Author Archive: Stephen Green

IT LOOKS LIKE THE FERRARI FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T LIKE FERRARIS: This Is Ferrari’s First EV: The Luce.

Also: ‘The market has spoken’: Ferrari shares fall after carmaker unveils first fully electric vehicle. “The highly anticipated model marks a departure from the aesthetic of typical Ferraris and comes even as other luxury car manufacturers, notably Porsche and Lamborghini, have scaled back on plans to launch their own EVs due to weak demand.”

Related (From Ed):

Which is pretty astounding considering that “the expression ‘copyright infringement’ doesn’t translate terribly well into Mandarin,” to coin a phrase:

 

NO ENEMIES TO THE LEFT:

Although these days, it’s fair to ask whether Platner is really all that far to the left of the typical Democrat office-holder.

APPARENTLY BECAUSE OF HIS PRO-AMERICA AND PRO-TRUMP YARD SIGNS:

THE END OF STATINS? Eli Lilly says Verve’s gene editor lowers cholesterol levels in early study. “Eli Lilly said Monday that a high dose of its gene-editing therapy reduced cholesterol levels by 62% in participants in a clinical trial, an early but encouraging test of whether a one-time treatment may one day help people seeking to lower their LDL, or ‘bad,’ cholesterol.”

HE ISN’T VERY BRIGHT, IS HE?

ASTROTURF ALL THE WAY DOWN:

NAILED IT:

The cause is always the same: Other people’s money.

GOODER AND… WAIT, WHAT? Mamdani Did the Right Thing on Crime and the Left’s Reaction Is Priceless. “What do you call it when a mayor does the right thing concerning policing, resulting in tangible results for his city’s most vulnerable? Well, this is New York City and the mayor is an avowed socialist, so you have to call it ‘mounting frustration’ from so-called reform advocates and the people who voted for him.”

WOEING:

Exit quote: “NASA paid a massive premium for a capsule that can’t reliably fly, while completely underestimating the one company that actually delivers.”

INCENTIVES MATTER: With no options left, a Venezuelan family living in Colorado walks into ICE custody, seeking to go back home.

Cecilia stood outside a federal immigration field office in Centennial, chewing her lip and weighing the few choices left to her. Behind her, piled in a car, was what remained of her family’s life in the United States.

It was early May, and a few feet away, her three sons took turns sticking their shoes into old prairie dog holes in the dirt, the youngest’s Crocs breaking through cobwebs. As the boys looked from the ground to their mother, she explained that if she returned to the office the next day, immigration agents had promised to detain the family and arrange their return to Venezuela.

The Centennial office building was similar to one into which her husband and the boys’ father had disappeared late last year. But unlike Ronald, who’d been arrested at what he thought was a routine appointment, Cecilia arrived that day hoping that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would take them away.

She and her three children — ages 12, 9 and 6 — had walked for three months to get to the United States in 2024, crossing notorious expanses of jungle and mountains for the prospect of a stable future and a reunion with Ronald, who’d come earlier that year. But like other families split by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, they now found themselves struggling to make ends meet in a single-parent household, with no regular paycheck and few options.

That was quite a struggle. Next time, do it without breaking our laws.

I DID NAZI THAT COMING:

ALLIES:

Translation: “Poland has received preliminary approval from the U.S. Department of State to produce PAC-3 missiles for Patriot systems in its domestic defense industry – Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk announced. In addition to Patriot missiles, Poland plans to also produce missiles for HIMARS systems as well as Hellfire. The production is to be joint in nature, benefiting both Polish and American companies. This is an important step toward reducing dependence on foreign supplies.”

21ST CENTURY DATING: The terrifying rise of schoolboys making AI girlfriends.

New research has revealed that one in five boys aged 12-16 is either in or knows of a boy their age who is in a romantic relationship with an AI companion. A report carried out by men’s organisation Male Allies UK and published last month spoke with more than 1,000 boys aged 12-16 in focus groups in 37 schools – public and state, grammar and comprehensive, and across a range of Ofsted ratings – up and down the country. Peer-to-peer focus groups were set up where boys could speak freely, with the aim of diving into their behaviour and attitudes, and it was the boys who wanted to talk about AI technologies. The findings make stark reading: eight in 10 boys (85 per cent) have had a conversation with a chatbot, with 43 per cent saying they talk to bots so they can ask questions without feeling embarrassed. More than a quarter (26 per cent) say they like the attention and connection over real-life equivalents, and (36 per cent) admitted that they prefer speaking to AI chatbots rather than to their family and friends at times.

The most popular apps for creating these AI “companions” are Character.AI (which has 50 million downloads), Replika (30 million downloads), Candy AI (tagline: “Your smart and emotionally aware AI companion”, with 50 million registered users) and OurDream AI (“Create your dream AI girl”; 36 million monthly visits).

This stuff isn’t for kids.

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES:

CHRISTIAN JOSI: Put Your Clothes On: A Misogynist’s Tale. “Ultimately, this column is about respect. Respect for hotel workers. Respect for waiters. Respect for the person next to you when you are in an airport or a hotel — not blasting their mobile conversations for everyone to hear (there are things called earbuds, you morons). Respect for law enforcement. Respect for those who have served and, as I am writing this on Memorial Day, for those who have sacrificed.”

GETTING THE SAUDIS ON BOARD WOLD BE YUGE: Trump says more countries should normalize ties with Israel in any Iran deal.

While restoring commercial traffic through the strait has been a top priority for U.S. allies, Trump on Monday added an apparent demand that any peace deal should require more countries to extend full diplomatic recognition to the state of Israel.

“[I]t should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote on social media.

The Abraham Accords, first signed in 2020 during Trump’s first term, normalized relations between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Kazakhstan, Morocco, and Sudan are also signatories.

Trump now says Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia should agree to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel.

Egypt is officially at peace with Israel, and has been since 1979 — but it was never a very warm peace.

WHEN YOU’RE TOO UNELECTABLY INSANE FOR ACTBLUE:

To be fair, ActBlue doesn’t give a damn that Galindo is insane, just that she’s unelectable