This week, it became clear that Seymour Hersh was trolling us when he revealed the identity of the SEAL who shot bin Laden.
- Old Print Articles: Camille Flammarion, French astronomer, approves of trying to contact the dead (1920) + Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, aeronaut, passes away (1917).
- Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: I’m the Uber of cocaine + I’m not what you would call a picky person.
- Some call “bullshit” on Hersh’s controversial report. Others defend (somewhat).
- Ross Andersen meditates on the elusive search for the origins of the universe.
- Tad Friend profiles Marc Andreessen and his Silicon Valley milieu.
- Daniel Mendelsohn writes deeply of our narratives about robots.
- Ted Greenwald offers a sober assessment of Weak AI and Strong AI threats.
- The Economist wonders how much we should fear Strong AI.
- Singapore is attempting to become the first “smart nation.”
- Christopher Mims has seen the future of work and it’s like teleportation.
- No Man’s Sky is a
video gameuniverse being built outside London.
- As Paul Krugman writes, Jeb Bush has surrounded himself with GOP hacks.
- Edward Luce throws more dirt on the “Golden Arches Theory.“
- In San Bernardino, there is a McDonald’s museum.
- Psychologist Philip Zimbardo is still pushing his boys-in-peril theory.
- The U.S. government is thus far an ally of the shift to driverless cars.
- A look at Google driverless cars after 1.7 million miles of road tests.
- The Transportation Cloud will bring plusses and minuses.
- Any woolly mammoth that we de-extinct will be a “woolly mammoth.”
- It’s legal to sell a kidney in Iran. Is it ethical?
- Charles Murray is very concerned about regulations in America.
- The new Space Age will likely require new regulations.
- Peter Diamandis says we live in the most exciting time ever.
- Alex Pappademas reads Mad Max: Fury Road as a deeply feminist work.
- Former NFLer Patrick Venzke details the damage football has done to him.
- Sebastian Junger analyzes the complicated issue of PTSD.
- E.O. Wilson and Sean B. Carroll discuss aggressive conservation.
- Behavioral Economics is still largely shunned in macro arguments.
- Douglas Coupland writes about the modern boredom, which is interesting.
- Elon Musk, as we assumed, is a somewhat eccentric rich guy.
- Habitat 67 was a practical failure in future-forward community living.
- A brief note from 1946 about an overreaction.
- A brief note from 1894 about the hiccoughs.
- A brief note from 1928 about a mummified gift.
- This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.