Minimax Group became the most popular Hong Kong-listed stock among mainland Chinese investors last month, in the latest sign of the latter’s voracious appetite for the country’s new-generation AI model developers

Jane Austen was a fan of private book-lending stores. More than two centuries later, the model is still thriving in India where circulating libraries are helping feed a voracious reading habit.

Jane Austen was a fan of private book-lending stores. More than two centuries later, the model is still thriving in India where circulating libraries are helping feed a voracious reading habit.

We are looking for an intern to join our Culture desk for three months. The ideal candidate will have strong organisational skills, a voracious interest in culture and be a self-starter. Interested? Apply by June 26th

In early August, MLCC suppliers experienced across-the-board growth in order intake and shipments, with Japanese and Korean suppliers—namely Murata, SEMCO, Taiyo Yuden, and Kyocera—seeing their order backlogs steadily mount. The MLCC industry’s overall BB ratio has climbed up to 1.1, compared to 1.08 in July. Among Japanese and Korean suppliers, Murata, Taiyo Yuden, Kyocera, and SEMCO have all posted BB ratios exceeding 1.2, with the exception of TDK at 0.95. Suppliers based in Taiwan and Mainland China have also benefited from the spillover of orders for mid-to-high-capacitance consumer MLCCs, lifting their average BB ratios above 0.9. Capitalizing on the voracious demand for high-end MLCCs used in AI servers, both SEMCO and Murata posted 2Q26 earnings that outperformed expectations. Murata has even revised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance upward to JPY 2.11 trillion, reflecting a 15% YoY increase. TrendForce projects that the supply-demand gap for AI server MLCCs will persist into 4Q26, signaling that the MLCC industry has entered the early stages of an upward cycle. 📊 For more:

Phantasmoon Games Schedule Broadcast: "In Ravages Does the Whistle Sound" The truth from fifteen years ago is revealed. Motoko willingly swapped destinies with Himeko, allowing Himeko to embark on the trailblazing journey. Yao Guang causes Asat Pramad's clones to collapse into a single main body, and the Express Crew engages in a decisive battle against Asat Pramad. Himeko blocks a fatal blow. The Trailblazer makes a wish to the Stellaron to save Himeko and returns to the battlefield. The Express Crew joins forces to defeat Asat Pramad, and learns that the Voracity's husk is awakening. ——————————————————— Current Known Supplicants: 9/9 Learn more: #HonkaiStarRail# #StarRail#

"Sam was early, but perhaps right - the combination of the model with compute is the moat". When I first met Sam and spent some time with him, he would talk about building GWs of capacity and at every next meeting his ambition for compute got higher - to a point where I started half listening, since I was thinking of all the other repercussions. The raging debate is where is the value being created perhaps where will it be captured. We are quick to write off models and are debating open weight and open source, worthy debates but the action is elsewhere. The infrastructure layer is the current beneficiary of spend, and appropriately the innovation engine of silicon valley is targeting chips, inference, memory and anything that can satisfy the voracious demand for infrastructure spend. But it's the people building compute who are doing the spending here. The neo clouds have raced ahead and and credit to them for seeing the trend early - they were able to grab early permits, land and power to be able to deploy compute. It continues to become harder to deploy compute as the demand curve goes vertical. The hyperscaler earnings have shown that they don't intend to relinquish their infrastructure advantage and are continuing to increase capex to both satisfy and anticipate future demand. Anyone not there yet, is probably concerned about raising funds and not the viability of the spend. The Frontier LLM players are into the act and are working hard to aggregate compute since they know they will need more not just to train but to deploy. The race is on, for the Frontier models to win, they will need to look more like hyperscalers with a twist, how to embed large application layer profit pools into their business model. You can see it happening. coding, science, legal, and soon physical AI. At this scale timing will become an important vector, including the financial markets, hope much patient capital is out there. The market likes to surprise.

Most people think Harry Potter is the best selling book series in history at ~615M books. That will likely change this year. It will be overtaken by One Piece, by Eiichiro Oda, regarded as the greatest Japanese manga / graphic novel of all time, which just crossed 600M in March and is projected to surpass HP this year and hit 725M+ when it ends in ~2030-32 (there’s 10-15% left). The story follows Monkey D Luffy, a young boy who has rubber man powers, who assembles a pirate crew and goes on an epic journey to find the legendary “One Piece” treasure. As a voracious reader, I struggled to take manga seriously for most of my life. I’m a hardcore Harry Potter fan, and even thinking of manga in the same breath once disgusted me. I relegated manga to a “niche comic book for nerds” and anime to a “kids cartoon”. “These aren’t real books, it’s just for people who can’t read longform”, I thought. But the past few years have completely changed my mind. I’ve been personally reading and watching (YouTube/Crunchyroll) many manga / anime including One Piece. Aside from the appreciation for the artistry of the characters, the stories strike me as immensely powerful with deep lessons about loyalty, sacrifice, friendship, ambition, justice, power, grief and kindness. Once you get in the flow, it’s far more enjoyable than most non-fiction and rivals anything on my shelf. The storytelling is beautiful. It awakens the child inside you without being juvenile. I highly recommend it to anyone who has previously had reservations like I once did, and doubly so if you want to enjoy something with your kids.

A simple strip of wildflowers can dramatically reduce the need for chemical pesticides. So why aren’t they standard on every farm? Farmers are increasingly planting colorful wildflower strips within and around their fields because these habitats attract beneficial insects that naturally control crop pests. Ladybugs are the most familiar example. Both adult ladybugs and their larvae are voracious predators of aphids, small sap-sucking insects that damage crops. A single ladybug can eat dozens of aphids a day, while its larvae can consume hundreds before reaching adulthood. Yet ladybugs are just the beginning. Wildflower strips also draw in hoverflies, lacewings, parasitic wasps, and predatory beetles, all highly effective natural enemies of common pests such as aphids, whiteflies, thrips, and caterpillars. This approach is known as conservation biological control. Rather than releasing predators into fields, farmers create permanent habitats that support and boost populations of beneficial insects already present in the landscape. The flowers supply essential nectar and pollen that many of these insects need as adults. Research shows that access to such resources significantly increases their lifespan, reproductive success, and pest-hunting efficiency. Some parasitic wasps offer an especially impressive form of control: they lay eggs inside aphids or caterpillars, and their developing larvae consume the pest from the inside out. Multiple studies confirm that fields with wildflower strips support far higher numbers of beneficial insects and achieve stronger natural pest suppression compared to conventional fields. Beyond pest control, these strips provide additional benefits: they support pollinators, enhance biodiversity, reduce soil erosion, and create valuable wildlife habitat within agricultural areas. Scientists are now fine-tuning which flower species work best for different crops and climates, aiming to design the most effective and practical wildflower strips possible.