2025-10-16 20:00:00
In the movie Scarface, Tony Montana famously explains, “In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power.” It turns out that in the age of AI data centers, even money can’t always buy one power. The existing grid doesn’t have enough supply to keep up with demand. That’s forcing many deep-pocketed tech companies to get high on their own power supplies as they add more and more data centers. “Most tech titans would be happy to trade their DIY sourcing for the ability to plug into the electric grid. But supply-chain snarls and permitting challenges are complicating everything, and the U.S. isn’t building transmission infrastructure or power plants fast enough to meet the sudden surge in demand for electricity. America should be adding about 80 gigawatts of new power generation capacity a year to keep pace with AI as well as cloud computing, crypto, industrial demand and electrification trends, according to consulting and technology firm ICF. It’s currently building less than 65 gigawatts. That gap alone is enough electricity to power two Manhattans during the hottest parts of summer.” WSJ (Gift Article): AI Data Centers, Desperate for Electricity, Are Building Their Own Power Plan. “Planning and building large-scale power plants or expanding grid infrastructure takes years. The process, normally gummed up, is even more difficult lately. Projects of all kinds face hurdles obtaining permits, equipment shortages, a labor crunch and rising costs, exacerbated by Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum, as well as some copper products.”
+ The new and growing demand on our aging energy grid isn’t just a challenge for tech power players looking to add more computers to their racks. It’s also limiting supply and jacking up prices for consumers. “Each state has unique energy needs, with a variety of factors contributing to costs. But common factors include rising supplier rates, consumer demand, regional regulations and a lag in clean-energy solutions. One major contributor is the growth of A.I. data centers, which use a huge amount of electricity to power nonstop computing. Energy providers have responded by seeking more energy at higher prices and transferring the costs to consumers.” NYT (Gift Article): This Summer’s Stunning Electric Bill: For at least a fifth of U.S. households, the increases have likely been financially burdensome. The richest companies are finding a way around their energy challenges. The poorest Americans are footing the bill. Reminds me of another Tony Montana quote: “You know what capitalism is? Getting f**ked.”
“It was a common enough example of second-term Trump theater-in-the-Oval. But it was also a diorama of the administration’s lopsided power dynamic between a president bent on controlling federal law enforcement and appointees unwilling or unable to fight for the historic independence of their institutions.” Trump keeps naming new targets for his weaponized institutions to target. And they keep doing it. As Jack Smith, one of his latest targets, explains: “Nothing like what we see now has ever gone on.” So we sure as hell better not normalize the behavior (or our coverage of it). NYT (Gift Article): Trump Names More Foes He Wants Prosecuted as Bondi and Patel Look On.
+ Here’s a recent conversation between two of Trump’s enemies. Andrew Weissmann and Jack Smith.
+ Trump isn’t just turning formerly independent government institutions against individuals he considers enemies. He’s looking to wipe out the infrastructure of organizations that oppose him (often by promoting democratic norms). WSJ Gift Article): Trump Team Plans IRS Overhaul to Enable Pursuit of Left-Leaning Groups. “The Trump administration is preparing sweeping changes at the Internal Revenue Service that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily, according to people familiar with the matter. A senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors.”
“As American consumers become more economically stratified, the business of issuing credit cards to the rich has turned into big-game hunting for banks. The richest 10% of US households—those making roughly $250,000 or more—now account for almost half the country’s consumer purchases.” That’s one big reason why credit card companies are targeting big spenders in the perk war of 2025. Amanda Mull in Bloomberg (Gift Article): Inside the Credit Card Battle to Win America’s Richest Shoppers.
Five Times Sit to Stand. Maximal Walking Speed. According to Gretchen Reynolds in WaPo (Gift Article), these are the 2 quick tests can tell you if you’re as fit as an 80-year-old elite athlete. I live in an extremely hilly neighborhood. I don’t know if my 80-plus year-old neighbors who regularly pass my beagles and me on the way up hills are elite athletes, but they seem like it compared to us.
+ 80-year-old grandmother becomes oldest woman to finish the Ironman World Championship. (She was 59 before she even learned how to swim.) I could probably complete an Ironman at 80. If I started the race now.
Ven Diagram: “The helicopters were engaged in training exercises, according to a U.S. official, that could serve as preparation for expanded conflict against alleged drug traffickers, including potentially missions inside Venezuela.” A day after Trump announced covert operations against Venezuela, WaPo (Gift Article) reports U.S. Special Operations helicopters near Venezuela expand Caribbean mission.
