NEW: I had the pleasure of profiling Paulina Borsook, whose book Cyberselfish, about the early tech industry, is a great key to understanding why it’s so bad today. For her trouble, Borsook has had a very weird and bad 25 years, something she calls “a curse.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

A Tech Prophet Finally Gets Her Second Coming

In 2000, Paulina Borsook published a book foretelling the anti-government sentiments of the tech world. Now that it’s too late, people are ready to listen.

motherjones.com

Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI have all launched consumer health AI tools in recent months, partly because people are already using general chatbots for medical advice at massive scale. Microsoft alone fields 50 million health questions daily. We don't know if they’ll help or harm.

There are more AI health tools than ever—but how well do they work?

Specialized chatbots might make a difference for people with limited health-care access. Without more testing, we don't know if they’ll help or harm.

trib.al

The AI company apparently found destructively scanning ‘all the books in the world’ easier than dealing with copyright in its quest for training data

Why is Anthropic destroying books? | Kathryn James

theguardian.com

Why Johnny Cash almost sparked a riot at California's most infamous prison.

The Time Johnny Cash Almost Started a Prison Riot at San Quentin

“I think this is a very important thing: to give a man some hope in prison, to give a man some encouragement to be a better citizen while he is there and if he is a better citizen, while he i…

buff.ly

Back in the '90s, I learned the art of staying cool in Egypt. At that time, air conditioning was not common. In the extremely hot summer of 2026, how are people managing? n.pr/4pC2Rzw

COMIC: Temps are predicted to hit 106 in Egypt this week. How do people stay cool?

Back in the '90s, I learned the art of staying cool in Egypt. At that time, air conditioning was not common. In the extremely hot summer of 2026, how are people managing?

n.pr

Street drugs are cheaper and stronger than they’ve ever been, and they’re far more likely to kill you. The government’s advice hasn’t changed much since Nancy Reagan, but drugs have. Now, scientists are writing their own rules and we have a guide here. Read more: www.playboy.com/read/politic...

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “What we have seen unfold in Gaza, where Israel stands accused in the International Court of Justice of committing genocide in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, appears to portend a new future for the crime,” Omer Bartov, a genocide studies professor, writes.

Opinion | The Grim Lessons of Israel’s War in Gaza

Israel has not been held accountable for its actions in Gaza. The nation and the individuals and countries enabling it to escape punishment may only benefit.

nyti.ms

"Amidst this economic crisis, related and profound climate change is already here, and farmers are on the front lines of its impacts." Margiana Petersen-Rockney questions: What more can farmers sacrifice?

A Quiet Protest: Farmers Respond to Climate Change - Yale University Press

Farmers aren't protesting climate change, but they are left navigating the social risks as well as what they must sacrifice to provide for the community.

yalebooks.yale.edu

Tech billionaires like to claim their work is inspired by science fiction, but in truth, they are using its ‘chrome-plated aesthetic’ as a fig leaf to further what the social theorist Ali Rıza Taşkale labels ‘reactionary futurism’

Silicon Valley has a science fiction problem | Aeon Essays

Tech titans claim the genre inspired them. But all they’ve done is graft their politics onto stories of a better future

buff.ly

Watch the Rolling Stones Write “Sympathy for the Devil”: Scenes from Jean-Luc Godard’s ’68 Film One Plus One

Watch the Rolling Stones Write “Sympathy for the Devil”: Scenes from Jean-Luc Godard’s ’68 Film One Plus One

Jean-Luc Godard's 1968 film 'One Plus One' won't be remembered as his best. But it did contain a gem. The Rolling Stones writing and recording their hit, 'Sympathy for the Devil.'

openculture.com

Read our entire Q&A celebrating #America250 here:

America at 250: Revolutionary Questions for a Revolutionary Country - Yale University Press

A Q&A with Yale University Press authors about the foundings of America, offering historical insights into people, ideas, and events

yalebooks.yale.edu

“Ordinary Iraqis,” writes Nabil Salih, “spent the past three months in a no-man’s-land between two wars, and the Western press seemed alarmed more by the fate of Iraq’s oil than by that of its people.”

Baghdad: The Illusion of Peace | Nabil Salih

Close to midnight on Tuesday, April 7, a loud explosion rattled my family’s house in a suburb of Baghdad. A column of white smoke shadowed the alleys

nybooks.com

Pioneer of quantum mechanics Erwin Schrödinger's look at living organisms is one of the most influential popular-science books of the 20th century. So how does it hold up today, asks Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Why Schrödinger's 1944 classic What Is Life? still feels prescient

Pioneer of quantum mechanics Erwin Schrödinger's look at living organisms is one of the most influential popular-science books of the 20th century. So how does it hold up today, asks Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

newscientist.com

#PPOD: Vertical structures, among the tallest seen in Saturn's main rings, rise abruptly from the edge of Saturn's B ring, casting long shadows on the ring in this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft two weeks before the planet's August 2009 equinox. 🧪 🔭 🪐

“The formula for democracy is a thing of multiple parts. At its core is nothing solid, just a framework, on which pieces brought across oceans can be conjoined. From many, one.” Fascinating interactive exploration of the powerful metaphor of the creation of the Statue of Liberty (I learned a lot):

The Most Iconic American Artwork Is the Hardest to See (Gift Article)

The Statue of Liberty is caught between the sublime and the souvenir, our critic Jason Farago explains. Look again: She’s much stranger than you think.

nytimes.com

AI researchers and online privacy experts have long warned of the myriad dangers generative AI poses for personal privacy. These cases give us yet another scenario to worry about: generative AI exposing people’s real phone numbers.

