Overview
Eleven posts set the tone today. Interstellar comet images, fresh safety outrage in Nigeria, xAI scaling up its Memphis cluster and tools, Musk pitching an open galactic encyclopaedia, US politics rubbing against Epstein fallout, and Haaland going nostalgic while the Ballon d’Or judges look the other way.
The big picture
New images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS
NASA shares multi-mission views of 3I/ATLAS from across the solar system, giving a rare look at material entering from outside our star’s neighbourhood and fuelling arguments over whether its odd chemistry is exotic but natural or something stranger.
🔗 https://x.com/NASA/status/1991240031235604783
Why is NYSC still sending grads to Borno?
Mr Mekzy calls out Nigeria’s NYSC for posting young graduates to high risk states like Borno despite ongoing insurgency, reviving calls to reform or scrap a scheme that still sends “children” into danger for the sake of unity.
🔗 https://x.com/MrMekzy_/status/1991067714887061650
Burna Boy and fan respect
Oku asks for the “best word” to describe Burna Boy after he mocked a sleeping couple at his Denver show and said he only wants fans with money. Replies split between calling it honesty and calling it pure entitlement.
🔗 https://x.com/oku_yungx/status/1991048444052713535
Megapacks for Colossus 2 in Memphis
Sawyer Merritt reports that xAI is installing about 375 million dollars of Tesla Megapacks at its Colossus 2 supercomputer site in Memphis, aiming for huge AI capacity without hammering the local grid.
🔗 https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1991171733177417943
Mamdani donation clip goes meme
Stephen Miller quotes a video of NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani urgently asking for small donations to fund his transition, then joking he hopes not to ask again. Critics are already saving the clip for future use.
🔗 https://x.com/redsteeze/status/1991034753118883846
Larry Summers exits the OpenAI board
The Kobeissi Letter reports that Larry Summers is resigning from OpenAI’s board after newly released Epstein emails, feeding a broader narrative that reputational fallout, not courtrooms, is where most of this saga now plays out.
🔗 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1991121576557683030
The “Dave” meme and free IP
Damin Toell riffs on the viral Dave meme template and the fact its creator did not watermark it, turning a fake legal exchange into a joke about giving away formats that drive endless impressions for others.
🔗 https://x.com/damintoell/status/1991219866020225025
OpenAI job posting vs SF housing
Luke Metro pairs an OpenAI Research Scientist role that has been open since 2022 with a story about zero listings for 4–7 million dollar homes in north San Francisco, hinting that talent and luxury property are both scarce in the same postcode.
🔗 https://x.com/luke_metro/status/1991246322578706931
xAI drops a tool-calling Grok
Eric Jiang announces Grok 4.1 Fast as a “best on the planet” tool-calling model, wired into a new Agent Tools API that can pull X data, browse, run code and more, with generous context and early access pricing.
🔗 https://x.com/veggie_eric/status/1991285321410236583
Grokipedia and the “Encyclopedia Galactica”
Elon Musk sets out plans for Grokipedia to grow into an open “Encyclopedia Galactica” – a distributed, long-term store of knowledge about the universe, seeded by Grok and intended to live far beyond a single server rack or even a single planet.
🔗 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1991166183014354973
Haaland remembers “this name”
Erling Haaland reposts an old tweet shouting out his teenage self and writes “I remember this name”, a tongue-in-cheek reminder of how far he has come, landing just after a Ballon d’Or ranking many fans felt did not match his goals.
🔗 https://x.com/ErlingHaaland/status/1991107148915630517
Why it matters
Space and knowledge
NASA’s interstellar comet campaign and Musk’s “Encyclopedia Galactica” nod both speak to the same instinct: collect, preserve and study things far beyond day-to-day politics, before they vanish.
AI is now an infrastructure story
xAI’s Memphis Megapacks and Grok 4.1 Fast show AI as both a hardware and software problem: keep the lights on cheaply while spinning up agents with deep tool access and huge contexts.
Accountability, or lack of it
Summers leaving the OpenAI board after Epstein emails, Massie’s Epstein-files bill yesterday, and Mamdani’s donation clip turning into a ready-made attack ad all highlight how receipts, not institutions, often do the heavy lifting on reputation.
Nigeria’s tension points
NYSC postings to Borno, Burna Boy’s comments about only wanting rich fans, and yesterday’s “gifts are non-refundable” betting story add up to a picture of safety worries, class friction and gambling hopefulness running through Nigerian feeds.
Attention and ownership online
From a meme template without a watermark to elite AI roles and SF houses both in short supply, today’s posts circle back to who creates value, who captures it and who simply gets screenshotted into a format others will recycle.
