2026-05-27 20:00:00
In the early days of the internet, blogging created an opportunity for anyone to express themselves to a potentially wide audience. This was good news for us English majors (or we English majors, I can never remember). But coming face to face with a giant, empty input box did little to entice those for whom the idea of posting long-form content was a perspiration-inducing reminder of homework. Twitter fixed that with a technical limitation that became its superpower. Due to SMS constraints, the original Tweets were limited to 140 characters. That was a welcome invitation for everyone to become a writer (and writers to realize that some of their 10,000 word ideas actually only needed about 8-10 words to get the point across).
+ In many ways, the AI experience is an inversion of the early days of the internet. The internet enabled you to do it yourself. AI does it for you. That includes the writing, and increasingly, the thinking. But is the technology turning all writing into the same writing? And will that lead to all thinking being similarly similar? (I’d like to see AI try to pull off wordplay like that.) Rebecca Winthrop in the NYT (Gift Article): What 370,000 College Essays Tell Us About A.I.’s Effects on Creativity. “Brainstorming is the work that’s fundamental to writing. As a researcher studying A.I.’s effects on education, I have concluded that these tools only superficially improve writing. The bigger and more alarming impact they have is to constrict our full range of thoughts and our ability to generate original and useful ideas — what we call creative thinking. This seems to be especially true for students. A.I.’s smooth sentences, elegant transitions and rich vocabulary give the illusion of expansive creativity and individuality. But the underlying ideas often converge into a few homogenized categories. The erosion of creative thinking means young people will struggle to navigate uncertainty. Workers will strain to adapt to a shifting labor market. And society will miss out on the new ideas that can solve complex problems and enhance lives.” (Not to mention the pun headlines and beagle references.)
+ While non-writers are leaning on AI to take over, even serious writers are finding themselves distracted by tech. Ian McEwan: It’s harder to write now that phones have killed thinking. “It was much easier to be a writer in the Seventies. The most crucial difference is there [was] no internet and there [was] much more capacity for solitude. One didn’t take out one’s phone. I’m slightly addicted to mine, I have to admit.”
“Ahead of his Republican primary runoff Tuesday, Sen. John Cornyn highlighted a photo of himself standing next to President Donald Trump as his pinned post on X. He boosted one post disputing that he’s ‘disloyal’ to Trump and another about voting ‘yes on every major Trump law.’ The posts captured an important side of Cornyn: a loyal Republican soldier, standing with his party’s leader. There’s no disputing that Cornyn’s voting record was almost perfectly aligned with Trump.” But it wasn’t enough. None of Cornyn’s Trumpifications were enough to match the MAGAnificent qualifications of Ken Paxton: “A scandal-plagued hack lawyer who has been impeached by members of his own party; forced to take remedial ethics classes; admitted to breaking securities law; reported to the FBI by his employees; investigated by own his state bar association; and whose wife has filed for divorce on ‘Biblical grounds.'” In addition to garnering 20 years of scandals and headlines, he’s been going medieval on women’s choice and healthcare issues for years. That curriculum vitae was enough to earn Trump’s endorsement en route to a rout in Tuesday’s GOP Senate Texas primary. It may seem depressing to you that MAGA voters are still this loyal to Trump, but you’re not alone. Plenty of GOP senators are pretty depressed right now, too. “Mr. Cornyn, who less than two years ago came within a handful of votes of becoming the Republican leader, was a popular and respected senator as well as a prolific fund-raiser, a dependable conservative vote and an able floor debater. His colleagues saw the president’s last-minute endorsement of his scandal-mired opponent as a move to punish a senator whom Mr. Trump deemed insufficiently loyal, an insult to the institution and a self-serving political mistake that put his party’s hold on the Senate at risk.” Cornyn’s Defeat Fuels Tensions With President Trump in Senate GOP.
+ The GOP has a weak candidate. In James Talarico, the Dems have their strongest shot to turn Texas blue. But this race will still be tight and remarkably expensive. And Ken Paxton didn’t take long to let us all know exactly how he plans to run the race. On Talarico: “He’s a threat to our very way of life. I mean, he’s a vegan who thinks God is nonbinary.” (With that knack for imbecilic falsehoods, how could Trump not endorse him?)
“With my system in place, I wondered if I would feel guilty spying on my husband. But as I began tracking him, following his dot on a digital map, I felt connection. When his dot appeared at a favorite record store, I pictured him flipping through LPs. When his dot paused on Central Park’s Great Lawn, I imagined joining him on the grass. If he knew I was watching, he would feel like I’d betrayed him. But I felt like I had given him, and us, an extension on the routines that had held us together for more than 20 years.” Caroline Bailey with a touching piece in the NYT (Gift Article) on keeping tabs on the subway trips of her husband who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s: Tenderly Tracking My Husband. “In recent months, my husband’s tracking dot has shown him switching train lines with no clear logic behind the transfers. His trip summaries zigzag across neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Sometimes I can see that he has taken the D train straight to midtown and back without ever surfacing, or that he takes a quick hop from an R to an F to a neighborhood where we used to live, and he’ll just hover on a street corner for 20 minutes or so before coming home.”
“At Sentiré Pilates in London’s Belgravia, founder Iza Recelj says younger clients often use the space for social events. ‘We have a lot of birthday parties and bachelorette parties,’ she says. ‘People are booking the whole studio, doing a class together and then staying for mocktails or food afterwards.'” Young people are going to have a lot of things to fix in this world. But they just might have the abs to pull it off. Bloomberg (Gift Article): The New Social Scene Swaps Bars for $300 Gym Memberships.
