Extra, Extra
Lies, Lies, and Allies: WSJ (Gift Article): “In a rambling and sometimes incoherent interview … the US president struggled to name any other Ukrainian cities except for Kyiv, misrepresented elements of the trajectory of the conflict, and recycled far-right tropes about European immigration that echoed the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory.” Trump lambasts ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’ Europe and hints at walking away from Ukraine. What’s weak and decaying are American values. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Why Russia Loves the New US National Security Strategy. “It calls, after all, for a rupture in the Transatlantic Alliance that every Kremlin leader — with brief exceptions for Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin — has sought since 1945.”
+ Not the War of Yore: “To counter the growing threat, America must simultaneously win the race to build autonomous weapons and lead the world in controlling them.” NYT (Gift Article) on the state of weaponry, battles, and what America needs to do to avoid falling behind. This Is the Future of War.
+ Patriarch of History: “Networked misogyny is now firmly established as a key tactic in the 21st-century authoritarian’s playbook. This is not a new trend – but it is now being supercharged by generative AI tools that make it easier, quicker and cheaper than ever to perpetrate online violence against women in public life – from journalists to human rights defenders, politicians and activists..” We see examples on the daily from the very top. Michelle Goldberg: Republican Women Suddenly Realize They’re Surrounded by Misogynists. “Last week, The Times reported on Republican women in Congress who say that Johnson ‘failed to listen to them or engage in direct conversations on major political and policy issues,’ which they seemed to attribute to his highly patriarchal evangelical Christianity. (He recently said that women, unlike men, are unable to ‘compartmentalize’ their thoughts.)” Some men are even able to compartmentalize their ethics.
+ Chips on the Table: “By letting Nvidia sell its H200 artificial-intelligence chips to China, he gave the U.S. company the giant market it demanded. But he also handed China’s AI industry what it couldn’t build itself: the high-end semiconductors needed to rival America.” WSJ (Gift Article): How Trump’s U-Turn on Nvidia Chips Changes the Game for China’s AI.
+ The Reel Deal: “New problems are plaguing old reels, putting decades of history at risk. One man, armed with hair dryers and a love of tinkering, is leading the charge to rescue them.” NYT (Gift Article): The ‘Race Against Time’ to Save Music Legends’ Decaying Tapes.
+ You Seriously Need to Chill: “Your first thought on hearing this is probably ‘Why?’ Why is leftover pizza healthier for me? And the answer has to do with what happens when you cool the delicious crust. When you cool a pizza to below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, some of the starches in the dough will start to mingle together to form these long chains called resistant starches.” Why Leftover Pizza Might Actually Be Healthier. (And it’s not just pizza…)
+ Gift Sift: Jason Kottke, the gift that keeps on giving, is back with his unique and always fun annual gift guide. (It’s slightly shorter than the list my daughter texted to me earlier this week.)
