We often set aside articles that are longer, deserve a re-read, are broader in scope…or just for fun - for weekend reading. Below are some from this week - pour yourself a hot cup of coffee & enjoy...

• Big Tech joins the military, with Meta, Palantir and OpenAI in front (Quartz)

• Chris Dalla Riva introduces Uncharted Territory: A data-driven history of popular music. It covers from 1958 to the beginning of 2025. So pretty close till today, or as close as we can get till today, and still adhere to a publishing schedule. (Numlock News)

• ‘Super corals’ and supplements: Inside the lab trying to save the Great Barrier Reef (CNN)

• Incentivized Stupidity: Stupidity comes in different flavors. We humans are shockingly prone to bad ideas, ideas that escalate to terrible decisions, and then metastasize into actions that undermine, damage, or even ruin our lives. (The Better Letter)

• Tyler Cowan: Does AI Make us Stupid? (TFP)

• How spies predicted Israel’s Tehran attack. They simply clocked the huge uptick in pizza deliveries to the Pentagon the night of June 12. (NDTV)

• Iranian regime collapse would be serious blow for Russia (The Guardian)

• People can flourish, as can families and nations. Or they can wither. People from 22 countries and found young people are really struggling; religious communities play a big role in how well people flourish almost everywhere; and rich countries have fallen behind on meaning, character and relationships. (Harvard Global Flourishing Study)

• The End of Sprawl: If it continues on this path, the Sun Belt might follow the trajectory of coastal cities. (Slate)

• The Great Shift: Navigating the Global Energy Transition: As the world grapples with the urgent need to combat climate change, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is accelerating, driven by technological advancements and governmental directives. (Power)

• The Great Divergence: America is now way richer than Europe (Yascha Mounk)

• An Ars Technica history of the Internet. Part 1: The people and ideas that made the Internet (Ars Technica) Part 2: The high-tech gold rush begins (Ars Technica)

• ‘It was amazing’: Residents baffled by bear brawl on Metro Vancouver street (CTV)

• Summer Reading Side Table
  I Seek a Kind Person - Julian Borger
  The Road to Character - David Brooks
  Apple in China - Patrick McGee

• For the first time, social media overtakes TV as Americans’ top news source (Source: Nieman Lab)
  

What are you reading or listening to?