The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act carried a $1.2 trillion price tag and a noble-sounding name. Congress passed it in November 2021, Biden signed it, and the press celebrated. Roads, bridges, broadband. The whole sales pitch. What actually landed in the bill tells a different story. Genuine infrastructure spending, the kind that moves physical goods and connects people to markets, accounted for roughly $110 billion of that $1.2 trillion. Roads and bridges got $40 billion in new money. Passenger and freight rail received $66 billion. Broadband pulled another $65 billion. Add it up, and you are still well under 20% of the total, and the real figure for hard infrastructure sits closer to 10% once you strip out programs that would have passed in any normal appropriations cycle. The remaining $1.1 trillion went to things Congress rebranded as infrastructure. Workforce development, climate resilience programs, electric vehicle subsidies, community development block grants. This is how Washington operates. Take a word the public trusts, attach it to everything in the hopper, and dare anyone to vote against "roads and bridges." The label launders the spending. You pay for it through deficit financing that the Federal Reserve then monetizes, which erodes your purchasing power as reliably as a direct tax, just less visibly. No federal agency holds the information needed to allocate capital better than private investors who face actual profit and loss. Amtrak lost money on food service alone for thirty consecutive years before anyone noticed. The bill does not fix one pothole more efficiently because Amtrak now has $22 billion to spend. No government builds infrastructure. They pass the actual work to their connected cronies in the private sector, after taking their cut. At least we know Biden actually signed this in person.👇

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says donating to charity is net negative "The common view is that philanthropy is this noble cause, and Bill Gates is like 'I'm going to go rehabilitate my image and do philanthropy.'" "A lot of charities and philanthropies are actually net negative for the world and they get captured. It's remarkably hard to find a foundation that has not gotten captured by ideology.” “By trying to do something good, like criminal justice reform, it turns out they just increased crime. I have a donor advised fund and I put money toward things helping civilization advance, but I don't think at this moment I would ever create a foundation." "If you look at the Ford Foundation, I think Henry Ford would be turning over in his grave if he knew what they were up to.” “I have a DAF, a donor advised fund, and I just try to put money toward things that I think are helping civilization advance. But I don't think at this moment I would ever create a foundation."

Today, alongside people around the world, we celebrate World Humanitarian Day and reaffirm on this occasion that our noble faith regards helping those in need and showing kindness to them as acts of devotion and worship. Allah Almighty says: “And do good. Truly, Allah loves Al-Muhsinun (the good-doers).” It is also narrated that our Prophet (PBUH) said: “The most beloved people to Allah are those who are most beneficial to others.” The Charter of Makkah—endorsed by more than 1,200 muftis and scholars and witnessed by over 4,500 Muslim intellectuals—states: “Advancing initiatives and programs to combat hunger, poverty, disease, ignorance, racial discrimination, and environmental degradation requires the solidarity of all responsible entities—governmental, UN, and civil society bodies—as well as relevant actors engaged in humanitarian work—in upholding human dignity and protecting human rights.”

A 38-year-old Iranian Muslim man has been arrested in Tokyo's Taito Ward on suspicion of groping a teenage girl in a park. He is suspected of persistently chasing her for over 30 minutes and also assaulting a man who intervened to help the girl. Good on whoever the man was that stepped in. Way too many people suffer from the bystander effect. Bystander effect is a no joke issue throughout the world. It's insane how we basically ignore others that are in need of help. It only takes one person to break that effect and call out others for help. Damn glad to hear that person was able to break the cycle and help that person. Seems he integrated very well into Japanese society. Another of Allah's chosen who are legally entitled to grape non-muslims doing what is his legal right. I bet he said he was gonna marry her after the grape also and make her one of his wives, pump out some kids for jihad. To them this sounds like the noble and virtuous way to grape women. What would Japanese girls aged 4 to 30 do without mass immigration promising them a bright future like this lad here. How lucky they are to have been born in time for 2027.

A tale of two French brothers. In a house, there are two brothers who live in separate dorms. The older brother's room stays clean, he tends it every day, The younger makes his all a mess, destroys it with his play, The younger sees the older's room and demands to have it new, The mother hears the younger son, and says "ask father, too," The father, however, he says "no," you must sleep in the bed you've made But the younger brother breaks right in, and in his brother's bed he lays The mother says "he's happier here, surely he must stay." The noble older brother says "father, it's okay." The father brings the younger's bed into the older's room, and says "alright," but please just know, You must respect this room. The younger, after days, of course, dirties all his side, And complains to both his parents, "I have nothing, his are better! all my sheets are torn to fetters I want his dresser, and his treasures!" Are the things the younger cried The mother says "maybe he'll share?" And the father says "he will not." But the younger takes it anyways, and the older has a thought. The older says "father, can I take younger's old room?" The father says "of course, my son" as older goes off with broom. The older cleans younger's old room, and once it's good and fair, he brings the old and tattered bed, rights it and now sleeps there. But the older's old room is ruined now, destroyed and all amuck. So the younger begs for his old room back, and curses his bad luck.

