Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories that you may have missed over the past week:

— More, please: “Anthropic Inks 24K SF Kendall Square Lease” (B&T)

— Speaking of AI: “Romance tech: HBS grad applies AI to vibrators, sexual wellness” (BBJ)

— Boston biotech and medical community, take note: “Patients Are Flying to China for the Latest Cancer Treatment” (WSJ). 

— We’ll soon see if Fidelity’s historically low attrition rates hold: “One of Boston’s biggest employers returns to the office full time this week — with a new HQ” (WBUR)

— Pure election-year politics: “Data centers will be subjected to local approvals under Healey order” (GBH)

— Because Bari Weiss et gang may take charge. Dan Kennedy explains: “Friends don’t let friends watch cable news. So why is the fate of CNN vital to democracy?” (Media Nation)

— PE firms are involved? Shocking!  “Revere has waited years for new fire engines. Critics blame private equity” (GBH)

— I never would have guessed: “Florida Has Become the New Hotbed for Defense Startup Money” (WSJ)

— One of the best T rants you’ll find: “The T’s unreliability is outrageous and costly. Why do we put up with it?” (Globe)

— Pete Hegseth thinks he knows better than Dwight Eisenhower and George C. Marshall. Think about it: “The Inside Story of What Happened at Stars and Stripes” (Atlantic)

I know some readers won’t believe me, figuring my bold blogger complaints below about Drake Maye are conveniently coming after last night’s disastrous Pats loss and Maye’s pathetic three fourth-quarter interceptions. But I’ve been down on Drake ever since his mediocre (at best) performances in last season’s playoffs and Super Bowl. Now you can add last night’s “2022 Mac Jones tribute,” as the Globe’s Chad Finn describes it. … I know, I know. Maye had shoulder problems late last season. But … From Sporting News this morning: “Drake Maye stats in last 5 games: Latest brutal loss vs. Seahawks shows concerning trend for Patriots QB.” …. From Yahoo Sports: “Bill Simmons’ Drake Maye ranking in his QB tier list has aged poorly after just one game of NFL season.” … Ditto Dan Shaughnessey’s pre-game assessment.

Amid the debate over how AI will probably kill us all over the next decade (WSJ), I wanted to draw your attention to the  company that’s largely/partly driving the AI boom on Wall Street: Nvidia. The Economist has an excellent explainer piece on the giant chip company that’s bankrolling so many AI-related companies and entities around the world, including at least eight ventures in the Boston area, such as QuEra Computing and Nvidia Accelerated Quantum Center. 

The Economist piece downplays the risks of one firm effectively using its vast wealth to pump up the AI bubble and create long-term demand for its chip products, saying such risks are ultimately the problem of Nvidia’s shareholders. But with Nvidia’s valuation now in the trillions of dollars and accounting for 8 percent of the total value of the S&P 500, I’m reminded of the old adage “When General Motors sneezes, America catches a cold.” Except the old saying is now being applied to the AI industry, propelled forward by Nvidia. And it will be more than just a mere cold if the giant AI bubble suddenly bursts.

Above: The Economist’s recent cover featuring Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang.

Update — From a Hub Blog reader: “James Witt’s ‘The Thinking Machine‘ is a must-read to understand Jensen Huang.”

This is such a strange Globe story. Not in terms of reporting. Rather, it’s the Wu administration’s attempt to jumpstart housing construction by … lowering expectations?

Here’s the graf that jumped out at me:

A draft of the Wu administration’s new plan, obtained by the Globe, indicates the city hopes to permit 3,000 new housing units annually over her second four-year term. That’s fewer than the 13,000 she set out to build over her first four years in office, but roughly on pace with construction over the last 18 months.

So they’re lowering the bar to the current level and calling it ‘ambitious’? As a HB reader notes: “My read between the lines is that Reality is setting in at City Hall (very quietly of course).” … Btw: construction starts are the key, not permits. That’s where this administration has been failing — getting construction projects off the ground. … At Contrarian Boston, Scott Van Voorhis is rightly blasting the administration’s draft proposal, saying it’s basically a rehash of an older plan that doesn’t lower the onerous 20 percent affordability requirement.

