2026-03-19 03:52:38
“I remember literally running into my husband’s office and saying, ‘Come look at this email, I think I’m being punked.’” That was how UC Irvine criminology professor Charis E. Kubrin reacted after learning that she had been nominated for the Stockholm Prize, the highest honor in her field. And you can’t really blame her. For years, she has been punked, doubted, dismissed, and attacked over her research. Why? Because it’s research that flies in the face of what most Americans believe — their certainty based on longstanding, preconceived notions, bolstered nonstop by the assurances of one of the world’s most prolific liars, combined with what’s become America’s unofficial favorite pastime: Doing your own research. Research and science being doubted and flouted is hardly unique in today’s America, but in Kubrin’s case, her findings strike at the heart of a political movement and at the core of a set of policies that are reshaping America’s streets (and values). “Kubrin was being recognized for rigorous research that demonstrated in place after place, decade after decade, that immigration to the U.S. does not cause crime to go up; it may even push it down.” When Kubrin won her award, Anne Ramberg, who chairs the Stockholm Prize in Criminology Foundation, explained: “When policymaking becomes driven by populism rather than by evidence, society as a whole stands to suffer.” In other words, Don’t Study Crime, If You Won’t Take the Time. A UC professor won criminology’s highest honor. Americans still don’t believe her research (Alt link). “The distance between what is empirically known and what is deeply believed has tormented scholars since before Galileo. But the schism has rarely felt so impassable in American culture.” (Even today, I’m sure there are plenty of Americans who don’t believe that the earth orbits the sun. They think it orbits Donald Trump.)
“Donald Trump does not think strategically. Nor does he think historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. He does not think about how his behavior in one place will change the behavior of other people in other places. He does not consider the wider implications of his decisions. He does not take responsibility when these decisions go wrong. Instead, he acts on whim and impulse, and when he changes his mind—when he feels new whims and new impulses—he simply lies about whatever he said or did before.” Anne Applebaum has been right about Trump since the beginning and she sums him up pretty well in this lede. And, like it or not, that strategy has worked out for Trump over the years. But now he’s in a war he hasn’t been able to fully explain and asking for, then not asking for, then demanding, then saying he doesn’t need the assistance of allies that he has maligned, bullied, embarrassed, and disregarded for years. And, “this week, something broke. Maybe Trump does not understand the link between the past and the present, but other people do.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Everyone but Trump Understands What He’s Done.
+ Unlike Trump, Bibi has been preparing for this moment for years, and has a defined strategy. Whether or not it will work (or whether or not Trump will remain on board with it) is another question. Netanyahu Hopes Strikes on Iran Will Lead to Uprising and Regime Change.
+ Netanyahu’s strategy is based in part on removing layer after layer of the leadership of the Iranian regime. (Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmaeil Khatib, was killed on Wednesday). Israel and the US have also been targeting Iran’s energy sites, threatening the regime, but also global energy supplies.
+ Russia has seen sanctions drop and oil sales surge. It’s a pretty nice reward for a country that’s been attacking a US ally for years and is currently aiding Iran in its fight against the US. WSJ (Gift Article): Russia Is Sharing Satellite Imagery and Drone Technology With Iran.
“He locked the door, as he always did when he called her, and told her how lonely he had been. He brought her onto the yoga mat that he often used in his office for meditation, kissed her and pulled her pants down. ‘Don’t tell anyone,’ he told her afterward. ‘They’d get jealous.’ The man, Cesar Chavez, one of the most revered figures in the Latino civil rights movement, was 45. She was 13. Ms. Murguia said she was summoned for sexual encounters with him dozens of times over the next four years.” NYT (Gift Article) with a brutal report. Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years.
Smoking rates recently dropped below 10% for the first time since we got into the habit. That’s among Americans. American humans, to be more precise. Cigarette use has actually increased among birds. “Darwin’s finches in the Galápagos, house finches in Mexico and song thrushes in New Zealand have all developed a curious habit: They put cigarette butts in their nests. Some songbirds in Britain are even nesting in outdoor ashtrays.” NYT(Gift Article): Why Some Birds Seem to Be Developing a Cigarette Habit. “Cigarette butts contain about 4,000 chemical compounds, including nicotine, arsenic, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals. These compounds could ward off pests that harm birds and their offspring.”
Unmanned v Unprepared? “With Operation Epic Fury well into its third week, there are two increasingly urgent questions: how long U.S. defense systems can continue to hold off such attacks — not just in Iraq, but throughout the Middle East — and whether the U.S. underestimated the threat of Iran’s drones in the first place.” (I actually doubt that the military underestimated Iran’s drone program. But I wonder if we’re all underestimating the extent to which cheap drones, AI, and other tech are altering the battlefield and eroding some of the advantages held by the world’s military powers.) Cheap drones are reshaping modern warfare — and catching the U.S. off guard. In Ukraine, they know the power of Iranian-made drones all too well. Ukraine strings nets over cities as killer drones turn streets into war zones.
+ Mark Wanes: “Senator Markwayne Mullin, President Trump’s often pugilistic pick to lead the department, struck a milder tone at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.” Wow, I’ve never heard of nominees changing their tune during confirmation hearings. “Mullin apologized for his comments about the shooting of Alex Pretti. He declined, however, to apologize for his comments about the shooting of Renee Good, saying that the officer had to make a split-second decision.” Here’s the latest from NYT.
+ Opposite World, Continued: Trump’s tariffs are hurting American manufacturers instead of helping them. And, Trump Promised the ‘World’s Lowest’ Drug Prices. We Checked the Numbers. (It’s getting really hard to take this guy at his word.)
