so if you're very rich you can buy this folding TV designed by Bugatti
Christopher Mims
@mims.bsky.social
Writes for WSJ about tech, energy, transportation and things of that nature. Author of two books, both of which are excellent and worth looking up.
Planting trees in cities saves lives. A new study in Chicago estimates that planting 14,000 trees per year to increase shade would save 104 lives annually Conversely, eliminating urban trees increases deaths from heat agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
Increasing Urban Tree Canopy Associated With Reduced Mortality: A Longitudinal Analysis of Chicago Neighborhoods
Total canopy cover was not associated with mortality, but year-to-year increases were linked to lower all cause and cause specific mortality Year-to-year tree canopy loss is significantly associa...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
I am going to be spending the rest of my day and possibly my week thinking about "Werner the Herzog" and quite frankly it's the last thing I needed
MaksonLima@maksonlima.bsky.social · 4h agoJuro que tem dias que eu acordo pensando nisso aqui:
Think Tech Is Spending Too Much? There’s Trillions More to Come. * Tech companies spent > $1 trillion on AI in 2025 and 2026 * In 2027 they will spend even more, with a total of: $2.7 trillion in future commitments
This must hit different if you no longer believe in material reality
FinTwitter@fintwitter.bsky.social · 2h ago$SPCX - SPACEX PLANS MOON FACTORIES POWERED BY HUMANOID ROBOTS
Tapping into the addictive qualities of social media, Whatnot allows people to bid, around the clock, on trading cards, squishy toys and designer fashion, auctioned live in high-energy shows within the app. Critics say its design encourages overspending. on.wsj.com/4xgNrTV
The Live Shopping App Where Some People Bid Until They’re Broke
Whatnot’s fast-moving auctions and feverish ‘breaks’ hook users hoping to buy prized sports cards—plus fashion, tools, food and nearly anything else.
on.wsj.com
Activist and grassroots organizer Will Lawrence has won the Democratic primary election in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, with a campaign focused on data centers’ regulation and demanding accountability for big tech and AI companies. www.wired.com/story/anti-d...
The Anti-Data-Center Movement Is Reshaping Michigan Politics
Climate activist Will Lawrence cofounded the Sunrise Movement. Now, he has shifted his focus in his attempt to compete for a swing-district seat by calling for a data center moratorium.
wired.com
"As part of the partnership, Patel has brought officials from China's Ministry of Public Security, or MPS, to multiple FBI facilities in the United States to share intelligence and investigative information."
EXCLUSIVE: Under Patel, FBI forges unprecedented law enforcement ties with China, Russia
FBI Director Kash Patel says he has forged new law enforcement partnerships with China and Russia, two longtime U.S. rivals, over the past year in hopes of gaining allies in combating transnational cr...
reuters.com
$1T in revenue by 2030, or maybe 2029! Starlink will deliver a “majority” of the world’s internet! Elon Musk is well known for saying wild stuff that his fellow execs have to run through a lower-risk filter. But I don’t know if that’s ever been more clear than on SpaceX’s first earnings call:
Elon Musk repeatedly one-upped his execs on SpaceX's first earnings call | TechCrunch
Musk kept inflating the already-big promises being made by SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen and Gwynne Shotwell on the company's first call.
techcrunch.com
Elon Musk spending SpaceX's first earnings call focusing on the tangible stuff, like how he thinks Starlink "will deliver a majority of the world's internet"
Ice is spending millions on outside agencies to sweep up Americans who criticize it on social media in a far-reaching dragnet that infringes free speech. “As far as I can tell, all of this is about people saying naughty things about ICE and immigration enforcement." www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against Its Critics
The agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.
wsj.com
the actual article is pretty sympathetic to the new socialism! www.newyorker.com/news/fault-l...
