I was once pitching in a board room at a top 3 VC firm for a $15M Series A. 12 people in the meeting. One of the GPs fully fell asleep. Out cold for 30 minutes. Nobody acknowledged it. Everyone just kept going. I kept presenting my Series A slides to an unconscious man in a Herman Miller chair and somehow that was considered normal. That's venture capital. You might fly across the country to perform for people who may or may not be conscious. It's a dance. And sometimes you lead and sometimes you follow and sometimes your partner is unconscious. If you're raising right now, just know: every founder has a story like this. The process is weird. The power dynamic is weird. You're not crazy for thinking it's weird. No one talks about it because they want to continue raising. But I'm happy to stick my neck out there. It is weird.

The largest coffee pot in the world has made the journey from Visoko, Bosnia to St. Louis, MO. The pot serves 8,000 cups of coffee & will follow the Bosnian national team throughout their World Cup journey in North America.

This is a hard article to read, but I hope you'll do so. I've spent some time reporting on widespread rape and other sexual violence of Palestinian male and female prisoners by Israeli authorities, and the article is now published. The assault victims were warned not to give speak of what they endured -- they were sometimes told they would be killed or raped if they gave interviews -- but they found the courage to do so. One man described being raped three times in a single day in Israeli prison, the third time after he tried to protest. A young woman said the guards would come in at the beginning of each shift and strip her naked and abuse her. Another reported that she was shown photos of herself being raped and warned they would be released unless she cooperated with Israeli intelligence. Even three children who had been detained told me they had been sexually abused. Look, whatever our position on the Middle East, we should be able to agree on being anti-rape. Sexual assaults were horrific when Israeli women were targeted on Oct. 7, and they're equally horrific when Israeli authorities use them against Palestinians day after day after day. We should be able to find common ground in opposing rape. Here's a gift link to the article: nytimes.com/2026/05/11/opini…

two weeks into the sifr prize. describe a problem in the region that requires R&D to solve, and how to build the solution. you could get $2,500. anyone anywhere is eligible. sifrprize.com

Israel escalates its evil & illegal policy of medicide: "Israel escalates attacks on medics in Lebanon with deadly ‘quadruple tap’. Lebanese health ministry says killing of 91 healthcare workers shows ‘total disregard’ for international law" theguardian.com/world/2026/a…

Iranian state media reports the passage of oil tankers through the Straight of Hormuz has been stopped after Israeli strikes in Lebanon.