Bookmarks 2026-05-09T17:14:46.693Z
by Owen Kibel
32 min read
Bookmarks for 2026-05-09T17:14:46.693Z
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The ocean is fighting climate change and we’re trying to help it – here’s how Added: May 9, 2026
The ocean is fighting climate change and we’re trying to help it – here’s how
Site: The Conversation
Scientists are taking to the seas with new equipment to measure how much carbon the oceans are storing.
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Doubling their genomes may have helped plants survive mass extinctions | New Scientist Added: May 9, 2026
Doubling their genomes may have helped plants survive mass extinctions
Site: New Scientist
Many flowering plants have duplicated genomes, which could have helped them evolve to deal with extreme stress in times of environmental upheaval
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Gad Saad on X: "Bingo. As I explained tonight on @Gutfeldfox, Obama says insanely platitudinous BS but with a radiant smile and a mellifluous voice so all good." / X Added: May 9, 2026
Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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AOC doesn’t deny speculation about 2028 presidential run Added: May 9, 2026
**Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t deny 2028 speculation: ‘My ambition is to change this country’ **
Site: The Hill
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is leaving the door open for a presidential run in 2028. Democratic strategist David Axelrod asked the lawmaker during a Friday event in Chicago about t…
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is leaving the door open for a presidential run in 2028. Democratic strategist David Axelrod asked the lawmaker during a Friday event in Chicago about the speculation that she will enter the race for the White House. The four-term House member pushed back on an assumption that her “ambition is positional,” specifically citing an op-ed in the Washington Post. “They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat, and my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Presidents come and go ... elected officials come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever.” Ocasio-Cortez told Axelrod that she tailors her political ambitions to “meet the moment.” “Conditions change radically all the time, so I make my response less to an attachment to some positional, like title or position, and working backwards from there, but I make decisions by waking up in the morning, looking out the window and observing the conditions of this country and saying, ‘What move or what decision can I make today that is going to get us closer to that future, stronger, faster, better than yesterday?’” she said on Friday. The lawmaker is part of a lengthy list of Democratic favorites to wrest back control of the White House in 2028. Other Democrats on this list include Gov. Gavin Newsom (Calif.), former Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (Mich.), former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Gov. Josh Shapiro (Penn.) and Gov. Andy Beshear (Ky.). Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) praised the lineup of potential 2028 Democratic contenders when he was asked at a recent event in New York about whether he would consider a presidential bid. “Look, we have a pretty good bench,” Pritzker said. “So that’s my answer. My answer is: I don’t know what I’ll be doing after — I hope I win reelection, after. But I can tell you this: I’m going to fight like hell to elect a Democrat in 2028.” On the Republican side, Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are widely seen as likely candidates to succeed President Trump once his second term is up. “I’m not sure if anyone would run against those two,” Trump told reporters in October. “I think if they ever formed a group it would be unstoppable.” However, Trump has also not entirely ruled out seeking a third term — a move that would violate the 22nd Amendment. The Trump Organization debuted “Trump 2028” hats last April and the president told reporters in October that he would “love to” run again.
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What LLMs Are Quietly Doing to Creativity | Psychology Today Added: May 9, 2026
What LLMs Are Quietly Doing to Creativity
Site: Psychology Today
Two new studies reveal how AI is standardizing creative thinking. Here's what parents, clinicians, and educators need to know, and what we can do about it.
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One Rare Condition Seems to Protect The Brain From Schizophrenia : ScienceAlert
Added: May 9, 2026One Rare Condition Seems to Protect The Brain From Schizophrenia
Site: ScienceAlert
In 1950, two researchers noticed something that didn't quite add up.
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THEY ARE REAL - YouTube Added: May 9, 2026
NEW UFO Docs Drop, Video Shows Star Shaped UFO, They’re REAL
Site: YouTube
Member Shout-Out: https://www.patreon.com/cw/InkyBloomsSUPPORT THE SHOW BUY CAST BREW COFFEE NOW - https://castbrew.com/Join - https://www.youtube.com/channe...
