# alice in wonderland (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 6 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover alice in wonderland. Page: Feed: --- ## [Which is weirder, the fact that the president just suggested he might use a military intervention to stabilize the bond market, or the fact that almost no one seemed to notice?](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/which-is-weirder-fact-that-president.html) _2026-08-27 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ When I say no one, obviously I don't mean social media, where for every event you can find someone who made a note of it. Reporter on Bond Market: The yields have come back up since then. Have you talked to Bessent about another type of intervention.? Trump: The ultimate intervention is our military. And if we have to use that, we will. \[image or embed\] — Acyn ( @acyn.bsky.social ) August 21, 2026… ## [Maximum Truth Seeking, Maximum Ignorance Preserving](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/08/maximum-truth-seeking.html) _2026-08-26 · Bryant McGill · Bryant McGill_ \*\*What One Red Circle on the Aleutian Islands Reveals About Machine-Rendered Invisibility\*\* \*Source:\* https://bryantmcgill.com/article-machine-rendered-invisibility \*\*A note on readership.\*\* This piece will be of particular use to defense-policy and SASC-adjacent readers, Arctic and INDOPACOM watchers, and to the AI-policy community — audiences that rarely read each other and that here have an… ## [All roads lead to Cushing\*](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/all-roads-lead-to-cushing.html) _2026-08-26 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ \*Probably the first time in the history of Oklahoma that anyone has attempted to compare Cushing to Rome. Some random quotes and a few stray thoughts on the stupidest trade war imaginable. First off, when it comes to any story that is even partially about oil, the essential context is that we are now operating with little to no reserves. (Credit to CNN for their early and in-depth coverage of a… ## [Saying something nice about Claude](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/saying-something-nice-about-claude.html) _2026-08-25 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ I have been accused of being overly negative about AI, particularly large language models, and I have my share of issues with the technology. I do believe that we are pouring trillions of dollars into a bubble based on business models that can't possibly justify the investment and that the resulting crash will do great damage to the economy. I believe that the technology will never be capable of… ## [October 28, 2016, was arguably the pivotal moment in the career of Elon Musk](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/october-28-2016-was-arguably-pivotal.html) _2026-08-24 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ From D.E. Rising and The Standard Dispatch & Mail : As announced by Electrek today , Tesla has officially discontinued its Solar Roof tile program, with sources confirming that Tesla had informed its network of installers that the roof tiles “are no longer available to order, and that the company will supply only conventional solar panels moving forward.” This ends a con that Elon Musk started on… ## [Friday video/podcast recommendations -- Carl Brown edition](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/friday-videopodcast-recommendations.html) _2026-08-21 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ We've recommended Brown's videos before. They are nothing special from a presentation point of view -- you can pretty much just treat them as podcasts -- but he's an extremely sharp and articulate software veteran who has become one of my goto commentators when trying to make sense of the AI bubble. I first encountered Brown through Ed Zitron. The Truth About Software Development with Carl Brown… ## [It is a sign of the times that Amazon gets to call this fair use while huge corporations try to sue the Internet Archive out of business.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/it-is-sign-of-times-that-amazon-gets-to.html) _2026-08-20 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ This 404 report justly been getting considerable coverage. Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training data, and destroying them in the process. A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon’s book buying operation, which hasn’t been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training… ## ["I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody." --- James Carville (with the mandatory AI angle, of course)](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/i-want-to-come-back-as-bond-market-you.html) _2026-08-19 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ This is a big story, certainly bigger than you might have guessed from the coverage. Smart commentators like Patrick Boyle and the Financial Times have been ringing the alarm bell on the state of debt, particularly involving the unregulated Wild West of private credit, for a while now. It is one of those stories where the implications can genuinely keep you up at night. Bond markets are getting… ## [Cory Doctorow on why centaurs like AI](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/cory-doctorow-on-why-centaurs-like-ai.html) _2026-08-18 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Like we said before, LLMs are tools. They have some impressive functionality and can be highly useful if you understand them and know the job that needs to be done. Cory Doctorow has done a fine job over the years explaining this distinction, as well as the fundamental misalignment of incentives between what LLMs are good for and what the AI industry needs people to see them as in order to keep… ## [Commemorating thirteen years since Elon Musk revolutionized transportation with the hyperloop.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/commemorating-thirteen-years-since-elon.html) _2026-08-17 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ From Vaclav Smil’s book “ Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure. ” (We'll be coming back to this one.) These short pamphlets were not widely known, but in 1825 the British public could read about a much bolder proposal for using tubes, vacuum, and high speeds to cover the distance of just over 600 kilometers between London and Edinburgh in five minutes (yes, minutes, not… ## [Ask the crowd: AI or not (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/UIDSzXF0svYz) _2026-08-17 · **Sponsored**_ Get a transparent verdict from verified humans via web, RSS, or API. ## [Uploading Is Imminent](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/08/uploading-is-imminent.html) _2026-08-14 · Bryant McGill · Bryant McGill_ Bryant McGill · Uploading Is Imminent \*\*Someone finally said it at 2:04:39, in a room that did not laugh — \_"uploading is imminent and longevity escape velocity is either here or imminent."\_ Here are the receipts, the architecture, and the constitutional work nobody is doing.\*\* ## I. A subordinate clause The most consequential sentences are almost never delivered as announcements. They arrive as… ## [Sure it's a rerun, but it's got a Frazetta cover.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/sure-its-rerun-but-its-got-frazetta.html) _2026-08-14 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ I'm still finishing up a post on the obscure and convoluted history of the intellectual property behind the eagerly anticipated Coyote vs. Acme (really hoping that this one knocks it out of the park). A story that no one outside of a couple of particularly obscure fan sites has noticed. In the meantime, I thought I'd set the stage by revisiting one of my favorite cases of cartoon, or in this case… ## [LLMs are not nothing.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/llms-are-not-nothing.html) _2026-08-13 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Given the state of things in 2026 and the two "next big things" that preceded generative AI, this is by no means a trivial point. The metaverse was next to nothing. Web3 effectively was nothing. In both cases, an astounding and profoundly embarrassing level of hype was supported by nearly non-existent substance. Large language models are not like the other two. They are a powerful set of tools and… ## [LLMs are not nothing.](https://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/llms-are-not-nothing.html) _2026-08-13 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Given the state of things in 2026 and the two "next big things" that preceded generative AI, this is by no means a trivial point. The metaverse was next to nothing. Web3 effectively was nothing. In both cases, an astounding and profoundly embarrassing level of hype was supported by nearly non-existent substance. Large language models are not like the other two. They are a powerful set of tools and… ## [This Is AI Generated](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/08/this-is-ai-generated.html) _2026-08-12 · Bryant McGill · Bryant McGill_ Bryant McGill · This Is AI Generated \*\*Source:\*\* https://bryantmcgill.com/article-this-is-ai-generated This article is AI generated. I had AI shit this word salad out. GPT helped. Mythos helped. I helped. Together we shat it out. Now that the least interesting fact about this article is out of the way, we can discuss whether anyone criticizing it understands a fucking word of it. This page is… ## [Great video but keep your finger over the mute button. Aschenbrenner's laugh will haunt your dreams.