibson.bsky.social · 10h ago

I wrote about my bird son (and human daughter) in the newspaper 🐦‍⬛ Gift link for fellow corvid admirers: wapo.st/4q7fkvp

That AI products haven’t (yet) ruined your sector of the economy doesn’t mean they are not currently doing serious harm to other sectors of the economy.

I have met old school bookmakers who have better ethics. No functioning society should tolerate this kind of purveyor of addiction and misery.

Matthew Facciani@matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 3h ago

"cancer and Alzheimer’s patients are praying that these treatments will succeed. But Kalshi is about to permit outside speculators to place ghastly bets that they won’t." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

There is a substantial chunk of the electorate that thinks of themselves as Republicans, that still tends to vote Republican, but wants Republicans to win fair and square. They like GOP policies, but they also like democracy. (And yes, that's a contradiction. Voters are vast.)

The decisive failure of GOP referenda in Kansas Amendment 1 and Missouri Amendment 4 yesterday is yet another reminder of something I've been saying for a while: Voters, even Republican voters, now regularly despise and repudiate GOP attempts to use them to destroy democracy.

But what if the words in science have meanings we don't all agree on?? By "what if" I mean "it is obvious that" and yet I don't see these advocates think about what that means for ai written papers Probably because people advocating for AI science don't like thinking about what words mean, ever

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2h ago

“Once AI has ‘squeezed out’ all the expert data from humans, it won’t need any more input from humanity. That is the time AIs will start just self-evolving by themselves. Right now, the human is the bottleneck.”

Apparently it’s unprofessional to have a murdered son

Mississippi Free Press@mississippifreepress.org · 3h ago

Christine Wells Wonsley, the mother of Nolan Wells, has learned that the Mississippi Board of Nursing opened a professional misconduct investigation against her following an anonymous complaint, the family’s lawyer said. www.mississippifreepress.org/nolan-wells-...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, ep 82 www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis... … in which @savasavasava.myatproto.social joins @alexhanna.bsky.social and me for a good hard look at “harm reduction” as misapplied to “AI”.

What an absolute breath of fresh air of an episode! Solidarity with Emily on not being invited to the AI committees anymore, I cackled at that and had to explain what was funny to Ms Five 😂

Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 10h ago

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, ep 82 www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis... … in which @savasavasava.myatproto.social joins @alexhanna.bsky.social and me for a good hard look at “harm reduction” as misapplied to “AI”.

I feel like it might have been a bad idea to hand the world over to sociopaths

Django Wexler@djangowexler.bsky.social · 4h ago

Somehow things that would have been a background gag in a Verhoeven movie are now just real

Analysts estimate that 70%+ of Microsoft, Google and Amazon's present and future AI revenues are from Anthropic and OpenAI's compute spend and model sales. Outside of two unsustainable AI labs, demand barely exists, and they've massively overbuilt capacity. www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-deman...

The AI Demand Bubble

If you liked this piece, you should subscribe to my premium newsletter. It’s $70 a year, or $7 a month, and in return you get a weekly newsletter that’s usually anywhere from 5,000 to 18,000 words, in...

wheresyoured.at

This is truly an excellent piece from @thebulletin.org on the incredibly troubling rise of Silicon Valley thought in Pentagon procurement, it highlights a lot of major ongoing issues: thebulletin.org/2026/07/the-...

The rise of the military-technology complex

How Silicon Valley tech firms remade US defense contracting. And then opened the Pentagon’s checkbook—wide.

thebulletin.org

If you're having a tough day, I highly recommend giving your brain a break with the @explore.org livestream of Sea Lion Beach in British Columbia, where you will currently see piled-up sea lions in a snoozy cuddle puddle www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uoo...

This is very good article in the Beijing News on the gene therapy trial death of a girl, a story broken in Borrell's stunning piece in Science. (At least it looks good in my laborious Google Translate version, despite quoting me) www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/17858... www.science.org/content/arti...

mmigrants in SF – even those without a criminal record – are increasingly tethered to electronic monitors Here's a look into the shadow world of immigrants in a different kind of detention... By @clarasophiadaly.bsky.social missionlocal.org/2026/08/ice-...

ICE steps up surveillance of immigrants with increased electronic monitoring

Immigrants in the San Francisco area, even those without a criminal record, are increasingly tethered to ankle monitors, phone apps, and wrist devices.

missionlocal.org

I know we are chalking the success of some leftist candidates almost entirely to the DSA. However, it seems like the more common theme is that these are candidates with organizing experience?

I requested records from State Secretary Giannoulias office about the plate watch program. I asked for the data collected for the program (number of calls to the hotline, emails), copies of emails sent, and communications with local and state police about plate swapping. It was denied.

Dave Byrnes@djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 2w ago

At an ICE abduction in Chicago today, a Dodge with an obscured back plate was observed on scene. Rapid responders often report ICE using cars with obscured plates. IL State Sec. Alexi Giannoulias announced a "plate watch hotline" last year, but it's unclear if that's impacted agents' behavior.

They could always sign up to give comment at a public meeting.

The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 21h ago

New York City’s business elites are long accustomed to direct access to City Hall, where even Democratic mayors felt the need to court the city’s wealthiest and most influential corporate leaders. That access is getting shredded by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

A gentle observation: Some of the same older Black voters in Detroit who are being shaded for not supporting Abdul El-Sayed in the primary sent Rashida Tlaib to the House. And keep sending her there. 🤯 Yes, her district encompasses all of Dearborn *now,* but not in 2018. All politics is local.

Cc @olivia.science "Teaching children about smoking cigarettes is a 'moral imperative,' said Jan Janson, the Protect Children Union president. "And without outside funding, it was a choice between taking big tobacco's money or doing nothing." I renew my call for @rweingarten.bsky.social to resign.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 11h ago

“Teaching educators about AI is a ‘moral imperative’, said Randi Weingarten, the AFT president.” “And without outside funding, it was a choice between taking big tech’s money or doing nothing, she said.”

"THE FUCKING PEDOPHILE-IN-CHIEF IS NOT GOING TO PROTECT YOU" This is the most patriotic, neighborly, First Amendment American ass shit. I'm so proud.

"WE THE FUCKING JUDGE SON" New York, I love you. I love you so fucking much. Via wali_talks on IG