“The connection with whether Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or DeepSeek are conscious or not is becoming clear. Just as the account of the evolution of genes as if they were sentient agents (albeit of the Chicago underworld variety) affords them a moral character which they lack, similarly the portrayal of AI bots as conscious entities needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt. Scientifically speaking, all that goes on is that microscopic perturbations yield macroscopic consequences. Their proliferation, or extinction, is an indirect by-product of that dynamic — nothing more. Causality abounds, but teleology, intent or consciousness do not.” [editor’s note: I suspect the only quality unique to humans may be our denial/fear that anything could possibly be like us; AI is just the current scenario in which many people feel the need to find … or perhaps fantasize … differences – TLK](07/04/26)
“Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar on Saturday filed a 12-point proposal to amend the constitution aimed at ousting President Tamás Sulyok and to reduce the influence of the previous administration of Viktor Orbán. One of the key points in the proposal that Magyar announced on social media is the ‘termination of the current president’s term of office.’ Other points include a three-term limit for members of the national parliament, the introduction of a more independent Constitutional Court, and a 70-year age limit for judges to serve, as well as the establishment of a National Asset Recovery and Asset Protection Office, to recover funds misappropriated during Orban’s rule. The current president of the court, Péter Polt, is 70, so the change would effectively end his term.” (07/05/26)
“In the 1830s, a French aristocrat named Alexis de Tocqueville traveled through the United States and returned home with Democracy in America, a penetrating analysis of a society marked by energetic voluntary associations and a restless spirit of enterprise. Tocqueville admired much of what he saw, but his verdict was not uncomplicated. Near the end of the book, he wrote, ‘I feel full of fears and full of hopes.’ Two centuries later, another European visitor is offering a portrait of America. Freddy (@FreddyLA7), a German soccer fan road-tripping across the country for the 2026 World Cup, has become an enthusiastic chronicler of American life. Where Tocqueville wrote volumes about institutions, Freddy posts photographs and exclamations about Buc-ee’s, Waffle House, and enormous houses. He’s also documenting the kindness of strangers.” (07/03/26)
“The FBI says it has [stolen] more than 600 drones near FIFA World Cup sites after authorities determined the devices violated restricted airspace since the tournament began on June 11. The total number of [stolen] drones nationwide has doubled in less than two weeks. The FBI, along with accredited operators from local and state law enforcement around the country, is monitoring drone activity near World Cup competitions and related fan fest events.” (07/04/26)
“Congress was in Philadelphia, and Lafayette landed in South Carolina—he was an idealist, not a geographer. But with a letter of recommendation from Ben Franklin in his hand, he made his way up to Philadelphia, where Congress, grateful for the services of an enthusiastic young aristocrat who had the good taste to bring along his own money, commissioned the 19-year-old as a major general. … Lafayette was wounded at Brandywine, endured the hardships of Valley Forge, and was one of the key players when the tide was turned at Yorktown. Lafayette also provided a critical channel between the upstart Americans and the French monarchy, whose financial and naval power were simply indispensable to the project of American independence. No Lafayette, no United States of America. Spit hot contempt at foreign aid all you like: No foreign aid from France, no United States of America.” (07/03/26)
“U.S. power grid operator PJM, the nation’s largest covering much of the East Coast and Midwest, on Friday ordered customers in emergency electricity-reduction programs to curb their use, as it battled generator outages, overloaded transmission lines and surging air-conditioning demand during a prolonged heat wave. In an emergency alert, activated in line with utilities’ conservation programs, PJM said the order applied to industrial and residential electricity users with contracts that pay them in return for mandatory consumption cuts during emergencies. … The power grid operator serves 67 million people in the Mid-Atlantic, South and Washington, D.C., areas. Even before this week’s heat wave, it had been straining to overhaul a system pushed to the brink by surging energy demand from data centers and electric vehicles.” (06/03/26)
“This weekend, to celebrate Independence Day — our outdoor Thanksgiving — families across the country will gather around picnic tables piled with potato salad and sweet corn and, for my family, Midwestern broccoli crunch salad slick with Miracle Whip. But we Americans rarely make room for observances that turn our attention back to the reason we are celebrating. For years, my own family and many others have filled that vacuum by reading the Declaration of Independence aloud, passing a copy with each person reading a sentence before handing it to the next, parents helping younger readers stumble through words like ‘unalienable.’ … On this semiquincentennial, I urge people to do more than read and hear it. We should talk about what it means.” (07/03/26)
