The weapon is the interface of war, and latent in every weapon is a particular cognitive style for violence that forms the mind of its operators The nation's arsenal in this sense exerts a pull over the kinds of wars it fights. Defense prime arsenals encourage defense prime war

This morning, @anduriltech announced a $363M contract with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for “more than 200 Extended Range Sentry Towers (XRST)…to expand autonomous situational awareness across a much larger portion of the Southwest Border.” tectonicdefense.com/anduril-…

My video from the Hawthorne office of the final Falcon 1 launch (first ever success with deployment). This is one of those startup moments you never forget, and why you get into tech in the first place. 7/13/09.

144 years in the making — don't give up hope for high speed rail in California

The recipe for Chasen’s chili from the 1979 cookbook “Great Recipes from Los Angeles”:

Fun project out today from me and @MattZeitlin: Some 40 climate tech founders and CEOs are alumni of SpaceX and Tesla. We mapped out what sectors they went into, how much $ they raised, and talked to them about what they learned working for Musk. Link in thread.

Yesterday’s historic @USNavy rescue in the Strait of Hormuz is a direct result of DIU’s Production-Ready, Inexpensive, Maritime Expeditionary (PRIME) Small Unmanned Surface Vehicle (sUSV) program. The Saronic Corsair used in the operation was developed through DIU’s competitive PRIME sUSV solicitation, which successfully prototyped, validated and delivered mission-ready vehicles to the Navy in under 15 months. Validation of production readiness was executed in just four months. The delivery speed was 50% to 70% faster than legacy acquisition approaches, which previously took more than six years. This vehicle is one of many that have been deployed by the Navy into real-world environments. DIU is committed to using autonomous technology across domains to get our warfighters out of harm’s way. thehill.com/policy/defense/5…

Washington Post editorial board weighs in on LA mayoral race and inaccurately asserts a talking point that has been bandied about X over the last week: that Nithya Raman conceded on election night. That didn’t happen. washingtonpost.com/opinions/…

VC-backed drone boats now running rescue missions in the gulf

“The unmanned surface vessel, a Saronic Corsair, located the crew, who had spent two hours in the waters off the coast of Oman and brought them to shore.” Never been prouder of the @Saronic team. 🇺🇸💪🚀

County election officials respond to Steve Hilton news conference:

Captured by Anduril's network of 400 telescopes deployed around the globe: The second stage of the Falcon Heavy launch of ViaSat 3-F3 performing a routine thrust event. This produced a spiraled-shaped plume effect, a nominal part of operations for a successful launch of Viasat's latest satellite.

Very interesting @LAMaterial__ story about how the schools in rich towns like Manhattan Beach are floundering under a new state funding plan. Is it actually easier now for rich parents in LA who fundraise for LAUSD schools? Annex Manhattan Beach?? lamaterial.com/p/manhattan-b…

RT @acquaintf8: Allegedly Caruso was livid that Nithya ran for mayor last minute and tried to get back into the running for mayor. Her endo…

I never met Gordon Wood, but I have a story about him. In one of my grad school seminars, we read Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The sheer erudition and evidentiary depth of the book bowled me over. Back then, before kids and before life accelerated to warp speed, I used to call my mother every Sunday to catch up. Lots of times, we ended up talking about what I was reading that week in my grad seminars or for leisure. Mom had an omnivorous mind, and she was always looking for something else to read. She was a true intellectual—curious about almost everything, always eager to integrate new arguments or ideas into her existing schemas of how the world worked or to have those schemas challenged and changed. When we talked that particular Sunday, I think I tried to describe to her part of Wood’s argument about the relationship between the state constitutions during the Articles of Confederation era and the federal Constitution. Maybe I was tired, maybe I didn’t completely understand her questions, but the end result of the conversation was that Mom had questions about Wood’s argument that I didn’t answer satisfactorily. I told her that she should probably just read the book, and we said goodbye. She did eventually read the book, but the next Sunday, Mom started our conversation by saying, “Well, I had a lovely conversation with Gordon Wood this week.” For a split second, I thought she was joking, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. I started to sweat. “How?” I asked. A whole variety of unlikely scenarios in which the foremost historian of the American Revolution and my mother, who lived in Wichita, Kansas, might have met ran through my mind. “Oh, I just looked up his office phone number on Brown’s website and called, and he picked up!” Mom said. I decided I would have to find another profession. As it ended up, Gordon Wood spent about an hour on the phone with my mother answering her questions about the Constitution. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for the man when I imagine him picking up the phone in Providence and finding Becky Elder from Wichita on the other end of the line. His generosity in that moment spoke very well of him. Rest in peace, professor.

next move for Spencer Pratt is working at a16z right

New from last night's @semafor media newsletter: Condé Nast is suing the new Gourmet magazine for trademark infringement

People keep saying that Nithya Raman was a loser, that no one wanted her, and that no one was talking about her before the election, as some sort of evidence of voter fraud. The biggest final poll had her in second place. Los Angeles Times (May 19–24, 2026; 1,351 likely voters, ±3% MoE): Bass 26%, Raman 25%, Pratt 22%, Rae Huang 9%, Adam Miller 5%, undecided/other ~13%

Shout out to Greg for patiently arguing with conspiracy theorists all weekend.