pbrum

A catastrophe is, to use a tired analogy, the tip of the iceberg. The larger truth is that the Spanish rail system, along with most if not all European rail systems, is collapsing due to excess demand and underinvestment. Any random train ride in Europe at any time in the past few years has been an exercise in patience. Delays, cancellations, and other incidents are constant. A tragedy like this happens on top of a big pile of decay

Expand, I'm interested in this take

Tell that to the relatives of the dead. What you said was true and today is true. But will it be true tomorrow?

East Asia: top-tier infrastructure, well maintained Europe: second-best-tier infrastructure, rapidly decaying and overwhelmed USA: Third World-equivalent infrastructure

This is what posting is all about

Strongly recommend the short novel Kentukis by Samanta Schweblin!

Nonstarter without YouTube and WhatsApp access

Don't know if you're referring to the headline or the body (which is paywalled). The current headline reads "OpenAI says it has overtaken Anthropic with its latest AI model". Which makes me wonder whether FT itself changed a headline along the lines of what you wrote in the past few minutes?

Silver Fox is a very vaguely defined Chinese cybercrime group of malware and actors...or are you referring to something else?

"it brings up painful memories of when Oreo Coke (actually good, unlike Coke Oreo)"

Epic

The author is a superb writer. Actually made me lol:

"I have a problem with artists doing commerce under the guise of art. I listen, I read, and I watch because I want to inhabit, even if just for a moment, the mind of another human. I want to feel what it’s like to be them, and in so doing, I want to better understand what it’s like to be me. But if I journey to the center of someone’s psyche and all I find there is a billboard for Pizza Hut, I’m turning around. If your art is just one node in your business empire, if your albums are merely commercials for your cologne, if you’re trying to turn your first billion into your second billion, you are no longer an artist at all. You are a credit default swap with a discography attached."

Fantastic work by the compiler/author, and lovely work by all those developers and designers through the years. Great contribution to HN

Awesome article. This being HN there must be a quibble right?:

Missed opportunity to entitle it "Elevator Action"

You cannot possibly be a full-time academic and your last name be "Papernot"!

I was going to say this too. And since we're at it: does anyone know how many launch pads the Chinese private space companies have, combined?