Wait But Why

When billionaires and their representatives tell you to focus on cultural war, don’t believe them; Chief Twitter is also a chief Freedom-to-Lie!

[Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum]

Since 2025, Americans in and close to the administration have worked to weaken and break up Canada; to use money to influence the loyalties of Greenlanders; to shape elections in Germany, Poland, Argentina, Brazil.
No longer seeing themselves as the leaders of the democratic world, the new American elite are looking instead to enrich themselves, using the federal government.
Read more here:
https://t.co/Vusz3X4YiA

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🚨 LOOK AT THIS.

Britain’s ten biggest individual political donations.

Six of the ten are now to Reform UK …. from just TWO men.

Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.

And the two £36 MILLION donations utterly dwarf anything that came before.

Forget the carefully cultivated image of a grassroots working-class revolt.

Follow the money 💰

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🚨 STOP AND THINK ABOUT THIS.

Reform raised £14.9m during the entire first six months of this year.

One cryptocurrency billionaire is now giving it £36 MILLION.

The Times reports that the money will fund party infrastructure, more HQ staff and campaign managers in every target constituency.

And Ben Delo calls this creating a “level playing field”.

No! This is precisely why Britain desperately needs limits on political donations.

Your vote is worth exactly the same as a billionaire’s. His ability to influence the political conversation clearly isn’t.

Delo is perfectly entitled to support Reform. The reported donation is lawful and declared.

But no healthy democracy should allow the extraordinary wealth of one individual to transform the campaigning capacity of a political party to this extent.

And when the donor made his fortune in cryptocurrency while the recipient party’s leader has championed cryptocurrency and criticised regulation of the sector, scrutiny isn’t some sinister establishment conspiracy.

It’s democracy doing its job.

£36 million from one person should concern us regardless of which party receives it.

[Jeffrey Gundlach @TruthGundlach]

Federal, State and Local tax collections plus the unending deficits combined are about 40% of US GDP.

Yes, government is 40% of the US economy.

[snowboat @snowboat84]

https://t.co/PtCHP1j1uR

[Jacob Coxon @hilbertspaess]

I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. More thoughts below.

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🚨 The Sunday Times business pages explain what its political pages chose to conceal: the bond sell-off is global.

It was driven by war, oil prices, inflation fears, interest-rate expectations and enormous borrowing by AI corporations, not Britain’s welfare bill.

Using a global shock to demand cuts to pensions and benefits is not market analysis. It is austerity advocacy dressed up as market instruction.

Yet when gilt yields rise, we are told the “markets” demand that British pensioners, disabled people and public services must pay.

Britain’s debt and refinancing costs are serious. But debt at roughly 94% of GDP does not automatically mean “IMF territory”. Britain issues sterling and most of its government debt is denominated in sterling. We have not suddenly run out of pounds.

Indiscriminate austerity would make matters worse. Cutting investment, suppressing growth and weakening tax receipts makes the debt-to-GDP ratio harder 👉not easier, to manage.

“We must impoverish the country because the country is becoming poorer” is not an economic strategy.

Borrowing to conceal failure is dangerous. Borrowing to strengthen energy security, food production, water, transport, housing and industry creates assets, expands productive capacity and reduces our exposure to future shocks.

And Britain cannot achieve credible growth while maintaining trade barriers with its nearest and largest market.

Rejoining the Single Market would support exports, investment and productivity. That is how we strengthen our capacity to manage debt, not by administering more gruel to an already weakened country.

