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blockchain VC

[Ole Lehmann @itsolelehmann]

Rio de Janeiro just became the first city in the world to start reforesting itself with AI drones

and the more i read about how it works the cooler it gets:

the reason a city would even need this is that dead land is brutally hard to bring back

when cattle farming or mining wrecks a piece of land, the soil turns hard and dry and basically dies. left alone it can stay like that for decades

the only fix used to be huge crews planting seedlings by hand. one person covers about a hectare a day. at that pace a real forest takes years and a fortune, so most wrecked land just stays dead

the company Rio hired is called MORFO. their answer is one drone plus an AI model doing the work of that entire crew

it starts with the drone scanning the whole area from above

from that scan, the AI studies the soil, the water, the slope, the plants already growing nearby

it uses all of that to pick which native species have the best shot at surviving in each exact spot, choosing from a catalog of 300+ local plants

once it knows what goes where, the drone flies back over and fires biodegradable seed pods into the ground, 180 every minute

each pod holds seeds, nutrients, moisture. a little starter kit for surviving in dead soil

flying like that, one drone covers up to 50 hectares a day. the work of a 50-person planting crew

and it actually works. they tested it on Brazilian pasture that years of cattle farming had killed. a few months after planting, that same land had grass, bushes, small trees growing again

the system keeps learning after the drones leave too. satellites watch what actually grows back, so each new project starts smarter than the last

my favorite detail: the AI even decides where NOT to plant

it left 16% of one 8,420-hectare site untouched because it detected the forest there was already regrowing on its own

easily one of the coolest AI applications i've seen this year

[Dr. Ammous @AmmousMD]

When doctors realize modern medicine isn't fulfilling their childhood dream of healing people

They begin chasing money instead 💵💰

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

On our Camino trek, tonight we stopped in Pontevedra, Spain.

a few mins into walking around we both noted this city felt weirdly great and alive (yet not chaotic) in a way other cities just don’t

Busy plazas, kids running around, people sitting outside, restaurants spilling into the streets. It felt like the city was built for humans.

It wasn’t immediately clear why it was this way so I asked chat what was going on and got a great answer (paraphrased)

In 1999, a new mayor made a very controversial bet: the city center should be for people, not parked cars.

He moved fast. Pontevedra removed street parking, eliminated most through-traffic, and kept only the useful car access: residents, deliveries, taxis, emergencies.

At first, people hated it.

Store owners were absolutely furious. The obvious objection was: if customers can’t park at the curb, they won’t come.

But then people actually lived with the change and really liked it

The city got calmer, safer, more walkable, less polluted, and more alive. Foot traffic replaced car traffic and businesses got busier than ever.

The mayor keeps getting reelected, still there 27 years later (he’s Spain’s longest serving mayor among large cities)

Of all the cities we’ve visited on this trip through Europe, Pontevedra (which I had not heard of before) is the liveliest, a hidden gem!

I don’t think every city should ban cars, but it seems obvious that cities get a lot better when the best public space is used for people instead of car storage.

[Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la]

I have been reading the new UN report about how Israel has been targeting children in Gaza. There are no words to describe how awful it is. Here are some of the worst examples:

1) Hind Rajab and family, Tel al-Hawa, Gaza City, 29 Jan 2024. Named. A family of seven plus two paramedics killed. Hind Rajab, 5 to 6, stayed on the phone with rescuers for hours, trapped in a car among her dead relatives. Her cousin Layan Hamadeh, 15, was killed mid-call. The rescue ambulance, dispatched with COGAT clearance, was shelled.

2) The 15-year-old with the white flag, Khan Younis, 24 Jan 2024. Anonymous. Shot in the foot during an ordered evacuation while holding a white cloth, then shot twice more in the back and neck as he tried to rise. His 20-year-old brother killed running to him; their mother shot signaling for an ambulance. Assessed as DAN .338 sniper fire from about 200m.

3) The 10-day-old baby, Nuseirat camp, 12 Apr 2024. Anonymous. Shot in the head by a quadcopter-mounted rifle while being breastfed inside a tent. Survived with brain damage and seizures.

4) The 14-year-old killed with fragmenting pellets, Aug 2024. Anonymous. Cube-shaped pellets that fragmented internally like cluster munitions, destroying multiple organs. The report flags the munition itself as a possible war crime.

5) Jadallah "Jad" Jadallah, Al-Far'a camp, Tubas, 16 Nov 2025. Named. Jadallah Jihad Jouma Jadallah, 14, shot at close range and left bleeding for roughly 45 minutes while about 14 soldiers stood around him. One kicked his cap back when he threw it for attention, one filmed him, one placed a stone beside him to stage a stone-throwing pretext. Soldiers fired at his approaching mother and blocked two ambulances. Body withheld.

