In today’s newsletter we discuss a Pickleball world merger, Craig Newmark fights AI, Virgin Galactic launches ancient human fossils, is Travis Kelce dating Taylor Swift, and Ryan Serhant wraps filming on “House of Serhant”.

Business

There is a craze sweeping across the entire sports world right now, and its name is Pickleball. Now before you roll your eyes, bear with me for a minute, because it’s not everyday that a new sport appears that your grandparents can’t stop talking about. I have to admit my whole family is wild about Pickleball. It all started when my son learned to play on a cruise with his grandma, came home, and wouldn’t stop talking about it. He taught us all, then before we knew it he was entering Pickleball tournaments and going to Pickleball training camps (yes both of those are real things).

Now there’s news that the two biggest Pickleball leagues are discussing a merger, and there’s big private equity money involved. The PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball are the two leagues discussing a merger, and the deal is backed by “a $50 million investment led by private equity firm SC Holdings, PPA Tour owner Tom Dundon and various MLP owners.” according to an article on CNBC. And before you blow off this news story, and Pickleball as a whole, there are Major League Pickleball teams today that are going for as much as $10 million, when just a year ago the average Millionaire could pick one up for as little as $100,000. Now the likes of Kevin Durant, Lebron James, Tom Brady, and Eli Manning are all Pickleball team owners. Trust me, this is a sport you’ll want to keep an eye on (and give a try).

Major League Pickleball merger with PPA is back on after a falling out threatened the deal

Tech

Guess what Craig is up to now? Yes, that Craig of Craigslist. Craig Newmark is pouring Millions into trying to combat the dark side of AI (good luck with that). IMO the genie is out of the bottle, the robots have already won before the 1st battle has been fought, and I for one am ready to pack up, grab my go-bag, and head for the mountains (but that’s probably just because I’ve never met a conspiracy theory I didn’t like).

Craig brings up great points, and I don’t want to diminish them, but the idea of some rich tech dude pouring Millions of dollars he can afford to lose into trying to fight AI, when a bunch of Billionaires (*cough* Elon Musk) have much bigger wallets and are racing full speed ahead with AI that can steer Teslas, I’m just saying any amount of money spent trying to stop AI is going to be like pissing in the ocean.

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is pouring millions of dollars into combating AI’s dark side

Space

You know what’s cool? Virgin Galactic launched three passengers and an instructor to the edge of space last week. You know what’s not cool? They brought along ancient human fossils from Homo Naledi, an ancient-human species that lived 250,000 years old. Why would anyone in their right mind want to launch the fossil remains of a distant human relative that lived a quarter of a million years ago? Oh, good PR you say? I guess that makes sense, since we’re talking about it.

The launch was part of a public relations marketing campaign by the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) to draw attention to “science, exploration, human origins, and South Africa” according to Lee Berger who discovered the fossils near Johannesburg in South Africa.

So I guess you could call this another out of this world PR stunt.

Archaeologists are losing it over Virgin Galactic’s latest spaceflight

Entertainment

There’s always stories going around about Taylor Swift (which I do my part to help tell), but you know one place you’d never expect to hear “news” about Taylor Swift? An NFL football game! But that’s exactly what happened over the weekend. The rumors are flying that Travis Kelce, of the Kansas City Chiefs, and Taylor Swift of (well, EVERYTHING!) are dating.

Commentators had fun some with puns during the Chiefs game on Sunday, slipping Taylor Swift lyrics into their commentary. Even Travis’ own brother Jason Kelce was asked to confirm the rumors and would only say he’s heard the rumors and said “I cannot comment.” which only adds fuel to these rumors. I guess when it comes to these rumors the media just can’t shake it off.

NFL commentators had so many puns about those Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift rumors

Real Estate

Everyone favorite real estate agent (*snark*) Ryan Serhant has just wrapped filming for his new Netflix show “House of Serhant” that airs in 2024. According to The Real Deal “the show follows Serhant and his agents as he builds the agency.” So you know, it’s basically Million Dollar Listings New York without those other annoying real estate agents.

Filming nearly done for “House of Serhant”

So much news, so little time. Until tomorrow we’re signing out.

— Chris