• It may be schadenfreude on my part, but I gotta love it; as reported by Sandali Handagama at Coindesk:

A non-fungible token (NFT) of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet could sell for just under $280. The current owner of the NFT listed it for $48 million last week.

Iranian-born crypto entrepreneur Sina Estavi purchased the NFT for $2.9 million in March 2021. Last Thursday, he announced on Twitter that he wished to sell the NFT, and pledged 50% of its proceeds (which he thought would exceed $25 million) to charity. The auction closed Wednesday, with just seven total offers ranging from 0.09 ETH ($277 at current prices) to 0.0019 ETH (almost $6).

“The deadline I set was over, but if I get a good offer, I might accept it, I might never sell it,” Estavi told CoinDesk via a WhatsApp message on Wednesday.

Let’s see, that’s a net of, oh about -$2,900,000.  Ouch.  Maybe Elon can tweet about it.

• Another good, thought-provoking post (Mancur Olson at the End of History) from Matt Yglesias in his Slow Boring Substack newsletter. Some excerpts:

“So along with all the Ukrainian flag pins, the west ought to be taking action on energy policy:
1. Subsidizing the purchase of electric cars and e-bikes.
2. Raising gasoline taxes and using the revenue to cut payroll taxes.
3. Canceling and reversing planned shutdowns of nuclear power plants.
4. Tearing down regulatory barriers to long-distance electrical transmission lines, geothermal exploration, advanced nuclear, and to permitting new utility-scale wind and solar warms.
5. Either outright barring European imports of Russian natural gas or at least placing stiff taxes and quotas on how much can be imported.”

and:

“But despite a ton of big talk from western leaders, we are so far not really doing any of this.”

and:

“It’s not like there is a single Republican Party elected official who is volunteering to give the Biden administration political cover on gas prices and say “look, we can disagree on abortion rights and government spending while also acknowledging that a surge in energy prices is worth it to beat the Russians.” Nor are Biden’s supporters among environmental groups volunteering to give him a pass on supporting domestic oil and gas production or urging him to go all-in on nuclear. The economic war on Russia is half-assed not because each national leader has independently decided to half-ass it, but because all of our societies are experiencing demosclerosis and simply can’t choose to act decisively on the Russia issue. We lack the capacity.”

• This is a wonderful story from the Washington Post about a man who can credibly speak 24 languages, a hyperpolyglot.   Worth a read for the positive feel it engenders.

• Once more, Linda Greenhouse in the NYT masterfully opines on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Senate confirmation hearings (How Low Will Senate Republicans Go on Ketanji Brown Jackson?).  Her conclusion:

“But here’s a judgment I can make with confidence: If and when Senators Cruz, Graham and the rest of them seek redemption for their behavior last week, they won’t find it.”

I’d also recommend Frank Bruni’s writings on the fantastical textings of Ginni Thomas in the Times.  An excerpt:

“There’s no entertaining the thought that a majority of your fellow Americans may not share your views. In an age of extreme narcissism, that’s unimaginable, impossible, phantasmagorical.

If the polls cast you in the minority, they’re wrong. If the vote runs contrary to your desires, it’s rigged. Or those fellow Americans just don’t matter, not like you do. You’re on the side of the angels. They’re trying to shepherd everyone into the abyss.”

• Finally, some cold water thrown on the industry supported studies that suggested alcohol has cardiovascular benefits.  From the study:

Findings  In this cohort study of 371 463 individuals, genetic evidence supported a nonlinear, consistently risk-increasing association between all amounts of alcohol consumption and both hypertension and coronary artery disease, with modest increases in risk with light alcohol intake and exponentially greater risk increases at higher levels of consumption.

Biddinger KJ, Emdin CA, Haas ME, et al. Association of Habitual Alcohol Intake With Risk of Cardiovascular Disease. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(3):e223849. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.3849

• Ted Cruz, Linsey Graham, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley, Marsha Blackburn, now that’s one stellar lineup of diabolical performance artists; no limits on self-interest, but a distinct aversion to honest and ethical assessment.  Oh, the hypocrisy.   I credit republican senator Ben Sasse, who had it right — “A lot of the jack-assery we see around here is people mugging” for the cameras.

Ben Sasse moments after Ted Cruz throws a performative tantrum that was tailormade for Hannity: "I think we should recognize that the jackassery we often see around here is partly because of people mugging for short-term camera opportunities." pic.twitter.com/3YqBgrrXNR

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 23, 2022

• Excerpted from Tom Friedman’s NYT column of March 2022, Xi, Putin and Trump: The Strongmen Follies:

“The last five years have been a master class in comparative politics, because something happened that we’d never seen before at the same time: The world’s three most powerful leaders — Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump — each took drastic steps to hold on to power beyond their designated terms of office. One failed. Two succeeded. And therein lies a tale that says so much about our world today.

Trump failed for one very simple reason: American institutions, laws and norms forced him to cede power at the end of his four years — barely — despite both his efforts to discredit the electoral results and his unleashing of supporters to intimidate lawmakers into overturning his loss at the polls.

Putin and Xi fared better — so far. Unencumbered by institutions and democratic norms, they installed new laws to make themselves, effectively, presidents for life.

Pity their nations.

Lord knows democracies have their problems today, but they still have some things autocracies lack — the ability to change course, often by changing leaders, and the ability to publicly examine and debate alternative ideas before embarking on a course of action. Those attributes are particularly valuable in an age of accelerating technological and climate change, when the odds are low that one person in his late 60s — as both Putin and Xi are — will make better and better decisions, more and more alone, as he gets older and older.”