A Perfect Ebola Storm: “In both cases, the news has been not only frightening but also confusing, even to scientists. The hantaviruses didn’t seem to be acting like hantaviruses, and the Ebola viruses weren’t behaving like Ebola viruses.” The Viruses Causing New Outbreaks Are Much Less Familiar to Science. Is climate a factor? From The New Yorker: Our Warming Planet Is a Petri Dish for New and Deadly Microbes. Meanwhile, the Democratic Republic of Congo is facing an ongoing conflict and Ebola at the same time. And war isn’t the only factor hindering the response. Vox (Gift Article): This is what happens when you defund Ebola prevention.
+ Divine Divers: “After a week of squeezing through the dangerous, mazelike cave network, divers Mikko Paasi and Norrased Palasing emerged from its muddy waters Wednesday to find a cause for hope. There, huddled on a rock, their headtorches still illuminated, were five villagers who had been trapped, missing — unknown if alive or dead — for eight days inside the flooded caves in Laos.” Many of the rescuers were part of the Thai cave rescue in 2018. Like then, locating the villagers is only the first step. They still need to get them out. 5 villagers stuck in a flooded cave for more than a week found alive in Laos.
+ Bluster’s Last Stand: “Responding to a question from a reporter about the possibility that a deal might include a pact between Iran and Oman, a U.S. ally on the other side of the strait, to jointly control the waterway, President Trump rejected the notion: ‘Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that. They’ll be fine.'” Here’s the latest bluster about a potential deal with Iran. While the ceasefire is mostly holding between the US and Iran, the same is not true when it comes to Hezbollah and Israel. Meanwhile, the US will need years to replenish stockpiles of advanced weapons used in Iran war, new analysis finds. (Bad news for our defense, good news for weapons manufacturers.)
+ Adding Gruel to the Fire: “A combination of factors including bad weather, tariffs and a dwindling cattle herd are already pushing up grocery prices at an above-average pace. In April, they rose by the most in nearly four years, and economists say the impact of the Iran war and a potential El Niño weather pattern will only add to pressures into 2027.” Americans Are About to Pay Even More at the Grocery Store.
+ Get the Scoop: This is my kind of climate activism. Why an Ice Cream Cone is an Easy Environmental Win.
The greatest threat to America has always come from within. Even in survivalist communities. WSJ (Gift Article): A Luxury Survivalist Community Is Tearing Itself Apart. “Lawsuits, countersuits and disputes are piling up over septic systems, property taxes, off-leash dogs and a growing list of community rules. The legal skirmishing has reached the state supreme court—twice. Promised amenities, including a restaurant bunker, a pool bunker and a horse-stable bunker, have yet to materialize. Guns have been drawn, and there have been offers to settle things with fists.”
+ UFC fighting cage rises on White House lawn for a bout celebrating America’s 250th anniversary. (The official song of America’s 250th: It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.)
2026-05-26 20:00:00
There are a lot of perfectly reasonable explanations for why, regardless of the health risks, Gen Z is tanning like crazy. Young people tend not to worry about the long-term health risks of their behavior (and given the fact that the only conversations middle-aged people have are about streaming shows and our latest ailments, one can understand the desire to delay worrying). Maybe tans draw more likes and views on TikTok and Instagram. But I wonder if there’s not something more disturbing behind the latest numbers on sun habits from the American Academy of Dermatology. “Only 25 percent of Gen Z respondents (ages 18 to 29) reported concern about developing skin cancer in their lifetime, compared with 39 percent of the general population. What’s more, 20 percent said that getting a tan was more important than preventing skin cancer.” NYT (Gift Article): They’ve Heard the Warnings. Gen Z Is Tanning Anyway. In this age of attacks on science, maybe young people don’t really believe in the dangers of excessive sun exposure. In this age of misinformation, maybe young people buy the takes from some of their peers on TikTok, like, “The sun gives you cancer. Sunscreen gives you cancer. We die either way, so you may as well be tanned.” In this age of a rightful distrust of sullied government information and quack leaders, maybe young people don’t feel like taking skincare health tips from institutions when our Department of Health and Human Services is being run by a tanning bed enthusiast who has turned himself into a human McNugget (I hate to throw shade, but in this case, it’s for his own health). Perhaps related to an absence of trust in institutions, “Gen Z respondents cited TikTok or Instagram as their No. 1 source for skin-care information, and 65 percent of them were likely to believe tanning myths, including that a base tan can prevent sunburn or reduce the risk of skin cancer.” As their government unleashes flavored vapes, unbridled gambling, and climate policies that risk the future, would young people be wrong to question whether the olds really have their best interests at heart? Between the lack of trust in their elders and the endless stream of misinformation, would it be any wonder if young people didn’t know what to believe, and would be left with a desire to just let it all burn (including their skin)?
“Last fall, a high-stakes struggle unfolded inside the red brick walls of an obscure federal agency. Three companies — each with ties to the Trump family’s business empire — needed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to bless their ambitions in the white-hot field of prediction markets.” You can probably predict what happened. NYT (Gift Article): How Prediction Markets and Crypto Firms Steamrolled a Watchdog Agency. “By Christmas, the agency had put two top officials who had raised questions about the companies on leave, barred them from the office and placed them under internal investigation. Three other senior officials who had enforced laws involving cryptocurrencies — another industry linked to the Trumps — suffered the same fate. None of those officials were told what they had done wrong. But current and former agency staffers said in interviews that the commission’s work force took away a clear message: Don’t cause trouble for those industries.”
+ If you’re still not getting the picture, maybe this headline will help. Trump promotes unregulated online casino after $1 million Super PAC donation.
+ Anyone sensing a trend? A $5 Million Donation From Big Tobacco Preceded F.D.A. Vape Decision.
“The negotiations between the United States and Iran to end their war are following President Trump’s familiar playbook for resolving a Middle East crisis: agree to a cease-fire and deal with the toughest problems later.” For now, we’re getting mixed signals of new US strikes and suggestions that a peace deal of some sort is close. Here’s the latest from the NYT and The Guardian.
