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"You could easily mistake Alec Harris for a spy or an escaped prisoner, given all of the tradecraft he devotes to being unfindable. Mail addressed to him goes to a UPS Store. To buy things online, he uses a YubiKey, a small piece of hardware resembling a thumb drive, to open Bitwarden, a password manager that stores his hundreds of unique, long, random passwords. Then he logs in to Privacy-com, a subscription service that lets him open virtual debit cards under as many different names as he wishes; Harris has 191 cards at this point, each specific to a single vendor but all linked to the same bank account. This isolates risk: If any vendor is breached, whatever information it has about him won’t be exploitable anywhere else. Harris has likewise strictly limited access to his work and personal phone numbers by associating his main phone with up to 10 different numbers ... When using Uber, he provides an intersection near his house as his pickup or drop-off point. For food deliveries, he might give a random neighbor’s address and, after the order is accepted, message the driver, 'Oops, I typed out the address wrong. Let me know when you’re here, and I’ll run out.'" And this is all just for starters when it comes to a privacy and security company CEO's efforts to maintain what used to be a relatively normal level of anonymity. But these days, our privacy has been all but eliminated. Who you are, where you live, what you buy, how much you pay, your health, your interests, the shows you watch, the people you associate with, your location, your politics, the sites you visit, every breath you take, every move you make; all of it is tracked, shared, sold, and easily accessible. But what if you wanted to be a little more private? It's possible. But it's not easy. Benjamin Wallace in The Atlantic (Gift Article): How to Disappear. (Perhaps nothing is more emblematic of this modern condition than the fact that a guy who has deployed every imaginable tactic to remain invisible is the star subject of an article that describes all of his habits.)
2
The Battle of the Budge
"New tax cuts. Massive spending on border security. Cuts to social safety net programs. Pullbacks on investments to fight climate change. New limits on student loans. If it becomes law, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ massive bill will reshape much of the federal government — and the U.S. economy." The House passed Trump's spending bill by a single vote in the middle of the night. We'll see how the Senate reacts to some of the provisions. For now, from WaPo (Gift Article): What’s in Trump and Republicans’ giant tax and immigration bill? And from NPR: Here's what's in the GOP megabill that's just passed the House.
+ The Atlantic (Gift Article): "House Republicans worked through the night to advance a massive piece of legislation that might, if enacted, carry out the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history. That is not a side effect of the legislation, but its central purpose. The 'big, beautiful bill' would pair huge cuts to food assistance and health insurance for low-income Americans with even larger tax cuts for affluent ones."
+ These bills always have small, unrelated items that are slipped into the tomes. Sometimes, those small, unrelated items are a really, really big deal. Robert Reich on how this spending bill actually prevents courts from holding the Trump administration in contempt when they refuse to follow rulings (a habit for which they've shown an enthusiastic proclivity). The hidden provision in the Big Ugly Bill that makes Trump king.
+ 'Trump accounts' for newborns passed the House. Here's why financial experts don't like them. (I wonder if newborns can invest their Trump Account money into meme coins in exchange for being able to drink formula at Mar-a-Lago with the president?)
+ One thing you don't need to worry about in the new budget is pennies. The U.S. will soon mint its last penny. (Don't worry, there are still more than 114 billion pennies currently in circulation.)
3
Jewish Museum Attack
"The American Jewish Committee had been hosting an event at the Capital Jewish Museum aimed at bridge-building in the Middle East and North Africa. Lischinsky and Milgrim had exited the event when they were fatally shot." Two Israeli Embassy staffers shot dead outside D.C.'s Capital Jewish Museum. It's important to note that the victims happened to work for the Israeli embassy, but they were shot outside a Jewish museum. There is an international aspect to this story, but there's also an antisemitism aspect to it; the latter is part of a clear trend that can be seen in public figures heiling, popular artists describing themselves as Nazis, Holocaust denialism, and increased violence against Jews. As authoritarian leanings rise, so does antisemitism.
