2025-10-30 03:04:01
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The opposite is also true. That’s particularly bad news for frontline firefighters who can spend hundreds if not thousands of hours sucking in poisonous particles, which adds a potentially deadly long term risk to the short term risk they’re taking in the line of fire. And believe it or not, until recently, many of these firefighters weren’t even allowed to wear face masks. In the NYT (Gift Article) Hannah Dreier and Eli Murray cut through the smokescreen to investigate something the Forest Service hasn’t, by measuring just how hazardous the air near fires can get. The answer won’t surprise anyone in the La Grande Hotshots firefighting crew. “One longtime member died last year after being diagnosed at 40 with brain cancer. A former crew leader is being treated for both leukemia and lymphoma diagnosed in his 40s. Another colleague was recently told that he has the lungs of a lifelong chain-smoker.” Inside the Poisonous Smoke Killing Wildfire Fighters at Young Ages.
“To glimpse the future of homelessness policy in the age of President Trump, consider 16 acres of scrubby pasture on the outskirts of Salt Lake City where the state plans to place as many as 1,300 homeless people in what supporters call a services campus and critics deem a detention camp ... While the Utah effort began before Mr. Trump’s return to office, it mirrors his pledge to move the homeless from urban cores to ‘tent cities’ with services.” NYT (Gift Article): In Utah, Trump’s Vision for Homelessness Begins to Take Shape.
“The building, a large warehouse, was surrounded by a thick fence and dotted at regular intervals with security cameras. I went through a turnstile, where I was greeted by a security guard wearing a bulletproof vest and a holstered Taser. After surrendering my phone, I took two lime-green earplugs from a dispenser and entered the facility.” The New Yorker’s Stephen Witt enters one of the buildings that is driving a massive part of the American economy. Inside the Data Centers That Train A.I. and Drain the Electrical Grid. “A data center, which can use as much electricity as Philadelphia, is the new American factory, creating the future and propping up the economy. How long can this last?” (And will this form of computing, like many before it, shrink in size. Will you eventually be able to fit a data center in your pocket? Or are you just happy to see me...)
+ You’ve gotta give Witt some credit for actually getting inside a couple data centers. Most people only see them from the outside, and often can’t even find out who’s running them. How NDAs keep AI data center details hidden from Americans. (Big tech demands you share everything about yourself but shares very little in return.)
+ How big is this business? Nvidia becomes first $5 trillion company in history.
WSJ (Gift Article): Why Tech Bros Are Getting Face-Lifts Now. “Factors at play: Ozempic, the pandemic and the pressure to remain youthful-looking in a competitive job market.” (One other factor: Working remotely, we all got a good look at ourselves on Zoom. That’s when I confirmed that I have a face for newsletters.)
Islands in the Stream: “Melissa made landfall Tuesday in Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm with top winds of 185 mph, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, before moving onto Cuba. But even countries outside the direct path of the massive storm, like Haiti and the Dominican Republic, felt its devastating impact.” The strongest storm ever to hit Jamaica is moving onto to other places, with deadly results. Here’s the latest from AP, BBC, and NBC. And here are some photos from Jamaica.
+ Volunteer Jerker: Considering all the science-related cuts and the government shutdown, how is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration keeping tabs on Melissa? Answer: Volunteers. Volunteers Step In to Help Understaffed NOAA Track Hurricane Melissa. Meanwhile, the government shutdown could cost U.S. economy up to $14 billion.
+ Arc de Triumph the Comic Insult Dog: Trump fires federal arts board in charge of reviewing White House ballroom and ‘Arc de Trump.’ (The arc of history is bends toward just plain ugly.)
+ This Might Be of Interest: “The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved its second straight interest rate cut, a widely expected move that came despite little recent visibility on the economy due to the government shutdown.”
+ Grok of Shit: “Grokipedia is the brainchild of Elon Musk and his startup xAI, and the billionaire is promoting it as a supposedly less woke and less biased version of Wikipedia. Musk’s goal? ‘The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’” Grokipedia is racist, transphobic, and loves Elon Musk.
+ Virtual and Valor: “A new kind of star is being created in South Korea, the cradle of global K-pop sensations such as BTS and Blackpink. Virtual idols — once niche subcultures of chronically online teenagers and twentysomethings steeped in anime and video games — are surging into the mainstream.” The metaverse is rewriting the rules of who can be a K-pop star. (Or put another way: I’ve been doing pilates three times a week for nothing.)
+ We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Backend: “’I cannot be flawless and perfect like an AI model that is created to be [that way],’ says performer Victoria Peaks.” OpenAI’s embrace of ‘erotica’ is causing ripples in the p-rn world. (And you think we need a lot of data centers now?)
+ In Other News... Sometimes headlines that would have shocked us in other eras just seem ho hum in 2025. Examples: Japan to Send Troops to Help Stop Bear Attacks. And... Monkeys escape from overturned truck on Mississippi highway.
