The incredible self-annihilating creationist argument » « Almost October!

Infinite Thread XXXXI

Behold, the Ugly Palace (il Palazzaccio, aka The Palace of Justice in Rome).

It’s nice to know we aren’t the only country that throws away money on hideous, grandiose buildings with terrible cost overruns and rumors of corruption. Of course, if it were built here, it would be excessively gilded, and would be a deathtrap.

Talk among yourselves about construction projects. Or whatever.

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  2. says

    Also, thanks for the ‘deathrap’ link. The article tells us the architect ran away from that disaster that was the ‘tRUMP ballsroom’ design because it won’t allow people to safely exit when it catches fire. The kitchen could easily conduct fire into the main hall. There were only seven stalls in the women’s bathroom for hundreds of people in that atrocity. WTF!

  3. birgerjohansson says

    The palace/ballroom needs to be built in neoclassical style with a marble facade, accompanied by a giant gilded statue of the Great Leader mounted on a turning support that constantly keeps the face towards the sun.
    .
    A great monumental avenue needs to be built on the approach to the site, with Ceaucescu’s palace in Bucuresti as template. This may require tearing down many culturally important buildings, but hey, it worked for Romania.
    These changes will make Trumpgrad (formerly Washington) a proper world city, on a par with Moscow and Pyonyang.

  4. Reginald Selkirk says

    A Buried Oklahoma Crater Was Dated to the Wrong Era—and It Actually Lines Up With a Mass Extinction

    In 1991, an oil company discovered a giant crater buried under Ames, Oklahoma. Subsequent investigations led researchers to propose the meteor responsible for the structure belonged to the many meteors that struck North America some 470 million years ago. New dating, however, challenges this account—while proposing an entirely different context for this enigmatic crater.

    According to a recently published study in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, researchers dated zircon crystals from the site and found that the Ames crater likely formed about 370 million years ago, during the Late Devonian. That represents a whopping 100-million-year gap with the Ordovician meteor event, when Earth saw a large increase in meteor events roughly 467 million years ago. Importantly, this now temporally places the Ames crater within another significant period in geological history: the Frasnian–Famennian mass extinction, which drastically reshaped Earth’s marine ecosystems…

  6. Reginald Selkirk says

    Gene-edited bananas that don’t go brown could hit UK supermarkets

    … Gilad Gershon, the chief executive of Tropic, said the flesh of the new banana resisted browning for an extra day or two – and longer if chilled. ..

    Tropic developed the bananas by using a gene-editing technology called Crispr-Cas9 to alter all three copies of a single gene within the fruit. As a result, they were able to reduce the production of polyphenol oxidase, an enzyme that causes browning. A similar approach has been effective in reducing browning in other produce, including mushrooms…

    A day or two? Sounds pretty hype-licious.

    See also: Arctic apples

  8. outis says

    Ah cam ahn, you find that ugly? Half of Italy is like that and those are actually the nicer-looking buildings! If you want another ugly/oppressive justice shack look at this
    (it’s in Belgium tho, but the style is there):
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Justice,_Brussels
    A more modern equivalent:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Courthouse
    the idea was to have something impossibly huge and intimidating, with lots of crenellations (19th century) or blocky and Mordor-like (20th).
    And frankly their build quality and yes even aesthetics are head and shoulders above much of the rubbish being built today, yes sir.

  9. Alverant says

    Good news. Lost 15lbs since last weighed yesterday
    Bad news. Had to get weighed as SOP at the doctor because it looks like I have a UTI.

  11. says

    Italy’s done much nicer stuff than that, but there’s also worse things you could see all over Europe. My biggest complaint about this building is that statue thing on top — a bit too much Brandenburg Gate vibe for my taste; and it’s too small to be appreciated from ground level at such a height. It needs to be either on a shorter building (1-2 stories?), or on a plinth standing in a courtyard or major traffic intersection.

  12. Reginald Selkirk says

    When they say election fraud is real, believe them. And investigate them.