+ This May Be of Interest: Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady, keeps 1 cut in play this year as uncertainty mounts. (One more thing for the market to be unhappy about...)
+ Stomping Stamps: “If it continues business as usual, the U.S. Postal Service is on track to run out of cash for paying its workers and vendors in about a year and may have to stop deliveries.” This probably doesn’t help. Amazon reportedly plans to slash its USPS delivery volumes by at least two-thirds. (Why would Amazon need the USPS? At this point, it won’t be long before they build a distribution center in your driveway...)
+ All Is Not Well: “Attia also went on to become one of the most trusted wellness influencers, with 1 million YouTube subscribers, 1.6 million followers on Instagram and 100 million downloads of his podcast.” I’m always dubious of the phrase, trusted wellness influencer, but Attia was as big as it gets. And then, because of his Epstein connection, it all came crashing down. Bloomberg(Gift Article): The Rise and Fall of Peter Attia’s Longevity Empire. (Maybe he should have studied career longevity...)
+ If Not Now, Ven? “Venezuela reigns supreme, the U.S. once again fell short by a run, and the global vibes of the sport were on full display.” The Winners and Losers of the 2026 World Baseball Classic. “Much like 2023, the most lasting takeaway won’t be that the Americans lost, but that this tournament has become appointment viewing. For two weeks every three years, the sport sheds its leisurely pace and turns into a high-stakes and emotionally charged spectacle rivaled only by October in intensity.” (Even as a fan, I was nowhere near ready for this level of baseball in March.)
“If people were talking about the town and our policies, that would be one thing. But all they’re interested in is our names.” That must be frustrating. But in fairness, this is a local election between Hittler and Zielinski.
+ Texting a random stranger better for loneliness than talking to a chatbot. (Funny, I’ve been typing STOP to random strangers who send me texts for years, and I don’t feel less lonely...)
2026-03-18 02:04:37
Over the past few years, much of our political discourse has been focused on the roads that cross America’s Southern border, and the drugs those roads carry. But sometimes we forget the route between the US and Mexico is a two-way street. The traffic going the other way, the way we talk about less often, features a much more permeable border over which another dangerous payload is delivered at a relentless pace. And, in a twisted irony, the more the traffic coming up is slowed, the more the traffic going down speeds up. And you might be surprised by which country suffers the most from what crosses the border. The NYT(Gift Article) provides an in-depth roadmap toward understanding the delivery of the most American of exports. Inside the Supply Line Delivering American Guns to Mexican Cartels. “One smuggler said the border is so porous that cartel members sometimes tape gun parts and sometimes even entire firearms directly to their bodies and walk them into Mexico.”
Ai is reshaping our computing (and life) experience at a breathtaking pace. But quantum computing could make today’s advances seem like they’re coming in slow motion. And some experts say we’re only a few years away from this new reality. “When this point is reached, some problems that would take a traditional computer more than trillions of years to solve could take a quantum computer mere minutes, changing business as usual for industries involved with financial trading, shipping logistics, pharmaceuticals, scientific discovery, data encryption, insurance, internet delivery and more.” WSJ (Gift Article) with a good explainer to get you up to speed. How Quantum Computing Works.
+ Maybe no one has experienced the current computing advances more dramatically than the coders who helped create these new platforms. Actually, these days, they do less coding and more cajoling, ordering, and occasionally threatening. NYT (Gift Article): Coding After Coders: The End of Computer Programming as We Know It. “Many software developers these days berate their A.I. agents, plead with them, shout important commands in uppercase — or repeat the same command multiple times, like a hypnotist — and discover that the A.I. now seems to be slightly more obedient.”
It remains unclear whether Iran’s regime is losing its grip on the country. It’s much more clear that being a leader in that regime can be a dead-end job. “Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force, were ‘eliminated last night,’ Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said. Larijani was considered one of the most powerful figures in the country since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an airstrike on the first day of the war.”
+ “Mr. Larijani, the head of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, was the de facto leader of the country after U.S.-Israeli airstrikes killed the upper echelons of government and the military early in the war. He was known to be trusted by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who was killed at the start of the U.S.-Israeli campaign late last month. Mr. Larijani’s responsibilities had grown steadily over the past few months, including overseeing the brutal crackdown on antigovernment protesters in January.” But could the void his death leaves be filled by even more extreme hardliners? NYT(Gift Article): Israel’s Killing of Ali Larijani Could Allow Military to Tighten Grip on Iran.
+ Joe Kent, a Top U.S. Counterterrorism Official, Resigns Over the Iran War. Kent has a history of pushing conspiracy theories, has been a key advisor to Tulsi Gabbard, and is buds with Tucker Carlson. Still, his departure “bluntly exposes how the Iran war is expanding fissures in President Trump’s coalition.”
+ UK security adviser attended US-Iran talks and judged deal was within reach. “Powell’s presence at the talks, and his close knowledge of how they were progressing, was confirmed by three sources. One source said he was in the building at Oman’s ambassadorial residence in Cologny acting as an adviser, reflecting widespread concern about the US expertise on the talks represented by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy on several issues.”
+ Jared Kushner Reportedly Seeks $5B From Middle East Governments for His Firm While Serving as Envoy. (He is charged with solving all the world’s most complex problems and he still has time to manage his investment fund. Now that’s multitasking.)
+ “The window for Donald Trump to end the Iran war by simply declaring victory and walking away is rapidly closing. Soon he will face a stark choice: He can take greater risks in pursuit of a decisive tactical success, prepare the country for a prolonged conflict that could last for many months, or seek a negotiated settlement that involves a real compromise with Tehran.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Disappearing Off-Ramp in Iran.