+ “How much Iran will get away with, and how much humiliation the United States will endure, has yet to be ironed out by the negotiators, but the war is now almost certain to end with Tehran’s theocrats firmly in power, and with a stronger chokehold both on their own people and on the international economy than they had three months ago. Not only is Trump incoherently staggering to defeat, he now risks signing on to an agreement that could be far worse than anything Obama negotiated with Iran a decade ago.” Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s War Is Staggering to an Incoherent Defeat. (These worries aren’t just coming from the so-called liberal media. They’re coming from some of Trump’s top GOP supporters.)
“So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean … The various kinds of job insecurity, fragmented career paths and automation must not be evaluated solely in terms of efficiency, but in relation to the dignity of the worker, the right to sufficient remuneration and the genuine possibility of participating in society … I ask everyone to abandon the construction of yet another Tower of Babel and to join forces in building up the common good.” Count the Pope among those who are very worried about the rise of artificial intelligence. Magnifica Humanitas is the Pope’s first encyclical — a 42,300-word open letter on the need to put humans at the heart of technological change. (We might need a new data center wing to edit that down to a length modern readers will actually consume.) Main Takeaways From Pope Leo’s Encyclical on AI.
+ From commencement speakers getting booed to the Vatican, AI has some serious negative buzz going. Tech CEOs used to almost brag about what AI would do to the job market. Times have changed. OpenAI’s Altman says AI unlikely to lead to ‘jobs apocalypse.’
+ “What do the numbers really say about the impact of artificial intelligence on the labor market? The answer might surprise you.” A reality check on the AI jobs hysteria. So far, the job market hasn’t seen that big of an impact. But AI is just getting warmed up.
+ Meanwhile, one of the Pope’s worries seems unstoppable. AI warfare is already here. “Even Anthropic seems to think its red lines won’t hold for long. After all, history has proven otherwise.”
Race to Racism: Federal court blocks Alabama plan for new congressional districts that could help Republicans. “A three-judge panel in the state’s long-running redistricting case issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the state from switching maps, ruling that the Republican-backed plan ‘intentionally discriminated based on race.'” (Of course, that’s precisely what the Supreme Court just allowed, so one imagines they’ll chime in soon, with the midterms quickly approaching.)
+ Let’s Not Keep This on the (L)DL: “In a small, preliminary study, an experimental gene-editing treatment dramatically lowered cholesterol levels, perhaps permanently, after just one infusion, scientists reported on Monday. If confirmed in larger studies, researchers hope the findings may lead to a one-and-done way to prevent heart disease in large numbers of people.” Gina Kolata in the NYT (Gift Article): One-and-Done Heart Disease Prevention? Scientists Show It May Be Possible.
+ Command Performance: “The 42 swimming, track and weightlifting athletes who competed Sunday may have come to Las Vegas to chase personal records and millions in prize money, but the organizers of the Enhanced Games had greater ambitions than merely launching a new sports franchise. They sought to use the event to de-stigmatize the use of performance-enhancing substances and to entice consumers to buy them.” Enhanced Games got its ‘world record,’ but felt more like a glorified infomercial.
+ Here So Soon? “The U.K. smashed a century-old temperature record for the second time in 24 hours on Tuesday as a spring heat wave continued to scorch parts of Western Europe, triggering government warnings about risks to life. Several drownings were reported in Britain and France as people tried to cool down.” The heatwaves are coming early this year. Exceptionally early heat wave shatters records and brings deaths in Europe.
+ Backseat Drivers: “I don’t have to talk to another human being … I get in a car, and I’m just alone.” Blind Waymo Users Revel in the Joy of Riding Alone.
+ Curb Enthusiasm: “I am drawn there by a pair of parallel curbs that were designed to corral shopping carts. Unbeknown to shoppers on their way to rotisserie chicken and pallets of toilet paper, the curbs are world famous. Their image has been reproduced on stickers, T-shirts and skateboard graphics. Pilgrims fly across the country and from Europe to skate them, sometimes taking dimensions so they can mold replicas back home.” Conor Dougherty: What I Learned About Loss While Skateboarding at Costco.
“Police responding to reports of a shotgun blast at a convenience store sounds like the opening of countless American crime movies, but when cops in Nebraska responded to a recent such call they found an unusual culprit: a dog.” (I always assumed it would be the cats who would come for us first…)
+ Stephen Colbert was back on TV almost immediately. Public access TV. Only in Monroe.
2026-05-22 20:00:00
I know, I know. It’s the Friday before a three-day weekend. The last thing you want to read about is more bad news, a new scandal, or yet another group being falsely maligned, defamed, scapegoated, and targeted by those in power. But I don’t make the news, I just share it. And you should know the truth: While cats are known for landing on their feet, the same is not true for cat owners. Especially male cat owners looking for love. Men who own felines may think they’re the cat’s meow, but they often get a different message on dating sites: “Don’t catcall me, I’ll call you.” Michael Zadoorian lets the cat out of the bag in this story that begins with a single friend who was thinking about getting a cat. “The next day, he spoke to a co-worker, a woman who warned him that he should not, under any circumstances, get a cat. She said that women didn’t want a man with a cat. He would never get a date, and even if he did, once that date came to his house and saw the cat, that would be it for him. Game over. She further stated that men with cats are looked upon by women as weak, feminine and submissive. Subtext: He would never have sex again if he got a cat. Is it a surprise that he got a dog? No. And as much as I didn’t like his co-worker’s ailurophobia, it turned out that science may support her claim. A man with a cat is apparently suspect in America. A 2020 study by Colorado State University revealed that women on dating apps, aged 18 to 24, were more likely to reject a man posing with a cat in his profile photo.” NYT (Gift Article): Men, Hide Your Cats. “In the study, if men had a profile photograph without a cat, they attracted 38 percent of the women for a potential date or possibly even an actual relationship. Yet when women saw a picture of the same man holding a cat, the percentages dropped, with a sizable number saying they absolutely would not date a man who had a cat.”
