Tootfinder

Why the modern financial sector is better at extracting rents than funding the future.
https://jacobin.com/2025/06/money-for-nothing/

Money for Nothing
Why the modern financial sector is better at extracting rents than funding the future.

The NAACP intends to sue xAI over the natural gas turbines at its Memphis data center, which it claims are polluting nearby predominantly Black neighborhoods (Hiroko Tabuchi/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.…

Elon Musk’s AI Company Faces Lawsuit Over Gas-Burning Turbines
The company, xAI, has installed several dozen turbines in Memphis without proper permits, the group said, polluting a nearby community.

Every tech oligarch wants to build an Everything App - because they now have the power to do so, but also because they're completely out of ideas.
This week's issue of my newsletter tackles the rise of the "data-driven" Nothing Manager responsible for building Everything, with the "power" of #GenAI.

The Everything App is a symptom of Nothing Management (part 1)
Leaders who surrender their point of view inevitably arrive at the same conclusion: we must solve every problem for every user. This approach demolishes the possibility of real impact.

Some conservative authors are turning to podcasts to promote their books; publishers say Joe Rogan can boost book sales by 3,000 to 4,000 copies immediately (Alexandra Alter/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/books/conservative-books-podca…

Trying to Sell a Conservative Book? Go on a Podcast.
Many of the most popular shows welcome right-wing arguments and freewheeling conversation. Publishers of other political stripes are noticing, too.

⚠️ Please BE AWARE that there is a chance that if you transfer your save file from Switch to Switch 2, you may lose it. This person lost 20 years of data that they'd had since their Game Boy Advance. Totally brutal. It's a huge gamble, and to me, might not be worth it if you really value your save data.

'There's nothing I can do. I don't even know if I wanna play anymore' — Pokémon fan left devastated after '20 years worth of data' lost in Switch to Switch 2 transfer
‘My Scarlet save file is gone,’ sobs gamer. They say no error messages popped up during their Friday the 13th transfer attempt.

Nielsen: in May, Americans watched more TV on streaming than on cable and broadcast networks combined, the first time that has happened over a full month (John Koblin/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/business/media/streaming…

It’s Official: Streaming Is Now the King of TV
In May, more Americans watched television on streaming than on cable and network television combined, Nielsen said. It is the first time that has happened over a full month.

Nielsen: in May, Americans watched more TV on streaming than on cable and broadcast networks combined, the first time that has happened over a full month (John Koblin/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/business/media/streaming…

It’s Official: Streaming Is Now the King of TV
In May, more Americans watched television on streaming than on cable and network television combined, Nielsen said. It is the first time that has happened over a full month.

Grow a Garden, a simple farming simulator game made within Roblox, hit 16.4M active players on June 14, surpassing other popular games' peak concurrent users (Kieran Press-Reynolds/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/arts/grow-garden-roblo…

Roblox’s Grow a Garden Surpasses Fortnite With 16.4 Million Players
On Saturday, more than 16 million people were planting seeds and collecting exotic pets within Grow a Garden at the same time. Many were not yet teenagers.

William Langewiesche, who wrote complex, long-form articles for The Atlantic and Vanity Fair on national security, Iraq, and aviation, died of cancer at 70 (Trip Gabriel/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/business/media/william-lang…

William Langewiesche, the ‘Steve McQueen of Journalism,’ Dies at 70
He was a master of long form narratives, often involving high-stakes topics. He reported for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine.

BeIN Sports extends its three-year Premier League live TV rights deal in MENA for ~£550M, up 10% over the last cycle; League's total overseas rights rose 27% (Matt Slater/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6432549/2025/06/17/p…

Premier League extends Middle East TV deal, overseas media rights value up 27%
The new three-year deal runs from next season through until the end of 2027-28 and is worth approximately £550m.