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American Affairs, Spring 2026. Vol. X, Issue 1. Understanding the LLM Bubble [ungated PDF] Hubert Horan. The current debate on the existence of an “AI bubble” centers on a single question: is the current high level of investment into AI data centers a massive misallocation of capital or the key to future economic growth? The …
PopSci – It’s a race against time (and magnetic decay) to preserve decades of cultural history stored on obsolete hardware: “Few nostalgic artifacts capture the spirit of the early personal computing era as clearly as the humble floppy disk. Introduced in the early 1970s, these chunky rectangles became the default way to store and transfer …
Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here’s How to Use It. – 40 Google features to find exactly what you need, the alternative search engines that do things Google won’t, and the reference desk framework underneath all of it. Hana Lee Goldin, MLIS – “Most of us search Google the same way we always have: …
Wired [no paywall] – “Comments and other data left on a PDF detailing Homeland Security’s proposal to build “mega” detention and processing centers reveal the personnel involved in its creation. A PDF that Department of Homeland Security officials provided to New Hampshire governor Kelly Ayotte’s office about a new effort to build “mega” detention and …
CREW: “In the year since Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office, he has already racked up an astonishing number of conflicts of interest from the businesses that he owns and profits from as president. While everyday Americans continue to struggle to cover the rising costs of housing, groceries, utilities and other regular expenses, Trump’s …
A New Miami Herald Investigation, Julie K. Brown. “Jeffrey Epstein tried, and often succeeded, in manipulating almost every level of the criminal justice system. For this story, we looked at emails that Epstein shared with people who were involved in his criminal case — and those in the justice system who were mentioned in documents …
Lifehacker: “For all its faults as a platform, YouTube’s video player functionality is easily among the best online. It streams reliably to almost every device you can think of, in your choice of both video quality and playback speed. But it’s the array of hidden features and interface tricks that push it over the edge …
Shifting Sands, A Cautionary Tale Feb 23, 2026. Judge Scott Schlegel, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal. On February 13, 2026 – OpenAI retired GPT 4o from ChatGPT. That is a normal product change for a consumer platform. For courts, it is a useful reminder about what we are really doing when we build tools on top …
404 Media – “There’s a new agentic AI called Einstein that will, according to its developers, live the life of a student for them. Einstein’s website claims that the AI will attend lectures for you, write your papers, and even log into EdTech platforms like Canvas to take tests and participate in discussions. Educators told …
Reuters Institute: “Over 3.5 million documents, 180,000 images and 2,000 videos. The Jeffrey Epstein files, released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in several tranches, constituted a disclosure of rare magnitude. This trove of documents opened a window into the ecosystem surrounding a powerful, well-connected convicted child sex offender. The release offered journalists an …
The New York Times Gift Article: “Millions of banned books were smuggled into the Soviet Union in the 20th century — often in small batches, hidden in deliberately mislabeled containers, packed in food tins or tampon boxes and, in at least one case, tucked into a child’s diaper. Soviet tourists visiting Western Europe brought mini-volumes …
The New York Times Gift Article: “Content generated by artificial intelligence has become so lifelike that it’s often impossible to tell whether a video or an image floating through social media is real or fake. Enter the A.I. detector. More than a dozen online tools claim they can tell the difference between what’s real and …
