The Weekly Whatever: The $54,000 question
Technology
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In 2019, 19 of the top 20 “Christian” groups on Facebook were being run by troll farms.
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It may not matter, though, as 40% of people would share conspiracy theories they know to be untrue in order to get higher social networking engagement.
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Tesla “autopilot” seems to like driving into flashing lights.
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YouTube is a “really valuable resource” for teens’ mental health, says the CEO of YouTube.
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Hero raven takes down Google drone.
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Internet Archive introduces the WayForward Machine.
Economy
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Bargain $97-a-night New York AirBnB was an illegally parked van.
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Dollar Tree now Dollar Fifty Tree.
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Brexit leads to Northern Ireland clown shortage and Irn Bru shortage in Scotland.
Environment
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River near Glastonbury contaminated with cocaine and MDMA from festivalgoers’ pee.
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Texas natural gas companies won’t be required to insulate their equipment against extreme weather until 2022, and even then they can choose to opt out by self-declaring that they are not “critical infrastructure”.
Questionable decisions
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Governor of Alabama plans to use COVID-19 relief funds to pay for more prisons.
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Alex Jones discovers that Texas judges don’t like it when you refuse to comply with subpoenas.
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Missing man joins search party looking for himself.
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People would rather endure physical pain than have to think hard.
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Woman accused of starting a forest fire in California was trying to boil bear urine so she could drink it.
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Church holds beer festival in graveyard to raise funds.
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Thanks to drug prohibition, a crackdown on prescription painkillers and lack of universal medical coverage, Americans are now buying bootleg pharmaceuticals on SnapChat – and dying because they’re laced with fentanyl. (The Sackler family continues to deny all responsibility for the opioid crisis.)
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Texas man goes to ER for a COVID test, gets billed $54,000.
If only there had been some clue…
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UK police officer who was nicknamed “the rapist” by fellow police officers is convicted of fraudulently arresting and then raping and murdering a woman.
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Brazil investigates public prosecutor accused of spreading Nazi propaganda on Facebook; she’s the daughter of a former police director named Hitler Mussolini Domnigues Pacheco.
Crapto
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Back in August, a cryptocurrency “smart” contract startup fought against tax reporting requirements, claiming that it’s information they “don’t have and can’t get”. This week one of their contracts contained a
>that should have been>=, making it send out $90m of free cryptocurrency to people. The company’s founder asked people to please return the money, then tried threatening to rat them out to the IRS. The next day, the company’s lawyer departed for new ventures. (Pro tip: If you return most of the money but keep 10% as requested, you’re still liable to pay US taxes on the full amount originally received.) -
Yet another reminder to never use SMS for two-factor authentication.
Final thoughts
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Lizzo offers TED talk on the black history of twerking.
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Now that’s what I call truck nuts.