    MAGA candidate in small Calif. town convicted on 9 counts of election fraud

    Gaea Powell echoed a core idea from the Make America Great Again movement when she ran for San Luis Obispo County clerk-recorder earlier this year, arguing for new voter ID rules to improve “election integrity” in the Central California county.

    But it turns out this conservative candidate wasn’t following election laws herself.

    A county jury found Powell guilty on nine counts of election fraud last week, including lying about her residence, unlawfully registering to vote and fraudulently voting. The charges stem from 2022 and 2024 elections, when Powell ran for mayor of Arroyo Grande, a small town near Pismo Beach…

  13. says

    Republicans are slow to learn a simple lesson: They can’t get the better of Jack Smith

    “Three times, Republicans have summoned the former special counsel to Capitol Hill. Each time, they have left humiliated.”

    Related video at the link.

    Almost immediately after Election Day 2024, special counsel Jack Smith and his team grudgingly wrapped up their work — not because they wanted to or because they lacked compelling evidence, but because of Justice Department guidelines against prosecuting a sitting president, and Donald Trump had just won.

    Left without options, Smith resigned, and his criminal indictments against the president effectively evaporated.

    For congressional Republicans, however, that was merely the start of a second phase. Indeed, for GOP lawmakers who saw the former special counsel as part of some conspiratorial plot, his transition to private life offered an opportunity to start demanding answers from Smith.

    It’s amazing how badly this has turned out for the party.

    Late last year, for example, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan scheduled a closed-door hearing with the prosecutor, and Smith offered several hours’ worth of answers. (Smith wanted the Q&A to be public, but the Ohio Republican refused.) After the hearing wrapped up, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, joked that Jordan “made an excellent decision in not allowing Jack Smith to testify publicly, because had he done so, it would have been absolutely devastating to the president and all the president’s men involved in the insurrectionary activities of Jan. 6.”

    A month later, Jordan and House Republicans thought they should give this a second try, this time for all the world to see. This, too, was a disaster for the GOP.

    In fact, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California told MS NOW after the televised hearing, “I’m thrilled and frankly stunned House Republicans called Jack Smith to testify.”

    The lesson for the GOP seemed rather obvious: Trying to get the better of the former special counsel during a congressional hearing is a very bad idea.

    Nevertheless, eight weeks ago, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee decided they also wanted to give this a try, though they, like their brethren in the lower chamber, really should’ve known better.

    Over the course of more than four hours, Smith reminded the public about Trump’s many alleged felonies, once again explained why the GOP’s “Arctic Frost” whining doesn’t make any sense, and in one highly memorable instance, watched Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri try to play a foolish gotcha game with the former special counsel, only to seemingly confuse a women’s college basketball team with an NBA team in one of the most embarrassing displays I’ve ever seen on Capitol Hill. [social media post and video]

    In case this isn’t obvious, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republican members had months to prepare for this hearing. This was not a rushed process: They had plenty of time to organize their thoughts, prepare sensible questions, review the relevant facts and plan for a meaningful and illuminating hearing.

    But they failed. Schmitt flubbing the difference between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Atlanta Hawks stood out as uniquely humiliating, but he was just one of several GOP members who clearly failed to do their homework ahead of the high-profile hearing they demanded.

    What we’re left with is a pattern of failure: Three times, Republicans have summoned Smith to Capitol Hill. Three times, they had time to prepare for their showdowns with their perceived bête noire. And three times, the hearings ended with GOP members looking worse and the former special counsel looking better.

    If Democrats are lucky, Republicans will bring Smith back for a fourth hearing […]

  14. birgerjohansson says

    THIS is how you do it!
    .
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham 
    is basically doing a U-turn, away from the cautious approach of earlier Labour leaders.
    .
    “Burnham’s Conference Speech Was a Belter – Had Almost Everything”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=-1eFZMrAb18
    .
    “Andy Burnham expected to say he will push ahead with electoral reform plans” .https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/29/andy-burnham-push-ahead-electoral-reform-plans

    If Britain can do it after deposing a hated and corrupt administration, so can USA. Note they also had to get rid of their conservative-lite previous labour leader to get here. The most important part is the electoral reform, away from the awful and antiquated ‘first past the post’ system (which also is practised in most US states).