Dragons in the Clouds by David Blair is a delightful middle-grade fantasy novella that sparks wonder and adventure for young readers. Told as a charming bedtime story a father shares with his daughter, the tale creatively reimagines the origins of thunder and lightning through the secret lives of dragons hidden in the clouds above the Kingdom of Albion. When a king orders the destruction of all dragons, the wise wizard Merlinius protects a family of gentle, plant-eating dragons with a magical spell of weightlessness. Their fiery breath becomes lightning and their roars become thunder as they soar safely among the clouds. A young boy named David and his loyal dragon friend Rago are drawn into an exciting clash involving friendship, courage, and the struggle between good and ambitious forces. The premise is inventive and heartwarming, blending Arthurian-inspired elements with themes of loyalty, seeing beyond appearances, and the magic that can hide in everyday storms. It’s a quick, engaging read ideal for ages 8–12 (and nostalgic adults who still love dragons), full of imagination that leaves readers looking up at the sky with a smile. Reviewers have praised its exciting pace, appealing characters, and ability to make fantasy feel accessible and fun. @Davidblr777 - Amazon: (supports independent bookstores): - Apple Books: Also available at Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers (search the title + author for current editions and formats). About the author David Blair is the creator and writer of *Dragons in the Clouds*. Inspired by the atmospheric storytelling of Rod Serling (*The Twilight Zone*) and the heartfelt narratives of Charles Dickens (*A Christmas Carol*), he crafts tales with a touch of the paranormal and wonder. He began storytelling at age 14 with a student film called *Destination Destiny* and later worked as a production supervisor for EnterAktion Studios. This imaginative fantasy marks his debut in writing for young readers, bringing a cinematic flair and genuine enthusiasm for magical worlds to the page. #Authors# #Artists# #Creators#

Some thoughts on the election and what it means for the future of AI. Expect gridlock. And this is a great thing. It will stop the most aggressively idiotic ideas (kill switches/total bans) from getting through as Trump goes Mr. Veto. Would have been even better if the house split, but same difference mostly. What the world needs now is time. What do I mean? People's first reaction to any tech is usually fear, but as they get their hands on it, figure out how it helps them in their lives, opinions can and do change gradually and then all at once. As technology diffuses into the world, it's almost never anything like what the hypsters or fear mongers warn about and always something in between. Early fears prove nonsensical (cell phones cause brain cancer!) and those fears get replaced by more mundane problems/challenges (my kid spends too much time online and isn't socializing enough.) Build outs of AI datacenters will not stop. There is a scarcity of compute and prices are just too expensive for tokens. As SemiAnalysis wrote, the permits and everything else are already locked in through 2027. The problems will likely be in 2028 if some of the most idiotic populist nonsense gets traction. ( But those problems will be just another footgun for American because it means we will be moving our industrial capacity overseas AGAIN. A horrible and avoidable outcome. AI datacenters will simply move those high paying blue collar jobs overseas and countries that welcome power and tech build outs and tax incentives will get the datacenters. Long the Middle East and Asia. And it will move DCs into space too, but I am not long space yet because only one guy can do it, Elon. If the "bubble" pops it will be because of the usual reasons (too much credit, other price pressures, etc) but it will not change the fact that this is one of the most, if not the most, important tech developments in the history of the world, big enough to put the printing press, the steam engine, the invention of money itself, the tractor and the Internet in the distant rearview mirror. How you will use it will change as builders figure out the right form factor/interface. You can't just graft the old model onto the new and it takes time and energy to understand what the right balance is. But anyone hoping that AI will not be useful and will just go away need to stop hitting the crack pipe so hard. You already use AI every single day without even thinking about it. Your anti-lock breaks. When you search Google (long before the AI at the top.) When you use Google maps. When you use your cell phone to find directions. Many drugs that you take were found through various AI discovery methods and drug screening methods. Protein folding already won the Noble prize and is accelerating medicine. Multiple anti-cancer drugs, designed by AI to target a specific person's cancer are moving forward and that is incredible stuff. Self driving cars are saving actual lives right now for something humans do very, very badly. Humans kill 1.2 million people on the road every year and injure 50 million more and AI is already an order of magnitude better at driving. There is no timeline, of any future in the multiverse, where AI is not useful and people just live without it. All tech in history goes through a rapid build out and then breakdown phase as people figure out the best places for it and new business models to make it work in an endless push/pull of competing forces and fears and desires. Even if this is a bubble (which it might be), it doesn't make the tech any less useful and it will only become more so in the years to come. died in the early heat death of the Dot Com bubble Internet but we got Uber/Lyft/Airbnb/Spotify/TikTok/QR codes/digital payments/cell phones and a thousand other useful services and inventions years later. Things take time. Every early tech causes fear. But the faster people get their hands on something, the faster that fear disappears like smoke in the wind and it just becomes another thing in our lives, like rocks or grass or a phone. Also, this election wave was inevitable. This is how America does it. Without fail. We vote in one group. They claim a majority and the mandate of Heaven, only to get tossed out on their ass 4 or 8 years later. It's by design. The Founding Father's knew absolute power corrupts absolutely, so best to design a beautiful, blunt instrument that just rotates power in and out every few years. Works beautifully so far, if imperfectly.