Why the Democratic Establishment Can’t Win Over Young Voters
A new bloc of young, college-educated voters has emerged in the U.S.’s political landscape, Jay Caspian Kang observes. They don’t have much faith in the Democratic establishment.
newyorker.com
Dan O’Sullivan@osullyville.bsky.social · yesterdayNope, nice try. Not doing this to myself. You'll have to kill my ass
Data centers have become one of the U.S.'s most potent political flashpoints, uniting coalitions on the left and right like few issues do. We sent @mollytaft.com on a journey into the data center resistance. The Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders made appearances along the way:
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
wired.com
‘The rapid data-center build-out powering construction spending, hiring and municipal revenues and the related stock-market rally bolstering consumer spending are likely responsible for roughly one-third of the nation’s recent economic growth.’ www.wsj.com/economy/the-...
The AI Boom Is Transforming the American Economy Beyond Recognition
AI has rapidly become a huge economic factor while affecting everything from capital investment to how much you pay for an iPhone.
wsj.com
Just seeing how many people bookmark this to read it later www.economist.com/science-and-...
How to stop procrastinating
Thwarting the thief of time
economist.com
Lists on Bluesky are the best thing about it. Want a human-curated feed that is real time and not algorithmically moderated? They are the RSS of the social age. Here are a few of mine, hopefully self-explanatory (thread) bsky.app/profile/did:...
DSA-aligned Democrats are now the most pro-free-trade voting bloc in the United States, in an incredible turn of events www.theargumentmag.com/p/who-suppor...
I know I am just being a grouchy elder but how is it 2026 and writers are still out here saying "we" think of the Internet as "immaterial"—who is this "we" and where have they been for the last decade
Nothing more Bluesky than the CEO of the company being like “We still plan on fulfilling our founding mission“ and all the OG posters absolutely losing their minds
An export cap “would be an extraordinarily aggressive move” — but Trump “faces the possibility of voters being confronted with $4 gas-station signs as they drive to the polls, which didn’t happen even under former President Joe Biden during the 2022 price spike.” www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
this plus falling battery prices equals The Great Unlock (economic, social, geopolitical, etc.) of the 21st century
Sarah Taber@sarahtaber.bsky.social · 2d agoAbsolutely unbelievable how solar power has taken off worldwide during the Hormuz oil crisis. You don't have to hand it to him, but Trump may have done more to finally kick off a global civilization of effete librul solar users than anyone else in the West
WaPo alone found 50 cops who misused Flock cameras and other license-plate readers for personal purposes, namely to spy on girlfriends or ex-wives. They interviewed ~seven victims w/ stories of abuse that are really awful. One police chief "watched every single move" his ex made.
Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com · 3d agoNew: We found 50 cops who misused Flock cameras and other license-plate readers for personal purposes, often to spy on their girlfriends or ex-wives. He "watched every single move I made. ... Who do you turn the chief of police in to?" wapo.st/3S6rTuo
if your AI hasn't hacked into something important yet I'm sorry, your company's ngmi
It is with a heavy sigh and heavy heart that I relinquish my defense of Taco Bell on the matter of: Diarrhea Lettuce. I will still defend them on: New Cantina Menu
George Pearkes@peark.es · 2d agooof *TACO BELL MET WITH MICHIGAN ABOUT PARASITE WEEKS BEFORE RECALL *YUM! BRANDS SHARES EXTEND DECLINE TO AS MUCH AS 3.4%
Do you have any idea how unpopular your industry has to be to get the governor of Texas to pause approvals of your newest facilities? Abbott just halted all data center approvals in his state until they're properly vetted: www.texastribune.org/2026/08/03/t...
Texas data center projects must stop until state audits them
On Monday, the governor ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to audit all data centers wanting to connect to the state’s power grid.
texastribune.org
there is a strain of lefty discourse where you can’t come to any unflattering conclusions about the populace—those must be explained away by how they are being acted upon by capital—but I think you’ll understand things better if you understand capital can also exploit weaknesses it didn’t create
I think this thread is basically what I believed when I began covering the consumer system and while a lot of what Nathan is describing is factually correct as to the mechanisms by which the system itself works, I’ve eventually had to admit that a lot of people also do just love cheap bullshit
Nathan Tankus@nathantankus.bsky.social · 2d agoI think this is fundamentally wrong but in an interesting way I will need to write about sometime. The key is a) consumers do not choose what is produced, or how, they choose between what is produced. This is a crucial difference