+ “President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that one of his predecessors told him he wished he had been the one to bomb Iran.” The only problem with that: He didn’t speak to any of the four former presidents.
“A defibrillator delivers up to 1,000 volts to a patient’s heart; inmates executed by electric chair typically receive about 2,000. A typical lightning strike, by contrast, transmits 100 million volts or more.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): What 100 Million Volts Do to the Body and Mind. “The most fundamental consequences of being struck by lightning are often metaphysical, and not easily communicable. How does falling victim to one of the most notoriously unlikely of all misfortunes reorient your sense of chance, of fate? How does it feel, when you’re trying to describe the most transformative experience of your life, to be met, routinely, with disbelief?”
Ballot Box Out: “Legislation that would require proof of U.S. citizenship for new voters has become a rallying cry for President Donald Trump, who claims that passage of the bill will ‘guarantee the midterms’ for his Republican Party in November. The bill, which the Senate will take up as early as Tuesday, would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register and to present approved identification when they go to the polls, among other new rules that Trump and his most loyal supporters are pushing as part of an effort to assert more federal control over elections.” What’s in the voting bill that Republicans are pushing to the Senate floor. (International strategies may never quite form, but election ones never waver.)
+ Who’s Got Next? “I think Cuba is seeing the end,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on March 16, adding that he believes he’ll have the ‘honor’ of ‘taking’ the country... ‘Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it.’” The Crisis in Cuba, Explained.
+ Your Money or Your Life? How’s this for a lede to define America’s current foreign policy? “The State Department is considering withholding lifesaving assistance to people with H.I.V. in Zambia as a negotiating tactic to force the government of the southern African country to sign a deal giving the United States more access to its critical minerals.”
+ Gamble Bramble: “Kalshi may brand itself as a ‘prediction market,’ but what it’s actually doing is running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law.” Arizona files criminal charges against Kalshi, accusing prediction market of illegal gambling.
+ Ready, Fire, Aim: “Our data on the USA goes back to 1789. What we’re seeing now is the most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever in the country.” ‘Trump is aiming for dictatorship’. That’s the verdict of the world’s most credible democracy watchdog. (In case you’ve missed the last few hundred editions...)
+ Whaling Away at Wind: NYT (Gift Article): Trump Officials Weigh New $1 Billion Deal to Stop Offshore Wind Farms. “Mr. Trump has disparaged offshore wind power since 2012, when he tried unsuccessfully to stop a wind farm visible from one of his golf courses in Scotland. He has often called the projects ugly and inefficient, and he has claimed without evidence that they are ‘driving whales crazy.’”
+ The Hour Is Getting Late: Amazon now offers 1-hour delivery in hundreds of U.S. cities. (We’re being turned into a nation of Veruca Salts...)
“According to data from a large US insurance claims database, the month of March – during which the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament takes place – can see a spike in vasectomies performed.” (This can definitely impact your team’s seeding...)
2026-03-17 03:57:12
Sinners, one battle after another, a Frankenstein’s monster wreaking havoc ... we’ll get to the Trump administration news soon enough. But let’s start with the Oscars. I have a feeling this will go down as one of the more forgettable Oscar nights. That could be because in today’s nonstop stream of massive, anxiety-inducing news, it’s impossible to remember anything for more than a few minutes. Or maybe it’s just because TV is so dominant now that many of us were just waiting for the Oscars to end so we could get back to our regularly scheduled binge. One person who definitely put in his time waiting was Paul Thomas Anderson, who finally ended his 0-11 streak and took home three trophies for One Battle After Another. PTA was joined in his big night by several winners from Sinners, including Autumn Durald Arkapaw, making Oscar history as the first woman to win Best Cinematography, and Michael B Jordan’s crowd-pleasing win for Best Actor. From The Wire to Friday Night Lights to Sinners, Jordan has had a career of nonstop highlights. So he definitely deserved an In-N-Out break. Sean Penn won his third Oscar, but skipped the ceremony. He was hanging with Zelensky in Ukraine. Sinners and One Battle divvied up the night’s biggest wins during an event when there really were no losers. Except maybe Marty Supreme, which, perhaps suffering from Timothée Chalamet’s ping pong diplomacy, left the night empty-handed. Here’s a list of all the winners.
+ Between Sinners and Battle, Warner Bros was the dominant studio, winning a record 11 Oscars. But will this mark the end of an era as David and Larry Ellison’s Paramount moves toward closing the deal to acquire the studio? It’s hard to imagine the new leadership (that includes a growing list of former MeToo castoffs) is going to dig movies with the cultural and political messages of Warner Bros 2026 winners. It’s easier to imagine Warner’s creative output looking like a juke joint after a visit from a band of vampires.
+ Related: Kimmel won the Oscars with the line of the night. “There are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which, let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS.”
+ Here’s Conan’s opening monologue, Billy Crystal’s tribute to Rob Reiner, and some of the evening’s viral moments,
+ While the best movies of the year divided up the top awards, the worst movie of the year enjoyed a more unanimous win. ‘War of the Worlds’ remake sinks to the bottom at this year’s Razzie Awards.
It turns out that disparaging, threatening, humiliating, and nauseating allies might not have been the best strategy. So far, many of America’s strongest allies have refused Trump’s call to help open the Strait of Hormuz. So he’s disparaging them more. But it doesn’t matter, because we don’t need them anyway. Nah, nah. Trump Disparages Allies for Rebuffing His Requests for Military Assistance. “’We don’t need anybody; we’re the strongest nation in the world,’ Mr. Trump said. He suggested his request for assistance in reopening the Strait of Hormuz instead amounted to a loyalty test of America’s allies. ‘I’m almost doing it in some cases not because we need them but because I want to find out how they react.’”
