Dan McCrum

If I were emperor of the universe any candidate promising to balance the budget or fund expensive programs by "cutting inefficiency, waste and fraud in government" would be immediately slimed like a Nickelodean host.

Not now contagious Mink

Loved this from Geoffrey Hinton “godfather of AI”, this afternoon, on the subject of humans & AI: “We’re behaving like we just got a very cute baby tiger as a pet. When it grows up, it can easily kill you if it wants to. There are only two options: kill it or make sure it never wants to”.

Me: wow 2021 was pretty mental. We’ll never see so much stupid financial stuff again 2026: 😎

In the long term this is way more destructive than Jackdaw, because it actively slows down electrification and weaning households off residual LNG consumption.

We literally have the largest bike-touring event in the world which has been an annual summer state tradition for FIFTY YEARS. There's a giant exhibit in the state historical museum about it. This is comical.

Enforcement of the “red tape” would actually help legitimate businesses

And it is indeed now publication day. I’m sure there are vast stacks to be found in “every good bookstore”. Also coming out in German, Italian and Dutch editions this week.

Is the Gulf family behind bottled-water company Highland Spring experiencing liquidity issues? Our reporting certainly uncovered lots of problems with lenders....

**Sets face to pleading expression** Oh no, please don’t give me a reason to cash out a large pile of tech stock at this particular moment, that would be terrible.

He was a huge problem for them around ‘09.

A hungry ghost trapped in a jar helps me choose wallpaper. Sure I get medical advice from a hungry ghost trapped in a jar. Er…

The Man United crisis seems very early this year, is it El Niño?

The South Dakota polling is fun (derogatory)

Be fair, they have at least built almost a third of the dams that will, if ever completed, hold back water to be pumped up to the sea from a desalination plant (not yet built) through pipes (not yet built) to feed snow machines (not yet built) for a ski resort (not yet built).

England’s greatest diarist

Elizabeth Holmes is an outlier but she’s part of a whole spectrum through which our society has become way too indulgent — in business, politics, policy, media, and beyond — of people who lie to or mislead others. www.slowboring.com/p/our-cultur...

Absolutely lmao. "Small stuff messaged well doesn't matter," I dismissively declare as I watch Mamdani carried through the streets of New York as Eternal God-Emperor every time he does a TikTok live about fixing a pothole.

Sure, parking companies have been a source of frustration to drivers, adding an unpredictable financial risk to every journey taken by car, but AIUI there’s downsides to them as well

!!!

People will mock this as small beer politics but predatory behaviour by parking companies has been a major source of frustration and financial cost for millions, and for many years.

On the first we are getting quite close to it with the National Parking Platform gradually getting underway: www.npp.org.uk

Really fascinating case of a thoroughly orphaned cultural object. What living person is Ali G "satirising" in 2026? Like, Harry Enfield didn't scrap Loadsamoney due to political correctness, it's cos the Thatcherist parvenu (and the anxiety its emergence triggered within society) no longer exists.

Re the last repost, one of the things that has stuck from my time in the behavioural science snake oil mines was an experiment where if people planned a week of movie viewing they would pick a mix of genres, some 'highbrow' etc but if they picked day to day it was all the same stuff

It turns out that contrary to what social media told you, owning a laundromat is not the easy turnkey solution to your passive-income dreams (and late-capitalism woes): www.wsj.com/business/the...

Over a foot of rain in seven hours

Also the rerating upwards of everything else.

I needed to know what day the semester ends at my own university; it only took me a web search and 8 separate clicks to find

If Musk is to be believed, Tesla’s new* roadster will be faster than this insane car, which really can drive upside down. (*first announced in 2017)

Excellent write up

“The people behind Palestine Action might not be good people,” one senior lawyer said. “But there are thousands of very good people that support them, and that’s an issue for the government.” www.ft.com/content/42eb...

today on Bluesky

Zelenskyy tells FT that Ukraine will restart strikes on Russia’s oil refineries as he expresses anger over “dangerous” withdrawal of US intelligence and weakening of Starlink satellite internet service “The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done" www.ft.com/content/4d79...

Peru has temporarily shut down its fishing industry to protect it from El Niño, taking out a big source of fish meal and oils

No joke. I think this is the most important video I have ever seen about mobile games. This guy breaks down how this game psychologically profiles you, and makes the game harder or easier in order to show you ads

start your day right

Meanwhile, at anthropic

The new Eurovision tune is a banger