[Henry Gao @henrysgao]

《给阿嬷的情书》故意试图去政治化：只谈苦难，却不去追问苦难的根源。但那个时代实在太沉重，所以即使导演故意将镜头聚焦于个人命运和生活细节，剧情中仍然不断露出大时代的雪泥鸿爪。

1. 木生1948年下南洋，却一直要在海外打拼到1960年。那么问题来了：49之后，究竟是谁让汕头的普通百姓长期连温饱都成问题，以至于还要依靠海外华侨寄回的侨批才能维持生计？

2. 木生此前在马来西亚锡矿工作，因为带头反抗而被迫跑路泰国。这一段虽然轻描淡写，却几乎完整复刻了当年马来亚共产党党员的典型人生轨迹：组织工运、遭到追捕、辗转逃亡。电影没有点破，但历史的影子已经在那里。

3. 这种春秋笔法一笔带过的“黑历史”，又与后来泰国禁止华校、限制华文教育的情节形成了微妙的呼应。

当年东南亚华侨社会与中国大陆之间，本来有着血缘与语言的双重纽带；而在冷战年代，这种纽带又被政治力量进一步转化为组织、资金乃至武装上的支持，推动东南亚一些国家的共产革命。于是，一个无法回避的问题便浮现出来：五六十年代东南亚各国为何会逐渐视华人社群为潜在的“第五纵队”，并由此走向排华？在这段历史背后，那只若隐若现的红色大手，究竟来自哪里？

4. 癫公这个人物也很有意思。他能写一手好字，更能替华侨写出文辞优美的家书，却找不到一份正经工作，只能流落唐人街廉价酒店的柴房，与木生合租。如果我的判断没有错，他很可能是49之后流落泰国的国军人员。后来他突然关闭学校、选择参军，又暗含了当年国军余部退守泰北、长期反共的历史。

5. 木生1960年去世，南枝原本准备写信报丧，却在来到信局后，因为听到周围华侨的种种遭遇而改变了主意。

这段“皮里阳秋”的历史，真正隐含的意思或许是：南枝已经从报纸上看到了1960年前后中国大陆饿殍遍野的惨状，也明白如果自己停止寄钱，淑柔和四个孩子很可能连活下去都成问题。

此后整整18年，她始终坚持寄钱。这一细节本身，就是对那18年间接连不断的政治运动导致民不聊生的无声控诉。直到1978年，时代改弦更张，普通人终于重新看到了活路，这份持续了18年的资助才终于停止。

所以，在历史的底片上拍这样一部电影，即使导演试图通过聚焦个人、聚焦家庭、聚焦生活细节来“去政治化”，如此沉重的历史仍然会不可避免地留下印记。你可以不谈政治，但政治早已进入每个人的命运；你可以不解释历史，但历史会自己从细节里浮现出来。

前事不忘，后事之师。当又一个大时代风高浪急之际，海外华人究竟应该如何自处？影片海报中那只隐藏在代表爱情更代表革命的血红木棉花之后、拨弄芸芸众生一生沉浮的巨手，或许正是呼之欲出的答案。

[Epoch AI @EpochAIResearch]

Will Huawei catch up to Nvidia by 2030? Almost certainly not.

We analyzed Huawei’s chip roadmap and supply chain, from the Ascend 950 to its 3D-stacking bet and domestic HBM supply. Our estimate: Huawei will produce less than 4% of Nvidia's AI compute in 2026. Relying on domestic HBM alone, that share could fall to just 1% by 2028. 🧵

[0xGarfield｜加菲众 @DJWZ]

《钟鼓楼》，何勇。

[Steve Rattner @SteveRattner]

Under Biden, America built factories.

Under Trump, it's mostly building data centers.

[Tory Fibs @ToryFibs]

I waited all my life time to hear a Prime Minister say this in parliament.

Today, it happened.

[Siling Luo 羅四鸰 @luosiling]

美国刑事司法常被写成监禁史：逮捕、定罪、关押。本书指出，与大规模监禁并行、同样深刻的变化是：自1980年代以来，治安与惩罚被改造成向最弱势社区抽取资源、再转化为政府财政收入和公司利润的工具。罚金、诉讼费、民事没收、商业保释、监狱通话与消费、以罚代税，不再是附带措施，而成了刑事法律机器的核心功能。