A former NBC Boston reporter, Eli Rosenberg, has come out with a new AI product that scrapes dozens of public sources for data and potential news-story ideas, the Globe reports. It’s a very simple and clever idea. Give Rosenberg full entrepreneurial credit for developing the AI research tool for journalists. …. But the now innovative product, I hate to say, will probably be outdated in six months or so, similar to how early dot.com-era ideas initially sounded so cutting-edge and cool, only to sound humdrum within a short while. … We’re at a similar early stage with AI technologies and products. Everything seems so shiny and new. … But, again, hats off to Rosenberg. He may well be laughing all the way to the bank if he ends up selling the product to a larger firm.

Ah, the Hub Blog mind drifts back to a long ago time when a group of journalists and I worked together on a then cutting-edge “computer-assisted reporting” investigation  (oooooh) that used an actual IBM 486 personal computer to help sort and tabulate reams of information (double oooooh). It all sounds so innocent and silly now, the technology that is. But it did lead to our winning a George Polk Award (scroll down to Political Reporting). I guess you can say that was our equivalent of laughing all the way to the bank.

Another dazzling HB train of thought: Charles Ferguson’s mini-classic “High Stakes, No Prisoners: A Winner’s Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars,” about a tech startup he founded in Cambridge in the early years of the Internet.

Below: A vintage IBM 486 personal computer. … Ooooh. …She’s a beaut, ain’t she?

Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories you may have missed this past week:

— How bad is it getting for higher-ed? This bad: “Hundreds of Colleges Are Sending Acceptance Letters to Kids Who Didn’t Even Apply” (WSJ)

— Steven Pinker says reforms haven’t gone far enough – and he’s right: “What Harvard (and the rest of higher ed) still needs to do to fix itself” (Globe)

— People say they want more housing, but don’t always vote that way: “Mixed Results for Housing-Endorsed Candidates in Mass. Primaries” (B&T)

— A good explainer piece about what’s driving nervous investors: “There Are Four Forces Pressuring Bonds: War Is No. 1” (WSJ)

— We thought the trend was winding down. Apparently not: “Developer buys third Boston residential conversion site” (BBJ)

— It may not have been an illegal deal, but it still stunk to high heaven: “Sheriff Tompkins needs to go” (Globe)

— There shouldn’t be any question. He’s an antisemitic Marxist who needs to go. Period: “The Hasan Piker Question” (Atlantic)

— Maybe Boston could learn a thing or two from these cities? Or maybe Boston doesn’t want to? “Seattle and D.C. Are Bucking the Trend by Attracting Families With Kids” (WSJ)

— ‘Harm reduction’ lunacy up north. Kevin Cullen explains: “Along the banks of Lake Champlain, who’s harming whom?” (Globe)

— They’re undefeated! “Stunning win gives UMass football something it hasn’t had in a long time – hope” (MassLive)

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey can brag all he wants about how his huge win yesterday was a “testament to the power of the progressive movement.” That may be true in his Dem primary race. But not so true in most other state races yesterday, as old-time Dem incumbents like Steve Lynch and Richard Neal beat back progressive challengers. Even a young-one establishment type brushed aside progressives/socialists yesterday to easily win in the 6^th Congressional (see Dan Koh below). All in all, there was no huge generational/ideological shift last night in Mass., keeping the state deep blue as opposed to loony left. The AARP Establishment held.

Here’s a few other post-primary thoughts:

— Polling accuracy, for a change — After major polling screw ups in Wisconsin and Michigan, the polls were right on target in the U.S. Senate and GOP gubernatorial contests yesterday in Mass. – to Seth Moulton’s chagrin. The NYT’s Reid Epstein noticed the same thing.

— Wu’s mixed power messages – The mayor wanted to send a message to local Dems in yesterday’s primaries: don’t cross me on key issues on Beacon Hill. But her Trump-like  dominance strategy didn’t work so well yesterday, as state Sen. Nick Collins easily fended off a Wu-backed challenger.

