This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a lively conductor of Bloomberg Opinionâs opinions. Sign up here. Not everyone wants to pay for net zero. D [Bloomberg](
This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a lively conductor of Bloomberg Opinionâs opinions. [Sign up here](. Todayâs Must-Reads - Not everyone wants to pay for [net zero](.
- [Dubai](Â becomes the hedge fund flavor of the month.
- The [Tories]( are still tearing themselves apart.
- [China]( hooks up with Saudi Arabia. Thatâs not good for climate talks. Superconductivity: Science vs. Social Media The breathlessness thatâs greeted a new material made of lead and copper is, well, breathtaking. LK-99 is heralded as a room-temperature superconductor that, if it survives the [barrage]( of peer reviews, could [transform the world as we know it](. Everything from electricity to transportation to medicine to chip technology might get more efficient and affordable. At the end of a [nerdy tweet](, Ming-Chi Kuo, an influential analyst at TF International Securities in Taiwan, declared, âEven a mobile device as small as an iPhone can have a computing power comparable to a quantum computer.â [Investors]( immediately dove into companies â mostly in South Korea and China â that had anything to do with the business of new compounds. Some South Koreans were already looking forward to Nobel Prizes being awarded to compatriots who discovered LK-99 (their surnames are Lee and Kim, and they came up with it separately in 1999). OK. Now take a breath. Or two. Superconductivity exists (Nobel Prizes have been awarded to scientists who have studied it). But materials that achieve it â that is, eliminate magnetic fields and have 100% efficiency in conducting electricity â can perform the process only at extremely low temperatures. Think sub-180 Celsius (-292 Fahrenheit). Thatâs commercially impractical. Hence the excitement about [LK-99 achieving superconductivity at room temperature](. But all the hype needs to be tempered by a lot. Tim Culpan [writes](, âSocial media means these developments become talking points and memes even among those who barely understand the concepts. ⦠The rush to publish, discuss, criticize and tear apart new discoveries works in conflict with the slow and deliberate nature of scientific research.â Timâs not asking us to stop dreaming. âLK-99 may not end up being the room-temperature superconductor we all hope for. But perhaps these findings, and renewed excitement, will lead to other advances that offer high-speed, energy-efficient trains, viable and cheap quantum supercomputers, and highly-scalable batteries to store renewable energy. â¦Â Letâs embrace the excitement around LK-99, but not pin our hopes on it. The scientific journey is as valuable as the final result, and thatâs worth celebrating no matter the individual outcomes.â Fine. Iâm just going to worry about what an LK-99 iPhone is going to cost me. The Japan That Can Say âWelcome, Immigrants!â Among the many stereotypes about Japan, the one that economists like to bring up is the countryâs resistance to immigration. Homogeneity has always been considered a national strength. But it is going to be debilitating as the country ages rapidly and its population shrinks. Wouldnât allowing foreigners to live and work in the country help avoid that crisis? Gearoid Reidy [says]( that Japan is already getting started on that very solution â and the latest population statistics bear it out. He writes: âThe number of foreigners rose 11% from a year earlier to comprise 2.4% of the total population, or just under 3 million people; as the figures are from Jan. 1, that milestone has now likely already been passed. It often goes unremarked that the number of workers from overseas has more than doubled in the last decade alone, while the broader foreign community (including students and families) has risen 50%.â There are lots of impediments â wages, language, assimilation and, yes, residual but tenacious xenophobia. But thatâs begun to change, starting from the most august of levels. Back in 2001, Emperor Akihito publicly acknowledged that he had a Korean ancestor. That was remarkable considering the discrimination that Koreans in Japan have faced for centuries. The imperial family goes back at least 1,500 years; it is, for many Japanese, still the symbol of nationhood. Akihito abdicated in 2019 and was succeeded by his son Naruhito. People like to point out, politely, that the imperial ancestor he admitted to â a [descendant]( of a Korean king who lived briefly on the Japanese island of Kyushu â  lived in the 8th century. Still, no matter how far back, if the most Japanese family in Japan has a tincture of immigrant blood, the country can get used to more immigrants. Telltale Charts âIf Niger falls into the Russian orbit, the world would depend even more on Moscow â and its clients â for atomic energy. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, two former Soviet republics, are among the worldâs top uranium producers, accounting for about 50% of the worldâs mined supply. Add Russia and Niger to that, and the share jumps to just above 60%.â â Javier Blas in â[The Long Arm of the Kremlin and the Politics of Uranium](.â âThe US lags China, South Korea and Japan in some of the most important components of lithium-ion battery production. With just 4.4% of global cell capacity, and at single-digit shares of separators, electrolytes, cathodes and anodes, the worldâs largest economy is a long way from EV self-sufficiency.â â Tim Culpan in â[America Is Driving Toward a New Supply Chain Crisis](.â âBud Light has struggled since controversy erupted over its Instagram partnership with transgender influencer and actor Dylan Mulvaney in April. Bud Light has since fallen from the top spot as the best-selling beer by dollar sales in the US, giving up the title to Constellation Brands Inc.âs Modelo.â â Andrea Felsted in â[The Bud Light Hangover Hasnât Gone Away](.â Further Reading [Harvard](should stop it with the nepo babies. â Adrian Wooldridge The [Swiss banking merger]( that has lots of Asian holes. â Shuli Ren Does Rishi Sunak really believe [more oil drilling]( is good for the planet? â Lara Williams Russiaâs [new nuclear strategy]( is still the old kind of scary. â Andreas Kluth The deep money problems of Britainâs [health system](. â The Editors White guys canât [cook everything](. â Howard Chua-Eoan Walk of the Town: Texas Holdâem in London In mid-July, I wrote about how the [super-rich were sweeping up talent]( â like chefs â to work for them privately. A friend I hadnât heard from for a year called me to say she was in town, accompanying her new boss, a very successful professional gambler whoâd flown into town on a private jet to participate in the London circuit of the World Series of Poker. Looking for something new to write about, I walked down Park Lane to the competition venue â the JW Marriott Grosvenor House. The hotel shares the name (as well as the site) of the legendary townhouse of the Grosvenor clan, the family of the Duke of Westminster. But the original was torn down in the 1920s. Preparing for poker at the WSOPâs London circuit Photographer: Photograph: Howard Chua-Eoan I wanted to catch a glimpse of the high roller lifestyle. As it turned out, itâs a lot of hoodies and T-shirts and sneakers. Perhaps it was because most of the participants that I watched were in a Texas Holdâem tournament where the buy-in was a mere £450 ($570). But even the super high-rollers seemed super casual. These are the folks who can afford buy-ins upwards of £10,500 (for pots worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or more) and are separated from the rest by a wall, playing on tables in a shiny set prepped for TV cameras. There was one person in a sleeveless hoodie made of shiny blue suede. Their food was delivered by servers. The regular rollers had to walk up to the coffee shop for food and drinks (noodles, candy, water, coffee and lots of Red Bull). Oh, they could also call on the services of a masseur, whoâd come to the table to rub down necks and shoulders tired from hours of hunched down gaming. We use a lot of card game expressions in daily life â chip in, full deck, poker face etc. Lots have been said about traders and poker. Is there more that Texas Holdâem can say about the world beyond the gaming tables? The subject may yet supply a future column. Weekender: The Cruelest Month in Paris August is a conundrum for food lovers in the French capital. After this weekend, some of the best restaurants will be on summer break until September. If you had your heart set on Septime and Maison Sota in the 11th arrondissement, youâre out of luck. The first wonât reopen till Aug. 23; the second not until Sept. 1. In the same area, Bistrot Paul Bert â much celebrated by Anthony Bourdain â wonât reopen till the 23rd either. However, if youâre a fan of Chef Iñaki Aizpitarteâs Le Chateaubriand, it will not be closing. My friend and journalist Wendy Lyn ([@parisismykitchen]() has a helpful [list of her favorite restaurants]( and whether they are open this season. She particularly likes Café les Deux Gares in the 10th, which is open all summer. If youâre stuck for a spot, thereâs always Breizh, a crêperie. Itâs become a global chain, yet is still distinctively French. Head for the original in Le Marais and try the savory buckwheat galette with ham and comté cheese, topped with an egg and a small slab of espelette butter. Itâll settle you down, if only for a while. The buckwheat galette at Breizh Cafe Photograph by Howard Chua-Eoan Drawdown Youâve reached the end. Aw shucks, hereâs a doodle as a âthank youâ  for hanging on! âThe oyster is my world.â Photographer: Illustration by Howard Chua-Eoan Notes: Please send pearls of wisdom and feedback to Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox.
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