2025-01-30 20:00:00
“On final approach into Reagan National, [the plane] collided with a military aircraft on an otherwise normal approach. At this time, we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the [commercial] aircraft.” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom expressed both the shock and confusion surrounding a collision between an Army helicopter and a passenger plane carrying 64 people as it approached Reagan National Airport. “All 64 people aboard an American Airlines jet that collided with an Army helicopter were feared dead in what was likely to be the worst U.S. aviation disaster in almost a quarter century … At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River.”
+ The Guardian: How did Washington DC plane crash unfold?
+ “Skating is a very close and tight-knit community. These kids and their parents, they’re here at our facility in Norwood, six, sometimes seven days a week. It’s a close, tight bond. This will have long-reaching impacts for our skating community.” Two teenage figure skaters, their mothers and two world champion coaches from Boston were among the 14 members of the skating community killed in the crash.
+ Donald Trump began his press conference about the crash with a moment of silence. Sadly, that moment ended. Without evidence, Trump pondered the causes of the crash blaming maybe the helicopter pilots, maybe DEI, definitely Biden, Obama, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg who had run the agency “right into the ground with his diversity.” He didn’t mention that no such crashes happened during the tenures of any of those he attacked. He also didn’t mention that the FAA had no leader. “The administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, Michael Whitaker, resigned from his position on January 20 after repeated demands from Elon Musk that he quit.” Here’s the latest from WaPo, AP, NBC, and CNN.
“President Donald Trump intended his flood of executive orders to shock and awe his opponents. But on Monday night, a memo from the Office of Management and Budget instead shocked the Trump White House.” Ashley Parker in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Memo That Shocked the White House. “The directive from the Office of Management and Budget that froze most federal funds on Monday had not gone through the usual approval process.” (Sounds like someone didn’t get the memo…)
+ While the order to freeze domestic funds was quickly blocked by a judge and later rescinded by the administration, the freeze on international aid is already doing damage. Atul Gawande in The New Yorker: Behind the Chaotic Attempt to Freeze Federal Assistance. “Foreign aid has long been funded by bipartisan majorities in Congress as a cornerstone of national security, along with diplomacy and defense. This supports work, much of it through contractors and nongovernmental organizations, with countries worldwide in areas of mutual interest. Examples include combatting global disease threats and malnutrition; stopping human trafficking and drug trafficking; advancing access to education for girls; and demining postwar countries like Vietnam and Cambodia. In the days that followed, nonetheless, organizations across the U.S. and the world received letters stating that they must stop all work and use of existing funds immediately. No staff can be paid. No services can be provided. No medicines or supplies sitting on shelves can be used.”
+ “‘Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions,’ Mr Rubio has said. ‘Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?'” (Around the world, the question is, Does America know what the hell it’s doing?) BBC: How a US freeze upended global aid in a matter of days.
“Like many other minor global figures who become overnight attention magnets, Egede had seemed at first exhilarated by all the interest, then overwhelmed, and then regretful. Watching his recent public appearances from afar, I had noticed his demeanor sometimes shift from the burly confidence of a local wunderkind to the nervousness of someone fully aware that his actions were being observed closely, especially by Washington and Copenhagen.” Mark Leibovich decided to watch the US presidential inauguration from somewhere warmer than DC. So he went to Nuuk. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Greenland’s Prime Minister Wants the Nightmare to End. (On that point at least, we’ve found common ground.)
“It’s not just for cowboys or fishermen. It’s not just for people who voted red or for people who voted blue. It’s not just white-collar and not just working-class. People use it while playing sports (Baker Mayfield, the Bucs quarterback, stirred some controversy while appearing to pack a lip on the sideline of an NFL game this season), while gambling in casinos, while cranking out decks in the office, while painting houses, and while, yes, writing magazine stories. In equal measure, it’s used on the dance floor (the buzz keeps you up) and on the trading floor (it keeps you locked in, focused, ready to crush); at nighttime, morning time (there’s a coffee flavor), and—for some super users—all-the-day time. Which sounds, yes, a whole lot like cigarettes.” Emily Sundberg in GQ: How Zyn Conquered the American Mouth.
Confirmation Class: Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel and RFK Jr… Three of the most controversial Trump nominees were in hearings on Thursday. And being the most controversial in this group of nominees is saying something.
+ Tent Stakes: “Toward the end of the November dinner, Trump raised the matter of the lawsuit, the people said. The president signaled that the litigation had to be resolved before Zuckerberg could be ‘brought into the tent,’ one of the people said. Weeks later, in early January, Zuckerberg returned to Mar-a-Lago for a full day of mediation. Trump was present for part of the session, though he stepped out at one point to be sentenced—appearing virtually—for covering up hush money paid to a porn star, one of the people said. He also golfed, reappearing in golf clothes and talking about the round he had just played.” WSJ: Meta to Pay $25 Million to Settle 2021 Trump Lawsuit.
+ More Hostages Home: Eight hostages released from Gaza amid chaotic scenes as Palestinian prisoners set to be freed.