+ WSJ (Gift Article): Trump Wants to Secure Hormuz. Here’s What It Would Take.
+ Things are not going well for Iran. The regime is damaged. Their ability to defend themselves and threaten others has been greatly diminished. Where things go from here could depend on allies and political strategy, which makes the above story all the more worrisome.
+ “As the price of oil soars to $100 a barrel and countries scramble to limit the fallout of the sudden loss of Middle East fuel, China has two significant advantages over its geopolitical rivals. Many of its new cars run on electricity. And that electricity is mostly powered by sources at home.” NYT (Gift Article): China’s Edge in an Oil Shock: Electric Cars and Renewables.
+ Meanwhile, the administration seems more obsessed with how the war is being covered than how it’s been planned. First, there are the attempts to sell the war using video games and sports memes, which I covered on Friday in Wii the People. Then there are threats to shut down journalism that doesn’t function as state media. F.C.C. Chair Threatens to Revoke Broadcasters’ Licenses Over War Coverage. “Democratic lawmakers and free-speech watchdogs were quick to condemn Mr. Carr’s threat as a violation of the First Amendment.” (There was a time every American would condemn these threats.)
“My minor report on a missile striking an open area was now in the middle of a betting war, with those who had bet ‘No’ on an Iranian strike on Israel on March 10 demanding I change my article to ensure they would win big.” Another reason prediction markets are a bad idea: Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don’t rewrite an Iran missile story.
Meet “Iceland’s only ‘lava cooling manager’ — or ‘hraunkælingarstjori’ in Icelandic.” NYT (Gift Article): Iceland’s Chief ‘Lava Cooler’ Is Bracing for the Next Eruption. “More than two years ago, as the earth seethed, Icelandic officials scrambled to make a plan. The first eruption in that area came just days before Christmas in 2023. Within hours, lava was just about a mile and a half from the fishing town of Grindavik, whose 3,500 residents had already fled from their homes. Billowing smoke and lava fountains reached more than 300 feet into the air. So they came up with a daring idea. If they could not stop it, could they at least steer it?”
Minn There, Done That: “It’s not just that I’ve had to watch the Trump administration destroy cherished alliances, like ours with Western Europe and Canada, that have upheld freedom, democracy and global trade since World War II. It’s also been the stunning cowardice and boundless greed with which leaders of big law firms and Big Tech have bent their knees to King Donald and indulged a cabinet of clowns — not one of whom they’d hire in their own businesses. But then I spent time in my native state, Minnesota, after something else that I’d never seen in nearly 50 years: a spontaneous uprising of civic activism propelled by a single idea — I am my neighbor’s keeper, whoever he or she is and however he or she got here.” Tom Friedman in the NYT (Gift Article): Why Minnesota Matters More Than Iran for America’s Future.
+ But the Beatdown Goes On: “Stephen Miller is the architect of Trump’s immigration policies, and there’s little reason to think that Noem’s ouster will change Miller’s approach. It may even serve to embolden it, by giving him fresh cover. The department has temporarily paused large-scale arrest operations in the wake of a national outcry over abuses in Minnesota, and it is in the midst of a partial shutdown owing to opposition from congressional Democrats. The Administration’s bigger ambitions show no signs of flagging, however. In fact, they are leading toward a new humanitarian and legal crisis.” Jonathan Blitzer in The New Yorker: Trump’s Mass-Detention Campaign. Meanwhile, Deportees sent by Trump to Salvadoran prison are still stuck a year later.
+ Ringing the Farm Alarm: “As the president’s immigration policies squeeze an already tight supply of farm labor, the Trump administration is making it cheaper to hire foreign farmworkers.” No, this is not the Onion. It’s the NYT (Gift Article): To Address Farm Labor Shortage, Trump Administration Turns to Migrant Workers.
+ Markwayne and the Stock Gain: “Mr. Mullin reported buying shares in Chevron, the only major U.S. oil company producing in Venezuela. Five days after the purchase, President Trump attacked Venezuela, demanding that its leadership give better terms to U.S. oil companies. Chevron’s stock price has since jumped, even as the market as a whole has slipped. The Chevron transaction, which Mr. Mullin reported in January, was among as much as $2.8 million he invested in 31 companies on Dec. 29 — and part of a pattern of large and frequent trades that has made him one of the most prolific stock buyers in Congress.” How Trump’s Homeland Security Pick, a Prolific Investor, Got a Lot Wealthier in Congress. (This is an extreme example of a wider, and bipartisan, issue. It’s flat out crazy that members of Congress can purchase individual equities. It’s also flat out crazy that members of Congress can be named Markwayne.)
+ Are You Bot or Not: “The worker uncurls its claw-like fingers, daintily grips the basket by its edges and walks it over to a conveyor that will send it through an industrial washing machine. About a minute after it grabbed the first basket off a pallet, it returns to grab another. So it goes for eight hours a day, basket after basket, pallet after pallet.” WSJ (Gift Article): When Humanoid Robots Come to a Small-Town Factory. (Please come for NextDraft next...)
+ Throw the Book at Em: Does using AI ever remind you of searching through those encyclopedias that once lined your shelves? There might be a reason for that. Encyclopedia Britannica sues OpenAI over AI training.
