WTF-Beta

Good idea. Too bad the technology (or the budget) is not there to make the balls crystal and seamless.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/05/the-office-of-management-and-budget-tries-again-to-cripple-us-science/

Peer review now optional, political staff would screen grants for forbidden topics.

Critics say that's a recipe for disaster for US scientific research. But hey, that sounds a lot like what Communist China has been doing and very few accuses China for being weak at scientific research lately.

Erin Brockovich gets involved:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/erin-brockovich-says-people-angry-165957745.html

For now she's not taking side (at least not overtly). She's just advocating for more transparency and crowd-sourcing information about plans for data centers.

Oh ye of little faith, it's 5-D chess.

The research paper: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2425073122

I was having a pleasant Sunday until you told me Latin is dead. Now I'm saddened by Latin's passing. Oh, Latin, I hardly knew ye!

Not that hard to find out. Just ask the children of professional chefs. The answers are ultimately of little consequence to the general public.

Are you accusing the Republicans of being artificial or intelligent?

Sorry to hear. OperaTenor is a good man.

It's easier to act "independent minded" when one's livelihood is not on the line. This scholarship winner may remain independent minded forever, but he may or may not act independent minded depending on what his fortune depends on in the future. We just won't know until he needs to earn a living or build a career. Right now I see him merely as an "idealistic youth." Waiting to see his true character when he needs to earn a living or build a career. I hesitate to wish that he will continue to act independent minded for the rest of his life, but then I worry that that may be cruel to him.

Wait 'til he draws a pay check from a conglomerate owned news organization.

Not perfect, but the difficulty level is off the charts:

FIFA's World Cup ticket practices under investigation

https://www.npr.org/2026/05/28/nx-s1-5836514/2026-world-cup-fifa-ticket-prices

A front row seat in the lower bowl for the final costs more than $30,000.

Anyone going to see a World Cup match in person this year?

But no, they cannot make a movie just about tuning pianos, they have to make the tuner crack safes.

Trailer:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/26/japan-pm-sanae-takaichi-pledged-sales-tax-cut-systems-arent-designed

Short version:

• New Prime Minister promises to suspend sales tax
• Blames delay on computer systems' inability to calculate 0% sales tax -- company maintaining said system says will need a year of work to implement 0% sales tax
• may come down to doing 1% sales tax for food first -- even this will take half a year

I wonder if they use COBOL.

Bah ... it doesn't seem to have the full 88 keys and it's missing a pedal.

The Booing Will Continue Until Commencement Speeches Improve

https://gizmodo.com/the-booing-will-continue-until-commencement-speeches-improve-2000762929

As someone who built a large fortune over the last few decades, I couldn’t help but notice artificial intelligence is something young people now perceive as a source of adversity. Well, roomful of 22-year-olds, let me tell you something about adversity: I myself faced a great deal of adversity back when I was building my large fortune, and when I encountered adversity, I simply turned that adversity into opportunity, which I believe to be your duty vis-a-vis artificial intelligence, which by the way is something you are powerless to halt in any way, and which I, what with my large fortune, feel excited about. Good luck to you, class of 2026!

The author's caricature of commencement speeches these days. Quite apt, IMO.

Any commencement speeches you've heard lately that don't go that way?

Enough for a mini recital on your own.

@Mik said:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/animals/humans-didn-t-evolve-from-monkeys-the-real-evolution-truth/vi-AA1WdB4D

I watched the video and this is my takeaway: "what a vacuous TEDTalk."

Good thing it's only 5 minutes and I watched half of it at 1.5x speed, so I haven't sunk in too much of my time.

AI generated feature length (90 minutes) movie that came out of China:

I can still tell it's AI-generated, but as I watched it I also had many moments of "I can't believe this is AI-generated!"