Sunday, June 15, 2025

"Europe's top tech hubs: Paris tops London as UK capital startups face funding lows"

From EuroNews, June 13:

Meanwhile, Kyiv is positioning itself as the most important rising star in the European tech ecosystem. 

This year's Global Tech Ecosystem Index has crowned Paris as the top tech hub on the continent.

The report analysed tech talent, innovation and investment in 288 cities and 69 countries.

The French capital also placed fourth in the global ranking, while London ranked 6th.

Cambridge, Munich, Stockholm and Grenoble were the only other European cities to make it to the global top 20....
*****
.... Cambridge shows best talent concentration in Europe

Analysts say the UK has been attracting fewer funds in recent years. Its startups raised just slightly more than €19 billion in 2024, reportedly the lowest amount since 2020.

Nonetheless, the UK remains a driving force of Europe's tech scene.

According to the report, Cambridge has the highest concentration of tech talent in Europe, with an enterprise value of over €162 billion, with a population of just around 150,000 people.

Density leaders are "ecosystems that outperform relative to their population size, showing exceptional innovation output per capita."

"These hubs are marked by high startup activity, research intensity, and strong university linkages, proving that world-class ecosystems can emerge anywhere", says the report....

....MUCH MORE 

Apollo Global Management President James Zelter: "Monetization is going to be more challenging. Returns will be lower"

From Neue Zürcher Zeitung's TheMarket.ch, June 11:

James Zelter expects a negative impact from higher rates for the private equity industry in the coming years. The President of Apollo Global Management sees opportunities in European credit markets and explains where Apollo wants to invest up to 100 bn. $ in Germany over the next decade. 

Deutsche Version

Apollo Global Management is preparing for the next economic downturn by shunning riskier parts of credit markets, says James Zelter. The president of the S&P 500 company has led the expansion of the credit business of Apollo, which today manages more than 600 bn. $, before becoming President and the second highest executive at the firm after CEO Marc Rowan in January.

For private equity, where Apollo has invested a large part of its other more than 150 bn. $ of assets under management, Zelter is more cautious due to high prices paid in the zero interest rate era by some competitors and the high indebtedness of some of their portfolio companies.

Zelter sees the infrastructure and defense investment plans of the new German government as a large opportunity for the firm and its clients. Apollo is looking to deploy up to 100 bn. $ in Germany over the coming decades. In an interview at the sidelines of SuperReturn International 2025 conference in Berlin on June 4, he explained which areas are most attractive from Apollo's view.

Mr Zelter, what is the view on Europe when you discuss with your clients? Do you hear demands for more investment opportunities in Europe and especially in Germany?

I do. The demand to increase exposure is very strong from non-European investors, particularly in the US but also in the Middle East. We are a big player in Europe, we’ve been operating here for almost 25 years. We have more than 100 bn. $ invested across the continent. We’re excited by the domestic changes that are going on by the current administration of leadership in Germany. We are having a lot of very active dialogues about having Apollo be a partner in a variety of financing solutions, much more so on the funding and financing side than the equity side. We think it is a real turning point and opportunity set.

The German infrastructure fund will have 500 bn. € to spend, spread out over ten years. Do you see opportunities to invest alongside that?

Very much so. When I think about the German economy today, it is a little bit above 4 tn. $ in size with aspirations to go to 6 tn. $ over the next decade. We feel that we can be a a major part of that and with the plan that has been put forth. We can see ourselves investing up to 100 bn. $ in Germany over the next decade across debt financing, investment grade and some portion of equity. We are a very active player today and want to expand that.

Which subsectors or areas for investing to you find particularly interesting in Germany?

The whole area of energy transition, energy sustainability and energy transmission. A variety of areas in general industrial businesses. The revitalization of the defense industry. There is a variety of activities.

Are you talking to any local partners about your investing plans?

Germany is fortunate to have a very large domestic Development Bank, the largest on the globe, with an AAA balance sheet and a variety of debt capacity opportunities. So we think we are well positioned and want to be part of this evolution. We have deep relationships with many of the largest banks and serve a large number of German corporates and sponsors.

Where would you invest in the energy sector? In the electricity grid? In electricity generation, or rather storage? What is most attractive?.... 

....MUCH MORE 

Iran Is Struggling To Comprehend What Just Happened

First up, a look at some of the headlines from another of Iran's semi-official news sites, Tasnim News Agency.

Immediately before Israel attacked:
Iran Fully Prepared for Any Scenario, IRGC Chief Warns 

And then:

Iran Attacked by Israeli Regime

Roger that, clock ticking.

Except, the people who would plan and direct Iran's response are dead. 

All of which led to what is perhaps the weakest official statement to ever come out of Tehran, here via the Times of Israel, June 15:

Iran FM says attacks on Israel will end when its ‘aggression stops’; US must condemn Israel to prove goodwill

There is no doubt that when Iran has a deliverable nuclear weapon the Jew-killing will begin at a speed that will make the efforts of the Nazis look amateurish. And that's saying something. As we noted in an April 2021 post:

....fully 25% percent of the Jews killed in the six years of World War II, 1.47 million people, were killed in one bestial ~100 day period: August, September, and October, of 1942. 445,700 murders per month. What the Holocaust scholars refer to as Hyperintense Kill Rates.....

but at the moment the Iranian leadership is reeling. Unfortunately, as we wrote in June 2024 and repeated in September 2024:

Reminder: "War Between Israel and Iran Is Inevitable

Following on the double humiliation of the assassination of Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh in his Tehran guest house in July and the attack of the pagers yesterday, over 3000 wounded from another Iranian proxy Hezbollah, and including the now blind Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amini, a repost from June 26:Just as the Jews mean it when they say "Never again," The Iranians mean it when they say they will destroy, annihilate, eradicate Israel. Some examples after the jump. 

A twofer. First up, the Washington Post, June 19:

Iran signals a major boost in nuclear program at key site
Hundreds of new centrifuges would triple Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity at a deeply buried underground nuclear facility. 

A major expansion underway inside Iran’s most heavily protected nuclear facility could soon triple the site’s production of enriched uranium and give Tehran new options for quickly assembling a nuclear arsenal if it chooses to, according to confidential documents and analysis by weapons experts.

Inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed new construction activity inside the Fordow enrichment plant, just days after Tehran formally notified the nuclear watchdog of plans for a substantial upgrade at the underground facility built inside a mountain in north-central Iran.

And from the Wall Street Journal, June 25, the headliner:

The question is now or later. Strategy argues for now, even if the politics might be better later. 

Israel faces a strategic choice with regard to Iran—war now or war later. The political conditions for war now are poor. The strategic conditions later will only grow worse. 

Iran’s goal is to destroy Israel as a uniquely Jewish state through a strategy of attrition. The mullahs hope to bind Israel in a series of conflicts and pressure it from multiple angles while using diplomacy and media manipulation to prolong the conflict. Tehran understands the potency of Israel’s military, which has adapted well to difficult urban and subterranean combat conditions in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces field formidable air, artillery and armored units that, if unleashed in the north, would threaten the existence of Hezbollah, Iran’s most capable proxy. The Iranian deterrence strategy couples pressure on the U.S. with the threat of large-scale rocket and missile attacks against critical Israeli infrastructure.

Hamas is the most apparent element of Iran’s strategy. Iran wants the terrorist organization not only to maintain control of Gaza but to catapult itself into control of the Palestinian movement. The best way to do that is to compel the Israelis to accept a cosmetically appealing “peace agreement” involving the Arab states that allows Hamas to integrate into the Palestinian Authority and co-opt its necrotic rival, Fatah. The West Bank could then become another axis of pressure on Israel....

....MORE

The absolutely first-rate translators at the Middle East Media Research Institute have been translating the Persian/Farsi threats into English for a very long time:

Israel's Eradication – An Ideological And Practical Goal Of Iran's Islamic Revolution Regime

....Iranian Regime Officials On Destroying Israel – From Previous Years 

As noted, the policy of Israel's destruction is a central tenet of the Islamic regime's ideology, and it has been expressed consistently since the founding of the regime. The following are some examples of such expressions, from previous MEMRI reports:

And more recently, August 5, 2024 - Iran: "Advisor to IRGC Commander: Zionist Regime Will Not See 80th Birthday, Heavy Blow Awaiting It"

Inevitable.

The last shot will be fired from one of the Israeli submarines, destroying Tehran.

But before that another six million Jews will die and Israel will have ceased to exist.

Saturday, June 14, 2025

"Iran says production at world’s largest gas field partly suspended after Israeli attack"

From Reuters via Singapore's Straits Times, June 15:

TEHRAN - Iran has partially suspended gas production at the world's biggest gas field after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on June 14, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, in what would be the first Israeli strike on Iran's oil and gas sector.

Iran shares the South Pars gas field with Qatar. Striking it would mark a major escalation in the conflict, which had already pushed oil prices up 9 per cent on June 13 even though Israel spared Iran’s oil and gas on the first day of its attacks.

Israel launched an air offensive against Iran on June 13, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites in a stated bid to stop Tehran building an atomic weapon.

The South Pars field is located offshore in Iran's southern Bushehr province and is responsible for the lion's share of gas production in Iran, the world's third largest gas producer after the United States and Russia....

....MORE 

Iran uses the gas internally but probably won't be buying gas on the world market to replace the lost production. 
Although with President Trump in deal-making mode, who knows.

"Israel attempts to assassinate Houthi military chief in Yemen airstrike"

First up, a quick hit from Israel's Ynet news, June 14: 

IDF strike aimed at Mohammed Abd al-Karim al-Ghamari may have hit high-level Houthi meeting in Sanaa; outcome unknown...

....MORE 

And from Jordan's Al Bawaba, also June 14:

Was Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi killed in Israeli attack? 

Israel announced a new operation targeting a high-profile personality in Yemen, Israeli media revealed on Saturday night.

The Israeli Army announced that the airstrike in Yemen on Saturday night was an attempt to assassinate Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, The Jerusalem Post said.

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi is a Yemeni politician and religious leader who has been the second and current leader of the Houthis, who previously carried out attacks against Israel in support of the Palestinians following the Oct. 7 war....

....MUCH MORE 

Caitlyn Jenner Got Bombed In Israel

From the Times of Israel, June 13/14:

Caitlyn Jenner drinks wine in bomb shelter amid Iran’s missile attack 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtWEZwYXkAAygoz?format=jpg&name=large 

Caitlyn Jenner, who came to Israel for the Tel Aviv Pride Parade, was pictured drinking a glass of wine in a bomb shelter with an Israeli influencer amid Iran’s massive ballistic missile attack.

In a post on X, Jenner writes, “‘Quiet’ night in Tel Aviv. Pray for us all. We will prevail. I am happy to stand with Israel today, now more than ever.”

The pride parade was cancelled due to the ongoing conflict with the Islamic Republic....

...MORE 

"The furniture fraud who hoodwinked the Palace of Versailles"

From the BBC, June 6:

In the early 2010s, two ornate chairs said to have once belonged on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles appeared on the French antiques market.

Thought to be the most expensive chairs made for Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France's Ancien Régime, they were stamped with the seal of Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot, a celebrated cabinet maker who worked in Paris in the 1700s.

A significant find, the pair were declared "national treasures" by the French government in 2013, at the request of Versailles.

The palace, which displays such items in its vast museum collection, expressed an interest in buying the chairs but the price was deemed too dear.

They were instead sold to Qatari Prince Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani for an eye-watering €2m (£1.67m).

A remarkable number of items of 18th Century royal furniture have appeared on the antiques market in the past few years.

Other items included another set of chairs purported to have sat in one of Marie Antoinette's chambers in Versailles; a separate pair said to have belonged to Madame du Barry, King Louis XV's mistress; the armchair of King Louis XVI's sister, Princess Élisabeth; and a pair of ployants – or stools – that belonged to the daughter of King Louis XV, Princess Louise Élisabeth.

Most of these were bought by Versailles to display in its museum collection, while one chair was sold to the wealthy Guerrand-Hermès family.