+ Forget your choice of pets. As I reported yesterday, typos are the key to finding a match. You’re Just Not My Typo.
“He didn’t land the pope, but he got a Beatle. He didn’t have a new project to announce, but he left us with a song (in fact two). He didn’t choose to end his show, but he ended it his own weird, wonderful way. Stephen Colbert hosted his final ‘Late Show’ on Thursday night, completing the story of the TV year’s most notorious and rancorous cancellation. But his final hour-plus — an emotional and delightfully bizarre wake for a comedy institution — turned it into a cancellebration.” NYT (Gift Article): Stephen Colbert’s Last Show: Laughing Well Is the Best Revenge. (Actually, the best revenge will be when we cancel the people who canceled Colbert.)
+ The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Goodbye Stephen Colbert Wanted to Say. “I realized pretty soon that our job over here was different. We’re here to feel the news with you. And I don’t know about you, but I sure have felt it.'” (Holy crap, have I felt it, too.)
+ Here are some final outtakes from the final show.
“Mr. Trump has brought lawmakers in his party under his control like no president in modern history. A single critical word against Mr. Trump or his agenda could result in a full-scale retribution campaign to force a disloyal Republican from office. But this week, in a rarity in G.O.P. politics, Mr. Trump’s taunts, bullying and threats have backfired, at least for now. Senate Republicans, after the president targeted two of their own, stood up to Mr. Trump on two of his biggest priorities: money for his White House ballroom, and a $1.8 billion fund to reward Trump supporters who claim political persecution by Democrats, such as the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.” (It tells you everything you need to know that those are two of his biggest priorities.) After years of enabling, sycophancy, and soul-selling, I wouldn’t hold your breath that this long-awaited hint of resistance will hold. So enjoy it while you can. In a Rarity, Republicans Stand Up to Trump.
+ Heather Cox Richardson: “Republicans were angry they had no advance warning about the plan, questioned the legal basis for the fund, were unhappy with Blanche’s descriptions of how payments would work, and said they wanted no part of it. As former Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) put it: ‘So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong—Take your pick.'” (Being utterly stupid and morally wrong is the brand.)
What to Movie: I am not a huge fan of leaving the house, and
The Mandalorian and Grogu isn’t getting the best reviews. But I love Grogu. And my wife loves Grogu. And we also love movie popcorn. So there’s a decent chance I’m going to be at one of the opening weekend screenings. (If you have no interest in leaving your house this holiday weekend, you can always binge the remarkably excellent Star Wars series, Andor.)
+ What to Watch: “An evolution of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments on Hulu is a dramatic coming-of-age story set in Gilead. The series follows young teens Agnes Mackenzie, dutiful and pious, and Daisy, a new arrival and convert from beyond Gilead’s borders.” (I know, it seems like we get enough of an evolution of The Handmaid’s Tale in our daily news, but this series is good and it just got renewed for a second season.)
A Whiter Shade of Frail: WaPo (Gift Article): Trump offered White South Africans a new life. Thousands took him up on it. “Adri is one of 6,069 people who have been admitted to the United States as refugees since October, according to State Department figures. All but three were from South Africa. Her journey reflects the wholesale transformation of the refugee program under the Trump administration, which early last year froze refugee admissions save for one specific group.” Plus, US claims ‘emergency refugee situation’ as it admits 10,000 more white South Africans.
+ Gabbard Exits: Tulsi Gabbard to resign as director of national intelligence. “The former Democratic congresswoman said she would be leaving her job following her husband’s cancer diagnosis.” Gabbard was often the odd person out when it came to the major moments or decisions one associates with her job. “During pivotal moments as Trump deliberated over possible military action or watched live video feeds of operations in Iran or Venezuela, Gabbard was often not in the room, underscoring her outsider status … She is the fourth Cabinet member — all women — to leave Trump’s administration.”
+ Endgame On? “Trump’s repeated threats to resume attacks since then have proved to be bluffs. The leaders in Tehran have been calculating for two months that Trump would not launch another attack, and for this reason they have made no concessions despite the damage they suffered from 37 days of relentless strikes. On the contrary, their terms for a settlement are those of a victor: They demand war reparations, no limits on uranium enrichment, recognized control of the strait, and an end to sanctions.” Robert Kagan in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s Endgame Is Surrender. And from WSJ (Gift Article): Iran Mediators Race for Deal to Head Off Looming U.S., Israeli Strikes. Meanwhile, Iran and Oman in Talks Over Strait of Hormuz Ship Payment System.
+ Recycled Content: “A group of volunteers tracked 53 polypropylene plastic cups starting in recycling bins at Starbucks locations across nine states and Washington DC. Each recycling bin had signs clearly indicating these specific cups could be recycled. The results were stunning: not one cup ended up at a recycling facility.” (One wonders if Starbucks cups are the exception or the norm.)
+ Kyle Busch: “The news comes 11 days after Kyle Busch radioed into his crew near the end of a Cup Series race at Watkins Glen asking a doctor to give him a ‘shot’ after he finished the race. According to the television broadcast, Busch had been struggling with a sinus cold.” NASCAR icon Kyle Busch dies at the age of 41.
+ Let There Be Light of Consciousness: “Throughout the investor prospectus, SpaceX reiterates that its ultimate goal is to establish colonies on the moon and Mars that will usher in human civilization’s next evolution and expand humanity’s presence in the universe. By moving beyond the only home we have ever known, we ensure species-level redundancy and that the light of consciousness will not be tied to a single planet subject to the inevitable hazards of a harsh and vast universe.” And that’s not even the weirdest part of the SpaceX IPO filing. The company also spent $131 million on Cybertrucks last year. (Maybe after the IPO, they can upgrade to something less embarrassing.) Mars colony and Grok warnings: five strange details in SpaceX’s pitch to investors. And from Bloomberg (Gift Article): SpaceX IPO Makes Musk ‘Otherworldly’ Rich.
