The Weekly Whatever: Monitoring Vermont's Purity of Essence
Quote of the week
I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.
It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness.
Crapto
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Ethereum-based $1.2 billion virtual reality environment "Decentraland", which allowed you to buy and sell virtual real estate with cryptocurrency, is found to have 38 financially active users in a day.
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Right before cryptocurrency lender Celsius locked customer accounts and declared bankruptcy, its top executives withdrew $17 million.
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For some reason CNN had an NFT marketplace. It doesn't any more.
Musk news
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Elon Musk launches a perfume described as "the essence of repugnant desire"; somehow it's not called Elon Musk.
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Elon steps into geopolitics with his idea for peace between Russia and Ukraine: Ukraine should give Crimea to Russia. Ukraine's diplomatic ambassador to Germany tells him to fuck off. Elon suddenly says Starlink can no longer provide Ukraine with discount Internet, claiming that it's costing $20m every few months. People point out that at $20m a month, he could personally fund the service for 500 years using just the money he made last year. Elon backtracks.
Business
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September 29: Google announces that it is shutting down its Stadia cloud gaming platform. October 11: Google announces the launch of a new series of cloud gaming Chromebooks.
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The company formerly known as Facebook announces its new $1500 VR helmet, which will track your eye movements so it can target ads better.
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Last year Peter Thiel launched a new bank aimed at people who thought Wall Street was too woke and liberal, and who wanted to celebrate their "love of God and country". This year the money has run out and the bank is nearing bankruptcy.
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In some parts of the country, 70% of apartments are controlled by 10 landlords, who all use the same software algorithm to set prices. The algorithm maximises profit, and it's more profitable to jack up the rent so high that 5% of the apartments sit empty.
Environment
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Water levels in the Mississippi get so low that barges run aground and 2,000 vessels are stranded.
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Alaska snow crab season is canceled after a billion crabs fail to show up.
Law and order
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In 2020, a Trump supporter's camper and trucks were set on fire, and his home was tagged with "Biden 2020", "BLM" and an anarchist symbol. Surprise surprise, he did it himself.
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A police officer in Woburn, MA helped plan the Charlottesville far-right rally, and acted as bodyguard to neo-Nazi Richard Spencer. Now every case he handled is to be reexamined.
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Meanwhile in Chicago, a cop who was apparently a member of the Proud Boys and investigated by the FBI gets to keep his job.
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A man in New Jersey is on trial for killing his wife. He was convicted of killing his previous wife, but the judge has ruled that jurors don't need to be told about that.
Politics
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Republicans keep claiming that schools keep cat litter so that children who identify as furries can use a litter box. The truth? A school kept some cat litter in a bucket in case children were trapped in a classroom during a school shooting.
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An official in charge of the water supply for a town in Vermont quietly lowered the fluoride levels for years because he was worried that Chinese fluoride was poisoning people.
FYI
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More than 40% of Americans have misled others about whether they've had COVID or whether they're bothering to take precautions, saying they wanted to feel normal or exercise their personal freedom (to infect others).
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You liked the LEGO tiger butthole? Well now, finally, there's LEGO poop.