SNL pushes the trailer for a new show. It’s like the Pitt. But run by RFK Jr. Welcome to MAHAspital.
2026-03-14 07:10:37
I’ve put in my 10,000 hours several times over at the intersection of news and humor, so I feel I’m qualified to assess whether something related to the news is funny or not. Using memeified videos that splice together scenes from Grand Theft Auto, NFL football hits, and Wii games is something I don’t find funny. And I’m guessing other people who don’t find it funny include relatives of service members in harm’s way, Iranians who desperately want to be rid of the regime but live in constant fear that those bombs being memefied might hit an unintended target (like, say a girls’ school), and our allies who once depended on a serious country run by serious people. While the attempt to make violent imagery fun might appeal to some toxic bros, one imagines even the Super Mario Bros wouldn’t mind if Donkey Kong took a hammer to this practice. But this isn’t just the usual trolling by an administration looking to own the libs. All of the people above are seeing these videos and the associated behavior from the administration as it relates to this war. And whether we like it or not, these bombastic bombing jokes are now attributed to the country, not just the puerile punks running the White House social media account. This is us. This is U.S.
+ The videos are a meme-match to the tone of Hegseth’s briefings, which ooze tough-guy testosterone, but seem more focused on attacking the press than explaining our plan of attack. Irate Pete Hegseth claims Iran’s leaders are ‘rats’ in hiding and demands a ‘patriotic press’ rewrite headlines. Meanwhile. Hegseth Says ‘The Sooner David Ellison Takes Over’ CNN ‘the Better.’ (At least when it comes to taking over the airwaves and replacing networks with state media, the strategy is crystal clear.)
+ The same clarity is not showing up in the messaging about the war. And Trump’s latest answer as to when the war will end won’t help. “When I feel it. When I feel it in my bones.”
+ All 6 U.S. crew are dead after a plane goes down in Iraq, as Mideast war toll mounts.
+ “The jockeying for Trump’s ear is a feature of his presidency, but this time the consequences are a matter of war and peace.” Reuters: With Iran war exit elusive, Trump aides vie to affect outcome.
+ The aides who want more (and potentially ground) troops seem to be getting a lot of ear time. Pentagon Is Moving Additional Marines, Warships to the Middle East.
+ “After earlier calling for Iranians to rise up, the president on Friday expressed skepticism about a popular uprising against the government.” Trump Says Iranians Face ‘Big Hurdle’ to Overthrowing Regime.
+ Meanwhile, from the NYT: Trump Removes Sanctions on Russia to Help Oil Flow Amid Iran Conflict. (Come to think of it, Vladimir Putin may be the only person who thinks any of this is funny...)
“We’re now really starting to see the full effects of the Trump administration’s war on electric vehicles as U.S. registrations fell a staggering 41% year-over-year in January — causing gas- and hybrid-powered vehicles to regain marketshare.”
+ Meanwhile, BYD’s latest EVs can get close to full charge in just 12 minutes. “The vehicle has a range of up to 800 km and will be launched in Europe next month and in the UK in the summer.”
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Can Windows do the same? Microsoft “unveiled Copilot Health, a feature within the Copilot app that lets the chatbot dispense personalized healthcare advice informed by the user’s disease history, test results, medications, doctors’ visit notes and biometric data as recorded by wearable devices.” WSJ (Gift Article): Microsoft’s New AI Health Tool Can Read Your Medical Records and Give Advice. All you have to do is turn your head and cough up your data.
What to Watch: I don’t know how to describe the comedy featured in Chris Fleming: Live at the Palace, but I know I was cracking up the whole time I watched it. If you don’t like the jokes, his performance can also double as an exercise video. He runs, he stretches, he planks, and more.
+ What to Movie: The Oscars are this Sunday. So it’s time to binge at least some of the nominees. NPR: Your guide to Oscar-nominated movies and where to watch them.
+ What to Read: If you missed yesterday’s lead featuring a great read from McKay Coppins, who found himself instantly sucked into the world of online sports betting, don’t. It’s a great narrative that provides an overview of a trend I keep covering because it’s going to get completely out of hand. Talking Bout My Degeneration.
Can’t You Smell That Smell? “Already, the air smelled of soot, gasoline, and asphalt. Then I felt a tickle sliding up my nostrils and down into my throat, like I was getting a cold. As we approached, I heard the rumble of cranes and trucks, and then from behind a patch of trees emerged a forest of electrical towers. Finally, I saw it—a white-walled hangar, bigger than a dozen football fields, where Elon Musk intends to build a god.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Inside the Dirty, Dystopian World of Ai Data Centers.
+ Powell to the People: “In a scathing 27-page opinion, Judge James Boasberg said Friday that the government has produced ‘essentially zero evidence‘ to substantiate its criminal case against Jerome Powell.”
+ Synagogue Attack: “The FBI is investigating a car ramming attack on a large Detroit-area synagogue Thursday as a ‘targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,’ the special agent in charge for the region said ... [the driver] lost several family members in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon last week, according to a local Lebanese official and a mayor in Michigan.”
+ A Familiar Story: “Almost half of Republican voters younger than 50 believe that the Holocaust did not happen as historians describe, according to a recent study by the Manhattan Institute. One-quarter of that cohort openly expresses anti-Jewish views; another 30 percent don’t reject openly anti-Semitic individuals.” Anti-Semitism Is Becoming Mainstream.
+ The Correspondent: “John F. Burns, an acclaimed foreign correspondent whose frontline dispatches for The New York Times from the war zones of Afghanistan and Bosnia secured coveted Pulitzer Prizes, and whose frequent television appearances from Baghdad made him one of America’s best-known journalists covering the chaos and perils of the conflict in Iraq, died on Thursday.”
