April 8, 2026

THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING SOME PEOPLE:

Especially this guy:

Posted at 11:57 am by Stephen Green

NIFTY: From folding boxes to fixing vacuums, GEN-1 robotics model hits 99% reliability.

Robotic machine-learning company Generalist has announced GEN-1, a new physical AI system that it says “crosses into production-level success rates” on “a broad range of physical skills” that used to require the dexterity and muscle memory of human hands. Generalist is also touting the new model’s ability to respond to disruptions by improvising new moves and “connect[ing] ideas from different places in order to solve new problems.”

GEN-1 builds on Generalist’s previous GEN-0 model, which the company touted in November as a proof of concept for the applicability of scaling laws in robotics training, showing how more pre-training data and compute time improve post-training performance. But while large language models have been able to effectively process trillions of words collectively written on the Internet as part of their training, robotic models don’t have a similar, readily accessible source of quality data about how humans manipulate objects.

To help solve this problem, Generalist has relied on “data hands,” a set of wearable pincers that capture micro-movements and visual information as humans perform manual tasks. Generalist now claims it has collected over half a million hours and “petabytes of physical interaction data” to help train its physical model.

This is important because replicating what the human hand can do — from wielding a hammer to separating an egg — is extremely difficult. Particularly at scale and affordability, which is exactly what Tesla wants to do with Optimus.

Posted at 11:42 am by Stephen Green

PERSPECTIVE:

Posted at 11:26 am by Stephen Green

THEY TOLD ME THE REPLACEMENT THEORY WAS JUST RIGHT-WING PARANOIA:

Hard to dispute this from the replies: “Oh, so cousin marriage is ok, but white people having kids with white people is not. Got ya. They want everyone to be clinically retarded.”

The Danes could use that Viking spirit again.

Posted at 10:55 am by Stephen Green

IT’S JUST CATCHING UP TO NATO’S SUPPORT FOR THE US: Republicans’ Support for NATO Falls Sharply.

Thirty-eight percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents say the U.S. benefits at least somewhat from NATO, down from 49% last year.

At the same time, 60% now say the U.S. benefits not too much or not at all from the alliance, marking the first time a majority of Republicans have expressed that view.

The survey was conducted in late March, shortly before President Donald Trump said he was strongly considering withdrawing the U.S. from NATO.

Overall, 59% of Americans say the U.S. benefits from NATO membership, with support driven largely by Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents.

Democrats support NATO more than they did during the ’80s because the alliance — or at least the Western European members — is almost as anti-American as they are.

Posted at 10:40 am by Stephen Green

AN IMPORTANT REMINDER FROM DATA R:

Takeaway line: “You cannot describe the actual mechanism through which J6 would have actually resulted in a coup or insurrection, because there was no planning at all involved. Unlike in actual color revolutions.”

Posted at 10:24 am by Stephen Green

TRUMP’S ENEMIES HAVE EITHER FORGOTTEN 1979, OR THEY’RE ROOTING FOR THE MULLAHS:

Posted at 10:22 am by Ed Driscoll

TO ASK THE QUESTION IS TO ANSWER IT: Why is it That So Little of the ‘Science’ Around ‘Gun Violence’ Can be Replicated? “Last week, NRA-ILA pointed to new research showing that the social ‘sciences’ exhibit woeful, and increasing, political bias. Compounding this problem, this week, a large team of researchers published another study showing that roughly half of social ‘science’ research can’t be replicated. Replication is vital to determining whether a study’s conclusions are in fact valid.”

Or to put a finer point on it, whether the researchers did anything approximating science.

Posted at 9:38 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Gavin Newsom’s Wife Is a Real Piece of Work Also Plus Maybe a Witch. “Oh, where to begin with this one. If California Governor Gavin Newsom and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom were starring in a reality television show, an apt title for it would be, The Worst White People in America. You could actually rotate quite a cast of pasty, privileged Democrats through various episodes, but California’s first fascist family would always be the most awful of the bunch.”

Posted at 9:07 am by Stephen Green

IT’S A WILD RIDE, BUT A FUN ONE:

Posted at 8:58 am by Glenn Reynolds

SAD: Young and glum in the Anglosphere.

No English-speaking country ranked among the world’s 10 happiest nations. New Zealand placed 11th and Australia 15th, while the US ranked 23rd, between Saudi Arabia (22nd) and Poland (24th).

Happiness scores are up in most countries around the globe — except for the Anglosphere, where young people are distinctly less chipper, write Howe and Ford.

In other surveys, young Anglospherians also report “lower life satisfaction and growing distrust in institutions,” they write. “Generation Hopeless” is “down on democracy and drawn to populism.”

Young people are happier now than 20 years ago in a majority of countries, but not in North America or Western Europe, according to the report.

Heavy social media users seem to be less happy.

No surprises there.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): The Anglosphere has been the subject of nonstop memetic warfare for longer than I have been alive. The original source of that warfare, the Soviet Union, is gone, but the memes live on.

Posted at 8:36 am by Stephen Green

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS:

Tweet begins, “Somewhere along the way, taxes stopped being about roads, courts, and national defense. They now exist to sustain worthless politicians and to reward the friends, donors, contractors, and constituencies that keep them in power.”

Posted at 8:35 am by Ed Driscoll

A BRIDGE TOO FAR:

Posted at 8:22 am by Ed Driscoll

GEORGIA:

Posted at 8:19 am by Glenn Reynolds