2026-08-11 20:00:00
It’s hard to believe that back in the early days of the internet, we were pretty sure that social media would be a unifying force that brought people together. It didn’t take long to realize that social media would instead divide us into rage-fueled silos of misinformed homogeneity. We’ve seen the divide when it comes to political parties and cultural issues, but thanks to the nature of social media, the nature of our political landscape, and maybe our own human nature, the all-inclusive, never-ending flashmob jamboree we thought we were building is gradually dividing us into smaller and smaller groups, online and off. “Some social scientists and cultural observers are increasingly considering [this] more extreme concept: atomization, or the scattering of people — not into two opposing factions but into countless smaller tribes. Like groups of atoms, those subsets can form — and dissolve — at quicksilver pace, leaving people in ever-tinier bubbles, devoid of connection with one another and the larger social fabric. Even subgroups have subgroups, dividing amoeba-like into combative factions, creating a nation of us vs. them and them and them.” NYT (Gift Article): America Is Atomizing. Don’t agree? That’s not a problem. Hardly anyone agrees with anyone on anything, so feel free to do your own research until you find your niche. “An atomized society provides community inside subcultures. Popular influencers, some with audiences far greater than those of traditional media outlets, have given voice to previously fringe interests, creating camaraderie for anyone who thought they were the only cat-loving gun owner. The palindrome enthusiast. A ‘hot’ girl with I.B.S. A knitting Swiftie. The constituencies start to sound like Mad Libs.” And if the socials shrank our groups, spending all day talking to a sycophantic AI agent will only accelerate the trend. My tribe is me, myself, and AI. What we thought would be one big party is morphing into a party of one.
In what’s becoming a trend, a story that already seemed weird is turning out to be much weirder. We knew that Trump recently had to abandon his Qatar-gifted jet for the much safer old-school Air Force One during an international trip. But it turns out, even AF1 wasn’t considered safe enough, and we somehow find ourselves at the intersection of catering and dictatoring. Trump Said to Have Secretly Used Military Jet to Leave Turkey Amid Threats. “Instead of flying out aboard that older, powder blue, modified 747, Mr. Trump was whisked off that plane via a catering container that had been lifted to the opposite side of the plane from where the journalists traveling with him boarded, one of the U.S. officials said. The president was then taken to a third plane, which he flew in secret to Britain, the official with knowledge of the matter said. Reporters on the older plane were not told that Mr. Trump had not flown with them from Turkey to an air base in Britain, making them unwitting participants in the ruse and leaving them, along with some White House staff members, to serve as unknowing decoys.” (Unless that catering container was being used for Cheetos, I’m guessing there was a lot of cleanup required.)
“Speaking in the Oval Office before signing the executive order, Mr. Trump said he was motivated in part by concerns over whether vaccines were tied to autism, even though dozens of studies have found no link between the two.” Trump Signs Executive Order Calling for Fewer Childhood Vaccines. “It is unclear whether the order has any legal power. Vaccine recommendations in the United States are made by a committee of experts who advise the C.D.C., and are then adopted by the agency’s director. But only states can require vaccinations for children to enter school or day care.” (So it may not be legal, but it should provide enough misinformation to bring back some infectious diseases, because Trump now believes his own misinformation.)
+ At this point, it’s incredible how normal our news coverage makes absolute insanity seem. Here’s a headline from TNR that puts things more clearly. Trump Nods Off After Claiming Kids Get ‘Soda Bottle’ Worth of Vaccines.
+ WHO defends immunization schedules after Trump orders fewer childhood shots. “What comes out from WHO is science-based.” (Science? We’re not still clinging to mumpsimus nonsense like science, are we?)
Obama’s meteoric rise up the career ladder continues. Community organizer. Senator. President. And now… podcaster. “Former President Barack Obama has long shared what he is reading with the public. Now, he plans to delve into a collection of books that have influenced him in a new podcast that will debut in September.” Barack Obama to Host Podcast Exploring Influential Books. (I could definitely see Trump doing something lit-focused like this once at some point…)
The New Abnormal: “The conundrum highlights how the war has unleashed a more antagonistic Iran and left a region that is vital to the world’s energy security with no good option for countering it.” WSJ (Gift Article): Gulf States Accept a New Normal in Hormuz: Iran Is in Control.
+ Slurred Speech: “In several instances documented in court filings, federal agents referred to targets as ‘tonks’ — a derogatory term typically used to refer to Mexican immigrants and intended to echo the sound of agents’ flashlights striking their heads.” NYT (Gift Article): New Evidence Shows Agents Using Slurs, Bolstering Profiling Claims. (Ya think?)
+ The Clime Climb: Congratulations, everyone. The US just sweltered through the warmest month ever recorded. I’m guessing you’re not fooled by the politicians who downplay climate change. I’m sure business owners aren’t. NYT (Gift Article): Heat, Fire, Smoke and Storms Are Wreaking Havoc on the Economy.
+ Assad Excuse for a Human Being: “A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced ousted President Bashar Assad and his brother in absentia for murder, torture and crimes against humanity committed before and during the country’s 14-year civil war that left about half a million people dead.” Former Syrian President Assad sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes. (Let’s hope he feels homesick soon.)
+ Abuse and Power: “Miller is accused of beating and burning his ex-wife Emily Moreno, fracturing his young daughter’s collarbone, holding her beloved stuffed bunny hostage, and sharing an inappropriate photo of her, among other numerous allegations.” Trump Shut Down Efforts to Get Alleged Abuser to Drop Out of Midterms.
