Case Study On Identity Theft

"How a Stranger Used One Text Message to Steal My Entire Digital Life"

When To Use AI

Bruce Schneier: "Should you use AI for a task? Here's a simple way to decide". I really like his gym/workout analogy.

Airline Bag Fees

Today's lesson in perverse incentives -- airline bag fees. Sadly, Southwest Airlines succumbed in 2025 and started charging bag fees. (Via Quartz Daily Brief.)

Domestic airfare carries a 7.5% federal excise tax that funds the FAA through the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. The IRS has ruled that checked-bag fees aren't payment for the "transportation of a person", so they escape that tax entirely. 

That single distinction is the whole game. Move a dollar from the fare column to the fee column and the airline keeps an extra 7.5 cents. Gary Leff, who writes the aviation blog View From the Wing, calculated that American Airlines alone was saving over $75 million a year in taxes by charging for bags instead of folding the cost into fares. 

Southwest, by including two free checked bags for decades, paid more tax on the same trip than rivals who unbundled. Washington was penalizing the one airline that didn't nickel-and-dime.

The Largest Tweetable Number

"The Largest Tweetable Number"

Old Guiness

"Divers find 162-year-old Guinness in shipwreck off the English coast"

SpaceX Prospects

"SpaceX at the Inflection Point: Why the CapEx Fear Trade is Mispricing a Civilizational Investment"

Best Password Managers

"The Best Password Managers to Secure Your Digital Life"

Hsieh Forbes Article: AI And Cardiac Death Detection

My latest Forbes column is now out: "How Artificial Intelligence Discovered A New Way To Detect Patients At Risk Of Cardiac Death". 

This was a pretty cool discovery by AI, with implications in both basic cardiac physiology and practical patient care.

Waymo In Denver Update

Update on upcoming Waymo robotaxi launch in Denver.