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October 10, 2021

The Weekly Whatever: Sadly, Facebook experiences extended uptime

Well, yes

  • Men rescued after 29 days lost at sea say it was a nice break from reality.

  • Andrew Lloyd-Webber says the "Cats" movie was so awful that he bought a dog.

  • The man who chased down and killed Ahmaud Arbery doesn't want the jury to see a picture of his Confederate flag license plate, because it might make them think he's a racist.

  • Orc in Lord of the Rings was designed to look like Harvey Weinstein.

  • Ransomware gangs complain that other criminals are stealing their ransoms.

Crapto

  • "Stable" cryptocurrency Tether is supposedly backed by $1 for every Tether coin, yet the company has issued 69 billion coins. So, does the company really have $69 billion in cash squirreled away, or is it a massive con?

  • NFT project "Evolved Apes" collapses as its founder takes the money and runs; three other NFT projects follow suit.

  • Compound smart contract bug has now given away $162 million.

  • The developer of Ethereum created it because he was reduced to tears by his favorite World of Warcraft character getting nerfed.

The worst site on the Internet

  • A developer built a utility to help people who want to use Facebook less, so they retaliated by banning him for life.

  • Instagram promoted pro-eating-disorder accounts to a test account set up as belonging to a teenager.

Politics

  • Republican claims COVID-19 vaccine is filled with 5G technology and octopus-like creatures and is being injected into children, turning their eyes dark.

  • Republican appointed to review Wisconsin’s 2020 election results says "Most people, myself included, do not have a comprehensive understanding or even any understanding of how elections work".

  • Texas Republican Allen West, who didn't get vaccinated and instead took ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, says he has COVID-19, and pneumonia, and that he is going to be admitted to hospital — but insists that it's not serious.

FYI

  • Far-right One America News Network is 90% funded by AT&T and was created at their CEO's request.

  • Your car insurance doesn't cover treatment of any STIs you catch while having sex in the car.

  • Japanese company Toys Cabin specializes in boring, pointless toys.

  • Never use SMS for multi-factor authentication, again: the company routing SMS for US phone providers was hacked for 5 years.

Good news, kinda

  • John Michael Eskildsen of Virginia Beach set up sensors to detect the Black family next door, and turn on floodlights and play loud banjo music, monkey noises and the N word. After three years and a bunch of press coverage, Eskildsen has finally turned the volume down.

  • Thanks to global warming, we can now grow coffee in Sicily.

  • Giant tarantula rescued from roof of house turns out to be Halloween decoration.

  • Dubai puts Michaelangelo's David on display, albeit after covering up the naughty bits.

End notes

  • Forgotten history: That time Rudy Giuliani led a racist police riot.

  • Hard working Taliban take a break at an amusement park in Kabul.

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