Nailing Down Screws, Fall Programming
When I was in junior high, I carried around a screw in the front pocket of my corduroys. I’d occasionally pull it out, open my hand to display it to an attractive person, and ask, “Wanna screw?” I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether this behavior made me a comedic prodigy or signaled that I had a screw loose. But one thing is for sure. I was selling the wrong screw. Ironically, the one I should have focused on is called a precision ball screw. And not just because that name offers even more comedic potential. “It’s a spiral carved into metal, attached to a mechanism that might not look out of place in a junk drawer. Almost no one outside a small, obsessive community of machinists and engineers has ever heard of it. But this humble component, called a precision ball screw, is essential to producing Patriot missiles, airplanes and humanoid robots … [and they] are in short supply, adding months or even years to the time it takes to make a missile.” NYT (Gift Article): This Screw Is Needed for Missiles and Planes. Buying One Can Take Years. “Ball screws, which contain recirculating balls that reduce friction, turn rotary motion into linear motion, like a corkscrew. Those made for common industrial purposes, such as those used in electric power-steering systems in cars, don’t need to be as precise. They are relatively easy to get. But the ones that go into missiles often take a year to produce and can cost more than $1,000 apiece.” (If I had used precision ball screws in my offer, someone may have actually said yes…)
Innocent Until Proven Gilty
“In early March, as President Trump basked in the success of a military intervention in Venezuela, he joined Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in the West Wing for a private celebration. A businessman also attended, and brought along a pile of gold.” (I know, I know. You’re wondering why a businessman bringing a pile of gold into the West Wing rises to the level of newsworthy during the second Trump term. It’s the source of this particular gold that’s notable.) “Mr. Trump himself had once blacklisted Venezuelan gold, declaring that it destroyed the environment, poisoned people and financed gangsters and corrupt military officials. But after Mr. Trump toppled the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, his view changed. On the same day that the bars arrived at the White House, the Trump administration issued a new policy allowing traders to import Venezuelan gold from one of the world’s most violent and corrupt mining regions. The first supplies would come from a state-owned mining company that remained a designated U.S. national security threat.” Trump Brought Venezuelan Gold to the U.S., but Refiners Won’t Touch It. (They can always melt it down and finish coating the interior of the White House.)
Planetary Scale Tipping
“There are more than two dozen climate models from agencies around the world that forecast El Niño conditions, and they often don’t agree. But this year they are more aligned than ever before in predicting that El Niño conditions will last through the end of 2026. This high level of certainty means that many of the expected impacts — intense rainfall in some regions, drought and wildfire in others and an increase in global warming — are very likely to occur.” The Super El Niño Is About to Unleash Weather Chaos. Get Ready Now. (News curators are more prepared than most. We’re already in the fetal position.)
+ Concern mounts over slow-moving, planetary-scale ‘Kelvin’ wave heading for California. (I really hope the 2026 El Niño ends up being overblown like Y2K.)
Fall Programming
“‘The Sopranos,’ ‘The Wire,’ ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Breaking Bad,’ besides being among the best shows the medium has ever produced, together served as a televisual Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Two hundred years from now, when people look to understand life in the United States in 2026 — a time of masked federal agents in the streets, presidential pardons for sale and gulag-style detention camps for immigrants — they’d be well advised to bypass whatever happens to be playing currently on TV. Despite these shows’ very different premises — one about the mafia, one about the drug trade in Baltimore, one about advertising on Madison Avenue in the 1960s and one about a chemistry teacher turned meth kingpin in New Mexico — all four contained clear warnings about where the country was headed, and their warnings have come true.” NYT (Gift Article): The Four TV Shows That Heralded America’s Fall. (I’d put The Apprentice on that list…)
Extra, Extra
Family Separation Sequel: No one covered the original family separation story better than Caitlin Dickerson. Sadly, there’s still more for her to cover. Things are different this time, but still awful. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Babies Left Behind in America. “Whereas his first administration took children from their parents at the border to deter illegal crossings, the second is separating families living in the United States as part of a purge. Like last time, Trump officials claim that this is untrue.”
+ Oil Leak: Two factors that could be pressuring Iran to want a deal. WSJ (Gift Article): A U.S. Arm-Twisting Campaign Is Cutting Iran Off From the Rest of the World. And Reuters: Mideast oil exports rebound in September as Saudi Arabia boosts shipments.
+ Frat Row: “According to lawyers for the student, who filed a civil lawsuit against the university and her alleged attackers earlier in September, only two members of the Chi Phi fraternity were expelled after the October 2024 incident, in which she said she was drugged and repeatedly raped over the course of seven hours … None of the seven were arrested, they said, and the others were made to write essays, attend workshops or serve short suspensions.” Investigation of alleged gang-rape at Cornell University fraternity house reopened.
+ Get a Room: “On a spring day last year, Andrew Willoughby drove three and a half hours to a cheap motel in Nags Head, N.C. From the parking lot, he texted a stranger he had met online.” Yes, this is titillating. Just not in the way you’re thinking. In an $80 Motel Room, a Discovery to Shed Light on the Origins of Life. (Imagine what they could have discovered in a $1200 suite…)
+ Can Money Buy Love? “One of the ads — backed by music that repeats the words ‘love me’ — prominently features images of President Donald Trump while he says, ‘America will never be a communist country.'” (It’s not the first time Donald Trump paid for love. But this time, he’s paying with your money.) Taxpayer-funded Trump ads draw bipartisan scrutiny ahead of midterms.
+ Kruk and Kuip: “You do not become a legend in a major league booth without a finely tuned sense of timing. Krukow and Kuiper began polishing theirs when they were Giants players in the twilight of their careers and at the end of the dugout railing, entertaining themselves and their teammates with their mock broadcasts. When former Giants executive Corey Busch recognized their talent and they embarked on their second career in the broadcast booth, they continued to sharpen their comedic timing. They learned to avoid stepping on one another. But they became experts at so much more. Their emotional timing was exquisite, too.” (And Krukow’s farewell ceremony nearly broke me yesterday…) Andrew Baggarly: In good times and bad, Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper were the soul of Giants baseball. (Man oh man, were Giants fans lucky to have Kruk and Kuip. For decades, they were the soundtrack of our lives.)
Bottom of the News
“Golden Corral scrutinizes buffet waste, marries costly shrimp with cheaper hush puppies and mines data to make money off bottomless offerings.” WSJ (Gift Article): How America’s Biggest Buffet Chain Cracked the Math of All You Can Eat. (I’m not sure if that is meant as a challenge, but I’m taking it as one…)