+ All Dolled Up: “Cuddly blankets, soft toys and cardboard cutouts featuring the minister have gone viral in the Latin American country following the February 22 raid that killed infamous cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera, better known as El Mencho ... The operation, which Garcia Harfuch helped lead, was personal for the security chief, who blamed El Mencho for a 2020 assassination attempt that left him with three bullet wounds and killed two of his bodyguards.” Mexico’s heartthrob security minister now available as miniature doll, shirtless or dressed as Batman. (Don’t give Trump any ideas...)
+ Weather Whiplash: The weekend weather? Uh... U.S. forecasts blizzard, polar vortex, heat dome and atmospheric river all at once.
“London, San Francisco and Beijing are among 19 global cities that have achieved ‘remarkable reductions‘ in air pollution, analysis has found, having slashed levels of two airway-aggravating pollutants by more than 20% since 2010.”
+ Balcony solar is taking state legislatures by storm. (And overcoming a lot of resistance by the utilities...)
+ For Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike, U.S. Paralympic power couple, 2026 Games are full circle.
+ At the Winter Paralympics, some athletes have found business opportunities.
+ “A newly installed free payphone on Boston University’s campus is helping generations connect the old fashioned way; giving people the chance to ‘call a boomer.’ The payphone directly connects to a similar phone installed in the game room of a senior housing complex in Reno, Nevada.”
+ “Nearly 5,000 people gathered in Oakland on Thursday afternoon to celebrate local hero Alysa Liu – a fitting homecoming for the two-time Olympic gold medalist who joyously shouted out the Bay Area city after her short program in Milan.”
+ “A Rhode Island man recovering from a stroke practiced ordering his favorite Dunkin’ drink during speech therapy ... The company surprised the McMahon family with a year of free coffee, Dunkin’ merchandise and tickets to Opening Day at Fenway Park.”
2026-03-13 04:12:55
Back in my younger days, my friend Norman and I would lay NFL bets with a couple bookies named Rocky and Al. Sundays became days of extreme addiction-like focus, as games in which we once had no vested interest were turned into three hours of dopamine-pumping, enthralling action where every play could mean the difference between winning and losing. We were addicted. But we were only addicted for a few hours on a few Sundays during football season. Our addiction was also limited by the barriers set up by sports leagues and states that frowned upon sports gambling. Not to mention the fact that we were justifiably afraid of getting in too deep with dudes named Rocky and Al. Because of these factors, it wasn’t that hard for us to ultimately punt, pass, and kick the sports betting habit. But what if Rocky and Al launched an app that combined all the most powerful, addicting qualities of iPhones, social media, and gambling? What if what happens in Vegas no longer stayed there, but could be carried around in our pockets? What if the once social aspects (and guardrails) of gambling were replaced by the unique isolation that emerges in the secretive relationship of a human and their phone? What if the leagues that once went to great lengths to block gambling now promoted it relentlessly? What if instead of getting our fix over the course of a few Fall Sundays, Norman and I could bet on anything, anytime — and such behavior was not only accepted by the mainstream, but backed by billions in marketing piped through the mouths of some of our most well-known celebrities? Norman and I would have gone on tilt (a term that describes “the emotional distress that causes a gambler to make unwise decisions”), but not just in terms of our bets, we would have gone on tilt in life.
Sure, you’re thinking, but if you and Norman went to the effort of risking life and limb to bet with some dudes named Rocky and Al, you’re automatically in the category of those susceptible to gambling abuse. OK, so let’s consider the case of the excellent journalist McKay Coppins. Coppins isn’t like Norman and me. He isn’t particularly interested in sports. When it comes to betting, he didn’t know a parlay from a point spread. He isn’t a person generally attracted to vice at all. “And as a practicing Mormon, [he is] prohibited from indulging in games of chance.” Think Coppins would have a better chance to resist the temptation of the new gambling landscape? Don’t bet on it. The editors at The Atlantic (Gift Article) fronted Coppins $10K to explore “the sports-betting industry—its explosive growth, its sudden cultural ubiquity, and what it’s doing to America ... [where] practically overnight, we took an ancient vice—long regarded as soul-rotting and civilizationally ruinous—put it on everyone’s phone, and made it as normal and frictionless as checking the weather. What could possibly go wrong?” My year as a degenerate gambler. “The prediction markets represent the logical end point of the sports-betting explosion: Everything in American life—politics and culture, art and war—becomes a Las Vegas table game, tantalizing in its promise of profit, rigged against regular people, destined to demoralize and crush those who play.” (I tried to bet the over on every concern we have about the damage that will be done by these trends, but when I dialed the number, Rocky and Al’s line was no longer in service.)
+ As troubling as the Vegasization of America is for the general population, it’s much worse for college-aged males. I covered this topic last week. The House always wins. The same is not true for the Frat House. Class Dismissed.
Regardless of your position on America’s Gulf “excursion,” no thinking person can deny that freeing the Iranian population from a deadly regime would be a good thing, as would freeing Israel and the region from the constant threat of terrorism. So would freeing the world from the concern about Iran’s quest to go nuclear. The big question about what the president has already described as a big win is whether the current strategy (to the extent there is one) gets us closer to any of these goals. Reuters: US intelligence says Iran government is not at risk of collapse, say sources.
