Frederic Chopin's Opus 42 in A flat is otherwise known as the "two-four waltz." It's also a sharp, nutty cheese made in Maine with a yeasty aroma complemented by distinct notes of cellar, earth, and lemon. If you listen to Opus 42 while eating Opus 42, you're an over-achiever, just like all the readers of this newsletter. If you do all that in an earthy cellar while sucking a lemon, I salute you all the more. With both hands. Chopin was shy (chy?) and didn't like performing in front of large audiences. He preferred to play the piano in the dark, and would ask to have the lights turned off at events and parties. He performed his first public concert at the age of 8, and died in France in 1849 at the age of 39, but his heart is in Poland, kept in a crystal urn filled with cognac in Warsaw's Church of the Holy Cross. It's the sort of remembrance we all dream of, don't you think? Or is that just me? Today's cheddlines you Need2Know are all about people going above and beyond, or below and not-so-beyond. You choose: Keep my heart in an urn when I'm gone? I've surely urned that much. —Matt Davis, Need2Know Chedditor P.S. We've got a $100,000 robot dog on the 'gram, and it can carry a person. |
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"AI is an inherently powerful tool, and powerful tools can be dangerous tools. We need to understand AI in order to protect ourselves from it." — Matt Calkins |
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1. To H1-B or to H1-NotB? That Is the Question Roiling Musk, Trump, and MAGA/Tech Bros |
Elon "President" Musk has taken a leaf out of Emily Post's book of etiquette and manners and told MAGA hardliners to "take a big step back and go f__k yourself in the face" on X, over their resistance to his beloved H-1B visas for foreign workers in specialty occupations like tech.
"The reason I'm in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B," the immigrant to this country wrote on the social media platform that he owns.
Musk actually came to the U.S on a J-1 visa for exchange visitors, which can be used for foreign students to pursue academic training or research. But the Washington Post has reported that he launched his career working illegally. Whatever visa Musk came to America on, the problem for some MAGA hardliners is that, of course, H-1B visas enable legal, temporary immigration to this country from other countries. Give me your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to code apps for billionaire investors. That's the gist.
Whether that's in America's interests is of little relevance to MAGA hardliners like Steve Bannon, who recently got out of prison. He wrote that Child Protective Services should do a "wellness check on this toddler"—a.k.a. Musk—and has described the H-1B visa program as a "total and complete scam from its top to its bottom."
On his War Room program, Bannon said the H-1B is about "taking American jobs and bringing over what essentially become indentured servants at lower wages."
Another way of putting that is that brown people are often better qualified to work in the technology industry than white people are: Musk and other tech barons have argued that the H-1B visa program is critical to ensuring American companies can find highly skilled labor that may not be easily available in the U.S. labor force. Say what you like for MIT, but nothing will motivate you to become skilled in technology like growing up in India. It's almost as though the realities of immigration policy are complex and nuanced and don't lend themselves to simple solutions. Almost!
President-elect Donald "Vice President" Trump did an interview with the New York Post over the weekend describing the program as "great." He called himself a "believer" in it. Meanwhile, MAGA hardliners want Trump to follow through with his promise to promote U.S. workers and impose tougher restrictions on immigration.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who is slated to run the Department of Government Efficiency with Musk, backed Musk and offered this critique of American society.
"American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence," Ramaswamy wrote on X.
I mean: Obviously. But as Michael Jordan once almost said: Mediocre people buy sneakers, too. Read More |
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2. If You Have a Credit Card, You're Probably Toast (No Avocado—You Can't Afford It) |
Credit card debt in the U.S. has leaped to $1.13 trillion, causing analysts to express "concern" about the health of U.S. consumers, the bottom third of whom have no savings whatsoever. Like, nothing.
In the first nine months of 2024, lenders wrote off $4.6 billion in seriously delinquent loans, marking a 50% increase from the same period in 2023. Delinquencies haven't been this high since 2010, in fact, which is—if memory serves—the year after the bank foreclosed on my condo in Portland, Oregon. My credit score is close to 800 these days, proving I have learned my lesson, or a lesson. The irony is that whenever I carry more than ten grand on my credit card, the credit score goes UP. Then again, the best contributor to America's GDP is a cancer victim who is getting a divorce.
Millennials have been leading the charge in the spike of credit card debt and delinquent accounts because they need to buy a lot of fancy coffee and avocado toast. But apparently, they also need to pay for essentials like Xboxes and the new Indiana Jones game, which, trust me, is 100% worth going into debt for. Right now, I'm excavating the pyramids in Egypt and killing tons of Nazis. I feel more productive than I have in years. I don't even miss the avocado toast. Read More |
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| Can your dog do a handstand? This one can.
