Extra, Extra
On a Rightwing and a Prayer: “An evenly divided Supreme Court rejected a plan on Thursday to allow Oklahoma to use government money to run the nation’s first religious charter school, which would teach a curriculum infused by Catholic doctrine. In a tie, the court split 4 to 4 over the Oklahoma plan, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself from the case, and the decision provided no reasoning.” Deadlocked Supreme Court Rejects Bid for Religious Charter School in Oklahoma. The decision is definitely a bit of a surprise given the leanings of this Supreme Court. But it’s still notable that the principle of the separation of church and state now drives a split decision.
+ This Isn’t Rocket Science: “The funding decreases touch virtually every area of science — extending far beyond the diversity programs and other ‘woke’ targets that the Trump administration says it wants to cut.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades. “These cuts are the height of self-inflicted harm … If they succeed in these cuts, the result will be slower economic growth, less innovation and new tech startups, and even more diminished competitiveness vis-à-vis China.”
+ International Flight: “Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status.” Another salvo in Trump’s war on Harvard. Trump Administration Halts Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students. (Among other ramifications of this attack, the best and the brightest are going to stop looking to America as a destination. We seem to be doing everything possible to weaken America’s leadership.) More from The Harvard Crimson. Of course, part of this move is the Trump administration’s effort to convince other institutions to bend the knee. It’s also part of a broader attack on education and critical thinking. Judge Blocks Trump Administration From Dismantling Education Department.
+ Light of My Life, Fire of My Coins: “On Thursday, President Donald Trump will sit down for an intimate evening at his Northern Virginia golf club with 220 of his favorite people in the world: a group of cryptocurrency speculators who have spent an estimated $148 million on Trump’s eponymous memecoin, making the president and his associates millions of dollars in the process. Even by Trump’s standards, this dinner will be the culmination of one of the most cartoonish episodes of executive-branch graft in recent memory.”
+ Energy Drink: “AI’s integration into our lives is the most significant shift in online life in more than a decade. Hundreds of millions of people now regularly turn to chatbots for help with homework, research, coding, or to create images and videos. But what’s powering all of that? Today, new analysis by MIT Technology Review provides an unprecedented and comprehensive look at how much energy the AI industry uses—down to a single query—to trace where its carbon footprint stands now, and where it’s headed, as AI barrels towards billions of daily users.” MIT Tech Review: We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. (Hopefully, they did the math using a calculator with a relatively light carbon footprint.)
+ Guitar Picker: “Irsay doesn’t just leave behind a legacy in the NFL. He also leaves behind what is considered one of the greatest guitar collections in the world.” Jim Irsay, longtime Colts owner and music memorabilia collector, dies at 65.
+ Garden Hosed: “While the Pacers are no strangers to incredible playoff comebacks, this one was special even by their standards. Remarkably, New York held a 99.7 percent win probability when it led 119-105 with 2:51 remaining.”
