https://meidasnews.com/news/man-who-killed-dem-lawmaker-and-her-husband-sentenced-to-two-life-terms-plus-40-years

https://www.slowboring.com/p/will-ai-take-your-job-mine-everyones

«lots of people are mediocre and half of them are below average.»

Median, Matt.

Yes, I’m being cranky, but c’mon. I’m pretty sure exactly zero of your readers are idiots.

Can we just normalize use of the median? Change starts where you are, right?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/opinion/china-ai-open-weight-us.html

«Two U.S. congressional committees have opened investigations into Airbnb and Cursor’s parent company….»

“Cursor’s parent company.” Nice, NYT. Why not just say who’s Cursor’s parent company?

It’s SpaceX.

That would have been a one-word insertion. Are you assuming your readers (who have to pay for a subscription) are idiots, and that we wouldn’t know? Or are you assuming that of course we all know? Why not just put the one word that’s the name of the parent company in the story? Or did an editor take it out?

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/hitlers-birthplace-in-austria-reopens-as-police-station-to-deter-nazi-pilgrimages

«Debris from the construction was disposed at a secret location to ensure it would not become a new source for Nazi memorabilia, APA reported.»

🙄

Because Nazi fanchildren combing through remodelling debris is apparently a thing.

https://amp.newsobserver.com/news/business/article316616731.html

«M&F and Optus are also Community Development Financial Institutions that focus on lower-income and underserved communities. Last year, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget withheld grant money from CDFIs.

“Past awards may have made race a determinant of access to loan programs,” OMB noted in the White House’s 2026 discretionary budget proposals.»

(Link is paywalled with no gift option, sorry. If interest, I could probably rip it into markdown with Obsidian.)

https://futurism.com/future-society/flock-axon-alpr-surveillance-privacy

«Unfortunately for privacy activists and citizens concerned about police surveillance, that doesn’t necessarily mean ALPRs are going away — just that they’re increasingly being supplied by Flock’s competitor. [Axon]»

https://politifact.com/article/2026/jul/17/mullin-dhs-250000-noncitizen-voters-trump/

On the “problem” of noncitizens voting:

«In 2012, then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered state officials to clear the rolls of noncitizen voters ahead of the election.

Florida initially assembled a list of about 180,000 potential noncitizens. With more scrutiny, however, officials whittled the count to about 2,600 names, then 198, then 85. The initial list was rife with errors, even flagging a Brooklyn-born World War II veteran.»

(There’s more examples, for other states, not just Florida.)

https://www.axios.com/2026/07/21/trump-iran-pickaxe-mountain-bomb

What use is it to telegraph your next move? Like, seriously… why run your mouth, if not to look good to some domestic audience that’s 15% of the electorate? Does it make him feel better? Is he simply unable to help himself?

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/09/pete-hegseth-workout-videos-fitness/687955/

«In response to an inquiry about the criticism of Hegseth’s workouts, Joel Valdez, the acting Pentagon press secretary, insisted that Hegseth was being unfairly singled out. “Have you ever seen Lloyd Austin’s form? Did the Atlantic ever ask about it?” he wrote. “The answer to both of those questions is no.” That’s true, but Austin, the previous secretary of defense, was not known for posting self-promotional exercise content on social media. He did, however, complete Ranger School and Airborne School, command the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan, lead the fight against the Islamic State, and earn a Silver Star.»

Schmack.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-know-the-mens-issue-pete-hegseth-has-really-got/

«Hegseth’s own testosterone levels are not publicly known, and he has not disclosed whether he has undergone testing himself.»

Uh huh. Stand by for some made-up figures.