作者用“掠夺”作分析框架，不是比喻。掠夺指支配方利用从属群体的脆弱、需求和被排斥地位，进行密集剥削或剥夺。被刑事化的人并非只被排除在福利、工作和住房之外，也被以剥削性条件重新纳入：必须交钱才能保释、结案、恢复驾照、探望家人。抽取主要落在贫困者、有色人种和女性家庭头上，种族、阶级与性别不平等因此叠加。

建国前后，掠夺依托黑奴制与对原住民的剥夺；此后长期表现为强制劳动，如奴隶巡逻、链役、囚犯租赁。近四十年转向金融化掠夺：富人税负下降，地方财政吃紧，刑事系统被改装成替代税源；私营保释、私营监狱和各类收费服务与公权力绑在一起。作者Page 教授曾以保释代理人身份做田野调查（ethnographic research），观察商业保释如何把家人的急迫照料变成行业利润。因为这套机制能养活政府预算和商业利益，改革阻力很大。作者把罚金、没收、保释和公私合作放进同一分析，说明刑事治理既惩罚也汲取，并追踪围绕拆解这一体系的政治斗争。不看见掠夺这一面，就无法解释今天的刑事司法为何如此难改、又对谁最残酷。

作者介绍：

Joe Soss
明尼苏达大学休伯特·汉弗莱公共事务学院 Cowles 讲席教授，兼政治学、社会学教职。研究政治、不平等与公共政策如何交织，尤其关注治理如何与支配、压迫和掠夺相连。代表作《规训穷人》（Disciplining the Poor，2011）分析新自由主义家长制与种族在贫困治理中的持续力量，多次获奖。另著有《不受欢迎的诉求》等。2025年与 Page 合著《合法掠夺》。

书讯 | APSA 2026 协会级最佳图书（含美国政策、族群、妇女政治） https://t.co/z7ruaQNvw6

[Phil Hoyeck @PAHoyeck]

People love to talk about social construction, but nobody seems to have a clear account of what they mean by it. So here’s a primer John Searle’s The Construction of Social Reality, one of my all-time favourite works of philosophy. 1/

[Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson]

- Small boat arrivals 40% down from peak
- Foreign worker registrations at a 20-year low
- Remigration (foreign nationals leaving) at all-time high of 1,000 a day

It's quite a story. So why will no one in Labour tell it?

My summary of Britain's secret border-control success:

https://t.co/LKFgE53Gn0

[123olp @123olp]

累计消耗约 2000人民币 的 token，终于把17册《数理化自学丛书》从原始扫描 PDF 整理成电子书：

Unlimited-OCR 提取，GPT 网页版校订与重建，得到 Markdown、4,981个图片资源及可重排 EPUB3（88,412个 MathML 公式）

文件与 EPUB 获取👇
https://t.co/i1Rrnnkkw6

[zerohedge @zerohedge]

NVDA revenue-sharing/credit-support schematic

[Wait But Why @cop02sc]

@ruima He has no one to turn to. Even his perceived love turned out to be just another business transaction!

[Jim Grace @mac_puck]

Electricity sector profit margins:

UK 23% - 38%
Spain 11% - 13%
Germany 9 - 11%
France 6 - 9%

But, apparently, the reason UK electricity is most expensive is Net Zero.

[Ashish rai @journorai]

चीन का हेलीकॉप्टर उस जगह पहुंचा जहां ग्लेशियर टूटा था और उससे निकले पानी ने नेपाल में भारी तबाही मचाई थी। इस घटना को GLOF कहते हैं।

ग्लेशियल लेक आउटबर्स्ट फ्लड (#GLOF) तब आ सकता है, जब ग्लेशियर द्वारा रोकी गई झील का बांध अचानक टूट जाए। 🌊🧊

पानी के दबाव और ग्लेशियर में बनी दरारों से बाहर निकलने का रास्ता बन जाता है। इसके बाद झील में जमा भारी मात्रा में पानी और मलबा बेहद तेज़ रफ्तार से पहाड़ों से नीचे की ओर बहता है, जिससे अचानक और विनाशकारी बाढ़ आ सकती है।

#GlacialFlood #NepalFloods #Nepal