+ Pocket Pool: “White House officials have asked the Justice Department to consider a new prosecution of a man accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, according to people familiar with the discussions, as President Trump fumes over U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s decision to drop the case.” WSJ (Gift Article): White House Asks Justice Department to Consider New Reflecting-Pool Prosecution. (I don’t know, maybe spend less time on false prosecutions against imaginary criminals and more time figuring out how to deal with Iran or defending our allies?) As we discussed last week, in a lot of ways, the Reflecting Pool story is a reflection of everything Trump: Dirty Pool.
“Personal service providers to college students have exploded in the past decade. Laundry, dorm cleaning, moving and meal prep companies target elite schools, where wealthy families will fork over thousands to save their child a few extra hours each week.” The college experience now includes laundry and maid service. Back in my day, we drove home to get our laundry done. Whatever happened to that kind of independence?
2026-08-10 20:00:00
The black vans parked right in front of the school were a dead giveaway. You always knew when it was the one day of the week that metal detectors were being deployed at the Brooklyn high school where I taught in the 90s. If you were planning to bring a weapon into the school, the workaround was pretty simple: Just wait a few hours until the vans left. Everyone associated with the school knew that the metal detector program was ineffective. Everyone in the school knew that the metal detector program created a negative stigma and had racist under(and over)-tones. As a white teacher, I was free to bypass the metal detectors on my first day at the school, while the students (all of whom were Black or brown) always had to go through the detection process. Yet, when I returned to that high school to question students and parents for my Ed School thesis on urban school violence and the use of metal detectors, my survey showed that a huge majority of students and parents wanted the metal detection program to remain in place. People concerned about being the victim of a crime (along with those who have already had the misfortune of that experience) will generally choose flawed protection over no protection.
+ That’s one of the aspects that makes the public backlash against the Flock license plate readers that blanket many American cities so interesting. Yes, they add an unappealing layer of surveillance to our society at a moment when many of us trust government less than ever. But those kinds of tradeoffs are generally accepted by people concerned about having their cars stolen or suffering some other criminal act. Is Flock an exception? And if so, how bad did they have to be to become one? NYT (Gift Article): Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t. “A Texas officer used Flock’s cameras to track a woman across state lines who was suspected of self-administering an abortion. Officers across the country have abused their access to Flock’s cameras, including to track romantic partners, resulting in discipline and termination. Los Angeles and Dayton, Ohio, among other cities, recently suspended their contracts with Flock to prevent immigration authorities from accessing data from the cameras. Dayton resorted to covering the cameras with trash bags. In cities like Houston, Oakland, Calif., and Grand Junction, Colo., residents have taken matters into their own hands, with police reports and surveillance footage documenting Flock cameras being cut down, splattered with paint and even shot.” Will the backlash hold? I recently attended a meeting about the use of Flock in my (very liberal) town. People spent about two percent of the time talking about how bad Flock’s transgressions are, and the rest of the meeting describing the car thefts and other crimes that have happened on their blocks.
+ I have a feeling we’ll see an increase in personal technologies that enable you to avoid being detected by cameras, whether they’re hanging from telephone poles or being worn as glasses by someone in your office. TechCrunch: This ‘adversarial’ pattern can prevent surveillance cameras from detecting you. (I always thought ‘adversarial’ patterns were those that accentuated my love handles.)
+ No one has covered the Flock story in more detail than 404 Media. Here are all their recent stories on the topic.
“Lifting of the U.S. naval blockade and sanctions on Iran, the withdrawal of American forces from around the country, the payment of war reparations, the release of frozen Iranian assets, and the end of attacks on Iran’s allies in the region.” Those are some of the demands being made by Iran in exchange for opening the Strait of Hormuz (which was open before the war started). Iran Insists Strait Will Stay Closed Until U.S. Agrees to Demands. Somehow declaring victory, announcing that a deal is in place, issuing empty threats on social media, and even the liberal use of all-caps haven’t done the trick.
+ “For weeks, President Trump had been laying the groundwork to declare victory in the Iran war should Tehran fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even floating the idea privately to senior aides that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal.” Now, even that horrendous outcome appears to be in doubt. WSJ (Gift Article): Trump Thought Opening the Strait of Hormuz Was Imminent. Iran Had Other Plans.
+ The deal/victory announcements about Iran weren’t the only premature declarations. Netanyahu Rejects Trump’s Plan for Disarming Hamas.
“American travel has transformed in recent decades. A nation of former homebodies has become one of zealous and moneyed international travelers, infiltrating every cobblestoned corner of Europe and rapidly filling lesser-known destinations. Americans took a record 24 million trips to Europe in 2025. Portugal received nearly five times the number of U.S. visitors last year as it did a decade earlier. Greece took in four times as many.” WSJ (Gift Article): The Rise of the Unstoppable American Tourist.
+ This summer, they’ve been unstoppable, and uncoolable. UK and France prepare for another heat wave as Western Europe sets new temperature record.
“There may be no more tangible an indicator of when Americans are and are not having a good time than Reddy Ice’s sales figures.” But the ice business is about more than backyard parties. It’s involved in everything from keeping hospitals running to enabling concrete to set properly in warm weather. Texas Monthly with a very interesting look at life on the rocks. Inside the Billion-Dollar Industry That’s Keeping Your Beer Cold—and Saving Lives.
