Wessel van Rensburg

The US & UK constitutional traditions both assume that the best way to constrain a tyrant is to ensure parliamentary control over "the power of the purse".

If a president can pay troops via a private donor, & impose taxes at his personal whim, a key pillar of Anglo-American constitutionalism falls.

With all due respect, when did the US ever
"lead the charge" on confronting climate change, even rhetorically, let alone in terms of actual energy policy?

Surely this isn’t what section 230 intended to protect from legal liability?

& What's happening: Elon Musk confirmed that X will delete all heuristics from its recommendation system within six weeks. In other words, the familiar logic of likes, replies, and reposts that shaped Twitter for years is about to disappear. In its place, Grok, the platform's in-house Al model, will read and watch more than one hundred million posts and videos every day to decide what users see. At the same time, X is testing a new interface that keeps users inside the app even when they open external links.

How this hits reality: This marks the first time a major social platform has handed full control of content discovery to an Al model. Engagement farms, trend-hacking accounts, and traditional growth tactics may soon lose their edge. The new winners will be those who write in ways that Grok interprets as engaging, turning social media optimization into a new form of prompt engineering. This shift could reshape influencer strategies, ad targeting, and even political communication in a matter of weeks. • Key takeaway: X did not just change its algorithm; it replaced it with an Al reader. Your reach will soon depend on how fluently you can speak Grok.

Brace for another wave of x refuges

Bessent: "I've read that Ontario is spending up to $75 million on these advertisements and it's propaganda coming across our border to decry the tariffs. The premiere of Ontario seems to have come off the rails a little ... this is interference in US sovereign matters."

I suspect that early 20th century modernists (and psychoanalysts) would been drawn to AI base models, as, in them, we have a true view into the fragmentary associative concepts beneath all human writing... and its weird.

Here is Llama 3.1 405B base, with the the prompt "a story about modernity:"

I mean so what if bluesky is a retirement home for people who’ve been online too long, we get our little bingo nights & whatever popping.

And I'd wager that elite circles are far more on X than the British public.

1,000 songs in your pocket. 🎶
24 years ago today, Apple launched the iPod.

Ego is socially determined. What matters for ego in the Maga universe is obeying Trump.

Random math fact: the golden ratio (1.618) is very close to the conversion ratio from miles to kilometers (1.609), meaning you can use the Fibonacci sequence to convert between miles and km: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, etc.

Unhedged chart of the week: Gooooold
Sign up for COTW here: www.ft.com/newsletter-s...
@hakyungkim.bsky.social

I unsubscribed from their newsletters because of the unremittingly jokey tone.

They had a plan with tariffs and there was talk of using the anti-coercion tool. But if any of the large EU nations objects, or enough small ones — it won’t happen.

Macron Tells EU to Consider Using Strongest Trade Tool on China French President Emmanuel Macron told European Union leaders to consider using the bloc’s most powerful trade tool against China if they aren’t able to find a resolution to Beijing’s planned export co...

4/von der Leyen speech today follows leaders meeting on Th/F, where Macron called for the EU to turn its anti-coercion instrument against China.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

3/Where interdependence used to promise prosperity it now generates vulnerabilities:
"Economics has become the central instrument of power in today's world. Those who control the economic levers are the ones who can exert control over others."

This sense of realism and urgency is also driven by an underlying and fundamental reshaping of the world economy. We are in the middle of a systemic shift in how countries work with each other – and against each other. Every day, we see how the tools of traditional statecraft are being used to weaponize interdependencies and leverage alliances. To create chokeholds on countries and industries. To exert control and impose coercion on others.

ec.europa.eu/commission/p... #WeaponizedInterdependence, as they say, it is happening.

Father-son team from South Africa build the fastest drone in the world South Africans Mike and Luke Bell built the Peregreen 3 to reclaim the title of fastest quadrotor drone in the world.

Impressive & interesting work by this South African father and son team to create the world's fastest quad-rotor drone, the Peregreen 3, capable of 585 km/h.

Like their previous drones, it's home-built making significant use of consumer 3D printers.

mybroadband.co.za/news/gadgets...

The Axis of Petrostates strikes again.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/01/e...

British traders in China would be immune from Chinese law, much as Trump wants US firms in Europe to be immune from European law.
The American social media firms are our opium.
Their recommender systems are addictive.
They expose our children to horrors.
They wreck our politics.

Crypto.com follows Circle, BitGo, and others in applying for a US bank charter, as it seeks to further its custody-service business for products such as ETFs (Emily Mason/Bloomberg)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Zij was ‘Mama Erasmus’, de moeder van het Europees uitwisselingsprogramma Erasmus 'Moeder' van Erasmusprogramma Sofia Corradi overleden

De Italiaanse onderwijswetenschapper Sofia Corradi legde de basis voor het populaire programma Erasmus, waarmee sinds 1987 miljoenen studenten tijdelijk in een andere EU-lidstaat gingen studeren.

Good thread.

The dynastic Chinese state is over 3000 years old. I think it gives them a slight leg up over the rest of us.

Industrial policy is back — and it's changing fast. What started as "green" strategy is now a global race for clean tech competitiveness and economic security. But do we actually know what works? That's what we're asking at the New Energy Industrial Strategy (NEIS) Center. /1

The car crisis tops today’s EU summit but leaders keep staring at the wrong problem

The issue isn’t the 2035 engine ban - it’s demand falling off a cliff today

With @sandertordoir.bsky.social and @lucasguttenberg.bsky.social, we show why flipping regs won’t help - and what the EU can do instead.

The Next Economic Bubble Is Here Podcast Episode · Interesting Times with Ross Douthat · 23/10/2025 · 53m

A very good discussion between @jasonfurman.bsky.social and Ross Douthat, about the US economy in the light of the AI frenzy. A thoughtful look at its significance and consequences.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

OpenAI acquires Software Applications Incorporated, which is building an AI-powered user interface for macOS and raised $6.5M from Sam Altman and others (Shirin Ghaffary/Bloomberg)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Yup. And Draghi’s proposals will never be implemented without an European identity laying the ground for it either.

Airbnb chooses Alibaba’s open-source AI over ‘not ready’ ChatGPT Airbnb ‘relies heavily’ on Alibaba’s Qwen models to power its AI customer service agent, CEO Brian Chesky says.

Interesting to see if this is a one-off or if more US companies turn to cheaper but capable-enough Chinese models www.scmp.com/tech/tech-tr...

Nexperia Warns Japanese Automakers Supply No Longer Guaranteed Nexperia notified its Japanese automotive customers that it may no longer be able to guarantee supply, triggering renewed concern about upheaval at the Dutch chipmaker snarling global supply chains.

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Thursday that auto parts makers received a warning from Nexperia saying it may no longer be able to guarantee supply of chips