“His nonchalance and the collision of what seemed like two different worlds had a number of interpretations. Some declared him ‘iconic,’ a ‘legend,’ even a ‘diva.’ Others called it a quintessentially Australian moment that captured the country’s devil-may-care attitude. Or was it perhaps a piece of performance art in itself, a commentary on the fashion world’s curated culture?” NYT (Gift Article): He Crashed a Beach Fashion Show and Accidentally Became Its Star.
+ Routine vaccines may cut dementia risk—experts have startling hypothesis on how.
+ UK scientists developing Ebola vaccine that could be ready for trials in months. (I’m beginning to think science and vaccines are good.)
+ “GLP-1 drugs may be linked to a lower risk of cancer progression, according to new research that will be presented next week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting.”
+ Experience: we found a baby on the subway – now he’s our 26-year-old son.
+ Stowaway Fox Gets Clean Bill of Health and a Name: Basil (Like ‘Dazzle‘)
2026-05-21 20:00:00
To all of those who have complained over the years about my typos, misprints, errors, omitted words, dittography, haplography, misspellings, mistakes, scribal errors, or other minor boo-boos, I’m not sorry. There will be no erratum nor corrigendum issued (including any necessitated by my potential misuse of those words). None of these keyboardian goofs were accidental. It was my way of enabling you to be certain that these missives were being delivered by a human being. I typo, therefore I am. Not only were my countless typos intentional, they were prescient and prophetic (or prophylactic, I need to check Grammarly). It turns out that typos that once enraged readers are now all the rage. “Although typos and other mistakes don’t suddenly mean that a piece of writing is good or praiseworthy, to some people, they are at least signs that it is worth reading. On a base level, many of us are willing to invest time in reading a long email if we sense that someone actually wrote it, line by line.” (The basic rule these days: If a note is perfect, it was written by AI. If it has typos, it was written by a human. And if it has a lot of all-caps, it was written by a monster.) The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Typo Vibe Shift. “Some job applicants are intentionally adding typos to their cover letters to prove that they, and not an AI program, wrote them. Celebrities and CEOs are sending out error-ridden emails and Instagram Stories, and instead of getting a scolding, they are praised for sounding authentic. On some dating apps, where people are, somewhat absurdly, prompted to compose their profiles with AI, typos are apparently no longer an automatic repellant. Nicole Ellison, a University of Michigan professor whose 2006 study showed that dating profiles with spelling mistakes turn people off, now thinks people are warming to the Tinder typo. ‘A typo maybe signals that you actually do care.'” (Now you know: There’s never been a newsletter writer who cares more about their readers than I do.)
“The two teenagers who walked into a San Diego mosque with assault rifles on Monday wore patches displaying the Black Sun—a neo-Nazi iteration of the swastika—and had scribbled white-supremacist symbols in white correction fluid on their guns. They started shooting, killing three. Then they fled in a BMW one had stolen from his mother. In the car, 17-year-old Cain Clark apparently shot his accomplice, Caleb Vasquez, before shooting himself in the head. We know much of this, in graphic detail, because, within hours, Clark and Vasquez’s video-recorded rampage seems to have been posted on the messaging platform Discord, then on a website called Watch People Die.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Glorification of Mass Murder. “The San Diego mosque killings were part ideological, part performance.”
+ “The shooting, conducted by two teenagers who police said met on the internet, extends a pattern of bloodshed inspired by the web, where in recent years video-recorded slayings have been live-streamed onto Facebook and Twitch, reposted onto YouTube and X, and cut into memes across Reddit and 4chan. The videos so frequently cite one another that they’ve raised fears from extremism experts that they could motivate copycats. The speed of their virality has also made it challenging to fully take them offline.” WaPo (Gift Article): San Diego mosque attack followed a familiar online script.
Were American Jews right to feel abandoned by our supposed allies in the immediate aftermath of October 7, when hostage posters were being torn down and campus protests were surging long before Israel even responded to the attacks? Yes. Are American Jews allowed to believe that what felt like a betrayal has been followed by Israeli military actions that have gone too far, led by a current government that’s “intent on blocking the creation of a Palestinian state and seems committed instead to permanent domination?” Yes. Is this complex set of realities and emotions happening at a moment when antisemitism is going through the roof, in America and abroad? Hell yes. Michael W. Sonnenfeldt tries to make sense of the situation. The Challenge for American Jews. “These contradictions place many American Jews in an untenable position. Many of us believe deeply in Israel’s right to exist, and many of us believe the United States should help Israel defend itself against existential threats, because as America’s only democratic ally in the Middle East, Israel’s survival is in the United States’ interest. At the same time, we cannot ignore the profound moral questions raised by the conduct of the war in Gaza, or dismiss the concerns of those who fear that American arms are being used in ways that violate humanitarian law. Understanding the impulse to condition military support is not the same as abandoning Israel; it can be an expression of anguish about what Israel, under its current leadership, is becoming.”
“Jell-O — long known for its bright rainbow of artificially colored gelatins — is getting a line of products made without synthetic colors or artificial sweeteners to meet increasing consumer demand for natural ingredients.” But before you get too excited about the health benefits associated with getting rid of artificial colors, remember that it’s 2026. WSJ (Gift Article): Natural Food Colors Embraced by MAHA Linked to Health Problems. “Artificial food dyes have long been suspected to be harmful to your health. But new research shows that some of the natural color additives being turned to as alternatives are associated with an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes and cancer.”
Ballroom Lancing: “‘I don’t like the fund at all,’ said Sen. John Curtis (R., Utah), who added he didn’t believe any guardrails could fix it. Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), who is retiring after Trump regularly criticized him, called it a ‘payout pot for punks.'” The Trump IRS slush fund is not all that popular, even with Republicans. And funding for the new ballroom polls about as well as a punch in the face. Will these issues finally mean Trump’s enablers have found their bottom? (It’s hard to imagine, but we can hope.) WSJ (Gift Article): Trump on Collision Course With GOP Over Controversial $1.8 Billion Fund.
