"Elon buying Twitter is the beginning of us being able to speak our minds and for disagreeing to not be illegal. That's a big deal. We should all thank Elon for that." - Travis Kalanick, founder and former CEO of Uber
Mats Myrberg
@matsm.bsky.social
Bikes, sustainability. Occasional thoughts about data centers and silicon here: https://freeradicalnetwork.substack.com/
This is so good. If you are at all interested in AI from an economic or policy angle, it’s very well worth your time. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
Here's How The AI Bubble Bursts — With Paul Kedrosky
Podcast Episode · Big Technology Podcast · Trailer · 1h 7m
podcasts.apple.com
PE person to lead MLS. I’m sure this will be great for the soccer in the US. www.nytimes.com/athletic/748...
Larry Berg named new MLS commissioner after owners vote on Garber successor
nytimes.com
"Participants complained about moldy rooms, dead nightlife and not enough women—a downside familiar to Silicon Valley." Heh. Gift link. Ballaji Srinivasan Wanted to Start a New Country. An Actual Country Got in the Way. www.wsj.com/tech/a-tech-...
A Tech Founder Wanted to Start a New Country. An Actual Country Got in the Way.
Balaji Srinivasan says he believes America is descending into anarchy. His solution: Build a new country from scratch.
wsj.com
the facebook pixel is probably one of the most toxic things to happen to the internet (it's in email as well as websites)
Zack Whittaker@zackwhittaker.com · 3w agoThe U.S. FTC has sued Hims & Hers, which prescribes for sexual wellness and mental health conditions, alleging the company shared customers' sensitive medical data with advertising giants Meta and Snap through hidden website pixels. Bypass for ad-blockers: web.archive.org/web/20260730...
Tech CEO pretending to be a (terrible) philosopher. The founder and CEO of the largest walled gardens on the internet advocating against AI being concentrated with just a few companies is disingenuous and self serving. Also he has a history of being very trustworthy 🤷♂️ www.wsj.com/opinion/the-...
Opinion | The AI Future Is for Everyone
The history of democracy and economics has proved that centralized power stifles human potential.
wsj.com
Helluva read from the NYT www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/t...
How Meta Got Everything It Wanted in a Secret Louisiana Data Center Deal (Gift Article)
A Times examination details how the Silicon Valley giant used private talks with local officials to start a project big enough to cover nearly six square miles.
nytimes.com
This stage of the AI push reminds me of peak cryptocurrency, which was supposed to change everything. I was never afraid of blockchain the technology, I was afraid of the people behind it, and their vision for the future.
Personal tech advice: If you're thinking of buying a smartphone or any other consumer electronics this year, buy it now. You know AI-induced computer chip inflation is real when even Apple is like, ehhhhh we cannot deal. www.wsj.com/tech/apple-p...
Exclusive | Apple to Raise Prices Due to Memory Chip Crunch, Tim Cook Says
The CEO tells the Journal that Apple plans to raise prices on its products to offset the surging costs of both memory and storage.
wsj.com
House 3 wk FISA 702 ext vote has FAILED 218-198 House is not expected to vote again until June 23 Effectively ensuring Section 702 will expire for the first time since it was enacted in 2008 Hill GOP "expect" Trump admin to continue to operate FISA via EO www.politico.com/news/2026/06...
Spy law on track to lapse after House rejects extension
The vote effectively ensures Section 702 will expire for the first time since it was enacted in 2008.
politico.com
yes!! prospect.org/2026/05/20/e...
Elon Musk’s Plan to Make You Invest in SpaceX - The American Prospect
He’s got his eye on your retirement savings and his net worth.
prospect.org
Just Some Guy@utopianparallax.bsky.social · 3mo agoThe SpaceX IPO and the flurry of rules-changes around it should really be a bigger scandal. It's not only one of the biggest swindles in human history, it's proof of nearly universal corruption. We are simply ruled by thieves and gangsters.
3 actual quotes from this piece: “Can I afford the tax? Yes. Is it going to deter me? No. But I think it’s shameful. I provide a lot of money to people who are blue-collar workers who work for me, servers in restaurants." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
New York’s rich lash out at ‘shameful’ Mamdani plan to tax second homes
The city’s wealthy property owners say they are sick of being vilified
giftarticle.ft.com
“First they came for….” www.wired.com/story/maga-i...
MAGA Indians Went All In on Trump. Many Right-Wingers Can’t Stand Them
South Asians are a powerful, visible minority in the Trump administration. They’re also facing a racist backlash, fueled in part by the white nationalist Groyper movement.
wired.com
I'm kind of fascinated by that big Lauren Sanchez Bezos feature in the Times. There's just nothing going on there at all, no insight or conflict or notable color, so the hook is just "this unfathomably rich but otherwise fatuous person enjoys their lifestyle a great deal." Fantastic stuff.