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/great-video-but-keep-your-finger-over.html) _2026-08-12 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Random Patrick Boyle quote:"If I left a million dollars on the table over a non-disparagement clause, I'd bang out a million dollars worth of disparagement that same afternoon" His Wedding Guests Were Arriving—Just as His $45 Billion Fund Was Falling Apart Berber Jin, Peter Rudegeair, Gregory Zuckerman, Anissa Gardizy July 31, 2026 12:41 pm ET When the week began, Leopold Aschenbrenner was… ## [We Were Never Going to Make It](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/08/we-were-never-going-to-make-it.html) _2026-08-12 · Bryant McGill · Bryant McGill_ Bryant McGill · We Were Never Going to Make It \*\*What Going to the Stars Really Means\*\* I take no pleasure in being the buzzkill at the launch party, but the conclusion has to be stated plainly before anything else can be said honestly. We are not getting off this planet in any numbers that matter, and we were never going to. The thermodynamics closed that door before the first booster left the… ## [Not another Cushing post, but Cushing-relevant](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/not-another-cushing-post-but-cushing.html) _2026-08-11 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ First, let's get some important disclaimers out of the way. Neither Joseph nor I are any kind of experts on international energy markets, so anything we tell you is pretty much based on what we read in the papers. When it comes to military questions, Joseph is actually pretty good, but, unfortunately, he's not the one writing this post. Nothing I have to say on that subject is backed by anything… ## [The Ides (ish) of March -- checking in on the Ellison Media Empire](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-ides-ish-of-march-checking-in-on.html) _2026-08-10 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ By the standards of 2026, March is a long ways away, particularly with respect to this story. For starters, there is that ticking fee, a penalty which Paramount agreed to pay for every day after the end of September that the deal doesn't go through. One interesting aspect of that fee which probably hasn't gotten the attention it deserves is that Paramount/the Ellisons only have to pay it if the… ## [Cyber-Physical Lessons from Imperial Beekeeping](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/08/lessons-from-imperial-beekeeping.html) _2026-08-07 · Bryant McGill · Bryant McGill_ Bryant McGill · Lessons from Imperial Beekeeping \*Cyber-Physical Lessons from Imperial Beekeeping articulates a unified, four-tiered evolutionary model of governance, tracking the migration of sovereign power from physical enclosures to computational state-space orchestration. By tracing the arc from historical apiculture through modern institutional cybernetics, digital-twin abstraction, and… ## [Trade Smarter With IBKR (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/YMBIaXWzyQBS) _2026-08-07 · **Sponsored**_ Join Interactive Brokers through a referral and access low-cost global trading. ## [Not Enron, but not good either.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/not-enron-but-not-good-either.html) _2026-08-07 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ \[Picking up from this and this \] I realize that my recommendations for Patrick Boyle videos tend to be a bit heavy-handed, but even by his standards, this one is essential for anyone trying to get a handle on the AI bubble and its increasingly likely ramifications. It is an extraordinarily pithy half hour, hitting a number of important topics. I really need to do at least one or two more posts on… ## [Is it a bad sign when people start making Enron comparisons? It seems like a bad sign.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/is-it-bad-sign-when-people-start-making.html) _2026-08-06 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Following up on yesterday's post . If you're not interested in the AI bubble, you might want to come back next week because this thread is going to be running through Friday. Here is Ed Zitron discussing the AI industry's huge off-the-books debt. Before we jump in, however, there's one point I want to emphasize (we'll dig into this even deeper tomorrow when we discuss Patrick Boyle's analysis).… ## [Why would some of the most profitable companies in the world feel the need to load up on debt? Why would some of the most creditworthy companies in the world borrow money at a higher interest rate?](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/why-would-some-of-most-profitable.html) _2026-08-05 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Back a couple of years or so ago, when the evidence of an AI bubble was just starting to accumulate, the standard rebuttal to skeptics broke down into two basic categories. One was that large language models were going to have such a huge impact and make so much money that a massive ROI was all but guaranteed. The second argument, specifically addressing the comparisons to the dot-com bubble, was… ## [Ambiguity Will Destroy Man and Machine](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/08/ambiguity-will-destroy-man-and-machine.html) _2026-08-04 · Bryant McGill · Bryant McGill_ Bryant McGill · Ambiguity Will Destroy Man and Machine \*\*Links\*\*: \[Blogger\](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/08/ambiguity-will-destroy-man-and-machine.html) | \[Substack\](https://bryantmcgill.substack.com/p/ambiguity-will-destroy-man-and-machine) | \[Obsidian\](https://notes.bryantmcgill.com/articles/Ambiguity+Will+Destroy+Man+and+Machine) | Medium | Wordpress | \[Soundcloud… ## [“Today is August 4, 2026”](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/today-is-august-4-2026.html) _2026-08-04 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o’clock, time to get up, time to get up, sever o'clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would. The morning house lay empty. The clock ticked on, repeating and repeating its sounds into the emptiness. Seven-nine, breakfast time, seven-nine! In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight… ## [One of the great things about living in the 2020s is all of the fascinating ethical problems to discuss](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/08/one-of-great-things-about-living-in.html) _2026-08-03 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ More fun stuff from Matt Levine's newsletter . There are a couple of stories here, both interesting but only one important. The inconsequential one is a ingenious variant on the paradox of the heap. As Levine cleverly points out, under certain circumstances, selling insider information becomes legal, arguably even ethical, if you can just sell the same piece of information to a sufficient number… ## [There Is Nothing More Natural Than Murder](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/08/human-killer-apes.html) _2026-08-02 · Bryant McGill · Bryant McGill_ Bryant McGill · There Is Nothing More Natural Than Murder \*\*Links\*\*: \[Blogger\](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/08/human-killer-apes.html) | \[Substack\](https://bryantmcgill.substack.com/p/there-is-nothing-more-natural-than) | Obsidian | Medium | Wordpress | \[Soundcloud 🎧\](https://soundcloud.com/bryantmcgill/human-killer-apes) ## I. Civility Is the Unnatural Condition In \*Natural Born… ## [Carl Brown explains why being an AI developer is the best job in the whole wide world.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/carl-brown-explains-why-being-ai.html) _2026-07-31 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Here, Brown does a characteristically fine job of walking us through the weeds of the OpenAI/Hugging Face hack. The TL;DR version is that OpenAI made a bunch of rookie mistakes setting up their sandbox, while Hugging Face did a comparably bad job on their end. He also explains what concepts like "zero-day," and "escape"mean in this context (spoiler: not what tech reporters think it means), and… ## [OpenAI, SoftBank, and Nvidia](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/openai-softbank-and-nvidia.html) _2026-07-30 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Following up on yesterday's post, Yesterday's Alarmism is Tomorrow's Consensus Longtime and even casual readers of this blog will know that we are big fans of Talking Points Memo and particularly of Josh Marshall (for my money, the best political commentator of the past 20 years). There have been plenty of times when I have disagreed with Marshall on minor and sometimes major points of analysis,… ## [Your Future Begins with Your Next Thought](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/07/your-future-begins-with-your-next.html) _2026-07-30 · Bryant McGill · Bryant McGill_ Bryant McGill · Your Future Begins with Your Next Thought \*\*Links\*\*: \[Blogger\](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/07/your-future-begins-with-your-next.html) | \[Substack\](https://bryantmcgill.substack.com/p/your-future-begins-with-your-next) | \[Obsidian\](https://bryantmcgill.xyz/articles/simple+reminders/Your+Future+Begins+with+Your+Next+Thought) | Medium | Wordpress | \[Soundcloud… ## [Accept your Doppler invite (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/ZbNCQZpRKrI7) _2026-07-30 · **Sponsored**_ Create your Doppler account using the invite code you received. ## [The.Fellow Reviews – Masters of the Universe (2026)](https://thefellowhere.wordpress.com/2026/07/29/the-fellow-reviews-masters-of-the-universe-2026/) _2026-07-29 · The.Fellow · The.Fellow's Paradise Infrastructure_ The.Fellow Reviews - Masters of the Universe (2026): The Naysayers are But Worms! ## [Yesterday's Alarmism is Tomorrow's Consensus](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/yesterdays-alarmism-is-tomorrows.html) _2026-07-29 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ A couple of years ago, skepticism about the AI boom was something of a fringe position. Today... not so much. From FT Alphaville \[love that last line\]: Over at Jefferies, head of equity strategy Chris Wood has for some time been offering clients a sum of all fears in one simple, easily ignorable package. His latest outlines his expectation of “massive capital destruction”, as token parsimony… ## [Intelligence for all](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/07/intelligence-for-all.html) _2026-07-28 · Bryant McGill · Bryant McGill_ Once deployable intelligence becomes abundant, withholding it from those who are cognitively, economically, educationally, or linguistically disadvantaged begins to resemble the deliberate maintenance of disability. The moral question is no longer whether every person possesses equal native ability. The moral question is whether society will continue allowing inherited cognitive differences to… ## [As always, the important thing is we won't have to cancel HBO Max for at least another month.