+ Highway to EL: “The biggest episodes of the past have altered the course of human events, according to researchers. An emerging one is drawing historic comparisons.” A Powerful El Niño Is Forming. If History Is a Guide, It Could Hit Hard.
+ It’s Getting Old in Old Havana: “Widespread blackouts on the fuel-starved island and spotty phone signals meant word of the new, steep escalation in the U.S. pressure campaign on the Cuban government was slow to reach many of Cuba’s own residents.” NYT: In Blackout-Hit Cuba, Word of U.S. Castro Indictment Spreads Slowly. (Cuban citizens who have been victimized by their own government are now being victimized by another government in the name of stopping that victimization.)
+ Cut Loose Like a Bruce: “I am here in support tonight for Stephen because you are the first guy in America who’s lost his show because we got a president who can’t take a joke. And because Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want. Anyway, Stephen, these are small-minded people, they got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about.” Springsteen on the penultimate episode of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show.
+ Legal Gamble: “Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has signed the nation’s first law banning prediction market sites from operating in the state, and in response, the Trump administration has sued, teeing up a legal battle over the most far-reaching crackdown on popular services like Kalshi and Polymarket.”
+ Batman and Robbing: “Batman is being held hostage in a Mississippi warehouse. So, too, are James Bond, Doctor Who and Cruella de Ville. Not even pop culture’s grumpiest cat, Garfield, can escape. They’re among thousands of characters represented in roughly 8.2 million comics, graphic novels, figurines and table-top games held for months in a 600,000-square-foot warehouse formerly operated by a major comics distributor that went bankrupt in 2025.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): JPMorgan Fights Over Millions of Comic Books Locked in a Mississippi Warehouse.
+ The Vagina Dialogues: “Maybe you need a $30 VMagic vulva balm. Does sex feel uncomfortable? A $115 vibrating massager, sold by The Pelvic People, claims to ease ‘intimacy-related tension and anxiety.’ To prevent recurring UTIs, there are Mineral Undies; to ‘reduce pressure around your pelvis,’ there is pain-free underwear. If you suffer from recurrent bacterial vaginosis, Happy V and Bonafide say they have pills to break the cycle. If you’re not sure what you suffer from, Evvy can provide you with a $348 at-home microbiome and UTI test and a ‘vaginal health coach.’ The wellness crusade has come for the vagina.” NYT (Gift Article): The Vaginal Wellness Boom Is Here.
“A calendar featuring close-ups of young, handsome men in priestly attire has been a perennial Rome souvenir for the last two decades — but few, it seems, are actually men of the cloth.” Holy deception: Rome’s ‘sexy priest’ calendar star never set foot in a seminary. (Remember when this used to be the kind of thing we considered a major scandal?)
+ “As the incline got steeper, I opened the companion app on my phone and pressed Boost. My stride quickened. The whirring got louder. As the AI marched me toward the summit, I enjoyed the view. Thirty seconds later, the surge of power was over, and the legs returned to the gentler Eco mode.” Forget E-biking. E-Hiking Is Here.
+ America in 2026: Joey Chestnut to defend hot dog title while on probation.
2026-05-20 20:00:00
In the early days of the internet, we found things by browsing through web directories, like the one from Yahoo. That method of discovery was replaced by much more powerful search technologies, led by Google, that enabled us to quickly scour the entire internet and click on links to get to the source material. And so it’s been for more than a quarter century (which is like 10 million years in internet time). But now, the blue links that have defined the internet era, and powered a revolution in business transformation and information sharing, are, like so many other tech job-holders, at serious risk of being put out of work by AI. TechCrunch: Google Search as you know it is over. “Instead of returning a simple list of links, Google Search will drop users into AI-powered interactive experiences at times. Google is also introducing tools that can dispatch ‘information agents’ to gather information on a user’s behalf, along with tools that let users build personalized mini apps tailored to their needs.” But if links die, what happens to the sites they now connect (the same sites that are being repurposed to provide answers to your questions in the new-fangled search box)? As Jay Peters writes in The Verge (Gift Article): “Google doing everything also means a lot of the web that Google relies on collapses under it. If Google Search doesn’t send traffic to publishers or websites who need visitors to make money … what will Search learn from, and where will it point people to?” And what will become of the serendipity and random discovery that made the internet fun and informative? And what happens to our already isolated tech experiences when we lose the links that not only connect us to information, but to each other as well? Those are questions even AI can’t yet answer. In the meantime, Google and its AI competitors are racing to become the Hotel California of AI’s captive audience age. We are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like. But you can never leave.
“Less than six months from the midterm elections, the president may be as unpopular as he’s ever been with the general public. But inside the Republican Party, he remains the undisputed kingmaker.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Why Thomas Massie Thought He Was Different. “Last night Massie met the same fate as so many of Trump’s Republican critics: He lost his primary.”
+ There’s no sugar-coating the sad fact that, even after dragging America’s democracy, economy, and global status through the mud, Trump still holds a tight grip on the core GOP voting base. But that same grip may be costly once we get to general elections that feature a broader voting population that views Trump negatively. Trump’s grip is choking his GOP enemies, but it may leave the GOP choking its chicken in November. Dan Pfeiffer sums it up. Everyone Thinks Trump Won Last Night. They’re Wrong (paywalled). “The message to Republicans from Kentucky, Louisiana, and elsewhere is crystal clear — buck Trump and lose your job. The problem for Republicans on the ballot this fall is that the best way to keep their job might be to buck Trump.”
+ In the shorter term, there are now a few more GOP members of Congress who have nothing to lose by expressing their actual views on matters. These folks aren’t exactly profiles in courage, but, in 2026, we’ll take what we can get. The GOP’s YOLO caucus is small but growing.
