2025-12-12 20:00:00
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. Maybe Holden Caulfield would have admired his modern day adolescent counterparts, because it sure seems like they don’t really want to hear about all that kind of crap, or much else, for that matter. If you must share the details of a protagonist, a brief AI-summarized blurb will do (and please limit summaries to those figures who possess main character energy). For many of today’s teens, reading a novel is a novel activity. It’s easy to blame the trend on social media and other tech distractions, and those are certainly a factor. But, as I’ve noticed in my own kids’ education, teachers also don’t seem to be assigning as many books. Literature is no longer considered lit. I’ve always been a big fan of the impact of first lines of novels, from Toni Morrison’s 124 was spiteful, to García Márquez’s It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love, to Snoopy’s It was a dark and stormy night. Sadly, I think Dana Goldstein may have added to this literary canon with the first line in her latest piece for the NYT (Gift Article): “In American high schools, the age of the book may be fading.” Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class. “Twelfth-grade reading scores are at historic lows, and college professors, even at elite schools, are increasingly reporting difficulties in getting students to engage with lengthy or complex texts.” (Back in our day, when we said, “I’m still working on my novel,” we meant writing one, not trying to read one.)
I’ve shared countless stories about the American economy being driven by the highest income earners. But it’s worth noting that this trend is not just limited to the luxury market. Even brands known for pushing bulk items to cost-conscious buyers are reorienting themselves in the age of the ever-expanding divide. “Costco’s latest earnings were strong across almost every major metric. But they were particularly strong amongst one crucial demographic: The company’s ‘Executive Members’ now account for a whopping 74.3% of all Costco sales, ticking up slightly from last quarter. These Executive Members are Costco’s whales — affluent, high-frequency shoppers … A retailer once built around broad middle-class value is now powered overwhelmingly by its most affluent, most loyal, most economically insulated members.” Inside America’s Costco economy.
Trump just signed an executive order that attempts to prohibit states from regulating AI. I doubt having 50 different regulations governing a massively growing technology is an efficient way forward. But what we’re going to get instead is a version of self-regulation (translation: no regulation) pushed by lobbyists and stakeholders. Chuck Hagel in The Atlantic (Gift Article): “Proponents of AI preemption equate competitiveness with deregulation, arguing that state-level guardrails hamper innovation and weaken the United States in its technological competition with China. The reality is the opposite. Today’s most serious national-security vulnerabilities involving AI stem not from too much oversight, but from the absence of it.” Banning AI Regulation Would Be a Disaster. (By the time we get around to regulating AI, it may have already started regulating us.)
What to Watch You Must: We’re late to the party, but my wife and I have been binge-ing The Mandalorian. It’s not a perfect series, but it’s almost impossible to get enough of the character that came to be known as Baby Yoda (even though it’s not Yoda as a baby). If you haven’t already seen Andor, do that instead.
+ What to Holiday: The Norwegian holiday-themed series Home for Christmas on Netflix is excellent, and a third season just dropped.
Requesting Oral: “Across the country, a small but growing number of educators are experimenting with oral exams to circumvent the temptations presented by powerful artificial intelligence platforms such as ChatGPT.” WaPo (Gift Article): Professors are turning to this old-school method to stop AI use on exams.
+ Peace of Cake: “President Trump has made it well known that he is coveting the Nobel Peace prize, and rarely passes up the opportunity to say he has solved eight conflicts around the world in eight months. But despite the efforts, the results have been mixed: some outcomes are precarious, and the president’s role in brokering a deal is disputed. Others have simply unraveled.” (Yeah, but when they unravel, he can make peace in the same conflict again, thereby doubling his total number of peace deals!)
+ It Gets Bettor: “Last week, CNN announced a deal with Kalshi, a federally regulated online exchange where Americans can wager on current events, from basketball games and congressional elections to whether it will rain tomorrow in New York City. This marked Kalshi’s first partnership with a major news organization and, according to several close observers of the media business and gambling industry, could foreshadow a deluge of similar deals.” The New Yorker: America’s Betting Craze Has Spread to Its News Networks. (In 2025, just bet on the worst-case scenario for any news story. It’s a sure thing.)
+ Landman: “Mr. Hamm is a wildcatter, an oil prospector who drills wells in unproven areas, taking big bets that can turn into black gold or financial ruin. Not long ago, it seemed as if Mr. Hamm and his allies in the oil industry were losing. They were deeply out of favor in Washington — and on Wall Street — shunned for contributing to climate change and failing to deliver the returns investors wanted.” Well, times change. And fortunes often follow. NYT (Gift Article): The Oilman Who Pushed Trump to Go All In on Fossil Fuels.
+ Indiana Stones: “The president’s threats of retribution ultimately failed.” The State That Handed Trump His Biggest Defeat Yet.
+ Driving to the Rim: “Each day, the NBA legend sat in the same spot on a wooden bench in a historic 1930s courtroom, glued to the trial revolving around the antitrust lawsuit his race team and one other had brought against NASCAR, accusing the stock car series of illegal monopolistic conduct.” Michael Jordan was already a basketball legend. Now, he’s one in NASCAR too.