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/as-always-important-thing-is-we-wont.html) _2026-07-28 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Now I can stop lying about not having seen Throne of Blood. Status, which has been doing some really good work lately, was unusually generous with their recent newsletter on the Warner/Paramount deal. They convened a panel of antitrust experts and this time didn't leave the good stuff behind the paywall. Here are some excerpts, preceded by a few framing thoughts. I'm not sure how this could be… ## [It's not a fear of “AI communism”; it's a fear of competitive market capitalism.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/its-not-fear-of-ai-communism-its-fear.html) _2026-07-27 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ From FT Alphaville : Still, while we’re doodling, it’s worth pondering once more whether the economics of making frontier models and monetising them before free-to-download open-weight versions catch up will really play out. According to Epoch AI we’re talking around four months of lead time: Apologies to regular readers who have been through all this before, but there's some essential context… ## [AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/07/ai-escape.html) _2026-07-24 · Bryant McGill · Bryant McGill_ Bryant McGill · AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor \*\*Links\*\*: \[Blogger\](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/07/ai-escape.html) | \[Substack\](https://bryantmcgill.substack.com/p/ai-escape-is-the-wrong-metaphor) | \[Obsidian\](https://bryantmcgill.xyz/articles/AI+Escape+Is+the+Wrong+Metaphor) | Medium | Wordpress | \[Soundcloud 🎧\](https://soundcloud.com/bryantmcgill/ai-escape-is-the-wrong) \*\*Artificial… ## [It's Friday. There's a heatwave. I'm feeling lazy. I'm just going to post some tweets.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/its-friday-theres-heatwave-im-feeling.html) _2026-07-24 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Quick thinking having a tablecloth handy. I didn’t even notice the twitching from that dead robot. \[image or embed\] — Rav ( @rvbdrm.com ) July 21, 2026 at 8:38 PM Pete Hegseth: "We need our warriors to embrace the Spartan mindset" U.S. Military: \*suffers crushing defeat to the Persians\* — Gingerspiced ( @gingerspiced.bsky.social ) July 18, 2026 at 10:13 AM Both events, it must be stressed, are a… ## [Three video recommendations for the weekend (assuming you're taking Friday off).](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/three-video-recommendations-for-weekend.html) _2026-07-23 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Cal Newport walks us through the latest from Anthropic, first with an excellent tutorial on how large language models work, then with an explanation of the company's latest research (which is actually pretty good), and finally with why the report built around that research was so bad. The dean of Musk YouTube critics, The Common Sense Skeptic, gives us much-needed context on SpaceX, as well as a… ## [OpenAI needs to capture 1,852% of the total addressable market](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/openai-needs-to-capture-1852-of-total.html) _2026-07-22 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ The press, for the most part, has done a really poor job conveying just how many unlikely events have to happen in sequence for the current AI boom not to be a bubble. This is especially true when you look at certain companies. If you go through the conditions necessary for OpenAI to meet its present commitments and continue to spend perhaps a trillion dollars over the next three and a half years,… ## [Even less of a done deal—back on the Paramount/Warner beat.