It's the AI, Stupid, Magapocalypse, Weekend Whats
Since the midterms were largely about affordability and fairness, and featured a rejection of the nonstop, unregulated data center sprawl, it may be tempting for some to celebrate the idea that the hubristic AI industry finally got theirs. But they don’t get theirs without you getting yours. The rising tide of AI may not have lifted all boats, but the draining of economic enthusiasm around that industry could sink us all. It’s the AI economy, stupid. AI drives big tech and together they drive the entire economy. Stocks, bonds, credit markets, hedge funds, bank lending, stock portfolios, your retirement account, investments, venture capital … no part of our financial system, from Wall Street to Main Street to 21 Jump Street, would escape a bubble burst unscathed. “Any downturn in the AI industry, either in the buildout of its infrastructure or the valuations of its stocks, will reverberate far beyond Silicon Valley. Technology companies have dominated the stock market for years, but artificial intelligence has pushed the concentration to new heights. Tech now accounts for nearly half the value of the benchmark S&P 500 Index.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): AI Has Taken Over Every Corner of the Market.
Magapocalypse Now
This won’t come as a big surprise, but Trump is responding to the midterms by being even worse. Trump names Stephen Miller his new chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles. (I can think of no better person to be the face of the Magapocalypse.) The Dems were sure that the midterms showed America couldn’t hate Trump any more than they do right now. Trump is out to prove them wrong.
+ Trump is going full speed ahead with pushing all the stuff that voters hated. Federal judge temporarily halts building work on Trump’s triumphal arch. (The Trump Arch is such a sick and stupid idea. But an Obama Arch might be nice…)
Sweet Science
A mathematician, a microbiologist and a chemical engineer walk into an election. And all of them walked out as members of Congress. Maybe, just maybe, stupidity (both obviously faux and very real) is out of vogue in DC. These Newly Elected Lawmakers Know Something Trump Doesn’t: Science. It’s gonna be a long road back, folks. “Thousands of experts have left agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services, now led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic whose Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement has been accused of peddling junk science.” Plus, A ‘STEM wave’: Democratic doctors, scientists win record number of seats in midterms.
+ We better hurry. Stupid is as stupid does. US Measles Cases Top 5,000 for the First Time Since the 1990s.
Weekend Whats
What to Doc: Eugene Levy, John Candy, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Rick Moranis … SCTV was a cult favorite that introduced a generation of mainstream stars. On Netflix, check out SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of.
+ What to Book: My local sports radio station’s weekly interview with Warriors coach Steve Kerr is now sponsored by the Contra Costa Library (which is about all you need to know about the current economics of radio). Kerr was recently asked for a book rec (which I took and enjoyed). Check out (in general, or even from the Conta Costa Library) Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods, in which a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp. (And yes, they’re already filming the Netflix version…)
Extra, Extra
Killing the Death Penalty: “State-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system and diminishes each of us. I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency.” Gavin Newsom Commutes the Sentences of California’s 548 Death Row Inmates. It’s worth noting that California hasn’t executed anyone on death row since 2006. So this move won’t necessarily have a significant, tangible impact, but it will certainly have a political impact.
+ At the Center of It All: “The Trump administration has likened the need to build out the nation’s artificial intelligence infrastructure to the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort that produced the world’s first atomic bomb.” If it results in a few new full-floor condos in Manhattan, all the better. ProPublica: Trump Official Who Wants Data Centers on Public Lands Has Tens of Millions Invested in AI Industry. Plus, Trump doubles down on data centers.
+ A Dollar Sign of Things to Come: “Whether prediction markets can accurately anticipate election results has become a key question after the midterms. An analysis by The New York Times, using statistical methods, found that for most of the midterm race, prediction markets performed no better than election forecasts, which produce odds using polling and other indicators instead of betting activity. But as Election Day neared, prediction markets performed better as forecasts and polling became stale.” How Accurate Were Prediction Markets at Picking Midterm Winners? (Aren’t most of the people betting on elections on the prediction markets using traditional election forecasters as their guide? I mean, they’re not just betting on a hunch.)
+ Strawberry Short Take: “Strawberry growers in Ventura County grossed around $807.8 million last year, but it cost them more than $815 million to grow the strawberries.” Major strawberry grower for Driscoll’s calls it quits in coastal California.
+ You Thought Your Fill Up Was Expensive: “After Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea and seized territory commanding the strategic Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint, the kingdom reached out to the group to see what it would take to arrive at a negotiated halt to the hostilities. The answer it got back: $51 billion.”
+ On Brand: “It was a reflection on the warm embrace Brand, a comedian and actor, has received from prominent Trump administration officials and other leaders in Kennedy’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ (Maha) movement, where Brand has used his star status to criticize vaccines and vaccine mandates.” Weeks before rape conviction, Russell Brand was featured speaker for Maha group allied with RFK Jr. (Well, it’s not exactly like MAGA is anti-rape…)
+ A Net Loss: Salon, the internet’s oldest general interest publication, shuts down after 31 years.
+ Know When to Hold ‘Em: “We’re in the era of the ultralong movie. Some of this year’s biggest films, including ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ run nearly three hours. With no intermissions, viewers have to hold it or risk missing crucial moments. They’re flocking to RunPee, an app that recommends the best times for bathroom breaks with synopses of what they’ve missed.” Hollywood’s New Superhero Is the Guy Who Tells Moviegoers When to Pee.
Feel Good Friday
“She did not die because her midwife used a low-cost, low-tech intervention that was pioneered here and in other maternity wards in some of Africa’s poorest places, and that is now saving lives across the continent.” An 80-Cent Plastic Pouch Is Saving Thousands of Women From Dying in Childbirth.
+ US added 165,000 jobs in October, trouncing expectations.
+ There’s a new feeling in America as kindness drives out cruelty (with a little nudge from gas prices…)
+ Yosemite visitors join forces to perform extraordinary rescue on Half Dome.
+ Scott Colom Flips Forrest County, Named for Ku Klux Klan Founder. (It sure looks like he’s gonna flip the whole state…)
+ “The Golden State Valkyries’ championship parade, like almost everything the team has done in its brief lifetime, felt flawless, unique and perfectly Bay Area. A uniting, inclusive, delightful bolt of energy.” (Those are going around this week…)
+ In a mental, physical and logistical feat, William Goodge ran a marathon distance in all 50 states in 22 days, 17 hours, 16 minutes and 34 seconds.
+ Rescuers save roe deer trapped in ice in Russia’s Far East
+ No more Cybertrucks; Musk moves on from the angular metallic flop. (I view this as a road beautification project.)
+ Jesse Welles, a modern-day protest singer, sings about the midterms.
