ITK Daily | December 4

Happy Sunday.

Here’s today’s ITK Daily.

To be ITK, know this:

Insight | The bored room

I was so in the zone, DJ Doran: Monuments blasting from the sound system, high on Red Bull and PayDay.

There it was - boom - a brilliant idea literally speeding across my mind.

The state trooper was unfazed at my sensational out-of-the-boardroom idea generation tool; he told me to slow down and pay the fine.

Full post - here .

‘The Corridors of Power’: A devastating look at genocide and inaction: Dror Moreh’s latest documentary examines the often-disheartening political calculus that goes into decisions about how the US responds to atrocity. WP

+ Moreh gives viewers the unique opportunity to peek behind the scenes and behind the headlines to better understand not the “what” but the “why.” Featuring interviews with esteemed luminaires, including Madeleine Albright, James Baker, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Hillary Clinton, the film reveals how our past mistakes can dictate our future.

Trailer: The Corridors of Power Showtime

Cyril Ramaphosa set to launch fightback in bid to hang on to presidency: FT reports the South African leader’s legal team prepares to rebut abuse of office allegations.

Turkish strikes on US Kurd allies resonate in Ukraine war: AP reports Biden administration officials are toughening their language toward NATO ally Turkey as they try to talk Turkish President Recep Erdogan out of launching a bloody and destabilizing ground offensive against American-allied Kurdish forces in neighboring Syria.

Why trench warfare still persists in 2022: Going underground in the Ukraine conflict is still as vital tactically as in the First World War. The Times

+ Artillery is by far the biggest killer on both sides. There have been around a third of a million military casualties to date, the majority caused by artillery fire.

+ Digging is the most hated aspect of an infantry soldier’s life in peacetime training, and the most instinctive and enthusiastic activity when the shooting starts.

Firms like bp , 汇丰 , and 联合利华 said they’d quit Russia in March, so why are so many of them still there? British companies were quick to announce they were leaving after the invasion of Ukraine, but nine months on many are still there. The Sunday Times examines who remains and why. The Times

Chips with everything: semiconductors will define the US-China rivalry Tim Marshall

+ The Javelin anti-tank weapon requires 250 semiconductor chips. Since February, the US has given Ukraine almost 9,000 Javelins. As the Americans say – “Do the math,” writes Tim Marshall.

Pentagon reveals secretive B-21 bomber in California: The aircraft, named the Raider, is expected to be more advanced than any other now in the US military’s arsenal. WP

WSJ: US unwraps B-21 bomber, designed to deter China

The Raider's range is Earth. Like the entire planet.

+ @usairforce: Unveiled today, the B-21 Raider will be a dual-capable, penetrating-strike stealth bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions. The B-21 will form the backbone of the future Air Force bomber force consisting of B-21s and B-52s.

+ @nukestrat: Looking ahead: At least 100 B-21s to be produced. And because it replaces non-nuclear B-1 and is accompanied by re-establishment of nuclear storage at Barksdale, the number of nuclear bases will increase from 2 today to 5 in a decade

AP: Pentagon chief: US faces pivotal years in countering China

+ China “is the only country with both the will and, increasingly, the power to reshape its region and the international order to suit its authoritarian preferences. So let me be clear: We will not let that happen.”

London says no to a big Chinese Embassy, in a blow to Beijing ties NPR

The "golden era" is over...

+ @pstAsiatech: London says no to big Chinese Embassy, blow to Beijing ties ... councilors in London borough of Tower Hamlets cited a need to protect 14th-century ruins inside proposed embassy grounds + concerns about terrorist attacks, public protests + traffic jams

For context... "The project will be one of the largest diplomatic bases in the world and a third bigger than the new US embassy in Vauxhall, south London."

Why China isn’t facing another Tiananmen moment: Chinese protesters are fed up with the country’s repressive ‘zero Covid’ policies, but the regime remains unified behind Xi Jinping. Andrew J. Nathan

+ Despite its considerable size, China’s urban middle class of an estimated 400 million or more is still a minority in the population and fears the instability that might result from a weakening of party leadership.