  15. says

    For the convenience of readers, here are some links back to the previous set of comments on The Infinite Thread.

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/06/28/infinite-thread-xxxx/comment-page-7/#comment-2312917
    MS Now: FBI agents probing threats against Stephen Miller’s wife demoted

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/06/28/infinite-thread-xxxx/comment-page-7/#comment-2312915
    “[Utah Repulican Senator] Mike Lee Writing Fantasy Fiction About Trump Taking Xi To Panda Express”

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/06/28/infinite-thread-xxxx/comment-page-7/#comment-2312914
    “September 27, 1922, in labor history! [Child Labor laws … still a current issue.]”

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/06/28/infinite-thread-xxxx/comment-page-7/#comment-2312912
    The Trump administration announced that it had kicked about 750,000 people off Affordable Care Act plans. [Using AI to speed up the process of stripping eligibility from people.]

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/06/28/infinite-thread-xxxx/comment-page-7/#comment-2312884
    Konstantin Ryabitsev (Linux Foundation sysadmin) – Creepy crawlies [AI crawlers]

  16. Snarki, child of Loki says

    Every case of “voter fraud” that I’ve seen reported has been GOPers. Why? Because it takes a combination of (a) massive stupidity, (b) “getting even” with the other side [see (a)], and (c) a deep, abiding feeling of privilege.

    SO, GOPers want to crack down on “voter fraud”? OKAY!

    On conviction of a first offense: TEN YEAR removal of voting privilege (which is really mild: no jail, no fine, less work). On conviction for a second offense: PUBLIC CRUCIFIXION.

  17. says

    Judge blocks FEMA from connecting counterterrorism funds and election restrictions

    “It’s amazing just how many levers of government the White House has tried to pull in pursuit of a problem that does not exist in any meaningful way.”

    A few months ago, the Federal Emergency Management Agency approached state and local officials with a proposed deal of sorts: If they agreed to use a federal citizenship database, to abandon certain types of voting equipment and to impose other election restrictions in line with Donald Trump’s wishes, they would receive the counterterrorism grants to which they were entitled.

    But, FEMA added, if state and local officials balked at the proposed election changes, the administration would withhold 20% of the anti-terrorism funding.

    If you’re thinking that the pitch doesn’t seem legal, you have something in common with U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali. The Washington Post reported:

    A federal judge on Monday blocked the Federal Emergency Management Agency from withholding anti-terrorism funds from local governments that don’t change how they run elections.

    It marked the latest blow to the Trump administration’s attempts to rewrite election rules.

    The lawsuit was brought by a group of local governments in Tennessee, Texas and Ohio.

    Abbie Kamin, the county attorney for Harris County, Texas, one of the local governments that filed the lawsuit, said in a statement, “Today’s win is the result of cities and counties standing together against blatant federal overreach that jeopardized public safety.”

    Time will tell whether the Trump administration bothers to appeal. But in the meantime, it’s hard not to notice just how many levers of government the White House has tried to pull in pursuit of a problem that does not exist in any meaningful way. [! True.]

    At last count, Trump and his team have tried to combat imaginary election fraud by using FEMA, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Service and even the Social Security Administration.

    These efforts haven’t worked — none of these departments or agencies has advanced the president’s conspiracy theories or successfully imposed new voting restrictions — but the crusade is ongoing.

    In the meantime, the administration could be strengthening agencies such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — an agency the Trump White House helped create in his first term to help strengthen election systems — but the president and his operation have instead taken steps to gut CISA over the past year.

