The Weekly Whatever: Pope Peterson I
Wildlife
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Two men shoot and kill a bald eagle, thinking it’s a vulture and planning to cook and eat it.
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American woman takes her pet cow for a walk in Red Square and is surprised to find herself arrested and deported.
Republic of Gilead
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Facebook and Google are handing over user data to help police prosecute people seeking abortions.
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Walgreens caves to threats and says it won’t distribute abortion pills in 20 states, even if they are legal.
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UN urged to act over loss of bodily autonomy caused by anti-abortion laws.
Crapto
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Coinbase quietly decided that “hate” and “racial intolerance” are OK, so they can get in on the far right’s use of cryptocurrency.
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Real bank Silvergate, which cryptocurrency companies relied on to transact in US dollars, lost 60% of its deposits in one quarter, and may go out of business any time now.
Business
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Migrant children are being put to work for companies like Fruit of the Loom and Frito-Lay, in violation of laws against child labor.
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Spotify gets rid of the “SS Adolf Hitler Radio” playlist it assembled.
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$30m of godawful PVC Funko Pops will be buried in a landfill.
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A Christian “health care sharing ministry” suddenly stopped paying customers’ medical bills after spending money on a pot farm, a bank and an airline. But they can’t be prosecuted for felony financial crimes, because Jesus.
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Google is a mess of fraudulent ads that they could detect, but they make money on the fraud, so…
Technology
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Every DJI quadcopter drone broadcasts the operator’s GPS location in the clear. Hackers release open source software to decode the signals. Russia and Ukraine use DJI drones, but maybe not for much longer…
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VW, on the other hand, initially refused to help police locate a car with an abducted child inside because the car’s owner hadn’t paid the subscription fee for GPS location services.
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Thinking about whether to share something on social media reduces people’s ability to decide whether it’s true or not.
Health
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Another study suggests that fructose is the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
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Black and hispanic adults are much less likely to receive CPR from bystanders if they have a heart attack.
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Artificial sweetener erythritol is shown to dramatically increase chances of blood clotting, stroke, heart attack and death.
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BetterHelp gave customers’ mental health information to Facebook for use in targeted advertising.
Expertise
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Jordan Peterson boldly wades in and tells the Pope how to be Catholic.
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Tiny insects excrete 300 times their body weight in urine per day using an anal catapult.