But in 2016, this assortment of royal chairs would become embroiled in a national scandal that would rock the French antiques world, bringing the trade into disrepute.

The reason? The chairs were in fact all fakes.

The scandal saw one of France's leading antiques experts, Georges "Bill" Pallot, and award-winning cabinetmaker, Bruno Desnoues, put on trial on charges of fraud and money laundering following a nine-year investigation.

Galerie Kraemer and its director, Laurent Kraemer, were also accused of deception by gross negligence for selling on some of the chairs – something they both deny.

All three defendants are set to appear at a court in Pontoise, near Paris, on Wednesday, following a trial in March. Mr Pallot and Mr Desnoues have admitted to their crimes, while Mr Kraemer and his gallery dispute the charge of deception by gross negligence.

It started as a 'joke'
Considered the top scholar on French 18th-Century chairs, having written the authoritative book on the subject, Mr Pallot was often called upon by Versailles, among others, to give his expert opinion on whether historical items were the real deal. He was even called as an expert witness in French courts when there were doubts about an item's authenticity.

His accomplice, Mr Desnoues, was a decorated cabinetmaker and sculptor who had won a number of prestigious awards, including best sculptor in France in 1984, and had been employed as the main restorer of furniture at Versailles.

Speaking in court in March, Mr Pallot said the scheme started as a "joke" with Mr Desnoues in 2007 to see if they could replicate an armchair they were already working on restoring, that once belonged to Madame du Barry.

Masters of their crafts, they managed the feat, convincing other experts that it was a chair from the period.

And buoyed by their success, they started making more.

Describing how they went about constructing the chairs, the two told the court how Mr Pallot sourced wood frames at various auctions for low prices, while Mr Desnoues aged wood at his workshop to make others.

They were then sent for gilding and upholstery, before Mr Desnoues added designs and a wood finish. He attached stamps from some of the great furniture-workers of the 18th Century, which were either faked or taken from real furniture of the period.

Once they were finished, Mr Pallot sold them through middlemen to galleries like Kraemer and one he himself worked at, Didier Aaron. They would then get sold onto auction houses such as Sotheby's of London and Drouot of Paris.

"I was the head and Desnoues was the hands," Mr Pallot told the court smilingly.

"It went like a breeze," he added. "Everything was fake but the money."

Prosecutors allege the two men made an estimated profit of more than €3m off the forged chairs – though Mr Pallot and Mr Desnoues estimated their profits to be around €700,000. The income was deposited in foreign bank accounts, prosecutors said.

Lawyers representing Versailles told the BBC that Mr Pallot, a lecturer at the Sorbonne, managed to deceive the institution because of his "privileged access to the documentation and archives of Versailles and the Louvre Museum as part of his academic research".

A statement from lawyer Corinne Hershkovitch's team said that, thanks to Mr Pallot's "thorough knowledge" of the inventories of royal furniture recorded as having existed at Versailles in the 18th Century, he was able to determine which items were missing from collections and to then make them with the help of Mr Desnoues....

....MUCH MORE 

The two were facing a uniquely French risk: comparison with the inventory of the Strategic Furniture Reserve. From May Day 2020 (very covidian):

"France to sell off state furniture to help support its hard-pushed hospitals"

Oh man, there's a desk in the Élysée I've had my eye on for a while.

Just as China has their Strategic Pork Reserve, France has their Strategic Furniture Reserve. It is rumored to contain millions of pieces beyond the official count but no one has actually seen the inventory sheets, kept under lock and key in the Bastille....

**** 

I suppose we can let the Rothschild banker keep the desk if he really, really wants it.
I like the office though. 

https://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20181215_EUP003_1.jpg
Credit: The Economist
 
And later that year:
I don't know if this idea will fly with the French people.
I mean, the government is already going to dip into the Strategic Furniture Reserve and sell off a few things—although probably not the desk I've been looking at.
Maybe better to pledge the pretty picture as collateral for a 500 billion euro loan from the ECB.
If France can get a negative interest rate the loan should be self-liquidating sometime later in the millennium.
Previously (2018): 

"The Megaproject Economy"

From Palladium Magazine, June 1:

The world’s most industrially productive society is South Korea. With 50 million people packed into a territory the size of tiny Iceland, South Korea is, of course, outproduced on an absolute scale by many far more populous countries like the United States or China. But, per person, no country produces as many automobiles, ships, and tons of steel as South Korea does. Per worker, it has more industrial robots installed in its factories than any other country, more than twice as many as second-ranked Germany and five times as many as the U.S. The only major countries that use more energy or electricity per capita than South Korea are the U.S., Canada, and Sweden. If Taiwan didn’t exist, South Korea would also be the world’s foremost per capita manufacturer of both advanced and everyday semiconductors, at least ten times more productive than the U.S. or Japan, who currently occupy distant third places. South Korea also exports electronics, medicines, tanks, aircraft parts, and nuclear reactors.

No matter the scale or complexity, it seems like there is nothing South Koreans cannot figure out how to produce at a rate that puts the rest of the world to shame—with the notable exception of human beings, of which South Korea currently manages to produce only about 0.75 per woman, one of the lowest, least productive rates in the world. At this rate, in three generations, the newest generation of South Koreans would be 96% smaller than the current one. A future South Korea of 5 million rather than 50 million people is highly unlikely to be as exceptionally industrially productive as it is today.

The systems of both material and social technology we rely on to deliver our modern standards of living explicitly and implicitly assume large and growing populations, including to make many crucial economies of scale viable. They were neither designed nor intended to function with rapidly aging and declining populations. South Korea isn’t as great an outlier as it might seem. The U.S. generation of three generations from now would be 47% smaller than the current one at current fertility rates, and China, Russia, Japan, and the European Union are all worse off than that.

Why global fertility rates have widely, structurally declined to below replacement since the 19th century is a question that, still, nobody has a decisively persuasive answer to. But it is difficult not to tie the trend, somehow, to the inner workings or consequences of the unprecedented industrial societies we have built in roughly the same period. A rising supply of energetic human labor, not just physical but also mental, clerical, and intellectual, has always been a key prerequisite to and driver of industrial and technological progress. Without industrial production, there is no technological capability to speak of, no abundance of wealth, and no mass prosperity.