+ Even now, as popular patience wears thin, Mr. Xi remains in control. Every instrument of power is in his hands. No one inside the party is in a position to challenge him. No one outside the party can gather enough strength to overthrow him.

The humbling of Xi Jinping: Three years of lockdowns, mass testing, and COVID detention centers have finally caused public frustrations to boil over in China. FT

+ “China is a huge machine, not a normal modern country; many poor and unlucky people become fuel to keep this machine running.”

+ IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva urged a “recalibration” of China’s tough “zero-COVID” approach aimed at isolating every case “exactly because of the impact it has on both people and on the economy.”

Biden offers concessions to Macron in a feast of bonhomie: France’s position as America’s closest ally in Europe was cemented by the president’s visit to Washington. The Times

AP: Macron hits New Orleans’ French Quarter, meets with Musk

The best history and politics books of 2022: The newsworthy wit of Marina Hyde, the historical roots of British nostalgia, and two takes on a divided US. Guardian

Iowa caucuses, built on myth, lose place at head of the line AP

+ “Money and celebrity are going to be more important at a time when money and celebrity has gotten us where we’re at today”

WP: The top 10 Democratic presidential candidates for 2024, ranked

10. JB Pritzker - IL Gov

9. Josh Shapiro - PA Gov-elect

8. Gretchen Whitmer - MI Gov

7. Bernie Sanders - VT Senator

6. Gavin Newsom - CA Gov

5. Amy Klobuchar - MN Senator

4. Jared Polis - CO Gov

3. Kamala D. Harris - Vice President

2. Pete Buttigieg - Transportation Secretary

1. Joe Biden - President

The GOP is stuck in a doom loop begun 30 years ago David Von Drehle

When politics wasn’t a team sport: Far from heralding the partisan age, Gore Vidal and William Buckley thought for themselves. Janan Ganesh

Why a Supreme Court case over dog toys and Jack Daniel’s has brands paying attention: The Supreme Court is taking up a lawsuit from Jack Daniel’s over dog toys featuring poop jokes. The outcome could change how the law looks at parody and IP infringement. Fast Company

+ A can-shaped Mr. Slobber resembles Dr. Pepper. And one called Bad Spaniels echoes the familiar graphic design of a bottle of the flagship Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey. “The Old No. 2,” the toy version reads, under a drawing of a guilty-looking pooch, “on your Tennessee carpet.”

Why they clapped for Sam Bankman-Fried Joshua M Brown

Over a year later, Musk’s Neuralink still 6 months from human trials: Lots of tech in development, but we're still waiting for indications of an application. Ars Technica

DeepMind spin-off steps up effort to use AI to create new drugs: Isomorphic Labs poaches pharmaceutical talent as it moves closer to securing a first commercial deal. FT

+ "It takes about 10 years to take a drug [to market], and often most of them fail sadly, and so inspired by the work we did with AlphaFold, we took a deeper look . . . and basically built conviction that there was a real opportunity here to apply AI to reimagine drugs discovery."

Why America doesn’t have enough EV charging stations: Gas stations spar with utility companies, rural areas predict years of losses on chargers, spotty equipment threatens reliability: The US EV charging network is a mess. WSJ

+ Around 1% of US drivers own EVs.

+ There are more than 145,000 places to refuel a gas-powered vehicle. So far, the US has 11,600 points where any EV can charge quickly, according to the research group Atlas Public Policy.

+ Another point of contention comes in how utilities charge businesses for electricity. The highest 15-minute period of power consumption each month makes up a large chunk of commercial billing

Tennessee roads plan mulls toll lanes, electric car fee hike: AP reports Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is considering allowing express toll lanes on highways and tripling a fee for electric car owners as he targets his first big push after winning reelection — paying for tens of billions of dollars in roadway projects.

