Vini, vidi, venti
Analysts believe the AI bubble is 17 times the size of the dot-com bubble, and four times the size of the subprime bubble. / Morningstar
See also: “We believe we’re closer to the seventh inning than the first, and several developments indicate we may be entering the later phases of the [AI] boom.” / Quartz
Regarding Apple’s removal of ICEBlock from the App Store, legal experts think Apple had a solid case, and the company folding sets a poor precedent for free speech. / NPR
“It’s rather chilling to consider what Apple would have done if the Trump administration had ‘demanded’ a list of device IDs and user identities for everyone who had installed ICEBlock.” / Daring Fireball
See also: Google follows suit and removes an ICE tracking app, but this time without being asked to do so by the DoJ. / The Verge
Unrelated: The statue of Trump and Epstein is back on the National Mall—its artists confirmed the display is covered under a First Amendment demonstration permit. / Los Angeles Times
Online bets have supercharged the Philippines’ gambling culture, with the benefits of regulation and state revenue counterposed against tales of immiseration through addiction. / Bloomberg [$]
Starbucks holds $2 billion of its customers’ money in a rewards program, and that’s just more proof of how every company is becoming a bank. / Jacobin
When Tonga was cut off from the internet for five weeks in 2022, the incident exposed how dangerous it is for so many of our essential services to exist only online. / The Guardian
See also: A round-up of nudges, informed by behavioral science, that reportedly make it easier for children to spend less time online. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
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Sherry Ning: As Spirited Away taught us, overconsumption is a spiritual problem, not a money problem. / sherry
Fascinating: When a hurricane forms, the Desertas petrel seabird flies from the African coast straight for the storm—where violent waves will churn up fish for them to feast on. / BBC
Reviewing Jane Goodall’s later life as a model for healthy aging: positive outlook, time in nature, a sense of purpose, and no retirement. / The New York Times [$]
Tips on how to remember things—for a long time, even a lifetime—from what you read. / Escaping Flatland
James Bond fans are irked at Amazon for digitally removing guns from the key images that appear on the 007 movies streaming on Prime. / MI6
On Halloween 1858 in Bradford, England, multiple people died from accidental arsenic poisoning from a popular brand of peppermint candies. / Mental Floss
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