Afternoon Tea 2.26.25 - Watches of Espionage

Warm-up Wednesday is here, if you’re in the Northeast. A mix of weird, terrible, and surprising, like always! Get to the end for a mashup of Kendrick Lamar and Radiohead which is cold fire. And yes there’s a stoat in that lovely photo by Michel d’Oultremont, nature shots from the Wildlife Photog of the Year competition by the National History Museum in the UK.

Crypto trader kills himself on X live to create a meme coin (Cryptopolitan) From the moment Trump’s SEC declared crypto to not be a security, this event was locked in. Without even the vapors of guardrail financial regulation, Rug Pull supervillains might start trying to stoke events like this to build more meme coin pop opportunities. This is going to happen again, mark my words.

As Hong Kong bans ‘space oil’ drug, social workers urge care for teen mental health (HK Free Press) New drug alert! The youth in Hong Kong are vaping etomidate, calling it “space oil” on the street. The short acting anesthetic is usually administered by IV during minor procedures, like intubation, ECT, and even fixing dislocated joints. The kids mix this anesthetic with pot and ketamine, then experience their limbs becoming unreliable. If people can’t do real drugs, they’ll make their own at home.

The Coup Has Failed (Prospect) & Elon Musk Gets Brutal Setback as Dual Legal Losses Block DOGE (New Republic) When we fight back, we might not win every battle. But we will win more than we bet, as the enemy is hilariously unprepared. Which is what happens when you generate legal arguments using ChatGPT.

Nearly 40% of contracts canceled by Musk’s DOGE are expected to produce no savings (AP) & Trump aid freeze disrupts anti-narcotics program at Mexican ports (Reuters) We also need to call out the misfires and mistakes that the administration is racking up. Some of these own goals are comical, others are legitimately infuriating, even to conservative Christian MAGA voters. Don’t believe me? Ask veterans and VA medical staff.

Dear Mr. Vice President, Please Take Off Your Apple Watch (Watches of Espionage) Don’t listen to these stupid woke cuck spies. Keep it on JD. A dozen countries aren’t salivating over a VP walking through classified areas of DC, trackable as easily as your Doordasher’s e-bike.

Gun Lobbyists and Cambridge Analytica Weaponized Gun Owners’ Private Details for Political Gain (ProPublica) Cambridge Analytica was specifically prevented from getting more data on gun purchasers, with many customers & independent sellers being very skittish about murky privacy violations like that. The Gun industry was more than happy to deliver the data anyway. Cambridge Analytica built a bunch of audience buckets and hit the gun owners with micro-targeted ads, with the gun consortium possibly violating state and federal law.

How a Health Dept. led by RFK Jr. could throw the advertising industry into turmoil (Sherwood) & New JAMA Research Shows How Much & How Rapidly Part D Plans Have Shifted Drug Costs to Consumers (Cost Curve) If RFK Jr. kills pharmaceutical advertising in the USA, tens of thousands would lose their cushy jobs. It might save millions of lives though. Especially given how expensive these things can be in…just this country.

BYD unveils smart driving system ‘God’s Eye’ with low-cost goals (DigiTimes Asia) Tesla is the controlled opposition in China. BYD and Waymo are putting up millions of robot-driven miles, while Tesla’s full-auto driving remains just as far away as it was in a year of your choice. Looking at the stock price, the market might be waking up to exactly how far behind the curve Tesla truly is.

Exclusive: These universities have the most retracted scientific articles (Nature) Welp, this is a helpful list to have. I wish they did visualizations of most rejected by region/country, though that might piss off the wrong people.

Here’s the dumb shit you have to put up with to read manga these days (Aftermath) Loot crate mechanics, or dark patterns of design, look to be infecting all facets of our economy. If we allow the default way we interact with the universe to go from Direct to Casino, that could be more harmful for our children than what we’re currently doing to our atmosphere.

Quote of the week

Government is the only thing large enough to offset multinational corporate exploitation.
~Jon Stewart

Poem of the week

Vibe of the week

TikTok sounds are wild. Who knew you could mix Kendrick with Radiohead and not piss off everyone on both sides of the Atlantic.

Just a little bit longer now,
tnh