+ Hamas or Menos? Uniformed Hamas militants are back on the streets in Gaza, where they’ve carried out videotaped, public executions. As Jonathan Chait reports in The Atlantic (Gift Article), “the president seems undisturbed by the terrorist group’s murderous campaign against dissidents. In fact, he seems to admire it.” Why Is Trump Making Excuses for Hamas? “They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad—very, very bad gangs … And they did take ’em out. And they killed a number of gang members. And that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s okay. A couple of very bad gangs.”
+ Honky-Tonk: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Scratch that. Give me the white people. “The Trump administration is considering a radical overhaul of the U.S. refugee system that would slash the program to its bare bones while giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration.”
+ The Wind Beneath Our Wings: “The administration and its allies in Congress have rolled back clean energy tax credits and thrown up roadblocks to renewable energy projects — efforts that, in the long run, will mean fewer wind and solar farms will be built than otherwise would have.” But for now, there’s a race to get those credits before they expire. Which means “President Trump is poised to preside over a renewable energy boom. Yes, really.” NYT (Gift Article): Renewable Energy Is Booming Despite Trump’s Efforts to Slow It.
+ It’s Buyback Time: “Over the past five years, those five largest companies spent more than $1 trillion on stock buybacks and dividends, according to a new analysis from Oxfam—more than five times what they paid in federal taxes over the same time period.” The biggest U.S. companies on the S&P 500 spent more than $1 trillion on stock buybacks and dividends in 2024.
“The J.M. Smucker Co. is suing Trader Joe’s, alleging the grocery chain’s new frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are too similar to Smucker’s Uncrustables in their design and packaging.” (Seems like a lot TJ’s products are a little too similar to existing brands. But maybe imitating the great Uncrustable is biting off too much.)
+ Meanwhile, Death Wish Coffee Sues Liquid Death Over The Right To Death Itself.
2025-10-15 20:00:00
There have been plenty of articles and books noting the consistency with which some people vote against their own economic interest. But today, there’s another even more invasive phenomenon: People are voting, and acting, against their own personal health and well being. Conspiracy theories, quack health leaders, and craven politicians doling out medical advice they’d never follow themselves have created a new era of self-harm in America. That’s bad for patients. And it’s increasingly bad for doctors. “When Dr. Banu Symington first moved to Rock Springs, Wyo., 30 years ago, she appreciated its empty desert landscapes and small-town respect for physicians like herself. Fast-forward to today. Some of Symington’s cancer patients curse at her for suggesting they vaccinate or wear masks to protect their weakened immune systems while undergoing chemotherapy. ‘I actually had a patient’s husband say, ‘You only want me to mask because you’re a liberal bitch.'” NPR: In rural America, scarce doctors battle misinformation as they practice medicine. And the prognosis isn’t good. There’s already a doctor shortage in many rural areas, it’s getting harder (if not impossible) to recruit doctors to areas where the pay is low and the patients are difficult, and “for many decades, the U.S. has relied heavily on foreign-born doctors; half the country’s oncology workforce, for example, comes from overseas. Now, in large part because of the Trump administration’s cuts to science, medicine and research funding, as well as new immigration policies, fewer physicians can — or want to — come to the U.S.” Millions of Americans are cutting off their noses to spite their face (and then refusing to get their noses re-attached because they’d rather do their own research than trust their otolaryngologist).
+ NYT (Gift Article): Most Americans Who Rely on Obamacare Live in Republican Areas. A political movement is asking voters, “Your money or your life?” And its followers are answering, “Actually, why don’t you just take both?”
“A major redistricting case returning to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday could not only determine the fate of the federal Voting Rights Act, but also unlock a path for Republicans to pick up a slew of additional congressional seats.” A Supreme Court ruling on voting rights could boost Republicans’ redistricting efforts.
+ “The Supreme Court’s conservative majority signaled deep skepticism today over a second majority Black district drawn in Louisiana, despite a lower court ruling that found the district was likely necessary to respect the landmark Voting Rights Act.” Here’s the latest from CNN.
“Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway.
They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.” Politico: ‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat.
“Your highway toll payment is now past due, one text warns. You have U.S. Postal Service fees to pay, another threatens. You owe the New York City Department of Finance for unpaid traffic violations.” All those text messages you get are irritating. But for many people, they’re also costly. WSJ (Gift Article): Chinese Criminals Made More Than $1 Billion From Those Annoying Texts. (Luckily, spending half my day responding Stop to political texts leaves me too distracted to respond to phishing scams.)
Chicago Bulls—: “As the agents left, they released tear gas, apparently without warning, sending people coughing and running for cover. Among those affected by the gas were 13 Chicago Police Department officers.” NYT (Gift Article) on America’s war on Chicago. ICE Is Cracking Down on Chicago. Some Chicagoans Are Fighting Back.
