Stephen

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

San Francisco September

What’s a technology that you think is overhyped? I’m going to give a sideways answer to this, which is that the venture capital business model needs to be understood as requiring hype. You can go back to the Netscape IPO, and that was the proof point that made venture capital the financial lifeblood of the tech industry. Venture capital looks at valuations and growth, not necessarily at profit or revenue. So you don’t actually have to invest in technology that works, or that even makes a profit, you simply have to have a narrative that is compelling enough to float those valuations. So you see this repetitive and exhausting hype cycle as a feature in this industry. A couple of years ago, you would have been asking me about the metaverse, then last year, you would have asked me about Web3 and crypto, and for each of these inflection points there’s an Andreessen Horowitz manifesto. It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry. We should examine how often the financial incentive for hype is rewarded without any real social returns, without any meaningful progress in technology, without these tools and services and worlds ever actually manifesting. That’s key to understanding the growing chasm between the narrative of techno-optimists and the reality of our tech-encumbered world.

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

The Fourth Of July, Rethought Can Any Nation So Conceived Long Endure?

www.popehat.com/p/the-fourth...

Presumably something like "The Knowledge" exam for London cabbies would blow their minds... tfl.gov.uk/info-for/tax...

DOGE Days My experience joining the United States DOGE Service as a software engineer, and what I learned along the way.

Reading Sahil Lavingia's blog post about working for DOGE and it's just painful how little any of them bothered to learn anything about civic tech. Silicon Valley types thinking they're the first people to name problems and solve them

sahillavingia.com/doge

Power Hungry An unprecedented look at the state of AI’s energy and resource usage, where it is now, where it is headed in the years to come, and why we have to get it right.

After months of reporting and research, I’m really excited and proud to publish this series on AI and energy. It’s a deep look at AI’s energy requirements, where that energy mix comes from, and its carbon debt.

www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/a...

Incredible that he did the "hat on a hat" thing literally, without even realising it. That's terminal humourphobia. That's being so harrowingly, cosmically unfunny that time, space and language bend around you.

Federal officials arrived, denied entry at L.A. schools amid immigration enforcement fears L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho said the federal agents maintained they were there to check on the well-being of undocumented students and that the agents lied when they said the students' caregiv...

WTF?

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Ümit Bektaş is one of Turkey’s most talented photographers.

His photos here are going viral. You’re not looking at AI: these are real photos from Turkey’s current pro-democracy protests. Despite mounting police repression, the demonstrations are expanding. Erdogan hopes protesters will tire out.

Aphex Triplets

Agua Vista Park fishing pier foggy morning 📷

Punny name

"King Donald I" Accelerates White Nationalist Purge of Military Leaders A suggested guide to how the US media should be bravely—and clearly—covering our national crisis

Now that Trump has ousted Brown, and the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard, the remaining top military leaders are all white and male, particularly striking given that minorities make up nearly 40 percent of the military and women constitute fully a fifth.
www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/king-donal...

Over on X, simple tweets by my colleague Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal Constitution have been blocked. They were nothing but video of a town hall held by Rep. Rich McCormick R-GA where he was asked questions about DOGE

"African Americans had a significantly greater chance of being listed on Florida s mandated purge list. The probability of names of African Americans appearing on the list in error was significantly greater than the likelihood of the names of whites being erroneously included on the purge list. "

"The state of Florida's statutorily mandated purge list, compiled by a private firm, was provided to county supervisors of elections with names that were inexact matches. The data provided demonstrated that this list had at least a 14.1 percent error rate."

The overly broad matching of "keywords" is very on brand for these psychopaths.

"The single use of the word "gender" appears to have flagged the publication for deletion and destruction."

Remember electoral roll purges in Florida? Very little changes.
www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/v...

Inner Richmond. Cold and foggy.

mountain yams (Dioscorea japonica)

$7/lb for the long mountain yams (Dioscorea japonica) - such a pain to peel

Walgreens: billions in fines for selling Oxy, being conned by Theranos, the clusterwhoops with the health care in stores, the bricked door screens, the "locking things up doesn't help sales". Their bond rating is "BB" - speculative. You might wonder how they remain in business.

🛰️Evening satellite update - Calendar says January, but it looks more like June from space. Marine layer is filling in along the coast and inland valleys. #cawx https://t.co/r9TB29AMKS https://x.com/NWSBayArea/status/1880480635363692691

New buildings going up in Dogpatch at the old PG&E Smokestack

heatmap.news/climate/pali...

Ambient Focus - Stay motivated with an energising soundtrack from composer Spencer Doran - BBC Sounds Visible Cloaks’ Spencer Doran 2 hour mixtape of ambient tracks to help you stay motivated.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Spiky Boi, by Surprise Chef from the album Friendship EP

surprisechef.bandcamp.com/track/spiky-...

Florida to spend up to $15 million on school material review technology for DeSantis laws Transparency or censorship? Florida is spending millions on a new tool for the public to review and object to school instructional materials and books.

Florida to spend up to $15 million on school material surveillance for DeSantis laws. Um, maybe instead of facilitating the McCarthyism of curriculum, how about PAYING TEACHERS what they are worth FFS? #BecauseFlorida #Floriduh www.tallahassee.com/story/news/p... via @tdonline

Seattle road sign's message raises questions after CEO's shooting Authorities are investigating a disturbing message displayed on a portable electronic road sign near Lake Union in Seattle.

"the incident has raised questions about the motive behind the message"

questions were raised!

Ambient Focus - Ambient composer Christina Vantzou selects two hours of music for deep concentration - BBC Sounds Focus yourself with this immersive two-hour mixtape by ambient composer Christina Vantzou

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands is on BBC Scotland at 22:00 on Tuesday and will be on BBC iPlayer afterwards 🎸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👩‍👩‍👧‍👧📺
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...