Synchronized swimming champion Kristina Makushenko paid tribute to a legend by flawlessly performing Michael Jackson's moves underwater

Summarizing the economics Nobel prize in two words: Institutions matter.

Reagan on tariffs... Wow

“Order generated without design can far outstrip plans men consciously contrive.” — Friedrich Hayek

Tariffs aren't new—neither is the misguided notion of "reciprocal" ones. Milton Friedman cut through this fallacy with clarity: When other nations restrict trade, they harm their own citizens. When we respond with our own tariffs, we merely punish our citizens, too. After all,

“The Industrial Enlightenment developed a new set of criteria by which projects and devices were judged: efficiency and commercial viability. Markets, rather than government officials or aristocratic aesthetes, were to be the ultimate arbiters.” - Joel Mokyr

The best way to begin a weekend is to stop in a bookshop and buy a book. Or two.

How long will it be until AI can generate me a 2h version of the Hobbit, in the style of year-2000 Peter Jackson?

🇳🇱 Amsterdam as seen from above.

I’m tired of people who don’t read history thinking these times are particularly bad. DELETE TIKTOK AND READ ABOUT GENGHIS KHAN, THE BLACK PLAGUE, THE 30 YEARS WAR, WORLD WAR 2, OR THE TAIPING REBELLION!!! Also, get off my lawn.

Howls Moving Castle (2004)

Leon Trotsky and fellow revolutionaries rents a NY apartment "in a workers’ district" and are positively impressed by the conveniences available to American workers.

the way some economists advocate for industrial policy is akin to picking the performance of the top decile of hedge fund performers (ex post) as evidence that active management adds alpha in asset management, and then simply forgetting about the bottom 90%.

“While they were preparing the hemlock, Socrates was learning a tune on the flute. ‘What good will it do you,’ they asked, ‘to know this tune before you die?’” — from “Why Read the Classics?,” in The Uses of Literature (trans. Patrick Creagh)

Apollo 11, Daily News, July 21, 1969. ✍️

ART

— Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

#OnThisDay in 1989, two million people joined hands to form a 600km human chain across the Baltic countries. Known as the Baltic Way, this peaceful protest united Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in their fight for freedom from Soviet rule.

Technology over the long run: zoom out to see how dramatically the world can change within a lifetime (Credit: Max Roser/Our World in Data)