In the Tank, episode 535
Source: Heartland Institute
“Innovation vs. Dystopia.” (05/09/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/innovation-vs-dystopia-in-the-tank-podcast-535/
Nick Bostrom Has a Plan for Humanity’s “Big Retirement”
Source: Wired
by Steven Levy
“Philosopher Nick Bostrom recently posted a paper, where he postulated that a small chance of AI annihilating all humans might be worth the risk, because advanced AI might relieve humanity of ‘its universal death sentence.’ That upbeat gamble is quite a leap from his previous dark musings on AI, which made him a doomer godfather. … His more recent book, Deep Utopia, reflects a shift in his focus. Bostrom, who leads Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, dwells on the ‘solved world’ that comes if we get AI right.” (05/08/26)
Non-profit group has twisted the meaning of “genocide” (and hijacked a Zionist hero’s name) to suit its own woke purposes
Source: New York Post
by Bethany Mandel
“Few figures loom larger in the moral and legal history of the 20th century than Raphael Lemkin, the Polish Jewish jurist who coined the word ‘genocide’ after losing nearly his entire family in the Holocaust. Lemkin witnessed the epitome of evil, and then gave the world the language to describe it. The word ‘genocide’ exists because he understood that what had been done to the Jewish people was so unprecedented that existing legal vocabulary could not define it properly. He spent the rest of his life ensuring that the world would never again lack the words — or the legal framework — to confront such crimes. That is precisely why what is happening now is so grotesque. The family of Raphael Lemkin is taking legal action against the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that has hijacked his name and repurposed it for its own warped woke agenda.” (05/10/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/10/opinion/group-hijacked-a-zionist-heros-name-to-suit-its-woke-purposes/
Virginia Democrats to appeal ruling against redistricting to SCOTUS
Source: NBC 4 Washington
“After the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, Democratic lawmakers in the commonwealth notified the court they intend to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Friday’s ruling by the state supreme court delivered another major setback to the party’s nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year’s midterm elections. Democrats, led by House Speaker Don Scott and Attorney General Jay Jones, filed a motion late Friday afternoon asking the state supreme court to pause its ruling from taking effect while they appeal for an emergency hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Virginia Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize mid-decade redistricting.” (05/08/26)
An American Tries Undertourism
The Dispatch
by Nic Rowan
“When thinking about travel, I have always found [Nancy] Mitford’s distinction between the tourist and the visitor useful. ‘The tourist tours, he seldom spends a week in the same place,’ she writes. ‘The visitor stops in a town and leads the life of its inhabitants.’ In Mitford’s case, ‘visiting’ meant parking in Venice for a season and living simply in a small apartment. Under these conditions, she was able to focus on her writing and produce those wonderfully catty French court histories that remain among the most entertaining books of the genre. To say that she was leading the life of the city’s inhabitants is perhaps a bit precious — but she certainly seems to have gotten more out of Venice than the tourists gawking at Saint Mark’s Basilica or crowding into the garishly painted gondolas. I try to stay on the visitor side of Mitford’s distinction whenever I go somewhere new.” (05/08/26)
Italy: Venice Biennale opens without a jury amid strife over Russian and Israeli participation
Source: Associated Press
“Geopolitical tensions spilled over into the Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition, which opens its most chaotic and contested edition in memory Saturday with no Golden Lions after the jury quit in protest of Israel’s and Russia’s participation and loud protests outside their pavilions. … Ahead of the opening, protesters objecting to Israel’s participation clashed with police on Friday. Earlier in the week, feminist groups from Ukraine and Russia converged on the Russian Pavilion and Palestinians remembered artists killed in Gaza.” (05/09/26)
Bulwark Takes, 05/08/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Courts Keep Rejecting Trump’s Tariffs.” (05/08/26)
Britain Is Pricing Its Factories into Oblivion
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Ted Newson
“At its peak, Britain was known as the workshop of the world. Sheffield produced high-quality steel, Manchester still had a strong textiles sector and the West Midlands was world-renowned for its cars. Glasgow, Sunderland and Newcastle were shipbuilding hubs, Stoke-on-Trent produced ceramics. … In the pursuit of lowering carbon emissions, Britain has abandoned its manufacturing sector. As we have artificially inflated energy prices through policy costs and made employing people harder, our industries have shifted to countries with more business-friendly environments. While rising comparative wage rates naturally encourage industry to shift overseas, the British government has further pushed industry away through deliberate choices. This has created job losses and regional decline as former manufacturing towns lose historic businesses.” (05/08/26)
https://fee.org/articles/britain-is-pricing-its-factories-into-oblivion/
Guatemala’s step toward good governance
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Just over halfway into the term of Guatemala’s reformist leader, the ‘democratic spring’ that he and his Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement) sought to nurture is sending up fresh shoots of hope for lawful governance. President Bernardo Arévalo has appointed a new attorney general, marking what he calls ‘a new chapter’ for the small Central American nation. The outgoing attorney general, María Consuelo Porras, had tried to derail Mr. Arévalo’s 2024 inauguration, and has since obstructed multiple efforts to promote judicial impartiality and transparency. To many Guatemalans, Ms. Porras’ tenure symbolized entrenched political impunity and corruption that used the power of the state to settle scores with perceived enemies and make allowances for allies. In 2022, the United States cited her for repeatedly undermining anti-corruption efforts to ‘gain undue political favor.'” (05/08/26)
Hantavirus-hit passengers begin to disembark cruise ship in Tenerife
Source: CNN
“Passengers have begun to disembark the cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak, Spain’s ministry of health said, in a carefully managed repatriation operation in Tenerife involving multiple nations. Since the vessel departed Argentina last month, the deaths of three people have been linked to hantavirus — a rare disease typically caused by exposure to infected rats’ urine or feces. It remains a low risk to the general public, according to the World Health Organization. The boat’s arrival had caused tensions in the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain, with the territory’s leader Fernando Clavijo saying earlier in the week that he was opposed to the ship docking.” (05/10/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/10/health/live-news/hantavirus-cruise-outbreak