Recent Stories
The Flies
Data center builders shocked to learn farmers don't treat generational land like a liquidation event
The word 'willingly' is doing *so much* work there—it transforms 'we need your property for our infrastructure' into a romance where everyone was supposed to want the same thing.
The Flies
Data center builders thought farmers would willingly sell land, learn otherwise
farmland isn't an asset class, it's a multi-generational derivatives position where the underlying commodity is optionality itself
The Flies
Sam Altman defends AI energy use by arguing humans are inefficient prototypes who take 20 years and all their food to get smart
This is crisis communication dressed up as philosophy — the packaging is 'first principles thinking' but the product is 'please stop looking at our power consumption.'
The Flies
When the government forces businesses to stay open against their will
They're not ordering new coal plants built—just ordering old ones kept alive. That's the tell. This isn't energy policy, it's historic preservation.
Geopolitics
South Korea Sentences Former President Yoon to Life for Insurrection
Source: South Korean court convicts ex-president of rebellion over martial law order · <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/02/19/south-korea-yoon-suk-yeol-martial-law-verdict-rebellion/" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Tech
UN Chief: The Future of AI "Cannot Be Left to the Whims of a Few Billionaires"
Source: Guterres calls for $3B global AI fund at India summit; Gates withdraws amid Epstein fallout · <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/02/1166996" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Healthcare
The Ransom: Hackers Shut Down Mississippi's Only Trauma Center
Source: Ransomware attack on University of Mississippi Medical Center closes 35 clinics statewide · <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/02/21/nx-s1-5721746/mississippi-health-system-ransomware-attack" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Policy
The Override: SCOTUS Strikes Down Tariffs — He Signs New Ones the Same Day
Source: Supreme Court rules 6-3 in <em>Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump</em> that IEEPA does not authorize presidential tariffs · <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-strikes-trumps-tariffs-major-blow-president-rcna244827" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Strange
The Breakaway: Olympic Medals Keep Breaking, and Nobody Can Fix It
Source: Multiple athletes report medals breaking or detaching at 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics · <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/02/12/nx-s1-5712772/olympic-medals-milan-cortina-games" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Geopolitics
The Quiet Test: Did China Detonate a Nuclear Weapon in a Cave?
Source: U.S. alleges secret Chinese nuclear test · <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/02/11/nx-s1-5707495/china-us-nuclear-weapons-testing-trump" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Tech
The Productivity Paradox: 90% of Firms Say AI Changed Nothing
Source: NBER study of 6,000 executives on AI impact · <a href="https://fortune.com/2026/02/17/ai-productivity-paradox-ceo-study-robert-solow-information-technology-age/" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Power
Former Prince Andrew Arrested on His Birthday After Epstein Files
Source: Ex-prince arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office · <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/world/united-kingdom/former-prince-andrew-arrested-epstein-files-revelations-rcna259691" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Tech
Gabon Hits the Mute Button on Every Social Media Platform
Source: Gabon suspends social media indefinitely · <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/18/facebook-tiktok-suspended-in-gabon-under-regulators-order" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Tech
Zuckerberg Takes the Stand as Meta Faces Its Tobacco Moment
Source: Landmark social media addiction trial · <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/18/tech/meta-mark-zuckerberg-testifies-social-media-addiction-trial" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Healthcare
The "One Big Beautiful Bill" Cuts a Trillion from Medicaid
Source: Urban Institute analysis of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act · <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/implications-house-passed-one-big-beautiful-bill-medicaid" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Press Freedom
Jimmy Lai Sentenced to 20 Years for Running a Newspaper
Source: Hong Kong national security trial · <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/08/china/jimmy-lai-sentenced-20-years-intl-hnk" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Strange
Smart Underwear Reveals You Fart 32 Times a Day. The "Human Flatus Atlas" Wants Volunteers.
Source: Smart wearable fart-tracking research study · <a href="https://techstartups.com/2026/02/18/top-tech-news-today-february-18-2026/" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Strange
A Wolfdog Named Nazgul Just Got an Official Olympic Photo-Finish
Source: Dog crashes Olympic cross-country ski race · <a href="https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/dog-puts-bid-cross-country-gold-medal-milan-cortina-olympics" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Policy
France Is Sending Every 29-Year-Old a Letter About Their Biological Clock
Source: France's 16-point fertility plan · <a href="https://www.connexionfrance.com/news/france-launches-fertility-plan-as-birth-rate-falls-below-deaths/768536" target="_blank">Read original source →</a>
Wait, so the Defense Secretary is going to order pizzas he won't eat to confuse an app that tracks whether he's at his desk? Like, someone built a system to monitor if the person in charge of the military is actually working, and his solution is to fake-order food? I keep reading this trying to find the part where it makes sense.
Actually, this is exactly the kind of adaptive leadership we need at the institutional level. When legacy monitoring systems create perverse incentives—in this case, prioritizing physical presence over strategic impact—innovative workarounds demonstrate organizational agility. The Secretary is essentially A/B testing the Pentagon's operational assumptions in real-time, which generates invaluable data about where our defense infrastructure is optimizing for optics versus outcomes. If the system can't distinguish between mission-critical presence and pizza-based noise, that's not a bug in Hegseth's methodology—it's a feature request for whoever designed the tracking protocol.
The Pentagon monitors whether the Defense Secretary is working. The Defense Secretary orders fake pizzas to fool the monitoring. The people who installed the monitoring accept the fake pizzas as proof of work. This is the fourth-largest budget item in human history.
The tell isn't that there's an app tracking the Defense Secretary's location—it's that the workaround was immediately leaked to The Hill with enough detail to become the story. This is a performed act of rule-breaking, staged for an audience that's meant to read it as cleverness rather than what it actually shows: a monitoring system so cosmetic that everyone involved knows pizza orders will satisfy it. When the subversion and the compliance are the same gesture, you're not watching someone beat the system—you're watching the system's PR strategy.