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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 15h

This is good.

Also, every time I read stats like this it freaks me out. "Capital expenditures on AI now account for something like 40% of U.S. economic activity."

Not good to hear about an industry whose biggest leaders say is a bubble in normal times, and of course, these ain't normal times.

Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 16h

Everyone agrees that we're currently in a dotcom era-like AI bubble. People disagree what sort of bubble it is.

There are 3 stories one can tell about the dotcom crash: a startup story, a telecom story, and an accounting fraud story.

My take: it's giving Enron
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...

It's Giving Enron

On the AI bubble, and the various echoes of the dotcom crash

open.substack.com

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 16h

It will be great fun when, in about 12 hours, this gets culture warred and all the usual suspects cause a run on the powders with the most lead in them...

laura olin @lauraolin.bsky.social · 16h

The “Oops, protein powder is full of lead” thing would explain so much.

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 18h

Not at all the main or maybe even tertiary concern here, but "We're saving God" is an astoundingly hubristic statement, even as an ineloquent shorthand.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20h

Eric Trump: "We're saving Christianity. We've saving God. We've saving the family unit. We're saving this nation. I mean, DEI is out of the window, Benny. You no longer have Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the national anthem. You no longer have Budweiser going woke as hell. All of this is dead."

Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 18h

Worth reiterating that Weiss and Bezos destroying WaPo and CBS news serves their class interests just as well as converting them to right-wing propaganda mills. There's a huge right-wing media ecosystem, while real journalism outfits of the scale and cachet of Wapo & CBS are endangered.

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

I don't disagree!

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

Possibly a factor in elite embrace of AI? If you largely get your information through briefings and vibes and never dig into the actual source material yourself, then a chatbot isn't all that different than your current mode of operation.

Zoomer Antimillenarian ♨️ @surcomplicated.bsky.social · 1d

The voluntary illiteracy of executive decision-makers is an underrated part of how we got here.

Information comes through to them by meetings instead of written reports (which they seldom read much, if any, of), and they operate chiefly on rumor and vibe rather than any sort of hard info.

dcthings.bsky.social @dcthings.bsky.social · 1d

Genuinely embarrassing that no senior leaders I interact with actually read anything (yes this also applies to Biden appointees). No one responds to emails, no one reads past two sentences, no one does anything. The rest of the Pentagon follows along.

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Reposted by Jon Kelvey

Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

This is awful news.

Kevin 🚀🤠 @astro-cowboy.bsky.social · 1d

Tomorrow about a third of Perseverance rover staff will be laid off, despite the mission being the penultimate step in a decades long effort to bring samples back from mars.

Reckless, needless budget cuts intended to hinder the pursuit of knowledge.

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

This is awful news.

Kevin 🚀🤠 @astro-cowboy.bsky.social · 1d

Tomorrow about a third of Perseverance rover staff will be laid off, despite the mission being the penultimate step in a decades long effort to bring samples back from mars.

Reckless, needless budget cuts intended to hinder the pursuit of knowledge.

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

Anyway, you can read more about it in the magazine ahead of the Starship test flight scheduled for this evening.
aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/a-c...

A closer look at SpaceX’s Mars plan

aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org

Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

One thing I couldn’t fit in the piece is the longterm outlook. If Musk loses interest, or ceases to lead SpaceX, is there the will to keep going? As one expert put it, what board of directors at a public co would put up the funds for a city on Mars with no clear ROI?

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

A lot of gaps in the plan are things SpaceX could smooth over with the application of copious amounts of cash. But how much are he and the company are willing to spend? Is Mars even Musk’s primary focus given his newfound, uh, political engagements? www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Musk demands US troops be sent to San Francisco for war on drugs

Musk said downtown San Francisco is ‘a drug zombie apocalypse’ as he called for the deployment of federal troops

www.independent.co.uk

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

And speaking of Starship, the pace of its development almost certainly means Musk’s preferred timeline where the first uncrewed Starships head to Mars next year is out of the question. Robert Zubrin told me he’d bet me $1,000 against it.

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

The biggest immediate questions center on Starship. Will it finally reach orbit? Can it refuel in orbit? Can SpaceX launch the incredible number of tanker Starships to refuel the armada of 500 Starships Musk wants to send to Mars in 2033? (12 tankers per outbound Starship means 6,000 launches!).

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

NASA has also proven the types of robots that can operate in the Martian environment in its rovers and the Ingenuity helicopter. Musk seems bent on sending teams of his bipedal Optimus robot, which so far … well.

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

Making oxygen (for astronauts and rocket oxidizer) on Mars for instance? NASA proved the concept with the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE). Question is how you power it at scale: NASA plans used modular nuclear reactors. Musk appears committed to solar.

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

Many of the experts I spoke with were fairly impressed with the overall mission architecture, and argued a lot more of the technology necessary to make this mission possible already exists than you might think. It’s a question of if and how SpaceX will choose to use them/if they will work.

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

I'm in the fall issue of Aerospace America with a closer look at the SpaceX/Musk Mars plan, such as it's been made public.

Is it doable? Sure, in theory!
Are there major unanswered questions that could kill the whole thing? Oh, absolutely!
aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/a-c...

A closer look at SpaceX’s Mars plan

aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

Projection of US power through the financial system predates the neoliberal turn I am talking about, so they are tightly related but not the same thing. I don't think I am saying anything that different from what you are though?

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Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 3d

“I spent three nights and three days in federal custody. During that time, I was never told what I was charged with, was not allowed to shower despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, had no phone call to my family, and no access to an attorney.” - George Retes, U.S. citizen and veteran.

I’m a US citizen and a veteran. ICE arrested me for no reason.

Jailed for three days without an explanation or ability to notify anyone, George Retes argues the only path to healing starts with the government taking accountability for its actions.

newsletter.ofthebrave.org

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 1d

Also interesting to note the atrophy of comparable international solidarity among center-left, left, movements & governments. In the US, Dems embraced global capitalism as their preferred mode of international cooperation, and even organized labor tends work on a "contract in one union" fashion.

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Nora Reed (they/them ze/hir) @nora.zone · 4d

cry havoc and let slip the frogs of war

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 4d

My hot DP take is that Homework was their best studio work by an order of magnitude and I still wonder about the alternate timeline where they drilled into the fusion of French Touch and West Coast Hip Hop to create a new branch of sounds.

Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 4d

Simultaneously making a desperate attempt to hold the door on the Trump-Epstein horrors and refusing to pay the Praetorians.

Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 4d

A few minutes ago in the House:

- Speaker Mike Johnson officially cancels votes next week, extending the House recess through a fourth week

- House Republicans block Democrats from passing a bill to pay the troops during the shutdown, ensuring they will miss paychecks next week

House Press Gallery: During today's pro forma session, the Clerk read a message from the Speaker designating Tuesday, October 14 through Sunday, October 19 as a district work period.

Punchbowl's Briana Reilly: House gaveled in and out of its pro forma just now w/o recognizing Rep Elfreth, who was seeking to UC a mil pay bill from Rep Sykes.

Elfreth told reporters after that House Dems stand “ready and willing to take” up standalone legislation to pay troops.

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Jon Kelvey @jonkelvey.bsky.social · 4d

Fyre Festival ass country

Reposted by Jon Kelvey

Bethany Black @bethanyblack.bsky.social · 4d

Just flown in from Riyadh, and boy are my excuses tired

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