“Friedman initially pushes back on the notion of these projects as neocolonialist…He pauses. “Although, in Africa, we are looking at land parcels large enough that there will be people living there, in which case we will offer relocation bonuses to pay for anybody who wants to move out of the zone.”

I’m sure they’ll just “solve” firefighting, sanitation, and EMS with AI

“A private venture-backed company is the city operator and [its directors] design the laws and they earn revenue through some combination of rents, taxes, service fees…For this to work…he needs targeted countries to pass legislation…he has been exploring opportunities in eight countries in Africa”

Milton Friedman’s grandson, everyone: “In a democracy, he says, “power is so diluted”…Now, he says, he wants “a home for my tribe”. To that end, he is attempting to create cities that are run like a for-profit company, rather than by democratically elected officials.

Every time I see this photo, I think of the time I had to very firmly, very quickly, and very gently pull a stubborn three-year-old out of our front line unit during open house when a call came in. Because I assume it took a physical intervention to get him out of that seat.

The only thing this photo is missing is audio of him going "vroom vroom" and then crashing the arch and a Godzilla figurine together

Also, given Indonesia is the top contributor of troops to UNIFIL (South Lebanon), & Israel's been taking shots at UNIFIL for years (metaphorically & materially), one can see why they'd be particularly wary of this sort of engagement.

Like a particularly f*ed up diplomatic Ponzi scheme

WSJ headline emphasizes "FDA Official" instead of "FDA," underscores "RFK Jr ally," & says upfront "doesn't provide evidence." Bloomberg's had similarly clear vaccine headlines. This isn't to laud legacy media, but to think about how their perception of their market share/audience affects coverage.

Doesn't change the overarching impact or devastation that these cuts will have on the majority of programs, or this admin's catastrophic rampage through science & higher ed funding in general, but three DDRIG programs exist that are outside NSF bureaucracy, & they are still funded.

Important thread for political scientists, sociologists, and law & science people

And a reason to be grateful for these professional organizations.

PMC/militia/deputization entry (15)

Guess we can all breathe easy now, they took the pyromaniac sex fiend teddy bear off the market. Definitely won't happen again.