Media Lab Director Joi Ito confessed that he had secretly accepted donations from Epstein after MIT had decided not to do so.

He also accepted funds for some personal activities of his own.

That dishonesty, and conflict of interest, make his resignation obligatory.

But I fear for the effect on the Media Lab. Under Negroponte, the lab was notoriously stingy and proprietary. Ito corrected that. I fear that the next director will undo some of Ito's changes.

Factory farms in Brittany are causing deadly toxic algae to bloom in sea.

The Tories are rationing medical treatments, and visits to specialists, in order to give the wealthy a new tax cut.

The bullshitter said he was about to have a secret meeting in the US with Taliban negotiators, and cancelled it because they carried out a bomb attack in Afghanistan. (No cease-fire had been agreed.)

Lots of politicians criticized him for this, al everyone assuming he was telling the truth about what he had done. I wouldn't believe, on his say-so, that he had cancelled a meeting, or that there ever was a plan for a meeting.

Then the Taliban affirmed that the bullshitter cancelled a meeting with them. Amazing — he told the truth about this!

I don't agree with the critics that there is anything wrong in inviting Taliban negotiators to meet with US representatives, whether in the US, or anywhere else. I am surprised though that they trusted him enough to say they would come.

The bullshitter's approach to diplomacy is to posture as tough by canceling meetings on whatever excuse comes to hand. I don't see anything inherently wrong with that maneuver, but I doubt it pressures other countries' negotiators as he thinks it does. I expect they see through it.

That being so, if it creates a problem in negotiations, at least it won't be permanent.

Summer Heatwaves in France Killed 1,500, Says Health Minister.

After the 2003 heat wave, France took precautions to prevent heat waves from killing people. For the latest heat wave to have killed almost the same number, despite the precautions, it must have been considerably stronger.