+ David Igantius in WaPo (Gift Article): “If the conflict ends tomorrow, Iran will have lost nearly all its nuclear facilities and scientists, most of its missiles and missile launchers, most of its weapons factories, most of its navy, and much of the command and control for its military, intelligence and security forces. But the regime survives. It has taken America’s best punch, and it’s still standing.” Iran’s Islamic Republic 2.0 is coming — and it won’t be pretty.
+ In addition to the questions about what this war does to Iran and the global economy, we also have to ask what it’s doing to us, as we watch our government abandon the moral high ground (even lying about an accidental strike on a school) for what they themselves have labeled fury. NYT (Gift Article): How Hegseth Came to See Moral Purpose in War as Weakness. “His diagnosis of the military’s shortcomings is one that often emerges after a lost war. ‘There’s always someone who thinks that if only we were crueler, if only we’d killed another million Vietnamese, then we would have won this war,’ said Phil Klay, a novelist and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war. ‘If you reduce war to the satisfied feeling you get when you kill the enemy, it makes it a lot simpler and more satisfying.’”
+ Ultimately, it’s impossible to separate the (many) goals stated by the administration from the people in the administration who are actually running this operation. I covered this yesterday. Strait Outta Competence.
+ The Hormuz Strait remains dire, the “current disruption to the world’s oil supply from the Persian Gulf is the largest in history,” Israel launched more strikes in Beirut, Iran is attacking tankers, and Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first statement. Here’s the latest from NYT and The Guardian.
We’re constantly reminded of the benefits of social connections as we age. But it turns out not all social connections are created equally, and people who suck can literally suck the life out of you. Negative social ties as emerging risk factors for accelerated aging, inflammation, and multimorbidity. “Each additional hassler is associated with faster biological aging, with especially pronounced effects when the hassler is a family member.”
“In the survey, 15 percent of individuals said they had borrowed money in the last year to pay for medical expenses, while another 11 percent said they had skipped a meal. Those without insurance reported even more trade-offs.” A Third of Americans Have Cut Spending or Borrowed Money for Health Care.
The Home Front: The war abroad has distracted us from the war at home. “The case of Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen shot by an officer in Chicago, offers a rare window into the recent spate of D.H.S. shootings—and the smear campaigns that often follow.” The New Yorker: Shot by Border Patrol, Then Called a Domestic Terrorist.
+ Our Time is Up: “The therapist described being stretched so thin that schedulers replaced some one-on-one sessions with online group sessions that included as many as 35 veterans. The therapist said despite that they were still overloaded with individual sessions and had to limit each one to as little as 16 minutes.” Veterans Who Depend on Mental Health Care Keep Losing Their Therapists Under Trump.
+ Synagogue Attack: Suspect dead after apparent vehicle ramming and shooting incident at Michigan synagogue. Thankfully, it looks like no one else was killed.
+ Humans Behind the AI: “Every day, Michael Geoffrey Asia spent eight consecutive hours at his laptop in Kenya staring at porn, annotating what was happening in every frame for an AI data labeling company. When he was done with his shift, he started his second job as the human labor behind AI sex bots, sexting with real lonely people he suspected were in the United States. His boss was an algorithm that told him to flit in and out of different personas.” 404: ‘AI Is African Intelligence’: The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back.
+ Conscripted From Abroad: “Less than a year ago, Malick Diop took a leap of faith, betting an education in Russia would help him lift his family out of poverty back in Africa. Now the 25-year-old sits in a Ukrainian POW camp, his optimism replaced by barbed-wire fencing and snow-covered countryside that is unlike anything he grew up with in Senegal.” This is crazy. WSJ (Gift Article): Russia Lures Recruits From Africa to Feed Its Ukraine War Machine. “Diop, who says he ended up in uniform after being lured by the promise of a civilian job, is one of the lucky ones. A Russian list of 316 deceased African recruits shows that, on average, they died less than six months after being deployed.”
+ Microsoft Hardens: “Is the era of corporate silence during the Trump administration officially over? Microsoft filed a court brief late on Tuesday supporting Anthropic’s lawsuit against the Pentagon, a momentous decision for one of the nation’s biggest companies that’s also one of the largest government contractors around.” (This both indicates the seriousness with which companies view this issue, and possibly the fact that they view the Trump administration as weakened and less dangerous.) Microsoft Takes a Stand Against the Trump Administration.
+ UFC Notes: Today’s reminder that it can always get crazier. Kash Patel Confirms UFC Fighters Will Train FBI Agents This Week, Calling It A Historic Opportunity.
“A camel beauty pageant in Oman has been plunged into chaos as 20 of its competitors were disqualified after their owners enhanced their humps and other features using injectable fillers, silicone wax and Botox.”
+ “Whether it’s the Pit of Souls or the Child Reapers, there’s a lot to be worried about. But most of all? The price at the pump.” McSweeney’s: What the Thousand-Year Blood Reign Means for Gas Prices.
2026-03-12 03:07:34
My knowledge of the oil industry comes primarily from watching episodes of Landman, but I know enough to realize that Iran is trying to turn the battles in the Gulf into an oil and energy war. But you’d have to be sort of a dipstick not to have war-planned for this eventuality. Iran can’t directly fight militaries like the US and Israel, so they’re targeting the world’s pocketbook and issuing related threats. “In response to the Iranian threats, commercial shipping has come to a standstill in the Gulf, oil prices have spiked, and the Trump administration has scrambled to find ways to tamp down an economic crisis that has triggered higher gasoline prices for Americans. The episode is emblematic of how much Mr. Trump and his advisers misjudged how Iran would respond to a conflict that the government in Tehran sees as an existential threat.” NYT (Gift Article): How Trump and His Advisers Miscalculated Iran’s Response to War. The bigger question is whether, inside the White House, they calculated at all. They’re definitely calculating now. Well, with certain limitations. “Inside the administration, some officials are growing pessimistic about the lack of a clear strategy to finish the war. But they have been careful not to express that directly to the president, who has repeatedly declared that the military operation is a complete success.”
