I'm also just a boy, standing in front of a dog, asking him to love him. #HOUBBQFest #DCDogos #DogoArgentinos
Houston, TX
Joined May 2008
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Alexander F retweeted
The erosion of America's fiscal space has been largely bipartisan.
Reforms for greater responsibility will have to be bipartisan too.
Alexander F retweeted
El momento en el que el gran Justin Verlander se da cuenta de que la encargada de ir a sacarlo del montículo por última vez en su carrera es su hija.
🥺⚾️
Alexander F retweeted
Pete Hegseth better make this explicable as quickly as possible, or we’re in for some serious trouble. esquire.com/news-politics/po…
Alexander F retweeted
Harris County Treasurer Dr. Carla Wyatt was cited after Houston police say she caused a four-vehicle crash on the North Freeway last week, according to a crash report obtained by our Community News Partner Grizzy’s Hood News and KPRC.
click2houston.com/news/local…
Alexander F retweeted
Oh, man ... did I ever go down a rabbit hole this morning. Today is the 126th anniversary of the murder of William Marsh Rice, namesake of Rice University in Houston. The story is a Hollywood movie waiting to be written. It has everything a Texas murder story needs: a millionaire, a forged will, slow poisoning, chloroform, a crooked lawyer, a murderous valet and a suspicious bank clerk. Hanging in the balance was the fortune that eventually created Rice University.
Rice was 84 years old in 1900 and enormously wealthy. Born in Massachusetts, he came to Texas as a young man and made his fortune in Houston through cotton, real estate, railroads and other investments. In 1891 he chartered the William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Science, Art, Philosophy and Letters, intending that much of his estate eventually support the school. He was truly a self-made man.
The trouble began after the death of Rice's second wife, Elizabeth, in 1896. A dispute over her estate brought New York attorney Albert T. Patrick (shown in the photo below) into the picture. Patrick became acquainted with Rice's valet and secretary, Charles F. Jones, and the two eventually entered into a conspiracy.
Patrick prepared a forged will, dated June 30, 1900, supposedly signed by Rice. Under it, Patrick stood to receive the bulk of Rice's estate. Meanwhile, Jones later confessed that he had secretly been giving the elderly Rice mercury pills in an effort to hasten his death.
There was only one hitch in their whole giddyup: Rice refused to die.
Then the Galveston hurricane struck on September 8, 1900. One of Rice's Texas businesses, the Merchants and Planters Oil Company, was badly damaged and needed money for repairs. Rice intended to send funds to Texas, which threatened to reduce the cash Patrick hoped to steal. According to newspaper accounts, Patrick pressed Jones to use something faster than poison.
On September 23, 1900, Jones saturated a cloth or sponge with chloroform and held it over Rice's face as the old man lay in his New York apartment. Marsh died.
Patrick and Jones might have gotten away with it except for an almost absurdly small mistake.
They immediately attempted to get at Rice's money using forged checks. One was made payable to Patrick, but his first name was misspelled: "Abert Patrick."
The suspicious check caught the bank's attention. Officials tried to verify it and discovered that Rice had just died. They contacted Rice's longtime Houston attorney, Captain James A. Baker. When Patrick produced a supposed new will leaving him most of Rice's fortune, Baker knew something was badly wrong. Rice had never told him about replacing the 1896 will Baker knew to exist.
An investigation followed. Handwriting comparisons exposed forged signatures, while an autopsy found evidence consistent with earlier poisoning. Then Charles Jones confessed. He described the poisoning, the forged documents and the chloroform killing, and agreed to testify against Patrick.
Patrick was convicted of murder and forgery in 1902 and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Remarkably, he never did. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and in 1912 New York Governor John A. Dix granted him a full pardon after years of controversy over the evidence used to convict him.
Captain Baker and the trustees ultimately defeated Patrick's forged will and secured Rice's fortune for the institution Rice had intended to create --- now Rice University.
And there is one final, almost cinematic detail.
The Rice Institute opened to students on September 23, 1912, exactly twelve years to the day after William Marsh Rice was murdered.
So one of America's great universities owes its existence to a remarkable chain of events: an old millionaire who refused to die quickly, the Galveston hurricane, a murderous valet, an alert bank clerk, a determined Texas attorney and a missing letter in the name "Albert."
Charles Jones, the man who admitted actually killing Rice, was never prosecuted for the murder because of his cooperation against Patrick. He eventually returned to Texas and lived for decades. In 1954, at the age of 79, he died by suicide in Baytown.
Shown here: Albert T. Patrick, center, leaves prison in 1913.
How was THAT for a trace of Texas? Sheesh!
Alexander F retweeted
People keep saying Trump term II is the most corrupt administration ever, so I built a model to find out if it was true.
I took the UN's definition of corruption, turned it into eight criteria and 100 points, and scored the leaders history remembers for looting their countries: Marcos, Suharto, Mobutu, Abacha, Obiang, Putin.
Then I put every president since Eisenhower on the same scale, both parties, with every exoneration counted right alongside the convictions.
Nixon scored 41 and no other American President scored over a 25.