Things are moving fast in the energy world thanks to the latest war. I cover a lot of the highlights of the past week in this piece.
The Simple Math of the Death of LNG
Imagine you wanted to buy a new car. Now imagine that you have a choice of two cars that are identical except one of the cars requires you to buy expensive fuel to run it and the other runs on free f...
powering-the-planet.ghost.io
One surprising side effect of the US war in Iran: American farmers are staring down soaring fertilizer prices at the worst possible time. From @mollytaft.com
Trump’s War on Iran Could Screw Over US Farmers
The Middle East supplies a huge amount of the world’s fertilizer. Conflict in the region has sent prices soaring ahead of the critical spring planting season.
wired.com
This is the front cover of the new edition of @thelancet.com (thanks to @profstevegriffin.bsky.social for sharing) #HealthPolicy #Science 🧪🧵
🧵on my new paper "Synthetic personas distort the structure of human belief systems" w Roberto Cerina I'm v excited about... 🚨 Do synthetic samples look like human samples? We compare 28 LLMs to the 2024 General Social Survey (GSS) to find out + develop host of diagnostics...
Infantino and Coventry backing Russia’s return shows sport’s soft power is in rotten hands | Emma John
Infantino and Coventry backing Russia’s return shows sport’s soft power is in rotten hands | Emma John
The actions of Fifa’s fawning president as well as the Olympics leader’s coded call for ‘neutral ground’ underscores the hollowness of the global bodies’ values
theguardian.com
WSJ: SpaceX trying to push the bag onto index investors ASAP. Can’t describe how predatory this is and if index providers carve out an exception for them or other large IPOs it’ll be a huge hit to their credibility IMO.
Exclusive | SpaceX Seeks Early Index Entry as It Prepares Massive IPO
Advisers to company CEO Elon Musk have reached out to major index providers seeking ways to secure earlier inclusion in market benchmarks to lift shares
wsj.com
Elon: Advances in AI are dependent on large terrestrial DCs, which require immense amounts of power & cooling. Global electricity demand for AI simply can't be met with terrestrial solutions, ... without imposing hardship on communities & environment. 🤷♂️ www.datacenterknowledge.com/build-design...
Musk Merges xAI, SpaceX, Outlines Space Goals
The newly merged entity is now reportedly valued at $1.25 trillion ahead of its initial public offering.
datacenterknowledge.com
“The industry is boasting about how things are different now, but fundamentals haven’t changed: #nuclear is expensive, plus risk of accidents, proliferation. You can’t wish these problems away. Trump’s so-called nuclear renaissance is built on a house of cards.” www.ft.com/content/9f6c...
The cost of America’s nuclear revival
Donald Trump has promised to build fleets of new reactors to help ‘win’ the AI race. But many think the goals are unrealistic
ft.com
Climate people, did the fossil fuel industry seed and propagate the idea that renewables (specifically batteries) require materials, which require mining, which is bad (so implicitly we should just run on fossil fuels forever)? It's just striking to me how devoutly people repeat it unexamined....
My book is now available for pre-order with Cambridge University Press (cup.org/4nfM2IM). Here, I reflected on America's acceleration of reliance on Medicare Advantage and the new traditional Medicare prior auth administrered with AI, through the lens of my findings open.substack.com/pub/miranday...
The American Exceptionalism of Health Insurance Barriers
My forthcoming book Coverage Denied just became available for pre-order, and proofing and now promoting this work has given me an opportunity to reflect on contemporary health policy developments thro...
open.substack.com
Betting the country’s future on the promises of VCs who think their laptops are alive is just really something www.theverge.com/news/712513/...
Trump unveils his plan to put AI in everything
The White House wants to slash red tape it sees as standing in the way of innovation.
theverge.com
Setting aside the dubious moral stance, given that Anthropic does not build its own DCs it's curious that they need petro $ to finance the company (raised $18.2B, $3B/year burn). Are their margins not competitive w/o their own DCs and this is precursor to pivoting to build their own DCs?
WIRED@wired.com · last yr.“Unfortunately, I think ‘No bad person should ever benefit from our success’ is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on,” wrote Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in a note to staff obtained by WIRED. www.wired.com/story/anthro...
“claims of “AGI” are a cover for abandoning the current social contract.” Read this! By @alexhanna.bsky.social and @emilymbender.bsky.social . www.techpolicy.press/the-myth-of-...
The Myth of AGI | TechPolicy.Press
Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender write that claims of "Artificial General Intelligence" are a cover for abandoning the current social contract.
techpolicy.press
I do not understand how credits from complex forms of CO2 removal like enhanced rock weathering are priced (averages at $352 per tonne of CO2 here) when scientists are still in the process of figuring out MRV. No idea about actual sequestration but let's price and trade it www.ft.com/content/ffc2...
Investors pile into rocks to absorb carbon emissions
‘Enhanced weathering’ draws backers including Microsoft, Musk and JPMorgan
ft.com