There are a lot of year-end photo collections. This is the one you need today. Hopeful Images of 2025.
+ If you missed this story, don’t. David Guavey Herbert: Playing Santa Does Strange Things to a Man. What It Did to Bob Rutan Was Even Stranger.
+ “Aria Moreno was excited when she walked into class on Hofstra University’s campus in Long Island. It was late August, her fourth week of medical school, and Moreno had volunteered to undergo an ultrasound as part of the day’s lesson on the gastrointestinal system. It probably saved her half a kidney.”
+ “Mr. Dirks did not have cell service, so he said he reached for a Garmin satellite messenger to send an SOS. He was unable to use Bluetooth to connect it to his phone, so he typed out his plea on the Garmin’s tiny keyboard.” Stuck in Quicksand, a Hiker in Utah Has His SOS Answered. (Reason 987,347 that I’m indoorsy.)
+ “While journalism as a major has seen shrinking enrollment for years and is even being dropped by some schools entirely, Baker, a senior at Stanford University, has doubled down on old-school investigative reporting, and it is paying off spectacularly.” Stanford’s star reporter takes on Silicon Valley’s ‘money-soaked’ startup culture.
+ American Lindsey Vonn became the oldest skiing downhill World Cup winner at St Moritz in Switzerland on Friday.
+ Letterman on Kimmel. So enjoyable.
+ How Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Are Made. (This is the first time my glucose monitor alarm was set off by a video.)
2025-12-11 20:00:00
The Mandalorian, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and a few Jedis walk into a bar. And Sam Altman walks out carrying a billion dollars in a custom Moana branded tote bag. Disney just announced a content licensing deal with OpenAI. Did Mickey bend the knee and cede to the inevitable? Or is joining forces with an AI leader the best way to turn a potential beast into a profitable beauty? More importantly, is this really the world we want Grogu to grow up in? We don’t yet know how this toy story will play out, but the deal marks a big change in AI relations for an industry that felt like it was Epcot with its pants down. “In a watershed moment for Hollywood and generative artificial intelligence, Disney said on Thursday that it would buy a $1 billion stake in OpenAI and bring its characters to Sora, the A.I. company’s short-form video platform.” (This is sort of like Gepetto investing a billion dollars in Monstro the Whale just before he and Pinocchio are swallowed by it.) NYT (Gift Article): Disney Agrees to Bring Its Characters to OpenAI’s Sora Videos. “Disney is the first major Hollywood company to cross this particular Rubicon. Disney, Universal, Warner Bros. Discovery and the like have spent the past couple of years trying to sort through major concerns about how generative A.I. software is built, how copyright holders are compensated and how Hollywood unions may react.” (The truth is that no one really knows how to react to any of these advances. We’re all on a nonstop ride on Space Mountain—lots of high speed turns and drops, all taking place in total darkness.)
+ Wired: The Disney-OpenAI Deal Redefines the AI Copyright War.
+ As for OpenAI’s competitors? Frozen… Disney Hits Google With AI Copyright Infringement Cease-and-Desist Letter.
+ Meanwhile, The Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year. (Although it seems more like the magazine is celebrating the CEOs who employ the architects of AI.)
+ And if you missed it yesterday, I covered one of the more ridiculous stories of a ridiculous era: The State Dept and the fight over woke fonts. The Highway to Helvetica. “Apparently, the Trump administration doesn’t know that sans serif typefaces are more straight.”
“Hours after missing the ceremony in Norway’s capital that awarded her the Nobel Peace Prize, the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado appeared in the city’s streets after midnight on Thursday, greeting a cheering crowd.” NYT (Gift Article): Venezuelan Dissident Appears in Norway After Missing Nobel Ceremony.
+ “Wearing a wig and a disguise, María Corina Machado began her escape from Venezuela on Monday afternoon … Over the course of 10 nerve-racking hours, Machado and two people helping her escape hit 10 military checkpoints, avoiding capture each time, before she reached the coast by midnight, said a person close to the operation.” WSJ (Gift Article): Disguised and in Danger: How a Nobel Peace Prize Winner Escaped Venezuela. (With a little more effort and heroism, she could have qualified for the FIFA Peace Prize…)
+ The political environment that María Corina Machado faces is even more perilous than her journey to Oslo. And it’s getting more so by the minute. Trump says the U.S. has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
They “commonly start out in poverty when they arrive in the U.S., but catch up quickly, according to studies of U.S. Census Bureau data. They have high rates of entrepreneurship and over time produce more in tax revenues than they receive in government benefits, a number of studies of census data show.” America’s current policy regarding refugees is saddled by an ethical deficit and an economic one. WSJ (Gift Article): Are Refugees Good or Bad for the Economy? Here’s What the Numbers Say.
+ Not everyone is barred from entering. The Trump Gold Card applications are now open. (Please send a check for a million bucks and a list of your sexual crimes.)
