Confidence can be useful, but “no confidence” is necessary. When it comes to voting, that is. In the U.S., voters are only given the option of choosing yes or no on some question or choosing one option from a list.…
Good Doggies, Bad Science: The Dire Wolf Is Still Extinct
To be very, very clear: it is theoretically possible to bring back some (recently) extinct animals. But only theoretically. And what Colossal Biosciences has done is certainly not that. They appear to have done some (legitimately impressive) gene editing work…
Weak Sauce: Due Process Is No Guarantee
So, the administration and Supreme Court seem to be of the opinion that it’s OK for the State to grab [people] off the street and [do stuff] to them without a court being involved. Or even being able to intervene.…
No Sign: The Militia Movement Is Missing Their Moment Again
This has been an ongoing annoyance for me, for pretty much as long as I’ve been paying attention to U.S. politics. The U.S. militia movement is never around when they might actually be useful. Seriously, this is an active political…
Legal Bribery: Big Law Pays Protection
This particular story is getting some press, but no one’s mentioning the bribery aspect. And it’s definitely bribery. Even under the Supreme Court’s corrupt “it’s only bribery if you explicitly say so in advance” standard this is bribery. And abuse…
Libation Day: Pouring One Out For The Economy
Well, that was a thing. A very, very stupid thing. So, the new Trump tariff announcement happened. Set aside the fact that tariffs are a tax paid by purchasers of imported goods, and not (as Trump and his enablers inexplicably…
Taking the 4th: Privacy And The Subcontracting State
The 4th Amendment to the U.S. constitution says: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable…
Change Is Hard: Designing A Path For Change Is Harder
Even if you ignore the “convincing everyone else to go along with it” part. Which is frankly the hardest bit. The easy part is identifying something you don’t like about the world as it is. And it’s not really that…
Hitting Escape: Like Marriages, Sometimes Countries Need To End
Situations change, people change, governments change; and now the United States is not the country they taught you that it was back in grade school civics. And it needs to just end. To be honest, the U.S. has never actually…
The Un-AI: Generative Systems Can Never Be Reliable
It’s not just that these things aren’t reliable, though that is certainly true. It’s that they cannot ever be reliable. See, generative “AI” systems don’t actually know anything or reason about anything. They produce words (or pictures, or whatever) without…