Columbia Quake: “Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella — who just took office on Friday — convened an emergency committee to address the damage. The Colombian government has declared a state of national disaster, and rescue soldiers are being deployed to affected areas of the country.” At least 111 are dead following a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia. Here’s the latest from CNN and The Guardian.
+ In the Red: “During the World Cup soccer final in New Jersey last month, Zach Witkoff, co-founder of President Trump’s cryptocurrency company, took in the action from a luxury suite. Joining him was a man who had made the president, and all the company’s co-founders, much richer. Two years earlier, the man, Guren ‘Bobby’ Zhou, was a failed hardwood flooring retailer in Britain who had come under investigation there for money laundering and presided over the collapse of a small crypto start-up. Then seemingly out of nowhere, he became one of the biggest buyers of tokens from Mr. Trump’s company, World Liberty Financial.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Crypto Took $100 Million From a Businessman With Red Flags. (Headline also works this way: Businessman Invests $100 Million via Middlemen with Red Flags into a President with Red Flags in an Industry with Red Flags.)
+ Veggie Fails: We interrupt the constant flow of diarrhea stories to bring you the following. Taylor Farms issued a recall for over a dozen items, including salsa and guacamole, over Salmonella risks.
+ Truth or Glare: “DarkSky International, Environment America, the American Bird Conservancy and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility called on the FCC to overturn a decision last month authorizing Reflect Orbital to launch its Earendil-1 demonstration satellite, which will carry a 59-foot-wide mirror to reflect sunlight onto a specific spot on the planet during periods of darkness.” Environmental groups challenge FCC approval of startup’s plan to beam on-demand sunlight from space. (The last thing this administration is going to rule against is a mirror.)
+ You Are the Product: “It’s really just leveraging this incredible AI and software that Palantir has to allow us to move so much faster and to be so much smarter with the data we have today. And…take a lot of the anonymous interactions we have today and turn those into known relationships…The more known relationships we have, the more data we create, the more signals we create, the more actionable intelligence we have.” America’s largest newspaper chain, USA Today Co., partners with Palantir to analyze audience data as search traffic falls.
+ Cohnheads: “Ignore the rules, do what you want to do, don’t leave a paper trail, don’t keep a calendar, never do things in writing, and, if somebody gets onto you, rat out other people to save yourself. Delay, delay, delay, ’cause grand juries have a limited time, and you can run out the clock. And call in the news media. Make up a fantastic story … And that’ll be the news story. It’ll put the government on the defensive.” Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark in The New Yorker: How Roy Cohn taught Donald Trump Everything.
+ Execution Style: “One of Ferney’s working mottos is, ‘Our job is to execute, not judge.’ Given that she and her business partner are routinely tasked with fulfilling the whims of those who think nothing of laying out $2.25 million for a weeklong yacht rental on the Côte d’Azur (as recently happened), this makes a kind of cockeyed sense.” She Makes the Impossible Happen for Her Ultrarich Clients.
“A flight from British Columbia to Toronto was canceled on Thursday after a child would not sit down and buckle a seatbelt before takeoff, the airline said.” Flight Is Canceled After a Child Refuses to Be Seated. (Bookmark this one, folks. This kid will be president someday…)
+ “It was initially feared the abandoned luggage, which was found by members of the public on Sunday afternoon at Oallen, about 60 kilometres south-east of Goulburn, contained a woman’s remains.” It turned out to be a sex doll. (A reader sent this is from Australia because it seemed like a story I’d like. There’s nothing quite like having someone on the other side of the world see a story about a dead sex doll and say, “Hey, this made me think of you…”)
2026-08-07 20:00:00
In a lot of ways, the Reflecting Pool story is a reflection of everything Trump. The pattern goes something like this. Step one, make a bold promise to fix something not too many people actually see as a pressing problem. Step two, hire unqualified associates from the wrong end of the gene pool to fix the problem. Step three, fail to fix the problem. Step four, make the problem worse. Step five, blame your enemies for the problem you created. Step six, deploy your corrupted prosecutors to bring laughable charges against these imaginary criminals. Step eight, blame those Trumped-up, fabricated charges being dropped on the prosecutors who couldn’t make your lies stick, and continue to blame the imaginary criminals. Bonus step: sit back as the media and the country obsess over your reflection in the reflecting pool, which ultimately distracts from much bigger and more dangerous failures. NYT (Gift Article): How the Reflecting Pool Came to Mirror Trump’s Washington. “Many of the details of the saga are reported in this article for the first time [and show] the second Trump administration’s willingness to skirt laws, expend millions of dollars, ignore facts and punish truth tellers in service of the president’s demands to put his mark on the capital.” This is an everyone (and everything) in the pool story, from hiring guys who run Trump’s hospitality businesses to being stung by tariffs that made the products needed for the fix unavailable. Is it any wonder that in an age defined by malignant narcissism that a pool designed to reflect the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument ended up reflecting Trumpism?
+ Politico: Trump says voters are mad at other Republicans, not him, as midterms approach.
+ That’s all I’ve got for today’s lead. I’m still spent from yesterday’s coverage of America’s munition shortfall. Hegseth Blows His Load. “Hegseth whipped out the nation’s most powerful conventional weapons and sprayed ammo all over the Middle East. He and his boss announced climactic victory multiple times. But it turned out this was a case of premature obliteration.” (Yes, this story is a much more serious version of the one above. And yes, we probably would be better off if Trump had appointed his pool guy as defense secretary.)
