beedub

Mostly Product Management, Investing/Trading, Personal Finance, AI

[Lilith Datura @LilithDatura]

"Now look at Anthropic. In early 2024 the company launched an internal effort it code-named Project Panama. An unsealed planning document put the ambition in language so stark it reads like a confession: “Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world.” The same document warned employees, “We don’t want it to be known that we are working on this.” I caution you… what you read may get you mad. Ready?"

[Hedgie @HedgieMarkets]

🦔AI companies are bulk-buying rare books, scanning them through high-speed machines that cut the spines off, and shredding the originals. A service called ISBNdb facilitates orders of up to a million books and keeps buyers anonymous. Pre-2022 books are premium because they're free of AI-generated text. A federal judge ruled the practice is fair use because eliminating the original means only one copy exists at a time. Anthropic hired the former head of Google Books partnerships to obtain "all the books in the world."

My Take
This got to me. A bookseller told 404 Media that rare books with almost no surviving copies are being fed into this pipeline. Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
ISBNdb's website literally says "'AI company destroys two million books' is not a headline that generates sympathy," and they still built an entire business around making it happen quietly. They offer NDAs as a feature. They coach clients to call it "digital preservation."

I've covered AI companies scraping the internet, torrenting libraries, and stealing music. This is worse because it's irreversible. You can re-upload a website. You can reprint a bestseller. You can't replace the last three copies of an 18th-century botanical text once someone shreds them for training data. And the judge said it's legal. So it's going to accelerate.
"We shred rare books and offer NDAs so nobody finds out" is a legitimate business model in 2026. What a timeline.

Hedgie🤗

[beedub @BrianWangerien]

@thesamparr Sam, love the story and the message! The lesson is valuable regardless of age.

[Greta Berlin @Truegreta]

I stood at this pool, at both monuments and saw both reflections…
He’s a God damn idiot, as are the fools that support him. The “Reflection Pool” wasn’t designed by American architect Henry Bacon a hundred years ago to look like a swimming pool. It’s designed to have a darkened characteristics that has reflective qualities to reflect the monuments.
That way, the Washington Monument is reflective to you when at the Lincoln Memorial, and when at the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial is reflective to you.
It’s designed to enhance the grandeur of monuments, create an illusion of reflection, and inclusion of expansive space of unity.
He’s a tacky vulgar person that vulgarizes everything he touches. America isn’t becoming great, it’s becoming vulgar.

Credit - Mathew Reed

[beedub @BrianWangerien]

@bfeld This is great. It has been my fruitless mission over the past months to eradicate filler honesty from Claude with every other tool. Nice to know others have been bothered by this too! Thanks Brad

[beedub @BrianWangerien]

@epictrades1 Each time I see this I see the kid going long first BUT going faster the entire time. That’s the difference. Thx for all you do DP!

[beedub @BrianWangerien]

@PurpleDrink_LLC Potential U&R?

[Eugene Wei @eugenewei]

I used to think that the shoe bomber had wasted more hours of people's time than anyone in history, but the EU-mandated cookie pop-ups on websites probably have the shoe bomber beat by a wide margin. We underrate what a disastrous policy decision that was.

[Mr PitBull Stories @MrPitbull07]

"My name's Hank. I'm 66. I deliver propane to homes. Rural routes, farms, folks off the grid. I fill their tanks, check connections, drive to the next house. Most customers just sign the slip, barely look up. I'm just the propane guy.

But last February, during that brutal cold snap, I noticed something at the Miller place.
Pulled up to fill their tank, gauge showed empty. Completely dry. In 15-degree weather.
I knocked on the door. Mrs. Miller answered, three kids bundled behind her in coats. Inside the house.

"Ma'am, your tank's bone dry. How long you been without heat?"
"Four days." Her voice was steady, but her hands shook. "Bill's due Friday. We're waiting on my husband's paycheck."
Four days. Three kids. Fifteen degrees.
"Ma'am, I'm filling it now."
"I can't pay until"
"I'll mark it as a delivery error. Computer glitch. Nobody'll know."
She started crying. "Why would you do this?"
"Because those kids are wearing coats inside."

I filled their tank. Checked the furnace. Made sure heat kicked on before I left.
Drove away thinking about what I'd seen. Kids doing homework in winter jackets. A mom choosing between heat and food.

Started paying attention different after that. The elderly veteran whose tank was at 10%, he was rationing, keeping one room warm. The single dad whose payment was two weeks late, he'd been burning firewood he couldn't really afford.

