Friday, China launched a mission to collect regolith samples from the far side of the moon (where we’ve not yet been, but fyi belongs to us), sparking concerns Xi Jinping might call dibs on the most resource-rich bit of lunar real estate (which, again, is ours). In testimony before Congress, NASA Chief Bill Nelson explained, “My concern is if China got there first and suddenly said, ‘OK, this is our territory. You stay out.’” Now, some good news: finder’s keepers, we won this race 60 years ago, and NASA’s Artemis mission will return Americans to the moon in 2026. China can fund one of its colleges. I spent some time this weekend figuring out where the 51st star on our flag will go, and while it’s not the most symmetrical, I have to say it looks beautiful. Congratulations everyone, Moon is now a state. Next question.

Last week, the New York Times published a long read about the thousands of people who say they’ve been injured by Covid vaccines. The piece is remarkably (refreshingly!) frank in discussing long-suppressed evidence of vaccine-induced myocarditis, blood clotting, and shingles — though, of course, the author implies this suppression was actually the fault of (wait for it) the “anti-vaccine movement” itself. It’s a classic legacy-media deflection, but the piece itself does signal a continued Overton window shift toward sanity on all things Covid. Maybe NYT etc. will one day even acknowledge the untrammeled insanity of endless lockdowns and school closures (though of course, they’ll tell us this was the fault of Rogan and Bhattacharya). Until then though, we'll settle for a bit of not suppressing facts.

In 2024, Boeing jets have blown a door out in the middle of a flight, cracked a cockpit window, lost a wheel, lost a wheel again, briefly plummeted, injuring 50 people, leaked fuel, and lost an exterior panel. Icing the cake of this incredible year (it is only May), the company has undergone an FAA investigation, and their second (what) whistleblower has died (what?). Nonetheless, today the company is sending astronauts to the ISS in their setback-plagued Starliner space capsule. How is it possible for a company so rife with bizarre failure to… well, never fail? Well, that would be the fault of the government, which has determined the aerospace industry too big to fail. With the space startup industry maturing to challenge incumbents with speedy builds and venture funding, there’s at least some hope on the horizon. But, for now, I’m praying for the astronauts.

Free money era is over, and with it the tech circle jerk era. This means roles that slow down startups such as “HR” and “Community” are luxuries that companies are increasingly doing without (Pirate Wires will never have an HR department). Founder-led companies are cool again, and Warp is a payroll provider made for such a vibe shift. Warp bundles payroll, compliance, and benefits into a single dashboard, and automates the annoying registrations that come with hiring in new states or offshore, so payroll can be done by the founder, for longer. Unlike platforms that try to get you to do performance reviews on your employees, for example, Warp is designed to get in, get it done, and get out. And as long as interest rates are above zero, that’s what you should be doing.

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vcs should invest in companies that create hype cycles, rather than those that simply follow them

in 2022, trae cowrote the guide to knowing whether you are on a quest to solve one of society’s biggest problems or not

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