Trump's second term scored a 91, which ties him with Suharto and Mobutu and puts him above Marcos and Abacha.
So he is not only the most corrupt president in American history. At this pace he finishes his term level with the most corrupt rulers of the last hundred years.
PSA: don't come in my comments arguing about the results if you haven't read the full article, because ignorance is a choice.
Full article is up now on my Substack (link in bio) and it's free.
Alexander F retweeted
Trump Pledges That If Voters Defeat Socialism In November, They Will Each Get An Equal Redistribution Of Wealth From The Government buff.ly/kRXF5x9
Alexander F retweeted
>sam altman: "we tried this because there were rumor on the internet"
>rumor: math professor close to solving navier-stokes
>the professor: using codex for a year
>openai: has all his logs
>checked every codex session tagged to N-S
>found the most promising one
>spun up 10,000 agents to finish the proof where he couldn't
>they got caught
>told the guy if you say anything you'll destroy your own career
>he ruins his career over this
>openai: "we did not see his work"
>also openai: "we cannot rule out that de-identified data from their usage helped improve our models"
they stole it lmao
Alexander F retweeted
If I am reading this correctly, Tristan Buckmaster is alleging OAI has a resolution of Navier-Stokes(via Córdoba and Martínez-Zoroa’s program) which maybe used info from Buckmaster and Levent Alpöge’s private Codex sessions
What the fuck is happening!!!
Alexander F retweeted
Is nothing sacred anymore.. HOW many millions of Americans enjoy our National Parks ?
Breaking News: The Trump administration has proposed trading land just inside Yosemite’s western boundary to a Las Vegas developer. nyti.ms/4gEsRq8
Alexander F retweeted
NEW: On the list of 2,198 "filthy, dirty, vulgar books" flagged by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is one of the seminal books about the Holocaust: "Night"
Books on the list don't belong in schools, he said.
But "Night" is on the state's required reading list:
houstonchronicle.com/politic…
Alexander F retweeted
He’s such a shameless liar. Leaving aside that the study is garbage per se, many of its supposed savings come from its assumption that doctors and hospitals will be paid *less*. It says this in Table 1. And yet Khanna claims the exact opposite will happen here. Astonishing.
A new Yale analysis found Medicare for All would cover every American AND save more than $1 trillion a year, cutting national health care spending by 20%.
It would also mean better pay for doctors, nurses, and healthcare providers. The savings from cutting private insurance and Big Pharma profits as well as administrative waste would pay for increased Medicare reimbursement rates and $52 billion in unpaid hospital care.
Medicare for All saves money and lives.
Alexander F retweeted
Americans would rather have a nuclear power plant built in their community than a data center, this may be the worst corporate public-relations fumble of all time
Alexander F retweeted
How do the Dodgers carry an unlimited payroll?
Filings uncovered by @NickNemo17 show roughly $1.45 billion in debt for American Media Productions, the entity behind SportsNet LA and the Dodgers' 25-year, $8.35 billion Charter deal, sitting on the balance sheets of 5 life insurance companies tied to or controlled by the Dodgers' own ownership group.
i.e. the Dodgers get a sweetheart deal on their TV rights from a media company their owners co-own, financed by insurance companies those same owners control.
Because ownership sits on both sides, as borrower and lender, the setup functions as a closed loop:
-When RSNs hit turbulence, banks enforce covenants or force restructuring. Here the lenders are insurers the owners manage, so the capital stays patient and cash flow to the team never gets choked.
-MLB taxes net local revenue at 34% but allows deductions for debt service and interest tied to running the network. Carrying $1.45 billion in media debt on AMP's balance sheet generates interest expense that shrinks reportable net TV income and the resulting revenue-sharing bill.
Then there's the payroll itself. Over $1 billion of it is deferred, owed to 9 players through 2047. Pushing that cash out frees up money today, some of which is going toward servicing that same debt, and kicks the actual bill to a stretch of decades many of today's owners won't be around for.
LA built a (seemingly illegal) structure that captures its own interest yield, shelters TV income from league revenue sharing, and helps fund payroll dominance in the process.
Who holds the Dodgers' TV-network debt?
Five insurers tied to the owners.
Delaware Life $277M, Clear Spring $310M (Walter; filed "unaffiliated"). Security Benefit $371M (Boehly; "related party"). EquiTrust 350M. Heritage Life 140M.
Total is: ~$1.45B.
Attn financial media: You can cite me as you would @citrini or @SemiAnalysis_ or @hntrbrkmedia. It's a two way street and I cite you and we know you'd still have lower numbers.
Sports reporters:
@PabloTorre @JeffPassan @Ken_Rosenthal @JonHeyman @BNightengale @Joelsherman1 @Buster_ESPN @JesseRogersESPN @Feinsand @BillShaikin @EvanDrellich @JomboyMedia @TalkinBaseball_ @FoulTerritoryTV @TrueHoop @hayesdavenport
What is the obvious story here? reminder: Sportsnet has a sweetheart rev-share deal. ⚾️
Alexander F retweeted
UPDATE: This morning, Dallas, TX overtook Tampa, FL to break into the top 5 most motivated seller markets in the country.