“There was a disconnect, I noticed, between the speculative musings about what might be possible in a technologically enhanced future and the banal exigencies of living in a semi-communal environment. Who could arrange for a grocery store run? What were the social activities planned for the evening? Where was the trash room, and could people please remember to clean the shared kitchen? Even this futuristic city could not avoid the realities of humans cohabitating, and I started to feel that I was bunking in a college dormitory. One evening, someone got stung by a scorpion, and medical care had to be sought outside Próspera, which didn’t have a doctor who could treat it.” The Island Where People Go to Cheat Death.
+ “Skijoring is a high-adrenaline, low-temperature sport that involves a horse and its rider pulling a skier through a snow-packed obstacle course at full speed.” (I hadn’t heard of this until five minutes ago and I already know it’s my worst sport.)
2025-10-29 02:04:56
Back in the early days of the web, a remarkable service launched. It was called Kozmo. You could go online and order a few movies and several snacks, and a little while later a bike messenger would knock on your door and hand over your items. Just like that, without leaving your pot-smoke filled apartment, you’d be eating and watching. My wife and I used to look out our window and giggle in disbelief as the messenger approached. Aside from our children being born, these were the greatest deliveries of our lives. Of course, today, home delivery has grown by orders of magnitude and an entire industry has been built to order to convey your every need from anywhere to your front stoop. Your power to issue orders is limitless. “An entire commercial mechanism will have whirred to life the moment you clicked ‘Place order,’ one that is part of an industry that barely existed 15 years ago but now brings in tens of billions of dollars in revenue annually.” While Kozmo deliveries occasionally changed an evening, modern delivery has changed the entire restaurant industry, and more. “The fanciest, most famous restaurants are still doing mostly table service, but just about every other establishment has been conscripted into the army that ferries hot food out of professional kitchens and into American mouths 24 hours a day, 365 days a year ... In effect, delivery has reversed the flow of eaters to food, and remade a shared experience into a much more individual one. If communities used to clench like a fist around their restaurants, now they look more like an open palm, fingers stretched out as far as possible, or at least to the edge of the delivery radius.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Innovation That’s Killing Restaurant Culture. “Convenience is like sex: Once you’ve had it, it’s hard to forget how good it is to have it.” (Funny, it seems like I had a lot more convenience back in the Kozmo era...)
The NBA betting scandal could represent a much broader problem when it comes to being able to trust sports aren’t tarnished. It definitely represents a much broader societal problem when it comes to gambling. “What started for fans as once a season became every day, and is now a constant stream of action. DraftKings and FanDuel allow gamblers to bet on virtually any moment in nearly any game happening almost anywhere. The friends I used to play video games with now fire off parlays before lunch, during the afternoon games and when they’re struggling to go to bed. They’ll gamble on almost everything: Sunday football, Korean baseball, Lithuanian table tennis.” NYT (Gift Article): Gambling Is Killing Sports and Consuming America. (The latter item in that headline is a sure bet.)
+ There’s a much more efficient way to make big money in sports. First, become a college football coach. Then, get fired. $54m to walk: getting fired as a college football coach is a booming industry.
“Hours before the storm, the Jamaican government said it had done all it could to prepare as it warned of catastrophic damage. The streets in the capital, Kingston, remained largely empty except for the lone stray dog crossing puddles and a handful of people walking briskly under tree branches waving in a stiff wind.” Hurricane Melissa expected to hit Jamaica as its strongest storm since records began. Here’s more from the NYT and BBC.
+ US Air Force provides views from inside Hurricane Melissa. And some webcam footage from Jamaica.
I think I finally found something that can get Los Angeles liberals to stop worrying about democracy. At least for a few hours. Last night’s 18-inning World Series Game 3 may have been the best World Series game ever. It went on so long, at one point I worried it would run into Opening Day. While the headlines are about the heroics of Freddie Freeman (anotherWorld Series walkoff) and Shohei Ohtani (two homers, two doubles, five walks, and an out call at second that proved he’s human which makes him all the more unbelievable) the game was really won by some relatively unknown relief pitchers. Freddie Freeman hits walk-off HR to end 18-inning epic. (As a Giants fan, I’m just hoping this game tires the Dodgers out for next season...)
+ “The powers that be have tried to make baseball behave. They have strictly restricted the time between pitches. They have tampered with once-sacrosanct rules to ensure that extra innings aren’t too extra. They have made the sport more predictable, more pliable, more presentable, more marketable. For much of the year, they have made major league games into activities it’s possible to plan around. In pursuit of popularity and profit, they have tried to break baseball like a bucking bronco. They have tried to make it conform. But baseball is incorrigible, and it will not be bound.” The Dodgers’ Game 3 Win Was a Series Unto Itself.
+ The Dodgers’ historic World Series Game 3 victory, by the numbers. (I only wish my friends who are Dodgers fans would lose mine.)
Judge, Jury, Executioner: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that the U.S. military has carried out three strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean against boats accused of carrying drugs, killing 14 people and leaving one survivor.” And from Bloomberg (Gift Article): Hegseth Is Waging War Against the Laws of War. (He’s getting a pretty big assist from lawmakers.)
+ Stupid Is as Stupid Sues: “Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, sued the makers of Tylenol on Tuesday, claiming that the companies hid the risks of the drug on brain development of children. The lawsuit is the latest fallout from President Trump’s claim last month that use of Tylenol during pregnancy can cause autism. That link is unproven.” (The more this story evolves, the more I need a Tylenol.)