+ Diversity Draining: “The Defense Department’s intelligence agency has paused observances of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pride Month, Holocaust Days of Remembrance and other cultural or historical annual events.” (Here’s a better idea. If you’re willing to risk your life for the country, we celebrate you.)
+ Corruption Illegal? Former NJ Sen. Bob Menendez sentenced to 11 years for corruption. (He should’ve run for president…)
+ WWEd: “‘What was the story of the match?'” Perry asked as several overeager hands thrust into the air. That prompt launched the students into a lively discussion about the match’s protagonist, antagonist, inciting action, conflict and what they had just witnessed inside the squared circle: resolution.” ESPN: Brooklyn classroom uses pro wrestling as a teaching vehicle.
+ Fire Watch: The LA FireAid benefit concert featuring a host of major acts will take place at two LA arenas and be broadcast on basically every major streaming service starting at 6pm PST.
“Lorne Michaels reportedly dislikes when “Saturday Night Live” cast members break character. But over 50 seasons, it’s become one of the show’s signature moves — one that usually delights the audience.” Losing It on Live TV.
+ Alabama baby born at Krispy Kreme awarded year’s supply of free doughnuts. (Hopefully that comes with a year’s supply of Metformin.)
+ Donald Trump talks so much that even his White House stenographers are struggling to keep up.
2025-01-29 20:00:00
This is not a note that America wanted to see in the margin of its test results, but it’s how one researcher described new federal data on student math and reading achievement. “I don’t know how many different ways you can say these results are bad, but they’re bad. I don’t think this is the canary in the coal mine. This is a flock of dead birds in the coal mine.” The poor grade is due to several factors, many related to the lost learning time during the pandemic. And like the general effect of the pandemic, the impacts on academic performance are not being distributed equally. “Academic recovery is increasingly a split screen: top students are making up lost ground while struggling students are falling further behind. The overall decline in scores was mostly driven by the drop in student scores among those at the low end.” WaPo (Gift Article): Students aren’t recovering from covid. Test scores are getting worse.
+ Here’s a test for you. How will these results be filtered and used? A) Politcally B) Politcally C) Politcally or D) All of the Above. While you’re pondering your answer, here’s a reminder that today’s struggle over the future education is, like so many other issues, a religious battle—one that could be decided by the Supreme Court. (I’ll skip the quiz on which way this Court leans.) Supreme Court to hear church-state fight over bid to launch first publicly funded religious charter school.
+ Meanwhile, Trump to sign sweeping executive order to expand school choice. “The Department of Health and Human Services would be directed to issue guidance that explains how states receiving block grants for families and children can use that money for faith-based and private institutions.”
Maybe the Constitution still has a role in American life and maybe Congress still controls spending. (Or maybe the administration is just planning something worse.) The spending freeze that sent shockwaves across the nation yesterday has been rescinded. “President Donald Trump’s budget office on Wednesday rescinded an memo freezing spending on federal grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country.” (Widespread Confusion and Legal Challenges is the name of my next album…)
“With concerns about conflicts of interest, his views on abortion, and generally strange behavior (such as dumping a dead bear in Central Park), there is much to debate. If Republican senators skirt around his falsehoods during today’s confirmation hearings, it will be evidence of their prevailing capitulation to Trump. And it also may be a function of Kennedy’s rhetorical sleights. As Benjamin Mazer recently wrote in The Atlantic, Kennedy is not simply a conspiracy theorist, but an excellent one. He’s capable of rattling off vaccine studies with the fluency of a virologist, which boosts his credibility, even though he’s freely misrepresenting reality.” (That last sentence looks pretty good on an application to work for the current administration). Will the Senate stop RFK Jr? The prognosis is not good. The Atlantic (Gift Article): This Is About More Than RFK Jr. (At least RFK Jr is a good health diagnostic tool. That he’s even being considered for this role shows how sick America is.)
+ Here are some outtakes from the RFK Jr confirmation hearings.
“Asteroid samples fetched by NASA hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world, scientists reported Wednesday. The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that asteroids may have planted the seeds of life on Earth and that these ingredients were mingling with water almost right from the start.” Are we all aliens? NASA’s returned asteroid samples hold the ingredients of life from a watery world.
Fork Yourself: “The OPM email, with the subject line ‘Fork in the Road,’ was reminiscent of one that Musk sent Twitter employees after buying the social media platform in 2022. He fired many of the company’s employees; others quit in droves.” Trump invites nearly all federal workers to quit now, get paid through September. (Can he even make that offer without Congress? An evergreen question…) Wired: Elon Musk Is Running the Twitter Playbook on the Federal Government.
+ Gitmo Baywatch: At signing of Laken Riley Act, Trump says he plans to send migrants in US illegally to Guantanamo.
