June 2026

Maps are scaled geographical projections, ensuring legibility and usefulness. They are understood by people of all ages. They communicate graphically across languages, and they’re portable. When maps and counter maps uncover and layer the otherwise unseen relationships that shape a place, they assert new forms of collective memory, offering more meaningful versions of public authority.

Dad Joke of the Day: I bought a wooden car.

• Cooperate.
• Punctuate.
• Catalog.

Finishing your to-do list means you aimed too low

(1) “Bernie Sanders: A.I. Is a Public Resource. You Should Own Half of It.” • 51%!

(2) There’s a New Dark Money–Backed Democratic Machine” • Steve Israel: He’s b-a-a-c-k!

(3) “Graham Platner Leaker Failed to Disclose Previous Financial Conflict of Interests” • Airbnb!

(4) “AI costs how much? GitHub Copilot users react to new usage-based pricing system” • Enshittification, phase 2!

The rich dominate us not despite democracy, but through it.

Dad Joke of the Day: I got fired from the bank today.

• Robodog
• Prompt
• Resistance

Fresh on the heels of the news that The Youth are into collecting rare books, we find that records are having a resurgence.

(1) “White House nixes ‘anti-weaponization’ fund panned by GOP and Democrats”

(2) “The Dark Money Network Attacking Graham Platner”

(3) “Sneak Peek into Heretic’s Guide to AI’s Stars Part IV” (Michael Burry)

(4) “Revenge of The Business Idiot” (Ed Zitron)

Dad Joke of the Day: What’s blue and doesn’t weigh much?

• Heteropessimism
• Dysregulation
• Garlic

In his horrifying and Clark Ashton Smith-creepy Ubik, 1 Philip K. Dick (PKD) invents or at least discovers the chatbot. The protagonist is Joe Chip; G. G. Ashwood is a business associate, accompanied by a potential employee Chip has agreed to interview. The AI, the door, cannot, by definition, be a protagonist, but I have helpfully underlined its tokenized outputs:

Man on the moon:

(1) “Kudlow: Mamdani a ‘throwback to Stalin’ ”

(2) “The Democrats Are Determined Not to Learn From Their Failure”

(3) “A mathematical proof that AI will destroy the economy”

4) Ebola and airborne transmission.

Dad Joke of the Day: Dogs can’t operate MRI machines.

• Learnings.
• Clout.
• Influencer.

I was reading Frank Herbert’s shockingly underrated The Dosadi Experiment on a flight the other day, and marked this passage for future reference. Herbert’s world-building is complex, but suffice to say that McKie, of the Bureau of Sabotage, is deposing Aritch, an elite Gowachin (the frog people), as his client under Gowachin Law. The Gowachin control an entire prison planet, Dosadi, populated by both human and Gowachin, test subjects all.