Links 9/15/26

Links for you. Science:

New study reveals how COVID-19 likely spread between countries
The Remnants of a Lost ‘Supercontinent’ Just Rewrote the History of Life on Earth
Kennedy to deliver keynote for anti-vaccine group he once led
The Four-Color Theorem Gets a Rare New Proof
‘The toll was much higher’: Israeli study finds COVID deaths underreported
Why Is No One Talking About Long COVID?
New Cancer Vaccines Are on the Horizon. Disinformation Could Blunt Their Impact. Doctors and researchers are trying to boost trust in vaccines as the Trump administration peddles falsehoods.

Other:

A College Girl Was Exploited on Camera. A Network of Anonymous Men Got to Work
Do no harm? Not these GOP doctor-politicians. Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall joins a list of conservative lawmakers who ignore their medical oath
Save Humanity From Us (By Giving Us Money And Special Treatment)
Inside the internal turmoil between D.C. agencies, local police, and the National Security Council to clear homeless encampments
Hunter Biden’s Paintings
Several Texas Republicans condemn Bo French’s racist posts calling Asian students at UT a “problem”
Upstairs-Neighbor Warfare in Korea (lol)
Droney
He Wants to Deport Native Americans. He May Win Statewide Office in Texas.
First ‘Take It Down Act’ Sentencing Puts Man Behind Bars for 15 Years
Trump’s weird war against the states
The Man on a Quest to Digitally Preserve America’s Public Restrooms
America built a surveillance state out of fear and never left it
9/11 Began 25 Years of Nonstop War and Abuses of Power
The Dollar Will Be the Last Pillar To Fall
“Many National Guard just moved into a luxury apartment complex in SW DC.”
Kennedy Center could close as early as Tuesday, warns of bankruptcy, documents show
Whistle-Blower: Federal Agents May Have Broken State Laws in Search for Voter Fraud
Reaganism Broke US Tax Brackets. It’s Time To Fix Them.
Cops Search Thousands of Flock Cameras for Reasons of ‘LMAO,’ ‘IDK,’ ‘Hehe,’ and ‘asdfg’
Trump plan to limit mail voting hinders Democrats more than GOP, analysis finds
‘Don’t I deserve a little grace?’: Lonnie Bunch on pressure from Trump and leaving the Smithsonian on his own terms
Hunter Biden’s Paintings
The new Sanders-Casar Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act – and why I oppose it
To What
The push to remove lead pipes is on. Thousands of water systems still don’t know where theirs are
Does Teresa Benitez-Thompson stand a chance in deep red Northern Nevada?
America is built for driving. There’s hidden demand for something better.
Why American Relocations Are Plummeting
4th Fairfax County Public Schools’ student riding a bike or e-scooter hit by car in 2 days

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Links 9/14/26

Links for you. Science:

No, AI hasn’t officially solved Navier–Stokes. Yet
Horrible Toad Very Good At What It Does
Meet Helicobacter pylori, the stomach bacteria that’s also considered a carcinogen
Anyone else remember Brian Wansink?
Fossil feathers preserved inside dinosaur poop could help explain why some birds survived the dinosaur mass extinction
Massive herbarium merger rescues century-old plant collection. Duke University’s 825,000 specimens will move to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Mercury Is Shrinking Way Faster Than We Thought, Scientists Discover

Other:

You Have to Call Bigots What They Are. Stop treating trans people’s rights as a legitimate issue to debate.
Susan Collins’ Astroturfed Campaign Tries to Pass Off Party Hacks as Regular Mainers. Republicans profusely thank Susan Collins
LLMs are real, AI is fake
Transgender Americans are fleeing hostile red states. Seattle says it’s overwhelmed. Seattle officials say anti-trans laws in red states are driving a queer migration crisis in the Pacific Northwest.
One Last Breakfast (neato)
How to Stop Trumpism From Rising in Germany and Europe. Mainstream parties in Germany are making the same mistakes they did in the United States and other countries in fighting the far-right, says historian Thomas Zimmer.
Charlie Kirk Held the Young U.S. Right Together. The Fight Over Israel Is Tearing It Apart
New England could become a college graveyard. Schools should join forces to avoid that fate.
Famously Undiplomatic Britt McHenry Handed State Department Gig
Dem Midterm Money Woes & The D.C.C.C.’s Naughty List
The Pirate of Pornhub: Part 2
How NFL Teams Avoid The Great Big Middle
James Talarico’s Leap of Faith
We don’t talk enough about Trump’s $850M pay-to-play slush fund
The Fissures and Fractures Behind the Right’s Pink Facade
Has AI Gone Rogue?
In Trump’s Mafia, Even Goons Can Do Billion-Dollar Shakedowns
This Is Not A Love Song. Explaining the “maximalism” of trans rights
There’s Nothing Traditional About Tradwives
Metro Is Rolling Out New Train Station Signs
My Cybercab held me hostage for an hour today 🙃
E.P.A. Expected to Erase Limits on Climate Pollution From Power Plants. Generation of electricity is the second largest source of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming gases in the United States.
Alexandria Leaders Want to Get Rid of the City’s Flock Cameras
‘It’s just straight bigotry’: wave of Islamophobic rhetoric looms over US midterm elections
Never Forget, AI Slop Is Polluting 9/11 History on the Internet as We Speak
He was called ‘MAGA’s Man’ in Latin America. Now he’s charged with hiring hitmen to murder his girlfriend
Facebook Is Hosting Huge Numbers of Horrifying AI-Generated Videos of Violent Child Abuse, and Meta Is Barely Even Pretending to Care About Taking Them Down
Five Takeaways from the August Jobs Report
Why Trump’s Angry New Tirade at Canada Is About to Backfire On Him
Anthropic Is Building a Predictive Surveillance System to Monitor Activists

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As Part of Early ‘Detrumpification’, Democrats Should Investigate the ‘Optimus Prime’ Scandal

And there’s no reason to wait until 2029. In case you missed it, last week the fascists at DHS did this (boldface mine):

The Department of Homeland Security deleted a social media post featuring a Sikh man and an Optimus Prime-like character after the graphic drew accusations that the Trump administration was using a racial stereotype to promote its immigration crackdown.

The post, which appeared Wednesday on DHS’ official X account, showed the “Transformers” character confronting a bearded man wearing a turban. The AI-generated image included the message “Self-deport or find out” and told “Mr. Singh” — one of the most common surnames among Sikh men — to get off American roads because he did not “know how to drive.”

I realize the constant stream of fascist, groyper slop from various government agencies isn’t the highest priority, but I would argue investigating it–and naming and shaming those responsible–will be a critical component of detrumpification. And this isn’t the only case: earlier this year, DHS posted about wanting to deport 100 million people (the entire immigrant population, undocumented, permanent resident.

Not only do we need to understand and name everyone involved in these incidents, but, given that they’re AI slop, we also should determine what tools and prompts were used.

Again, not the biggest problem we face, but it is ugly, and it is a very concrete and easy to understand ugliness.

Posted in Conservatives, Resistance Rebellion And Death | 1 Comment

Links 9/13/26

Links for you. Science:

Patient count in Cyclospora outbreak in Michigan at more than 14,700 (one out of seven hundred Michiganders have been infected)
A Severe Misalignment of AI in Mathematics
The Academy of Natural Sciences museum is closing, but all eyes are on its specimens — all 19 million of them
4 fully vaccinated people in Pa. are sick with measles, including 1 in Lancaster County
The lightbulb moment behind a potential antiviral breakthrough
Rope, twine and thread: Invisible technologies of the Stone Age
‘I’m Really Terrified’: A Mathematician Grapples With AI’s Recent Breakthroughs

Other:

