Pitchaya Sudbanthad

David Bowie, looking stylish in white short sleeves and tan shorts, standing, hands in pockets, on a planks across flood waters in Bangkok in the early 80s. Photo: Denis O'Regan.

David Bowie, in white short sleeves and tan shorts, walking in ankle-deep water by a vegetable stand in a flooded neighborhood. Photo: Denis O'Regan.

Bowie in Bangkok, walking through the floodwaters that I'd later come to remember when writing my first book.

Photos: Denis O'Regan.

Overnight, an Iranian drone boat hit the cargo vessel MAYUREE NAREE BANGKOK as it tried to make a run through the strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian USV hit the rear of the vessel, setting it ablaze and forcing most of then crew to abandon ship.

AI Is One of the Least-Liked Things in America, According to New NBC Poll The poll finds that AI is viewed less positively than ICE and President Donald Trump, and only more positively than Iran and the Democratic Party.

So surprising that people would hate such an unethical, unsustainable tech: "Only 26% of voters said they view AI positively..."

Increasing energy dependence on a volatile, globally traded commodity delivers neither energy security nor affordability. Hope that helps. 🫡

Think geopolitics is bad? Look at geoeconomics Markets suggest the lran ramifications are likely to drag on and spread

"As analyst Luke Gromen put it in a recent newsletter, “Iran does not have to defeat the US military; it just has to defeat the UST market”, the idea being that a serious bond market downturn would force the US to pull back."

"Compared to the last maximum disruption during the 1956 Suez Crisis (as a percentage of total liquids demand), this represents the largest oil supply loss in history, by a factor of two

Worse, unlike in past crises, there's zero spare capacity available"- David McNally of Rapidan

March 8, 2026 - Tehran at sunrise today. But the sun is hidden behind a sky filled with smoke. After a night of intensive strikes on oil facilities, thick black clouds now hang over the city, turning morning into something that feels like night.

Carbon emissions now more than double the planetary boundary, analysis finds Earth is not infinite. Pollution beyond certain levels threatens the climate and ecosystems. To prevent this, scientists have proposed planetary boundaries, defining the safe operating limits of the Earth system.

Current annual carbon emissions are more than twice the Earth's sustainable limit, highlighting the urgent need for accelerated decarbonization and integrated pollution management strategies. doi.org/hbrnw6

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Matt Reuter. #NewYorkerCartoons

'The revolution needs your ears:' the case against wearing AirPods all the time Constant yammering in your ears isn't just bad for your brain, it's making public spaces less public

"I live in this city because it’s endlessly fascinating to me; why do I tune out so many of its microtransactions and minor negotiations of humanity that make up its shared space?"

@timdonnelly.com makes a compelling case for taking off your damn headphones nygroove.nyc/stop-wearing...

Celebrate #WorldBookDay with a look at some of the most beautiful and unusual examples from the first 100 years of the “modern” book cover, since the rise of publishers' bindings circa 1820: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-art-of-book-covers-1820-1914

never, ever, ever, ever accept "how will you pay for it?" as an argument against social programs.

Global sea levels have been underestimated due to poor modelling, research suggests Analysis shows average levels are 30cm higher than thought, and up to 150cm in south-east Asia and Indo-Pacific

"Globally, the research found ocean levels are an average of 30cm higher than previously believed, but in some areas of the global south, including south-east Asia and the Indo-Pacific, they may be 100-150cm higher than previously thought."

When the New York Public Library's wealthy trustees tried to get rid of physical books, & turn the beloved main branch (guarded by the two lions) into a kind of upscale mall, they presented this as inevitable too.

People fought back—turns out people really like books!—& they had to drop the plan.

The strikes on Iran show why quitting oil is more important than ever Oil isn’t a normal commodity – it shapes politics around the world.

"Solar panels, once installed, generate energy locally. The vulnerability shifts from ongoing fuel imports to upfront manufacturing dependence...Reducing oil dependence is often framed as climate policy. But it is also vital to energy security and national security."

Social media created this nonsense idea that not exposing yourself to hatred is isolationist. Choosing to not spend your free time with bigots isn’t living in a bubble. I don’t need to know what’s going on at X. I won’t be smarter or more knowledgeable or empathic by being there. Neither will you.