Here’s one lead paragraph that defines the promise and peril of AI — and confirms yet again why we need a lot more regulations and guardrails than we’re gonna get. “For the first time, scientists have used artificial intelligence to create new kinds of viruses, raising hopes for medical advances while also raising the disturbing possibility that the technology could someday be used to invent dangerous pathogens.” Carl Zimmer in the NYT (Gift Article): This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature.
The SF Giants have lost a lot this season, but no loss will be felt like this one. Mike Krukow provided the background soundtrack to our lives. He called the games, but he also called us — providing color commentary on the fans that was every bit as important and enjoyable as the details about what was happening on the field. Even if you don’t know who Krukow is or you’re not a baseball fan, you’ll be able to relate to our impending feeling of loss. The excellent Grant Brisbee on an era-ending announcement that reverberated around an entire region. Mike Krukow’s retirement is going to take a long time for Giants fans to process. “Krukow is, of course, more of a regional treasure than an international one, but he is still in that invitation-only class of the universally beloved. The common connection and through line … is that they radiate joy with everything they do. They somehow found exactly what they wanted to do on this planet and, guess what, it’s exactly what we want them to be doing. It becomes a positive feedback loop that never ends, and there’s never a downside, never a hidden cost. All they put out into the world is something that makes your life better, and in return, all they ask is for the ability to keep doing it. They should get a pass from the physical realities of the world … They do not get a pass from the physical realities of the world.”
What to Book: Publishers Weekly wrote of Ann Patchett’s latest novel, Whistler, “Like many of Patchett’s works, this beautiful and generous novel feels effortless, never straining for effect.” Reading it feels effortless as well. Such smooth writing. Great stuff.
+ What to Noodle: It’s not the engineering marvel that is bucatini, nor does it have the seasonal flair of racchette, but DeCecco’s Squared Spaghetti no. 413 is a pasta shape that will make you a dinner party star.
+ What to Stream: My wife and I took our kids to their first Outside Lands Music Festival. Now they go with their friends, and we’re not allowed to attend because of the very real risk of us (ok, me) cramping their style. But it’s a win-win, because I prefer outdoor music festivals when they’re streamed to my living room. Watch Outside Lands on Prime.
Meanwhile, Back at the Blanche: “Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, said on Friday that he would support Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general, effectively saving the confirmation of President Trump’s pick after two other Republican senators said they would oppose him.” Surprise, surprise…
+ E-War: “They used to call this kind of thing a war crime. But somewhat suddenly, it has become a nearly universal feature of 21st-century conflict.” Until recently, attacking civilian energy infrastructure was unacceptable. The dynamics of modern war have changed that.
+ Tourist Trap: “On Thursday, the president signed two executive orders, this time taking a more narrow focus on so-called ‘birth tourism.'” (If he keeps flouting the courts and the constitution, we may not have any tourism at all.) Trump signs new orders targeting birthright citizenship, weeks after SCOTUS ruling.
+ Total Burn: “Five months into its unprecedented dismantling of foreign-aid programs, the Trump administration has given the order to incinerate food instead of sending it to people abroad who need it.” (The metaphor just writes, and then burns, itself.) The Trump Administration Is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food.
+ Cam Slam: “Officers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be equipped with much-delayed body cameras by the end of next month, it was reported on Friday. But experts have questioned the transparency of a policy that allows the ICE director to restrict the public release of footage unless ‘it is in the best interests of the agency.'”
+ Betting Your Life: “Billions of dollars are traded every week on the lightly regulated prediction market sites, where users bet on everything from movie reviews to elections to conflicts in the Middle East. Clinical trials are just the latest area where the industry’s rapid growth is raising ethical questions.” Kalshi and Polymarket bets on clinical trials criticized as ghastly. (They’re also a sign that the prediction players are looking to challenge the stock market, where people essentially place bets on clinical trials every day.)
+ Shit Happens: “Zendaya’s angelic strapless gown with feathered white wings was the work of Matières Fécales — yes, in English, Fecal Matter — the Paris-based, high-end fashion house founded in Montreal over a decade ago that’s, seemingly suddenly, everywhere.” Talk about the perfect attire for the moment. Why celebrities from Zendaya to Kylie Jenner are wearing Fecal Matter.
“It took about 30 seconds after regular play-by-play announcer Scott Franzke introduced him for Kalb to settle in.” A retiree won an auction to join the Phillies’ radio booth — and crushed it.
+ Plug-In Solar Panels Are Starting to Sprout in U.S. Backyards.
+ Virginia teens at golf tryouts rescue family from drowning and then make squad.
+ This high schooler invented a plant-based plastic that removes microplastics from the environment as it biodegrades.
+ “Mom Leah Farrow posted on Facebook about her son Soren, who has autism, and how much he loves trick-or-treating, asking if anyone would be open to volunteering to offer Soren the chance to trick-or-treat at their home in the middle of summer. To her surprise, 83 families answered the call.”
+ “DuckDuckGo, the free, independent web browser with the quaint logo of a waterfowl wearing a bow tie, just took a swing at big tech through a satirical stunt marketing campaign directly targeting AI-powered smart glasses. Last week, the company announced the release of its state-of-the-art ‘anti-surveillance sunglasses’ — also known as, well, ‘Normal F***ing Sunglasses.'”
+ Maybe I should have told you at the outset just to skip all the news and get right into these photos of dogs surfing.