Slipping Down Into a Dark Age

Even if birth rates in industrialized countries magically recovered overnight, a great degree of aging and population shrinkage is already baked in. Even if this baked-in amount proves not to be outright ruinous, even if some industrial societies manage to muddle along with roughly equivalent populations and standards of living, this outcome would negate the legitimizing narrative of continuous progress and probably foreclose on achieving ambitious dreams like colonizing the Solar System or achieving untold material abundance for the whole world this century. By default, it looks like industrial civilization is abolishing itself.

A common rebuttal is that advances in automation and artificial intelligence have made human labor obsolete, so there is no need to worry about a graying and shrinking humanity, since robots will inevitably take over where humans cannot and, even, do a better job. There are two problems with this argument. First, while automation is a replacement for human labor at the level of a single factory, at the level of a civilization it is not a replacement for human labor, but a force multiplier. A society with a billion workers and a high degree of automation is extremely likely to be far wealthier and more technologically capable than not just a society with a billion workers and a low degree of automation, but also a society of one hundred million and an equal degree of automation. If we conceive of artificial intelligence as a form of automation for mental, clerical, or intellectual labor, the exact same logic applies. The purpose of automation is not inherently to mitigate the negative effects of demographic decline; defining it that way is a cope. The greatest period of automation in history, the Industrial Revolution, also saw unprecedented demographic growth.

Second, insofar as artificial intelligence is not just another form of automation but the introduction of autonomous, generally-intelligent minds capable of matching or even outdoing human genius, agency, and ingenuity, the problem is not even that this remains totally speculative from a technological standpoint, but that, philosophically, it amounts to saying that it is so difficult to get human beings to reproduce under modern techno-industrial conditions that it would be easier to just get rid of them entirely and replace them with artificial human beings. If you care about humanity, then this is not a persuasive argument.

The social niche this argument occupies is not that of a self-confident vision justified earnestly on its clear and universally-recognized merits, but that of a furtive excuse and accounting trick whose assumptions and implications would be widely rejected if they were thoroughly appreciated. “Degrowth” environmentalism effectively proposes that the solution to industrial civilization’s problems is to simply abolish industry while keeping humanity; this is increasingly and accurately recognized as the actual proposition behind the school of thought, and rightly rejected due to the inevitable, self-imposed impoverishment that would follow. Along the same lines, some of the most committed believers in the potential of artificial intelligence are effectively proposing to solve industrial civilization by abolishing humanity while keeping industry.

Neither of these visions actually solve for the desirable outcome of not just maintaining but growing both humanity and industry. One must always ask what undesirable outcome a cope serves to obscure. If we imagine our industrial societies continue on their default trajectories for ten years, then fifty years, then one hundred years, then two hundred years—without inserting speculative total paradigm shifts from environmental collapse, artificial intelligence, or something else—we can imagine societies that, bit by bit, get older, smaller, poorer, more sclerotic, more ineffective, and more riven by more petty political conflict. These societies would slowly lose capabilities they previously had and, if not for the fact they now constitute all of the relevant societies on the planet, we might even say they would become more irrelevant over time....

....MUCH MORE 

"The Car of the Future Will Transform the Great American Road Trip"

This piece starts out lighthearted but then takes a very invasive turn.*

From the Wall Street Journal, June 7:

As self-driving cars become more of a possibility, companies are exploring designs that enhance travel experiences 

https://images.wsj.net/im-07542847?width=1280&size=1.333&pixel_ratio=1.5 

Revamped navigation systems will plan your ideal route, make hotel reservations and even teach you about the surrounding geography. Car interiors could transform into a mobile movie theater. And lie-flat massaging seats will activate during endless highway stretches.

As self-driving cars become more of a possibility, companies are exploring vehicles that break design convention, sans forward-facing seats, steering wheels or dashboards, allowing for enhanced in-car travel experiences.

“We’re looking at hands-on experiences that offer the best of both worlds, where you can have the ultimate luxury of being chauffeured, and still have that visceral experience of travel and all the information you want and need,” says Bryan Nesbitt, head of global design at Cadillac.

Cadillac is already dipping its toes in experiential designs. Nesbitt and his team recently debuted a trio of concepts: a tapered two-person grand tourer, with bed-like seats and a shared curved screen for long weekends away; a boxy six-person recreational vehicle for exploring nature and socializing with friends; and a single-person, vertical takeoff-and-landing vehicle for accessing hard-to-reach locales.

Artificial-intelligence-powered onboard technology could play a key role, allowing for passengers to merge their digital life with their on-the-road experience. That means “your content, your media and your personal preferences will be more deeply integrated into the vehicle,” says Patrick Brady, vice president for Google’s automotive efforts. 

“Your mobile phone will be the center of your digital ecosystem, and will seamlessly transition that information to connect and personalize experiences for each occupant,” he says. 

Some notable concerns may have to be mitigated before these changes take place. “Cars are designed for safety and visibility, and current regulation is organized around this,” says Alan Macey, associate chair of undergraduate transportation design at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. “Autonomy could significantly redefine what a vehicle looks like, and could privilege social interaction, comfort or other things. But impact and safety standards for these cars would presumably need to change.” 

Here’s how automakers are reimagining road trips:

Navigating the roads

Contemporary navigation systems excel at finding the quickest path from point A to B. But on a road trip, speed isn’t the only variable. Passengers want more freedom in how they make their journey.

“Kind of like an audio equalizer, we’ll have presets for different genres—the scenic route, the direct route, the offbeat route—but you can also go in and customize it,” says Cadillac’s Nesbitt.

Spot an interesting landmark? Your navigation system will be able to tell you all about it.

“You pass a historical marker, a mountain, an interesting building or a restaurant, and because it will see what you see, it will be able to, without you saying the name of the object, tell you about them,” says Google’s Brady. 

Externally mounted cameras integrated into the car’s safety systems could project real-time images for passengers to see, alongside reviews or historical details about roadside sites pulled from the internet, according to Brady. The windshield, embedded with augmented-reality capabilities, could act as the screen. 

