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Back in the early days of the web, a remarkable service launched. It was called Kozmo. You could go online and order a few movies and several snacks, and a little while later a bike messenger would knock on your door and hand over your items. Just like that, without leaving your pot-smoke filled apartment, you’d be eating and watching. My wife and I used to look out our window and giggle in disbelief as the messenger approached. Aside from our children being born, these were the greatest deliveries of our lives. Of course, today, home delivery has grown by orders of magnitude and an entire industry has been built to order to convey your every need from anywhere to your front stoop. Your power to issue orders is limitless. “An entire commercial mechanism will have whirred to life the moment you clicked ‘Place order,’ one that is part of an industry that barely existed 15 years ago but now brings in tens of billions of dollars in revenue annually.” While Kozmo deliveries occasionally changed an evening, modern delivery has changed the entire restaurant industry, and more. “The fanciest, most famous restaurants are still doing mostly table service, but just about every other establishment has been conscripted into the army that ferries hot food out of professional kitchens and into American mouths 24 hours a day, 365 days a year ... In effect, delivery has reversed the flow of eaters to food, and remade a shared experience into a much more individual one. If communities used to clench like a fist around their restaurants, now they look more like an open palm, fingers stretched out as far as possible, or at least to the edge of the delivery radius.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Innovation That’s Killing Restaurant Culture. “Convenience is like sex: Once you’ve had it, it’s hard to forget how good it is to have it.” (Funny, it seems like I had a lot more convenience back in the Kozmo era...)
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Action Pact
The NBA betting scandal could represent a much broader problem when it comes to being able to trust sports aren’t tarnished. It definitely represents a much broader societal problem when it comes to gambling. “What started for fans as once a season became every day, and is now a constant stream of action. DraftKings and FanDuel allow gamblers to bet on virtually any moment in nearly any game happening almost anywhere. The friends I used to play video games with now fire off parlays before lunch, during the afternoon games and when they’re struggling to go to bed. They’ll gamble on almost everything: Sunday football, Korean baseball, Lithuanian table tennis.” NYT (Gift Article): Gambling Is Killing Sports and Consuming America. (The latter item in that headline is a sure bet.)
+ There’s a much more efficient way to make big money in sports. First, become a college football coach. Then, get fired. $54m to walk: getting fired as a college football coach is a booming industry.
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Kingston Come
“Hours before the storm, the Jamaican government said it had done all it could to prepare as it warned of catastrophic damage. The streets in the capital, Kingston, remained largely empty except for the lone stray dog crossing puddles and a handful of people walking briskly under tree branches waving in a stiff wind.” Hurricane Melissa expected to hit Jamaica as its strongest storm since records began. Here’s more from the NYT and BBC.
+ US Air Force provides views from inside Hurricane Melissa. And some webcam footage from Jamaica.
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Dodger Blue Balls
I think I finally found something that can get Los Angeles liberals to stop worrying about democracy. At least for a few hours. Last night’s 18-inning World Series Game 3 may have been the best World Series game ever. It went on so long, at one point I worried it would run into Opening Day. While the headlines are about the heroics of Freddie Freeman (anotherWorld Series walkoff) and Shohei Ohtani (two homers, two doubles, five walks, and an out call at second that proved he’s human which makes him all the more unbelievable) the game was really won by some relatively unknown relief pitchers. Freddie Freeman hits walk-off HR to end 18-inning epic. (As a Giants fan, I’m just hoping this game tires the Dodgers out for next season...)
+ “The powers that be have tried to make baseball behave. They have strictly restricted the time between pitches. They have tampered with once-sacrosanct rules to ensure that extra innings aren’t too extra. They have made the sport more predictable, more pliable, more presentable, more marketable. For much of the year, they have made major league games into activities it’s possible to plan around. In pursuit of popularity and profit, they have tried to break baseball like a bucking bronco. They have tried to make it conform. But baseball is incorrigible, and it will not be bound.” The Dodgers’ Game 3 Win Was a Series Unto Itself.
+ The Dodgers’ historic World Series Game 3 victory, by the numbers. (I only wish my friends who are Dodgers fans would lose mine.)
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Extra, Extra
Judge, Jury, Executioner: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that the U.S. military has carried out three strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean against boats accused of carrying drugs, killing 14 people and leaving one survivor.” And from Bloomberg (Gift Article): Hegseth Is Waging War Against the Laws of War. (He’s getting a pretty big assist from lawmakers.)
+ Stupid Is as Stupid Sues: “Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, sued the makers of Tylenol on Tuesday, claiming that the companies hid the risks of the drug on brain development of children. The lawsuit is the latest fallout from President Trump’s claim last month that use of Tylenol during pregnancy can cause autism. That link is unproven.” (The more this story evolves, the more I need a Tylenol.)
+ AI Yai Yai: No one knows for sure how AI will impact employment. But we can probably get some key indicators by looking to early adopters that are already widely deploying the technology. And, uh, Amazon to cut about 14,000 corporate jobs in AI push.
+ Profit Sharing: OpenAI Completes For-Profit Transition, Pushing Microsoft Above $4 Trillion Valuation. And Apple just became the third company in history to crack $4 trillion market value.
+ Pace Makers: “The Trump administration is planning to replace some regional leaders at Immigration and Customs Enforcement with Border Patrol officials in an attempt to intensify its mass deportations effort amid growing frustration with the pace of daily arrests.” Over and over, we’re seeing the extremists squeezing out the moderates (who are often pretty extreme).
+ Rewriting the Rules: “There’s no better leading indicator of market psychology than real-time covenant changes, which show where the smart money is quietly hedging. Right now, the smart money is fortifying against a downturn.” WSJ (Gift Article):