+ Joint Beefs: “The Pentagon is pulling the security clearance and detail of Gen. Mark Milley, the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the latest longstanding enemy of President Donald Trump to suffer retribution in his new presidential term.” (And with that, the Pete Hegseth era begins…)
+ AI Yai Yai: “Russia’s breakthrough in the ’60s Space Race did not signal the end of spending big dollars on space research. And DeepSeek’s success doesn’t mean spending billions of dollars on AI infrastructure, such as GPUs, is useless or will stop any time soon. The US DeepSeek freakout is, instead, our greatest mass hallucination since… well… the drone fantasy in New Jersey a few weeks earlier.” The real DeepSeek revelation: The market doesn’t understand AI. (If only there were some tool we could use to learn about it…) Meanwhile, Alibaba says it has an AI model even better than DeepSeek.
+ Fait accompli(ce): “The Justice Department on Wednesday moved to dismiss former special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, President Trump’s former co-defendants in his classified documents case.”
+ Goalposts Moved: Chiefs-Bills AFC title game delivers record audience of 57.4M viewers. (I think we can stop asking the question: Are you ready for some football?)
+ Sign Language: “Parents and their children, or people who know each other well, often share some expression that is unique to them — a phrase or gesture that began by happenstance but gradually acquired a meaning that only they know. The same is true of Beryl, a chimpanzee living in Kibale National Park, in Uganda, and her young daughter, Lindsay.” NYT (Gift Article): Mother Chimp and Daughter Share a Special Sign.
+ I Must Be in the Front Rodent: “If you have been following the beast on your socials, you might know that capybaras get hiccups; that they carry large oranges and yuzu on their heads; that they allow birds to eat the schmutz out of their fur, which brings them almost orgiastic levels of delight; that they try to help injured corgis escape from their protective cones; that they cuddle with monkeys and lick baby kangaroos; that a group of them adopted a cat named Oyen into their social group at a Japanese zoo.” Gary Shteyngart in The New Yorker: How the Capybara Won My Heart—and Almost Everyone Else’s.
“Instagram, TikTok and other social-media sites are usually overwhelmed by people showing off what they bought. This year, people are pivoting to something else: displaying how they’re buying nothing.” WSJ (Gift Article): The Americans Pledging to Buy Less—or Even Nothing. (Doing this for a year would be a breeze for me. It takes me at least 18 months to research anything I plan to buy…)
2025-01-28 20:00:00
Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that a guy famous for not paying his bills is now leading an administration that just stopped paying theirs. Project 2025 is not only here, the pace of the deployment is more like Projectile 2025. “President Donald Trump’s White House ordered a pause in all federal grants and loans starting on Tuesday, a sweeping decision that could disrupt education, health care and poverty programs, housing assistance, disaster relief and a host of other initiatives that depend on trillions of federal dollars. The freeze followed Trump’s suspension of foreign aid last week, a move that began cutting off the supply of lifesaving medicines on Tuesday to countries around the world that depend on U.S. development assistance.” Trump funding freeze could disrupt education, housing, disaster aid. It basically disrupts everything, and it wrests control over spending matters from Congress. “The U.S. Constitution gives Congress control over spending matters, but Trump said during his campaign that he believes the president has the power to withhold money for programs he dislikes. His nominee for White House budget director, Russell Vought, who has not yet been confirmed by the Senate, headed a think tank that has argued Congress cannot require a president to spend money.”
+ “Democratic attorneys general from states including New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are moving to keep funds flowing to state governments and cities.” NYT (Gift Article): States Will Sue Trump to Stop Federal Grant Freeze. Unpaid bills. Endless lawsuits. A deluge of norm busting news. Eight days in and we’re fully living in Trump’s America.
+ The domestic freeze follows the international aid freeze. A US shutdown on foreign aid is hitting from Africa to Asia to Ukraine. Here’s how. “U.S-funded aid programs around the world have begun firing staff and shutting down or preparing to stop their operations.”
+ “Appointments are being canceled, and patients are being turned away from clinics, according to people with knowledge of the situation who feared retribution if they spoke publicly. Many people with H.I.V. are facing abrupt interruptions to their treatment.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Administration Halts H.I.V. Drug Distribution in Poor Countries.
+ “It’s hard to think through everything affected. Already the halt to USAID budgets has cut off funding for the prison guards holding 9,500 ISIS prisoners in northeastern Syria, according to Syria expert Charles Lister. Cancer research, major parts of every state’s budget, the grants that keep the local daycare center running. This hits basically everything. The best way to understand this is that it is essentially a unilateral government shutdown on steroids. Even government shutdowns distinguish between essential and inessential government activities. This doesn’t.” Some good analysis from Josh Marshall: Trump Sparks Constitutional Crisis, Seizing Budget Authority from Congress.
+ The architect of Project 2025, Russell Vought, has been projecting this stuff for years, along with the ways the government should respond when folks don’t fall in line. ProPublica: ‘Put Them in Trauma’: Inside a Key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda. (All of this may not be what the average voter was thinking about at the polls in November. But this is how America voted and now we’re paying the piper. Even if, as of today, he’s not paying us.)