亚马逊 ’s quest for the ‘Holy Grail’ of robotics: Automating some warehouse functions could let the giant do more with its existing workforce—or the retailer may not require all the humans it employs today. Christopher Mims

+ Amazon, along with a collection of other robotics companies developing similar machines, are chasing what experts in the field call the “holy grail” of robotics — machines as dexterous, quick and adaptable as a human arm and hand.

How to convince your sales team to adopt a subscription model Scott Edinger

+ One of the most overlooked challenges is cultural. And often one of the biggest sources of pushback comes from the people most responsible for revenue: sales.

+ Scott K. Edinger , founder of Edinger Consulting, is a co-author of Making Yourself Indispensable and author of The Hidden Leader: Discover and Develop Greatness Within Your Company.

+ Scott’s next book, The Growth Leader: Strategies to Drive the Top and Bottom Lines, is coming out in September of 2023.

Bob Iger is back at Disney to fix his one big failure: Succession: The veteran CEO’s handpicked successor promptly flopped. Now he has two years to help make it right. WSJ

From CNN to Paramount , perfect storm in media propels layoffs: WSJ reports an advertising slowdown, economic worries, and strains of the shift to streaming have many major media companies in cost-cutting mode.

New York’s ‘zombie’ office towers teeter as interest rates rise: FT reports Fed tightening is the final blow for many investors battered by Covid and remote working.

+ Average weekday attendance in New York City offices remains below 50 percent.

AP: New York Film Critics Circle names ‘Tár’ best picture

The mind behind the Rubik’s Cube celebrates a lasting puzzle: AP reports: “Problem solving is a very basic activity of the human mind and if a problem is complex you need to divide the problem into smaller elements,” says Ern? Rubik, who invented the cube in 1974.

+ Rubik has seen his color-matching puzzle go from a classroom teaching tool in Cold War-era Hungary to a worldwide phenomenon with over 450 million cubes sold and a mini-empire of related toys.

World Cup Round of Sixteen matches:

JPN v COR

BRA v KPR

FRA v POL

ENG v SEN

MAR v ESP

POR v SUI

Today's knockout stage matches:

FRA v POL @ 10:00 am ET

ENG V SEN @ 2:00 pm ET

Sobering: The USMNT is a middle soccer power.

The USMNT isn't even the best team CONCACAF.

Sure, the #USMNT continues to get better, but so does the rest of the world.

On to 2026.

Also, let's have training sessions for US players with more small pitch 7v7 and less full pitch 11v11.

What happens to Gregg Berhalter?

The mission of the USMNT's shouldn't be to build the game or grow fans in the US... The only mission should be to win. "Just win, baby"

JFK = "We choose to go to the Moon"...

USMNT = "We choose to make progress"...

Spot the problem?

+ Twenty years on from the Americans’ last appearance in the quarterfinals of this tournament, they’ve been eliminated again in the round of 16—just as they were in 2010 and 2014.

Please America, don’t get into soccer: Embracing the beautiful game would be the beginning of the end of American greatness. Josh Glancy

+ "It’s painfully clear that American men’s soccer culture is nowhere near ready for prime time"

The (not always) sweet science of World Cup penalty kicks: You think fate-deciding shootouts come down to dumb luck? Think again. In Qatar, there'll be mental games aplenty. And the data says that teams would be foolish to come unprepared. SI

How to emerge a hero from the tension of a World Cup penalty shootout: Specialist and novice takers as well as ‘killer’ keepers can play a big role in who wins the trophy. FT

+ @eurosport: If you're ever sad, just remember that the Earth is ??.?? ?????????????? ?????????? ?????? and you got to live at the same time as Leo Messi ??

Julianne Sitch of the 美国芝加哥大学 becomes the first woman to lead a men's soccer program to a national championship. UChicago defeated Williams College 2-0 in Saturday's Division III title game.

Deion Sanders has been planning his exit from Jackson State to accept Colorado's head coaching job, sources told Pete Thamel of ESPN.

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

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