“Around the 1920s, a certain class of parents—those with enough money to indulge their kids from time to time—started to panic. Toy companies and trinket manufacturers were buffeting kids with ads, and children were pestering their parents for gifts. Many parents wanted their kids to have these new luxuries, but they also wanted them to understand that money had limits. Parenting magazines suggested an intervention: small weekly payments, called allowances, that kids could squirrel away and use to buy toys or other treats on their own.” Cut to today. “As credit cards, digital investment tools, and ‘buy now, pay later’ apps have proliferated, some parents (especially wealthier ones) are using the payments to introduce their kids to more complex aspects of the financial ecosystem: bank fees, interest rates, investing, credit scores, loan payments.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The New Allowance.
Weaponized Profits: “The militarization of the police in the US is nothing new. Local police departments splurged on vehicles, weapons and tactical gear as part of the Nixon, Reagan and Clinton administrations’ fight against drugs and the Bush administration’s war on terror after the 9/11 attacks. But the size of those buildups is dwarfed by President Donald Trump’s push to vastly expand immigration arrests and make Democratic-run cities a proving ground for domestic military operations.” That’s good news for the companies that sell the weapons. Bloomberg (Gift Article): The Military Suppliers Behind Immigration Raids.
+ Shot Caller: “A laser-guided bomb had killed nine of the 11 people on board, sunk the boat’s motor and capsized the vessel’s front end, according to people who have viewed or been briefed on a classified video of the operation. As smoke from the blast cleared, a live surveillance feed provided by a U.S. aircraft high overhead showed two men had survived and were attempting to flip the wreckage.” WaPo (Gift Article): How a U.S. admiral decided to kill two boat strike survivors. (As you’re reading this, keep in mind the bigger story is not what decision Adm. Frank Bradley made, but that he was put in a position to have to make it in the first place.)
+ Detention Contention: Judge orders immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration detention. (It’s a safe bet that the administration will come up with another way to arrest this guy.)
+ The Other Big House: In a story that has completely consumed sports media (and still features many unanswered questions), Sherrone Moore went from being Michigan’s football coach to being fired to being arrested in a matter of hours.
+ Battle of the Bulg: “Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov announced he was stepping down, becoming the latest leader to leave in the past four years, amid public anger over corruption and democratic dysfunction.” Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Resigns in the Face of Mass Protests.
+ A Tough Cell: “We learn that prisoner number 320535 had a 12 square metre cell, equipped with a bed, desk, fridge, shower and television. There was a window, but the view was blocked by a massive plastic panel placed outside.” Nicolas Sarkozy releases prison diaries about his 20 days behind bars.
“Seems some folks were planning an early holiday Old Bay crab boil and steak dinner along with their marijuana and cigarettes.” Crab legs, steak, and drugs sent by drone to a South Carolina prison.
+ That thing when you go skydiving and your parachute gets tangled up with the plane’s wing.
2025-12-10 20:00:00
Apparently, the Trump administration doesn’t know that sans serif typefaces are more straight. During the Biden years, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken ordered the department to start using the sans serif font Calibri “to improve accessibility for readers with disabilities, such as low vision and dyslexia, and people who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers.” After this transition, State Department memos and directives were being subjected to what can only be referred to as a woke font. But fear not, State Department employees, Calibri has been officially deported from your printer port. In modern parlance, the Calibri font has been officially undocumented. The return of the Times New Roman Empire is upon us. “While mostly framed as a matter of clarity and formality in presentation, Mr. Rubio’s directive to all diplomatic posts around the world blamed ‘radical’ diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs for what he said was a misguided and ineffective switch from the serif typeface Times New Roman to sans serif Calibri in official department paperwork.” (It goes without saying that all files must only be printed in black and white: Documents of color are not welcome.) NYT (Gift Article): At State Dept., a Typeface Falls Victim in the War Against Woke. “Serif typefaces are ‘generally perceived to connote tradition, formality and ceremony,’ Mr. Rubio’s order said, adding that they were used by the White House, Supreme Court and other state and federal government entities.” If this administration really wants a font that represents the current American government, I suggest they consider Comic Sans.
“The Trump administration plans to require all foreign tourists to provide their social media histories from the last five years to enter the country, according to a notice published Tuesday in the Federal Register. The data would be ‘mandatory’ for new entrants to the U.S., regardless of whether they are entering from countries that require visas, according to the notice from Customs and Border Protection.” (Too bad we didn’t have that requirement for running for president…)
+ As we make America less welcome, other countries are taking advantage. NYT (Gift Article): ‘Come North!’ Canada Makes Play for H-1B Visa Holders With New Talent Drive.
In general, it’s a bad time to be an immigrant and a pretty decent time to be a tax dodger. “President Donald Trump’s administration has carried out a sweeping overhaul of U.S. law enforcement this year, forcing out scores of attorneys and focusing large sections of the Justice Department on tracking down immigrants. Its retreat from tax enforcement illustrates the toll that shift has taken on other crime-fighting efforts.” Exclusive-Tax prosecutions plunge as Trump shifts crime-fighting efforts.
+ WaPo (Gift Article): DHS inks contract to create its own fleet of 737 jets for deportations. “The agency will spend nearly $140 million to buy the planes, funding that comes from a massive budget increase for immigration enforcement approved by Congress.”
