The election didn't fix a thing (Kitco Commentary) - The votes are counted, the confetti has been swept up, and the talking heads have declared the economy healed. Debt? Eliminated. Bubbles? Gone. If you believe that, please read no further. For everyone else, let me be clear: the election fixed the political scoreboard, not the balance sheet. I believe the Democratic sweep virtually ensures that economic growth will falter by the time 2027 rolls around. Allow me to show how we got into this predicament and why the comeuppance is both inevitable and imminent.

The richest man in the world spent his Sunday doing customer support. For real. A Grok Bot user replied to Elon Musk with a very specific problem. His $200 plan had lasted a full week of heavy use the week before. This week it was gone in 14 hours. At most companies, the CEO never sees a message like that. It lands in a ticket queue, gets a template reply, and quietly dies there. Elon Musk answered: "I will dig into this today." Sixteen minutes later: "Grok Bot fixes for improved token efficiency and smarter behavior are underway." Then, that night: "Just did a round table review with the Grok Bot engineering team. Fixes are being implemented overnight and you should notice a dramatic improvement by tomorrow. If not, reply to this post and we will address any remaining issues right away." Someone joked that it will never stop being funny how much time Elon Musk spends as a customer service agent for his own companies. His answer was two words. "I care." People laugh because they think this is beneath him. Look closer and you see how he has always run his companies. December 2016. A French entrepreneur, Loïc Le Meur, tweets at Elon Musk that the San Mateo Supercharger is always full of Teslas that finished charging hours ago. Elon Musk replies within minutes: "You're right, this is becoming an issue. Supercharger spots are meant for charging, not parking. Will take action." Six days later, Tesla rolls out an idle fee across the entire Supercharger network. Ten years apart. Same reflex. Every layer between the customer and the person who decides is a filter. Support filters for the manager. The manager filters for the VP. The VP filters for the board deck. By the time the problem reaches the top, it's a smooth line on a chart and nobody feels it anymore. Elon Musk deletes the layers. He reads the raw signal himself, in public, with the whole world watching. For a normal CEO that's terrifying. Every promise is on the record. Every "fixed by tomorrow" can be checked by tomorrow. Public accountability compresses time. A fix that drifts for a quarter somewhere else gets shipped overnight, because the boss said overnight and everyone heard him. And read that last line again. "Reply to this post." He just turned his replies into the biggest QA team on the planet. Now zoom out. We're entering the era where AI agents do real work for billions of people. They research, they buy, they run errands and small businesses. Soon, with Optimus, they'll move things in the physical world. In that world the company that wins is the one with the shortest distance between a user's frustration and an engineer's keyboard. Elon Musk has been shrinking that distance for twenty years. Teslas get better while parked in your garage, and now an AI gets fixed while its users sleep.

THE BOAT JESUS MAY HAVE USED HAS BEEN FOUND!⁣ ⁣ A 2,000-year-old wooden fishing vessel discovered in Israel's Sea of Galilee has drawn worldwide attention because of its connection to the historical period when Jesus lived and carried out His ministry.⁣ ⁣ The ancient boat, commonly known as the “Jesus Boat,” was uncovered in 1986 by two brothers near Kibbutz Ginosar. Its discovery became possible after a severe drought caused the water levels of the Sea of Galilee to drop.⁣ ⁣ Archaeological studies and radiocarbon dating estimate that the vessel dates between approximately 100 BC and 100 AD. This places it within the same period when fishermen, including those who lived during the time of Jesus and His disciples, would have used similar boats.⁣ ⁣ The wooden vessel measures around eight metres long, offering a glimpse into what everyday life may have looked like around the Sea of Galilee, a location connected to several important events in Jesus' ministry.⁣ ⁣ Among these biblical accounts are Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4:35–41 and walking on water in Matthew 14:22–33.⁣ ⁣ However, researchers have clarified that there is no archaeological proof that Jesus or His disciples ever travelled aboard this specific vessel. Its historical importance comes from its age, design, and connection to the setting described in the Gospels.⁣ ⁣ After years of careful preservation, the ancient boat was eventually put on public display at Israel's Yigal Allon Centre in 2000.⁣ ⁣ For believers interested in biblical history, this discovery offers a rare chance to see the kind of fishing vessel that existed on the Sea of Galilee during the time described in the New Testament.

The cost-benefit analysis on efforts to get people to vote for the candidate of the other party in this election and others shows it is never worth the cost. The time and money is best spent elsewhere. Yet how many millions have been squandered for so few votes?

The UX of the @Garmin watch is so so so bad. Can someone please redesign this. Half of the time I trigger some action I didn’t intend to do at all. And give me my Apple Watch back.

