I'm usually a fan of Zeynep's work, but this piece gets things exactly backwards. Her core argument is that DeepSeek makes "nonsense" of US efforts to contain the spread of AI, which have largely involved restricting the types of AI chips China can access. 🧵
One of my party facts is that according to polls, Americans believe foreign aid is about 25% of the federal budget and on average that it *should* be about 10%.
The actual number is less than 1%.
Foreign aid has long been a boogey man of the right, so it's not surprising they're vilifying it now.
Thousands of people, mostly kids, will die for no reason because of this
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/...
Finally, I got to play this one on stream: www.twitch.tv/videos/23628...
A busted pool for sure, but I will note that The Jolly Balloon Man won me as many games as Onslaught and Overlord combined.
I also loved this build: I had a strong RG aggro deck in the pool, but I also had two Pyroclasms, so I decided to try that instead.
Two games ended when my opponent sacrificed Ghost Vacuum and lost immediately to Plague Wind (Overwhelming Forces, for the kids out there).
My sweetest deck was the very last one. I forced myself to play Collected Company as a challenge; I only drew it once, but it won the game instantly.
This was my best run in the event so far: 11 for 30 in winning boxes, including a few on stream. It was a great way to get back into Twitch, and I can't wait for the Aetherdrift version.
twitch.tv/aarongertler
Semipro gamer update: Just made about $600 in five hours over three Sealed leagues! And $1800 over the weekend, all through Arena Direct.
As with all my gaming wins, 100% goes to charity — in this case, GiveWell.
I just got the kids down for naptime so I wanted to take a second to point out two key problems (and a few areas of agreement) I see with this morning’s @emmagoldberg.bsky.social @nytimes.com article about effective altruism: 🧵
bsky.app/profile/nyt...
I did not expect to go undefeated when I died to Boltwave in my first match. (Opponent's deck was another hidden archetype: double Micromancer, double Boltwave, and Niv-Mizzet. Fortunately, they kept drawing those cards in the wrong order.)
Arena Open, Day 2: 4-0 in the first draft!
I thought this was a complete trainwreck, but Snarespinner and Squad Rallier are busted with double Archdruid. Genesis Wave won several games, too. This format has more depth than I initially appreciated!
This kind of post is a reason I loved running the Forum! Nearly any experience can be mined for public utility if you squint.
