And then, depression set in
After four weeks of prime futbol every day – two, three, four games a day – you get to today, no games, and then depression sets in. This Cup has seen some great football. It’s now down to 8. Frenches still look best of breed. I had some questions about Argentina, but yesterday there was that final ten minutes against the Egyptians. They were simply brutal, including that old man Messi. I felt bad for the Egyptians.
Also, I've been skeptical about the Englanders. At the beginning of each Cup they’re always over-hyped, but they're better than I thought. Nonetheless, it ain’t “coming home." I point to that tall, young Norwegian standing directly in England’s path, who the last few years has raided across the Premier League and Europe. He’s top form this tournament.
Also sisters and brothers, did I not tell you a month ago FIFA was one of the most corrupt organizations on the planet?
Speaking of money, bitcoin dipped below $60,000 last week. An event not given much attention. Strategy, whose business has been to purchase ever more bitcoins and “never sell," sold last week. According to these guys, Strategy purchased two-thirds of their bitcoin supply in the last two years with the price above $60,000, which means those buys are all underwater. Strategy sold their “capital” to meet obligations. In a more quaint financial era, that'd be termed liquidation.
On the AI front, Duke energy told already stressed rate payers of North Carolina rates are going up. “Duke says North Carolina is entering an unprecedented period of electricity demand driven by rapid population growth and large industrial customers, particularly data centers.” Phew, didn’t our Tech-lords recently assure us they’d foot the electric bill for all their ludicrous energy needs?
Haven’t we also been assured we’re in a great nuclear renaissance as part of our AI future? I’ve seen a few recent articles boasting some start-up nuke companies have created a fission pile. Fermi and Szilard first did that over 80 years ago in a squash court beneath the University of Chicago football stadium.
Simultaneously, “The federal government is proposing to overhaul radiation safety regulations for nuclear power, including eliminating a long-term principle for nuclear safety.”
Meanwhile, once lauded small nuclear reactors entrepreneurs NuScale, the only ones with an approved NRC design, are being sued for misrepresentation in investor communications. Yeah, they’re the ones. As far as last year's nuke hype, Nuscale’s stock is since down 75%, that’s worse than bitcoin.
Finally, Bloomberg reports, Facebook Zuck “rushing to secure expensive data centers and other infrastructure to fuel its own artificial intelligence ambitions, is forming a business to generate revenue from excess computing power sold to outside customers.” I guess there’s not enough demand for intelligence, artificial or real, on social media.