6) Layla al-Khatib, Muthallath al-Shuhada, 25 Jan 2025. Named. Layla (Laila) Muhammad Ayman al-Khatib, 2, shot in the back of the head during dinner at home, four bullets fired through the living room window. Youngest West Bank child killed in the reporting period. B'Tselem found the only man in the building was her grandfather, contradicting the "wanted terrorist" claim.

7) Saddam Rajab, Tulkarem, shot 28 Jan 2025, died 7 Feb 2025. Named. Saddam (Sadam) Rajab, 10, shot during an incursion. A soldier told the father, "I am the one who shot your son. God willing, he will die." Medical care obstructed; the boy died of his wounds days later.

8) Walid Ahmad, Megiddo Prison, died 22 Mar 2025. Named. Walid Khalid Abdullah Ahmad, 17, from Silwad. Healthy at arrest in Sept 2024; dead six months later of starvation, muscle wasting, untreated colitis and scabies. First Palestinian minor to die in Israeli custody since Oct 2023. Family learned of his death from a news article; body withheld.

9) The Sde Teiman 15-year-old, detention. Anonymous. Held among 70 adults, shackled until his hands bled, dogs released on prone detainees; described as "the worst days of my life." A separate 15-year-old reported being electrocuted via a needle in his shoulder over 54 days.

10) The four newborns at Al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital, Nov 2023. Anonymous. Found decomposing, still attached to defunct life-support machines, after staff were forced to evacuate without being able to move them. Independently verified by the Commission, Washington Post, and CNN.

11) Newborn hypothermia deaths, Dec 2024 to Feb 2025. Anonymous. At least 15 newborns, including a one-day-old girl, died of cold linked to lack of shelter, fuel, and incubators. UNICEF called the deaths preventable.

12) Sexual violence in detention. Anonymous. Forced public stripping and filming of boys during mass arrests; two cousins aged 7 and 13 stripped at gunpoint in Jenin; new reports of boys raped in custody, one on multiple occasions.

The Commission documents at least 20,179 Palestinian children killed and 44,143 wounded in two years, 30 percent of all the dead in Gaza, alongside 213 more killed in the West Bank. Thirteen times the Commission asked Israel to respond, and thirteen times it heard nothing back. Israel doesn't care enough to even respond. It kills children as a matter of policy.

[Ole Lehmann @itsolelehmann]

i'm addicted to these AI time travel vlogs right now haha

it's one of the best AI video generation use cases I've seen, and this girl Chloe is especially great at creating them.

some of my favorite examples:

NYC, 2056

[Ramez Naam @ramez]

Sales of gasoline cars in China are now less than a third of their peak. The electric stack is winning.

[jay plemons @jayplemons]

The great lie is that society is divided between rich and poor.
The great truth, as David Friedberg puts it, is makers vs takers.

Makers build, create, and deliver real value: houses, software, art, businesses, and everything that moves civilization forward.

Takers watch, criticize, analyze, and politic. They push the lie that the rich hoard unfairly so the poor must seize it… all while positioning themselves to rule the chaos.

As @friedberg tells his kids: “At the end of the day, if you made something and someone else valued it, you were a maker. That was an amazing achievement. That is a great day.”

Takers thrive on division. Makers drive progress.

Time to choose your side.

[Eva Vlaardingerbroek @EvaVlaar]

French journalist @tegnererik, has just received a six-month suspended prison sentence for publishing an investigative report about numerous French immigration lawyers who enable mass migration.

Now here’s most grotesque part of it all: the Prosecution went after him using the Samuel Paty law that was introduced after teacher Samuel Paty was doxxed on social media for showing Mohammed cartoons in class and then beheaded by a Muslim “refugee”, who was able to track him down because of the doxxing.

And now that law has been used against a Journalist for exposing the migration industry.

It’s all so sick and so shameless.

Lawfare in Europe is totally out of control.

[david friedberg @friedberg]

if @elonmusk paid 100% of his net worth ($1.4 trillion) as a tax it would only cover federal government spending for 77 days. this isn’t a tax problem…

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb @nntaleb]

Today in Haaretz there is an article accusing Israel of being a terrorist state (plus committing crimes against humanity). It was not written by a Marxist member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
It was written by former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert.

[MO @Abu_Salah9]

بتهمة جمع الخضار والزهور البرية.