And motion-tracking wearables like rings or wristbands, or sensors that recognize gestures or eye movements, could allow passengers to interact directly with the projected information.

As passengers pass time onboard, generative AI could help them find the perfect lunch spot or route because it will be able to understand conversational speech. “You could say, ‘Find a Mexican restaurant along my route with good vegan options and fast service that’s near an EV charging station,’” says Brady. “Or, ‘I’m driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles, plan scenic stops every hour.’”

AI could even generate immersive virtual street-by-street views of an entire road trip itinerary before departing so travelers can familiarize themselves with their plans, says Brady. “We’ve been mapping the world for years, so you can feel the vibe of the place before you go, or understand your route in advance.”

Or, conceivably, passengers could skip the drive and just experience the whole trip from home on a VR headset. “You could actually imagine yourself walking down a street in your destination, if you want to,” Brady says. 

Wellness treatment onboard
Luxury automakers are already trying to garner a share of the $500 billion annual American wellness market, with seats that massage and provide kinesthetic routines to help reduce fatigue. When cars drive themselves, these opportunities will increase.

With high-quality audio, surrounding screens, scent atomizers and lie-flat seats, the car could become “a place for cocooning” on the road, so occupants are well-rested when they arrive at their destination, says Joern Freyer, vice president of user interface and user experience for BMW.

Vehicles of the future will also offer ways to monitor your health. In-seat biometric sensors could track heart rate and attentiveness and then provide prompts to relax or meditate. They could even detect symptoms of a heart attack or stroke, and automatically provide warnings, pull the car over, or alert the authorities, says Freyer. In fact, his team is currently collaborating with a Berlin hospital to develop such a concept.

“We are looking to find ways to learn with in-car sensors to detect these health markers very early, and avoid situations where someone gets unconscious or has a health crisis and then a very critical accident occurs,” he says.

AI-endowed vehicles could locate fueling stations with robotic chargers or gas pumps, so occupants can sleep through pit stops, says Macey of the ArtCenter College of Design. He cautions, however, against including toilets in road-trip vehicles. “There’s a lot of baggage that comes along with that,” he says.... 

....MUCH MORE 
 

And:
Behavioral Science: "Designing Transport for Humans, Not Econs"

 Our boilerplate introduction to one-half of this writing duo:

Readers who have been with us for a while know I get a kick out of Ogilvy's Rory Sutherland. He's a first rate marketer and enough of a behavioural scientist to be able to hold his own in conversation with Kahneman.
Additionally, he holds, along with Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger, that most nebulous of corporate titles: Vice-Chairman.

And here is the mini-bio for the other half of the team:

Pete Dyson was a member of Ogilvy’s behavioral science practice from 2013 to 2020. In 2020, he joined the UK Department for Transport as principal behavioral scientist, tasked with the Covid-19 response, sustainable behavior change, and internal capability building. is also a semi-professional Ironman triathlete and in 2021 broke the record for the fastest non-stop cycle from Land’s End to London. He is the author of Transport for Humans (with Rory Sutherland).

From Behavioral Scientist, November 16, 2021....

And May 2025's "The unsayable case for cars". 
*I have a simple measure of what's invasive. From 2017's ""Facebook Wants to Help You Communicate Directly From Your Brain via Non-Invasive Sensors" (FB)"
I once had a urologist tell me that sticking a camera up my urethra was the non-invasive approach.

Afterwards I felt I had maybe been on the wrong end of an "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" dissimulation....

"You’ve Heard of Fine Wine. Now Meet Fine Water."

Speaking of that "discerning, higher-paying clientele" (post immediately below)

Been there, done that.*

From the New York Times, June 9:

Bottled waters from small, pristine sources are attracting a lot of buzz, with tastings, sommeliers and even water cellars

I recently spent 90 minutes watching six very serious people taste 107 varieties of mineral water. 

Each container was hidden under a cloth bag, its contents dispensed by small pours into wine glasses. The judges swished and gazed thoughtfully into the middle distance. They dumped the excess into buckets at their feet and joked about needing a bathroom. They gave each water a score between 90 and 100, in a modified Robert Parker style.

The comparison to paint drying might seem obvious. But like a Magic Eye poster, the nuances of fine water become clear if you spend enough time with it.

Fine water — the preferred term of its growing cadre of enthusiasts — is as much like that plastic bottle of water in your car-cup holder as Château d’Yquem is to Gatorade. The taste is distinct to a place, rich with minerals it picked up as it traveled to the surface of the earth. The fine-water crowd shuns giants like Perrier and Acqua Panna, both owned by Nestlé. Fine water has a better story. 

Winners at the April tasting, part of the ninth annual Fine Waters taste and design awards in Atlanta, included melt​ed snow that had been filtered through Peruvian volcanic rock, and deep-sea water that had been pumped up 80 miles off the coast of South Korea. There was water gathered from nets hung in a misty Tasmanian pine forest, and a Texas brand laced with lithium called Crazy Water

Like coffee and beer, natural water is enjoying a third wave, especially among the alcohol-shunning Generation Z, which has primed its palate on seltzers like LaCroix and is looking to level up. It’s also gaining traction among the wellness crowd, which has grown increasingly skeptical of municipal tap water and purified water in plastic bottles.

Hotels are adding precisely designed water bars. Home wine cellars have become water cellars, where children are encouraged to select bottles with their parents. Water sommelier programs continue to grow. And of course, water influencers gather more and more followers.

“It’s elevating water away from hydration and turning water into an experience similar to wine or other alcohol​,” said Michael Mascha, ​67, who formed Fine Waters in 2002. The organization has grown to include a coalition of smaller producers, and is considered the global standard setter for judging fine water. “If you pay attention, the world opens up to you. If you think water’s just water, you are missing out.”

America’s modern embrace of fine water started later than most other countries’. The first wave began in the 19th century, when people “took the waters” in places like Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The second might be pinned to the 1970s, when the chic and the famous took up drinking Perrier.
In the latest wave, the attraction is as much about terroir and narrative as it is about taste and health.... 