AI chatbots are giving out people’s real phone numbers

People report that their personal contact info was surfaced by Google AI—and there’s apparently no easy way to prevent it. 

trib.al

In a first, scientists recovered human DNA from ancient cave paintings, a breakthrough that could open new ways to investigate prehistoric human activity by enabling caves to act as “genetic archives." www.scientificamerican.com/article/anci...

Ancient cave paintings can harbor human DNA for millennia, scientists find

The breakthrough could reveal previously hidden ancient human activity inside caves, acting as ‘genetic archives’

scientificamerican.com

Ukraine's long-range drones are striking deep inside Russia, up to 1,200 miles away, hitting oil refineries and depots. NPR recently spent time with one of the Ukrainian strike teams launching drones at Russian targets. n.pr/443sL5o

Inside a secretive Ukrainian team launching deep drone strikes at Russia

Ukraine's long-range drones are striking deep inside Russia, up to 1,200 miles away, hitting oil refineries and depots. NPR recently spent time with one of the Ukrainian strike teams launching drones at Russian targets.

n.pr

Prisons and jails are the largest 'mental health providers' in the US. Great investigative work from @boltsmag.org in this overall multi-part series so do read the rest of it too!

The Jail That Replaced Boulder’s Mental Health System   - Bolts

Colorado’s dysfunctional system for restoring competency for defendants with serious mental illness leaves people cycling in and out of jail, where harsh conditions can further erode their mental heal...

boltsmag.org

🇵🇸 Gaza's surfers seek solace in sea Gaza surfers carry their boards past tents and destroyed buildings on their way to the beach in Gaza City, where they keep surfing despite the risk of Israeli attacks. "It lets us breathe and makes us feel safe," says one surfer.

The Observer - UK Prime Minister Starmer to resign as soon as Monday. observer.co.uk/news/politics/...

Starmer expected to resign on Monday and set out orderly ...

The prime minister now accepts that his time has run out as majority of Labour MPs back Andy Burnham

observer.co.uk

Arts advocacy groups are sounding the alarm after a congressional subcommittee last week approved a budget proposal that would eliminate the Department of Education’s only arts grant program.

House Proposes Slashing Major Arts Education Grant

The program has awarded millions in grants for organizations serving families living below local poverty lines.

hyperallergic.com

J. R. R. Tolkien Admitted to Disliking Dune “With Some Intensity” (1966)

J. R. R. Tolkien Admitted to Disliking Dune “With Some Intensity” (1966)

One can easily imagine a reader enjoying both The Lord of the Rings and Dune.

openculture.com

Online marketplaces like Facebook are driving Indonesia's illegal hornbill trade. Because these birds are long-living and slow-reproducing, conservationists warn that the ongoing sale of over 500 live chicks and body parts threatens their long-term survival. @spoorthyraman.bsky.social reports.

Indonesia’s native hornbills are being hammered by online and offline trade

Among the many inhabitants of Southeast Asia’s dense rainforests are hornbills — a group of birds that stand out with their raucous call, large, ostentatious beak and colorful feathers. Indonesia…

mongabay.cc

Belfast riots latest: Stabbing victim’s family defend migrants and warn tragedy shouldn’t ‘fuel hostility’

Belfast riots live: Stab victim’s family defend migrants

‘Migrants make deeply valuable contribution to our country,’ they say, as Sudanese man charged with attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie

trib.al

🐴 🇪🇺 European hobby horse championship comes to Prague Ready, set, hobby horse! Athletes holding stick horses compete in various events at the European hobby horse championship in the Czech capital. The one-day event brought together 243 competitors from 11 countries

French prosecutors open 'war crime' probe over Israel treatment of Gaza flotilla activists

French prosecutors open 'war crime' probe over Israel treatment of Gaza flotilla activists

The national counterterrorism prosecutor's office said the probe was opened at the government's request.

lemonde.fr

“I didn’t even think twice about it, to say something about that and to not be complicit,” Santiago Campos, the 18-year-old journalist told Playboy in an interview. He talked to us about calling out CBS, "corporate elites", and the hesitance to use the word "genocide" at the News Emmys.

Meet the 18-Year-Old Who Went Viral for Calling Out CBS

Santiago Campos went viral for calling out CBS News's recent direction while accepting a scholarship from the organization.

playboy.com

"Like IQ tests, this research has a dark history." In the 16th essay for our Legacies of Eugenics series, Daniel Shanahan traces the origins of algorithmically-mediated music recommendations: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/music-algorithm-spotify-eugenics-measure-talent-raymond-cattell/

📕 Review of "The Deportation Machine: America's Long History of Expelling Immigrants" by Adam Goodman (@princetonupress.bsky.social) in the latest issue of Journal of American Ethnic History (Vol. 45.3) by @ldgutier.bsky.social. @iehs.bsky.social scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/jaeh/art...