لحظة قيام الجيش الاسرائيلي بترويع واختطاف أطفال فلسطينيين لمكان مجهول

لولا وجود منصات مثل X لما وصلت هذه المشاهد للعالم

فضحهم واجب على كل حُر حول العالم.

[Tucker Carlson @TuckerCarlson]

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy says his government is guilty of committing genocide in Gaza and the United States is complicit. He joins us from the West Bank.

0:00 What’s Happening in Gaza and Lebanon?
1:22 What’s the Goal?
5:47 Will the US Withdraw Its Support From Israel?
10:50 What Is the View of Donald Trump in Israel?
13:15 Censorship and Hubris
15:22 What Is Hamas? Is the War in Gaza Really About Hamas?
22:33 Where Will the Millions of Palestinians Go?
23:48 Is the US Doing Anything to Restrain Israel?
25:59 How Has Israel Been Able to Control American Presidents?
28:16 The Board of Peace and Trump’s Plan to Put Casinos in Gaza
33:59 Do Israelis Know What’s Happening in Gaza?
39:39 Do Israelis Care About Their US Supporters?
42:07 If Israel Lost the US, Who Would Their Other Partner Be?
43:37 What Is the Goal in Iran?
49:00 What Do Israelis Think of the War With Iran?
51:29 How Is Levy Treated While Living in Israel?
56:56 At What Point in History Did Israel Change?

[Shruti @heyshrutimishra]

Elon just created 4,400 millionaires in a single day.

400 of them are now worth over $100 million.

These aren't VCs. They're SpaceX employees, and the list includes welders, technicians, and cafeteria staff, because for two decades the company paid every level of the workforce in stock instead of higher salaries.

Juan Hernandez immigrated from Mexico and took a $28 an hour contractor welding job in 2015. He says he didn't even know what SpaceX was. The company gave him a $10,000 equity grant and let him buy more shares through payroll deductions. That stake is now worth $880,000.

Trevor Hise's parents wanted him to take a stable job at General Electric. He picked SpaceX instead, stayed 12 years, and accumulated over 100,000 shares. At the $135 listing price that's $13.5 million. He's 37 and semiretired. His words: "The magnitude of this has been ridiculous."

The most telling detail came before the listing. Over 100 employees quietly banded together and negotiated a group wealth management deal covering up to $5 billion, because none of them had ever needed a wealth manager before.

Software IPOs have minted millionaires for 30 years. This is the first one where the money went to the factory floor.

[Stijn Baert @Stijn_Baert]

Even nieuwe Statbelcijfers doorgerekend voor arbeidsmarkt: personen met niet-EU-herkomst maken 19% uit van 20- tot 64-jarigen in België, maar wel 38% van alle werklozen in die leeftijdsgroep. Vooral % bij Noord-Afrikaanse herkomst vallen op. Verklaring: https://t.co/Lyzec0wTyT.

[Suppressed News. @SuppressedNws1]

WOW.

AlJazeera just dropped a ONE HOUR documentary about ISRAEL’s CRIMES against the PALESTINIANS.

This is very HARD TO WATCH.

[P @pmossel]

"EU citizens would subsidize mediocre EU companies that would have even less pressure to catch up."

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

It always astonishes me how there is virtually ZERO public debate - or even public awareness - in Europe about the decisions that will most shape ordinary people's lives.

These days, the EU is drafting a new anti-China legal framework where - quite literally - the more affordable and competitive Chinese products are, the more illegal they'd become.

You'd think EU citizens would want to be informed about such things - as it couldn't be more consequential for their prosperity.

Yet I bet virtually no EU citizen is even aware of it, beyond a vague sense that there is some sort of trade dispute going on.

So what's going on exactly? It all centers around a new legal instrument the EU is drafting called the "overcapacity instrument" (https://t.co/mNpCMudYyS).

First of all, the very notion of "overcapacity" is pretty ridiculous to begin with, especially the way it's being defined by the EU, as it basically means being competitive enough to export.

By this definition of "overcapacity," pretty much every European industry that's ever run a trade surplus - German cars, French wine, Italian fashion - has been guilty of "overcapacity."

I'm not even exaggerating: if you read this study by the EU Parliament on "Industrial overcapacities, with a focus on China" (https://t.co/TcwEBoL8mD), they define "overcapacity" as building more capacity than your domestic market can absorb. So the moment you build capacity to export abroad, you're in "overcapacity."

Utterly ridiculous.

And what this "overcapacity instrument" is about is creating a permanent legal mechanism for the EU to block Chinese competition across whole sectors of the economy, if they happen to be in "overcapacity."

