Afternoon Tea 12.16.2020 - Possession & Amputation

What is 9/10ths of the law anyway? Can I get away with 7/10ths?

December 16, 2020

Pig genome alterations approved, New Years at Times Square will be without an audience, WH security being thrown under the COVID-19 bus, massive donations by Mackenzie Scott, and global intrigue from a place called the Channel Islands. It’s Wednesday, December 16th 2020, and this is the Tea.

FDA Approves Pig Genomic Alteration for Food, Medicine Use (Bloomberg) They’re going to alter the genes of pigs used in therapeutics for humans, to reduce allergic reactions and need for other drugs to control side effects. This is the beginning of a very big future.

Times Square New Year’s Eve event will have no public audience (Axios) We’ve come so far from the Y2K scare. It’s been officially a dry event for years, so it will never reclaim the gawdy, filthy sheen it once had, but this is gonna be weird.

Head of White House security office had right foot amputated because of COVID-19 (Business Insider) In case you were wondering what happens when you’re not on the list to get treatments that sound like Pokémon moves (Go Dragonite! Use Regeneron!) and don’t get airlifted to the Walter Reade Center For Kids Who Can’t Read Good.

The Black American Amputation Epidemic (ProPublica) Stuff like this is exactly the legitimate reason why people, especially minorities, are wildly skeptical of the vaccine.

Sorry, the Hunter Biden Story Is Still Not a Thing (The New Republic) This is getting embarrassing y’all. Stop trying to make Hunter happen.

Facebook criticizes Apple’s iOS privacy changes with full-page newspaper ads (The Verge) I wonder how much the “Pot Calling The Kettle” campaign cost.

Spy Companies Using Channel Islands to Track Phones Around the World (Bureau of Investigative Journalism) This is wild. Apparently phone/switch operators in the Channel Islands can be used to grab data on specific phones all over the world? FTA:

The spy companies see phone operators in the Channel Islands as an especially soft route into the UK, according to industry experts, who say the attacks emanating from the islands appear to be targeted at individuals rather than cases of “mass” surveillance. The Bureau understands that the targets of this surveillance have been spread across the globe, and included US citizens as well as people in Europe and Africa.

52 things I learned in 2020 (Flux.x Studio) This is a fun idea, I wish I thought of it, and I’m totally going to steal it. Great little nibbles, like this:

In 2014, the International Energy Authority forecast how the price of solar power would fall over the next half century. After just six years, we’re 40 years ahead of expectations.

The Big Thaw: How Russia Could Dominate a Warming World (ProPublica) The warming of the planet will cause land across Russia to go from unusable permafrost to valuable acreage. I definitely couldn’t tell you how much real estate costs in Blagoveshchensk right now, but, give the sharks a few years to smell opportunity.

MacKenzie Scott, the Amazon billionaire, is giving away $1 billion a month (Vox) You better put some respect on her name. $4 billion across 400 nonprofits, after $1.7 billion already donated earlier this year.

Song of the Tea: While there will be holiday music from here on out, I'm going to try my best to make sure there's a little extra in each track. You now have a socially acceptable reason to play Star Wars on Christmas.

Snow begins to fall,Winds begin to whip and lash.And still, here I sit.

Yours,T