- A man is dead after allegedly opening fire on a security checkpoint at the White House. The deceased had previously been arrested in July of last year at a different White House checkpoint claiming to be Jesus Christ.
- US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra claims not to understand why Canadians are frustrated with his country. Of course, this brings to mind Upton Sinclair's remark that "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it".
- Climate scientists now say that the worst case emissions scenario, known as RCP8.5, is no longer plausible. That scenario projected an increase of 4-5°C by the end of the century, and had been considered the "business as usual" scenario, but thanks to a decline in coal and the availability of cheap solar and wind technology use it's unlikely to get quite that bad. While this is good news, things are still going to get very bad in many parts of the world and this is no time for complacency.
- Microsoft is quietly scaling back internal use of AI, apparently after finding that it's not saving them money. They're cancelling the majority of licenses for Anthropic's Claude Code.
- The Colorado Information Analysis Center, which provides resources to police on potential terror-related threats, has warned that recruitment tweets sent out by ICE contain so many white supremacist dog whistles that they could endanger the public by creating a "permissive environment to engage in vigilante action and/or violence against individuals perceived to be immigrants". You know it's bad when cops are worried about something like this.
- The inaugural Enhanced Games was held in Las Vegas over the weekend. The event, created by an Australian businessman, is an Olympic-style competition, except that participants are allowed to take performance-enhancing drugs. I remember some people suggesting that something like this might be a good idea after the Ben Johnson scandal in 1988; surprising that it's taken this long to happen.
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