+ School Bully: “The Trump administration has hailed the career and technical training that community colleges provide, emphasizing the need for greater investment in skilled trades. Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, have expanded the use of the federal Pell Grant to more short-term programs, which policy experts say could be a boon for community colleges in coming years.” So community colleges are looking good, right? Well… Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead. This is especially troubling as we are living in a Protein Age Wasteland.
+ Wag the Dogma: “The curriculum was created as several states, including Oklahoma and Louisiana, fought to bring prayer or religious texts like the Ten Commandments into public school classrooms, blurring the line between church and state.” NYT (Gift Article): Inside a New Bible-Infused Texas English Curriculum.
+ Setting the Midterms: Trump threatens to cut aid to Argentina if Milei loses in midterms. (We used to export democracy. Now we export election interference.)
+ Face the Face: “An estimated 100 million people live with facial differences. As face recognition tech becomes widespread, some say they’re getting blocked from accessing essential systems and services.” Wired: When Face Recognition Doesn’t Know Your Face Is a Face.
+ Is That an Anthropomorphized Super Computer in Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy to See Me? OpenAI will bring ‘erotica’ to ChatGPT once it rolls out age verification in December.
“Academy coach Brendan King told the network: ‘As soon as I walked out of the locker room, my stomach kind of turned into knots. And I said: ‘I’m going to need to know if we really won this game or not.’ King went home that night and watched a recording of the game. He meticulously watched each play and recounted every basket – eventually discovering his team had actually lost.” Oklahoma girls’ basketball team returns championship after realizing they lost.
+ “The photographer was filming the landscape of Kolyuchin Island during a cruise in the Chukchi Sea in September, when he noticed polar bears using one of the abandoned buildings as a shelter.” That was lucky for him. And now it’s lucky for us. Photos show polar bears chilling at home in abandoned Russian research station.
2025-10-14 20:00:00
Before 1919, Americans didn’t buy things on credit. General Motors changed that. The company realized it couldn’t sell enough cars for cash, so they started lending buyers the dough for a new set of wheels. Sears and other companies followed suit. Then Wall Street decided to get in on the action, “and started offering stock on credit—’on margin,’ it was called. By the thousands, middle‑class Americans opened margin accounts, putting up 10 or 20 percent of a stock purchase and borrowing the rest. When the market went up, the returns felt like free money.” And there’s nothing like free money, until the bill comes due. In those early days of credit, the bill came due in 1929, the greatest crash in American history. Andrew Ross Sorkin started writing his new book 1929 because he was interested in the finances and psychology behind an important moment in the country’s history, not necessarily because of parallels to today’s market. But in the months leading up to the book’s release, things started to feel a little too familiar in all the wrong ways. An adapted excerpt from The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Lesson of 1929. “Problems arise when we get greedy and take too much. Nobody knows for sure where the line is—or what to do when we discover that we’ve gone past it. At that point, panic is the natural reaction.”
+ Back in the 1920s, credit was new. A century later, “everybody’s getting sucked into creating a lifestyle that’s bigger than them, bigger than what they can afford,” as tech-focused Buy Now Pay Later companies have taken credit to a whole new level. What could possibly go wrong? Well, for one thing, Later doesn’t mean never. NYT Magazine (Gift Article): They Got to Live a Life of Luxury. Then Came the Fine Print.
There’s always a major trend that drives the food industry and eventually lines the shelves of local of your local market. Today, that trend is high protein. Most people think they need more protein. And the increasing number of folks on GLP-1 drugs are probably right. Hence, protein is everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Protein Is Showing Up in Doritos, Waffles and Now Even Pop-Tarts.
The remarkable hope for a “historic dawn of a new Middle East” represented by yesterday’s hostage release, prisoner exchange, and ceasefire deal has almost immediately run into some harsh realities on the ground in Gaza. For one thing, though dramatically weakened, Hamas is still Hamas. “On Monday, a video circulating on social media appears to show several masked gunmen, some of them wearing green headbands resembling ones worn by Hamas, shooting with machine guns at least seven men after forcing them to kneel in the street. Posts identify the video as filmed in Gaza on Monday. Civilian spectators cheer ‘Allah Akbar,’ or God is Great, and call those killed ‘collaborators.'” Hamas said to kill over 30 Gazans as terror group moves to reassert its grip on Strip.
+ Reuters: Gaza ceasefire outlook darkens as Israel delays aid and Hamas tightens grip. “Israel delayed aid into Gaza and kept the enclave’s border shut on Tuesday, while re-emergent Hamas fighters demonstrated their grip by executing men in the street, darkening the outlook for U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.”
