The painting invites the viewer to wonder what has just happened, why it happened, and why the participants are dressed in such costumes. It encourages the viewer to reconstruct the preceding events through imagination.
— Read on apaintingstory.com/en/posts/the-duel-after-the-masquerade/
No one told me the Vatican is a storage closet. Beautiful beyond imagination, yet overflowing with statues and paintings, like they ran out of room for the collections. People told me I would be “angry” at the Vatican for “stealing treasures.” I did not feel that way. I was overwhelmed with gratitude. The Vatican saved the history of their people from being forgotten and being looted. Now it’s…
A recent executive order issued by the White House directs NASA to establish the initial elements of a permanent moon base by 2030.
— Read on singularityhub.com/2026/03/12/nasa-is-planning-to-build-a-permanent-moon-base-by-2030-heres-what-it-will-take/
The US Plans to Break Ground on a Permanent Moon Base by 2030. Here’s What It Will Take.
Historically, population decline has been driven by external and involuntary shocks like famine, disease, or war. Notable examples include:
The Black Death in the 14th century
The collapse of the Roman Empire
China’s Great Famine
— Read on chamath.substack.com/p/population-collapse
Seriously – wtf is going on? We’re long past the point where this can be dismissed by anyone with a working brain.
Based on the 2024 presidential election, 54% of Illinois voters are Democrats, yet Democrats hold 82% of Illinois’ U.S. House seats.
With one fewer seat to work with, Illinois Democrats would have a difficult time drawing maps that would eliminate another Republican district. Keeping their current 14 seats would give Democrats over 87% of Illinois’ U.S. House delegation.
— Read on…
Illinois’ population loss could make congressional gerrymandering harder in 2030
If you know any Europeans well, you know that they typically make much less income than their American counterparts. They also receive a slew of benefits that Americans don’t get, including healthcare and colleges that aren’t bankruptcy factories. In simplified form: the American model gives people more money to make their own buying choices, but doesn’t keep costs low; the European model gives…
Who is better off, the median American or the median European?
Broadcast during just 23 weeks of 1982, and reaching no more than WCIU’s Chicagoland perimeter, The Chicago Party conformed only to those codes that suited it. Taped live inside South Side nightclub CopHerBox II, The Chicago Party did feature smooth-talking hosts in veteran musician Willie Woods and his dashing best friend James Christopher. And it let lip-synching musical guests promote their…
Curation – such as record collecting – has a beginning and an end. Curation does not continue infinitely; a record stops when it reaches its end. Curation is a choice among infinite options. A record costs money and takes up space, defining its limit. Your limited choices have meaning and therefore define you. Choose a record and you choose the permanent soundtrack of your life.
The hardest questions you can ask AI while expecting a reasonable response
The hardest questions you can ask AI while expecting a reasonable response
This goes hard. Political parties should do more of this. It’s critical to governing effectively.
“Distance yourself from people you don’t want to become” (Shane Parrish)
Little Rules about Big Things
Alien Assumptions (and how wrong they are)
Loneliness is a Choice. Related, see party-throwing.
Right handedness owing to stabs at the heart?
Supercharged AI lawyers
Somewhere I recall reading that for elite athletes, the winning combination was genetic talent, the will to succeed, and the presence of a father or close family member with the capability and drive to act as a secondary coach. I thought about that when reading this interview with Rudy Kraft, one of the earliest writers on Chaosium. He talks about his early experiences with his dad:
I first got…
There is an observational subtlety to alien observations, which is that when we look out into the universe we are observing only our past light cone. If grabby aliens were expanding at a high fraction of the speed of light ©, the light carrying information of their coming would be only just ahead of them. So even though aliens might be quite close, we wouldn’t see them until just before they…
society indeed did not become transhumanist – that is, not in belief. Few of the biotech users endorse the philosophy of technological transcendence. But society is heading there in deed. Conservative forces (religion, disgust, precaution) were in this case grossly outgunned by the force of sheer desire.
We got, not transhumanism (as deliberate, informed, rational decision to self-consciously go…
Last year my mind exploded and now I’m in spiritual puberty again
Last year my mind exploded and now I’m in spiritual puberty again
I love how art-world denizens dress when they come to Los Angeles. The collector class interprets “dressing for/with/about fine art in LA” differently than I’ve ever seen elsewhere in the world, applying vast economic resources to fashion interpretations that I can only describe as “downstream from 1960s CIA experiments.”
— Read on freakpalace.substack.com/p/the-freakiest-outfits-we-saw-at-frieze
Today, we’re introducing Spectre I, the first smart device to stop unwanted audio recordings.
We live in a world of always-on listening devices.
Smart devices and AI dominate our world in business and private conversations.
With Deveillance, you will
@be_inaudible
.
— Read on x.com/aidaxbaradari/status/2028864606568067491
A more straightforward tactic: talk to your children often about the kind of working lives I’m outlining here, and the age of AI more broadly. Make them understand that the kind of single-track careers they see on TV or hear about in school — the kind that many of us have had — aren’t really going to exist in the future they’re heading into
— Read on x.com/dmattin/status/2015405818586279993
Can AI help you simplify and understand local government?(Project Report - Success)
Can AI help you simplify and understand local government?(Project Report - Success)
Before carrying out any plan, actually do the obvious things.
When you’re about to make a big decision, pause, and ask yourself what obvious things a reasonable person would do before making this sort of decision. Would they spend a full five minutes (by the clock) brainstorming alternative options before settling on a decision? Would they consult with friends and advisors? Would they do some…
Infinite Jest belongs in the techno-optimist canon
gen z pickup artists are taking over my city
Generative deep learning improves reconstruction of global historical climate records. It uses, as you might guess from the title, generative deep learning to reconstruct global historical climate records. It does temperature and precipitation
— Read on diagrammonkey.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/from-noise-all-this/
It will be interesting to check in on this project in a few months to see what…
I’ve been paying €20/month for an AI chatbot. Not the free tier — the premium one. The one that remembers things. The one that thinks with you.
I used it for everything. Career decisions. Travel planning. Creative projects. Emotional processing. I treated it like an oracle, a thinking partner that never judges, never forgets, never gets tired of my questions.
Then I exercised my GDPR rights and…
I Asked an AI Chatbot for My Data. I Didn’t Expect a Psychological Profile
James Miller on X: “Massive real money bet on Kalshi that US will confirm that aliens exist before 2027. Bet was 20 min ago for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Wonder if was someone with inside info in Trump administration. Market now at 37.7% for yes with 8 million volume.” / X
— Read on x.com/JimDMiller/status/2026110647075803137
Gorsuch takes just about everyone on the court to task.
Addressing the liberals, he suggests that Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson are hypocrites for upholding Biden-era executive actions but striking down Trump’s. Thanks for agreeing with me about Trump! But then why didn’t you agree with me on Biden?
Addressing the dissenting conservatives, he suggests that Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh are…
I tapped “verify.” I scanned my passport. I took a selfie. Three minutes later — done. Badge acquired. I felt a tiny dopamine hit of legitimacy.
Then I did what apparently nobody does. I went and read the privacy policy and terms of service.
Not LinkedIn’s. The other company’s.
— Read on thelocalstack.eu/posts/linkedin-identity-verification-privacy/
I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here’s What I Actually Handed Over.