Not sure it is a coincidence that this comes in the same year the the government is deploying a massive military presence and national domestic surveillance noose. Almost no one thinks that any human being should have a trillion dollars, or the commensurate political power that comes along with it.
What some people here are missing, is that domain experts or hobbyists are mostly vibe coding tools for themselves -- not as a SAAS product. They tend to work good enough to do the thing they want it to do. It runs locally or on some VPS, and is held together by string and duct tape.
The work product probably offends real software engineers in the way that a normal home cooked meal would offend a Michelin star chef. Yet, before last summer, these people never contemplated the ability to cook their own meals before. The fact that they can do this now is a very big deal.
Different countries are going to distribute the benefits of automation in different ways. Northern European states will pursue shortened work weeks and lavish social services. China will reinvest the productivity gains into its industrial capacity. The United States will have five trillionaires.
In Gulf War II, the US had three carrier groups inside the gulf. In between wars, the US fifth fleet was unchallenged in those waters, with its headquarters at the massive naval complex in Bahrain.
In the last 4 months, they have completely evacuated the gulf. They have attempted to run the strait twice and left immediately. The naval base has been severely damaged, and their long range radars destroyed. Even if the radars were somehow restored, it is unclear they would have the munitions to defend their fleet or bases for longer than a few days/weeks.
It is impossible to overstate what a strategic disaster this has been for the US military. In their wildest dreams, Iran couldn't have imagined this situation unfolding the way it did.
I am old enough to remember when the US insisted that it was superior to China because they believed in the rule of law and sanctity of intellectual property.
The Iranians (and their Houthi proxies) have made sustained attacks on them and don't seem to have hit anything.
That's because the US has kept the surface combatants far back from the Persian Gulf for the duration of the war.
As far as we know, they have attempted to run the strait twice and had to turn back because they were under sustained attack.
I assume these ships can defend themselves for some period of time, but eventually the munitions run out, and they become sitting ducks. There is a reason the US Navy fled the Persian Gulf on Feb 26 and has not returned since.
Thought I would remind people here of this simple, but mostly unknown fact about American healthcare:
American taxpayers invest more public dollars per capita in healthcare than anyone in the world. This before a single cent is paid into the private insurance system. Through Medicare, Medicaid, VA and other public health programs, you pay about 40% more public dollars per-capita than the most socialist, gold plated single payer system anywhere else.
You are not only getting ripped off by your insurer, but you are getting ripped off a public system, which has more than enough money to provide every man, woman and child with a lifetime of world-class, free at the point of service universal healthcare.
Iranians were scoring direct hits on top priority infrastructure in the first days of the conflict. Only in the last couple of weeks has US media started to report the extensive damaged visited upon the (now mostly abandoned) US bases in the gulf.
Its really difficult to overstate the level of strategic defeat that has occurred here.
Over the last decade (and even prior to that) CPPIB has been the best performing fund of its kind. National pension funds have different risk tolerances and investment guidelines that someone's personal portfolio or a family office.
Thanks to CPPIB, Canada does not have have a giant unfunded pension liability (unlike our neighbors to the south). It has been an enormous success story.
The international arrivals section of Vancouver airport is a great example of this. Indoor waterfalls, sound dampening on the walls and ceilings, carpeted floors and wide open space is a huge relief after a 5-15 hr flight. It's also an excellent way of making a great first impression on visitors.
The censorship is to shield embarrassing info from GCC and American audiences. As others have pointed out, Iran has its own satellites, and allies with satellites that can conduct their own battlefield damage assessments.
Had a pretty heavy workload yesterday, and never hid the limit on claude code. Perhaps they allowed for more tokens for the launch?
Claude design on the other hand seemed to eat through (its own separate usage limit) very fast. Hit the limit this morning in about 45 mins on a max plan. I assume they are going to end up spinning that product off as a separate service.