Daniel Mercer
Why Pottery Studios Won’t Let You Glaze Your Own Work
A viral post about a studio that glazed a student’s pottery for them, and made the class vote on one color, kicked off a real debate. Here’s why ‘we glaze it’ policies exist and why they keep backfiring.
The Tech Sell-Off and the Risk Controls It Rewarded
The record tech momentum sell-off punished crowded bets and quietly rewarded boring risk controls. Here’s what ‘rotating out of crowded growth’ means and the risk habits that actually protected people.
Astra’s AGI Claim and the Benchmark Gap It Exposed
Astra’s 99.9% benchmark score launched an ‘AGI era.’ The fair-comparison number was 62.7%. Here’s what that gap reveals about AI benchmarks and why it’s pushing labs toward clearer reporting.
Palantir’s Britain Grid Deal Widens Its UK Footprint
Palantir’s £21m grid contract is the newest piece of a much bigger picture: over £670m in UK public deals, many awarded without competition. Here’s the footprint and why it raises real questions.
Artists Rally as Bergamot Station Decisions Move Behind Closed Doors
As key Bergamot Station decisions happen in closed session, artists and residents are organizing. Here’s how the community is mobilizing and why decisions made behind closed doors raise concerns.
How to Limit the Data Walmart Collects About You
Walmart’s privacy policy update reignited data-collection worries. Instead of panicking, here are the actual settings, opt-outs, and app permissions that let you limit what Walmart collects.
Mistral’s €3B and Europe’s AI Independence Problem
Mistral’s record €3 billion round is Europe’s biggest bet yet on AI independence. But independence has a hardware problem that no funding round can solve quickly.