Nothing vital today. Let’s note this.
Boing Boing, Mark Frauenfelder, 18 Aug 2026: Kevin Kelly: AI will be a microscope we point at our own minds
I noted the anniversary of his book Out of Control a couple months ago, but didn’t highlight the fact that he has a substack, KK. Add it to my rotation? For a while. It already takes me an hour a day to visit my usual sites. His latest post is Without a Theory of Intelligence.
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Conservatives are afraid of education, of course.
NY Times, David French, today: Go Ahead, Sean Duffy. Let Your Daughter Go to Harvard.
Because Duffy’s wife said
that she’s “nervous” about her daughter, Paloma, going to Harvard. “We spent a lot of time nurturing and providing formation for our kids,” she said, “giving them an environment where they are steeped in faith and values.” It worried her to even think about dropping them off at a school that would “undermine that or try to undo all those things.”
Hmm. I think if those faith and values are so easily undermined by education… which, you know, is about real things that exist in the world… then they were not worth much to begin with.
And Duffy is worried about her mind being “corrupted.”
French sympathizes, but advises her to go to Harvard anyway, ironically since exposure to her will do the liberals there more good than she being exposed to them.
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Again, the world is getting better, say the people who measure properties of the world.
Washington Post, editorial board, yesterday: World hunger decline is the fruit of growth, subtitled “A United Nations report shows another decline in food insecurity.”
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How is Sharia Law any more dangerous or ridiculous than Christian Nationalism? Because of the clothes?
Right Wing Watch, Peter Montgomery, 21 Aug 26: Inflaming Anti-Muslim Bigotry is the GOP’s Desperate Distraction Strategy from MAGA Failures
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The absurdly incompetent sister of a late senator pivots her concern to trans athletes (of which there are a tiny, tiny number in the US). Conservatives will elect her for sure!
LGBTQNation, Alex Bollinger, yesterday: Darline Graham Nordone’s pivot to trans athletes only makes her ignorance more obvious, subtitled “Her state bans trans kids from playing sports but she still claims that her constituents are ‘concerned.’ What is she talking about?”
Darline Graham is the one who expressed ignorance of Taiwan and the South China Sea. “I’m not that informed on national security.” But she spoke to one very concerned lady about “boys in girls’ sports.” So that’s where she’ll go.
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