I started doing something I shouldn't. When I saw someone struggling, someone who'd run out, someone rationing heat—I'd add 50 gallons. Mark it as "meter calibration" or "pressure test residual."
Small amounts. Enough to get them through.

Did it eleven times that winter. My boss noticed the discrepancies. Called me in.
"Hank, we're showing extra gallons delivered but not billed."
I told him the truth. Everything.

He stared at me for a long time. Then said, "My daughter was a single mom once. Chose between heat and groceries every winter. I wished someone had helped her."

He didn't fire me. Instead, he created something, "Warm Hearts Emergency Fund." Customers could donate. We'd match it. Use it for families in crisis who couldn't afford propane.

But here's what broke me, Mrs. Miller came to our office in May. She'd gotten a better job, caught up on bills.
She handed me an envelope. Inside, $200.

"For the next family. The one you'll find in February, four days without heat, trying to be brave for their kids."
She grabbed my hands. "Hank, my youngest has asthma. Four more days in that cold... I don't know if..." She couldn't finish.

Last winter, the Warm Hearts Fund helped 23 families. Not with handouts, with heat when they had none. With dignity when they felt broken.

And here's the thing, other propane companies heard about it. Started their own programs. Now there are "emergency heat funds" in six states.

But the moment that destroyed me happened last month. Got a call to deliver to an address I recognized, the Miller place.

Mrs. Miller answered. "Hank! Come in, please."
Inside, warm, kids doing homework at the table, laughing. She handed me a check. Full payment, plus extra.
"For the fund. But also..." She pulled out a drawing her youngest had made. Stick figure man with a propane truck. Caption in crayon: "Mr. Hank, my hero."

"She asks about you every winter. 'Is Mr. Hank making sure people are warm?'"
I'm 66. I deliver propane to houses nobody notices.

But I learned this- Cold doesn't wait for paychecks. And no child should do homework in a winter coat inside their own home.
So if you deliver anything, oil, propane, firewood, and you see someone struggling, someone empty, someone rationing,
Find a way. Mark it wrong. Call your boss. Start a fund. Do something.
Because heat isn't a luxury. It's survival.
And the difference between freezing and living shouldn't be whether your paycheck arrived on time.
Be the reason someone stays warm."
.
Let this story reach more hearts....
.
Ai image is for Demonstration purpose only
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Credit: Mary Nelson

[beedub @BrianWangerien]

@godofprompt PLAYBOOK

[beedub @BrianWangerien]

@aakashgupta Texas Instruments calculator

[Brian Roemmele @BrianRoemmele]

Wisdom is a distillation of hard earned first person experience.

It is a notice to be aware that there is a dead end ahead and you can still take the road, but do it with awareness.

We have discounted wisdom in this era.

Build AI on Wisdom.

Learn: https://t.co/E0WjzMW7Fy.

[beedub @BrianWangerien]

@MapleStax Trade

[beedub @BrianWangerien]

@BuySideCPA 🤣

[beedub @BrianWangerien]

@carlvellotti 💛

[Gergely Orosz @GergelyOrosz]

How is it that Atlassian builds tools that:

- SO MANY people use

- SO MANY people dislike (JIRA, Confluence. Previously also HipChat)

They are defying the conventional wisdom for business success that starts with "build something people will love"

[Senator Mark Kelly @SenMarkKelly]

I just left a visit to the ICE detention facility in Eloy. There’s a lot to absorb, but I want to tell you about a woman I met named Maria because her story really shows how messed up all this is.

She’s been in the U.S. for twenty years. Has no criminal history. She was detained at the Marine Base in Yuma. Her son is a U.S. Marine stationed there. He’s married to another Marine. And they have a two-year-old kid, Maria's grandson.

Maria was in Yuma because her son was leaving for training, her daughter-in-law had a hip surgery, and so they needed help watching her grandson. When she came back to the base after a grocery run, she was detained and reported to CBP. Now, she’s being held in an ICE facility.

I remember how proud my parents were watching my brother and I get sworn into the Navy, so I asked her if she had been there when her son graduated from boot camp. She broke down in tears. All she could say was how proud of her son she was.

That stuck with me. And it should stick with you. And if I have anything to do about it, it will stick with this administration. This woman loves America. Her son is risking her life for America – for us. She is the exact type of person we should want in this country. My team and I will keep fighting for her and her family.

[beedub @BrianWangerien]

@jrouldz I'm here for the city pics!

[beedub @BrianWangerien]

@dampedspring Might have been the lower case B also