The Weekly Whatever: "Year of Efficiency"
Politics
-
October surprise confirmed again: the Reagan campaign conspired with Iranian terrorists to sabotage Carter’s re-election.
-
Far-right software engineer Hatchet Speed was a member of the Proud Boys, stockpiled guns, praised Hitler, said he wanted to kidnap Jewish leaders, and joined the January 6th attack on the US capitol. He kept his job as a Pentagon intelligence analyst until June of last year.
Crapto
-
Where did all FTX’s money go? Looks like Sam Bankman-Fried siphoned out $2.2 billion for himself.
-
Thousands of people have lost money by “investing” in a cryptocurrency trading app called iEarn Bot, which looks like it might be one of the biggest crapto scams since the last one.
-
Microsoft decides this is the perfect time to add a cryptocurrency wallet to their Edge browser.
Business
-
Zuckerberg fires another 10,000 employees at Meta, saying “A leaner org will execute its highest priorities faster. People will be more productive, and their work will be more fun and fulfilling. We will become an even greater magnet for the most talented people.”
-
John Deere graciously gave farmers the right to repair their own farm equipment this year, after fighting for years. Turns out the company was using unlicensed GPL code all along.
-
Open plan offices reduce collaboration, heighten sexism, and cause health issues. Now get back in the office.
Science
-
Scientists create a vagina on a chip, not to be confused with vagina flavored chips.
-
National Academies of Science and NIH: Race is a social concept with no scientific definition, so stop trying to research it genetically.
Brexit dividends
-
Thanks to Brexit, Britain is no longer bound by EU laws against dumping raw sewage into shared waters, so in 2021 the government gave water companies the go ahead to do so if Brexit meant they couldn’t get chemicals needed to treat effluent. Now Britain’s best beach is contaminated with raw sewage. So are 82 others.
-
Thanks to Brexit, Britain is ruled out as a location for the world’s largest electric car company’s first plant in Europe.
Permademic
-
Danny Lemoi took concentrated veterinary grade ivermectin every day, telling his antivax followers to give it to their children. He just died from side effects of ivermectin.
-
Three years ago San Diego received emergency COVID-19 relief trailers to protect the homeless from the pandemic. They might make some of them available any day now.
Miscellaneous
-
Dhaka muslin was once the most valuable fabric you could buy. We’ve no idea how to make it.
-
A driver got 43 speeding tickets in 10 months, before finally crashing and killing 3 other people while fleeing from police. Maybe this time they’ll lose their license?