  18. says

    Iran news, as summarized by Steve Benen:

    * As the war with Iran prepares to begin its seventh month: “President Trump said on Saturday that he turned down Iran’s latest cease-fire proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart talks on the country’s nuclear program in exchange for U.S. concessions.” [Summarized from a New York Times report.]

    * On a related note, I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve heard comments like these: “The U.S. is expected to start another round of peace talks with Iran this week, President Donald Trump said Sunday, just one day after nixing an Iranian proposal aimed at ending the months-long conflict.” [Summarized from an MS NOW report.]

  19. says

    New York Times:

    The Trump administration will move on Monday to sharply scale back fuel-efficiency rules for new cars and light trucks, gutting one of the government’s most significant efforts to reduce gasoline consumption and speed the country’s shift to electric vehicles.

  20. says

    Roll Call:

    A pair of Democratic lawmakers is calling for hearings after the Navy disclosed that there were eight suicide attempts during the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group’s record-long time at sea.

    “That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms, and billionaires, but cannot take care of our service members, is completely unacceptable,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Friday. “The American people need hearings, accountability and a clear plan to protect our service members and prioritize American families.”

    Gillibrand was joined in her call for hearings by Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., who represents the area that includes Naval Station Great Lakes where Navy recruits receive basic training.

    […] The aircraft carrier Lincoln spent a record-breaking 286 days at sea without a port visit after being deployed to waters off Venezuela to support operations there before it was redirected to the Middle East to support the war against Iran.

    In August, military news outlets Military Times and Stars and Stripes reported on concerns from family members of those on the carrier that the grueling deployment was causing mental health crises for the sailors, including at least two who tried to jump overboard. The ship reportedly faced food and water shortages and disrupted communications with family, among other hardships. […]

    Link

    More details at the link.

  21. says

    The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the Trump administration to continue deporting people to countries where they have no ties and where they may face violence without even guaranteeing them a chance to contest the removal.

    Over the dissent of the three liberal justices, the Court stayed a lower court decision […]

    The order was unsigned, and also added the case to the Court’s docket, fasttracking it to be argued in December. [!] It came at the administration’s behest, and very quickly — just four days after Solicitor General John Sauer asked the court to pause the lower court order.

    […] The Justice Department claims that it’s already sent over 25,000 people to countries including Honduras, Equatorial Guinea and Liberia.

    […] Earlier this month, the First Circuit Court of Appeals mostly upheld Murphy’s [District Judge Brian Murphy’s] final order, that immigrants must be given a chance to challenge their deportations on the grounds of fear of persecution or torture. The Supreme Court has now stayed that order, letting the Trump administration continue the practice at least until the case is decided on the merits.

    “The record shows that class members removed without meaningful notice or an opportunity to present country-specific protection claims have faced prolonged and arbitrary detention, beatings and sexual assault, disappearance, and chain refoulement to countries from which the United States had already granted them protection,” wrote the lawyers for four immigrants under removal orders in their request for the Supreme Court to deny the stay. “These harms cannot be undone.” [Serious]

    If the Supreme Court had denied the stay, it wouldn’t even have ended the third-country deportations; it just would have afforded these immigrants the slightest measure of due process. Even that, it seems, was too much.

    Link

  22. says

    ‘A Massive Power Grab’: White House Proposal Threatens Funding That Helps Disabled Americans Vote

    This story was originally published by ProPublica.

    Without Amy Miller, some elderly and disabled people wouldn’t be able to vote.

    […] Last month, she helped a veteran with a traumatic brain injury fill out change-of-address paperwork so he could vote in the upcoming midterm elections. “He 100% knew who he wanted to vote for,” Miller said, but he struggled to write with a pen.

    Congress funds her organization’s efforts to ensure that even people who might not have access to the internet or transportation have the opportunity to participate in elections.

    Now a White House proposal threatens that work.