In effect, this means that if China is competitive globally in a given sector in such a way that it exports a lot, that's proof of overcapacity, and legally it'd mean that the entire sector can be restricted from the EU market.

Which means it really, factually, is a legal framework where the more affordable and competitive your products are, the more illegal they become.

Which is a CRAZY economic concept! 🤦‍♂️

Please note that it's different from the anti-subsidy legal instrument, which the EU has already put in place in 2023 (the "Foreign Subsidies Regulation": https://t.co/SvPKFyN0zo).

This "overcapacity instrument" would be above and beyond this: it wouldn't even matter if a particular sector was subsidized by the Chinese government or not, the mere fact of its competitiveness in exports would be grounds for restrictions in the EU.

It doesn't take a genius to understand how badly this could impact everyday people: this is European consumers being forced to pay more for worse products by law, so that uncompetitive European firms don't have to improve.

Politicians frame it as avoiding a "China shock 2.0" but really this is choosing an even steeper self-inflicted decline than is already the case, where EU citizens would subsidize mediocre EU companies that would have even less pressure to catch up. It's a hidden tax: subsidies for uncompetitive firms paid by consumers instead of governments, which in turn makes them less incentivized to become competitive.

The first "China shock" did de-industrialize Europe somewhat, but at least it made things cheaper for European consumers. If this becomes Europe's response to a second "China shock" not only it'd make everything more expensive but it'd do nothing for EU industry: you don't become competitive by banning the competition...

Look at China itself: the way it industrialized was NOT by banning Western firms but on the contrary by welcoming them strategically and learning from them. You learn to compete by... competing, duh!

What I find most shocking in all of this isn't even the policy itself - you can make arguments for and against protectionism, and reasonable people can disagree.

What's shocking is that virtually no European media outlet is explaining any of this to the public. This is unarguably one of the single most consequential economic decisions the EU will make this decade, affecting the price of everything, and it's being drafted in near-total silence.

No newspaper is running the headline "EU plans to make Chinese goods illegal if they're too affordable" - even though that's essentially what's happening.

But that's what you call a "democracy" with "freedom of expression" these days apparently...

[sarah @sahouraxo]

BREAKING:

Israel is dropping white phosphorus bombs on civilian areas in the village of Arnoun, Nabatieh, South Lebanon.

These are internationally banned munitions — and Israel is unleashing them against civilians.

[Assaad Razzouk @AssaadRazzouk]

The boring heat pump is obliterating gas demand in Europe: heat pumps will cut 30 bcm of natural gas demand out of European buildings and light industry, each year, by 2030, a permanent structural erasure of gas demand
>30 bcm is about 20% of the entire annual output of the US LNG export infrastructure
>It's also 19% of Qatar’s entire annual global LNG exports, pre Hormuz
>And 80% of the total capacity of Russia's Power of Siberia 1, which ships 38.8 bcm/year to China

In Germany for example, heat pumps have outsold gas boilers for the 1st time in modern history. In the US, they've beaten gas boilers for 4 consecutive years

Every single heat pump is a non-reversible eviction notice for a fossil gas pipe

[🦋Ann Van Haute 🦋 @Anneke172351868]

België: 1 betaalde politicus per 371 inwoners.
Zwitserland: 1 per 1.630 inwoners.

Dat is geen democratie meer, dat is een politieke parasietenindustrie.
In Zwitserland doen de meeste parlementsleden hun job als bijbaan. Ze hebben een écht beroep, betalen zelf belastingen en blijven met beide voeten in de realiteit.
Geen fulltime graaiers die hun hele leven op de overheidsfles leven.
In België hebben we een leger van 10.000+ betaalde mandatarissen die met z’n allen aan de staatskassa hangen.
Van gemeenteraadsleden tot Europarlementsleden, allemaal met riante vergoedingen, pensioenen en extraatjes.
Resultaat?
✅ Zwitserland: lage belastingen, directe democratie, politici met gezond verstand
❌ België: hoogste politieke dichtheid van Europa, torenhoge belastingen en een kloof met de burger die steeds groter wordt
Dit is geen “vertegenwoordiging van het volk”.
Dit is een zelfbedieningsbuffet voor de politieke klasse.

De Zwitsers hebben het begrepen: politiek moet een dienst zijn, geen carrière.

In België blijven wij betalen voor deze
incompetentie.
Tijd om dat systeem eens grondig te ontmantelen.

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

Sky News completely destroys the Zionist regime's primary excuse for bombing Lebanon. The reporter confirms there is absolutely zero evidence of military activity in the civilian homes Israel is obliterating.

Washington is funding pure state terrorism!