Peter O'Kelly
@pbokelly.bsky.social
Hobbyist conceptual and logical data modeler
Exactly 3 months from today is the most important midterm election in our lifetime. Our opportunity to hold him accountable. Register to vote here: Iwillvote.com The stakes have never been higher. Show the world the majority of Americans are good, decent, honest people. #VoteBlue🗳️ #RejectMAGA 👎
If I were running in next year's midterms, I'd be saying: Aussies are getting free electricity, and we're getting huge price spikes. Because they built solar, and Trump is blocking it. open.substack.com/pub/billmcki...
Free Electricity. Like, at no cost. For everyone. Now.
Let's talk about affordability, abundance, and Australia--and why thanks to Trump we can't have nice things
open.substack.com
Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.
At least the Romans waited to be sacked by the Visigoths. This is being done from inside the White House.
David Noll@david.noll.org · last yr.if I'm understanding correctly, there is an extremely small, but non-zero, chance the U.S. financial system collapses today www.wsj.com/livecoverage...
Perhaps baby steps for ebooks + AI, but in the right direction: "Amazon is introducing a new “Recaps” feature for Kindle users to help them recall plot points and character arcs before picking up the latest book in a series. [...] Amazon confirmed to TechCrunch that recaps are AI-generated."
Amazon Kindle's new feature uses AI to generate recaps for books in a series | TechCrunch
Amazon is introducing a new "Recaps" feature for Kindle users to help them recall plot points and character arcs before picking up the latest book in a
techcrunch.com
"The approaching 250th anniversary of US independence has the opportunity to be a turning point—the first chapter in an American democratic renewal that shines a light of freedom into even the darkest corners of the planet. We need the clarity to see the path and the courage to lead the way."
Garry Kasparov: Why I’m Launching The Next Move
The enemies of freedom have a plan. It’s time we made one too.
thenextmove.substack.com
Final paragraphs from a timely Elon Musk reality check by Jill Lepore -- gift source article link in reply
Google Gemini 2.5 is the first public AI model to definitively beat the performance of human PhDs with access to Google on hard multiple choice problems inside their field of expertise (around 81%). All AI tests are flawed, but GPQA Diamond has been a pretty good one. & conducted independently.
"When you describe your topic, NotebookLM gathers hundreds of potential web sources in seconds. It analyzes them and picks the most relevant ones based on your defined topic. It presents up to 10 source recommendations, each with an annotated summary explaining its relevance to your topic."
New in NotebookLM: Discover sources from around the web
NotebookLM has launched Discover Sources, which lets you add sources from the web to your notebook.
blog.google
"You have to wonder whether Elon Musk’s Dunning-Kruger kids are now producing tariff numbers." [...] "If you had any hopes that Trump would step back from the brink, this announcement, between the very high tariff rates and the complete falsehoods about what other countries do, should kill them."
Trump Goes Crazy on Trade
“Liberation Day” is even worse than expected
paulkrugman.substack.com
Consider the shameless greed of the tech billionaires and venture capitalists who are plundering #Wikipedia —nonprofit, crowd-sourced, and one of the wonders of the modern world—only to convert its highly reliable information into a far less reliable mash-up. #AI
This is, in large part, pandemic revenge. As far as these oligarchs are concerned, all science does is tell them stuff they cannot do. They can't keep spewing carbon. They can't keep businesses open as usual when millions are dying. They have concluded that research is the enemy of profit.
Sam Stein@samsteindc.bsky.social · last yr.Absolute BLOODBATH at HHS/NIH/CDC this morning. Generation of scientists, health care officials being wiped out t.co/LeABrGqDei
Check the source for an 8-part podcast episode series on Elon Musk by Jill Lepore.
The Last Archive
The Last Archive is a show about how we know what we know and why it seems, lately, as if we don't know anything at all. Hosted by Jill Lepore.
thelastarchive.com
Here is my best guidance for action, rendered beautifully by the great John Lithgow. I first published these lessons more than eight years ago, in late 2016. They open the twenty chapters of "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century." snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...
Twenty Lessons, read by John Lithgow
Key selections from On Tyranny, for viewing and sharing
snyder.substack.com
Elon Musk has been a walking SEC violation for a decade and no one cared. The entire Trump era could have been avoided if the US took white collar crime anywhere near as seriously as it does low level drug crime.
WIRED@wired.com · last yr.On a 2023 earnings call, Elon Musk boasted that Tesla had bagged “over 1 million” Cybertruck reservations and that “demand is off the charts.” So why has the company still sold less than 50,000 trucks since customer deliveries began 14 months ago?
These guys inherited one of the most functional state apparatus in the history of the world and they are inhabiting it like a crack house. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.
theatlantic.com
A timely NotebookLM update/overview
NotebookLM Just Got HUGE! 5 Game-Changing Features
YouTube video by Tiago Forte
youtube.com
My generous estimates, based on where SpaceX is with Starship & Tesla with Optimus. Mission launches 2026:40%, gets on trajectory to Mars:20%, Optimus demos in flight:5%, Starship soft lands:0.2%, Optimus walks on surface:0%. www.foxnews.com/tech/spacex-...
SpaceX to send Starship to Mars next year, Elon Musk confirms
Elon Musk says SpaceX will go to Mars at the end of 2026 with Tesla's Optimus, a humanoid robot. If all goes well, humans could be headed to the red planet in 2029, Musk says.
foxnews.com
Short thread by @samuelwa.de worth reading: Demolition of Radio Free Asia / VOA / etc is more self-lobotomization by US. (Not saying Trump/Doge are paid agents of Xi and Putin. But if CN and RU could buy control of US govt, this is their dream version of what their minions might do.)
A nonsensical threat to: One of the most important advances in biotechnology of our time, already being used to successfully treat refractory cancers, enable genome editing, develop vaccines for infectious diseases for which there are none, treat autoimmune diseases, and more.
Alex Wayne@aawayne.bsky.social · last yr.Exclusive: NIH officials have advised scientists to remove reference to mRNA vaccines from their grant applications, in expectation the Trump administration intends to abandon most research in the field. By @arthurallen202.bsky.social kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
Excerpt: "[...] what happens now that Trump has intentionally disobeyed a court order. The short answer is that the federal judges must hold Trump and subsidiary officials in civil contempt. The Supreme Court must affirm those findings. Civil contempt is not a pardonable offense."
The moment of crisis: Trump intentionally violates multiple court orders
March 17, 2025
roberthubbell.substack.com
9 years ago, Musk got big coverage for saying that his target for manned flights to Mars was 2025. 2025 has arrived. Those flights to Mars have not. Instead Musk has destroyed a social media co, is destroying a car co, and is wrecking US govt + US economy. www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-swi...
Elon Musk provides new details on his ‘mind blowing’ mission to Mars
In an exclusive interview, Musk said he hopes to land people on the Red Planet in 2025.
washingtonpost.com