....MUCH MORE 
*Previously on "God is saying you have too much money":
"Iskilde from Denmark is a great water for a vegetarian mushroom dish because it has earthy taste notes. Beverly Hills 90H20 is the perfect pairing for a seasonal salad because it will cut through the acidity of a vinaigrette dressing and help balance out the flavors."
Yes, ma'am, the Satan's Saliva small barrel Special Reserve sauce is made from Scotch Bonnet peppers grown exclusively on a tiny island off the coast of Antigua, a larger island.

The peppers are picked at the peak of their short lives to ensure the characteristic citrus and battery acid top notes contrast with the charred peat and road tar bottom to create a complex tease, flamboyant enough to be called the scamp of the vineyard pepper pot but finishing as cigar box and C4.

In case of overdose the usual cold milk treatment is insufficient and one should go deeper into the butterfat realm, whipping cream at minimum, preferably a hunk of cream cheese to gnaw on as you search for the nearest burn unit.

Perfect when paired with artisanal small batch lard or any of the kicky tallows now making the scene. 
Now back to work.
Or does this type of mockery make me the snob?
Entering that wilderness of mirrors is the slow road to snooty madness so I'll just answer 'no'.   

Infrastructure: "Wall Street Is Investing Billions in Marinas for Bigger Yachts"

From Bloomberg, June 12:

Blackstone and others pledge to improve aging boatyards amid fears that rising slip fees are pricing out the middle class.

On a rainy spring morning, Jack Brewer is watching workers prep boats for another season on Long Island Sound. In a world where yachts can stretch longer than a football field, the marina is relatively modest, handling boats that would max out at the 20-yard line. Here in the New York suburb of Mamaroneck, even the smaller craft are refined: bespoke Hinckleys, built in Maine with gleaming teak; powerboats bursting with the newest technology; and low-slung sailboats whose Italian designers relied on an older science in their pursuit of speed.

Brewer, 84, started his business in 1964, back when this property wasn’t much to speak of. “Most marinas were muddy gunk holes,” he says. “They were not a place to bring your wife and kids.” He spent his career buying similar properties, fixing them up and appealing to a more discerning, higher-paying clientele.

By the time he retired, Brewer had assembled a collection of 30 marinas along the Eastern Seaboard, including this one, his first, on Post Road, named after the mail route that’s connected New York City and Boston since colonial times. He was one of the first consolidators in this mom-and-pop industry. Some 9,000 US marinas generate a total of almost $8 billion a year, from renting slips, repairing boats or selling fuel and meals to those anchoring down for a few hours or a few nights, according to researcher IBISWorld.

Lately, some of the biggest companies on Wall Street are following in his footsteps. Their investment thesis: Most marinas don’t meet the needs of the modern boater, who’s willing to pay more for more. Many marina owners can barely afford the rising costs of insurance and labor, let alone pay for new floating docks or harbor dredging. New investors are betting they can roll up properties, make improvements and increase rent—especially because the number of marinas seems to shrink every year.

More than 30 investment firms, including publicly traded companies and family offices, are scouting for marinas, according to Andrew Cantor, a managing director at real estate company Colliers International Group Inc. Carlyle Group, Kuwait-linked Wafra and Koch Industries’ real estate arm have bought and sold marinas in recent years. (Koch Industries has since changed its name to Koch.) So has Centerbridge Partners LP, which backs Suntex Marina Investors LLC, a Dallas-based outfit that already owns about 100 marinas and is looking for more. Suntex considered an initial public offering in 2022 that would have valued it at more than $3 billion but dropped the idea because of the impact of rising interest rates on the market.

Another Dallas-based company, Safe Harbor Marinas, is the biggest of all. It had bought Brewer’s operation in 2017 and, in May, was itself acquired by a behemoth: Blackstone Inc. The firm paid $5.65 billion for Safe Harbor, the largest transaction by far in an industry where perhaps 100 properties change hands in a typical year. Blackstone got 138 marinas, including a Safe Harbor in West Palm Beach, Florida, known for hosting the kind of superyachts favored by billionaires.

Now, Blackstone plans to continue the work that Brewer started, according to people familiar with its strategy. It wants to acquire more marinas in the US and possibly in Europe, where Safe Harbor has none. And it plans to improve existing properties, widening and lengthening slips to accommodate bigger boats or adding infrastructure and amenities that their more upscale clients require. “Our customers’ needs have evolved as boats have grown in size and complexity,” Baxter Underwood, Safe Harbor’s chief executive officer, said in an email. “We must continue investing into our marinas to meet the shifting demands of the members we serve.”

The new corporate operators are changing the down-home, Jimmy Buffett vibe of many marinas. In the summer of 2014, Mike Melillo wanted to cruise from Newport to Block Island off the Rhode Island coast. He spent a day calling a marina repeatedly but failed to get an operator on the phone, so he canceled the trip and booked a tee time at a golf course instead. When the marina finally called him back, he discovered the property had been relying on two college kids as dockhands who came in late after a long night drinking.

Sensing opportunity, he founded Dockwa, a company that handles online booking and other services for more than 1,200 marinas, giving Melillo a good view of the kinds of inefficiencies that are attracting investors. One big one: the service Melillo was originally seeking, a slip for a one-day stay, as opposed to the long-term rentals that are the industry’s bread and butter. About 60% of the marinas on Dockwa keep the price of a short-term booking static from year to year instead of adjusting rates to account for rising demand, as is standard in the hotel industry. For now, even high-end marinas might charge $250 a night for a 50-foot boat, less than many hotels in fancy resort areas....

....MUCH MORE 

Everyone is courting that "discerning, higher-paying clientele." And the discerning bit is optional.

Friday, June 13, 2025

"Super-rich Russians plan big party on North Pole"

From the Barents Observer, June 13:

Rock band Leningrad will perform and popular DJs, stand-up comedians and fitness celebrities will entertain. A group of well-connected Russians will on August 21 board the French luxury yacht Le Commandant Charcot in the Norwegian Arctic port of Longyearbyen and head into the sea ice. 

https://image.thebarentsobserver.com/431395.webp?imageId=431395&width=2116&height=1208&format=webp 

Judging from information from Neverend, a Moscow-based travel and adventure company, the expedition cruise ship will be full of Russian hotshots.