+ “The lesson that the Trump administration seemed to learn from the failed planning for postwar Iraq is that planning isn’t worth the effort at all.” Franklin Foer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Obvious Is Taking Its Revenge on Trump.
+ WSJ (Gift Article): Iran’s Control of Hormuz Means It’s Exporting More Oil Today Than Before the War.
+ “It would be reckless to predict precisely where this conflict is headed. But it no longer seems reckless to say that this war is going to be a mess: if not just a military mess, or a diplomatic mess, then at least an economic mess. The vast majority of headlines in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg are about the price of crude oil. But the deeper story is about everything crude becomes, everything that moves alongside it, and everything that depends on the narrow maritime chokepoint at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.” Derek Thompson: This isn’t just about the price of oil. It’s about everything oil becomes.
+ There’s no doubt that an already weakened Iran has been seriously damaged by the aerial bombardment. But it’s hard to say whether that achieves the goals of the Trump administration because those goals have never been made clear. The same is not true for Israel. And Bibi’s steadfast vision that includes regime change vs Trump’s wavering goals could be the battle that ultimately determines how this war evolves — and what things look like for the Iranian people when it’s over. WSJ (Gift Article): Trump Says the Iran War Is Nearly Won but Israel Has Other Ideas. How will it all play out? Maybe I’ll let Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris in Landman answer that one: “Wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which one fills up first.”
“An ongoing military investigation has determined that the United States is responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the preliminary findings.” NYT (Gift Article): U.S. at Fault in Strike on School in Iran, Preliminary Inquiry Says.
+ War is hell. That’s not just a saying. Everyone knows that airstrikes often hit unintended targets and kill innocent civilians. But only a certain type of leader lies about it. Sadly, today, that includes ours. His latest response to the findings. “I don’t know about it.”
+ ProPublica: The U.S. Built a Blueprint to Avoid Civilian War Casualties. Trump Officials Scrapped It.
+ We’re not getting the truth about Iran’s casualties. Are we getting the truth about ours? Dozens of U.S. service members in Kuwait suffered serious injuries, including burns, brain trauma and shrapnel wounds.
“The public appearance of Ellison on his property-to-be underscores the new world order that is about to engulf the industry. The rich and powerful are poised to get richer and more powerful, and much of the rest of the industry is wondering what comes next. The Paramount-Warners marriage is perhaps the quintessential example. A year ago, Ellison was the CEO of Skydance, a studio with a valuation of $4.75 billion. When this deal closes, he will control two of Hollywood’s legacy studios, an empire valued at north of $120 billion.” The Hollywood Reporter on the big merger. David Zaslav Gets the Last Laugh. (But this isn’t a comedy...)
“Wired headphones have become so ubiquitous among the rich and famous that some see these tangles of plastic and wire as a cultural symbol. One social media user posted a viral tweet with photos of actors Robert Pattinson and Lily-Rose Depp sporting wired earbuds. ‘It’s becoming a class thing,’ they said. ‘Wearing wireless 24/7 tells me you don’t own any land.’” BBC: Wired headphone sales are exploding. What’s with the Bluetooth backlash? (It’s either sound quality, celebrities switching to wired, nostalgia, or the fact that my kids alone have lost at least half of the Airpods in circulation.)
Snake Oil Sells Itself: “This rejection of empiricism makes selling falsehoods easier and contradicting them harder, which creates a fertile environment for anyone with something to sell, whether shady businesses or authoritarian governments. Gullicism creates not just a void but also an opportunity. It creates an ideal business opportunity for snake-oil salesmen to peddle products whose whole appeal is that they’re notscientifically validated.” Adam Serwer in The Atlantic (Gift Article) attempts to explain everything. Gullible, Cynical America.
+ Slam, Jam, Thank You, Bam: “It was a perfect confluence of chaos channeled into a willing and able vessel. Adebayo had already set a new career high in points by halftime; he’d more than double his previous best of 41 points en route to history. Adebayo made as many 3s against the Wizards (seven) as he did in his first five seasons in the league combined.” The Bam Game: The 83-Point Night That Broke the NBA’s Order.
+ Photo Bombing: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is banning press photographers from department briefings on the U.S. war on Iran because he didn’t like the way he looked in recent photos.” (Guys, I’ve told you a million times. He likes that blue steel lethal look.)
+ Air Time: We were promised flying cars. And we might be getting them. Electric air taxis are about to take flight in 26 states.
+ Beeing There: “Using specialized laboratory chambers and sensors, the researchers discovered that queen bees in diapause are consuming oxygen and producing carbon dioxide while underwater. Somehow, it seemed, the insects were breathing.” Bumblebee Queens Can Breathe Underwater.
+ Story With Layers: “It looks like an onion. It smells like an onion. In short there is nothing to suggest that within the brown papery skin sits anything other than a bog-standard allium. Yet the curiously named Smile Ball sitting on my chopping board is the result of 20 years of cutting-edge research, research that has led us to the very boundaries of human endeavor.” These onions will never make you cry. (I wonder if they can use the same technology on the news...)
For those of you worried about the intelligence and business acumen of the next generation, relax. They’ve got this. Girl Scout troop sets up shop at weed dispensary. Cookies are in high demand.
+ This new emoji is all of us in 2026.