“American culture is no longer synonymous with the aspiration to freedom, but with transactionalism and secrecy: the algorithms that mysteriously determine what you see, the money collected by anonymous billionaires, the deals that the American president is making with world leaders that benefit himself and maybe others whose names we don’t know. America was always associated with capitalism, business, and markets, but nowadays there’s no pretense that anyone else will be invited to share the wealth.” Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Beacon of Democracy Goes Dark. “The image of the ugly American always competed with the image of the generous American. Now that the latter has disappeared, the only Americans anyone can see are the ones trying to rip you off.”
Trending Neg on Heg Reg: “The Pentagon is telling beat reporters to sign restrictive new rules by Tuesday or surrender their press passes by Wednesday. Virtually every news outlet is rejecting the ultimatum and saying they will not sign.” (And that includes MAGA news outlets.)
+ Signs of the Times: “No, Coachella’s lineup dropping months earlier than its usual release isn’t actually an indicator of an impending recession. But in the absence of official government data, social media users are casting about for hints — even music festival-related ones — about the true state of the American economy.” WaPo (Gift Article): Recession warning signs to watch: Goodbye lipstick, hello Hamburger Helper.
+ What About Us? “There are a lot of people in this country — most of the 75 million who voted for Kamala Harris last year and a whole lot of others — who are disgusted, appalled and frightened by the first nine months of Trump’s second administration. By the way he’s turned the Justice Department into his vendetta machine, by ICE’s vicious treatment of immigrants and journalists, by his damaging and whimsical decisions about tariffs and much more. But do we hear much about those regular citizens who disagree? I read and watch and listen widely, and I sure don’t. Not in mainstream media, at any rate.” Margaret Sullivan: The media is largely ignoring the trauma of millions. Here’s why.
+ Handing Allies To Enemies: “Now, in the light, he worries it’s not a dream but a vision of his future in Afghanistan, where he will be tortured and killed, where his wife will starve, where his son will be forced to join the militants, where his daughter will become an old man’s fourth wife.” The U.S. saved him from the Taliban, but now it wants to send him back.
+ The Next Fake Emergency: “Even as President Donald Trump and even local magnate Marc Benioff have called on federal troops to quell disorder in the city, San Francisco is on track to have the lowest number of homicides in more than 70 years.” (Why let a little reality get between your lips and the president’s ass?)
+ Jones Beached: Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones’ appeal of $1.4 billion defamation judgment in Sandy Hook shooting. (Even this SCOTUS has a line…)
+ Shooting Stars: “At the questionable corner of sports entertainment and male fertility is Sperm Racing, a startup that recently closed a $10m seed round.” The teen founder turning male fertility into a sport.
“Now teachers avoid breaking kids into groups of six or seven, or asking them to turn to page 67, or instructing them to take six or seven minutes for a task. Six is a perfect number, and seven is a prime number, but only a glutton for punishment would put them together in front of a bunch of 13-year-olds.” WSJ (Gift Article) on the numbers meme that means absolutely nothing. The Numbers Six and Seven Are Making Life Hell for Math Teachers. (I always figured 67 was for people who don’t still have enough flexibility for 69.)
2025-10-13 20:00:00
Even the most determined optimist would have been forgiven for thinking this day would never come. It’s been 738 days of captivity for the last surviving Israeli hostages. 738 days since one of history’s most pervasive wounds was ripped open. A wound that oozed pain from Southern Israel to Tel Aviv to Gaza, that violently spread across the region from Tehran, to Beirut, to Yemen, that divided communities, campuses, congregations, and even at times caused fissures within our own personal psyches. Over the weekend, someone asked me what I was going to write about the impending hostage release. After 738 days, I answered, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Now that I’m seeing it, I can only think of one word to say: Shalom. What are we saying goodbye to? If I answered, half of readers would be furious I went too far and half would be furious I didn’t go far enough. That turmoil might be replayed in my own mind. Today we can’t agree on the most basic issues. We’re not going to agree about the most complex one. What are we saying hello to? Beyond the homecoming hostages and what one hopes will be more than a temporary ceasefire, I’m not sure. Let’s give it a few days before we assess how the last 738 days will reshape the region and the world. Given that we’re talking about the Middle East, it may take a few thousand days—or even a few thousand years—for a full assessment. We can’t agree on much, but we should at least be able to agree on this: Today is a good day. Because it’s not day 739. Reuniting families are saying Shalom to one another. Shalom has settled, at least for a moment, on the region. And the wound that has spread so far and poisoned so much, at long last has a glimmer of hope in its prognosis, as the world stopped rubbing salt and started spreading salve. To the hostages and the very notion of healing: Welcome home. And Shalom.