Yesterday, I wrote: Trump may not be good at wars, economics, or geopolitics, but give him this: He is amazingly good at corruption. And today, here’s the NYT Editorial Board (Gift Article) on Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund and deal to end all ongoing audits of himself and his family. There Has Never Been an Example of Presidential Corruption Like This. “The fund manages to combine three of Mr. Trump’s most alarming behaviors. One, it is an obvious form of corruption, coming from a president who has used his office to enrich himself, his family and his allies. Two, the fund continues his pattern of using the Justice Department as an enforcer to punish his perceived opponents and protect his friends and allies. Three, the fund is his latest attempt to rewrite history about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.”
+ Think you’re sickened by the idea of the already-pardoned Jan 6 criminals getting a cut of your tax dollars as a reward for their crimes? Imagine how the Capitol police officers feel. Jan. 6 Police Officers Sue to Block $1.8 Billion Fund.
+ The corruption is nonstop. We’re used to headlines like this one: Trump Has Been Investing in Companies and Then Pumping Them in His Speeches. But even judged by our lowered standards, this corruption stands out. Joyce Vance: “When everything is bad, nothing is bad. People get desensitized. They can no longer keep track of it all. It’s all so awful that none of it gets processed anymore. So I need you to hear me when I say tonight: This is bad. Really, really bad.” (Let’s hope we get to the midterms before we run out of reallys…)
“But the sell-off of youth sports is no surprise. In America, little remains of what used to be called the public commons—the essential parts of life organized for mutual benefit rather than profit extraction. Hospitals, nursing homes, and insurance companies were once mostly nonprofit, run by local boards. No more. Education, from preschool to college, is being colonized by for-profit owners. Even utilities such as electricity and water, once treated as public goods, are being taken over by profit-obsessed investment firms.” Chris Murphy in The Atlantic (Gift Article): My Son’s Hockey Team and the Crisis of American Resentment.
+ The way youth sports has changed also has an impact on what I wrote about yesterday. Americans are increasingly divided, not only politically, socially, and economically, but geographically. Our lack of real-world interaction makes us all the more susceptible to hateful, rage-baiting messages spread by those who benefit from keeping us divided and afraid of one another. Gotta Keep ‘Em Separated.
Havana Bad Day: “Cuba is not expected to extradite Castro to the U.S. and most indicted foreign leaders are not brought to the country to face charges. But Blanche hinted to the possibility of U.S. action in Cuba when he told reporters there was a warrant for Castro’s arrest, ‘so we expect that he will show up here by his own will or by another way.'” DOJ indicts Raúl Castro over fatal 1996 civilian planes’ shooting.
+ Ebola’s Spread: “Anxious healthcare workers in eastern Congo said Wednesday they are underprotected and undertrained in a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak of a rare type of the virus in one of the world’s most remote and vulnerable places.” Ebola fears surge on the ground in Congo over rapid spread of a rare type. Plus, the absence of USAID likely slowed Ebola detection and response, former officials say. Here are some photos from Congo and Uganda during the Ebola outbreak.
+ Homework: “A prominent Guinean couple, living in a suburb near Dallas, took in a young girl from their home country. They told neighbors that she was their niece, whom they had rescued from war and poverty. But children
in the neighborhood, who noticed how she was always working, began to refer to her as a ‘slave.'” Yudhijit Bhattacharjee in The New Yorker: In Plain Sight.
+ Frank Acknowledgement: “Often voted the ‘brainiest,’ ‘funniest’ and ‘most eloquent’ member of the House, he was also the first to come out voluntarily and helped normalize being openly gay in public office.” Brains, humor, and eloquence are some things we could use more of these days. Barney Frank, Gay Pioneer and Liberal Stalwart in Congress, Dies at 86.
+ Dad Bod of Work: “Sales have been sliding for nonfiction titles about politics, biographies and other books often aimed at men.” WSJ (Gift Article): Dad Books Are a Dying Breed. These days, I really only read fiction. The content I consume on a daily basis is already more non-fiction than I can handle. I’m guessing others feel the same.
+ Make the Grade: “The cap, which applies to the undergraduate college, limits the number of A’s per course to 20%, plus an additional four A’s to account for smaller courses with more variability. It won’t apply to A-minuses, which committee members predict will take over as the most awarded grade.” WSJ (Gift Article): Harvard Votes to Cap A’s in Effort to Curb Grade Inflation.
+ The Tortoise and the Heir: “Currently valued at $50 million, Sperm Racing is a start-up devoted to, well, racing human sperm through an artificial reproductive system. At their office and across the country, they’ve hosted matches with college students, streamers and influencers — all in the name of raising awareness about male infertility.” NYT Mag (Gift Article): Silicon Valley’s Answer to Declining Male Fertility? Sperm Racing. (When I was young, we raced our sperm in the snow, uphill, both ways.)
“He’s only taken one art history course at Vanderbilt, but his platform is based on an almost mutant-like talent … he discovered he has an incredible memory for fine art images.” A look at the guy behind the excellent feed that finds art that mirrors moments in sports. Art, but Make It Sports.
+ Texas man arrested after intentionally driving Cybertruck into lake to test ‘wade mode.’
2026-05-19 20:00:00
Throw the bums out. It’s an old political slogan that’s a lot harder to achieve in the age of redistricting, when most elections are decided long before voters get to the polls. More than 90 percent of the upcoming midterm races aren’t likely to be competitive. “Competitive districts — where a candidate leads a challenger by fewer than 10 percentage points — are increasingly rare. That is partly because many voters choose to live in communities with like-minded people, making many areas more politically homogenous and less competitive. And it is partly because parties are able to draw gerrymandered House maps, whittling down the number of swing districts even further.” NYT (Gift Article): How Redistricting Is Making the Midterms Less Competitive. This is a problem when it comes to voting. But it’s also representative of a broader problem. Americans are increasingly divided, not only politically, socially, and economically, but geographically. Our lack of real-world interaction makes us all the more susceptible to hateful, rage-baiting messages spread by those who benefit from keeping us divided and afraid of one another. Most Americans have never met anyone in real life that they hate as much as the caricatured versions of their political opponents. The imaginary friends of our childhoods get replaced by the imaginary enemies that exist somewhere, out there, beyond the borders—online and off—of our silos of homogeneity. Forget having united states, between political messaging, physical divides, and now contorted gerrymandering, we don’t even have united neighborhoods anymore.