Profiles of the Future — Arthur C. Clarke, 1962, the year after the first human spaceflight: “In the long history of Man, ours is the first age with no new frontiers on land or sea, and many of our troubles stem from this fact.” (p.94) “The road to the stars has been discovered none too soon. Civilization cannot exist without new frontiers; it needs them both physically and spiritually. The physical need is obvious — new lands, new resources, new materials. The spiritual need is less apparent, but in the long run it is more important. We do not live by bread alone; we need adventure, variety, novelty, romance. What is true of individuals is also true of societies; they can become insane without sufficient stimulus.” (95) “Whatever the eventual outcome of our exploration of space, we can be reasonably certain of some immediate benefits — and I am deliberately ignoring such practical returns as the multi-billion dollar improvements in weather forecasting and communications, which may in themselves put space-travel on a paying basis. The creation of wealth is certainly not to be despised, but in the long run the only human activities really worthwhile are the search of knowledge, and the creation of beauty. This is beyond argument; the only point of debate is which comes first.” (99) “We have far from exhausted the Universe’s capacity for ingenious surprises.” (124) “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible” (36) “I will merely list, without going into detail, some of the services comsats will make possible… • Personal radio-telephones including such functions as position-finding, medical monitoring, police alert, search and rescue. • End of political censorship, when anything can be received and transmitted between all points on earth, with small, easily concealed equipment. • Global high-quality radio and TV networks, specializing in every conceivable subject. • Electronic mail transmission. • Global libraries, information banks (‘Video Brittanica’).” (204) On AI: Chapter 18 “The Obsolescence of Man” “The tool we have invented is our successor. Biological evolution has given way to a far more rapid process — technological evolution. To put it bluntly and brutally, the machine is going to take over.” (229) “This is one of the greatest — and perhaps one of the last — breakthroughs in the history of human thought. In the same way it took a little while for men to realize that machines can not only think, but may one day think them off the face of the Earth.” (230) “The first genuine thinking machines may be grown rather than constructed. There is the possibility of computers which will start from relatively simple beginnings, be programmed to aim at specific goals, and search for them by constructing their own circuits” (233) “A computer equivalent in power to one human brain need be no bigger than a matchbox.” (235) “It may well be that only in space… will intelligence be able to reach its fullest stature. In the ages to come, the dullards may remain on placid Earth, and real genius will flourish only in Space — the realm of the machine, not of flesh and blood.” (239) “There may be a brief Golden Age when men will glory in the power and range of their new partners. Barring war, this Age lies directly ahead of us. The extension of the human intellect by electronics will become our greatest occupation” (239) “One of the ways thinking machines will be able to help us is by taking over the humbler tasks of life, leaving the human brain free to concentrate on higher things… taking over all the minor chores like routine correspondence and income tax returns and engagement. On occasion it could even take its master’s place, keeping appointments he preferred to miss, and then reporting back in as much detail as he desired. It could substitute for him over the telephone so completely that no one would be able to tell if man or machine was speaking” (240) “But how long will this partnership last? Can the synthesis of Man and Machine ever be stable, or will the purely organic component become such a hindrance that it has to be discarded? If this eventually happens — and I have given good reasons for thinking that it must — we have nothing to regret and certainly nothing to fear.” (243) “No individual exists forever; why should we expect our species to be immortal? Man, says Nietzsche, is a rope stretched between the animal and the superman — a rope across the abyss. That will be a noble purpose to have served.” (243) And from his 1981 update: “Science will dominate the future even more than it dominates the present. Moreover, it is only in this field that prediction is at all possible; there are some general laws governing scientific extrapolation, as there are not in the case of politics or economics.” (9) “A critical — the adjective is important — reading of science fiction is essential training for anyone wishing to look more than ten years ahead. The facts of the future can hardly be imagined ab initio by those who are unfamiliar with the fantasies of the past.” (11) [Elon often credits inspiration to a sci-fi influence] “Almost 100% of reliable prophets will be science-fiction readers” (11) “Why has the future suddenly become respectable? There is certainly no simple or single explanation. It may be because most educated men have at last begun to understand the imperative of change, and the urgent need to prepare for the inevitable revolutions in almost every field of human activity. Having lived through several revolutions in half a lifetime makes it easier to accept the possibility that others are still to come.” (12) “The one fact about the Future of which we can be certain is that it will be utterly fantastic.” (14)