+ All 20 remaining living hostages return to Israel, after over 2 years in Hamas captivity.
+ “In reality, the nightmare never ends; trauma that endures for generations is the surest outcome of this war. But we also know that the hostages are going home, living proof that hope can persist even in the darkest hole.” Franklin Foer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Existential Heroism of the Israeli Hostages.
+ Eli Sharabi in WaPo (Gift Article): What 491 days as a hostage taught me about Hamas. “I’m lucky to be alive, and I appreciate that fact each and every day. And I will somehow rebuild. I hope we all can.” Sharabi’s book Hostage has just been released in English.
“What made Mr. Netanyahu make a decision against his natural inclination to kick the can down the road, as well as agree to pretty much everything he said he opposed? Simply, Mr. Trump. Israel’s botched attempt to assassinate members of the Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, began a cascade of events that led the president and his Qatari, Egyptian and Turkish counterparts to pressure Israel on one side, and Hamas on the other, into signing onto a framework agreement and apparently negotiating the details later. Saying ‘No,’ or ‘Yes, but,’ and playing for time was not an option.” NYT (Gift Article): The Uncomfortable Truth About Netanyahu’s ‘Victory.’ (The main victory Bibi wants is at the ballot box.)
+ A good overview of how to consider Trump’s major role in the ceasefire and hostage handover. Josh Marshall: Has Trump Brought Peace to Gaza?
+ And the latest reason to worry: Hamas deploys armed fighters and police across parts of Gaza.
+ Here’s the latest from Times of Israel, CNN, and the NYT.
“Never before has so much money been spent so rapidly on a technology that, for all its potential, remains largely unproven as an avenue for profit-making. And often, these investments can be traced back to two leading firms: Nvidia and OpenAI. The recent wave of deals and partnerships involving the two are escalating concerns that an increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom. At stake is virtually every corner of the economy, with the hype and buildout of AI infrastructure rippling across markets, from debt and equity to real estate and energy.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): OpenAI, Nvidia Fuel $1 Trillion AI Market With Web of Circular Deals. If the bubble bursts, these circular demand-driving deals could turn into a circular firing squad.
+ “AI infrastructure providers, led by Nvidia, are investing in their customers, who then turn around and buy more of the infrastructure providers’ products. In other cases, customers of infrastructure like OpenAI are investing in their suppliers.” AI’s self-investment spree sets off bubble alarms on Wall Street.
“On the internet, crunchy moms of seemingly all political stripes post recipes for homemade goldfish crackers, for example, or hand-sculpted chicken nuggets. TikTok influencers show off the unprocessed steamed cauliflower and carrot salad that they’ve prepared for their toddlers. (Suspiciously missing are images of the toddlers actually eating this food.)” Olga Khazan in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Avoiding Ultra-Processed Foods Is Completely Unrealistic.
Weaponized Justice: “The question raised by the prosecution of James is: would any other federal prosecutor have brought this case against any other defendant? The answer seems to be no.” The New Yorker: The Indictment of Letitia James and the Collapse of Impartial Justice.
+ The Hot New Thing: “Three researchers who probed the process of business innovation won the Nobel memorial prize in economics Monday for explaining how new products and inventions promote economic growth and human welfare, even as they leave older companies in the dust.”
+ Coal Miners’ Slaughter: “When coal miners came to Washington in April, they posed behind President Trump at the White House, wearing their hard hats and thanking him for trying to reinvigorate their struggling industry. But on Tuesday dozens of miners and their families will be in a more unusual position: protesting the Trump administration outside the Labor Department building.” Coal Miners With Black Lung Say They Are ‘Cast Aside to Die’ Under Trump.
+ America the Beautiful: “To their proponents, pageants are a training ground for young women to succeed in a world beyond the swimsuit competition. They learn discipline and poise and how to think on their feet. The life of a Miss America—crossing the country to appear at events, speaking in public, developing a platform and smiling for endless pictures—isn’t so different from that of a campaigning politician … But critics cannot quite get past the idea of women standing on a stage to be judged on their appearance. As in Trump World, they say, contestants may demonstrate strength, talent and ambition—but always on men’s terms.” WSJ (Gift Article): The Beauty Queens of MAGA World.
+ Solar Flair: “China’s clean energy efforts contrast with the ambitions of the United States under the Trump administration, which is using its diplomatic and economic muscle to pressure other countries to buy more American gas, oil and coal. China is investing in cheaper solar and wind technology, along with batteries and electric vehicles, with the aim of becoming the world’s supplier of renewable energy and the products that rely on it.” Why China Built 162 Square Miles of Solar Panels on the World’s Highest Plateau.