“One morning in Baltimore last October, a 26-year-old named Alexander Laurenson strode into a small white room to have his arm preyed upon by mosquitoes. As requested, he had not showered the night before to make his skin more attractive to the pests, drawn as they are to body odor. The mosquitoes, for their part, had been infected with malaria, a disease that kills over 600,000 people every year.” NYT (Gift Article): Would You Get Sick in the Name of Science? (Before you answer…) “A week on, Mr. Laurenson felt fine. But then, 11 days out, a headache set in. So did nausea. Then, he vomited.” (Sounds like he’s training to be a news curator.)
“Washington was confident that it was ahead and wanted to keep it that way. So the Biden administration ramped up restrictions banning the export of advanced chips and technology to China. That’s why DeepSeek’s launch has astonished Silicon Valley and the world. The firm says its powerful model is far cheaper than the billions US firms have spent on AI.” The market has recovered a bit from yesterday’s DeepSeek AI shock to the system. American AI researchers are still rolling in the deep. BBC: DeepSeek: How China’s ‘AI heroes’ overcame US curbs to stun Silicon Valley.
+ The Guardian: We tried out DeepSeek. It worked well, until we asked it about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan.
+ Of course, the risk of getting false or no information about certain subjects has caused American users to avoid the app. Oh, wait… DeepSeek AI underscores consumers’ willingness to embrace Chinese tech.
“Not only do these hundreds of newsletters share the same exact seven testimonials, they also share the same branding, the same copy on their about pages, and the same stated mission: ‘to make local news more accessible and highlight extraordinary people in our community.'” Inside a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting ‘small town America.’ “Good Daily, which operates in 47 states and 355 towns and cities across the U.S., is run by one person.”
Threat Level Orange: One thing we can say about Trump’s acts of revenge and associated scare tactics: They’re working. WaPo (Gift Article): Trump’s perceived enemies brace for retribution with plans, dark humor.
+ Bobby Lobby: “I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together. It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator.” Caroline Kennedy warns senators of ‘predator’ RFK Jr. in searing letter. (In the current Senate, this might make him a more attractive nominee.)
+ Filling a Void Where Prohibited: A defiant Hamas displays its authority in Gaza, posing a challenge to Netanyahu. “‘Each time Israel completes its military operations and pulls back, Hamas militants regroup and re-emerge, because there’s nothing else to fill the void,’ former Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this month.”
+ Pardoner in Crime: “An Indiana man who was pardoned by US President Donald Trump over the US Capitol riot was killed by police during a traffic stop days later … This is not the first case of a 6 January rioter facing trouble with the law following their pardon. Another of the group, Daniel Bell of Florida, was rearrested on federal gun charges last week.”
+ Bookstore Goes Electric: “When Andy Hunter started Bookshop in 2020, his goal was to build an online bookstore that served as an indie alternative to Amazon. Five years later, more than 2,200 independent bookstores sell books through the site, which has generated more than $35 million in profit for participating stores. But Bookshop didn’t sell e-books, leaving member stores shut out of a lucrative format.” Until now. Indie Bookstores Will Soon Be Able to Sell E-Books to Customers.
+ Gulf War: Google says it will change Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America‘ in Maps app after government updates. “Google added that the name Gulf of Mexico will remain displayed for users in Mexico. Users in other countries will see both names, the company said.”
“I don’t have technology. I only have a satellite dish on my house. So I’ve seen ‘Severance’ on DVDs that they’re good enough to send me. I don’t have a cell phone. I’ve never emailed or, what do you call it, Twittered.” Christopher Walken: ‘I Don’t Have a Cell Phone. I’ve Never Emailed’ and Can Only Watch TV Using a ‘Satellite Dish on My House‘. (No wonder he needed more cowbell…)
+ No more roommates for Mona Lisa: The painting is getting its own gallery the Louvre.
2025-01-27 20:00:00
The three letters missing from this headline could refer to one of America’s most popular four letter words. But as anyone who follows the tech industry knows, today’s market is in DeepSeek. What’s the deal? Over the weekend, a relatively new Chinese AI startup called DeepSeek demonstrated an artificial intelligence model that operates for a fraction of the cost of the ones we’ve been using (and investing in). “DeepSeek’s emergence may offer a counterpoint to the widespread belief that the future of AI will require ever-increasing amounts of power and energy to develop.” It also appears to be offering a counterpoint to the belief that America is ahead in AI development and that the stock prices for companies like Nvidia have nowhere to go but up. Bloomberg (Gift Article): What Is China’s DeepSeek and Why Is It Freaking Out the AI World? FWIW, I asked ChatGPT about DeepSeek and the impact on the stock market and it didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. “It sounds like you’re referring to ‘DeepSeek,’ but l’m not sure exactly what specific entity or event you mean by that.”
+ “The Chinese A.I. company DeepSeek has made waves by matching the abilities of cutting-edge chatbots while using a fraction of the specialized computer chips that leading A.I. companies rely on. That has prompted investors to rethink the large returns implied by the heady valuations of companies like Nvidia, whose equipment powers the most advanced A.I. systems, as well as the enormous investments that companies like Google, Meta and OpenAI are making to build their A.I. businesses.” NYT (Gift Article): Stocks Sink as Investors Worry About China’s A.I. Advances.