4 of the top 5 positions are now Texas markets.
Nationally, 41.1% of home sellers are cutting.
In these Texas markets:
Sherman: 55.3%
Austin: 54.4%
San Antonio: 54.5%
Dallas: 53%
More than 1 in 2 home sellers are cutting below their original ask in an attempt to lure in buyers and find a clearing price.
What is going on in Texas right now?
Alexander F retweeted
Now the midterms begin in earnest. Ask candidates three questions.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/…
Alexander F retweeted
I needed to move a sofa.
I mentioned this to an American. He said, "You know anybody with a truck?"
I did not know anybody with a truck.
He looked at me with real concern. Not pity. Concern. The way you look at a man who has told you he does not have a name.
"You gotta know somebody with a truck."
I asked how one acquires such a person.
He said, "You just do."
This is the third time I have received that answer in this country. It is the answer to everything here. You just do. There is no process. There is only the eventual fact of having.
He said, "Ask Kevin."
I do not know a Kevin. He said Kevin like I should. He said it the way you say a shared uncle.
I met Kevin four days later. Kevin owns a truck. Kevin does not own a truck for himself. Nobody owns a truck for themselves. Kevin owns a truck for a fifteen mile radius.
Inside I said: THIS MAN HAS TAKEN A VOW. HE DID NOT ANNOUNCE IT. HE SIMPLY PURCHASED A BED AND ACCEPTED THE CONSEQUENCES.
Kevin arrived on Saturday. He brought the truck. He also brought a second man.
I had not asked for a second man.
The second man's name is Tony. Tony came because Kevin came. Tony did not know me. Tony did not ask what we were moving. Tony brought gloves.
They moved the sofa in eleven minutes.
I offered them money. Both of them laughed at the same time, which felt rehearsed and was not.
I asked what I owed them.
Kevin said, "Buy the pizza."
That is the price. That is the entire economy. The truck costs one pizza and the pizza is not negotiable and the pizza is also not expensive and everyone knows what size.
Inside I said: THE FEE IS FIXED ACROSS THE ENTIRE NATION AND WAS SET BY NO ONE.
We ate on the floor because the sofa was against the wall and none of us wanted to be the first to sit on it.
Tony told me his daughter plays soccer. I asked if she is good. He said, "She's aggressive."
I still think about that.
Three weeks later, Kevin texted me.
"You free Sunday? Helping Tony move a fridge."
He did not ask if I wanted to. He informed me of a fridge.
Inside I said: I HAVE BEEN CALLED UP. I DID NOT ENLIST. THE PAPERS WERE FILED ON MY BEHALF.
I went. I moved the fridge. I have no truck. I contributed only arms.
Afterward, a man I had never met asked me if I knew anybody with a truck.
I said, "Yeah, I got a guy."
I have a guy.
I am somebody's guy now, too. Tony has told two people about me.
He describes me as "the guy who's strong for his size."
I have never been prouder of a sentence in my life.
Alexander F retweeted
Since moving to the Bay last year, I have noticed that although Bay Areans are very high in intelligence, they are often very low in worldliness. That is, they don't know how the world actually works.
The pacing letter is yet another exhibit supporting this assessment.
For purposes of this tweet, let's take for granted that anxiety about emerging risks from AI is warranted, particularly as AI research accelerates.
What are "the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development?" Whatever else they may include, they likely include coercive measures whose form and administration remain unspecified.
How do "international efforts" work? Unlike most of the signatories of the letter, I have been a State Department advisor and have participated in multiple treaty negotiations. I have also been a member of technical committees for UN technical agencies.
The international sector is unbelievably dysfunctional. Every single treaty or international agreement is an opportunity for every participant to manipulate the much broader policy environment. Often the participants don't care about the object of the agreement, and are instead trying to use the agreement as leverage for something else. I have seen countries use their limited leverage in multilateral agreements to try to kneecap American industry, get around sanctions, create a pretense of international justification for domestic illiberalism, or steer technology in an authoritarian direction.
The damage from this dysfunction is limited by the fact that there are zero major countries (and not that many smaller countries) who will actually bind themselves in meaningful ways that they don't narrowly want. If a previously signed treaty turns out to be inconvenient, it is often subtly ignored or reinterpreted.
In addition, treaty delegations working on industrial issues generally reflect the full spectrum of special interests involved in an issue. A US AI treaty delegation might be led by a State Department ambassador, but he will be advised by representatives of the interagency, major labs, other major tech companies, tech investors, civil society, etc.
“International efforts,” therefore, is not a reassuring answer to the governance problem; it is the name of another enormous, unresolved governance problem.
So assume you survive this special interest circus and hell freezes over and you produce an agreement that narrowly does something to "pace the frontier" of AI development in an enforceable and effective way. The enforcement of that thing is still unspecified, and is probably bad. The fact that an AI researcher in the Bay Area can imagine a sensible, minimally coercive enforcement regime compatible with liberalism does not mean that is where we end up.
The pacing letter therefore converts uncertainty about the future pace of AI development into a confident collective demand for an unspecified exercise of power determined through a dysfunctional international political system.
Seems bad.