+ Of course, the shift of resources to deportation efforts will have an impact on many other crime and terrorism fighting efforts. The question is, to what end? “Trump’s push for the largest mass deportation in history has had an outsized impact on the child care field, which is heavily reliant on immigrants and already strained by a worker shortage. Immigrant child care workers and preschool teachers, the majority of whom are working and living in the U.S. legally, say they are wracked by anxiety over possible encounters with ICE officials. Some have left the field, and others have been forced out by changes to immigration policy.” Trump’s crackdown on immigration is taking a toll on child care workers. (Feel safer?)
Tired of being cheated on? Want a partner you can actually trust to be monogamous? Stop swiping left and right and consider this one piece of advice: Date a California deermouse. WSJ (Gift Article): A Scientist Produced a Monogamy Ranking of Dozens of Mammals, Including Us. If you’re still at the point when multiple partners sounds like twice the fun, you can’t beat the bleat of a Soay sheep.
+ Seemingly related: These Utah Beavers Are Moving. They’ll Get New Jobs and More Space.
Miami Hurricane: “Democrat Eileen Higgins won the Miami mayor’s race on Tuesday, defeating a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump to end her party’s nearly three-decade losing streak and give Democrats a boost in one of the last electoral battles ahead of the 2026 midterms.” Democrat wins Miami mayor’s race for the first time in nearly 30 years. (Who knows if the momentum will last, but at this point, a Democrat could win an election to be club president at Mar-a-Lago.)
+ Split Decision: “A Federal Reserve split over where its priorities should lie lowered its key interest rate Wednesday, but signaled a tougher road ahead for further reductions.” Divided Fed approves third rate cut this year, sees slower pace ahead.
+ Dropping Pinocchios in the Poconos: Trump is back on the rally tour, offering gems like these: “I said, why is it we only take people from shithole countries? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, Denmark… But we always take people from Somalia— places that are filthy, dirty, disgusting.” … “Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is. With her little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but bitch … we ought to get her the hell out … she’s here illegally.” (After that one, the crowd started chanting “send her back.”) Trump strays from script at Poconos rally, calling affordability a ‘hoax’ and Pa. a ‘dumping ground’ for immigrants.
+ Foreseeable Future: Everything is television, AI is eating the economy, Gen Z is bummed, America is on drugs. Derek Thomas sums up the year ahead with The 26 Most Important Ideas For 2026.
+ A’ja: “Wilson, a seven-time All-Star, has positioned herself as an ideal leader in this pivotal moment in women’s sports history. She is an effervescent WNBA ambassador, who in recent weeks has been everywhere, finally getting her due.” A’ja Wilson Is TIME’s 2025 Athlete of the Year.
+ Bounty Hunters: Think your budget is stretched thin these days? The United Nations just got rid of paper towels at global HQ in NYC.
+ Photo Finish: Often, the story of our time is best told in photos. From The Atlantic (Gift Article): Top 25 News Photos of 2025. The photos of our time can be pretty bleak. So you may want to follow them with Instagram’s Favorite New Yorker Cartoons in 2025.
“When a small town in Oregon couldn’t afford to properly clear the snow from its streets, residents took the only natural step: They stripped.” WSJ (Gift Article): One Town’s Plan to Address a Financial Crisis: Nude Calendars. “Alan Munhall, the September model who was photographed by his wife in their garden with a basket strapped to his waist, wasn’t sure if they’d raise much money but figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. ‘I’ve gotten a few comments like ‘Oh, it’s a good thing that harvesting bag was as big as it was.”
+ In-N-Out “has removed the number 67 from its order system, as it found teens would go crazy when the number was called, launching celebrations of the nonsense term that have turned into viral videos.” (You may be thinking, “Well, at least we’re that much closer to 69.” But sadly, they got rid of that number, too.)
2025-12-09 20:00:00
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Except the main thing that happens in Vegas. That stays with you. You can bring it on the plane when you leave. It stays with you at home, at work, on the subway, on vacations, and even during trips to the restroom. In many states, your phone has become a legalized mobile casino. Sports betting is the main activity we often associate with phone-based gambling. But betting on sporting events is a drop in the quarter-filled bucket when it comes to casino economics. So predictably, in many states, slot machines are now on your phone, too. And people like the slot machines that fit into your pocket as much as they like the ones that serenade Las Vegas casinos on a non-stop basis. The slot machines aren’t the only Vegas highlight that travels well. So do the problems associated with gambling. “Traditional slot machines were once the most common reason people called the problem gambling hotline run by the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania. But in the years since the state legalized online gambling, online casino games have become the No. 1 reason for calls, ahead of physical casinos and sports betting.” With the risks associated with such behaviors, you’d assume states would be hesitant to legalize mobile slot machines. But here’s the rub. The state is in on the action. NYT Upshot: States Are Raking In Billions From Slot Machines on Your Phone. When it comes to sports betting, you have to wait for the game. With slots, the game is always waiting for you.
