Cemento mori
Why did Trump pardon the former Honduran president? Very likely in order to preserve Thiel and Andreessen’s tech-right “freedom city” in the country. / Mother Jones
Jamelle Bouie: “As venal and scandalous as the president’s pardons have been, they aren’t yet as bad as they could be.” / The New York Times [$]
The Trump administration rolls back fuel economy standards for new cars, stating it’s why vehicles have become so expensive, even though it’s not. / NPR
Climate change is killing the myth of Los Angeles, “where catastrophe was fleeting and bounty would always return.” / The New Republic
As Waymo branches out to four more US cities, its once-cautious vehicles are becoming more aggressive and breaking traffic laws, and endangering (or worse) people’s pets. / TechCrunch, the Wall Street Journal [$], Futurism
With plans to expand I-35 in the center of Austin, a project launches to chronicle the communities scheduled for demolition. / Places Journal
Legendary Stax Records guitarist Steve Cropper has died at 84—here’s a roundup of his many hits, from “In the Midnight Hour” to “Soul Man” to “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay.” / The Guardian, Rolling Stone
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The USTA quietly bans trans athletes from competing as women, and according to internal documents, it’s to comply with Trump’s executive order. / The Handbasket
The menswear guy on Roger Stone’s new tailored suit line: “Don't let people leverage parasocial relationships, trust, and political identity to sell you things that ultimately aren't in your best interest.” / X
Unrelated: “Mar-a-Lago face is a plastic surgery and fashion trend among American conservative and Republican individuals.” / Wikipedia
A map of all the buildings in the world; also, a timeline of how long the past really is and how long the future may be. / Gizmodo, Antikythera
Prompting Anthropic’s Claude to reveal its “soul document,” the principles that might govern the chatbot’s character. / LessWrong
See also: OpenAI announces a framework for training AI to engage in “confessions,” where a model admits when it ventures into undesirable behavior. / Engadget
To jailbreak ChatGPT into providing instructions for how to build a nuclear bomb, researchers phrased their prompt in the form of a poem. / Wired
Updated daily, the 2025 space telescope advent calendar. / The Atlantic [$]
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