+ Bear Market: “In the last year alone, Build-A-Bear’s stock is up 76%. In the last five years, the toy company’s share price (BBW) has risen nearly 2,000% – besting even tech companies riding the AI boom like Palantir, Nvidia and Microsoft.” How ‘kidulting’ helped make Build-A-Bear a Wall Street darling.
+ Doing it All, With Style: Time: The Astonishing Versatility of Diane Keaton.
+ Marc the Moment: Marc Maron ends his podcast with final guest Barack Obama after 16 years and nearly 1,700 episodes.
In Portland, nude cyclists join anti-ICE protests in rain-soaked ride. “Earlier in the day, several hundred bicyclists in varying states of undress circled the center to shouts of encouragement. ‘To be naked is to be as vulnerable as you can be,’ said Elise, a Portland resident who asked that her last name not be used due to privacy concerns. ‘That’s what we’re saying — we’re not afraid.'” (I’m not ashamed to admit that I am very afraid of nude cycling.)
+ On the eve of Columbus Day, a replica of the Santa Maria sinks in the Pacific.
+ A suburban Detroit haunted house prepares its scare actors for the Halloween season by sending them to school. Scare school, that is. (This video could easily double as a behind-the-scenes look at the daily making of NextDraft.)
2025-10-07 20:00:00
Doug Whitney isn’t living up to his potential. And that’s a good thing. “Before dawn on a March morning, Doug Whitney walked into a medical center 2,000 miles from home, about to transform from a mild-mannered, bespectacled retiree into a superhuman research subject. First, a doctor inserted a needle into his back to extract cerebral spinal fluid — ‘liquid gold,’ a research nurse called it for the valuable biological information it contains. Then, the nurse took a sample of his skin cells. After that came an injection of a radioactive tracer followed by a brain scan requiring him to lie still for 30 minutes with a thermoplastic mask over his face. Then, another tracer injection and another brain scan.” Doug Whitney has been getting poked and prodded for fourteen years. It’s not because of something he’s got. It’s because of something he’s somehow avoided. Whitney is part of the largest extended family to carry an Alzheimer’s-causing mutation. Basically, Whitney should have already died after suffering through years of one the world’s most devastating diseases. “‘Nobody in history had ever dodged that bullet,’ Mr. Whitney said. But somehow, he has done just that.” If researchers can figure out how Doug Whitney has escaped what seemed to be his certain medical fate, it might offer important clues to helping others treat or prevent the scourge of Alzheimer’s. NYT (Gift Article): He Was Expected to Get Alzheimer’s 25 Years Ago. Why Hasn’t He?
There are legal reasons why a president could deploy troops to American cities. But the current battle over this topic, playing out in courtrooms and the court of public opinion, is less of a debate about laws and more of a fight over reality. “The problem … is that many Americans don’t believe the president’s claims. We look at pictures and videos out of Portland and we don’t see ‘war-ravaged’ anything. We look at news reports out of Chicago and see the principal violence coming from federal officers — not being directed toward them. To put the matter directly, there’s a factual dispute about whether resorting to the military is justified. As Judge Karin Immergut (a Trump appointee) put it sharply in the Portland case, in which she ruled over the weekend that there was no legal basis for sending in troops, the president is acting in a manner that is ‘untethered to the facts.'” (That seems to be going around these days.) Stephen I. Vladeck in the NYT (Gift Article): No, Trump Can’t Deploy Troops to Wherever He Wants. “That is what we, and more important the courts, face: a factual dispute more than a legal one.”
+ Texas national guard troops arrive in Chicago amid Trump’s crackdown
+ These cities aren’t war zones. But the administration is doing everything possible to change that. Using helicopters and chemical agents, immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago.
“Millions of Americans — a third of U.S. adults — are pulled into a nearly infinite variety of niche corners by a recommendation system that we don’t know much about, making it difficult to understand how the constant scroll affects real people.” WaPo (Gift Article) analyzed more than 800 TikTokkers, from newbies to power users, to see how people get hooked. How TikTok keeps its users scrolling for hours a day. (I’m not a TikTok user. But this article warning of its addictive properties sort of makes me want to try it out.)
During last week’s football game against Duke, Cal players wore helmet decals featuring the number 59. The number celebrates the number of Nobel laureates that have been affiliated with the school’s Berkeley campus. Sadly, Duke won the game. Maybe Cal should have been more forward thinking and featured the number 60. Three scientists at US universities win Nobel Prize in physics for advancing quantum technology, including John Clarke, 83, who conducted his research at the University of California, Berkeley. (Go Bears.)