+ Is DeepSeek being totally honest about its cost of doing business? We might not know for sure. But what we do know for sure is that investors and techies weren’t entirely sure they were making smart bets when it comes to AI. Hence the reaction to the DeepSeek news. “When lots of people are worried about bubble valuations in stocks or a specific sector, all it takes is a small poke to make the whole thing wobble precariously. Why it matters: That can cost investors $1 trillion or more in a single day, as happened Monday with the global AI rout.” The anatomy of a bubble bursting.
Keeping up with all of Trump’s week one moves was hard. This NYT (Gift Article) piece places many of the moves in context. The context is revenge. In Exacting Retribution, Trump Aims at the Future as Well as the Past. “Taken together, the moves send a clear signal that Mr. Trump feels unconstrained about punishing the disloyal, that he is potentially willing to go further against his enemies than he had pledged on the campaign trail and that there will be a price for any opposition to come.”
+ “Hegseth, just days after his historically narrow confirmation vote, promised to roll back diversity programs, use the military to block migrants from entering the United States illegally and hold the Biden administration accountable for perceived foreign policy failures. He begins his assignment as what the White House has lauded as a long-overdue ‘disrupter.'” Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Pentagon ‘disrupter,’ vows swift action. The confirmation of the wildly flawed and inexperienced Hegseth marked another sad moment in a nauseating national slide, but I should focus on areas of common ground. As soon as I heard Hegseth was confirmed, I got drunk. It’s worth noting that Mitch McConnell was one of the three GOP senators to vote against Hegseth. That’s how far the GOP has shifted. Mitch McConnell is now a moderate.
+ Trump Dump: Trump administration launches nationwide immigration enforcement blitz (Note the initial focus on blue cities/states). White House says Colombia agrees to take deported migrants after Trump tariff showdown. (Keep in mind that Colombia has taken deported migrants before. What they balked at was how the deported migrants we’re been treated and transported.) Could there be an image more representative of 2025 America than Dr Phil filming migrant arrests? Trump’s firing of independent watchdog officials draws criticism. (Criticism isn’t going to stop moves like this, even when they’re unlawful.) And, over the weekend, Trump made the poorly received suggestion that we move Gaza-based Palestinians to neighboring countries and “just clean out that whole thing.” (Interrupting Kamala rallies was the most backwards protest movement in the history of protest movements.)
Holocaust Remembrance Day is hitting different in Europe as several countries are facing the rise of far right parties. It doesn’t help that the richest person in the world is a major booster. “With less than a month to go before Germany holds a general election, Mr. Scholz, his likely successor, Friedrich Merz, and other mainstream German politicians are scrambling to curb support for Alternative for Germany, a hard-right party known as AfD that is widely seen as a dangerous throwback to the nationalism that brought Hitler to power in the 1930s. At an election rally on Saturday in eastern Germany, AfD politicians and Elon Musk, a top adviser to President Trump, who spoke by video link, urged Germans not to feel guilty for the Nazi-era crimes of their grandparents.” NYT (Gift Article): At Auschwitz, a Solemn Ceremony at a Time of Rising Nationalism.
+ Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Europe’s Elon Musk Problem. “Although it’s easy to get distracted by the schoolyard nicknames and irresponsible pedophilia accusations that Elon Musk flings around, these are the real questions posed by his open, aggressive use of X to spread false information and promote extremist and anti-European politicians in the U.K., Germany, and elsewhere. The integrity of elections—and the possibility of debate untainted by misinformation injected from abroad—is equally challenged by TikTok, the Chinese platform, and by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, whose subsidiaries include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads.”
+ Bill Gates calls Elon Musk’s embrace of far-right politicians abroad ‘insane shit‘.
I still cover the news, but I spend every other minute drowning it out by watching sports. After a long NFL season (especially for us 49er fans), the SuperBowl matchup is set between the Eagles and the Chiefs. And the big story is Kansas City’s quest for an unprecedented three-peat. Patrick Mahomes should now be referred to as a Mahoming Pigeon. He always finds his way back the Super Bowl. (As if this era wasn’t horrific enough, now god is going to make me root for the Eagles.)
+ Before Bills’ fans even had a chance to shed a tear, employees in a small factory in Ada, Ohio were already making the balls for America’s biggest game. Super Bowl footballs are ready to go within hours of the matchup being set.
+ As amazing as it is that the Chiefs made it back to this game, how they did it is even more amazing. “The AFC championship game gave the Chiefs 17 consecutive victories in contests decided by one score, a probabilistic anomaly that cannot be dismissed as a fluke. In the moments that decide games and determine legacies, the Chiefs have consistently delivered.” The Chiefs have conquered the NFL by sustaining the unsustainable. (Which is even more impressive considering the new administration outlawed sustainability.)