“But, of course, nobody entertains for a moment the thought that the fund could conceivably reward an actual victim of weaponization. To ensure that it will never be used for a deserving victim, the fund is scheduled for termination on December 15, 2028.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Is Worse Than Stealing.
+ Don’t just take the media’s word for how bad this is. Take it from the top lawyer at the Treasury Department. “Brian Morrissey, the Treasury’s general counsel, resigned from the position seven months after he was confirmed to it by the Senate and just hours after the Trump administration announced the fund on Monday.”
+ I covered this more broadly yesterday: “What would happen if you gave a criminal defendant and his attorney control of the most powerful government in the world? In America, that was a rhetorical question for about 250 years. Unfortunately, in 2026, we’re rapidly watching the answer come to life.” The Commander in Thief.
+ Trump may not be good at wars, economics, or geopolitics, but give him this: He is amazingly good at corruption. Trump traded over $50 million in ‘Magnificent 7’ stocks last quarter.
“Kayla Bundy likes to start her day with a cup of bone broth. She buys her milk raw, snacks on sardines, eats authentic sourdough bread — no commercial yeasts here — and generally cooks with locally-sourced ingredients. On TikTok, where she has over 500,000 followers, she claims that her diet ‘fixed’ her skin, her hair and her depression, and she sells coaching sessions to help others with their diets. Bundy, a 27-year-old Christian content creator, might sound like your run-of-the-mill clean-eating type, but she believes her diet to be part of a higher calling.” Eating Healthy? No, They’re Eating Biblically. (Maybe we can find common ground. I eat serving-sizes that are of biblical proportions.)
If you’re a journalist feverishly working to write a lede that perfectly encapsulates the year 2026, it might be time to lay down your pencil. Benjamin Mullin just wrote it in the NYT (Gift Article): “The author of a nonfiction book about the effects of artificial intelligence on truth acknowledged on Monday that he had included numerous made-up or misattributed quotes concocted by A.I.” Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I. “On Monday night, (the author) Mr. Rosenbaum acknowledged in a statement that the book had ‘a handful of improperly attributed or synthetic quotes’ and said that he had started his own investigation.”
Ebola Timing: It’s “a fast-moving epidemic in a conflict-ridden region, involving a strain with no approved vaccine, at a moment when the global health infrastructure built after past Ebola crises has been weakened by funding cuts and political upheaval.” In other words: Not good. Why this Ebola outbreak will be so difficult to contain.
+ The Data Suggests Otherwise: “From mill towns in Maine to farm counties in Indiana to desert plots outside Abilene, Texas, data center developers are telling local governments: Bring us in, give us what we need, add some tax breaks, and the jobs will follow. More than 35 states have responded by offering incentives and more to attract the industry.” But here’s the rub. Data centers don’t really create many jobs, especially considering how much space, water, and energy they consume. The Verge (Gift Article): Data centers are coming for rural America. (Of course, new manufacturing centers, now powered by robots and AI, also don’t create as many jobs as they used to.) AI companies have remarkably deep pockets. They could bring development and jobs and other resources to communities where they want to build data centers. And here’s why it’s in their self interest to do so. The American Rebellion Against AI Is Gaining Steam.
+ Mosque Shooting: “One of the victims, the mosque security guard, played … a ‘pivotal’ role in preventing additional bloodshed. ‘I think it’s fair to say his actions were heroic, and undoubtedly he saved lives today.'” Time: What We Know About the Shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
+ Paxt Americana: Yes, incumbent John Cornyn sold his soul by backing Trump in primaries and voting to acquit in his impeachment trials, but Ken “Paxton was impeached on bribery and corruption charges in 2023.” So really, how could Trump resist? Trump endorses Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn ahead of Texas Republican Senate runoff. (Did Trump just hand a general election win to James Talarico?)
+ Cleanup Duty: “NATO is discussing the possibility of helping ships pass through the blocked Strait of Hormuz if the waterway isn’t reopened by early July.” (One way or another, the free world needs the Strait open.)
+ Tired of All the Zyning: “At a lunch this month between President Trump and tobacco executives, the conversation turned to nicotine pouches, one of the hottest products in the market. The president called his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and in the course of the conversation asked him what pouches he used. Trump took an interest in the product and told officials he wanted to see more of the pouches authorized.” How Zyn Became All the Rage Inside Trump World—Including With RFK Jr.
+ To Victor Go the Spoils: Nothing ever lives up to the hype. Except game one of the much-anticipated NBA playoff series between the Thunder and the Spurs. The Majestic Arrival of Playoff Wemby.
“A brawl between two rival Roman criminal gangs on Saturday at the site has provoked debate about whether security is adequate to protect the millions of tourists who visit the Trevi every year … In the latest diving incident, a 30-year-old tourist from New Zealand broke away from his friends and dived into the fountain.” Tourist caught diving into Trevi Fountain.
+ About the only places crazier than the Trevi Fountain these days are the lines outside stores selling the Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop. GQ: Brawls, Pepper Spray, and Store Closures: Inside the Madness of Royal Pop Release Day.
+ “Cats Lock is exactly what it sounds like. It offers a way to quickly lock your keyboard, either with one click from the menu bar or using a keyboard shortcut, to block all typing when there’s a risk of a feline invasion.” (I’m still waiting for the beagle block.)