+ As with all violence, there's also the human side of the story. "A few months ago, Ms. Milgrim, 26, told her parents that she planned to travel with Mr. Lischinsky, 30, to meet his family in Jerusalem for the first time. What they didn’t know, and would only learn after the shooting, is that he had bought an engagement ring before the trip." They Were Days From Getting Engaged. Then They Were Killed in D.C.
4
Left to Their Own Devices
What will the future of AI technology look (and potentially feel) like? Part of that answer depends on what the new combination of Sam Altman and Jonathan Ive come up with. Om Malik: "There are no two ways to say it — OpenAI, made the biggest acquihire in Silicon Valley’s history. Sam Altman and his crew bought Jony Ive and his coterie of ex-Apple hotshots for a whopping $6.5 billion ... In 2021, OpenAI was valued at $6.1 billion. Now they are buying a 55-person company with a mystery product for $6.5 billion."
+ "Altman and Ive offered a few hints at the secret project they have been working on. The product will be capable of being fully aware of a user’s surroundings and life, will be unobtrusive, able to rest in one’s pocket or on one’s desk, and will be a third core device a person would put on a desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone." WSJ (Gift Article): What Sam Altman Told OpenAI About the Secret Device He’s Making With Jony Ive.
5
Extra, Extra
On a Rightwing and a Prayer: "An evenly divided Supreme Court rejected a plan on Thursday to allow Oklahoma to use government money to run the nation’s first religious charter school, which would teach a curriculum infused by Catholic doctrine. In a tie, the court split 4 to 4 over the Oklahoma plan, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself from the case, and the decision provided no reasoning." Deadlocked Supreme Court Rejects Bid for Religious Charter School in Oklahoma. The decision is definitely a bit of a surprise given the leanings of this Supreme Court. But it's still notable that the principle of the separation of church and state now drives a split decision.
+ This Isn't Rocket Science: "The funding decreases touch virtually every area of science — extending far beyond the diversity programs and other 'woke' targets that the Trump administration says it wants to cut." NYT (Gift Article): Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades. "These cuts are the height of self-inflicted harm ... If they succeed in these cuts, the result will be slower economic growth, less innovation and new tech startups, and even more diminished competitiveness vis-à-vis China."
+ International Flight: "Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status." Another salvo in Trump's war on Harvard. Trump Administration Halts Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students. (Among other ramifications of this attack, the best and the brightest are going to stop looking to America as a destination. We seem to be doing everything possible to weaken America's leadership.) More from The Harvard Crimson. Of course, part of this move is the Trump administration's effort to convince other institutions to bend the knee. It's also part of a broader attack on education and critical thinking. Judge Blocks Trump Administration From Dismantling Education Department.
+ Light of My Life, Fire of My Coins: "On Thursday, President Donald Trump will sit down for an intimate evening at his Northern Virginia golf club with 220 of his favorite people in the world: a group of cryptocurrency speculators who have spent an estimated $148 million on Trump’s eponymous memecoin, making the president and his associates millions of dollars in the process. Even by Trump’s standards, this dinner will be the culmination of one of the most cartoonish episodes of executive-branch graft in recent memory."
+ Energy Drink: "AI’s integration into our lives is the most significant shift in online life in more than a decade. Hundreds of millions of people now regularly turn to chatbots for help with homework, research, coding, or to create images and videos. But what’s powering all of that? Today, new analysis by MIT Technology Review provides an unprecedented and comprehensive look at how much energy the AI industry uses—down to a single query—to trace where its carbon footprint stands now, and where it’s headed, as AI barrels towards billions of daily users." MIT Tech Review: We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. (Hopefully, they did the math using a calculator with a relatively light carbon footprint.)
+ Guitar Picker: "Irsay doesn't just leave behind a legacy in the NFL. He also leaves behind what is considered one of the greatest guitar collections in the world." Jim Irsay, longtime Colts owner and music memorabilia collector, dies at 65.
+ Garden Hosed: "While the Pacers are no strangers to incredible playoff comebacks, this one was special even by their standards. Remarkably, New York held a 99.7 percent win probability when it led 119-105 with 2:51 remaining."