What Happened to al-Qaeda? Twenty-five years after 9/11, analysts can’t decide if the terrorist organization is all but defunct or more threatening than ever. (excellent)
D.C.’s To-Do List for Janeese Lewis George Keeps Getting Longer
Jacob Coxon: how to run an AI doomsday media campaign
Trump officials propose sweeping changes to the census that would reshape voting maps
Fact check: Trump’s story about being carried away by firefighters after the 9/11 attack
Trump’s off-the-cuff comment about ‘a very cool thing’ spurs international uproar
NO, WE SHOULDN’T STOP TRYING TO DEBUNK TRUMP, ESPECIALLY ON THE $5000 BRIBE CHECKS (and turn the debunking into an attack)
Retail Vacancies Downtown Are Still High, and Some Landlords Are to Blame (D.C.)
Trump leads RNC in pledge to ‘cheat like hell’ in November elections
Ohio Senate campaign staffer used Nazi soldiers as profile photo
USPS Tries Rejecting Entire County’s Ballot Over Spacing Issue
Why Tech Oligarchs Are Willing to Risk Apocalypse
Why Are Women Over 100% of Jobs Gained Under Trump’s Second Term?
The Singularity Is Not What It Seems
Paramount Caught Using ‘Astroturf’ Group To Drum Up Fake Support For Merger
The poorest in the US can’t find housing even as low-income units sit empty
Republicans Jump at the Chance to Advertise on Trump’s $5,000 Checks
Lilly Wachowski on Her New Studio Anarchists United, the Black Power Origins of ‘The Matrix’ and How ‘Harry Potter’ Fans Are ‘Supporting Trans Genocide’
She Watched Federal Agents Kill Alex Pretti. Now She Has Told Investigators What She Saw.
Contractor Blames Its Own Repairs, Not Vandals, for Reflecting Pool Failure. The contractor said the pool’s new blue liner peeled and tore because of “human oversight” and a flawed plan that involved layering two incompatible chemicals, documents show.
Oh No We Made A Planet Destroying Machine Please Give Us Money I Mean Regulate Us
Trump’s 9/11 lies are stolen valor, not ‘a bit of weirdness’
What do Americans remember about 9/11?
The US Government Launched 3 Previously Unreported Investigations of Polymarket Trades
Trump Tells Smithsonian Institution To Install George Washington Statues And Exhibit
The Quiet Radicalism of Mansour Abbas and Yoav Segalovitz
As test scores hit record lows, US and Germany chart opposite paths in education
A photographer’s final moments on 9/11 – and the last shot he took. Bill Biggart ran for his cameras when the first World Trade Center tower was hit; his shots were developed after his death. Twenty-five years later, they have been added to the Imperial War Museum collection
President Trump: The man who wasn’t there on Sept. 11

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In Case You Missed It…

…a week of Mad Biologist posts:

How Democrats Should Respond to the Trans Sports Question

Desperate to Stop a Midterm Rout, Trump Lies About Offering $5,000 Checks If Republicans Hold the Congress

Another OK Week for D.C.’s Crime Stats

Posted in Weekly Roundup | Leave a comment

Links 9/12/26

Links for you. Science:

What Gets Left Out Of Math’s New Era?
The Research We Need to Understand A.I. Is Falling Apart
Bangladesh fights world’s worst measles outbreak as vaccination gaps fuel spread
Astronomy, Materials Science Awards Plummet at NSF
Under a new leader, the FDA’s biologics center moves to steady itself after stormy chapter
Slater or chucky pig? Survey charts different names for woodlice

Other:

Civil Libertarians Knew This Would Happen. We Should Have Listened.
Can Senator Jon Ossoff Hold On to His Seat?
What Really Happened at the White House Lunch That Marc Andreessen Says Sent Him to Trump
Diesel hits all-time high of $6 per gallon, and just about everything will cost more
Cancer medicines remain in short supply across the U.S., survey finds
Post-9/11 hate is taking a new form
Trump’s $5,000 Payout Promise Is Soaked in Flop Sweat (yes, it is)
AI Didn’t Steal the Mathematician’s Work, Sam Altman Did
People sometimes talk about “the Jewish vote,” but what’s relevant is not really the Jewish vote or Jewish public opinion; it’s really about campaign contributions and the news media. Also similar with Mormons. (the similar pattern with Mormons is interesting)
Democrats need to win. Here’s the message our research says works
The Music Industry’s Health Insurance Problem Is Bigger Than Chappell Roan
As He Backs ICE Crackdown, Nebraska Governor Employs Undocumented Workers
Scientists Had Theorized The diGenova Ethics Constraint Did Not Exist
Despite Pledges From Musk [the Republican Party’s biggest megadonor], Child Sexual Abuse Material Persists on X
Missouri Supreme Court finds Denny Hoskins “was in contempt” over congressional maps
Denver Residents Were Told to Let Their Lawns Die. Then They Saw Sprinklers Running Outside a Data Center and All Hell Broke Loose
A US Census Report on Noncitizen Voting Used Bad Data to Reach Faulty Conclusions. Trump has touted a recent Census report. WIRED found grave flaws in its analysis and the process behind it, and confirmed the identity of several of its authors—among them a one-time DOGE affiliate.
The One Thing Republicans Are Missing In Their 2028 Candidates
60 Posts in 10 Hours: How Trump’s Social Media Reflects His Version of Reality
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch is leaving amid tensions with Trump
Why Gas Price Lies Are Trump’s Kryptonite
Tennessee Pastor Blames Fight Against Antisemitism for 2019 Synagogue Attack
How Scared Should We Be of A.I. Right Now?
Turning Point USA’s Professor Watchlist is down. Instructors describe its impact
Chicago-Area Businesses Lost $1.2 Billion Because Of Immigration Crackdown
Republicans Unveil Secret Midterm Weapon, It Is Hasan Piker’s Dinglesmackus
In desperate move, Trump vows legally dubious $5,000 checks that will never arrive

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Links 9/11/26

Links for you. Science:

How Trump Unleashed an Existential Fight Over America’s Dinosaurs – The Washington Sun
Breaking the Wall of Deadly Bacterial Infections
Misleading Metaphors and Real Risks
Repeat COVID infections tied to higher odds of new health conditions

Other:

Is the National Park Service making DC beautiful, or just harder to use?
In Pa. coal country, local police join with ICE to bring arrests, fear
Why Gas Price Lies Are Trump’s Kryptonite
DC is spending billions on football. That’s a big chance to push for statehood.
The Woman Profiting Off the WNBA’s Trans Panic. Sophie Cunningham set off a firestorm. Jennifer Sey was ready to capitalize. (Sey is also a Brownstone Institute asshole)
Texas’ first study of maternal deaths since banning abortion won’t be ready by the midterms
AI models don’t kill people – people kill people
Two rays of hope: Pushing for transparency
Pentagon searching medical records to identify transgender troops
More than 30,000 Salvadorans in the D.C. area fear for their future
Anthropic reveals fourth likely crime committed by its AI
What to know about Trayon White’s looming bribery trial
The Sentence That Used to Protect American Statistics: “Protection from inappropriate influence is a hallmark of scientific integrity.” That line governed the Census Bureau and then the White House quietly disappeared it.
Two ex-campaign workers say a former (and perhaps future) Council candidate stiffed them
JVRC National Jewish Survey: August 26 – September 1, 2026
Apple Doesn’t Want You to Worry About the New Apple Watch’s Listening Features
Democrats’ Hollywood Allies Think the Party Has Lost the Plot
Massachusetts hits data centers with new clean power rules
Donald Trump’s Nephew Pokes Holes in President’s Claims About His 9/11 Aid, Saying It ‘So Offends Me That I Need to Speak Out’
The hidden dangers of Musk’s votesafe.org
The Price of Money
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee Loses Democratic Primary
What the Aftermath of 9/11 Taught Me
DHS Deletes AI Immigration Post After Backlash
The Mass Party of the Future

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Another OK Week for D.C.’s Crime Stats

As we’ve said before, the only good week is one without any homicides. Nevertheless, as of Friday 9am, D.C. has reported has only one new homicide this week, bringing the total for the year to 70*. Last year, during the same time period, we had 105 homicides, and in the surge year of 2023, there were 188 homicides during that same time period.

Nonviolent crimes remained mostly level, but assaults and robberies increased somewhat. It’s still unclear if we will achieve another 33 percent drop in homicides for the third straight year–a trend that began pre-occupation, in the Biden era. It’s going to be very close.

Still waiting for a zero homicide week.

*Three of the 73 murders reported this year actually occurred in other years (e.g., a missing persons case from 2023 turned into a homicide case this year with new evidence). Also, occasionally homicides get reclassified so the annual total often will increase or decrease by one, with or without any new homicides.