The Dark Knight's casting director said the script was sent to Leonardo DiCaprio first, who apparently didn't even respond, and then offered to Joaquin Phoenix, who said at the time he wasn't interested in doing big movies.

The father of a member of a grooming gang offered a teenage victim a "gift" to have "pity" and drop the case against his son, a court has heard. Huzaefa Alaboud and three others were jailed in 2024 for sexual offences against girls in Newcastle committed several years earlier, the city's crown court heard. Alaboud's friend Abdullah Kalzli and father Ahmad Alaboud called the victim, who was 13 when she was abused by the gang, to implore her to withdraw her statements. Ahmad Alaboud, a 59-year-old asylum seeker from Syria, and Kalzli, 21, both living in Throckley, admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice and were jailed for 10 months and nine months respectively. After Huzaefa Alaboud and his associates were convicted in December 2023, Kalzli repeatedly asked a friend of one of the victims for the girl's contact details, prosecutor Mairi Clancy said. Kalzli was "persistent" in his efforts and told the girl's friend he "needed to speak to her about giving her a gift to drop the court case", the court heard. Huzaefa Alaboud was jailed for five and a half years in 2024 In a call secretly recorded by the girl's friend, Kalzli said he wanted to talk to her "about this problem" and "offer her good money as a gift". Kalzli was given the girl's mother's number and made repeated calls, one of which was eventually answered by the girl, who was by now aged 19, the court heard. Ahmad Alaboud also joined that call with Kalzli acting as his interpreter, Clancy said. They told her Huzaefa Alaboud had previously had cancer and feared it may be returning while he was in prison, the court heard. "You can just drop the case for him and we can give you something as a gift," the pair said, the court heard. Kalzli said they were "just trying to sort this problem out nicely and kindly" and they would give her "whatever" she wanted, the court heard. The victim recorded that call and gave it to police. Huzaefa Alaboud was eventually jailed for five and a half years in 2024 for offences including rape, the court heard. He and his gang groomed their young female victims with alcohol and cigarettes before abusing them, Clancy said. In a statement, the victim said she had been trying to rebuild her life after the earlier abuse when the "insensitive and cruel" call from Kalzli and Ahmad Alaboud reopened it for her. "Being a teenager should be carefree and fun, for me it was the worst years of my life," she said. Her mother said the teenager had been "on the edge" for years since the abuse and she feared the call had "brought it all back". The court heard an application for leave to remain in the UK was pending for the family Recorder Brian Whitehead said given there had already been a conviction by the time the rapist's father and friend tried to get the girl to withdraw her testimony, even if she had agreed it would likely have made no difference to the eventual outcome. However it was a "serious" offence, the judge said, adding the girl had "suffered appalling sexual abuse as a young teenager which was then reopened with this offending". Restraining orders banning the two men from contacting the girl were made to last for 10 years.

the brand approved the video. the creator sent the invoice. then the brand changed direction internally and said it wouldn’t pay for the work it had already approved. I hear UGC creators say this all the time. what happens to your fee if a campaign gets cancelled after delivery?

The ape on the left was mine. I bought him in 2021. Four traits. Bloodshot eyes, a grin, a blue sky. Nothing else. Clean. For two years he was my face on X. People knew me by him. Somewhere along the way he stopped being something I owned and became part of how I saw myself. In 2023 I sold him to @machibigbrother. And even though it was a sensible decision at the time, it was one I regretted deeply for years. I'd catch myself thinking about him. Not the price. Him. Then I heard he'd been chosen for a collection of apes curated by Machi who would be made available to museums. I was proud of him, and a little jealous. This month I found the one on the right. Same blue sky. Same grin. White fur, an eyepatch, a diamond in his ear. He looks like my old ape after three years at sea. I knew he was mine the moment I saw him. And then something happened that I never thought was possible. I started to like him more. My first ape was the classic Bored Ape, perfect in his simplicity. This one has a story. The eyepatch says he's been somewhere. The white fur makes him impossible to miss. The diamond says he came back with something to show for it. He's not just bored. He's been through it, and he's still grinning. Which, after three years of wondering why I ever let go, feels about right. Here's what nobody tells you about collecting. You don't just collect objects. You collect versions of yourself. A profile picture becomes a face. A face becomes an identity. And when you sell it, you find out you sold something that was never on the price tag. I don't regret that sale anymore. It sent me looking, and I found my forever ape. It feels so good to be home. 🦍🍌

The $BTC whitepaper turned 18 on October 31. It's only 9 pages, but the idea in the abstract was simple. Let people send payments directly to each other without going through a financial institution. Reading the abstract again, it's easy to forget how big an idea that was at the time. Eighteen years later, it's still running.