+ In other sports news (maybe we should just do all sports in this newsletter?), Madison Keys played the long game and won her first tennis major after more than a decade of trying. And she did it by beating the best players in the world. Madison Keys’ Australian Open championship run was too good to be true, then it happened. Meanwhile, Janik Sinner looked unstoppable in his demolition of the field including fellow finalist Alexander Zverev. But he may be stopped for a drug violation that he had been previously cleared of. Jannik Sinner’s defiant move as World No.1 faces suspension after Australian Open triumph.
When It Rains, It Pours: “As much needed rain falls across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties and gives firefighters relief from ongoing wildfires, officials are warning residents of hazardous waste, toxic ash runoff and mudslides.”
+ Maximum Minerals: “It’s endowed with the eighth largest reserves of so-called rare earth elements, which are vital for making everything from mobile phones to batteries and electric motors. It also has large amounts of other key metals, such as lithium and cobalt.” Oh, it has oil and gas too. To understand all the talk about Greenland, go inside the race for Greenland’s mineral wealth.
+ Bird’s Eye View: “When bird flu first struck dairy cattle a year ago, it seemed possible that it might affect a few isolated herds and disappear as quickly as it had appeared. Instead, the virus has infected more than 900 herds and dozens of people, killing one, and the outbreak shows no signs of abating. A human pandemic is not inevitable, even now, more than a dozen experts said in interviews. But a series of developments over the past few weeks indicates that the possibility is no longer remote.” NYT (Gift Article): ‘A Dangerous Virus’: Bird Flu Enters a New Phase.
+ Inflation Ration: “Food banks across the nation are seeing a similar story: A post-pandemic wave of demand for food driven by working people caught in America’s cost-of-living crunch.” Working Americans Turn to Food Banks as Fed Inflation Battle Drags On. And those egg prices? They’re not coming down anytime soon.
+ Stunt Doubletake: NY Mag gives you a look at The Third Annual Stunt Award Nominees. (In 2025, opening more than 50 news tabs should definitely qualify.)
+ Ladies and Gentlemen… For some fun, check out Questlove’s Fantastic Video Mix of 50 Years of SNL Music.
PETA Suggests Replacing Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog Day with a ‘Weather Reveal’ Cake. (Ever have a feeling we’re never gonna win another election…?)
+ Prehistoric 66-million-year-old Vomit Found In Denmark.
2025-01-24 20:00:00
In the song Out In the Street, Bruce Springsteen sings, When I’m out in the street, oh oh oh oh oh, I walk the way I wanna walk. When I’m out in the street, oh oh oh oh oh, I talk the way I wanna talk. For most modern day Americans, walking the way they wanna walk means walking quickly and talking the way they wanna talk is limited to muttering under their breath. I’m no exception. On the rare occasion when a stranger tries to make conversation, I point to the Airpods in my ears and say, oh oh oh oh oh No. But such attempts at discourse are becoming less common. According to an interesting new study that applied AI to video footage, “American ambulators walked faster and schmoozed less than they used to. They seemed to be having fewer of the informal encounters that undergird civil society and strengthen urban economies.” Bloomberg City Lab (Gift Article): What Happened to Hanging Out on the Street? The researchers compared video data from three decades apart in locations across four cities. “At each site, pedestrians walked faster in 2010 than they had in 1980, by an average of 15%. Time spent lingering in public spaces declined by roughly half, and fewer people were forming groups. In general, walkers appeared more atomized and rushed in 2010 than they had a generation before.” Interestingly, the Springsteen song referenced above came out in 1980. In 2010, Bruce may have had different lyrics than, When I’m out in the street, girl, Well, I never feel alone, When I’m out in the street, girl, In the crowd I feel at home. I’m no songwriter, but for the updated version, the word iPhone would rhyme pretty well in there…
“With their powerful patron and newfound freedom, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys stand poised to assert themselves as they never have before. Because they have no immediate reason to fear the Justice Department or the FBI, they have the latitude to move out from the shadows.” Franklin Foer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Who Will Stop the Militias Now? (For context, these groups are as happy this week as you are unhappy.)
+ Hanna Rosin in The Atlantic (Gift Article): January 6ers Got Out of Prison—And Came to My Neighborhood. “That’s the view of January 6 that follows naturally from the pardons: They were sham trials. It was actually a day of peace. Trump and his allies are likely to push this revised version of history for the next four years. House Speaker Mike Johnson has already announced that he will form a select subcommittee on January 6, ‘to continue our efforts to uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people.’ Here is the truth. Prosecuting January 6ers did not require delicate forensics. Tens of thousands of hours of video show rioters beating up police with whatever tools are at hand.”
+ Proud Boys leader thanks Trump for January 6 pardon and vows revenge. “The people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars, and they need to be prosecuted … Success is going to be retribution. We gotta do everything in our power to make sure that the next four years sets us up for the next 100 years.” (This week has already felt like 100 years.)