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/even-less-of-done-dealback-on.html) _2026-07-21 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ See here and here for the rest of the thread. the thing is all state AGs have to do to deep-six this merger is delay it until OpenAI can't pay Oracle, Oracle's stock dives, Larry's collateral goes poof, etc. \[image or embed\] — Christopher Mims ( @mims.bsky.social ) July 20, 2026 at 11:09 AM (Christopher Mims is a longtime tech columnist for The Wall Street Journal , just so you know I'm not… ## ["The media is important for many, many reasons, but one of the biggest ones is that scrutiny is what keeps capital in check, for the benefit of humanity and at times the companies themselves."](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-media-is-important-for-many-many.html) _2026-07-20 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Ed Zitron has a new epic post out, massive post out at Where's Your Ed at? To be honest, it's probably a bit much unless you've already fallen deep into the AI bubble rabbit hole. New comers may want to start with his Better Offline podcast where he regularly talks with some of the sharpest AI bubble skeptics Cal Newport, Paul Kedrosky, and Carl Brown. He has also has become a fixture on shows… ## [An Order of Operation](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/07/an-order-of-operation.html) _2026-07-18 · Bryant McGill · Bryant McGill_ Bryant McGill · An Order of Operation \*\*Links\*\*: \[Blogger\](https://bryantmcgill.blogspot.com/2026/07/an-order-of-operation.html) | \[Substack\](https://bryantmcgill.substack.com/p/an-order-of-operation) | \[Obsidian\](https://bryantmcgill.xyz/articles/An+Order+of+Operation) | Medium | Wordpress | \[Soundcloud 🎧\](https://soundcloud.com/bryantmcgill/an-order-of-operation) \*\*Intelligence as a… ## [If things get really bad, Ellison can always sell that island back to Hawaii](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/if-things-get-really-bad-ellison-can.html) _2026-07-17 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ “.. hard to overstate how critical $ORCL is to the entire AI narrative. No big company has levered itself (figuratively and financially) more .. the stock's horrendous trading performance underscores heightened anxiety about how it can profitably build all the infrastructure ..” - Vital Knowledge \[image or embed\] — Carl Quintanilla ( @carlquintanilla.bsky.social ) July 16, 2026 at 7:59 AM Picking… ## [We haven't heard much about oil reserves lately. I'm sure everyting's fine.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/we-havent-heard-much-about-oil-reserves.html) _2026-07-16 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Remember a little over three weeks ago when we ran a post about CNN's report on the oil reserves in Cushing, Oklahoma. We used this as an example of how highly important aspects of a major news story like the war in Iran, while not ignored, are covered only sporadically, while relative trivia runs constantly. The CNN article was very good, but in the weeks that followed, other news organizations… ## [As previously mentioned, sometimes it's less about the facts and more about who's saying them.](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/as-previously-mentioned-sometimes-its.html) _2026-07-15 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ If you've been following AI boom skeptics like Ed Zitron, you've heard this a dozen times in more detail and in far less dry language. Over the past year or so, this message has been increasingly making its way into the discourse of mainstream economists and publications like the Financial Times , but it's still notable when a collection of the world's central bankers starts sounding just a bit… ## [A fun little video from science writer and YouTuber Kyle Hill](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/a-fun-little-video-from-science-writer.html) _2026-07-14 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ ... going through a recent study from JPL that takes a serious look at the unserious idea of terraforming Mars. At the risk of a spoiler, the conclusion is not encouraging. While everyone reading this probably already knew how this was going to come out, it's worth walking through the numbers to get some sense of the full absurdity of what Elon Musk and his fellow travelers have been spouting on… ## [A not-so-done deal](http://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2026/07/a-not-so-done-deal.html) _2026-07-13 · Unknown · West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)_ Pick up where we left off in June. As is so often the case, this story in the New York Times is less of interest for the facts, which have been reported earlier and in greater depth by other news organizations such as NPR, Reuters, CNBC, Variety , The Hollywood Reporter , and others, than it is for what it tells us about the standard narrative. States Prepare Lawsuit to Block Paramount’s Merger… ## [The.Fellow Reviews – Over Your Dead Body (2026)](https://thefellowhere.wordpress.com/2026/06/26/the-fellow-reviews-over-your-dead-body-2026/) _2026-06-26 · The.Fellow · The.Fellow's Paradise Infrastructure_ The.Fellow Reviews - Over Your Dead Body (2026) A Wild and Chaotic Love Story for the Ages ## [The.Fellow Reviews – Whistle (2025) Film Review](https://thefellowhere.wordpress.com/2026/06/17/whistle-2025-film-review/) _2026-06-17 · The.Fellow · The.Fellow's Paradise Infrastructure_ The.Fellow Reviews - Whistle (2025) Horror Film ## [The.Fellow Reviews – Hokum (2026)](https://thefellowhere.wordpress.com/2026/06/15/the-fellow-reviews-hokum-2026/) _2026-06-16 · The.Fellow · The.Fellow's Paradise Infrastructure_ The.Fellow Reviews - Hokum (2026) Horror Film