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Secretary Rubio on the hope for America 🇺🇸
Site: YouTube
"It is a unique and exceptional country. And as we come upon this 250 year anniversary, I think we have a lot to learn and be proud of in our history."
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China AI Industry: U.S. Export Controls Undermine Technological Edge | National Review Added: May 9, 2026
China AI Industry: U.S. Export Controls Undermine Technological Edge | National Review
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Massive 6,000-Kilometer Wave on Venus Finally Explained by Newly Discovered Phenomenon
Added: May 9, 2026Massive 6,000-Kilometer Wave on Venus Finally Explained by Newly Discovered Phenomenon
Site: The Daily Galaxy - Great Discoveries Channel
Researchers have uncovered the cause behind Venus’ mysterious, 6,000-kilometer-wide atmospheric wave.
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What If Everything You See Is a Lie? Parmenides' Mind-Bending Greek Philosophy - GreekReporter.com Added: May 9, 2026
What If Everything You See Is a Lie? Parmenides' Mind-Bending Greek Philosophy - GreekReporter.com
Site: GreekReporter.com
Greek philosopher Parmenides said reality is unchanging and what we see is illusion. His ideas still challenge us today.
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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'I Am Your Father,' Reveals Trump To Horrified Mark Hamill | Babylon Bee Added: May 9, 2026
'I Am Your Father,' Reveals Trump To Horrified Mark Hamill
Site: The Babylon Bee
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Donald Trump called an impromptu press conference in front of the White House this week to deliver a life-changing message to actor Mark Hamill, revealing that he was, in reality, the actor's father.
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Iran hawks erupt over terms of Donald Trump's peace proposal Added: May 9, 2026
Iran hawks erupt over terms of Trump’s peace proposal
Site: The Hill
The reported terms of a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the Iran war spurred a swift backlash from allies of President Trump who have cheered on his fight against the Islamic Republic.&…
The reported terms of a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the Iran war spurred a swift backlash from allies of President Trump who have cheered on his fight against the Islamic Republic. Prominent conservative media figures and pro-Israel advocates spoke out against the deal, which would end Iran's nuclear enrichment for a limited period and keep the regime in place, with U.S. sanctions scaled back over time. The proposal followed a surprise announcement by Trump on Tuesday to end Project Freedom, a military operation that began the previous day to free commercial ships stuck in the Persian Gulf. Fox News broadcaster Mark Levin, who Trump has praised for defending the Iran war against MAGA critics, said the deal would be “disastrous” for Iranians and for the Israeli government. “And here at home, despite all the blather about exit ramps and deals as the best political outcome for the president and Republicans, the opposite is true,” he wrote in an X post on Wednesday. “The Democrats, the media, and the isolationists will declare the operation a failure.” Levin said he was inclined to believe the report in Axios laying out the terms was “largely fake.” However, neither Trump nor the White House has pushed back against the report. The U.S. is awaiting Iran’s response to its proposal. Trump told Fox News on Wednesday that Tehran has a week to reach a peace deal. The U.S. struck Iran for the first time on Thursday since starting a ceasefire last month, in retaliation for attacks on U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Central Command. Trump called it a "love tap" and said the ceasefire remains in place. According to Axios, the one-page agreement would create a 30-day period to negotiate the details of a nuclear deal, with both sides relaxing their blockades in the Strait of Hormuz during that period, eventually allowing free passage as existed before the war. In exchange for Iran agreeing to end nuclear enrichment for some 10-20 years, the U.S. would ease sanctions and return frozen assets to the regime. Iran hawks see any end to the U.S. blockade as giving up crucial leverage when Tehran is feeling intense economic pain. “This would be a terrible deal,” conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, another Trump backer, wrote on social media in response to the Axios report. “I hope the terms of any deal would be significantly stricter: No enrichment, ever. HEU to us stat,” he continued, referring to highly enriched uranium. “No more proxies. Turn on the internet. President Trump never gives up leverage. Why would he start now with #Iran on the ropes?” Hewitt added. Many of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the U.S. don’t trust Iran’s current leaders to