Surf versus turf

Trump’s tax and spending legislation will potentially add $3.3 trillion in debt that economists doubt can be offset by the growth Trump promises. / Financial Times ($)

A swimmer who plans to compete in the pro-doping Enhanced Games has apparently already bested the world record for the 50m freestyle. / The Guardian

GeoGuessr creators are pulling their maps over the game’s participation in the Esports World Cup, alleging it’s a “sportswashing” tool by Saudi Arabia to hide its human rights offenses. / Engadget

Climate change is upending California’s public beach laws, since the calculations that once set the boundary between the coast and private land are now useless. / Places Journal

Warmer temperatures are aiding the spread of deadly fungi—and rising seawater could help fungi adapt to high-salt environments, like human bodies. / Bloomberg ($)

Spelunking into the Pleistocene via a Wyoming cave that houses a trove of fossils. / Smithsonian Magazine

It’s doubtful Elon Musk is actually stepping away from politics—still, here’s a nice epitaph of his overt public involvement, replete with palace intrigue. / The Atlantic ($)

See also: Visualizing the extent of how embedded Musk and other Silicon Valley elites are in the inner workings of the US government. / The Wall Street Journal ($)

The writer behind that AI-hallucinated book insert: “I have kind of accepted the fact that if somebody wants 60 pages’ worth of stories, there has to be some sort of compromise.” / Slate

While a contest to spot AI content in Italy’s Il Foglio was popular with readers, its editor contends there’s no replacing the “special eye” of a journalist. / Columbia Journalism Review

“Our economy is run by people that don't participate in it and our tech companies are directed by people that don't experience the problems they allege to solve for their customers.” / Where’s Your Ed At?

Whatever physical product Sam Altman and Jony Ive hinted at in their awkward acquisition video, it “sounds less like a gadget than a surveillance device.” / OpenAI, Intelligencer

An explainer on how Model Context Protocol (MCP) revives the spirit of Web 2.0, and why it matters for the future of how we use LLMs. / Anil Dash

See also: Siccing an MCP server on your emails to see if it can guess your nephew’s name. (It did.) / Beetle Space

Finding a lost dog’s owner, thanks to the fact that AirTags have replaceable batteries. / Ars Technica

Unrelated: A conservation group tracked endangered water voles by giving them edible glitter and then searching for sparkly poop. / BBC

In the members area, unlocked links from the Financial Times, Bloomberg, the Atlantic, and the Wall Street Journal ↓