+ “Fred Ramsdell was parked at a campground in Montana on Monday afternoon after camping and hiking across the Rocky Mountains when his wife, Laura O’Neill, suddenly started shouting. He first thought that maybe she had seen a grizzly bear.” His off-the-grid vacation was interrupted by winning a Nobel Prize for research into the immune system. (None of today’s quantum technology winners were off the grid…)
Conversion Reversion: “Since at least a decade ago, a rare consensus has prevailed on a provocative issue for L.G.B.T.Q. people. Professional counseling aimed at changing the sexual orientations of gay teenagers, sometimes known as conversion therapy, was viewed as harmful and widely rejected.” Like so many other subjects about which we thought there was a consensus, there wasn’t. Or at least there isn’t anymore. NYT: A Debate Over ‘Conversion Therapy,’ Once Widely Condemned, Is Back. Which brings us to today’s SCOTUS hearing. “The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared poised to back a free speech challenge to a Colorado law that bans conversion therapy aimed at young people questioning their sexual orientations or gender identities in a case likely to have national implications.”
+ The Hostage: Two years after the Oct 7 attacks, the NYT (Gift Article) catches up with Emily Damari, who was held captive in Gaza for 471 days. Freed From Hamas, but Not Captivity.
+ Surgeon General Agreement: “Never before have we issued a joint public warning like this. But the profound, immediate and unprecedented threat that Kennedy’s policies and positions pose to the nation’s health cannot be ignored.” WaPo (Gift Article): Six surgeons general: It’s our duty to warn the nation about RFK Jr.
+ Coin Toss: Another lede that manages to perfectly sum up our national moment. “The Trump administration on Monday defended its plan to mint a $1 coin bearing the image of President Trump despite the fact that an 1866 law dictates that only the deceased can appear on U.S. currency.”
+ Friend Zone: WSJ: Our Brains Evolved to Socialize—but Max Out at About 150 Friends. (I’ve always preferred to measure my social life in terms of subscribers.)
+ Lox Smith: “The oldest of three brothers, Mr. Zabar did not intend to go into the family business, which his parents, Louis and Lillian (Teit) Zabar, started in 1934 as the smoked-fish department of a Daitch supermarket on Broadway. Saul had visions of becoming a doctor. But when his father died in 1950 at 49, Saul left college and returned home to help out.” Saul Zabar, Smoked Fish Czar of Upper West Side, Dies at 97.
+ Box Out: America’s latest recession warning is a brown cardboard box.
“Claims about the benefits of cold-water immersion date back centuries. Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third American president, wrote toward the end of his life about using a cold foot bath daily for 60 years. He also owned a book published in 1706 on the history of cold-water bathing. While evidence is building around the positive health effects of swimming in chilly water, bathing in ice or taking cold showers, scientific confirmation is still lacking.” Cold-water immersion may offer health benefits — and also presents risks.
+ “Prosecuting attorneys say Whitley was found by police, as he was wearing the same True Religion underwear that was captured on camera during the alleged robbery.” (One more reason why your underwear probably shouldn’t be visible.)
2025-10-06 20:00:00
It was a tale of two economies. America is experiencing a boom-bust cycle. But instead of happening sequentially, we’re basically booming and busting at the same time. In the NYT (Gift Article), Natasha Sarin, president of the Budget Lab at Yale, explains how we’re overcoming a lot of bad policy decisions and attacks on financial norms: “The economy is being bolstered by a remarkable investment boom in artificial intelligence. A credible estimate suggests that A.I. capital expenditures may reach 2 percent of the gross domestic product in 2025, up from most likely less than 0.1 percent in 2022. To provide some sense of scale, that means the equivalent of about $1,800 per person in America will be invested this year on A.I. The coat of A.I. gloss is giving the administration runway to double down on bad ideas: America’s effective overall tariff rate is nearly back to the levels announced in April, the vice president has called for the administration to be involved in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions and Mr. Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after a disappointing jobs report. The situation is worse than having all of your economic eggs in one basket. It’s closer to putting all of your eggs in one basket and stomping on all the other baskets.” (In the humanties department, we call this a total basket case.) There Are Two Economies: A.I. and Everything Else. Basically, it’s Big Tech vs Big Dreck.
+ “Despite mounting threats to the US economy — from high tariffs to collapsing immigration, eroding institutions, rising debt and sticky inflation — large companies and investors seem unfazed. They are increasingly confident that artificial intelligence is such a big force, it can counter all the challenges. Lately, this optimism has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year. And some analysts believe that estimate doesn’t fully capture the AI spend, so the real share could be even higher. AI companies have accounted for 80 per cent of the gains in US stocks so far in 2025.” FT ($): America is now one big bet on AI.