It’s hard to imagine that there’s anything that could make social media more addictive to teens. But outlawing it might do the trick. Australia launches youth social media ban it says will be the world’s first domino. “More than 1 million social media accounts held by users under 16 are set to be deactivated in Australia on Wednesday in a divisive world-first ban that has inflamed a culture war and is being closely watched in the United States and elsewhere.” There’s no doubt that there’s something attractive about ungluing kids from their phones. But when I think back to my teen years, something not being allowed only tended to make it more attractive. Being 21 took a lot of the thrill out of scoring a six-pack of beer and legal dispensaries took some of the fun out of buying a joint. And one can safely assume that teens getting around a technological age barrier will be a lot easier than breaking other rules. BBC: Can you ban kids from social media? Australia is about to, but some teens are a step ahead. “It took 13-year-old Isobel less than five minutes to outsmart Australia’s ‘world-leading’ social media ban for children. A notification from Snapchat, one of the ten platforms affected, had lit up her screen, warning she’d be booted off when the law kicked in this week – if she couldn’t prove she was over 16. ‘I got a photo of my mum, and I stuck it in front of the camera and it just let me through. It said thanks for verifying your age,’ Isobel claims. ‘I’ve heard someone used Beyoncé’s face,’ she adds.” (There is some irony at play here. When Facebook first launched, it was only available to college students and then high school students. So in the early days of social media, you had to pretend you were younger than you were if you wanted to check out the newest social tech.)
“A video on TikTok in October appeared to show a woman being interviewed by a television reporter about food stamps … [the guest discussed] selling food stamps for cash, which would have been a crime … Despite subtle red flags, hundreds vilified the woman as a criminal — some with explicit racism — while others attacked government assistance programs, just as a national debate was raging over President Trump’s planned cuts to the program.” Here’s the thing: The whole interview was AI generated. The same could very well be true about something that enraged you online. NYT (Gift Article): Even though the consumer apps to create them are only a few months old, A.I. Videos Have Flooded Social Media. No One Was Ready. (Who would have thought that in an era filled with real news that seems like it must be fake, we’d feel the need to create fake news that appears real.)
+ Yesterday, I covered the way campaigns are using AI to convince voters of certain ideas, even in remote areas. Don’t think you can be swayed? You’ll Come Around.
“More than 40 strangers logged in to Instacart, the grocery-shopping app, to buy eggs and test a hypothesis. Connected by videoconference, they simultaneously selected the same store — a Safeway in Washington, D.C. — and the same brand of eggs. They all chose pickup rather than delivery. The only difference was the price they were offered: $3.99 for a couple of lucky shoppers. $4.59 or $4.69 for others. And a few saw a price of $4.79 — 20 percent more than some others, for the exact same product.” NYT (Gift Article): Same Product, Same Store, but on Instacart, Prices Might Differ. “The Groundwork study found no evidence that Instacart was basing different prices on customers’ individual characteristics like income, ZIP code or shopping history. But there is little doubt that Instacart and other online sellers have the ability to do so.” (Oh, as sure as eggs is eggs, they will.)
Lies, Lies, and Allies: WSJ (Gift Article): “In a rambling and sometimes incoherent interview … the US president struggled to name any other Ukrainian cities except for Kyiv, misrepresented elements of the trajectory of the conflict, and recycled far-right tropes about European immigration that echoed the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory.” Trump lambasts ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’ Europe and hints at walking away from Ukraine. What’s weak and decaying are American values. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Why Russia Loves the New US National Security Strategy. “It calls, after all, for a rupture in the Transatlantic Alliance that every Kremlin leader — with brief exceptions for Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin — has sought since 1945.”
+ Not the War of Yore: “To counter the growing threat, America must simultaneously win the race to build autonomous weapons and lead the world in controlling them.” NYT (Gift Article) on the state of weaponry, battles, and what America needs to do to avoid falling behind. This Is the Future of War.
+ Patriarch of History: “Networked misogyny is now firmly established as a key tactic in the 21st-century authoritarian’s playbook. This is not a new trend – but it is now being supercharged by generative AI tools that make it easier, quicker and cheaper than ever to perpetrate online violence against women in public life – from journalists to human rights defenders, politicians and activists..” We see examples on the daily from the very top. Michelle Goldberg: Republican Women Suddenly Realize They’re Surrounded by Misogynists. “Last week, The Times reported on Republican women in Congress who say that Johnson ‘failed to listen to them or engage in direct conversations on major political and policy issues,’ which they seemed to attribute to his highly patriarchal evangelical Christianity. (He recently said that women, unlike men, are unable to ‘compartmentalize’ their thoughts.)” Some men are even able to compartmentalize their ethics.
+ Chips on the Table: “By letting Nvidia sell its H200 artificial-intelligence chips to China, he gave the U.S. company the giant market it demanded. But he also handed China’s AI industry what it couldn’t build itself: the high-end semiconductors needed to rival America.” WSJ (Gift Article): How Trump’s U-Turn on Nvidia Chips Changes the Game for China’s AI.
+ The Reel Deal: “New problems are plaguing old reels, putting decades of history at risk. One man, armed with hair dryers and a love of tinkering, is leading the charge to rescue them.” NYT (Gift Article): The ‘Race Against Time’ to Save Music Legends’ Decaying Tapes.