+ AI Yai Yai: No one knows for sure how AI will impact employment. But we can probably get some key indicators by looking to early adopters that are already widely deploying the technology. And, uh, Amazon to cut about 14,000 corporate jobs in AI push.
+ Profit Sharing: OpenAI Completes For-Profit Transition, Pushing Microsoft Above $4 Trillion Valuation. And Apple just became the third company in history to crack $4 trillion market value.
+ Pace Makers: “The Trump administration is planning to replace some regional leaders at Immigration and Customs Enforcement with Border Patrol officials in an attempt to intensify its mass deportations effort amid growing frustration with the pace of daily arrests.” Over and over, we’re seeing the extremists squeezing out the moderates (who are often pretty extreme).
+ Rewriting the Rules: “There’s no better leading indicator of market psychology than real-time covenant changes, which show where the smart money is quietly hedging. Right now, the smart money is fortifying against a downturn.” WSJ (Gift Article): A Private-Credit Winter Is Coming.
+ No Weigh: “The obesity rate dropped to 37% of U.S. adults this year, down from a high of 39.9% three years ago.” Weight loss drugs are bringing down the country’s obesity rate.
“The emergence of clipping shows just how much social media has changed since the early days as a platform for user-generated content. Videos that once seemed unusual or spontaneous and became instant topics of chitchat have given way to orchestrated marketing efforts. These advertising videos pop up in your social media feed and look like they could be from any random superfan.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): Paid Armies of ‘Clippers’ Boost Internet Stars Like MrBeast.
2025-10-28 02:57:53
How are things going in the economy these days? Well, that depends if you’re playing the market or if you can’t afford to shop in one. If you’re investing, especially in the AI/tech driven market, things are going really well. Bad news doesn’t seem to register and good news is driving a boom. The economy looks a lot less bullish if you’re one of the 42 million or so Americans who rely on SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to feed your family. For these Americans, things are going from bad to worse. “Food banks across the United States were stretched thin even before the federal government shut down. Rising food prices had driven a growing number of people to their doors. Cuts to federal programs had left them with less to give. Now, that system — a last resort for tens of millions of hungry Americans — is anticipating an even greater surge in demand. With no end in sight to the nearly monthlong federal government shutdown, funding for the nation’s largest food assistance program, known as SNAP, will disappear at the start of November.” NYT (Gift Article): Food Banks Brace for Overwhelming Demand as SNAP Cutoff Looms. The government shutdown is driving this story at the moment. But, of course, there’s a broader question here. In supposedly economic good times, why are more than 40 million people in the world’s richest country unable to afford to eat? If there’s one story that underpins all other American stories, it’s the economic divide. It’s the divide that powers most of our other divides. And like those other divides, it’s only getting more divided.
+ The “knowledge economy is accelerating away from most people, not flattening out or becoming more accessible through AI. Rather than creating more opportunity for low-skilled workers, it’s removing opportunities they might otherwise have had and, at the same time, increasing the advantages of highly skilled workers. The bottom 60% effectively lose twice, while AI functions to amplify inequality rather than level the playing field.” Ray Dalio sees a vast American underclass increasingly dependent on the top 1%.
+ While a huge swath of America is wondering if food will be available in November, a small sliver of America is busy buying private jets... to save money. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Private Jets and Car Washes Are the Latest Tax Shields for the Ultrarich.
+ Meanwhile, if you can’t afford a vacation, an AI app will sell you pictures of one.
“Ana paced on the sidewalk at 68th and Figueroa, her front teeth missing and an ostomy bag taped down under her hot pink lingerie. She surveyed the intersection in South Central Los Angeles, where preteens were hobbling in stilettos and G-strings. It was a Tuesday night this January, and Ana knew that most of the girls longed for a coat or gloves — anything to keep them warm — but covering up was not an option. Their eyes were cast down, but their hands waved mechanically at every car, angling for another customer to help meet their traffickers’ quotas.” Some excellent reporting by Emily Baumgaertner Nunn in the NYT Magazine (Gift Article): Can Anyone Rescue the Trafficked Girls of L.A.’s Figueroa Street? “Over the years, the Blade had become much busier than when Ana started: more girls, more customers, more traffickers idling in their Hellcats and Porsches on the side streets, watching to make sure their girls didn’t hide any money and didn’t snitch. Ana had seen the Blade expand from three main intersections of Figueroa to more than three miles. She had met girls brought in from the East Coast and the Deep South, and there sometimes seemed to be four times as many minors as before — easy to spot by their over-the-top makeup and unsteady gait. The police helicopters Ana used to notice hovering overhead with search lights seemed to become infrequent. Eventually, she said, they disappeared completely.” It makes you wonder. In a era when were spending so many resources fighting the hyped-up threat of an imaginary invasion, what if we put the same kind of effort into solving real, long term problems?
