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Tuesday, May 05, 2026

Alberta separatists said Monday they have formally submitted almost 302,000 signatures to try to trigger a referendum on the province leaving Canada. The group needed 178,000 signatures to force the province to consider such a vote.


OpEd: When Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in February that the Defense Department would sever ties with Harvard University, he framed the move as an act of ideological hygiene. read more


This makes it harder for shows produced by actual humans to stand out on "new" or "trending" lists.


Greenland's ice sheet is now melting in ways never seen before, with extreme events becoming more frequent, widespread, and intense. Since 1990, meltwater production has skyrocketed, and most record-breaking events have occurred in recent years.


Lawmakers said the Justice Department has indicated Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon -- a candidate to replace Pam Bondi as attorney general -- will represent her in a transcribed interview later this month, raising ethical concerns.


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Trump sees himself as a world-historical figure -- like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon
attentiontotheunseen.com

... Had President Trump, we wondered, possibly been reading or at least thumbing through -- just maybe -- the works of ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel?

Impossible.

And yet.

Hegel's theory of "world-historical individuals," men who redirected the course of humanity, focused on three figures: Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon Bonaparte. Hegel described them as unlikely "heroes of an Epoch" for upending established orders that had previously seemed fixed.

They were "practical, political men" who were each condemned in their age for smashing norms and for other conduct "obnoxious to moral reprehension" -- as Trump has been accused of, centuries later.

And though Trump has long compared himself to America's two greatest presidents, we were recently told by two people who are in a position to know such things -- a senior administration official and a longtime Trump confidant -- that the president had, in private conversations, begun thinking about himself less as a peer of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and more as an addition to Hegel's immortal trifecta.

"He's been talking recently about how he is the most powerful person to ever live," the confidant told us.

"He wants to be remembered as the one who did things that other people couldn't do, because of his sheer power and force of will." ...



More from the article ...

... Podcast directories are increasingly dominated by AI-generated shows, according to the Podcast Index's New Feeds Report. Updated daily, the report indicates that AI-generated podcasts account for about 35.4% of new podcasts, with one particular day peaking at 39%.

Inception Point AI appears to be one of the biggest contributors to this surge, responsible for roughly a quarter of new podcast feeds. Generative AI lets companies spin up thousands of shows that target narrow topics, keywords, or languages, in hopes of capturing search traffic and advertising revenue with minimal human involvement.

One AI firm now produces around 3,000 podcast episodes per week across multiple feeds.

This creates new challenges for podcast platforms and listeners. Directories and playlists are quickly being cluttered with low-quality, repetitive audio, making it harder for listeners to find shows produced by actual people when they browse "new" or "trending" lists.

Some creators -- including those who use AI tools for editing, transcription, or research -- are worried that feeds clogged with AI-generated content will overshadow their work.

Of course, there's also an issue with misinformation and trust. AI platforms can generate authoritative sounding health or news podcasts at scale, even if the information they convey is incorrect, and voice cloning tools raise the risk of audio that imitates real people without consent. Clearer labeling, stronger spam filters, and new rules around voice use will be important as AI generated podcasts continue to proliferate. ...



@#3

Related ...

Rising waters: a practical look at Miami's future (2025)
www.theinvadingsea.com

... As the director of Social and Sustainable Enterprises at Florida State University, I've spent years examining the growing risks of rising sea levels in South Florida. Working alongside graduate research students, we've analyzed data from coastal monitoring stations and economic reports, revealing patterns that demand immediate attention from policymakers and residents alike.

The water is rising, and we're already feeling it

Let's start with what we can all see with our own eyes. Last year's "king tide" season " those extra-high tides between September and November " flooded Miami Beach and downtown streets, disrupting traffic and businesses. These aren't hurricanes or tropical storms but "sunny-day floods."

The numbers tell a clear story: Florida's water levels have risen 8 inches since 1950, and are now rising as much as 1 inch every three years. Scientists project that sea levels could rise 10 to 17 inches higher by 2040 than they were in 2000. That might not sound like much, but every inch counts in a place as flat as Miami. ...



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