abide by any agreement and are pushing Trump to follow through on the regime change that he envisioned when the war started. “If this regime remains in place, they will do all they can to continue moving forward with their agenda, funding terrorism, developing nukes and ballistic missiles,” Morton Klein, who heads the Zionist Organization of America, told The Hill. “And if they're so desperate for a deal, as President Trump keeps saying, why aren't we in a position to dictate to them what the deal has to be? I really don't understand this.” Trump again said on Wednesday that it’s Tehran that’s pushing for a deal. "We're dealing with people that want to make a deal very much, and we'll see whether or not they can make a deal that's satisfactory to us," he said. But behind the scenes, the White House is growing increasingly anxious about the economic and political implications if the war drags on and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Trump advisers are eager to wrap up the conflict to start bringing down gas prices and avoid jet fuel shortages that could cause summer travel costs to spike. More skeptical figures in Trump’s orbit, namely Vice President Vance, have reportedly raised concerns over how the depletion of U.S. military stockpiles during the war is hurting its ability to defend U.S. allies and interests in other parts of the world. Klein said if the Trump administration’s own claims about the success of its blockade are true, Iran is only a few weeks away from breaking. “I think if we end up with a poor and weak deal, this is a greater danger to Donald Trump and Republicans politically than continuing what needs to be done to eliminate this regime,” he said. “In addition, President Trump told us they're losing $400 to $500 million a day. So the blockade is working. A few more weeks. [Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent has said, and others have said, the regime will collapse. So why aren't we continuing the blockade since it's working, and since they believe this will mean the end of this regime?” Bessent told Fox News over the weekend that Iran’s oil infrastructure is rapidly deteriorating under the blockade, predicting the regime may have to begin shutting in wells "in the next week." He said Trump has directed the Treasury Department to unleash “economic fury” on Iran. "The way to think about that — we were running a marathon over the past 12 months, and now we are sprinting towards the finish line,” he told host Maria Bartiromo. “We are suffocating the regime, and they are not able to pay their soldiers.” While Bessent and Trump have argued gas prices will quickly fall once the war is over, the divide within Trump’s base over Iran goes deeper than the economic impact. Figures including Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, longtime Trump supporters, have accused the president of breaking his promise to keep the U.S. out of regime-change wars and risking American lives in foreign conflicts. Carlson and Kelly regularly trade fire with the likes of Levin and Iran hawks in Congress like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who argue the war is worth the risks. The senators have been notably quiet since terms of the latest deal emerged. Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish D.C. think tank, warned Trump against lifting sanctions, ending its blockade or taking military action off the table until it extracts maximum concessions on its nuclear program. “The right response is not to give them what they want for free, it’s to keep the vice tight,” he said on his podcast “The Iran Breakdown.” Dubowitz worried Trump could be “talked into believing the ceasefire is good enough and walking away with a deal that locks in less than the moment makes possible, that would be the squander.” “Two and a half years of presidential authority; a regime running out of money, leaders and time; a population the regime can no longer count on,” he added. “That is not a position of weakness, that is the strongest hand any America administration has ever had against the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Both Dubowitz and The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board warned that the contours of the deal reported by Axios resembled the Iran nuclear deal negotiated under former President Obama, which Trump pulled out of during his first term. “It will be essential for Mr. Trump to hold firm, knowing that Iran has no need for domestic enrichment other than for a bomb, and that he can’t count on a change in regime behavior over time, a mistake Mr. Obama made,” the Journal’s editorial board wrote. “He also can’t trust a future President to reimpose strict limits later. Mr. Trump has been unique in his willingness to confront Iran. The task in any deal is to secure full nuclear dismantlement while Mr. Trump is still in office. If Iran won’t do it, the President will have to make good on his threats” to resume military action, it concluded.
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Reflections on the First Government Release of UFO Files | by Avi Loeb | May, 2026 | Medium Added: May 9, 2026
Reflections on the First Government Release of UFO Files
Site: Medium
Below is a transcript of a new interview I had today with Fox Weather, one out of the 23 interviews I had over the past 24 hours, available…
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Gary Player joins President Trump in the Oval Office
Site: YouTube
His advice to America's youth: Only in America do you have that opportunity… Just love this country. ❤️
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Physicists discover quantum particles that break the rules of reality | ScienceDaily Added: May 9, 2026
Physicists discover quantum particles that break the rules of reality
Site: ScienceDaily
Physicists may have just cracked open a hidden side of the quantum world. For decades, every known particle was thought to belong to one of two categories — bosons or fermions — but researchers have now shown that bizarre “in-between” particles called anyons could also exist in a one-dimensional system. Even more exciting, these strange particles may be adjustable, allowing scientists to tune their behavior in ways never before possible.
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King Charles III Coronation March | YouTube Music Added: May 9, 2026
King Charles III Coronation March
Site: YouTube Music
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Patrick Doyle
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Orchestersuite No. 2, BWV 1067: I. Ouverture
Site: YouTube Music
Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew
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Stop pretending your Google Drive is a backup strategy
Added: May 9, 2026Stop pretending your Google Drive is a backup strategy
Site: How-To Geek
Everyone knows the "golden rule" of PC backups (why even tech experts secretly ignore it)
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This Gemini feature is the best Google tool you're probably not using
Added: May 9, 2026
This Gemini feature is the best Google tool you're probably not using
Site: Android Police
It's the workflow upgrade I didn't know I needed
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Saturday Citations: Psychedelic therapeutics; interoception and well-being; a hidden linguistic bias Added: May 9, 2026
Saturday Citations: Psychedelic therapeutics; interoception and well-being; a hidden linguistic bias
This week, researchers reported that the human brain is capable of sophisticated language processing while in an unconscious state during general anesthesia. An informatics and computing professor found that the Climate TRACE consortium has underestimated vehicle carbon emissions in cities by a staggering 70%. And archaeologists excavated and photoscanned a prehistoric man-made island located in a Scottish loch.
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On Venus Sulfuric Acid Rain Falls From Planet-Wide Clouds, But It Doesn't Hit The Ground | IFLScience Added: May 9, 2026
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I let Gemini and Google Maps talk to each other, and my vacation photos finally make sense
Added: May 9, 2026
I let Gemini and Google Maps talk to each other, and my vacation photos finally make sense
Site: Android Police
I wish I did it sooner
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Iran Stalling Tactics, Reform Party Shock, Hephaestus & the Double Standard in U.S. Justice
Site: YouTube
Contrary to the belief of some media pundits, the Islamic world, not Israel, has inflicted the greatest damage on the United States, argues Victor Davis Hans...
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Evidence of "Interdimensional Beings"
Site: YouTube
Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of Pod Force One: https://www.youtube.com/@PodForce1Watch full clips of Pod Force One with Miranda D...
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I started using Gemini with YouTube Music, and it's been a game-changer
Added: May 9, 2026
I started using Gemini with YouTube Music, and it's been a game-changer
Site: Android Police
Gemini is the DJ I didn't know I needed
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British Wage Discrimination Law Has Damaged Economy and Communities | National Review
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Will any party fight Britain’s absurd ‘equal value’ law?
Added: May 9, 2026Will any party fight Britain’s absurd ‘equal value’ law?
Thousands of Tesco store workers, mostly women, are claiming they should have been paid the same rate as warehouse staff — but the jobs are different
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NASA's Artemis 2 commander and astrophotographer team up to capture breathtaking, never-before-seen shots of the moon's far side | Space Added: May 9, 2026
NASA's Artemis 2 commander and astrophotographer team up to capture breathtaking, never-before-seen shots of the moon's far side
Site: Space
"It's the best data I've ever worked."
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Scientists Just Solved the Mystery of Why Crabs Walk Sideways Added: May 9, 2026
Scientists Just Solved the Mystery of Why Crabs Walk Sideways
Site: SciTechDaily
Crabs may owe their famous sideways walk to one evolutionary event that happened 200 million years ago.
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difference between western music vs indian music (voice by PriAkhil) #learn #music #explainer
Site: YouTube
Voice by @PriAkhil
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Elon’s Anthropic Deal, The Next AI Monopoly?, “FDA for AI” Panic, Trading the AI Boom
Site: YouTube
(0:00) Bestie intros! Thoughts on the LA mayor election(4:38) SpaceX-Anthropic deal, Elon Web Services, SpaceX IPO valuation, Anthropic's insane growth traje...
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
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Hermes Agent. - by Aakash Gupta - AI by Aakash Added: May 10, 2026
Hermes Agent.
Here's what you need to know about the hottest new tool in AI - plus, this week's AI news.
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Tiny 'metajets' could use light to steer sails for interstellar travel
Site: New Scientist
Minuscule silicon wafers propelled by lasers could be used to steer light sails, helping them travel beyond the solar system
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Brain-First Hypothesis: Rethinking the Cambrian Explosion - Neuroscience News
Added: May 10, 2026Brain-First Hypothesis: Rethinking the Cambrian Explosion - Neuroscience News
Site: Neuroscience News
New research proposes the Brain-First Hypothesis: the evolution of the brain drove animal diversification during the Cambrian period through genetic co-option.
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Tell me more about the recent US Treasury sanctions on entities linked to Iran's missile programs. - Google Search Added: May 10, 2026
Google Search
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Why Did LLMs Steal Our Em-Dashes? | Office for Science and Society - McGill University Added: May 10, 2026
Why Did LLMs Steal Our Em-Dashes?
Site: Office for Science and Society
Upon ChatGPT's release in 2022, I realized that I wrote like AI. My sentences were long, my writing patterns were predictable, and my use of em-dashes was frequent. Initially, I was not concerned: if models are being trained to write like me, I must be doing a good job, right? Then, however, came the "AI detectors" used by teachers and reviewers. These AI detectors are machine learning tools designed to spot patterns associated with AI-generated text. They measure the predictability of a written work’s wording ("perplexity"), the variability of the sentence structure ("burstiness"), and other markers. Essentially, AIs are being used to spot content created by other AIs. At this point, I began to change my writing style. No more back-to-back 20+ word sentences. No more dash-filled phrases, semicolons, or groups of threes; I was not willing to risk being flagged. Returning to the point of the em-dash (and other snubbed marks), there are two key reasons why they—along with words like "delve" and "underscores"—are so frequent in AI-generated writing: the training data, and the assessment of said data. First, let's look at the data collection process for LLMs (large language models). Over 60% of the training data used in early models like GPT-3 came directly from web crawls, which collect publicly available text off the internet. After the data is collected, it is used to train models to predict language structures and patterns. Most LLMs are trained to predict the next few words in a sequence, internalizing patterns in grammar and style along the way. If a particular structure (like the em-dash) appears often enough and isn't adjusted later on, it can become a characteristic aspect of the model's output. As a result of this pattern-based learning—and the fact that these patterns aren't always corrected—models can take on specific stylistic habits that become hard-wired as their "instinct". As Medium writer Brent Csutoras demonstrated in his failed attempts to remove em-dashes from the results of ChatGPT, Claude, and other models, the em-dash has become embedded into the output style of today's LLMs. To be clear, you are not imagining this em-dash overuse. According to Freeburg, an independent researcher, LLMs use em-dashes much more frequently than human writers, with GPT-4.1 having a 3.28x higher frequency in standard essays. Similarly to Csutoras' conclusion, they found that em-dashes were almost entirely resistant to prompt manipulations and user restrictions. Now, how did no one realize that AIs were learning to use em-dashes so frequently? Some journalists, including The Economist's Alex Hern, believe that the Africa-based regulation of