onfocus

The Varieties of Democracy project at the University of Gothenburg has done this measurement for more than a decade, establishing a consistent metric that allows for comparisons between and within nations and determinations of how democracy has changed over time.

Nice liberal democracy we used to have here. Too bad we couldn’t keep it.

The complete and utter failure of the metaverse is a reminder not just of the fact that the future Silicon Valley is force feeding us is not inevitable, but that quite often these oligarchs quite simply cannot relate to real people, don’t know how or why people use their products, and very often have no idea what they’re doing.

What could we have done with $80 billion dollars? People like Zuckerberg shouldn’t control what we spend that amount of resources on.

Lithium-ion battery prices don’t get constantly discussed the way crude is, but these declines add up to a decisive shift that will determine the energy landscape of the next decade. Solar and wind have been cheaper than fossil fuels for a while, but the last time we had an energy crisis like this, oil and gas still drove the prices paid by consumers. The falling cost of battery storage changes that.

You can argue with math and even try to fight it, but the numbers aren't going to change. Solar and batteries for storage are the future.

Rivera was brought to the U.S. illegally from Mexico when he was 2 years old. He's enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA, which granted him permission to legally work in the U.S., among other benefits, and allowed him to get a commercial driver's license in 2014 and start his own trucking company.

Taking out around 5% of truck drivers for no good reason? Racism is a hell of a self-own.

Most of the Americans surveyed believe that datacenters are bad for the environment, home energy costs, and the quality of life of people living nearby and the numbers aren’t close. Only four percent of people thought datacenters were good for the environment, six percent good for jobs, and six percent good for people’s quality of life.

Oh, here’s another thing Americans can agree on.

More and more Americans are voicing unhappiness with billionaires’ enormous power. According to the Harris Poll’s annual Americans and Billionaires Survey, conducted last November, 53% of Americans believe billionaires threaten our democracy. What’s more, 71% of Americans, including 64% of Republicans, say there should be a wealth tax on top earners, and 53% (up from 46% in 2024) say there should be limits on wealth accumulation.

Turns out Americans can all agree on something.

As long as Hegseth keeps his chest-thumping and pull-up contests in the land of make-believe, these men are happy. Like their hero, the only masculine strength they seem interested in is the kind performed for cameras, far away from real-world challenges that might easily defeat their self-image as the mightiest of men.

This whole administration has felt like social media trolling colliding with the real world. It feels like people are learning that attention wins elections but you can't solely use attention to govern.

The efforts show the blurring of the lines between public service and private profit-seeking during Mr. Trump’s second term. Only a few weeks ago, in his role as Mr. Trump’s “peace envoy,” Mr. Kushner met in Geneva with Iran’s foreign minister. The U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign in Iran began shortly after those meetings concluded without a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

Seems like "blurring the lines" is a bit of an understatement. Also, what is Kushner’s role in the administration? Does he have security clearance? None of this should be legal.

In more than half of U.S. states, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation that would boost adoption of DIY solar systems.

More like this, please!

The bill's sponsors framed the Government Surveillance Reform Act as a necessary corrective to a surveillance state that has been supercharged by modern technology and bureaucratic mission creep. Wyden noted that the explosion of commercially available data and rapid advances in AI have “far outpaced the laws protecting Americans’ privacy.”

More like this, please!

The epistemological structure of the conspiracy theory is identical to the structure of spiritual awakening. In both cases, there is a surface reality that most people accept unthinkingly, and a deeper truth accessible only to those willing to question, to seek, to undergo the discomfort of knowing. The content differs. The initiatory logic is the same.

The idea of purity is a warning. [via Today in Tabs]