“In an age of relentless connectivity, sleep has become the ultimate luxury and spawned a new travel trend: sleep tourism, where sleep-deprived travellers are choosing their hotel on the basis of its pillow menu or booking themselves into away-from-it-all sleep retreats with tailored sleep-inducing activities.” Swede dreams: How Sweden is embracing its sleepy side. I don’t like to travel much so I’ve been taking sleep staycations; these involve my bed, a handful of Ativan, and to get things started, a large mallet.
What to Watch: What could be more timely the backstory of cartoonish villain who takes over a region? The Penguin on HBO starring Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti is really good, even if you’re not into the DC universe. It’s more of a mob show than anything.
+ What to Book: From the the jagged coastline of a remote Italian village to pitch meetings in modern day Hollywood, Jess Walter shows off his excellent writing skills in a novel Richard Russo called a literary masterpiece. Check out Beautiful Ruins. So good.
Iwo Fema: “While the president emphasized his desire to help North Carolina, a battleground state that’s voted for him in all of his presidential campaigns, he was much less generous toward California, where he plans to visit wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles later in the day.” Trump proposes ‘getting rid of FEMA’ while visiting North Carolina. (Maybe because it almost spells female?)
+ Trump Dump: “The Trump administration circulated photos Friday showing U.S. troops loading shackled detainees onto a military cargo plane, as the White House declared a start to the mass deportation campaign the president promised along the campaign trail.” (So far, the big difference in deportations is the use of military planes, not the numbers of people impacted.) WaPo: Trump immigration raids alarm cities, but ICE arrests fewer than in 2017. Newark mayor: ICE raided business without a warrant, detained U.S. citizens. In the latest pardon news, Trump pardons anti-abortion activists who blockaded clinic entrances. And Dana Milbank sums up the week in WaPo (Gift Article): Trump returns — and so does his astounding ignorance. “Trump soon moved on to demanding that California ‘turn the valve’ to allow more water to reach Los Angeles, where, he said, residents of Beverly Hills have been limited to 38 gallons of water per day. ‘When you’re a rich person, you like to take a shower. Thirty-eight gallons doesn’t last very long.’ There is no such ‘valve,’ and no such water restrictions in Beverly Hills.” (I heard if you take ivermectin, you don’t need showers at all…)
+ Block Chain: Wall of ice the size of Rhode Island heading toward penguin-packed island off Antarctica. It is a trillion ton slab of ice.
+ More Hostages to Be Released: “Hamas has named four hostages to be released on Saturday under the Gaza ceasefire deal.” (It’s unclear how many of the remaining hostages are alive.)
+ Sitting Ducks: “The highly infectious H5N1 strain has caused outbreaks across the country. Now, Long Island’s last duck farm must kill its entire flock and may go out of business, its owner said.” NYT (Gift Article): 100,000 Ducks to Be Killed After Bird Flu Strikes Long Island Farm.
+ Pedal to the Metal: “Runners completing a half marathon in Beijing later this year will do so with some unusual, metal competition at their sides. According to a press release from China’s Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, more than 12,000 human runners will square off against dozens of bipedal, humanoid robots.”
+ Johnsons: Don’t Die Tech Mogul Bryan Johnson Is in an Actual Penis-Measuring Contest—With His Teenage Son. “Bryan Johnson shared a pair of charts on X Wednesday comparing the duration and ‘quality’ of his nighttime erections compared to his son’s.” (My teenage son feels violated if I come downstairs without texting first.)
WaPo (Gift Article): A grim prognosis, a gamble and one patient’s fight to defy cancer. “She’s in uncharted waters and proving everyone wrong in that she is still here.”
+ “Mark Andrews also received a wave of support from a surprising group of people: Bills Mafia, fans of the team that just defeated the Ravens.” Bills fans raise over $100K for diabetes research to support Ravens player who dropped crucial pass.
+ Solar-charging backpacks are helping children to read after dark.
+ Pizza driver gets $2 tip in snowstorm. Outcry leads to $30,000 more.
+ Trained dogs working inside hospitals help ease burnout among health care staff.
2025-01-23 20:00:00
We’re already seeing the impact of the new administration’s promise of mass deportations. The rhetoric has been all about the criminals entering the country illegally but the actual programs (and the intended fear created by them) is having more wide-ranging consequences. There are the concrete changes: Syracuse immigrants are put in ankle monitors, their passports taken in Trump’s first day. “The family, who has been in the country for two years while they seek asylum because they feel their lives are in danger in Ecuador, had an immigration court date in two months. They were not expecting to have to report to ICE in person before then.” And there are ripple effects. Central Valley farmworkers scared to show up to work over deportation fear. “The farm bureau said just the threat of deportation could be enough to deter many of the 55,000 migrant workers the valley needs to operate during harvest season. ‘They’re not going to show up for work and that means crops will remain in the field and not be harvested and probably lost at that point.'” A few years ago, under the same president, we all called these laborers essential workers.