“The U.S. hasn’t sent this many ships to the Caribbean since the Cuban missile crisis. There are already roughly 6,500 Marines and sailors in the region, operating from eight Navy vessels, as well as 3,500 troops nearby. Once the Ford arrives, the U.S. will have roughly as many ships in the Caribbean as it used to defend Israel from Iranian missile strikes this summer. The carrier strike group also provides far more firepower than is necessary for the occasional attack on narco-trafficking targets. But the ships could be ideal for launching a steady stream of air strikes inside Venezuela.” Some experts don’t think these moves are all about targeting speed boats. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The U.S. Is Preparing for War in Venezuela.
“Mackenzie Dryden’s happiest childhood memories are of running barefoot through the sunlit corn fields of her hometown. But when she was diagnosed with cancer 2½ years ago at 18 years old, a disturbing thought began to take hold. Could something in the land she loved have made her sick?” WaPo (Gift Article): The mysterious rise of cancer among young adults in the Corn Belt.
+ The New Republic: Of Corn and Cancer: Iowa’s Deadly Water Crisis.
Melissa: “We’re witnessing satellite history.” That’s not what anyone in Jamaica wants to hear about the incoming Hurricane Melissa. WaPo: Monster hurricane to hit Jamaica. And here’s the latest from The Guardian: Hurricane Melissa strengthens to category 5 as communities in Jamaica warned of ‘potentially unimaginable impact.’
+ You Can Check Out Anytime You Like, But You Can Never Louvre: “Two suspects with a history of jewel thefts had been tracked for days after their DNA was recovered from the museum and were arrested shortly before one of them was set to board a flight out of the country.” Hunt on for remaining Louvre thieves after first arrests made.
+ Roach Clip: “The 2008 financial crisis occurred in part because banks and other financial institutions were offering too many mortgages to borrowers who couldn’t plausibly repay them. When enough bad loans began caving in at the same time, they sucked big banks and the rest of the economy into the sinkhole along with them. Banks today are subject to stricter regulations, which have largely functioned as intended, keeping banks from making as many risky loans. Filling the void has been private credit.” NYT (Gift Article): How Bad Is Finance’s Cockroach Problem? We Are About to Find Out.
+ Source-ry: Wired: Chatbots Are Pushing Sanctioned Russian Propaganda. (Consider the source material.)
+ Pet Peeve: “It is out there — the concept of ‘pawtism.’” Vaccine Skepticism Comes for Pet Owners, Too. (My beagles choose to do their own research.)
+ His Constitution is Strong. America’s? Not So Much:Trump Says a Recent M.R.I. Scan Was ‘Perfect,’ and He’d ‘Love’ a Third Term.
+ Spinning Off: “Sheridan is one of the industry’s biggest talents, creating the Yellowstone franchise (along with its multitude of spinoffs like 1923 and 1883), the Sylvester Stallone-led franchise Tulsa King and other programming for Paramount, like Special Ops: Lioness and Mayor of Kingstown.” Taylor Sheridan to Leave Paramount for NBCUniversal. (He seems to write all of their hits, so this is a pretty big deal.)
“Others might have celebrated with a victory lap, a glass of wine, or the afternoon off. Not Šobat. He changed, packed his gear, and met his wife and daughter in the parking lot. They didn’t mention the record once. And besides, it was his turn to clean the bathroom.” The Man Who Held His Breath for 24 Minutes. (I can only hold my breath for a few seconds, but I hold my nose the whole time I read the news...)
+ Drone photo winners will amaze your eyeballs.
+ Dole breeds pineapple that tastes like piña colada. (That’s great, but I ordered a piña colada that tastes like pineapple.)
2025-10-25 02:57:38
It was inevitable. That opening from ‘Love in the Time Cholera’ by Gabriel García Márquez is one of the most famous lines in literature. Too bad it’s taken, because it also works as a pretty decent intro to the news that the mingling of professional sports and big time gambling operations has quickly led to scandals. García Márquez’ inevitability refers to “the scent of bitter almonds.” The NBA’s current scandal is all about the scent of money. The league, like its professional counterparts, has historically worked to keep a distance from anything even remotely connected to betting. A few years ago, with the legalization of sports gambling presenting an irresistible upside, what was once kept at arm’s length has been fully embraced. “For the last seven years, anyone who cares about sports has been conditioned to accept that gambling goes hand-in-hand with the activity of watching a game. We turn on a podcast, we get an offer code from a betting app. We read a story, we get the pop-up ad directing us to check out the odds. Even when we go to an arena in certain markets, you walk right past the sports book before getting to your seat.” Hence, wagering that a scandal would emerge was about the safest bet you could have made. Dan Wolken in Yahoo Sports: The inevitable bill of legalized sports gambling has come. “And everyone who feeds off its advertising dollars — the sports leagues, team owners, even the media — kept shoving it in everyone’s faces, buoyed by the idea that it’s better to have a gambling ecosystem operating with oversight rather than in the shadows. That may still be true. And yet today, for all the sports leagues that have been nursing from the teat of easy gambling company cash, the justification doesn’t matter. The inevitable bill has come due.” Will this be an isolated incident or the first of many sports betting scandals? Bet the over.
+ ESPN: What we know about the Billups-Rozier NBA gambling cases.