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Links 9/10/26

Links for you. Science:

OpenAI fought dirty on career-making math problem, says NYU mathematician
More Impossible-to-Ignore Vaccine Effects
Some adult vaccines are linked to lower dementia risk. Can they promote brain health?
DRC’s Ebola outbreak has the potential to become a global pandemic. How to make sure it doesn’t
In cod we trust. As Northern cod stocks rebound, Newfoundlanders are expressing cautious optimism over a fish they nearly lost

Other:

OpenAI’s Egregious Pattern of Misconduct
Smear Campaign Says Anti-Flock Movement Is Chinese Propaganda
Two dire warnings, one from Terence Tao, the other from someone who just quit Anthropic
Memphis Has Spent a Year Under Federal Occupation. ICE Would Rather You Didn’t Notice.
What Voter Suppression Looks Like in Practice
What If We Could Have A Future?
MAGA fans erupt at Ken Paxton after ‘tone-deaf’ praise for women
Fact-checking Trump’s stories about his own 9/11 response
National Guard member arrested in DC, accused of drawing gun on fellow Guard member
The Race to Keep Cheating With AI
Donald Trump’s Empty Bag Of Tricks. Democrats need to be vigilant about his ongoing attack on the elections, but his ratf*ckery is too transparent and well-worn to fool anyone anymore.
The confident ignorance of Jane Kim’s plan for California insurance
A Brazilian Meat Billionaire Walked Into Trump’s Oval Office. What Happened Next Should Terrify Us All…
Democrats See a Wave. Can They Afford to Ride It? (it seems like wealthy Democrats are sitting out?)
Elon Musk’s PAC makes transgender people its multi-million-dollar midterm target
Maria Bartiromo discovers that her boss is not Donald Trump
Jared Kushner’s Incompetence Was on Full Display This Weekend
A summer of recalls exposes holes in the nation’s food safety net
Our Country’s Gone Awry
Teen Reading Slumps to Worst This Century Due to Surge in Screen Time
Trump Tailspins as GOP Leaks Humiliating Truth: He’s Toxic
Bizarre Glitch Causes Delivery Robots to Swarm Busy City Sidewalk
His model was built to detect voter fraud. Now it’s testing the limits of election trust. (it’s a crap model that failed basic control tests)
Don’t Let The Terrorists Win
‘I’ll miss you, tree’: A Dupont Circle tree stump becomes a memorial
Sure Why Not

Posted in Lotsa Links | 1 Comment

Desperate to Stop a Midterm Rout, Trump Lies About Offering $5,000 Checks If Republicans Hold the Congress

I guess the good news is that this offer to send every household a $5,000 check serves the same function as the poorly written Nigerian prince scam offers: the stupidity of the offer targets everyone who is stupid enough to fall for it. Democrats should not attack this as if it were a serious policy offering, but as yet another lie from Donald Trump, a corrupt man who is desperate to avoid the accountability he should face.

Consider his record of lies, since Trump was reelected (Boy Howdy, was that fucking stupid):

  1. We would be getting $5,000 DOGE checks. We didn’t! We did layoff a bunch of people, many of whom the Trump administration is now trying to replace. Also, we demolished foreign aid–killed a bunch of people, but no $5,000 checks!
  2. We would be receiving $2,000 tariff stimulus checks. We didn’t! But the tariffs have been estimated to cost, depending on who’s doing the calculations, $600 to $1,200 per household.
  3. We would receive $1,000 or more after the ACA subsidies expired. We didn’t! But millions of Americans now can’t afford healthcare.

None of this includes higher gas prices due to the Iran War. And for context, this $1.3 trillion ‘offer’ is about eighty percent of all U.S. government discretionary spending. The offer also raises the obvious question: why haven’t Republicans tried to pass something like this before? (Because it’s really stupid, that’s why).

Donald Trump is a stupid, failing narcissist, which means he will say anything to look good and to feel good about himself, which is to say, he lies all the time. In other words, this latest lie is just an act of desperation, meaning their internal polling for the midterms must be awful.

Posted in Conservatives | 4 Comments