@Uair #RationalWiki is a good source for:
1. Analyzing and refuting #pseudoscience and the anti-science movement;
2. Documenting the full range of crank ideas;
3. Explorations of #authoritarianism and #fundamentalism;
4. Analysis and criticism of how these subjects are handled in the media.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

Headline doesn’t say the party but it’s pedo stuff so they didn’t really need to, did they?

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:e7gbntp2tzobn7cfi37viei3/post/3lw7ojkzt4k25

I will never forgive the people who helped mainstream that absolute scum Rufo.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:f4pgk5dylatrdicodqpdq5yg/post/3lwa4de5alc2w

New Uvalde Records Reveal Details About School Safety Concerns and Shooter’s Behavioral Issues
—

The release is part of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit that news organizations brought against state and local governments. The fight continues to get the Texas Department of Public Safety to release its own records.

https://www.propublica.org/article/uvalde-records-shooting-campus-safety-concerns?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Texas #Uvalde #SchoolShooting #School #Education #Safety #Students #Lawsuit

“It’s just terrifying. People cannot tell the difference between a real agent and a criminal, and that makes everyone less safe – especially immigrant women who are the most vulnerable.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/multiple-men-have-impersonated-ice-agents-to-kidnap-and-assault-women_n_689a19a2e4b07a70fa09262d

@Daojoan #Chrome is a piece of garbage. Just ask #Google #AI: "While Google Chrome itself is not spyware, certain malicious techniques can leverage the browser to spy on users. Hackers can exploit vulnerabilities or use command-line flags to turn Chrome into a tool for #surveillance, gaining access to screenshots, camera recordings, and microphone audio."

#Crackpot #VibePhysics Billionaires Convince Themselves AI Chatbots Are Close to Making New Scientific Discoveries: vibe physics. https://gizmodo.com/billionaires-convince-themselves-ai-is-close-to-making-new-scientific-discoveries-2000629060

There are reasons why conferences I have been calling into this year have been hybrid with the in-person components in Japan, South Africa, Spain, & Finland.

QT hysgal @physgal.bsky.social‬
2025 August 1

"Conference organizers, potential participants fault US policies for falling attendance. Uncertainty about funding and visas takes a toll on networking."

I chose not to attend a major conference in the USA this summer, partially because of the state of things there...
https://bsky.app/profile/physgal.bsky.social/post/3lve3t6n4322v

@davidgerard That camera, while it was certainly a sturdy workhorse, was terrible in a rainforest environment. The seal seemed to be imperfect and so at ~100% humidity the film inside would swell and would not advance.

Users hate #AI. So tech made it mandatory. Even if you don't personally use it, it pollutes what you read and how systems make decisions. The computer's hallucinated word is final.

And it steals your data to do it.

Your tools are constructing you as a subject of surveillance — the #UX is making it seem normal to expose every facet of your life to companies with complete disregard for your privacy.

This is NOT normal. It's deeply weird. But it's becoming unavoidable.

https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/the-ai-age-is-the-age-of-no-consent-7559

Appeals Court Overturns Murder and Kidnapping Conviction in Etan Patz Disappearance
—

The judges’ decision echoed ProPublica’s reporting from 2013 that raised questions about the veracity and legality of suspect Pedro Hernandez’s confessions in one of the most famous missing child cases in U.S. history.
https://www.propublica.org/article/etan-patz-pedro-hernandez-conviction-overturned-murder-kidnapping?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Crime #TrueCrime #Law #Police

Google AI Overview is just affiliate marketing spam now

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/07/26/google-ai-overview-is-just-affiliate-marketing-spam-now/ - text
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20250726-google-ai-overview-is-just-affiliate-marketing-spam-now -podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWoajgPIOt4&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video

“The lawsuit details how ICE agents have arrested people in church parking lots and during preschool pickup, and even attempted arrests while pastors were preaching.”

“By unjustifiably and substantially burdening Plaintiffs’ religious exercise and chilling their First Amendment right of expressive association, Defendants’ new policy violates the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (‘RFRA’).”

https://democracyforward.org/updates/houses-of-worship/

Yet again: Managers do not have to follow illegal orders.

QT Science Magazine @science.org‬
2025 July 28

The National Science Foundation plans to abruptly end operation of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer, the sole U.S. research ship capable of braving the farthest reaches of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
https://www.science.org/content/article/nsf-plans-abrupt-end-lone-u-s-antarctic-research-icebreaker

https://bsky.app/profile/science.org/post/3lv2ihjeqcs2h

The deeply shitty people running the country now are nothing new; there have always been deeply shitty people like them in America. Although in the past the media, academia, and even Congress were slower to surrender to them.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:6e4kpwbhah6ri44psz2nrccb/post/3lv2vuey6wc25

In the 1950s, Mary Ellen Avery identified pulmonary surfactant with NIH funding. In the late 1970s, that work was used to develop replacement surfactant therapy.

Without replacement surfactant, I would not have survived NICU.

QT Drug Monkey
‪@drugmonkey.bsky.social‬
2025 July 28

“Washington has thrown billions at NIH for decades with little accountability and few measurable outcomes,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/future-pulse/2025/07/28/nih-spending-battles-ripple-effect-00479553

https://bsky.app/profile/drugmonkey.bsky.social/post/3lv2zpf7pys2k

Help fund Pivot to AI’s work — send a few dollars to keep the stories and videos coming

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/07/27/help-fund-pivot-to-ais-work-send-a-few-dollars-to-keep-the-stories-and-videos-coming/

The South Park thing.

There are many takes on it. This is mine. Formulated as a series of bullet points because they don't deserve better. All of these things can be true at the same time:
https://jwz.org/b/ykr5

The mutant version of capitalism we have now -- overwhelmingly tilted toward financial looters and their cartels -- is destroying community after community. This is deliberate, not an unintended outcome. Local hospitals are just one notably egregious example.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/07/the-landlord-gutting-americas-hospitals/

@gleick It's like the worst case result from the Prisoner's Dilemma, except one player doesn't realize he lost.