It will set out from Longyearbyen at Svalbard on August 21 and sail all the way to the geographic North Pole.

Among the travelers are billionaires, showbiz celebs and TV personalities. Several of them are known for shady connections and dubious corporate interests....

....MUCH MORE 

Previously on  Le Commandant Charcot:

June 2019
"French Cruise Ship Set to Travel to North Pole in 2021" 

This does not seem like a good idea.
Not at all....

*****
...With other types of eco-tourism you can at least make the rationalization that the tourists will spend some money in what are usually pretty poor places. Not on board a boat in the middle of the ice pack though.

And speaking of money, there's the issue of how big a rescue bond should be posted—$10 million might prove to be insufficient depending on the complexity of the rescue.

One positive, with the LNG powertrains they won't be spewing carbon particulates onto the ice, something the Chinese coal-fired power plants do with awful effects on the albedo of the great white north. (Russia burning heavy fuel oil up there doesn't help)

You need the ice.
So the polar bears can walk out to nosh on passengers should the boat get stuck for too long.

Here's Ponant's homepage for Le Commandant Charcot, it does look fascinating.

September 2019
Oh Good Grief: "Arctic tours ship M/S MALMO with 16 passengers on board got stuck in ice"
From Maritime Bulletin, September 4:
Arctic tours ship MS MALMO with 16 passengers on board got stuck in ice on Sep 3 off Longyearbyen, Svalbard Archipelago, halfway between Norway and North Pole. The ship is on Arctic tour with Climate Change documentary film team, and tourists, concerned with Climate Change and melting Arctic ice....MORE
August 2023
"French cruise ship makes rendezvous with Russian nuclear icebreaker near North Pole"
If there is any icebreaker in the world to have nearby as you cruise to the North Pole it is the "50 Years of Victory." There are other newer, heavier icebreakers but the big Russian ship was built to get to the North Pole if need be, in winter.....

I may purloin the phrase "... known for shady connections and dubious corporate interests.

There are some people to which it would apply, perfectly. 

"Cyber weapons in the Israel-Iran conflict may hit the US"

From The Register, June 13:

With Tehran’s military weakened, digital retaliation likely, experts tell The Reg 

The current Israel–Iran military conflict is taking place in the era of hybrid war, where cyberattacks amplify and assist missiles and troops, and is being waged between two countries with very capable destructive cyber weapons.

Iran is widely expected to retaliate against Israel's missile strikes with cyber operations — and these could extend to American targets, according to cyber warfare experts and threat analysts.

"I would expect there to be a cyber component of both the Israeli and Iranian activities," former White House advisor Michael Daniel told The Register

Daniel, who now leads the threat-intel sharing nonprofit Cyber Threat Alliance, said both countries "have the capability to conduct a range of activities, from fully reversible DDoS [distributed denial-of-service] attacks, which could disrupt online services temporarily, to destructive wiper attacks. At the very least, I am sure both sides are using cyber capabilities to conduct espionage and reconnaissance."  

While cyber espionage began well before Israel's June 13 strikes on Iran's nuclear sites and military commanders, the worry is that Iran may launch destructive cyberattacks now that its military capabilities have been dealt a serious blow.

"Iranian cyber activity has not been as extensive outside of the Middle East but could shift in light of the military actions," Google threat intelligence group chief analyst John Hultquist said in an email sent to The Register. "Iranian cyber espionage activity already targets the US government, military, and political [sector], but new activity may threaten privately owned critical infrastructure, or even private individuals."....

....MUCH MORE 

Questions America Wants Answered: "Will Strong TASER Demand Continue to Guide Axon's Connected Devices Unit?" (AXON)

On a generally down day for U.S. equities (e.g. DJIA -848.37) AXON is up $2.45 (+0.32%) at $777.65.

From Zacks via Yahoo Finance, June 12:

Axon Enterprise, Inc. AXON is expanding its footprint in the public safety technology space, with the Connected Devices segment playing an important role in overall growth. In the first quarter of 2025, the segment’s revenues surged 26.1% year over year, reflecting strong momentum across its product lines.

The ongoing demand for TASER devices is the core component of the segment’s success. AXON continues to benefit from the rising popularity of its next-generation TASER 10 products, which began shipping in 2023. Revenues from TASER devices increased $30.9 million year over year in the first quarter, driven by the higher volume of TASER 10 handles and cartridges.

Solid demand for virtual reality training services and counter drone equipment continues to support the segment’s growth. Axon launched the next-generation body-worn camera, Axon Body 4, in April 2023, which has added momentum as well. Equipped with enhanced features such as a bi-directional communication facility and a point-of-view camera module option, the product is generating strong customer demand, thus bolstering the segment’s growth. The Connected Devices unit is also benefiting from increased warranty revenues from a higher volume of deployed devices in the field.

With rising global security concerns, including increasing instances of terrorism and criminal activities, demand for advanced public safety technologies is expected to remain strong. These trends are likely to support the ongoing demand for Axon’s Connected Devices portfolio, positioning the segment well for sustained momentum in the quarters ahead...

....MUCH MORE 

I'll be hanging around the face-painting booth at tomorrow's big protest. Bring a bottle of water for a marginally effective teargas eyewash. 

"China’s transition from lead bilateral banker to chief debt collector of the developing world"

We usually visit the Lowy Interpreter, here we go to the main site.

From Australia's Lowy Institute, May 2025:

Peak repayment: China’s global lending 

Soaring debt repayments and a sharp reduction in lending have transformed China’s role in developing country finances from capital provider to debt collector. Mounting pressures from Chinese debts are especially severe for many of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries. A retrenchment in Western aid and trade is compounding these challenges while undermining any geopolitical advantage for the West.

Key findings

  • In 2025, the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries will make record high debt repayments totalling $22 billion to China. Beijing has transitioned from capital provider to net financial drain on developing country budgets as debt servicing costs on Belt and Road Initiative projects from the 2010s now far outstrip new loan disbursements.