+ You Seriously Need to Chill: “Your first thought on hearing this is probably ‘Why?’ Why is leftover pizza healthier for me? And the answer has to do with what happens when you cool the delicious crust. When you cool a pizza to below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, some of the starches in the dough will start to mingle together to form these long chains called resistant starches.” Why Leftover Pizza Might Actually Be Healthier. (And it’s not just pizza…)
+ Gift Sift: Jason Kottke, the gift that keeps on giving, is back with his unique and always fun annual gift guide. (It’s slightly shorter than the list my daughter texted to me earlier this week.)
“Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.” A symphony of woofs: This is what happens when 2,397 golden retrievers gather in an Argentina park. (The noise was the equivalent of two beagles noticing a squirrel.)
2025-12-08 20:00:00
For a glimpse into the future of campaigns, let’s join Rest of World for a look at a recent election in the Indian state of Bihar. Political parties used widely available, very powerful, and reasonably cheap AI tools to reach voters in one of the country’s poorest and most populous states. Some of the tools seem useful and relatively harmless. Consider an AI that can translate campaign messages into a local dialect: A lot of the tools don’t seem harmless at all. “Deepfakes of politicians, journalists, and celebrities endorsing and discrediting candidates, and promising freebies circulated ahead of the election. Videos of candidates campaigning in Bihar even when they were not [there]. ‘It was really confusing for us to know what to believe and what not to,’ said Kumar Singh, 28. ‘I am tech-literate, so I know what AI is, but my parents and grandparents don’t, and the AI content convinced people in my home and neighborhood that these candidates were on the ground, even when they weren’t.'” Cheap and powerful AI campaigns target voters in India. If you don’t see this trend as a major concern, I suppose I won’t be able to convince you otherwise. I’m only human.
+ Of course, like everything involving AI, we’re just scratching the surface of how the technology will be deployed to inform and manipulate voters. AI can be used to assess the most effective message to deliver to any group of voters, create that message, and enhance the delivery of that message. And being 28 and tech literate may not help much when the deluge hits. Technology Review: AI chatbots can sway voters better than political advertisements. “A multi-university team of researchers has found that chatting with a politically biased AI model was more effective than political advertisements at nudging both Democrats and Republicans to support presidential candidates of the opposing party. The chatbots swayed opinions by citing facts and evidence, but they were not always accurate—in fact, the researchers found, the most persuasive models said the most untrue things.” (Maybe we’ve already reached the singularity, because that sounds a whole lot like human politicians.)
+ “‘I don’t know much about Harris,’ the voter admitted. ‘… However, with Trump, he is associated with a lot of bad things. So, I do not feel he is trustworthy right now.’ The AI chatbot replied: ‘I completely understand your emphasis on trustworthiness, and it’s a crucial trait for any leader. Let’s delve into this aspect with a nuanced perspective.’ By the conversation’s end, according to a transcript of the exchange, the voter was reconsidering whether to vote at all.'” WaPo (Gift Article): Voters’ minds are hard to change. AI chatbots are surprisingly good at it.
Cryptocurrency proponents argue that the new money offers faster, cheaper, decentralized transactions that transfer some of the power from massive, centralized banks to individuals, especially those in poorer regions without traditional banking infrastructure. And maybe some of those elements will prove to be as fruitful as the currency has been for investors. For now, crypto definitely seems to being Helping Criminals Launder Money and Evade Sanctions. “Smugglers, money launderers and people facing sanctions once relied on diamonds, gold and artwork to store illicit fortunes. The luxury goods could help hide wealth but were cumbersome to move and hard to spend. Now, criminals have a far more practical alternative: stablecoins, a cryptocurrency tied to the U.S. dollar that exists largely beyond traditional financial oversight.”
During the SCOTUS oral arguments on a case to determine whether the president has the power to fire agency heads without cause, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued: “You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that the government is better structured with some agencies that are independent.” To the current court majority, that sounds like great news. (Don’t worry, once we destroy the structure of government, we’re gonna replace it with a big, beautiful ballroom.) Supreme Court appears poised to rule for Trump on independent agency firings.
“Paramount Skydance on Monday launched a hostile bid worth $108.4 billion for Warner Bros Discovery, in a last-ditch effort to outbid Netflix and create a media powerhouse that would challenge the dominance of the streaming giant.” The hostile bidders have a few things going for them when it comes to getting administration approval: The Ellisons, Jared Kushner, and the backing of several Middle Eastern government-run investment funds. The gang’s all here. Warner Bros fight heats up with $108 billion hostile bid from Paramount. Neither of these deals will be particularly good for consumers. So we’re left to root for the least bad option. Welcome to 2025.
+ Deal points, competition, and societal good aside, it is remarkable that Netflix has risen to the point where it can buy Warner Bros. I discussed this last week. “I didn’t know it at the time, but the future of entertainment depended on a single data point shared with me over a cup of coffee in the 90s.”