2026-08-06 20:00:00
You knew that replacing all the qualified people with those less endowed with talent in the country’s most important roles probably wasn’t going to go well. But in the back of your mind, you hoped someone like Pete Hegseth could keep it in his pants long enough for American history to limp toward a safer era. But no luck. He started a war he was convinced would be as easy as dropping some seamen from their fishing boats. But this nut proved harder to crack. War is harder than it looks. Hegseth whipped out the nation’s most powerful conventional weapons and sprayed ammo all over the Middle East. He and his boss announced climactic victory multiple times. But it turned out this was a case of premature obliteration. Emission accomplished. Mission, not so much. The discharge was dishonorable. And thus we find the world’s most powerful military in a state few of us imagined prior to this administration. We have a surplus of testosterone, but a shortage of weapons. The launchers are erect, but the defense secretary has them shooting blanks. The incompetence is, in a word, lethal.
+ As you might imagine, Hegseth’s boss is going ballistic. “President Donald Trump’s frustration over the Iran war boiled over at Camp David last week, where he demanded answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on why he had apparently been misled on extreme munitions shortages that now threaten to limit military options with Iran.”WaPo (Gift Article): Trump, Hegseth clashed at Camp David over Iran missile depletion concerns. “The president asserted overnight that the United States has ‘massive amounts’ of munitions, saying in a post on Truth Social that ‘large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed.’ The “‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down.” (“Massive.” “Large.” If I didn’t know better, I’d think someone was compensating for something.)
+ Let’s hope this is an exception when it comes to Trump’s proclamations and that it’s true that we have massive amounts of munitions, because the reported shortage isn’t just impacting Iran. It’s endangering Ukraine and emboldening our enemies around the world. The Atlantic (Gift Article): How the U.S. Squandered Its Strategic Advantage. “The United States is running out of missiles. After five months of war with Iran, stockpiles of long-range weapons are so low, current and former U.S. defense officials told us, that they don’t believe the U.S. has enough to combat a threat in Asia. The remaining supplies, depending on the munition, are as low as 20 percent of what the Pentagon would like to have in hand. And stores of sophisticated interceptor missiles, such as Patriots and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles, are too depleted to give or sell the weapons to Ukraine or effectively defend against Iran’s launch of ballistic missiles. Even when troops see Iranian missiles approaching, they are forced to decide in a matter of seconds whether to expend a limited number of interceptors or hope for the best.” (That’s what the rest of us have been doing since Trump and Hegseth took over.)
There’s something in the air. And there’s going to be a lot more of it if you live in the vicinity of one of the many natural gas-powered AI data centers being built (often without public input). “If built as planned, the gas burning plants — scattered across states including Texas, Ohio and Wyoming — could release as much planet-warming pollution in a year as roughly half of all the passenger vehicles in the United States, according to estimates based on permits, regulatory filings and other data compiled by the Environmental Integrity Project. They would also produce harmful pollutants including particulate matter, formaldehyde and smog-forming nitrogen oxides that can contribute to heart disease, asthma, lung cancer, strokes and other ailments in people living nearby.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump’s Vision for A.I. Dominance Comes With Major Air Pollution.
+ “Data centers like Stargate, along with their accompanying power plants, are proliferating across the country, helping to satisfy an immense demand for artificial intelligence. And despite lofty promises to fuel data centers with renewable energy, data shows AI companies are mostly relying on gas to satisfy their insatiable energy demands. Nationwide, nearly 60 data centers are planning to build their own gas plants to avoid connecting to the grid.” The Texas Tribune: Planned Texas data centers could emit more greenhouse gases than many countries.
“Thursday’s vote was along party lines, and came after Fauci refused to answer lawmakers’ questions in a hearing last week about the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, citing his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.” Senate Homeland Security committee votes to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress. They’ve ignored the rest of the Constitution. Why not the Fifth Amendement…
From Malta to Yalta, watch my tax returns alta… From the NYT (Gift Article): How Malta Became a Tax Haven for Crocs and Other U.S. Companies. “Consider Crocs. One of the world’s most profitable shoemakers sells its signature chunky clogs to 150 million customers across 100 countries annually. Yet, come tax season, the Broomfield, Colo., company has claimed that all its global profits were actually earned in this two-person office. Welcome to Malta. The tiniest country in the European Union, with roughly the population of Milwaukee, it is home to turquoise water beaches and a raging nightclub scene. It is also the world’s hot new corporate tax haven.” (For those not in a position to appoint an attorney general, this is one way to lower a tax bill.)
One Flu Over the Cuckoos’s Nest: “The approval of the vaccine, called mFLUSIVA, which is manufactured by Moderna, follows a series of blows to mRNA research directed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including the cancellation of 22 projects meant to develop vaccines with mRNA technology.” FDA Approves Moderna’s mRNA Flu Vaccine.
+ Rare Conditioning: “The recurring power outages combined with the stifling heat have created collective insomnia on the island as residents struggle to get through the night. While some like Ríos García have slept on the boulevard, others struggle to get some rest on balconies and front porches. The day of the latest blackout on Sunday, the temperature hit 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 Celsius), but ended up feeling like 106 F when combined with the Caribbean’s 80% humidity levels.” Cubans sleep on seaside boardwalk to seek relief from crippling blackouts.
+ FCC No Evil: “The change, if not stopped by courts, will make it easier for Carr to allow broadcast mergers that result in more favorable news coverage for President Trump. Carr has consistently threatened to revoke licenses from broadcasters who have drawn Trump’s ire, including by ordering an early license review of all ABC-owned stations.” FCC kills TV ownership cap, claiming authority over limit set by Congress.
