The only way out of today's misery is for people to become worthy of each other's trust. - Albert Schweitzer

Quote

“The only way out of today’s misery is for people to become worthy of each other’s trust.”

- Albert Schweitzer

Follow Up

Brave1 - not 11 https://www.techradar.com/pro/title-1-ukrainian-drone-giant-brave1-will-now-let-military-customers-order-custom-built-drones

The seventh wave https://www.surfsligo.com/%F0%9F%8C%8A-the-myth-of-the-7th-wave/

https://michaelwest.com.au/appeal-abandoned-rejection-of-ihra-antisemitism-definition-to-stand/

Things

RIP Dolly Parton

RIP Tim Curry

Hectic flooding in Nepal

Rivers, water not in spirals, etc

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2026/aug/27/deadly-flash-flood-shown-sweeping-through-valley-toward-village-in-nepal-video

Nancy Grace Roman’s fancy new telescope https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-telescope-named-for-mother-of-hubble-nancy-grace-roman/ https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/29/nasa-telescope-launch-nancy-grace-roman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oh5xiFgLOA

🤗

Nvidia buying Huggingface? That can’t go wrong, like Google buying YouTube or Facebook buying WhatsApp and Instagram, Microsoft buying all the things… https://www.reuters.com/technology/nvidia-talks-acquire-hugging-face-13-billion-deal-business-insider-reports-2026-08-27/

This story too:

SB Energy — owned by SoftBank, which also bankrolled it alongside OpenAI in January — builds the campus and drops $4.2 billion into the local grid. OpenAI signs a twenty-year lease for up to 8 gigawatts of capacity, filled exclusively with Nvidia’s chips. Nvidia guarantees the lease to $105 billion, takes an equity stake in the landlord, and gets to book the whole thing as future demand for its product. Jensen Huang, never one to undersell, says the site alone could be worth $200 billion in Nvidia revenue; and $600 billion across OpenAI’s full buildout by 2030.

And this bit:

Goldman estimates AI-related debt issuance near $500 billion this year alone; the BIS is already warning that private credit’s tech exposure has unpriced revenue risk written all over it. The 2008 version hid mortgage risk in CDOs.

(from https://medium.com/thought-thinkers/michael-burry-says-nvidia-is-enron-nvidia-just-gave-him-105-billion-more-evidence-a4938520e0bc )

Circular financing, Nvidia and Enron. https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/nvidia-circular-financing-gets-even-160103986.html

Nvidia funds SB Energy.
SB Energy builds the data center and leases it to OpenAI.
OpenAI fills that data center with Nvidia GPUs, purchased in part through financing Nvidia itself arranged.
Nvidia’s revenue shows up twice: once as an investment return, once as a chip sale.”

“That said, Nvidia’s balance sheet strength doesn’t erase the risk sitting one layer downstream. The $1.65 trillion in off-balance-sheet obligations Nikkei identified across the five largest hyperscalers rests on an assumption: that OpenAI and Anthropic keep growing and keep raising what they charge per token. The Wall Street Journal yesterday raised the tally to $3 trillion.

“Ironically, the thing that makes this financing web workable – rising AI revenue – is the same thing markets have no reliable way to verify yet. If enterprises pivot toward cheaper open-source or in-house models, the lease payments, credit guarantees, and chip financing tied to today’s assumptions don’t just slow. They come due against revenue that never showed up, potentially unraveling the whole.

Drug dev with AI https://www.axios.com/2026/07/20/artificial-intelligence-drug-development-impact?

GLP-1s in the news again: https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2026-08-31/telehealth-ozempic-wegovy-eating-disorder/107016932

Interesting developments in NZ politics https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/26/new-zealand-election-voters-despair-main-parties-and-opportunity-knocks

“The apparent rise of Opportunity – a self-described centrist party started three elections ago by economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan – has injected an unexpected element of drama into the election race. The contest features a weakening right bloc, with National’s polling flagging at about 29%. National and Labour are seeing their lowest combined support in 30 years, mirroring an international trend of minor parties gaining votes and influence.”

The Endlessly Disappointing ALP https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-cuts-refugee-intake-by-a-third-20260826-p60rlg

Cash … is going away if we don’t use it.

Water stuff: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/31/nsw-water-licenses-found-to-be-invalid-casting-doubt-on-regulator-powers https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-31/judgment-in-murray-darling-basin-class-action/107096734 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-19/barmah-sand-slug-murray-darling-basin-river-narrows-irrigation/106909984

Lake America https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/30/canada-trump-lake-ontario-name

Iran’s President Pezeshkian has arrived in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)’s annual summit.

According to Iran’s IRNA outlet, Pezeshkian is scheduled to deliver a speech at the summit and will also hold bilateral meetings with the prime ministers of India and Pakistan, as well as presidents of Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/india-takes-lead-as-brics-eyes-digital-payment-system-to-bypass-dollar-all-about-the-brics-payment-system-explained-1769746486976

And while we are in the ‘stans https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/31/turkmenistan-methane-leaks-un-alerts-mars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darvaza_gas_crater

Fewer places to hide out when the zombie hordes arrive https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-28/bunnings-costs-loss-mitre-10-jimboomba/107085360