+ “A federal judge in Seattle blocked, temporarily, President Donald Trump’s attempt to rescind birthright citizenship — the idea spelled out in the Constitution that every person born in the United States is an American citizen.” The Reagan appointed Judge John Coughenour explained: “I’ve been on the bench for over four decades, I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order … Frankly, I have difficulty understanding how a member of the Bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind.” One assumes this question will ultimately make its way to a Supreme Court with a recent track record of boggling minds.
“If you’re looking for a new reason to be nervous about artificial intelligence, try this: Some of the smartest humans in the world are struggling to create tests that A.I. systems can’t pass.” Kevin Roose in the NYT (Gift Article): When A.I. Passes This Test, Look Out. “The creators of a new test called ‘Humanity’s Last Exam’ argue we may soon lose the ability to create tests hard enough for A.I. models.” (I used to be afraid of the machines taking over, but for the past three days or so, that idea sounds more appealing.)
Most of us were probably too busy bingeing our latest mediocre television series to notice the Oscar nominations came out. “Emilia Pérez leads the nominations with 13, followed by The Brutalist and Wicked with 10 apiece.” Here is the full list of nominees. And, of course, there’s coverage of the snubs and surprises.
Two season tickets behind home plate at PNC Park for the next 30 years.
Two autographed jerseys. A softball game for 30 people at PNC Park with coaching from Pirates’ team alumni. Batting practice and warmup with the team. Experiences at the team’s Spring Training facility in Bradenton, Florida. Chilling in a luxury box with Livvy Dunne. Those are just some of the items the Pittsburgh Pirates have offered an 11 year-old who “was the lucky person that pulled a 1/1 card of Pittsburgh Pirates rookie pitcher Paul Skenes.”
+ The general advice from the baseball world to the kid. Don’t take the deal. SB Nation: An 11-year-old pulled the $1M Paul Skenes rookie card, and the Pirates’ offer ain’t it.
Unwanted Advance: “Two Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, broke ranks with Trump and his allies who have mounted an extensive public campaign to push Hegseth toward confirmation.” And yet, the Senate has advanced his confirmation. The final vote is scheduled for Friday. (Pete Hegseth has so many disqualifying characteristics that it’s distracted everyone from the fact that he has no qualifying experience.)
+ Trump Dump: As you might imagine, there is a ton of Trump news this week and not much coverage of other topics. The only one who hopes this changes more than you is me. For now, here’s a sampling of the headlines. Trump Administration Temporarily Mutes Federal Health Officials. Trump’s anger toward World Health Organization may reshape global health, politics. “Public health experts say the nation’s departure could cripple the WHO’s operations — the United States is responsible for nearly 20 percent of its funding — or leave an opening for China to assume greater control over the agency that helps coordinate the response to international health crises.” (We’ve almost forgotten how terrible Trump was during the pandemic. This might jar our memories.) Trump Revokes Security Detail for Pompeo and Others, Despite Threats From Iran. Trump’s FCC chair gets to work on punishing TV news stations accused of bias. Heather Cox Richardson on Trump’s Jan 6 pardons. “Marc Caputo of Axios reported today that Trump’s decision to pardon or commute the sentences of all the January 6 rioters convicted of crimes for that day’s events, including those who attacked police officers, was a spur of the moment decision by Trump apparently designed to get the issue behind him quickly. ‘Trump just said: ‘F*ck it: Release ‘em all,‘ an advisor recalled.” Meanwhile, Trump picks father of convicted Jan. 6 rioter to serve as CEO of U.S. Agency for Global Media. And Why Trump’s Meme Coins Have Alarmed Both Crypto Insiders and Legal Experts. This list of headlines is exhausting, but far from exhaustive. I’m trying to figure out how (and whether I want) to cover Trump 2.
+ We Can Rebuild It? Rebuilding Gaza will be a massive project. Here are 5 things to know. (Two biggest challenges: The ceasefire is still only temporary. Hamas is still in charge.)
+ Fire in the Whole: “Overnight water drops helped stop the spread of a huge wildfire churning through rugged mountains north of Los Angeles and firefighters battled to increase containment as dangerous winds whipped up again Thursday.” No, this is not an item I accidentally copied and pasted from last week. The LA area is facing another massive fire.
+ Vacation Plans on Ice: “Two winter camping novices spend a night out with an Arctic explorer to learn how to stay warm – and even enjoy – camping in freezing weather.” Minnesota Star Tribune: I braved winter camping and so can you. Probably. (In my house, we fight over blankets when it gets down into the 50s.)
“I want to explain the whole background of the popcorn taxes to you: Salted popcorn, caramelized popcorn, plain popcorn. When it comes to popcorn’s tax treatment, as long as it is salty, whether it is with salt, spiced, tangy, chilli powder, that’s all 5%. But when it has added caramelized sugar, it is no longer salty.” Popcorn Is Taxed at Three Rates in India. A Nation Says This Is Why We’re a Mess.
+ “Affectionately dubbed Putricia, it will release a smell described as “wet socks, hot cat food, or rotting possum flesh.'” Stinky bloom of ‘corpse flower’ enthrals thousands.