Author: nick

Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works, by Helen Pearson, Princeton University Press, 350 pages, $29.95 “Nullius in verba” is the official motto of the world’s oldest national academy of sciences, the Royal Society of London. Usually translated as “Take nobody’s word for it,” the slogan represents a commitment to empirical evidence and experimental proof over reliance on authority, dogma, or tradition. In Beyond Belief, the award-winning science journalist Helen Pearson writes an engrossing history of the modern “evidence revolution.” That movement aims to draw on rigorous research to figure out what works in fields ranging from medicine to…

Well, it bears repeating. Again. The Iranians never had a nuke, had no near-term prospect of weaponizing their enriched uranium stockpiles, were not hell-bent on blowing up the world and were not two weeks from anything other than still another wolf-crying episode from the one actual “crazy” leader in the middle east. That would be Bibi Netanyahu. Hands down. But those truths did not stop the Donald from blatant lying and fear-mongering yet again today. And to even go so far as to imply that he has the mullahs by the short hairs. Trump: “Iran, they are not going to…

As President Donald Trump prepares for his upcoming Beijing trip, speculation is swirling again over a possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the sidelines. At their last summit in Hanoi in February 2019, negotiations collapsed after the two sides failed to bridge the gap between Pyongyang’s offer to dismantle nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and Washington’s demand for a broader denuclearization package in exchange for major sanctions relief. Even so, both leaders have reasons to look again, and both have signaled renewed interest. Trump has reiterated his openness to an unconditional talk, while Kim appears receptive on…

“I promised you that we would change the face of the Middle East.” So spoke Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nearly seven weeks after he and President Donald Trump initiated Operation Epic Fury. Amid the noise and chaos, it is easy to lose track of the broader vision behind the war with Iran. This war is the culmination of a comprehensive Israeli effort—backed by the United States—to remake the Middle East following Hamas’ terror attack on October 7, 2023. Proponents argued it would produce a more peaceful and stable region.  They were wrong.  Like past attempts to remake the Middle…

Seven years ago, police in Midlothian, Virginia, sought to identify a bank robber by asking Google to search the records of more than 500 million people who used the company’s “location history” feature. That search identified 19 devices that were in or near the bank around the time of the robbery, which police winnowed down to three people, including Okello Chatrie, the man who was ultimately convicted of the crime. Depending on your perspective, that use of a “geofence” warrant was either an unobjectionable example of smart police work or an outrageous invasion of privacy. On Monday, the Supreme Court…

Hoaxing gone wild The recent adventure of NASA’s Artemis II, which our kept press lauded as an “historic” mission, drummed home just how hoodwinked the American public is. I remember it being “historic” in 1968 when astronauts Borman, Anders, and Lovell accomplished the exact same thing- orbiting the moon, on Apollo 8. CBS News, now being run by Israeli Firster Bari Weiss, claimed that Aretmis II “set a record” for the “farthest distance humans have ever traveled from our planet.” Except that every one of the six Apollo missions that allegedly landed on the moon traveled a slightly longer distance,…

“Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user’s query.” Those are the curious instructions that OpenAI programmers have given to Codex CLI, a command line tool used for AI-generated code. And not just once: the instruction is repeated several times throughout the file. According to Wired, this extremely weird command may have been inserted as a result of of the model previously becoming obsessed with mentioning some of these creatures: Some users claimed the OpenAI’s models occasionally become obsessed with goblins and other creatures…

In the American tradition – legal and cultural – only those who commit violence are culpable, not those who express views that align with its perpetrators. Source link

Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted by the Justice Department on charges related to his apparent ’86 47′ threat. Source link

On April 17th, Congress voted to pass a brief 10-day extension of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This sets the new expiration date for April 30th, 2026. Section 702 was added to FISA in 2008 with a provision that requires Congress to periodically reauthorize it. The measure allows national security agencies like the NSA, FBI and CIA to collect and monitor – without a warrant – any electronic communications sent to and from non-US persons “reasonably believed to be located” outside the US. Notably, Americans who send messages to people abroad may likewise have their data…