+ The NBA game-fixing part of this story has more far reaching implications. But the poker-fixing scandal is even more interesting. WSJ (Gift Article): The Rigged Poker Games That Used NBA Stars and James Bond Tech to Steal Millions. “Prosecutors say the defendants in the poker-rigging scheme would often modify DeckMate shufflers with tech that could read the cards in the deck and relay that information to an off-site operator ... They had other ways to cheat, too. They used poker-chip trays equipped with hidden cameras. There was an X-ray table that could read cards while they were face down. There were even special contact lenses that could read marked cards.”
+ “Terry Rozier has earned an estimated $160 million from three teams over his 10-year NBA career. Chauncey Billups played for 17 years and earned $106.8 million.” Why do millionaire athletes get involved with gambling? (You think wealthy people are any less attracted to gambling than anyone else? Consider that more than 1,300 AI startups now have valuations of over $100 million, with 498 AI ‘unicorns,’ or companies with valuations of $1 billion or more. The richest investors in the world like gambling so much they’ve made unicorns ubiquitous.)
+ For what it’s worth, I’m saving Gabriel García Márquez’ other famous novel opening for another story. From ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’: Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ICE.
The United States has another international conflict. With Canada. And, no, I’m not talking about Toronto playing the Dodgers in the World Series. “President Donald Trump announced he’s ending ‘all trade negotiations’ with Canada because of a television ad [featuring video from a Ronald Reagan speech] opposing U.S. tariffs that he said misstated the facts and was aimed at influencing U.S. court decisions.” (You can watch the Reagan address for yourself.) I used to get really worried when Trump took out his petty anger on international allies. These days, I’m just glad he’s not taking it out on another wing of the White House.
+ Canada ready to pick up trade negotiations with US, Carney says.
Humans are pretty worried about losing their jobs to AI. But don’t let that distract you from the other at-risk population. Why Hollywood’s Animal Actors Can’t Find Work. “Rocco, whose credits include Veronica Mars, Jane the Virgin and The Morning Show, is one of many four-legged actors in the L.A. area who aren’t landing Hollywood gigs like they used to. As AI continues to advance, more productions are opting to create animal performances in post rather than film with the real thing — a trend that’s left trainers, wranglers and animal coordinators increasingly anxious about the future of their profession.”
What to Hear: Today should probably be a national holiday. Brandi Carlile has a new album out. It’s more personal and more pared down than some of her recent work. If you happen to have a comfortable seat on a porch dabbled with some Fall leaves, that would be an ideal place to listen to Returning to Myself.
+ What to Watch: The Diplomat on Netflix continues to be one of the most fun and binge-able shows around. The politics and international intrigue in the show are wildly unrealistic, but not nearly as unrealistic as our current reality.
+ What to Coffee Table Book: “When great black and white photography and tongue-in-cheek humor come together, as they did with Elliott Erwitt, the result is a unique coffee table book like Last Laughs. No one was better than the New York photography legend at observing everyday scenes around the world with heart and humor through the lens of his camera.” Heart, humor, and non-AI photos. Who doesn’t need a little more of that?
Whatever Smotes Your Boat: “This latest strike appears to be the 10th carried out by the Trump administration against alleged drug trafficking boats over the past several weeks, which have now led to more than 40 deaths.” New U.S. strike on alleged drug-smuggling boat kills 6 on board. If Congress lets the White House do this with no oversight, what else might they be cool with? US is sending an aircraft carrier to Latin America in major escalation of military buildup.
+ Cool Aid: Inflation numbers (to the extent we can really trust them during a government closure) came in a little cooler than expected. That means the expected rate cut is even more expected. That means the market is soaring.
+ Half Cocked: Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time. (Well, I guess that means they’re a lot more accurate than humans...)
+ Lucky He Didn’t Take a Speed Boat: “The accused Chinese drug boss was this close to the perfect getaway. In July, Zhi Dong Zhang escaped from house arrest in Mexico, where he was set to be extradited to the U.S. on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges. The Justice Department accuses him of being the most important link between Chinese chemical producers and the Mexican cartels that make fentanyl. He then hopped onto a private jet to Cuba and boarded a flight to Russia, beyond the reach of U.S. and Mexican prosecutors.” Most-Wanted Fentanyl Producer Is Extradited to the U.S. After Brazen Escape.
+ Staked Alaska: NYT (Gift Article): Trump Opens Pristine Alaska Wilderness to Drilling in Long-Running Feud. “The Interior Department also said it would allow a contentious road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Alaska.”
+ All That And a Bag of Chips: “Taki Allen was sitting with friends on Monday night outside Kenwood high school in Baltimore and eating a snack when police officers with guns approached him. ‘At first, I didn’t know where they were going until they started walking toward me with guns, talking about, ‘Get on the ground,’ and I was like, ‘What?’” US student handcuffed after AI system apparently mistook bag of Doritos for gun. (Maybe they just thought Dorito sounded like the name of someone here illegally?)
“Maybe we’re overthinking it. In these grim times, the most efficient path to living a contented life may be to put ourselves through the same simple exercise of thinking about our purpose and then taking a step — even a modest one — toward fulfilling it.” WaPo (Gift Article): A 6-year research project found a surprisingly simple route to happiness.
