Doctor to patient: "Try to reduce your stress level, and if you somehow succeed please let me know how in God's name you did it."

I thought this felt relatable

800 Americans died from Covid in March, per WHO.

It’s worth noting, at the same time, that when Gen X kids were actually in the house watching TV, *this* was the kind of universe we inhabited: whisky, smoking, and muppet characters dying during a scene.

In addition, there are now several studies showing that you also have to interrupt driving, and make it less easy. Because with the best will in the world, why would somebody who habitually gets in their car for every trip even notice a free bus, let alone make the effort to learn to use it?

Britain’s Solar Revolution Is Here and We Should Be Shouting It From the Rooftops Ed Miliband is helping to turn the country into a nation of 'solar zealots' and Josiah Mortimer is enthusiastically along for the ride

For all the drama of the Mandelson saga and every other scandal that has rocked Labour since entering power, the long-promised ‘chaos with Ed Miliband’ is looking pretty good
bylinetimes.com/2026/04/22/b...

I thought this point Eric made about how libraries are early introductions to a social contract was really interesting, too:

United States in a poor state? Perception v. Reality Check.
Time to Dump the Trump?
#MAGA

The only area of AI that I tolerate is its use in medical research… but even that is turning into a disaster

The Occupied City This immersive exhibition that transforms the Museum's third floor into a vivid journey through Revolutionary-era New York.

This sounds great!

"Marking the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, this major exhibition—developed in partnership with the Gotham Center for New York City History—transforms the Museum’s entire third floor into a 7,000-square-foot immersive journey through Revolutionary-era New York."

ngl when someone gets really mad at a movie take I feel happy because just for a moment we're living in the world we should have been

Six panel cartoon: A crow in every panel. Text: How to live a good life. Make friends. Explore. Try new things. Be curious. Get a hobby. Crow: looks in a mirror, explores a dumpster, eats entrails, pulls a cat's tail, and plays with matches.

Here is the cartoon again

C.D.C. Cancels Publication of Study Showing Benefits of Covid Vaccines

Jay Bhattacharya pulls a study because he doesn’t like the conclusions. I cannot explain how bad this is and how it reeks of the stench of ideological zealotry and has no basis in science. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/u...

Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil is confirmed to have been killed by the IDF.

Al Akhbar, her outlet, as well as LBCI and Al Jadeed, have confirmed it.

The IDF, the world’s leading killer of journalists, was blocking rescue operations.

A dangerous blind spot in Donald Trump’s Iran war strategy America sets too little store by foreigners’ beliefs and values. It’s a costly mistake, each time

You’ve been given free access to this story from The Economist as a gift. You can open the link five times within seven days. After that it will expire.

A dangerous blind spot in Donald Trump’s Iran war strategy
economist.com/internationa... @economist.com

they are calling it the perfect summary of the "keep men out of women's sports" movement

"New rules are forcing people to sell homes they'd prefer to keep"

Yes, that is what the new rules were introduced to do. System working as intended.

JOB! I'm hiring a Senior Research Associate in Social and Political Philosophy as part of the ERC LEAD Project.

Deadline is May 3rd, and candidates would ideally begin in September 2026 or asap after.

Feel free to contact me with any questions - Share widely!

www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

'If you want to... get back to managing just one life that’s real, get off social media. There is just a chance that as social media becomes more and more infected with bots, AI slop, and dodgy algorithms, people will voluntarily choose this course of action.'

rolandmcs.substack.com/p/second-life

I was talking to a friend and I said "I really think there are people who believe that we talk about this stuff for fun, and they are only going to take us seriously if we leave". And I think she was right. Otherwise, people think we are not trying to help, but just grifting, just making content.

Palantir manifesto described as ‘ramblings of a supervillain’ amid UK contract fears Alarm caused by posts of Alex Karp, tech firm’s CEO, championing US military dominance and of AI weapons

"It is unclear what inspired Palantir to publish the manifesto" - well, this kind of public speech is a key part of the PR strategy. But we should ask: why it is part of their PR to proclaim political programms rather than focus on just making & selling software? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

AI as a Fascist Artifact (This is a bit of a merger of two talks I recently gave about fascism and AI. One was in German at the Cables Of Resistance conference, one in English at the Milton Wolf Seminar on Media and Diplomacy. I added some shots of the slides I used as a structure for the text which […]

In which I argue that "AI" as we understand it today is a structurally fascist artifact.

https://tante.cc/2026/04/21/ai-as-a-fascist-artifact/

Britain’s Solar Revolution Is Here and We Should Be Shouting It From the Rooftops Ed Miliband is helping to turn the country into a nation of 'solar zealots' and Josiah Mortimer is enthusiastically along for the ride

🔴 Britain’s Solar Revolution Is Here and We Should Be Shouting It From the Rooftops

Ed Miliband is helping to turn the country into a nation of ‘solar zealots’ and I'm enthusiastically along for the ride. Thankfully I'm not alone.
bylinetimes.com/2026/04/22/b...

Sosiaali- ja terveysalan järjestöiltä leikkaamisen vaikutukset olisivat karut. Ne tarkoittaisivat entistäkin vähemmän apua ja tukea yhteiskuntamme heikoimmille ja haavoittuvimmille.

Romanian authorities welcomed back the 2,500-year-old Golden Helmet of Cotofenesti and two ancient gold bracelets after the treasures were recovered from thieves who stole them from a Dutch museum.

Fisherman. We're blowing up fishing boats.

“I used AI to combine the data from two excel lists and then send emails to people who were on one list but not another. Saved me so much time.”

My brother in academia, you just fucking discovered mail merge. Welcome to early nineties computing.

After France, Denmark is moving too: its Digitalisation Ministry plans to phase out Microsoft, switching to Linux and LibreOffice in the coming months. The goal is clear—reduce dependence on a handful of global tech giants and strengthen digital sovereignty.

These brilliant students now pulled together a webpage with a timeline and explanation of what they have been trying to do over the years to get some firmer protections once they realised they had been promised very different things from what ray got: phdmexuk.netlify.app #UKHE (petition coming)

High performing degrees taught by dedicated experts which support loads of students to be culled in the name of governmental shrugging and “adding value” managerial parasites bluffing their way through the next generic PowerPoint

Monterey Park becomes the first city in California to ban "all data centers within city limits" Residents of the small enclave east of LA not only killed their city's proposed 250,000 square foot data center, they pushed city council to ban them altogether

Last night, after an hours-long public hearing, Monterey Park became the first city in California to pass an ordinance permanently banning data centers.

The city council voted unanimously to declare data centers a public nuisance, and to "prohibit all data centers within city limits."

My story: