I work in a team developing generative AI applications, but even I'm having my comfort levels pushed with this advert.

I'd love us to move from
"If you're right, I want to know"
to
"If you're right, I want to know how you know"
then finally
"If you're wrong, how would you know it?"

The world would be a better place.

"We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.” – George Orwell

Yikes. Iowa Republicans want public schools to hire untrained Christian chaplains
https://open.substack.com/pub/friendlyatheist/p/iowa-republicans-want-public-schools

E Jean Carroll to spend $83m defamation award on 'something Donald Trump hates'

That doesn't rule out much, does it?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68131209

So, I'm high and pondering all this. Considering for the first time in my life that the timeless pull of gravity on my bones is akin to a dented arc of spacetime that suspends the sensation of acceleration towards the ground and draws it out over eternity, perpetually accelerating and yet going nowhere.

Man, this is great weed.

I'm high right now, so I decided to find out how Einstein arrived at his theory of general relativity that time and gravity are related.

Turns out it started with his use of the Equivalence Principle, which suggests that an observer cannot distinguish between the effects of gravity and acceleration. Kind of like those fighter simulators that simulate acceleration by tilting the cabin up.

This principle led him to consider the gravitational field as a curvature of spacetime.

[Telling Jefferson Lies] America's Premier Historian: Origin Story #tellingJeffersonLies
https://podcastaddict.com/telling-jefferson-lies/episode/169886993

After Trump dies, my sons and I are planning a family trip to Trump’s grave to get a family photo of us dunking our nutsacks on Trump's headstone.

ChatGPT seemed unclear on the legality, but when did Trump ever let the law get in the way of things?

Thinking about all the January 6th rioters in prison 3 years on. Thinking and smiling.

Justice isn't swift, but it's comforting to see that it does exist because if nothing else, it shows that those assholes failed.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/30-months-jan-6-attack-capitol

It's considered impolite to speak ill of the dead, so since former PM Gordon Brown is still with us, I'd like to take the opportunity to say he was the worst thing to have happened to Scotland since Margaret Thatcher.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/gordon-brown-scottish-government-scots-andy-burnham-mark-drakeford-b2349297.html

Help push back against Christian Nationalism in Oklahoma public schools by having the mandatory posters printed in Arabic.
https://gofund.me/952e0a8b

A fascinating deep dive into the suspiciously sparse background of our current house speaker and how he rose.

https://youtu.be/F5BOpx81ldw

Changes I've made as a result of all this over the past two years:

I have more 1:1 time with my wife and kids.
I cycle 100 miles a week to maintain my health.
I take way more weed gummies and laugh a lot more.
I've adjusted my finances to retire earlier.

Once you've accepted the finite nature of the canvas, you can start to paint your life on it.

While it might take a while for our society and laws to come to a healthier position on these matters, we can start today on a personal level by accepting our own mortality and writing the story of what we're going to achieve and experience. We can talk with those we love about this. Perhaps most importantly, we can live for the now, since that's all we're guaranteed.

This whole experience with my uncle has caused me to think about my end as an integral part of my life, just like my education, career and retirement. It's caused me to bring forward plans that I'd left semi-formed. I think about and prioritize what's important to me. I find joy in the now because old age is coming and it's not particularly kind.

Ultimately, I will spend my $11,000 in my late 40s and enjoy it more than $11,000 of semolina and bedbaths in my 90s.

I hope this continues and that we can move to include this ultimate freedom for ourselves in what is often claimed as the land of the free.

In many ways, religion has framed how we view suicide just as it has framed how we view abortion. It's a sin. But a sin is just a violation of God's law and I'm not convinced there is a God. So there's no reason to worry about what they'd think of how I choose to live my life.

While recent Supreme Court and GOP-led states influenced by religious world-views have sought to restrict bodily autonomy, recent elections and Pew research studies indicate that we are becoming a more secular society.