  • China continues to finance strategic and resource-critical partners despite a broader collapse in its global lending. The largest recipients of new lending include immediate neighbours, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia, and developing countries that are critical mineral or battery metal exporters, such as Argentina, Brazil, Congo DR, and Indonesia.

  • China is grappling with a dilemma of its own making: it faces growing diplomatic pressure to restructure unsustainable debt, and mounting domestic pressure to recover outstanding debts, particularly from its quasi-commercial institutions. But a retrenchment in Western aid and trade is compounding difficulties for developing countries while squandering any geopolitical advantage for the West.

....MUCH MORE 

Meanwhile, In Britain: 'Drunk' pair 'are caught in car park trying to steal a bike' - unaware it was part of the Uk's highest security spy HQ

From the Daily Mail, June 13: 

Police detained two men they suspected were trying to steal a bicycle while unaware of being right next to the UK's highest security spy HQ.

The two men, said to be heading towards a supermarket to buy alcohol for a party, were detained by armed officers in Cheltenham.

The arrests came close to GCHQ's main British base dubbed 'The Doughnut'.

The ring-shaped headquarters is home to the nation's leading codebreakers and cyber-security analysts, surrounded by razor-wire fences, CCTV and guards.

One of the suspects has now told of being sent to a nearby Asda supermarket by fellow party-goers.

He described being nominated as the most sober of the group, before being detained.

He and a fellow suspect were caught after believing they could take a short cut through a car park, it has been reported.

Painter and decorator Terry White, 47, told the Sun: 'As I told the cops, all I wanted to do was buy a few cans.

'It looked like a normal car park. There was a barrier, but it was raised and there were no warnings or signs.

'I'm born and bred in Cheltenham so I've always been aware of GCHQ. But I had no idea this car park was part of it.'....

....MUCH MORE 

"The Symbolic Power of Burning Waymo Robotaxis"

It used to be a a general guideline among higher-functioning dementos that you should make some effort to conceal how anti-social/depraved you actually are. But, like so many such guides to propriety/criminality it seems to no longer be taught.

From The New Republic's Climate vertical, June 12:

It’s no accident that the vehicles that got torched during the Los Angeles protests were driverless cars. 

Thousands of National Guard troops are now deployed on the streets of America’s second-largest city, armed with rubber bullets, tear gas, and automatic weapons. They’re officially tasked with protecting federal agents, who are, without warrants, kidnapping people of all ages from court hearings, churches, schools, convenience stores, hospitals, and street corners, on orders to arrest 3,000 per day nationwide. Without due process, those snatched up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be disappeared into its secretive network of detention centers and flown to a hellish Salvadoran prison or to countries they’ve never visited. Seven hundred U.S. Marines are standing by to join them this week on the streets of Los Angeles.

It seems silly, in this context, when the stakes are so high, to talk about Waymo, a robotaxi company most of the country doesn’t know exists because its driverless, for-hire electric vehicles operate only in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, and Phoenix. It is silly. But Waymo has popped up repeatedly in press coverage of the government’s ongoing mass abduction operation, which has left children orphaned, and the sizable protests that began in L.A. and have started spreading around the country. That’s because protesters destroyed some of the cars. It’s not clear exactly how many have been torched and graffitied. Time counted six as of Tuesday. Waymo has suspended service around the area where protests are happening and has not commented on how much of its fleet of 300 electric vehicles in Los Angeles was damaged.

There’s no telling precisely why protesters have targeted Waymos in recent days; people tend not to publicly volunteer explanations for their illegal activities. But there are any number of possible practical and political reasons why they might. Some taking to the streets have reportedly dubbed Waymos “spy cars,” thanks to surveillance footage collected by 360-degree cameras that, as 404 News reported, has previously been obtained and published by the Los Angeles Police Department. Google—Waymo’s parent company—hands over that data upon request, typically via court order, warrant, or subpoena. Like other Silicon Valley firms, Google and its parent company, Alphabet, have either directly or through third parties entered lucrative contracts with the federal government, including ICE. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai attended Trump’s inauguration, to which Google donated $1 million. That company also recently removed a pledge in its AI principles to not develop or deploy products that “cause or are likely to cause overall harm.” Alphabet’s cloud computing unit in April expanded its partnership with fellow defense contractor Palantir to allow for the “reliable and responsible deployment of AI solutions” from Anthropic “for sensitive government use cases.” Andreessen Horowitz—the venture capital fund run by Trump ally Marc Andreessen, known as a16z—was also an early investor in Waymo.

Again, nobody really knows why Waymos were vandalized. Maybe they offered a convenient, on-demand way to block traffic that would inconvenience Google executives rather than regular people who need their cars to get to work and the grocery store. While less common in the United States, burning cars are a ubiquitous part of large-scale protests just about everywhere else on the planet. Waymos were vandalized well before recent protests in Los Angeles for a number of reasons laid out by Brian Merchant, the author of Blood in the Machine. Among them seems to be their tendency to honk at each other outside of apartment buildings at 4 a.m.

But you don’t need to look into the mind of a protester to see the symbolic power of a robotaxi. It’s easy to comprehend what they stand for: an effort by the richest people on earth to eliminate employees and any other human friction that might get in the way of profit or interrupt their efforts to cozy up to the Trump administration and aid in its quest to terrorize millions of people. Robotaxis can also just be really fucking annoying. These aren’t unrelated phenomena.

As tech companies try to build the case for artificial intelligence—and its outsize demand for water and electricity—they’ve resorted to increasingly grandiose claims. On one hand are the apocalyptic dangers of “misaligned” AI and its potential to enslave and torture humanity forever; on the other is the promise of a utopian fantasy wherein large language models turned thinking machines eliminate climate change, cancer, poverty, and human toil. The claims seem hard to square with what the products are currently doing for us, namely helping college students cheat, offering to summarize two-line emails, making photos of your pets look like Studio Ghibli films, and hailing a cheaper ride to the bar....

....MUCH MORE 

Related - Driverless Waymos Flee Los Angeles

Perhaps, as ABC7 Los Angeles news anchor Jory Rand put it, the risk is you could:

"...turn what is just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn into a massive confrontation or altercation between officers and demonstrators." 

Cue to 2:43:12