+ “Ms. Chopin makes no claims to be a wellness guru, nor does she seem to feel a burning desire to evangelize about her own approach to life. But people keep asking for her secrets to aging well.” A 102-Year-Old Yoga Teacher’s Simple Approach to Aging Well. (For personal reasons, I’m a little worried that having tight hammies is not on her list of recommendations...)
+ mRNA COVID vaccines may be helping some cancer patientsfight tumors, researchers say.
+ Reversing peanut advice prevented tens of thousands of allergy cases.
+ “The officers, the A.P. caption said, were there to block the entrance to the museum. But the man, dressed in a buttoned up vest, a trench coat and a fedora, who seemed to be surveilling the scene, was more than enough reason for the internet to pounce.” Is This Dapper Man Going to Crack the Louvre Heist Case? (Or, a photo so good, people were sure it was AI.)
+ The secret California factory that powers theme parks’ biggest special effects.
+ When books were being pulled from Iowa classrooms, these teens started an after-school club to read them.
+ Watch a baby elephant play ball with a small pumpkin as her family smashes massive ones.
2025-10-24 02:40:11
Spoiler alert. This is the best I have to offer. Those who have met me in person will attest to the fact that I’m much more sociable, engaged, and entertaining in this textual format than I am in in-person exchanges. I suffer from the Cyrano de Bergerac version of FOMO (Fear of Meeting Offline). So I could relate to this excerpt about a woman who was deeply disappointed during her first in-person date with someone with whom she had been texting with for weeks. “The man who greeted her inside the pub – polite, pleasant but oddly flat – felt like a stranger. Gone was the quickfire wit and playful rhythm she’d come to expect from their exchanges. Over pints he stumbled through small talk, checked his phone a little too often, and seemed to wilt under the pressure of her questions. ‘I felt like I was sitting opposite someone I’d never even spoken to,’ she says. ‘I tried to have the same sort of conversation as we’d been having online, but it was like, ‘Knock, knock, is anyone home?’” The woman might have wondered if there was a Cyrano behind the scenes who she’d actually been texting with. But in the modern world, where wordplay is the new foreplay, aspiring daters don’t need to employ the skills of a French poet and novelist (or even an alarmingly talented newsletter writer) to ghostwrite love letters and speeches. They can just get AI to do it. ‘I realized I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: How ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder. (If we do happen to meet in a social setting, please don’t bring this up. Or anything else. Do us both a favor and just quietly wait for the next edition.)
+ This is not to suggest that AI is only for wooing. Even married couples are using it to spice things up. Sometimes, a little too much. WaPo (Gift Article): Woman sent husband AI photos of intruder as a prank. He called 911. “The initial 911 call was concerning enough: A man was racing home from work, he said, because his wife had just told him a stranger had forced himself into their apartment. A moment later the caller said his wife had just sent him a photo of the intruder on their sofa.”
“As roaring machinery tore down one side of the White House, President Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that he was having the entire East Wing demolished to make way for his 90,000-square-foot ballroom, a striking expansion of a project that is remaking the profile of one of the nation’s most iconic buildings.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Is Wasting No Time in Tearing Down the East Wing. (Reality is clear enough. We really didn’t need the metaphor.)
+ Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google are among the many companies who donating cash for this ballroom project. I’m guessing they didn’t realize they’d be forever associated with the demolition of the East Wing (and a lot more).
“The shocking development comes as protesters gathered at the entrance to Coast Guard Island in Alameda on Thursday morning, where the federal forces were being deployed. At least two people were reported injured after federal forces used a flash bang device and pushed through protesters as they drove onto the island.” San Francisco was set to be the next city to face an unwanted and unnecessary invasion of National Guard and ICE raids. But through a combination of backchannel requests and very strong public statements, the moves appear to have been called off. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie: “The president told me clearly that he was calling off any plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem reaffirmed that direction in our conversation this morning.”
+ NYT: “While the President may enjoy absolute immunity courtesy of his rogue Supreme Court, those who operate under his orders do not. Our state and local authorities may arrest federal agents if they break California law — and if they are convicted, the President cannot pardon them.” Pelosi Says Police May Arrest Federal Agents Who Violate California Law.
“The motel might seem like an ageless fixture of the American landscape, but in fact, this roadside mainstay didn’t exist before Dec. 12, 1925. That’s when Arthur and Alfred Heineman, two brothers with a successful Southern California architecture practice, opened the Milestone Mo-Tel, the first ‘motor hotel,’ in San Luis Obispo, roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.” NYT (Gift Article) on the Neon Signs, Swimming Pools and American Dreams represented by 100 Years of the Motel. (When my dad first moved to America, he was taking a bus across the country. At one point, he leaned over to his travel companion and asked, “Who is this guy Motel, he owns half the country?”)
