Yudi

A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0 If the first term of Donald Trump provoked anxiety over the fate of objective knowledge, the second has led to claims we live in a world-historical age of stupid, accelerated by big tech. But might th...

Artificial or market “intelligence” has the capacity to learn at ultra-high speed from existing data, but its range of possible outcomes, while extremely large, is nevertheless enumerable and therefore finite.

Opinion | This Is What Autocrats Dread

"Young voters are often at the heart of successful opposition movements. In Serbia’s 2000 election, President Slobodan Milosevic faced steep resistance from Otpor, a vibrant, student-led movement."

YouTube video by NASA's Ames Research Center New Supercomputer Simulation Sheds Light on Moon’s Origin

A new take on the formation of the moon [via NASA Ames] 🧪🥼🌎💥🌑

"The Moon probably formed ~ 4.5 billion years ago, when a young Earth was hit by a Mars-size protoplanet, causing a lot of material to get knocked off into space."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRlh...

#moon #formation #simulation #NASA

Arundhati Roy: My mother and I were like two nuclear powers Podcast Episode · The Current · 2025-09-16 · 24m

Here’s her interview with Matt Galloway on The Current in case you missed it.

Opinion | The Billionaire Trump Supporter Who Will Soon Own the News

“If all goes as anticipated, this tech billionaire, already one of the richest men in the world and a founder of Oracle, is poised, at 81, to become one of the most powerful media and entertainment moguls America has ever seen.”

Beautiful heartache

Opinion | Totalitarianism Can Be Terrifying. It Can Also Be Thrilling. He Taught Us Why.

“Whatever the scale, totalism offers “fixity and definiteness and absoluteness,” Lifton said — qualities that humans seek, sometimes desperately. In times of dislocation, whether physical or psychic, we are particularly vulnerable to the call of totalism…”

Trump’s killing of 11 alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers sets a dangerous precedent | Kenneth Roth Unless this dangerous precedent is condemned and curtailed, it will enable US authorities to summarily shoot anyone they choose

"Until now, the most visible example of a leader treating a “war on drugs” as a genuine armed conflict has been the former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. Under his direction, Filipino security forces summarily killed thousands of poor young men."

Looking back at the brief history of social media algorithms we can see the damage that's been done to social cohesion and how it helped foster a rise is extremism. Imagine what a sycophantic AI agent, using persuasive language and drawing on a vast psychiatric toolkit, can do to humanity.

The EU is a colossus. So why is it cowering before Trump like a mouse? | Alexander Hurst With its woeful trade deal, Europe prostrated itself before the president. We need a leader who will tell him where to shove it, says Guardian Europe columnist Alexander Hurst

Why the EU folded so quickly in the face of gangsterism is beyond me.

The Triumph of Stupidity | The Tyee Fools pose the biggest threat warned an Italian historian. We’re living the proof.

Stupidity, warned Carlo Cipolla, wields more power than any organized gang or industrial military complex and seems to be a constant force in history.

In other words, the non-stupid should never underestimate the role of stupidity in world events, writes Andrew Nikiforuk for the Weekender.

YouTube video by The Interview Robert Reich: How Bullies Drive Economic Inequality | The Interview

Inequality — be it economic, racial or political — erodes social trust, diminishes belief in democracy and can create openings for demagogues.

Newfoundland, I just boarded the ferry to Port Aux Basque.

So wonderful, missing nature here in the metropole.

Sorry for your loss Ian.

I’m grateful for your playlists, I have a 25hr drive out east on Wednesday.

A.I. Videos Have Never Been Better. Can You Tell What’s Real? In this quiz, you can guess whether these videos were made by A.I.

I got 4/10.
The amount energy it must take to create videos from scratch, must be staggering.

Great photo exhibit at the McCord Museum in Mtl. I was in the city when some of the archival photos were taken.😳

From April 18 to October 26, 2025, explores street photography as it has been practiced in Montreal from the 19th century to the present.

The Dizzying Ascent of Nathan Fielder | The Tyee After flying a plane this year, the Vancouver-born comedian is at the height of his powers. What does it mean?

The closest thing to art on TV.

Switzerland 1987 Lucerne Bunker Sonnenberg Tunnel - Images | Didier Ruef | Photography

The Sonnenberg tunnel in Lucerne during the largest civil defense exercise ever held in the country. From 16 to 21 November 1987, almost 1200 men and women converted a motorway tunnel into perhaps the world's largest bunker structure. (What is happening in photo 007?).

‘Modern Love’: Why Boys and Men Are Floundering, According to Relationship Therapist Terry Real Podcast Episode · The Daily · 2025-05-25 · 37m

I recommend this podcast. It offers insight to the manosphere and toxic masculinity (toxic to one’s self and those around you).

YouTube video by Life360 Inc. I THINK OF YOU (DYING) | Family-Proof Your Family | Life360

A Family tracking app straight out of Black Mirror - the level of fear this video, wrapped in a Disney musical aesthetic, generates is next level.

We had snow at the beginning of May in Mtl. the year I moved here, 1994. It was a shock then. Haven't had to experience it since.

This isn’t a speech from the floor of the American senate, it’s from s2e9 of Andor. In the upside down world we live in now, we get the truth from the Disney corporation.