    The White House Office of Management and Budget wants to change spending rules to prohibit anyone from using federal grant money for voter registration drives or what it vaguely calls “related activities.” The office is headed by Russell Vought, who has long criticized the use of taxpayer money for voter registration efforts and who more recently used his position to cancel, freeze or redirect vast amounts of federal funding in defiance of Congress’ orders. [Russell Vought is a villain.]

    […] The proposal is part of the Trump administration’s broader assault on federal efforts to expand access to voting, especially among groups that have historically faced discrimination and disenfranchisement.

    President Donald Trump has championed the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require people to provide documents proving their citizenship when registering to vote, and that may require everyone to deliver that proof in person, which would effectively end voter registration drives.

    [I snipped other examples.]

    […] Neither Vought nor his office responded to ProPublica’s questions about the proposed change. But in a letter sent to state officials in 2022, he condemned Biden’s executive order as a “power grab” that would “increase voter registration and turnout, especially among Democratic Party supporters.”

    Vought’s proposed change, which wouldn’t go into effect until after the 2026 midterms, could have ramifications for the next presidential election well beyond voting accessibility.

    Nonprofits that receive government funds to help people sign up for Medicaid benefits, food stamps or other programs subject to the National Voter Registration Act are required to provide registration forms and help people fill them out. Like Disability Rights Nebraska, these groups would be caught between contradictory federal directives if the proposed ban is finalized.

    […] The Help America Vote Act, signed by Bush [in 2002], created grants to assist people with disabilities in registering to vote, casting their ballots and accessing polling places. That funding continues to this day. In recent years, Congress has budgeted $10 million a year, which is spread among 57 nonprofit groups that together cover every state as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Native American communities and U.S. territories.

    […] During the 2024 election, 3.6% of registered voters with disabilities reported difficulties with registering, compared to 1.4% of registered voters without disabilities […]

  24. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/ready-to-vote-tabs-tues-sept-29-2026

    Oh hey, just checking. Y’all like to vote? OK, well this is a good time to double-check and make sure everything is cool with your registration and your voting plans, and then if there’s anybody you know who needs a nudge, this is the time. Check your state’s regulations, find out when deadlines are, help anybody who might be confused because of redistricting, whatever. It’s getting close to The Time!

    OK, some stories, but not many, because we gotta go to a thing where we are helping voters. […]

    Ummmm, speaking of voting, would you look at these Florida polls? [Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire]

    Sounds like shit has gone hilariously bad with the DOJ’s “investigate the investigators” conspiracy theory against Dear Leader probe down in Florida, the one that’s being overseen by braindead Trump judge Aileen Cannon. You know, where they’re going to figure out who did the Russia Hoax and the Documents Hoax to Donald Trump! It’s Daily Mail but apparently seven or more people just suddenly got up and quit that office yesterday. Imagine we’ll be hearing more on this one very soon. [Daily Mail] [social media post]

    Senator Roger Marshall (R-Asshole Kansas Doctor) is VERY MAD GRR about an ad his opponent Adam Hamilton is running about the way he reportedly would treat his patients who dared to go into debt. VERY MAD GRR! Cease and desist! Cease and desist! That’s a great way to make sure nobody else watches it. [Kansas Reflector / watch the ad here]

    Cannot stop laughing. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders made a campaign ad about “welfare to work” or some shit like that, and MAGA is looosing it, because the star of the ad was a white guy, as opposed to the usual Black woman they’d like to see when they talk about welfare, because of how they’re racists who hate women. This is the ultimate betrayal, for lazy white MAGA loser racist men. [JoeMyGod]

    Sure, that story about the Massachusetts lesbian bar mask debacle is very very Portlandia, but if you want something even more ridiculous to make fun of, here is Megan McArdle explaining why the Massachusetts lesbian bar mask debacle means that the “Great Awokening” is over. She begins: “For years, the first thing I did upon awakening was check Twitter to see if I had been canceled. After a quick name search to ensure that there was only the usual amount of frothing denunciation, I could get on with my day.” OK, lunatic. [Washington Post gift link]

    Speaking of lunatics:

    Trump said “Income.” [social media post and video]

    He also denies that he offered to sell weapons to Xi Jinping, which leads us to believe in our original theory, namely that he was just babbling and trying to look cool in front of the big dictator man and has no goddamned idea what’s coming out of his mouth at any given time. [The Hill]

    Still speaking of Trump, y’all hear the one about how he wanted to executive decree that all ballots must be sent by certified mail? [ProPublica]

    We may have posted this video in tabs before, but that’s fine, you’re getting it again. We personally did not like Chappell Roan all that much when she first hit the scene, but then this song came out where she somehow flawlessly channeled The Sundays and the Cocteau Twins both simultaneously during the latter half, and we were like OK fine. [Chappell Roan video]

  25. Reginald Selkirk says

    @19 “sharply scale back fuel-efficiency rules”

    At a time when gasoline and diesel prices are very high.

  26. Reginald Selkirk says

    @13

    But they failed. Schmitt flubbing the difference between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Atlanta Hawks stood out as uniquely humiliating, but he was just one of several GOP members who clearly failed to do their homework ahead of the high-profile hearing they demanded.

    Hawks? Hawkeyes? Schmitt in probing Smith mistakes basketball mascots

    Schmitt accused Smith of perjuring himself during a Senate hearing after repeatedly prodding him about whether he’d attended an NBA game in Atlanta on the evening of Feb. 3, 2024. The hometown Hawks were playing the Golden State Warriors.

    Schmitt appeared to be trying to set Smith in Atlanta at the time Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was facing scrutiny for her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special state prosecutor she hired for the county’s election-interference case against Trump.

    “So your testimony today is that you did not go to a Hawks game on Feb. 3, 2024. Is that correct?” Schmitt asks sharply. “What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warriors-Hawks game on Feb. 2, 2024?”

    Smith said he didn’t think he had visited Atlanta as special prosecutor, and was even more certain he hadn’t attended an Atlanta Hawks game.

    He did, however, recall attending a University of Iowa women’s game at the University of Maryland on Feb. 3, 2024, recalling the game as one where then-Iowa star Caitlin Clark was playing.

    “Could it then be that the University of Iowa was the Hawkeyes?” Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota interjected. “Perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully.”

    Rube

  29. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump’s New America.gov Chatbot Seems to Drop Acid When You Tell It to Play Minecraft

    …
    That might be your instinctive reaction to what happens when you tell the official chatbot of the United States of America to “play minecraft.” To say it “glitches out” would be an understatement. It seems to fully enter “bad trip” mode.

    While seemingly incoherent and hallucinatory, the text is a riff on the end poem for Minecraft, originally written by the Irish poet Julian Gough and triggered when you reach the closest thing to an “ending” in Minecraft, which isn’t really a linear game. Where the America.gov output says “I see the constituent you mean,” the original poem said “I see the player you mean.” And the riffing just continues like that, with the references and imagery changed so that instead of the poem seeming to narrate the game’s inner voice reacting to a player, it narrates something sort of like the federal government’s inner voice reacting to a “constituent.” …

  30. Reginald Selkirk says

    Projection

    Trump trade adviser says Canada will ‘pay even more dearly’ if ‘you interfere’ in U.S. midterms

    One of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade advisers is threatening repercussions for Canada if it “interferes” in the upcoming midterm elections — though it’s not clear what he anticipates the country would do to impact the vote.

    Peter Navarro, who has lashed out at Canada in the past, made these latest remarks during a talk at an economic conference in Washington on Tuesday.

    Navarro was speaking generally about the Trump administration’s trade policy when the conversation turned to the ongoing dispute with Canada. He blasted Canadians on “K Street” — an area in Washington known as a hub for lobbyists — telling them to “get the hell out of our country.”

    “The problem you have is you lobby this country and you’ve been successful in the past and you think you can keep doing that,” Navarro said of Canada’s approach.