Yet, state Sen. Bill Brownsberger, another Dem targeted by Wu, was in a too-close-to-call race as of this morning. Whether Brownsberger wins or loses, Wu did put a scare into him, serving notice to other would-be Dem defiers that she can at least make life miserable for them come election time. … The Globe’s James Pindell agrees: Wu lost but also won.

— Dan Koh, New Establishment – Dan Koh’s long quest to become a full-time politician finally succeeded yesterday in the 6^th Congressional race, thanks partly to uber-establishment help from the likes of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Marty Walsh etc. Koh’s classic student-government-type resume practically shouts establishment — Phillips Academy, Harvard University, White House aide, etc.

— Rachael Rollins: maybe next time – Rachael Rollins’s comeback effort failed yesterday, as incumbent Kevin Hayden somewhat easily won the Dem race for Suffolk DA. But remember: Rollins isn’t the type to simply fade away, even if voters tell her to go away. Unfortunately, she’ll probably be back. State legislature? 

— Neal’s lucky win – The DUI leak hurt Jeromie Whalen. Perhap not a lot. But probably enough to make a close race against Richard Neal only a somewhat close race yesterday. Neal was lucky. Or was it just old-fashioned hardball politics that gave him the edge?

Update – David Bernstein has a good analysis piece at the Globe: “Moulton doesn’t deserve the hate.” The same piece, with a different headline, is available at his Substack site.

Update II – Don’t forget Charlotte Alter’s pre-primary Moulton postmortem at the Times. 

Update III – 9.3.26 — This is interesting. Lynch, a South Boston native and son of an ironworker, actually lost in Boston, but retained his seat via strong support in Quincy, Weymouth, Brockton and Braintree. MassLive has more.

Update IV — 9.11.26 – It’s official: Incumbent Bill Browsberger is declared the winner in the close state Senate race.

 

Alerting me to this Globe story about Andrew Flynn’s decision to nix his plan for a 26-story tower in Davis Square and knowing how much I hated the project, a reader asked in an email: ‘Hubblog pops Champagne?’ Well, that’s not a bad idea. Or maybe a beer at The Burren? … Btw: It’s not all about the Burren. Equally important is that McKinnon’s Meat Market has  been saved too.  … B&T and WBUR have more on Davis Square’s salvation. … Btw II, the reader above added this note to his email: “I know we need the housing… (but) there’s got to be a better way than what was proposed.”

A Hub Blog reader sends in some final thoughts on today’s Mass. primary elections (and, btw, I don’t agree Dan Koh is Moulton’s likely successor):

I will not miss local news being jammed up with campaign commercials, but will share some personal highlights:

– Seth Moulton likely successor Dan Koh – has anyone else in the USA run an ad containing endorsements from both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris? Only in Massachusetts!   (Well, maybe also the District of Columbia).

– The “he’s too old” PAC daggers came out for Markey yesterday… way too late and by the way how many of the ‘New Generation of Leaders’ could tell us what models of Claude or ChatGPT or Llama or Gemini is running on *their* iPads and iPhones? What exactly makes that an important qualification for The New Generation of Leaders?

— Moulton-Markey was in some ways the exception proving the rule about 2026 election cycle and younger Democrats. Markey had all the younger candidate issues tied up already – his ad with Sanders, Warren and Presley essentially ended the primary. It helps that Mass. is Resistance Central and has some factors that make it particularly so (in particular, reduction in federal education funding). Moulton really did not do anything to stand out.   

— Shortsleeve came up strong at the end on the Republican side IMHO.   I think Governor Healy will dispatch Mike Minogue with some ease in ways that Shortsleeve would have made more difficult.  Oh well… 

— Speaking of Minogue, the Globe turned in perhaps the most ridiculous “Experts Say” headline of the decade, and that is an accomplishment: 

Meanwhile, the Globe’s Marcela Garcia has a good piece on four races she’s closely watching today, a few of which I should have mentioned last week.