+ Every day, we see warning signals in terms of inflation, tariffs, jobs reports, etc. And every day we see the other side of the market. AMD signs AI chip-supply deal with OpenAI, shares surge over 34%. The chips vs the dips.
+ What happens if the one industry propping up the economy hiccups? I’m asking you, not ChatGPT… Morgan Stanley warns the AI boom may be running out of steam. And, The AI bubble is 17 times the size of the dot-com frenzy – and four times subprime.
+ For now, the AI boom is making the already massive economic divide even more divided. Consider this problem currently facing San Francisco: We don’t have enough mansions.
The AI growth story is also a real estate story, and I’m not just talking about the mansions being built by founders and investors. We are experiencing major data center growth in many parts of the country. For a glimpse into what that might look like, photographer Stephen Voss takes us to Northern Virginia. WaPo (Gift Article): What it looks like in the world’s data center capital. “Here in the world’s internet hub, residents have long shouldered the costs of powering our insatiable digital demand. The structures are built between baseball fields, schools, homes and historic cemeteries.” And they all play the same tune: An ever-present hum.
“For all the talk of red lines and points of no return, the modern United States has had democratic crises and authoritarian turmoil before. The language of break-glass, fire-alarm emergencies looks at our increasingly brittle existing modes of political organization and cannot see beyond them. But the way through will be to craft new modes of renewal adequate to the landscape of the world in which we find ourselves — forms analogous to the industrial union of the ’20s, and perhaps fueled by the generative civil society engine of the now vast nonprofit world. A century ago, in the forgotten history of a decade just barely out of living memory, we found pathways to a better place. The answer to how this all ends turns on experiments we have only barely begun to launch.” John Fabian Witt in the NYT gives us a history lesson (since for now, history is still legal): How to Save the American Experiment.
“The real catalyst for the ceasefire, meanwhile, seemed to have come about three weeks earlier. On September 9th, Israel launched a strike on a meeting of Hamas officials in Doha. The missiles missed their targets, but left Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, ‘furious,’ the Times reported. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, whose private-equity firm had received hundreds of millions of dollars in investment from Qatar, and who had been working with Blair on a postwar plan for Gaza, was similarly ‘angry and embarrassed.’ In the end, the strike had the opposite of its intended effect. It brought together leaders of Arab and Muslim countries to an emergency meeting in Doha, during which they worked on a list of demands to be included in a deal to end the war. Netanyahu, who had carried out a string of successful strikes in Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, appeared to have overplayed his hand this time.” Ruth Margalit on the events that led the Middle East toward a flicker of hope. The New Yorker: At the Edge of Peace.
You’re Not Welcome: “The state of Illinois and Chicago on Monday sued the Trump administration over its move to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago as the White House targets Democrat-led cities amid weeks of protests against the federal government’s immigration enforcement campaign. The lawsuit opens a new front in the legal battles the White House is waging against state and local officials, coming just hours after a federal judge blocked a similar deployment of the guard to Portland.” Illinois and Chicago sue Trump administration over deployment of National Guard.
+ Thinning Ice: “There’s a jarring disconnect between what I’ve been hearing from supporters of the president who are disappointed with ICE’s pace, and the images on social media each day: sobbing families torn apart in courthouse hallways; a commando-style night raid on a Chicago apartment building; and masked federal officers smashing car windows, slamming people to the ground, and targeting bystanders who dare to question them. The Trump administration has made a show of force by sending National Guard troops to reinforce ICE teams in Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; and Chicago. But a closer look at ICE data shows that the intensity of ICE enforcement nationwide has essentially leveled off.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): As Money Rushed In, ICE’s Rapid Expansion Stalled Out.
+ Immune Response: The Nobel Prize in medicine goes to 3 scientists for key immune system discoveries.
+ Burning Questions: “Police are investigating the cause of a fire that burned down the home of South Carolina Circuit Court judge Diane Goodstein, who had reportedly received death threats for weeks related to her work.” House of South Carolina Judge Criticized by Trump Administration Burns Down.
+ If You Gild It, They Won’t Come: Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August. (I wonder what’s keeping them away…)
+ Maxwell Wishes Denied: “The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal of the criminal conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein.” (This could be this term’s last SCOTUS decision that doesn’t depress you, so enjoy it.)
+ Plugged In: “In a bright clinic on the eastern side of Istanbul, a man leans over another man’s scalp. There’s a marker in his hand, and he’s drawing thin, careful lines across the cranium. It looks almost like an art class. Except the canvas here is a human head.” How one country has become a top destination for hair transplants.
“An internet outage that impacted parts of Texas last month was caused by a stray bullet that struck a key fiber optic line.”
+ Paul Davids plays 80 of rock’s most iconic guitar intros.