How the American oligarchy went hyperscale The AI boom is fueling a literal and metaphorical power grab by tech billionaires—and forcing a reckoning.

“The American oligarchy is an AI oligarchy”

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

View over the canal in Nyhavn, Copenhagen

Thrilled to announce CS2Nordics: the First Nordic Conference on Computational Social Science. Copenhagen, September 21-22, 2026.

We invite all CSS researchers in the Nordics as well as in the international research community to submit 2-page abstracts by June 19: nosocss.org/conference.h....

"Mosquitoes in Iceland are more than a curiosity or future annoyance. They are a warning …" - Amanda M. Koltz and Lauren E. Culler

Iceland—previously the only Arctic nation without mosquitoes—no longer holds that distinction.

"The detection of mosquitoes just north of Reykjavík in 2025 reflects an ecological shift already underway," write Amanda M. Koltz and Lauren E. Culler in a new #ScienceEditorial. https://scim.ag/4tg86pJ

“If you’re going to be a writer you have to be one of the great ones… After all, there are better ways to starve to death.”

Gabriel García Márquez, who returned his borrowed stardust 12 years ago today, on his improbable beginnings as a writer

Who’d have thought a fossil-fuel shill like Trump would be the one to spark a green revolution? | George Monbiot The US attack on Iran has made the need for renewable energy inarguable, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

It's the opposite of his intention, but the Idiot Emperor is forcing the world off fossil fuels. This week's column.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This figure shows how snowpack (measured as Snow Water Equivalent, SWE) in a region evolves over a typical year, and how the current year (2026) is well out of historical conditions. https://nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/awdb/basin-plots/POR/WTEQ/assocHUC2/14_Upper_Colorado_Region.html

Novel times in the US's Colorado River Basin
nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/awdb/basin-p...

weak and early-collapsing snowpack in 2026

drought sets of economic and political challenges for 2026

On Bullshit - Wikipedia

The notion of an "alternative" world of fact and law, analogous to and epistemically on a par with the normal one, is – and this is a technical term – complete bullshit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Bull...

World Inequality Conference 2026 - World Inequality Lab The World Inequality Lab is organizing the third edition of the World Inequality Conference, to be held at the Paris School of Economics on June 4-5, 2026.

📣Registration just opened for the 2026 World Inequality Conference, and there are already only a few spaces left.

Hurry up to register!

inequalitylab.world/en/event/wor...

Unprecedented Burning in Tropical Peatlands During the 20th Century Compared to the Previous Two Millennia

🔗 buff.ly/Ws7kfPu

Do you research social interactions and collective behavior?
IIMAS-UNAM is hiring an Associate Researcher "C". PhD in psychology, anthropology or sociology + publications required. Women encouraged to apply. Maximum age 39 (♀️) and 37 (♂️).
📅 Deadline: June 1, 2026
📄 tinyurl.com/3dzc5nz4

Pope says ‘enough of war’ and decries ‘delusion of omnipotence’ at peace vigil Leo’s comments did not directly mention war in Iran but read as his strongest condemnation of the conflict yet

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

As an atheist I'm agreeing the the @Pontifex! Well done!

"Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life. "

It's so good to hear an American say this!

The magnitude of these forecasts continues to surprise me. Strong El Nino events are quite uncommon, happening only once every 15 years or so, and often on the heels of a moderate event like the 2023-24 El Nino.

"The average size of wild animal populations has collapsed by > 73% in the last 50 years. Vast swathes of rainforests & other ecosystems have been destroyed. The oceans are being emptied of life. Microplastics riddle the environment and our bodies...Warm water coral reefs are being exterminated..."

Absolutely remarkable statement from Pope Leo today.
One for the history books
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

The University of Michigan has been measuring consumer sentiment since 1952. We just got the first Iran-afflicted measure for April, and it's at the lowest level ever recorded.

Wildfires are becoming more frequent and are ravaging new parts of the world due to global warming.

A new study combining 13 climate models finds that nearly 84% of species already vulnerable to wildfires could face even greater risk by the end of this century.

Learn more: buff.ly/PBD4xBP

Uruguay generates nearly 43% of its electricity from wind and solar. In 2010, the share was less than 1%.

Most of the rest if hydro.

Today, Uruguay produces nearly 99% of its electricity from renewable sources.

More here www.forbes.com/sites/kensil...

Exciting news! I’ve been following Mason’s work for years and it seems he will be sitting across the street now!

Who bears the burden of climate inaction? | Brookings

"From insurance premiums to energy bills, a recent study from MIT Sloan School of Management shows how Americans are already paying the price of climate change, and climate inaction, driven by extreme weather"
www.brookings.edu/articles/who...

www.brookings.edu/wp-content/u...

Summer is getting longer, and it's happening faster than we thought - UBC News New research finds summers are expanding 50 per cent faster in many areas than previously reported, with quicker transitions between seasons.

New research led by @climate-ted.bsky.social finds that summers are getting longer and starting faster, on land, on the coasts and at sea.
The paper: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
Plain language summary: news.ubc.ca/2026/04/summ...

The New York Times drops freelance journalist who used AI to write book review Writer and author Alex Preston said he “made a serious mistake” after a reader spotted similarities between his review and one that appeared in the Guardian

Two things strike me about this story. 1. Preston seems to have been genuinely unaware that AI might simply lift stuff from another review. I guess I am surprised, but maybe shouldn't be, that folks like this will use AI with so little understanding of it. And...
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

Time to plan your content submissions for @SORTEE2026

cover of the book "Bayesian Workflow" by Gelman, Vehtari, et al. Coming out later this year, in the summer probably.

I would have preferred to have the "draw the rest of the owl" meme on the cover, but this will do. Seems like it is on schedule, and we'll leave some typos so you know we didn't write it with AI.

The variety of German bees before the Industrial Revolution (187, top) vs after the introduction of pesticides (43, bottom), DHM

Fantastic opportunity to study tipping points and social contagion 👇 using large scale data

We are hiring! Interested in doing a PhD and excited about forest management, ecosystem services, simulation modeling and beta diversity? Come work with us @edfm-tum.bsky.social at @tum.de, full job ad here: cloud.edfm.ls.tum.de/index.php/s/...

NSF LTER program “archived”.

LTER=“Long Term Ecological Research”.

This program has been incredibly successful, incredibly frugal for what they accomplish, and…of course…targeted by evil know-nothings.

My heart is breaking.

What a tragic and unnecessary loss brought on by cruel policies cruelly enforced.

The broader picture is that while some of the GOP's war on science will be reversible, some won't. Never again in my lifetime will the best and brightest from around the world want to study and work in the US.

Florida bans sociology from core curriculum at state universities For years, Republican lawmakers and education leaders have argued that sociology — especially high-enrollment introductory courses — has been overtaken by progressive ideology

Where on the Democracy Index does it fall when the government bans entire fields of education?

FAO Food Price Index rises in March as Near East conflict raises energy costs Pressure on fertilizer supplies and elevated energy prices add uncertainty to markets, despite a broadly comfortable global cereal supply situation.

FAO data shows food price index up 2.4% compared to February. No surprise that the war is driving up the cost of living on multiple fronts.

www.fao.org/newsroom/det...