All Bets Are Off: “Indictments against current and former N.B.A. players, including a well-known head coach who is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, were unsealed on Thursday, in a pair of criminal cases involving professional athletes, including one scheme in coordination with Mafia families.” (Who do these guys think they are, government officials?) U.S. Details Gambling Cases Involving Pro Athletes and Mafia Families. “The charges announced today stem from separate indictments. One charges defendants with using private information about N.B.A. players, including whether they would be sitting out N.B.A. games or exiting early, to place hundreds of thousands of dollars in bets at online sports books and in casinos ... Another indictment involves a series of rigged high-stakes poker games that were backed by organized crime families.”
+ Oil Change of Heart: “The US has announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s two largest oil companies in an effort to pressure Moscow to negotiate a peace deal in Ukraine. The announcement came one day after US President Donald Trump said a planned meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Budapest would be shelved indefinitely.”
+ Law of the Jungle on the High Seas: “President Trump says the strikes are legal, and that the boats were trafficking drugs, but he has not offered evidence to substantiate the claim ... The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has reportedly deemed the strikes lawful, but its analysis hasn’t been disclosed.” The Secretive Office Approving Trump’s Boat Strikes.
+ Bi Curious: “Since Trump’s election, Binance has also been a key supporter of his family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture, a business that has driven a huge leap in the president’s personal wealth.” Trump Pardons Convicted Binance Founder.
+ You And What Army? Tesla Profit Plunges as Musk Turns Focus to Robot Army. “My fundamental concern with how much voting control I have at Tesla is, if I build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted in the future? ... I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army if I don’t have, at least, influence over it.” (Editor’s note: We’re all going to die.)
+ Adams’ Apple: “Mr. Adams, a Democrat, ended his re-election campaign last month after it became clear that he did not have a path to victory in the November election. He lashed out at Mr. Cuomo for pressuring him to leave the race, calling him ‘a snake and a liar.’” All that being said... Eric Adams Will Endorse Andrew Cuomo for Mayor. (This could be the last nail in the Cuomo candidacy coffin...)
+ Just Plain Text: “Each [modern note taking app] encourages you to adapt to a certain philosophy of organization, with its own formats and filing systems. But nothing has served me better than the brute simplicity of TextEdit, which doesn’t try to help you at all with the process of thinking. Using the app is the closest you can get to writing longhand on a screen. I could make lists on actual paper, of course, but I’ve also found that my brain has been so irredeemably warped by keyboards that I can only really get my thoughts down by typing. (Apparently my internal monologue takes place in Arial typeface, fourteen-point font.)” The New Yorker: TextEdit and the Relief of Simple Software. I’ve been writing NextDraft using the same program (BBEdit) since day one.
“In France, we pride ourselves on enjoying life’s simple pleasures: food, drink, and the occasional grand larceny. To rush through these things would not just disrupt our leisurely schedule; it would be a sin. One must savor the moment, not run from robbery to robbery like a buffoon.” McSweeney’s: I, a French Jewel Thief, Refuse to Rob the Louvre Before Mid-Morning.
+ Here is a selection of the finalists in this year’s Nikon Comedy Wildlife awards.
2025-10-23 03:22:33
Advanced Micro Devices recently announced a deal to sell a ton of computing power to OpenAI over several years. To sweeten the deal (and to even make the deal possible), AMD issued warrants that will enable OpenAI to purchase up to ten percent of AMD for a penny a share. In addition to some very big numbers, the deal also features the two letters investors love most these days: AI. So AMD’s stock soared on the news. And as long as the AI boom keeps growing unabated, deals like this could continue to be a win, win, win (sellers’ stock goes up, buyers get money to buy sellers’ products, and investors get to brag about their hockey stick investment gains in portfolios filled with stocks they know are really great even if they can’t quite explain what they do). Let’s add a fourth win. Because the AI economy is currently the key driver to much of what’s going well in the US economy; it’s a rising tide holding up a whole lot of boats. But let’s be clear. In the deal described above, AMD “is basically paying OpenAI to become a customer.” And transactions like this are part of a growing trend known as circular deals. “Broadly speaking, circular financing often goes something like this: One company pays money to another as part of a transaction, and then the other company turns around and buys the first company’s products or services. Without the initial transaction, the other company might not be able to make the purchase. The funding mechanism could take the form of an investment, a loan, a lease or something else.” Even Oedipus is like, “whoa, that sounds overly incestuous.” For now, it’s a virtuous circle. But, as we’ve seen in the past, virtuous circles can turn vicious in the blink of an AI. The question for investors is how to participate in the circle jerk up until the point it becomes a circular firing squad and leaves your investment portfolio circling the drain. Because, “the deals can work fine, until they don’t.” And don’t get me wrong. Circular deals aside, I hold many of these stocks in my own portfolio. What do you think I am, a total square? WSJ (Gift Article): Is the Flurry of Circular AI Deals a Win-Win—or Sign of a Bubble?
