This ought to boost Boston’s AI/chip competitiveness. The BBJ and Barron’s are reporting the giant chipmaker plans to build a new “Accelerated Quantum Computing Research Center” in Boston, teaming up with various local players like QuEra Computing, Harvard, MIT etc. … There are no figures on how much Nvidia might invest in the center, nor how many employees might be hired. We’ll have to wait and see. But it certainly can’t hurt to have Nvidia developing partnership deals here.

I loved the above headline on Josh Barro’s recent post. … What do Schumer critics want Dems to do? More paddle-board, pink-dresses and howling-rage protests? … As Michael Baharaeen notes at Liberal Patriot: “’Resistance’ will only take (Dems) so far, especially if rooted in nothing more than mindless rage.” … Bottom line: Dems need to pick effective battles, expand their base and win future elections.

Note – U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who loves revving up the progressive base, is critical of Schumer’s budget vote. But she’s not calling for his replacement, the Globe reports. I.e., she probably knows Schumer took one for the team.

First comes opposition to more glass-covered towers in Downtown Crossing. Now opposition is mobilizing against a proposed tower project in Boston’s North Station/West End, as B&T reports. Is there a pattern forming here? … Bostonians are infamous for opposing major development projects in general. But it does seem people are getting rather sick of these banal towers. Besides the first link above, I also harped on this subject back in January (scroll down to ‘Not quite NIMBYism’).

A week after implementing another round of layoffs to deal with a huge budget hole, MGB, aka the former Partners Health, has announces a $400 million investment in a cancer care center because, well, it can’t let Dana Farber team up with rival Beth Israel Deaconess without a counter-move to preserve its cash flow and dominant market share in Boston. … The BBJ has more.

The Pats will deeply regret it if they do. … Am I the only one who thinks Drake Maye has much more to prove? … Milton chatter via Globe’s Ben Volin.

This is a real pleasant surprise, via the BBJ. … It’s not a big increase, but over the past five years Greater Boston’s population growth has beat out Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Denver, as well as NY, LA, SF and Chicago. … Thank immigration and a diverse economy, though the high-cost-of-living here remains a huge economic challenge, as the BBJ rightly notes.

God help us if this is true. … 

Voice of America has operated for 83 years under approval of Congress and 15 presidents. But one day King Donald decides he doesn’t like it, so – poof – hundreds of VOA journalists and other employees are put on leave and the agency’s mission is effectively eliminated. … Wikipedia is already listing VOA as “dissolved.” … 

Oh, well. Just another constitutionally questionable move that Republicans are refusing to acknowledge. … See my Humpty Dumpty downsizing post from the other day. This same scenario is going to keep repeating itself until Congress says stop.

Update — 3.19.25 — From the Globe’s Jeff Jacoby: “Dictators rejoice as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe are silenced.”

Besides getting some public-health matters wrong after the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, it now appears we may have been misinformed about the likelihood that that the pandemic was caused by a leak at China’s Wuhan Institute, as Zeynep Tufekci writes at the NYT. … She points to yet another NYT piece that has also raised past and present safety concerns at places like Wuhan. … A-not-so-random thought: A problem with conspiracy theories is that they’re occasionally right. 

Btw – I missed this COVID-related piece by the Globe’s Joan Vennochi last week: “The chill on speech during COVID-19 hurt the country.”

A friend alerted me to an interesting TED-like talk last month by Musa al Gharbi, author of the new book ‘We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite.’ The event was hosted by the MIT Free Speech Alliance and co-sponsored by MIT’s Heterodox Academy Campus Community, MIT Concourse, and MIT Students for Open Discourse. … 

I haven’t read Gharbi’s book nor viewed the entire YouTube video of the talk. But I’m generally sympathetic to criticisms of wokeness, as actually practiced by the left and not as portrayed by the right. As a moderate liberal, I think the heavy influence of the academic left’s identity-politics and wokeness has severely hurt the Democratic Party, alienating millions of moderate voters and creating political openings currently being exploited by MAGA reactionaries. So anything that politically weakens that academic left, I’m for. …