chatbots' content is a key factor. African English uses words like "delve" much more frequently than the internet at large, which may affect the regulators' choices. However, the work of these moderators mostly ties to removing sexist, racist, and other harmful content, not directly altering the linguistic choices of the models. Initially, I hypothesized that the explanation was tied to the datasets being used to train LLMs. However, after a small investigation comparing word frequencies in COCA—a text dataset of popular modern media (think Star Trek)—and OpenWebText, a set which mimics AIs training data, I found that while OpenWebText often "won out" in terms of frequency, the gap wasn't significant. The em-dash frequency of OpenWebText was so high (1621.88 uses/million), I had to remove it from this chart. I have no reference for COCA and am only drawing conclusions based on words. I then turned to another potential argument: implicit bias, or the internal perceptions and judgements of individuals. Before em-dashes rose back into fame, they were mostly used in prose and other writing spaces that encourage wide vocabularies and creative structuring. Many people didn't know what they were before LLMs began splicing them into their sentences, and given our more regular reliance on short-form content like text and emails, they didn't need to. In contrast, LLM training involves longer-form content like essays and articles, where em-dashes are more common than in the average person's consumed media. Bias explains why em-dashes feel so out of place, but not why em-dashes are actually being used more frequently than normal. The generally accepted hypothesis to explain this overuse ties back LLMs’ training and reinforcement processes. As models learn to predict language patterns, they begin to use their learned patterns to do so. However, this isn’t the only factor determining which patterns get used more often. Models like Claude and ChatGPT have an additional goal with their responses: to provide users with clarity. Em-dashes, which allow for explanatory pauses and the breaking down of complex ideas, are an ideal tool for AIs. As such, LLMs are not only introduced to more em-dashes, but their training also reinforces their usage. This results in em-dashes appearing more frequently than in typical human writing. So what does this mean in the long term? Personally, I believe that these models will soon reduce their use of em-dashes. Individuals are currently avoiding em-dashes and other AI "red flags", so their overall usage is decreasing. LLMs are trained to replicate the styles of human writers, and as LLMs get more frequent content updates, the decreased use of these writing tools should have an influence on their responses. The only question is whether we, as writers, will ever go back. This fear of being "caught" has begun to overtake what writing once was: freedom of expression. There are now countless "AI spotting tricks", flagging everything from empty questions to the use of writing structures that people were once taught to use. To write "humanly", we have to write less creatively. Lia Erisson is a second year (U2) Computer Science & Economics student minoring in Physiology. She loves exploring the intersection of technology, wellbeing, and the human experience. Part of the OSS mandate is to foster science communication and critical thinking in our students and the public. We hope you enjoy these pieces from our Student Contributors and welcome any feedback you may have!
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Mother's Day Message From the Trump Administration
Site: YouTube
The Second Lady, Cabinet Secretaries, & Cabinet Secretary's Wives share what it means to be a mom
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IT’S ALL FAKE
Site: YouTube
WATCH THE FULL EPISODE HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3jfqRxgNPESUPPORT THE SHOW BUY CAST BREW COFFEE NOW - https://castbrew.com/Join - https://timca...
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Putin says Ukraine war is likely 'coming to an end' amid three-day ceasefire | Fox News Added: May 10, 2026
Putin says he thinks the war with Ukraine 'is coming to an end' as Trump-brokered 3-day ceasefire begins
Site: Fox News
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he thinks the war with Ukraine is coming to an end as President Trump brokers a three-day ceasefire and prisoner exchange between both nations.
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Putin leads smaller Victory Day celebration, sees Ukraine war ‘coming to an end’ – POLITICO Added: May 10, 2026
Putin leads smaller Victory Day celebration, sees Ukraine war ‘coming to an end’
Site: POLITICO
“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters later Saturday.
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Site: X (formerly Twitter)