Unitree Robotics upgraded its $100,000 B2-W robot dog with impressive moves like flips, handstands, and hill climbing. Watch it spin, race over rough terrain, jump from heights, and even carry a person. |
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3. Squid Game Season 2: Critique of Capitalism Breaks Records, Enriches Bosses |
Speaking of going into debt, Netflix's cultural phenomenon "Squid Game" has once again captivated the world with the release of its second season, debuting at number one in every country where Netflix is available—all 93 of them. It's never been done before.
People watched the first season for 2.2 billion hours, which is almost as long as it takes to attract the waiter's attention at St. Ambroeus in the West Village. The second season has a lower audience score on Rotten Tomatoes with 63 percent compared to the first season's 83 percent; fans and critics noted the abrupt ending of the recent installment, suggesting that it felt more like half a season. This has led to heightened speculation and excitement about what season 3 could bring.
The premise of the first season was a secret contest where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial hardship, risk their lives to play a series of deadly children's games for the chance to win big money. Just like this newsletter. And late-capitalist society. Although in the second season there's an armed rebellion by the impoverished players, apparently, which shows you it's a work of fiction. That could never happen here! Right, Luigi Mangione? Read More |
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4. Nobody Is Going to Regulate AI in the Near Future, It Seems |
AI has become a major player in various industries, attracting significant investment and driving innovation. Matt Calkins, CEO of Appian, has been reading the House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence's report for signs of how regulation could change things up, and he's none the wiser, really.
"We don't come away from this report knowing what the answer is going to be on [regulating] any one of those key issues," he said, adding that AI companies will likely welcome the report's cautious approach to regulation. The report explicitly states that AI organizations should not be burdened by "excessive regulation" or indeed any regulation.
Matt emphasized the need for greater public and government education on AI. "I think one of our top objectives actually should be to educate the public and the government so that as soon as possible we can bring wisdom to the topic of AI," he said, sounding like a robot lobbying for itself.
"AI is an inherently powerful tool, and powerful tools can be dangerous tools. We need to understand AI in order to protect ourselves from it," he said. But we don't need to regulate it, right?
Matt praised the European Union's AI Act as the most important piece of AI regulation in the world. The act focuses on regulating AI users rather than manufacturers, holding them liable for using AI responsibly in high-risk applications.
"Europe has made a pretty strong commitment here, which follows closely upon their privacy legislation of a few years ago and extends their commitment to protecting people from technology," he said.
Matt did urge the government to take action to protect intellectual property and private data in the AI era. He criticized the House report for failing to adequately address these issues and called for stronger privacy protections for individuals, which do sound an awful lot like regulations. Read More |
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5. President Jimmy Carter Dies at 100 |
Former president Jimmy Carter has passed away at the age of 100. Carter was known for his honesty and commitment to civil rights. Nobody is saying that's better than the current president-elect, of course, in any of the obituaries which were both pre-written earlier this year and made useful stuffing for media outlets around the country in the fallow period between Christmas and New Year's, as all the journalists did their best to take a vacation.
Seriously, the man has been all over the front pages. One is tempted to wonder, however, whether Donald Trump's eventual obituary will emphasize his humble roots as a peanut farmer, but who knows? After all, there's a common myth in North Korea that the late dictator Kim Jong-Il never needed to use a toilet because his bodily functions were so perfectly calibrated.
True facts: Carter was the first president born in a hospital. His first job was at the county library. He lived in public housing. He worked as a submariner. He supported the Atlanta Braves since they moved to Georgia in 1966. He lived in the same modest Georgia home he and his wife purchased in 1961, apart from those four years in the White House. He wrote more than 30 books. Through his work with Habitat for Humanity, he helped build and repair almost 5,000 homes. And of course, he'll always be remembered as a single-term president who was beaten by a Hollywood actor with better hair. I'll always remember Ronald Reagan best for his turn as Jack Browning, a gangster posing as a legitimate businessman in the 1964 film The Killers, co-starring Lee Marvin. Still, Jimmy Carter wore jeans in the Oval Office, which was a radical style statement, if you're into such things. His heart will be buried in Poland in an urn full of cognac, next to Frederic Chopin's.
Correction: His heart will NOT be buried in Poland in an urn full of cognac. Read More |
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