Everybody is really sleeping on the “Oracle gets destroyed by openai and data center debt” as a possibility

People are always like what’s something you miss from the past and one of mine is antitrust laws

Ancient stepwells brought back to life as India begins to run out of water Centuries-old wells restored to provide drinking water as parts of the country head towards “day zero” when no water will be available

Ancient stepwells brought back to life as India begins to run out of water

This economic idea transfixed Wall Street and Washington. It may be a mirage. Massive investment in AI contributed “basically zero” to U.S. economic growth last year, Goldman Sachs has calculated.

"Prominent economists, including from Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, calculate that the AI buildup was directly responsible not for 92 percent or 39 percent of gains to the U.S. economy in 2025, but as little as zero."

On April 29, 1986, I stood on the corner of Fifth Street and Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles and watched black smoke pour from the windows of L.A.'s Central Library. The big library, which I loved, and in which l wrote my first novel, was a victim not only of arson, but of years-decades-of neglect, political bickering, and short-term think-ing. Ironically, by the time of the fire, the building's long-needed renovations had finally been scheduled. This year, those ren-ovations, made all the more urgent by the fire, will be com-piete-Just in time for another, broader library crisis. All over the country now, public libraries are in as much danger from shortsighted budget cuts, political expediency, and neglect as the old firetrap Central Library ever was from fire. The L.A. Library fire was a metaphor for what's happening to libraries in Some libraries have al- ready been closed. Others have had to cut hours, staff, services, and acquisitions. This is not sensible! We Americans of the 1990s are sending our unskilled and semiskilled jobs away to low-wage countries just as fast as we can. We're hoping that the long-term result of this will be to stimulate enough of an increase in trade to create new, better-paying jobs. Of course new workers will need more education to get those jobs, and displaced workers will need job-market information and retraining. But meanwhile, we're saving money by cutting school budgets, closing school libraries. raising university tuitions and fees, and diminishing or closing public libraries In my most recent book, my main character, who lives in a poorer, dumber near-future time, writes, "Intelligence is ongoing, individual adaptability." And "Civilization is ... a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptability." Just so. And in the present time of great change, public libraries, like public schools are among the best tools of adaptation and civilization that our society has. Public libraries in parti…

In 1993, Octavia E. Butler wrote a defense of public libraries.

“Public libraries in particular are the open universities of America. They're free; they're accessible to everyone… I'm a writer at least partly because I had access to public libraries.“

This one hits hard.

Georgia was skating to MORTAL KOMBAT at the Olympics exhibition gala

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...

Every word of this is a nightmare www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The People vs. AI Across red states and blue, a grassroots movement is pushing back on the unchecked growth of the artificial intelligence industry.

"The public thinks AI will worsen our ability to think creatively, form meaningful relationships, and make difficult decisions, Pew found. Other surveys show Americans believe AI will spread misinformation, erode our sense of purpose and meaning, and harm our social and emotional intelligence."

In 1942, over 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry were unjustly incarcerated in America's concentration camps and deprived of their civil rights and due process. Sadly, there is an absolute parallel between what happened then and what’s happening today to immigrant communities throughout the nation.

‘We’re no longer attracting top talent’: the brain drain killing American science As Trump slashes science funding, young researchers flee abroad. Without solid innovation, the US could cease to have the largest biomedical ecosystem in the world

"The brain drain is prompting existential fears that American science, a powerhouse of the US economy and of global public health, is being deprived of its lifeblood."

At These Gaza Schools, ‘Peace Building’ Is Part of the Curriculum

A network of free private schools for war orphans and other children has sprouted in Gaza. The schools, called Academies of Hope, are the brainchild of a Palestinian American neurosurgeon, Dr. David Hasan, who visited Gaza on relief missions.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/w...

If you want to understand this moment in time, and all the ways unassuming tech is weaponized, you need to be reading @404media.co.

More than 150 Countries Agree That Focus on GDP Harms Nature The nations signed off on a major report, three years in the making, that concluded the global economy isn’t adequately pricing in biodiversity risks.

GDP, the worst and most harmful of the measures esteemed by a long procession of thoughtless, careless economists: "A focus on growth as measured by the gross domestic product” has resulted in significant damage to the natural world, says the study..."