“The brightline is a beautiful train. Ultra-quiet and decorated with streaks of highlighter yellow, it carries passengers between Miami and Orlando, sometimes moving as fast as 125 miles per hour. It restores glamour to the humble railroad: During your ride, if you wish, you can order a half bottle of Veuve Clicquot for $59; the on-board bathrooms are large and clean enough to take a decent mirror selfie in. Condé Nast Traveler has called it ‘super chic.’” But that’s not the whole story. “What the Brightline is best known for is not that it reflects the gleam of the future but the fact that it keeps hitting people.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): A ‘Death Train’ Is Haunting South Florida. “Floridians have started calling it the ‘Death Train’ and maintain a sense of gallows humor about it, saying that it must be “fed” regularly to keep hurricanes away. Train attendants told me that Brightline engineers and conductors sometimes darkly joke about earning a “golden ticket”—which is when the train hits someone at the right time so that the three paid days off a worker gets for emotional distress are rolled into a weekend that takes up most of the week.”
“Prayers may be abundant in foxholes, but commanders typically do not dictate matters of spirituality. Hegseth has swerved dramatically from that precedent. In addition to being the highest-profile member of the administration who belongs to the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC, an Idaho-based denomination that identifies as Christian nationalist, he has made Christianity a conspicuous part of his official duties. He leads regular Pentagon prayer sessions, posts often on social media about his faith (he posted a verse from Psalm 27—’The Lord is the stronghold of my life, whom shall I fear?’—in September), and describes the military’s mission in explicitly biblical terms. In one recent podcast appearance, he identified ‘spiritual readiness’ as a core part of the military mission. ‘That’s why wherever we can, we invoke the name of God; we invoke the name of Jesus Christ,’ he said. ‘We want that spoken and talked about inside our formations.’” The Atlantic (Gift Article) on how Pete Hegseth is bringing his fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity into the Pentagon. Holy Warrior.
+ “The coalition of signatories includes streaming service Lindell TV (started by MyPillow CEO and Trump ally Mike Lindell), the websites the Gateway Pundit, the Post Millennial, Human Events, and the National Pulse. It also includes Turning Point USA’s media brand Frontlines, as well as influencer Tim Pool’s Timcast, and a Substack-based newsletter called Washington Reporter.” WaPo (Gift Article): Pentagon announces a new right-wing press corps after mass walkout.
“Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maine, said on Wednesday that he had covered up a tattoo that he got years ago that resembled a Nazi symbol. Mr. Platner, who is running for the seat held by Senator Susan Collins since 1997, said in a video podcast interview that was broadcast on Tuesday that he got the tattoo, a skull-and-crossbones image that is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol, while drunk 18 years ago and was unaware of its extremist association.” (Ever wonder if today’s political landscape is attracting our best and brightest?) NYT (Gift Article): Maine U.S. Senate Candidate Says He Covered Up Tattoo That Had Nazi Imagery.
+ Defector: What Job Is A Guy With A Nazi Tattoo Qualified For? “There is an unconscionable industry built around making people decide how much less than what they deserve they are willing to accept.”
Pacific Time: “The U.S. struck another alleged drug vessel Tuesday night, this time on the Pacific side of South America, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed Wednesday. In what is the eighth known U.S. attack on a boat since Sept. 2, two individuals aboard the vessel were killed, Hegseth said. The other seven strikes targeted vessels in the Caribbean. A defense official confirmed the vessel was in international waters off of Colombia.”
+ Pay Dirt: NYT (Gift Article): Trump Said to Demand Justice Dept. Pay Him $230 Million for Past Cases. “Senior department officials who were defense lawyers for the president and those in his orbit are now in jobs that typically must approve any such payout, underscoring potential ethical conflicts.” (Potential is doing a lot of work there.)
+ Solar Plexus: “Produce and power are both costly in the state. So researchers are testing ways to address both issues using the same land.” This Solar Farm in Alaska Provides Something Extra: Free Food. (Clean energy and food production? Seems unlikely this administration will continue funding something this woke.)
+ Jag Drag: “This incident looks to have been by some distance, the single most financially damaging cyber event ever to hit the UK.” Jaguar Land Rover looking at $2.5 billion price tag from crippling cyberattack.
+ Checkered Past: The story related to the young death of American chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky has a new twist. Chess world mourns grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky’s death, rages against Russian rival who alleged cheating.
+ Robes and Lobes: “Joshua Sussberg sat before a bankruptcy judge at a hearing. He was part of a legal team representing retailer Claire’s. But Sussberg had something else on his mind. The 47-year-old Kirkland & Ellis attorney launched into a story about how about 30 years ago, when he still had hair, he got an ear pierced.” The Bankruptcy Court Where People Can’t Stop Talking About Piercing Their Ears.
“There have been plenty of children’s stories about animals breaking out of zoos. But at one zoo in Northern California, a young black bear broke in. That’s what happened last week at Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka, Calif., when a zoo employee found a wild black bear standing with its nose pressed against the fencing of an enclosure, prompting a response by police and state authorities. It also left officials at California’s oldest zoo with a mystery about why a bear came in from the wild, introduced itself to the zoo’s bears and played with their toys, before being shown the exit.” Bear Breaks Into California Zoo to Mingle With Other Bears.
+ Supermarket chain Aldi has teamed up with London fashion brand Agro Studio to create a puffer coat that resembles a giant baked potato. (It’s so realistic that wearing it set off my glucose monitor.)
+ Sam Adams has a new beer that’s so strong it’s illegal in 15 states. (And yet, given our current era, it’s not nearly strong enough to meet the moment.)