Mastodawn

People have endlessly hyped China’s military capabilities, but Russia’s mass production of drones is the actual defining feature of this era of warfare https://apple.news/A_UczXw_AShaRa24-SYuKJQ

Russia Is Sharing Satellite Imagery and Drone Technology With Iran — The Wall Street Journal

Moscow has expanded intelligence sharing and military cooperation to help keep Tehran in the fight against U.S. and Israeli military might

Alex 3h ago

Sorry to be a downer, but lithium is a non-renewable resource extracted at great environmental cost. Its “clean” images owes everything to the current narrow focus on “decarbonization” as opposed to broader environmentalism (excerpts from Kohei Saito’s _Slow Down_) #books https://kottke.org/26/03/0048590-battery-prices-continue-t

Alex 3h ago

“Microsoft has eclipsed Apple” was such a hot take from ca. 2017 to 2025 and now it’s obviously wrong https://sixcolors.com/link/2026/03/macbook-neo-shows-how-apple-outplayed-microsoft/

MacBook Neo shows how Apple outplayed Microsoft

Former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky, in a post reviewing the MacBook Neo, makes this observation about how Apple got the ARM transition right and why Microsoft got it wrong: Apple’s software…

Six Colors

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Alex 3h ago

Although this part is wrong:

> We could even see the dollar lose its status as the main global reserve currency. Trump’s use of punitive tariffs and sanctions has already inspired key nations to discuss an alternative. If this were to happen, the United States could no longer run large budget deficits with impunity.

This blog explains why reserve status has nothing to do with deficits: https://theworkbench.jeffspross.com/p/is-providing-the-worlds-reserve-currency

Is Providing the World's Reserve Currency a Blessing or a Curse?

Why the rest of the world likes to stockpile U.S. dollars. And how lots of folks misunderstand the upsides and the downsides of this situation.

The Workbench

Alex 3h ago

I think this is correct; Trump is the most consequential president since at least Nixon. Doesn’t mean that he’s done good (the opposite, really) but that there’s no undoing the magnitude of his changes. All the non-Trump presidents from Ford to Biden are historical footnotes https://www.notus.org/perspectives/trump-as-alexander-the-great-a-theory-that-explains-iran-and-everything-else

Trump as Alexander the Great: A Theory That Explains Iran (And Everything Else)

Hegel figured it all out 200 years ago.

NOTUS

Alex 5h ago

> Inflation is just a bidding war over scarce resources https://theworkbench.jeffspross.com/p/the-national-debt-can-never-become-ac8

The National Debt Can Never Become Too Big: Hyperinflation

On flows versus stocks, government deficits versus government debt, and why "too much" federal borrowing will never lead to a hyperinflation crisis.

The Workbench

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Alex 2d ago

It’s 1998. I’m playing Rogue Squadron while Dick Vitale announces a basketball game in the background.

It’s 2026. I’m playing Rogue Squadron while Dick Vitale announces a basketball game in the background.

Alex 3d ago

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Alex 3d ago

The Super NES was an emblem of Peak Japan—it arrived in 1990, right before the Lost Decades, and had no peers, notwithstanding the success of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive internationally. The Nintendo 64 was a symbol of the stagnation that followed—still thinking big, but diminished and without the same practical facility.

Alex 3d ago

It feels insane to tell someone that, once upon a time, email used to be a fun thing to use.

Alex 3d ago

I’m instantly opposed to any Democrat who proposes a tax cut. Have some self-respect

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