Is Culture Dying? The French sociologist Olivier Roy believes that “deculturation” is sweeping the world, with troubling consequences. Roy is correct. Also, great book.

US health system ranks last compared with peer nations, report finds.

Russia goes all-out with covert disinformation aimed at Harris, Microsoft report says.

From Kamala Harris, a master class on how to take down a bully.

For generations, we thought fear of nuclear holocaust would prevent world war. Is that faith obsolete?

Google Wants to Add Predatory ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Loans to Chrome. LOL.

The dark vision of America. Persecuting groups of people to score political points is not OK.

For decades, thanks to restrictive zoning laws and increasing construction costs, we simply haven’t built enough new housing.

LLMs give us ventriloquism in reverse. The mechanical dummy speaks through your mouth.

Nebraska may change its electoral system at the last second to help Trump win. Told you they’d start coup prep earlier this time.

Tech Jobs Have Dried Up—and Aren’t Coming Back Soon.

How Pediatricians Created the Peanut Allergy Epidemic.

We Deserve a Quieter World.

The PhD Paradox: A Journey into Academia’s Upside-Down World.

Major outlets change standards for hacked emails, protect Trump.

Amazon’s Silent Sacking.

Apple Mobile Processors Are Now Made in America. By TSMC.

The Double Irish Dutch Sandwich: End of a Tax Evasion Strategy.

Larry Ellison’s AI-Powered Surveillance Dystopia Is Already Here.

Millions Have Amnesia About the Worst of Trump’s Presidency. Memory Experts Explain Why.

Miscellany № 103: calculators!

A culture that arguably began in the crucible of progressive spaces has metastasized; today, there is no corner of the political landscape that has not devolved into a Manichaean clown show, all weaponized gossip and vacuous partisanship and recreational demonization of the outgroup.

Ukrainian drone attack triggers huge blasts at Russian ammo depot.

‘Pig-Butchering’ Scams Cost Americans Billions. This Lawyer Is Taking Them On.

Climate change is making home insurance costs more expensive. These maps show prices and weather risks in your state.

At least 63% of workers who filed a complaint eventually lost their job. That number was even higher for workers who filed a disability-related claim, at 67%.

Bless her heart: Gossip phrased with concern provides advantages in female intrasexual competition.

Tupperware, no longer a kitchen staple, files for bankruptcy.

New cosmic distance catalog could unlock the mysteries of universe formation.

Why Europe will not catch up with the US.

There Might Be More Than One Way to Make a Planet. Astronomers have found evidence of a process that supports an alternative, more rapid approach to planetary formation, more top down than bottom up. Please make me one.

Parents Should Ignore Their Children More Often.

One Million Are Now Dead or Injured in the Russia-Ukraine War. High losses on both sides are posing problems on battlefield and accelerating demographic fears.

The Polaris Dawn Spaceflight Was More Than Just a Billionaire Joyride.

Inconsistency is a feature, not a bug.

A Star Appears to Have Come Closer to Earth Than the Voyager Probes.

Techno-energy is reshaping the world.

After 13 months of financial instability, dream opportunity may be rescinded due to poor credit. Late-stage capitalism strikes again!

Exploding pagers belonging to Hezbollah kill at least 8 and injure more than 2,700 in Lebanon.

Harris Is the Safer Economic Choice.

Billionaire Larry Ellison says a vast AI-fueled surveillance system can ensure ‘citizens will be on their best behavior.’ Hell just keeps getting hellier.

Before Trump, Ford survived 2 assassination attempts in 3 weeks: California’s month of terror.

Americans over 60 are the fastest growing group of student debtors. That’s awful.

Even With $1 Trillion a Year the US Military Is Falling Behind, Russia and China are on war footing while the Pentagon struggles to modernize ships, subs and nukes. This is very very bad.

People who exercise have healthier belly fat, new study finds.

How Russia Profits From Ukraine Invasion by Selling Stolen Grain on a Global Black Market.

Companies Like to Pit Internal Teams Against Each Other. Bad Idea.

American boss (who came to Europe for work-life balance) fired me because I wasn’t willing to work for free on weekends.

Inflammation May Be the Root of Our Maladies.

Sports betting is bad for America’s financial health. New data shows it.

Over the last several decades, a quiet revolution has taken place in American fiction: The novels recognized by major literary prizes have largely abandoned the present in favor of the past.

Evidence of “snowball Earth” found in ancient rocks.

Russia has used very long range strike weapons against Ukraine since February 2022, and Putin has constantly talked up that he is already at war with NATO.

Artificial intelligence will affect 60 million US and Mexican jobs within the year.