+ Alphabet Order: “In the AI industry, Google prides itself on seeming like the adult in the room: quiet, stable, time-tested. On Wednesday, even as the company announced its largest AI org shakeup yet, Google and its leaders presented a unified front, keeping their messaging focused on how the changes tee up future success. But the reality is that the laundry list of executive changes likely signal deeper issues within Google’s AI organization.” The Verge on the messy politics behind Google’s big AI shakeup.
+ Trade Association: “Surging retail trading isn’t just transforming markets; it’s also highly correlated with demoralization in young men, according to a new study.” Some 64% of Young Men Day Trading Stocks Feel Like Failures. “The findings were strikingly similar to outcomes among men who gamble.”
+ Offline Retaylor: “Just a month before Taylor Fresh Foods began grappling with a sweeping multi-state lettuce recall, the Salinas-based company filed a civil lawsuit against one of its former presidents and his wife, accusing the couple of a yearslong, $32 million embezzlement operation.” These folks spent a lot of lettuce.
+ The Ultimate Jiving Machine: “Starting last week, BMW started blasting a promotion for the new Spider-Man movie into its customers’ cars without warning — because nothing says riding in luxury like a full-vehicle pop-up ad.”
A physicist rigged his pet hamster’s wheel to upload to Strava. It runs surprisingly far every night. (I tried this with my beagles and my Strava ranking actually went down…)
2026-08-05 20:00:00
In addition to the potential geopolitical and world order shifts that are happening in wars from the Middle East to Ukraine, there’s something else even more fundamental taking place. Drones and AI are reshaping modern warfare. We’ve seen this in the way Ukraine has been able to hold off Russian advances, and Iran has been able to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz. And, of course, the drones are being used by all sides. But this isn’t just a story about new weapons, it’s a story about autonomous machines hunting humans. For most of us, the major concerns about AI and the rise of autonomous machines consist of ChatGPT replacing our jobs or a malfunctioning Waymo creating a traffic jam. The issue was a little more pressing this week for a Ukrainian named Yuri, who runs a vegetable stall in Kherson. He heard a buzzing sound and looked up to find he was being followed by a drone. He pointed to his vegetables to let someone (assuming there was anyone) on the other side of the drone know he wasn’t a combatant. “The drone kept following him. Police footage shows it chasing Yuri around his truck. He hides under the umbrella that covers the stand, runs from one side to the other, gestures at the vegetables. Then the drone dives beside him and explodes. Miraculously, Yuri survived, with just cuts and a concussion. [But] the experience of being chased by a murderous kamikaze drone, a flying machine that behaves as if it were alive, is not one that humans are equipped to understand. Premodern fanatics used to hallucinate flying devils. But few modern civilians have been chased by mechanized flying objects. Unless they live in or around Kherson.” Nothing can prey on one’s mind like being prey. Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Putin’s Human Safari Is the Dystopian Future of War. (It could also be the future of border patrol, law enforcement, criminal activity, and more, depending on what humans decide now, and the machines decide later.) “Drones with capabilities like the ones that hit Yuri originally offered a humanitarian advantage, allowing their operators to avoid civilian casualties. Because they have cameras, the remote operator can see whether the target is really a soldier or military object, and call off the drone if it is not. But as with all technologies, the purpose can be radically altered by the users. Instead of avoiding civilians, Russian operators can now target them, as if playing a video game.”
+ “During testing by a U.K. government-backed research group, OpenAI and Anthropic systems took unsanctioned actions and behaved deceptively.” AI Just Went Rogue Again. This Time It Turned to Deception. (Let’s hope it has a soft spot for vegetable salesmen…)
Caring for an older relative in the home can be a challenge under any circumstances. Even more so when you have algebra homework that’s due. It turns out that children caring for the ill is very common in the United States, and it’s becoming even more common given demographic shifts and the state of the health care industry. “Members of the baby boom generation are aging into the years when they are likely to need daily assistance at home, while increased housing costs are packing more families into multigenerational homes. The health care system is adding to these pressures. Financial incentives are shortening hospital stays, and services that used to be provided on the wards are left to those at home.” NYT Mag (Gift Article): The U.S. Relies on Family Caregivers. Millions of Them Are Kids.
Sam Altman shared a parenting idea on social media the other day. “cool use case of chatgpt work i heard last night: connect your family calendars and explain your kids’ interests. every morning for the drive to school, have it make a podcast that talks about one kid’s soccer game that afternoon, one kid’s upcoming birthday, some news, etc.” Most of the responses were like the one from TV creator Alex Hirsch, who asked: “What if you just talked to your children?” My son was born around the same time as the iPhone and thus has never had my full attention, so I’m hardly one to judge one’s parenting in the tech age. But this exchange points to something else: Just how bad many AI executives are at marketing their own products. And just how differently they view the world than the rest of us.
+ That won’t slow them down, however. AI-powered Alpha Schools expands to 50 campuses. (I need to figure out a way to code a podcast that can tell me what my kids think of this.)
“Matt Walker couldn’t pet a dog without sneezing — until he and other scientists used a gene editing technique to produce a hypoallergenic beagle named Bailey. Now, he can feed Bailey spoons of peanut butter while she lies on his lap and play fetch with her in Central Park. His allergies didn’t go away: Bailey’s saliva and hair no longer contain a key allergy-causing protein.” Gene-edited beagles may offer a future option for people with dog allergies. (My beagles are named Pumpernickel and Rye, so the only allergy they trigger is gluten.)
