Weekly Report: June 8, 2025
#125 Summer, feud, LA vs ICE
Observations
Summer
Another school year is over. It’s always scary watching the kids grow older.
When I carry my son, he used to be able to curl up, tuck his head under my chin, and shove his hands between his body and mine for warmth, so it would be like carrying a soft, snuggly, warm ball. He’s too tall to do that anymore. That happened at some point this year.
My daughter is no longer as compliant when I request a hug. It’s now mood-dependent. Her first adult tooth also just erupted last month.
My son has started to, as I call it, “come online” and really interact meaningfully with my daughter (mostly in terms of knowing how to push her buttons with words and action). I also have to keep remembering that his memory is also now coming online, and there’s a chance that anything we do with him will stick and be brought up and held against us, years in the future.
My son is a couple years younger than his sister but is an additional academic year behind her due to how their birthdays fall. This has somewhat distorted the yardsticks that I use to compare how both of them are developing. They also have very different personalities. Comparison is futile and inadvisable, yet unavoidable.
What’s in store for us this summer? We’re off to Europe again.
A friend is holding a milestone birthday in Provence. He’s rented out a villa and a bunch of Bay Area families will be there. I’ve never been to the south of France, but it sounds nice.
We also have a trip to the Canary Islands planned, which I’m also looking forward to. It’s kind of a random trip, but also not really. More about that another time.
Other Observations
I just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to my daughter. In the chapter where Veruca Salt gets thrown down a rubbish chute because the squirrels knock her head and find it to be a bit hollow (and thus a “bad nut”), it only just occurred to me that was probably the better outcome. Because if her head was a “good nut”, the 100 squirrels would have shelled it. I know I’m not the first to realize this.
Articles
Timeline of the feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump (CNN)
🍿🍿🍿The Legal Issues Surrounding Trump’s Plan to Use Troops to Suppress Protests (New York Times)
The latest AI news should freak us out, but it won’t (Regenerator)
‘It’s so boring’: gen Z parents don’t like reading to their kids – and educators are worried (The Guardian)
Singapore’s Private Tutoring Boom Reveals the Hidden Cost of Success (Bloomberg)
Trump Ends Ban on Supersonic Flights over United States Land (OMAAT)
Law Firms That Caved to Trump Suddenly Lose a Lot of Big Business (New Republic)
How Katy Perry Came Undone (Slate)
Proof that Patrick Stewart exists in the Star Trek universe (Ironic Sans)
Diversions
Reviews
🎬 Mountainhead (2025)
It’s a promising concept from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong. Four tech bro billionaires spend a weekend together, and see what ensues with people who think extraordinary success in one area translates to omniscience in all others. The heavily dialog driven movie starts off strong but then I soon found myself thinking, “ok yeah I get it, tell me something new about these people.” The cast is great, but the plot felt pretty hollow and detached at the end. A bit like the characters being portrayed. ★★
Charts, Images & Videos
On X
Progressives Are Letting The World Know That Anarchy, Violence Against Law Enforcement, and Chaos Rule The Day https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/progressives-are-letting-the-world