Layoffs are proof that employees should reconsider priorities in life.

The Kids Who Didn’t Know Their Parents Were Russian Spies. So tragic.

Millions of seniors can’t afford their prescription medications.

An Acerbic Young Writer Takes Aim at the Identity Era.

Intel Solidifies $3.5 Billion Deal to Make Chips for Military.

The Cellular Secret to Resisting the Pressure of the Deep Sea.

Ambient meaning and the algorithms of culture.

A gene-rich mitochondrion with a unique ancestral protein transport system.

For Democrats, JD Vance Is the Gift that Keeps On Giving.

Hollywood’s 10 Percent Problem.

My Eulogy for the Open Web and Old Google. Better days.

Your Company Is Watching You. And Probably Doing It All Wrong.

Europe Has a Painful Choice: War vs. Welfare.

China uses LinkedIn to recruit academics for espionage, Czech intelligence warns. Someone should Czech that out.

The making of a Chinese spy: how Beijing turned dissident who fled to US.

The West has a plan to keep China, Russia out of subsea data pipes.

The Long-Range Weapons Ukraine Wants to Use on Russia, Explained.

Court clears researchers of defamation for identifying manipulated data.

Boeing workers vote overwhelmingly to strike, in defeat for troubled company.

If I could dissect a sauropod….

‘Some pterosaurs would flap, others would soar’—new study confirms flight capability of these giants of the skies.

How did water bears get so hardy? Secrets of tardigrade evolution revealed in new fossil analysis.

CEO of “health care terrorists” faces contempt charges after Senate no-show.

Texas comes for the right to interstate travel.

The Market Alone Can’t Fix the U.S. Housing Crisis.

From Clinton to Trump, how talk about crime has changed since a landmark bill.

The Once-Dominant Tank Is Getting Humbled on the Battlefield

Russia expels six U.K. diplomats accused of spying as Putin warns of ‘war’ with West.

Tech giants fight plan to make them pay more for electric grid upgrades.

US Median Household Income by Characteristics (2023).

Intel Has Only Tough Options After Its Long and Stinging Fall From Grace. Sad to see.

Kamala Harris Broke Donald Trump. In their first face-to-face meeting, the Democratic nominee humiliated the former president.

Increasing Indications Storm Shadow Missiles Will Be Cleared For Use Inside Russia. Nice. About time.

The Bitter 17-Year Saga to Build a Power Line Critical to US Climate Action.

What More Do You People Want from Kamala Harris?

How Trumpism Rots a Small City.

Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich?

The Case for Public Nuclear Power.

The critical window of shadow libraries.

Age gap relationships are not just for ‘creeps’ and ‘cougars’ I briefly dated a man in his late fifties when I was in my late thirties, and I didn’t think there was anything unequal about it. People should have more age gap relationships; it’s good for them as long as they’re both legal.

A quarter of Republicans think Trump should seize power even if he loses.

Germany extends temporary controls to all its land borders.

Kamala Harris Won Debate by a Knockout—but Her Fight Is Far From Over.

Icons of Aviation History: Lockheed Constellation.

Google’s AI Will Help Decide Whether Unemployed Workers Get Benefits. Well that’s some deep evil.

Samsung Electronics plans global job cuts of up to 30% in some divisions.

It is about race. Sometimes the non-PC answer is the right one.

Games industry layoffs not the result of corporate greed and those affected should “drive an Uber”, says ex-Sony president. “Well, you know, that’s life.”

Giant bubbles on the surface of a nearby star preview the fate of our sun.

Fortress Europe keeps cruelly raising its walls against the global south. Europe doing something toward its own survival for once.

Polaris Dawn Astronauts Reach Record High Orbit Above Earth.

Republican Science Denial Has Nasty Real-World Consequences.

Sterilizations Among Women Rose After Roe Was Overturned, Study Finds.

The Complicated Rise of the Right in Germany’s Left-Behind Places.

NASA will proceed with final preps to launch Europa Clipper next month.

How ‘Analog Privilege’ Spares Elites From The Downsides Of Flawed AI Decision-Making Systems.

Polaris Dawn takes to the skies, setting the stage for a daring private spacewalk.

Indian migrants drive surge in northern U.S. illegal border crossings.

Datacenters to emit 3x more carbon dioxide because of generative AI.

Dreich.

China’s Deflationary Spiral Is Now Entering Dangerous New Stage.

Fertility and Labor Supply Responses to Child Allowances: The Introduction of Means-Tested Benefits in France.

Our history is a battle against the microbes: we lost terribly before science, public health, and vaccines allowed us to protect ourselves.