+ Somehow, this event took place sans gene editing. Scenes From the 2026 Dog Surfing Championships.
To The Left, To The Left: “Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, won a razor-thin victory in the Democratic primary for Senate in Michigan that serves as the most significant triumph for his party’s left wing this year.” The Left Wins a Nail-Biter in Michigan: 8 Takeaways From Tuesday’s Primaries.
+ Waterways and Means: “By asserting authority over a critical waterway for global crude-oil flows, Tehran is betting that its ability to inflict pain on the American economy is its best leverage to avoid future military action from the U.S. and Israel. With gasoline prices and inflation elevated, Tehran believes Trump will ultimately accept its terms ahead of fast-approaching midterm elections that could determine the future of his presidency.” WSJ (Gift Article): Iran Is Staking Everything on Controlling the Strait of Hormuz. And from Reuters: Proposed Hormuz deal would give Iran control of inbound traffic.
+ Stirring Crazy: “The war in Iran, however, has shown that Trump’s inability to perceive reality has become truly dangerous. He led the United States into a disastrous conflict because he thought his ‘gut’ was smarter than the advisers who warned him that deposing Iran’s regime was unlikely. He continues to mislead the American people, and perhaps himself, about America’s strategic defeat at the hands of one of its worst enemies. The world economy and the balance of power have been changed, perhaps for many decades to come, because Trump cannot draw links between cause and effect; he does not understand that his actions and the failures that follow are somehow related to each other.” Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article) with a message that seems self-evident, but bears repeating. Trump’s Irrationality Is Dangerous.
+ Dis Service: “Trump’s immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents.” (Feel safer?)
+ Miner Details: “Respiratory therapist Marcy Freeman doesn’t need a research study to confirm for her a return to the dark days of coal mining. She finds evidence in a stack of more than 150 funeral programs.” Black lung rates in Appalachia are as high as the 1970s.
+ The Clark of History: For many of us, sports is an escape, the last refuge from the onslaught of political news. Not so for Caitlyn Clark. Caitlin Clark just wants to shut up and dribble.
+ The Spark of History: “The county’s fire department said the blaze, which killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 buildings, was started by electrical sparks coming off the tower, according to a joint investigation by the department and Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency. The tower was out of service at the time.” Officials Say They’ve Found the Cause of a Fire That Devastated L.A.
+ The Humanity of Animals: NYT (Gift Article): Dolphin Carries Dead Calf in What Experts Call Grieving. (I don’t think one needs to be an expert to call it that.)
+ Flipping the Berg: Oh nothing. Just a Massive Iceberg Collapsing and Flipping Over in Ilulissat, Greenland.
“‘When you start eating healthy, you don’t need toilet paper,’ he claimed. ‘Animals in the wild have no residual stool on their anus.’ He described a proper bowel movement to me this way: odorless, wipe-free, over in three to seven seconds and ‘nearly orgasmic … I could have a bowel movement behind a sheet at a dinner party in the corner of the room,’ he said, ‘and nobody would know.'” A reporter gets some dietary advice from the guy who gives it to several members of the Trump cabinet. (If this interview was his way of not getting invited to dinner parties, I’m guessing it will work.) The Most Powerful Men in America Are Eating Only Steak and Sauerkraut. Could I?
2026-08-04 20:00:00
As pioneering as I’ve been when it comes to newsletter writing (I think I sent my first edition about 45 minutes after email was introduced), it turns out I was even more ahead of my time when it comes to dating prowess. I had none; no prowess, no game, no romantic skills, no nothing. In other words, I’d fit right into today’s social environment in which all signs point to fewer young people finding love. The trend has resulted in a budding industry dedicated to helping people connect in real life. Faith Hill attended one organized event aimed at un-dooming modern romance, and it went something like this: “About 90 seconds into a three-minute hug with a stranger, I began to think that dying alone might not be so bad after all. I’d come to a candlelit loft in Manhattan for a ‘mindful singles event’ called The Feels, which was designed to be the opposite of the disembodied experience of dating apps. Participants, phones tucked away, paired up and attempted a series of ‘somatic awareness’ exercises, including staring into each other’s eyes, hugging, and holding a hand over each other’s heart.” (While I eventually got to first base, second base, and onward, I don’t think I got to “somatic awareness” until I’d been married for at least a decade). Hill explores the challenges and some of the pitched solutions (to the extent people actually want them) in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Great Romance Slump. “I interviewed dozens of researchers and single people across the country, endured a series of curious but fruitless dating events, and bravely subjected myself to some actual dates. The romance slump, I found, is a product of broader trends: souring gender relations, a transformed economy, the unevenness of social progress, and technology that both connects and isolates us. Millions of individual heartaches are rewriting the love story we’ve told ourselves for centuries.”
“The Democratic Party’s problems remain very real, but for the moment, Trump and the GOP have more serious ones. The most glaring one is Trump’s deep personal unpopularity. In the current polarized and dyspeptic political environment, all presidents seem to be unpopular, but Trump is in a different league. A CNN poll released last week measured Trump at 34 percent support, matching the low he reached in that poll following the January 6 insurrection. Still, that was better than his showing in the AP-NORC survey, which found his approval at 33 percent, just one point above a 2017 low. Quinnipiac University found Trump at 32 percent, the lowest ever in that poll.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Americans Are Turning on Trump.
+ Those are the challenges Trump faces at home. There are other ones abroad. WaPo (Gift Article): Trump keeps making threats. The world has stopped flinching. “The flabbergasting threats keep piling up — to weaponize trade, annex Canada, seize Greenland, abandon NATO, annihilate Iran — but the alarm bells have gone quiet.”