    “Memo to Canada: You cannot do that. That game is up and if you interfere in our elections in Maine or Michigan you will pay even more dearly.” …

  32. StevoR says

    New Greens party leaders in Australia -where we can vote for the best ideal candidates and NOT end up with the very worst winning instead because of preferential voting here :

    David Shoebridge has been announced as the new leader of the Greens, with Steph Hodgins-May as deputy.

    Senator Shoebridge, from NSW, emerged as the victor in a three-way contest with former deputy Mehreen Faruqi and Sarah Hanson-Young, the manager of Greens business in the Senate.

    The decision was made by the 11-member party room in Sydney today after the shock resignation of Larissa Waters, who on Monday revealed she was stepping aside from the role to deal with chronic kidney disease.

    After a rare leadership ballot for the party, which has in the past decided leaders by consensus, Senator Shoebridge won with seven votes, while Senator Hodgins-May had six votes.

    Senator Shoebridge is the sixth leader in the environment-focused party’s history.

    He said he wanted the Greens to “fill the vacuum that has been left by the Labor Party rushing to the right”.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-30/federal-politics-greens-announce-new-leader-david-shoebridge/107211108

  34. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Justin Hendrix (Tech Policy Press):

    Trump issues executive order instructing federal government agencies to “use the terms ‘Super Intelligence’ and ‘SI’ in place of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI’ and to not acknowledge the usage of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI’ in any applicable setting.”

    Plus, the “White House Accord on Super Intelligence: Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities” signed by Trump, Google’s Pichai, Anthropic’s Amodei, Meta’s Zuckerberg, OpenAI’s Brockman, XAI’s Musk, Nvida’s Huang.

    Interesting picture of today’s festivities. [Photo: Trump, elevated at a mic stand in a street, backed by a mostly White group of men behind him and a very White Mike Johnson]

    Commentary

    Jesus this is bleak. Just boilerplate “we, the undersigned CEOs, promise to try really really hard to only make good artificial super intelligences. We’ve got this. We promise.”

    they spelled United States wrong [below Trump’s signature: President of the Unites States].

    We’re approaching Saparmurat Niyazov territory (a dictator who renamed days of the week).

    So SI units are finally coming to the US. But not like that.

    “SI” means “suicidal ideation” in medical speak, including at VA (where suicide prevention is a major priority.) I’m sure that everyone at VA can’t wait to get emails about how we promote SI and are focused on the benefits of SI.

    Jensen Huang appears to be the only tech CEO who is capable of writing his own name.

    He’s forcing every Executive Branch official to look like a complete moron. Imagine a US official discussing AI with counterparts from another nation—or even with OpenAI or Anthropic—and being required “not to acknowledge the usage of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI.'”

    In Star Trek TNG, there’s an episode [Parallels] where loads of Enterprise Ds appear from parallel universes. There’s one ship that’s all fucked up […] and that version’s Riker is screaming “We won’t go back!!” And I feel like that’s our universe.

    Matt Ford (The New Republic):

    Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?”

    Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” [Screenshots]

    Rando: “My first response to Jensen […] was that he’s lying, just trying to push his point. But he’s a billionaire. He genuinely might not know it. He doesn’t have to. Other people handle it for him.”

  35. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    MotherJones – Germany is building a digital Noah’s ark for US climate data

    these new racks will […] store backup versions of climate simulations from the other side of the Atlantic. The operation aims to ensure that essential work performed by US scientists for the next major U.N. climate assessment, due in 2029, cannot be meddled with or compromised by the administration of President Trump, which has slashed funding for climate research, buried scientific reports, removed references to human-caused warming from dozens of government websites, and sought to prevent satellites from collecting key climate data.
    […]
    it is not standard procedure […] until recently, the world seemed safe enough that scientists saw no need for offsite backups. […] other initiatives have emerged across various fields. For example, the Senckenberg Natural History Museum, in Frankfurt, saves data from wildlife trail cameras in Ukraine and biodiversity data from war-ridden Yemen.

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