Soy Vey: WSJ (Gift Article): “The Trump administration is planning to announce $12 billion in aid to U.S. farmers, according to administration officials, as the agriculture sector grapples with the fallout from President Trump’s far-reaching tariffs … The aid will be a shot in the arm to soybean farmers, who have faced devastating financial losses this year.” (Create a problem. Take credit for trying to fix the problem you created. I wonder if FIFA gives a medal for that?)
+ Surplus Sized: “China’s trade surplus in goods this year topped $1 trillion for the first time, a milestone that underscores the dominance that the country has attained in everything from high-end electric vehicles to low-end T-shirts.”
+ Good Hombres: “The data, which includes ICE arrests from Jan. 20 to Oct. 15, shows that nearly 75,000 people with no criminal records have been swept up in immigration operations that the president and his top officials have said would target murderers, rapists and gang members.”
+ Pardon Variety Hypocrisy: “President Trump promised to crack down on bad behavior in the ticketing and concert industry to help bring down prices for American fans. This past week, though, he pardoned a sports executive in one of his Justice Department’s big battles against the industry, Tim Leiweke.” WSJ (Gift Article): A Round of Golf Changed Trump’s Tone on the Concert Industry. Meanwhile, Trump pardons major drug traffickers despite his anti-drug rhetoric.
+ Grid Pro Quo: “American researchers invented the lithium-ion battery in the 1970s and later showed that the devices could help the electric grid. But for a long time batteries made little headway because grid managers and utility executives dismissed them as expensive and risky.” NYT: Once a Gamble in the Desert, Electric Grid Batteries Are Everywhere.
+ Golden Receivers: The Golden Globe noms are led by One Battle After Another and the White Lotus. Here are all the nominees and the snubs and surprises.
+ Parking Violation: “The US’s National Park Service will offer free admission to US residents on Donald Trump’s birthday in 2026 – which also happens to be Flag Day – but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth.” (I really think these guys are trying to send some kind of message, I just can’t make out what it is…)
“As the years have gone by, the letter has grown in scope. When we sent the first Christmas newsletter, we were just a two-person operation in a small home in Middlebury. Now we have to cover nine busy family members across four states. And sometimes Jessica has a boyfriend.” McSweeney’s: Why We’re Paywalling Our Family Christmas Card.
2025-12-05 20:00:00
I didn’t know it at the time, but the future of entertainment depended on a single data point shared with me over a cup of coffee in the 90s. I was chatting with Marc Randolph, one of the co-founders of a small, just-launched company called Netflix. Even though the company had only rented a relative handful of DVDs at that point, Randolph was very bullish on its prospects because the founders had an answer to the one key question that they believed would ultimately determine the company’s success: Would consumers be willing to rent a DVD by mail? The early answer was yes. That answer upended the entire movie rental business, and it was followed by a series of additional yeses. Would bandwidth reach a level where we could reasonably download and then stream movies? Yes. Could Netflix successfully manage the transition and the competition associated with adapting to the streaming age? Yes. Could a tech upstart from the Bay Area establish itself as one of the most powerful, influential players in the business of Hollywood? Yes? And now the biggest yes of all: Would Netflix eventually become a 300 million subscriber behemoth so massive and valuable that it could win a bidding competition against the likes of Paramount and Comcast to buy one of Hollywood’s most storied studios? NYT (Gift Article): Netflix to Buy Warner Bros. in $83 Billion Deal to Create a Streaming Giant. “Netflix announced plans on Friday to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business, in a deal that will send shock waves through Hollywood and the broader media landscape. The cash-and-stock deal values the business at $82.7 billion, including debt. The acquisition is expected to close after Warner Bros. Discovery carves out its cable unit, which the companies expected be completed by the third quarter of 2026. That means there will be a separate public company controlling channels like CNN, TNT and Discovery.” (I suppose this is an appropriate moment to look back at that moment in September of 2000 when Netflix offered to sell itself to Blockbuster for $50 million. John Antioco, CEO of Blockbuster, declined, saying, “The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown.”)
+ I’m not sure that morphing from a builder to a buyer is a smart move for Netflix. And I’m not sure that market consolidation will be good for consumers. And I’m going to be really worried if company executives announce that the new name for the combined streamer will be Netflix Max. But I am sure the deal’s announcement will set off a blockbuster debate among regulators, and that will include Trump administration officials who sure seemed to prefer the Ellison father and son backed Skydance/Paramount bid that could have been a big win for a Trump ally and put CNN into the hands of a MAGA-friendly owner. Netflix-Warner Bros deal faces political pushback even as company touts benefits. “Republicans in Congress have warned of potential antitrust problems with Netflix absorbing HBO Max and Warner Bros’ content rights — and Democrats including U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized the transaction after it was announced on Friday.” (How will it all turn out? We can either wait and see, or I can just invite Marc Randolph to coffee again. I just worry about him asking me about those two or three DVDs rentals I never returned.)
“Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for the late Charlie Kirk’s Conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, showcased ardent support for the Secretary of Defense via social media, saying ‘Every new attack aimed at Pete Hegseth makes me want another narco drug boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean.’ In response, Hegseth said: ‘Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat.'” The latest strike took place on the same day Congressional officials were gathering information on the infamous second strike. The second strike was a crime. The first strike was a crime. But, as Phil Klay explains in the NYT (Gift Article), these strikes are something more than that. “This [legality] discussion misses the bigger effort the Trump administration seems to be engaged in. In lieu of careful analysis of the campaign’s legality, detailed rationales for the boat strikes and explanations of why they couldn’t be done with more traditional methods, we get Mr. Hegseth posting an image of himself with laser eyes and video after video of alleged drug traffickers being killed. The cartoon turtle is just one example in an avalanche of juvenile public messaging about those we kill. I suspect the question the administration cares about is not ‘is this legal,’ ‘is this a war crime,’ ‘is this murder’ or even ‘is this good for America,’ but rather, ‘isn’t this violence delightful?'” What Trump Is Really Doing With His Boat Strikes. “We’re in the Colosseum, one brought to us digitally so that we need not leave our homes to hear the cheers of the crowd, to watch the killing done for our entertainment.”
“He switched from vodka to light beer. He started booking two-hundred-dollar-an-hour corporate Santa gigs. He reconnected with his son and even employed him as an elf. The easy explanation would be that playing Santa Claus saved Billy and that the magic of Christmas had wrapped its warm glow around another lost soul. That’s what Billy thought. That’s what a lot of men who worked at Macy’s thought when they, too, found happiness sitting in a gold-painted chair wearing a red costume. But there was something else at work on Thirty-fourth Street. Something more profound. A better story, actually.” David Gauvey Herbert in Esquire: Yes, Bob, There is a Santa Clause.
What to Watch: Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, and Nick Offerman lead an excellent cast in the the story of James Garfield, who rose from obscurity to become America’s 20th president — and Charles Guiteau, the man who assassinated him. Watch Death by Lightning on Netflix.
+ What to Book: Kaplan’s Plot by Jason Diamond is an entertaining and sometimes touching story of failed tech bro who returns home to Chicago and uncovers a sprawling story of his grandfather’s role in an epic gangster saga.
+ What to Sandman: Adam Sandler is the latest interviewee on David Letterman’s Netflix show: My Next Guest. These two guys chatting just makes me feel good.
Erasure Head: “The document released overnight is the clearest statement yet of how the president wants his America First foreign policy to be a clarion call for other nationalist politicians to overhaul their political systems. And it echoes some of the language of the Great Replacement Theory, a nationalist conspiracy theory embraced by some of his top aides that warns of a deliberate effort to replace white people with nonwhite immigrants.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Administration Says Europe Faces ‘Civilizational Erasure.’ (I could use some news erasure…)
+ Replacing Merits with Parrots: “But as the populist right trashes meritocracy, it is replacing it with something older, cruder and more corrosive: a naked plutocracy — rule by the very rich. We have the wealthiest Cabinet in history, stocked with billionaires and centimillionaires. Immense wealth is now seen as the single best qualification to run anything.” An excellent piece from Fareed Zakaria in WaPo (Gift Article): Populists are replacing meritocracy with something far worse.
+ Vax Attacks: Panel Votes to End Recommendation for Hepatitis B Shots for All Newborns. (And RFK’s vaccine dismantling begins.)
+ Scotus Operandi: Supreme Court lets Texas use gerrymandered map that could give GOP 5 more House seats. (The Court’s majority disregarding the law and lower court rulings to support Trump? Shocker.)
+ Shock and Draw: The United States will face Australia, Paraguay and winner of Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo. Here’s a look at all the groups and news from the World Cup draw, where Trump accepted the FIFA Peace Prize and spoke briefly onstage at the Kennedy Center. ‘This is truly one of the great honors of my life. We’ve saved millions and millions of lives.'” (Millions? I’m pretty sure it’s more like trillions…)
+ Fact Wrecker: A headline that defines an era: State Department to deny visas to fact checkers and others.
+ The Next Pardon? “One of Trump’s first executive actions of his second term was to issue clemency to the nearly 1,600 defendants accused or convicted of ‘offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.’ It remains to be seen whether Cole’s lawyers will try to argue that their client is covered by Trump’s proclamation.” Brian Cole Jr., suspect in Jan. 6 pipe bomb plot, reportedly told FBI he believed 2020 election was stolen.
“Mesfin Yana Dollar came to the U.S. for surgery. Now he works at the Mayo Clinic, assisting with some of the world’s most complex open-heart surgeries.” WaPo (Gift Article): A heart surgeon saved his life as a teen. Now they perform surgeries together.
+ Teens may have come up with a new way to detect, treat Lyme disease using CRISPR gene editing.
+ 14-Year-Old Wins Prize For Origami That Can Hold 10,000 Times Its Own Weight.
+ Students in need were paid $500 a month to stay in school. It worked.
+ Boy, 5, Sneaks Out for Chick-fil-A While Family Sleeps.
+ “Usually, there’s about an hour of quiet reading. Then you can stick around to chat and swap books — or not.” Inside Seattle’s silent book clubs. You show up with your own book and just read for a while in the presence of others doing the same thing. (If I can partipate from home, this would be the perfect club.)