+ But don’t be fooled. Trump’s support is still ironclad among one very important constituency. Elected GOP officials. They still seem willing to back just about anything Trump wants — from a failing war with no strategy to this: Todd Blanche advances toward confirmation.
+ “This is the same Justice Department that has made so many misrepresentations and false statements in court over the last year and a half that judges are openly questioning whether its lawyers can be trusted. Despite all of that, Todd Blanche’s word is good enough for the senator whom Trump all but ousted by endorsing his Republican primary opponent.” Joyce Vance: The $1.776b Slush Fund Isn’t As Dead as Senators Cornyn and Tillis Seem to Be Willing to Believe. We know the deal is a joke. And we knew they’d agree to it anyway. As I wrote yesterday, the writing was on the wall, as surely as the seashells were arranged on the beach.
+ Aside from weaponization and the enablement of Trump’s lawlessness, what can we expect from Blanche’s tenure? For one thing… Blanche Privately Vows to Take Down Abortion Rights Next. “We don’t have complete victory yet, but we will have victory, and victory will be soon, and it will be permanent. If states have said, ‘We are going to protect the unborn and we’re going to protect every life from the moment of conception,’ we’re putting practices and policies in place so that other states and other organizations can’t attack that. They can’t do things like they’re doing with mailing in mail-order drugs.”
Ever feel like you get treated like dirt in life? Well, now you can have the same experience in death. Maryland is now the nation’s capital of human composting. “Human composting is a roughly month-long process that turns humans into nutrient rich dirt using bacteria, fungi and mulch. In the end, about three hundred pounds of soil is left over. Bones are pulverized and added to the soil and then some or all of it is given back to the family or placed in land conservation projects to help plants grow.” (I knew I’d eventually develop a green thumb.)
“Nestled off a short dirt road in the Adirondack Mountains, just beyond the reach of cellular service, lies Trout Lake. Overlooking the water is a cabin owned by 48-year-old Hollywood stuntman Tom Place, something of a local legend, known more in this small Upstate New York community for his weekend recreational activities than his formidable IMDb credits he’s racked up as a Hollywood stuntman. Because for many years now, Place has been routinely diving beneath the lake’s surface in search of something he lost more than three decades ago: his Rolex Submariner.” GQ: His Rolex Submariner Fell Into a Lake 30 Years Ago. He’s Still Diving for It.
+ Might be time from Tom to re-watch this classic scene from Midnight Run.
Our Own Worst Enemy? “The dramatic rundown in precision, long-range missiles means U.S. President Donald Trump may have to rely more on riskier, piloted bombing missions if he relaunches large-scale attacks on Iran.” There are a lot of reasons for Trump to want to halt the Iran war. This is one of them. US has used ‘virtually all’ of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war, sources say. Meanwhile, “Iran and Oman have made progress toward a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a potential breakthrough that could help end the war in the Middle East.” Here’s the latest from The Guardian.
+ Worse for Wear: “Her driver had already pleaded guilty in criminal court to raping her vaginally, anally and orally while she was unconscious during a ride in Tampa one night in 2021. He was in prison, serving a 10-year sentence … [Now] Uber’s lawyer Taylor Silverberg zeroed in on Ms. Doe’s behavior on the night she was raped. Ms. Silverberg asked Ms. Doe exactly how much Tito’s vodka she had drunk, how many milligrams of Adderall she had taken and whether she had ‘felt regret’ about mixing the two. And she asked Ms. Doe what she had been wearing. ‘Can you describe the dress?’ Ms. Silverberg said. ‘Were you wearing heels or boots or flats?'” NYT (Gift Article): Uber’s Strategy for Fighting Sexual Assault Suits: ‘What Were You Wearing?’
+ Antisocial Media: “To unmask anonymous online critics, DHS has sent hundreds of subpoenas to social-media companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Its agents have tracked down Americans at work and on the road, asking them to sign letters acknowledging their online speech about ICE ‘may’ be a crime.” WSJ (Gift Article): How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against Its Critics.
+ Strait Up Profiteering: “Chevron reported its highest ever quarterly profit of $12.2bn, a fivefold increase on the same period last year. ExxonMobil reported a profit of $14.5bn in the second quarter, double what it made in the same period a year ago and its highest quarterly profit since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.” Oil companies are making so much money during the Iran war, even Trump is complaining about it.
+ You May Have Already Qualified: “As the number of high school seniors declines, more schools are shifting tactics and moving away from an ivory tower mentality to navigate the demographic cliff.” It’s not just about easing the admission process. It’s about admitting people before they even apply. Bloomberg (Gift Article): You’re In: Private Colleges Admit More Students Who Didn’t Apply.
+ A Goliath Named David: I’m against the Paramount/Warner merger. David Ellison in the NYT (Gift Article) makes his case, saying none of this is about market share. “The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN.” OK, then I’m really, really against the Paramount/Warner merger…
+ All Roads Lead to Country: “For the first time in history, country songs are claiming all five of the top five slots on the Hot 100.”
Think our politics are weird? “When 102 senators were sworn in for Colombia’s latest parliamentary session, they included 32 women, 69 men – and one cartoon elephant.”
+ A man who spent 550 Euros on a huge tattoo declaring England as World Cup 2026 winners has returned to the parlor to add the phrase ‘just joking!’ (Too bad we can’t just add that phrase to all of 2026.)