TC Sottek
Go for Artemis III.
NASA’ trailer for its Artemis III mission is sick as hell. How could anyone not be hyped for this crew?
TC Sottek
Senior Editor
Senior Editor
T.C. is a Senior Editor at The Verge, where he has obsessed over headlines and internet speeds since 2011. Prior to The Verge, he worked in the nation’s capital as an advocate for the National Park System, which continues to be America’s best idea. (The internet is a close second.) Ethics statement: T.C. is the creator of Quest, a tabletop roleplaying game. As such, he is not involved in any kind of coverage of tabletop games for The Verge.
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TC Sottek
Update: Brendan Carr is still a dummy.
And honestly, at this point, a huge loser. (Before I even tell you what this is about, just buy our tee, it’ll look great on you.) The guy’s latest comments on Scott Pelley’s firing would be contemptible even if he were just a random online troll. So it definitely sucks that he’s the FCC chairman.
TC Sottek
“Television’s not her thing.”
Recently-fired 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley has some words for the clowns now running CBS. “It would have been so much better if Bari Weiss had been offered this job and said ‘Oh, that’s not for me; I don’t know how to do that,’” he tells the Times. The full interview is worth your attention:
Scott Pelley on the Bari Weiss Era and His Last Days at ‘60 Minutes’
[The New York Times]
TC Sottek
What are we doing, America?
First reported by Medpage Today, police in New Orleans pushed out medical experts at an American Diabetes Association meeting for the grave crime of… distributing an editorial that was critical of the Trump administration’s war on science. I’ve stopped being able to keep score on the actual censorship happening in this country.
TC Sottek
How is the Figma CEO a runner-up to Elon Musk?
I’m blown away by this piece from The New York Times about executive compensation. We all know Elon is strapped to his own compensation rocket, but my eyes popped seeing Figma CEO Dylan Field’s comp in second place. Especially considering the stock is down more than 80% since going public. We’re truly just paying people based on vibes.
Led by Elon Musk, C.E.O. Pay Heads Toward the Stars
[New York Times]
TC Sottek
TC Sottek
Mechanical Pencil is the new cross-section book.
If you grew up enjoying Stephen Biesty’s cross-sections like me, you’ll appreciate this brilliant project from Google engineer Bryan Macomber. The website breaks down mechanical objects, like the G2 retractable pen (my favorite), the PEZ dispenser, and the Zippo lighter. I can’t wait to see what comes next. (h/t to Kottke for spotting it.)
“An illustrated celebration of the engineering around us.”
[Mechanical Pencil]
TC Sottek
Elon Musk’s $2 trillion IPO hits a guardrail.
The S&P just found the backbone that Nasdaq discarded on the street alongside the rest of New York City’s trash. While others are bending the rules to accommodate SpaceX and other gargantuan IPOs, the S&P is standing firm. “No changes will be made” to accommodate these mega offerings.
S&P Dow Jones press release
[S&P Dow Jones]
TC Sottek
Alexa, set a timer for my life sentence.
Adrian Bliss never misses. I might actually start being nicer to my Google Nest orbs.
TC Sottek
“We need to regard text as a deepfake medium.”
I enjoyed this piece from Ted Chiang in The Atlantic because it’s a well-deserved smack in the face to the clowns who suggest LLMs might be conscious. Nope, we’re just falling for one of the most obvious confidence tricks of all time: giving in to “someone” who appears to like us.
No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious
[The Atlantic]