Seeing plants anew. The stunningly complex behaviour of plants has led to a new way of thinking about our world. Many plants are smarter than many people.

Climate Catastrophism Leads to Illiberalism but Doesn’t Solve the Problem.

U.S. Maritime Policy Needs an Overhaul.

A day in the life of the world’s fastest supercomputer.

With fundamental technology change, we don’t so much get our predictions wrong as make predictions about the wrong things.

James C. Scott, the Ambivalent Anarchist. The radical anthropologist offered not only incisive studies of the state but also a vision of what life looked like beyond it.

How did volcanism trigger climate change before the eruptions started?. New dating of a major ancient warming shows warming started before major eruptions.

Make homes affordable again. The unreachable American dream of ownership could be a decisive issue in the presidential contest.

Boeing reaches tentative labor deal with 25% pay hike and commitment to replace 737 planes.

The U.S. needs to pay more attention to electronic warfare.

Archaeological assessment reveals Earth’s early transformation through land use.

No event has traumatized me so much as watching nearly the whole of the professional, media, and academic class be entirely fine with the sudden imposition of totalitarian controls on association, movement, and speech provided they could luxuriate at home – believing there to be a killer virus extant – and hang out on video chats as the workers and peasants kept society running and delivered groceries to their front doors.

Google’s Next Antitrust Trial Could Make Online Ads Less Annoying.

Hopeful signs.

Intuit, the company that laid off 1K+ employees and labeled them as “underperformers” is now hiring a private jet coordinator.

Unrealized gains taxes are a pointless hassle. Mostly agreed.

Generalplan Ost.

The Texas Billionaire Who Has Greenpeace USA on the Verge of Bankruptcy.

Amazon Wants Your Palm and TSA Wants Your Face. What Saying Yes Will Mean. Amazon can’t have my palm, but they can have my finger. The middle one.

China Is Becoming Much Harder for Western Scholars to Study.

Decaying jobs market overtakes inflation as U.S. economy’s biggest threat.

The American Dream Without a House? Believe It. As housing costs soar, younger adults are trying to reimagine prosperity — without the white picket fence.

Ford Patents In-Car System That Eavesdrops So It Can Play You Ads. Hell world.

In Praise of Reference Books.

What Right-Wing Influencers Actually Said in Those Tenet Media Videos. A WIRED analysis shows that right-wing stars like Tim Pool and Benny Johnson focused on topics like Elon Musk and supposed racism toward white people in hundreds of videos allegedly paid for by Russia.

Why journalism doesn’t come back.

JD Vance personifies the joylessness of MAGA. His insult comedy tour is not going well. I really hate that slimy spineless fucking weasel.

The Big Five – 7 September edition.

Carrier Captain In Combat: What Went On During 7 Months Under Fire Around The Red Sea.

Biden Administration Announces Additional Security Assistance for Ukraine.

The New Bioweapons. How Synthetic Biology Could Destabilize the World.

Ukraine keeps crossing Russia’s red lines. Putin keeps blinking.

Surprise and modern war.

The origins of the steam engine.

My job is to watch dreams die. From 2011, still relevant. This was (mostly) Obama’s fault.

Forget Trump’s IVF promises. The GOP’s record shows contempt for fertility care.

Earth just sweltered through the hottest summer in recorded history.

The New Recruitment Challenge: Filtering AI-Crafted Résumés.

‘Silent killer’: Russia boosts grinding Donbas advance with chemical warfare.

Trump Wants to Hide His Attempt to Assassinate Mike Pence from Voters.

Tim Walz’s communal patriotism is a striking contrast to Trump’s individualism. It’s a welcome antithesis to the Republican ticket, whose understanding of patriotism doesn’t have much to do with neighborliness.

The mainstream press is failing America – and people are understandably upset.

We each have a Nazi in us. We need to understand the psychological roots of authoritarianism.

Progressive insurance ditches Texas after rising storm loss costs.

What’s the stupidest/most pointless interview-question you were asked?

Strength training activates cellular waste disposal.

Chinese agent case in New York is a ‘classic’ Beijing spy effort, experts say.

The US right keeps accusing Democrats of ‘communism’. What does that even mean? It means they are idiots.

Why Can’t the U.S. Build Ships? We need to fix this bullship.

Florida’s abortion law almost killed my wife.

After a study found toxic metals in tampons, lawmakers are pressing the FDA to act.

A Nurse Practitioner’s $25,000 in Student-Debt Relief Turned Into a $217,500 Bill From the Government.

Testosterone Clinics Sell Virility. Some Men End Up With Infertility.