The Rotunda | No. 1
Pop Culture & Society
Britney Spears of former Mickey Mouse Club fame and fresh off her conservatorship shows her newfound independence by.... going topless in a series of photos that look like the back of a XXX VHS from 1994.
Science and Space
What Came First?
This article suggests that Cosmic inflation came before the big bang and not the vice versa. "Inflation could have gone on for an eternity, it could have been preceded by some other nonsingular phase, or it could have been preceded by a phase that did emerge from a singularity. Until the day comes where we discover how to extract more information from the universe than presently seems possible, we have no choice but to face our ignorance."
The article also gives a thumbs down to the Anthropic Principle, which is more a philosophical view of the universe then a scientific one in my opinion. That’s the logical principle that we could only exist in the particular type of universe capable of developing and sustaining sentient life so therefore we must live in such a universe.
JWST
The James Webb Space Telescope’s 'might be secretly traveling by cargo ship' to the European Space Agency (ESA) in French Guiana. It amazes me that they have to ship this thing with so much security because of 'pirates.' Like, who is stealing a space telescope except maybe Dr. Evil.
That’s not even the hardest part. Once it launches it has 30 days of terror to unravel, deploy, test, and prepare its science instruments for use.
Computers and Technology
The WAGMIGOTCHI Experience
Dom Hofmann, who was one of the founders of the vine platform, has been busy working on experiments combining web3 and gaming. It reminds me of the early computer games of the 80s and is extremely exciting to watch this space develop. In twenty years, our children will be doing some sort of combination of web3 metaverse interface office and work from home.
He did “an online experiment last month, where you could take care of a virtual blockchain pet (a la the Tamagotchi craze from the 90’s) by feeding it, playing with it, cleaning it, and getting it to sleep.” A community of people built around this pet and it’s likely to play some future part in the larger universe of blockchain gaming he is working on.
AWS Infinidash
The fake software program, goes viral and finds it's way into job requirements across the board. It's generally a big troll, and I've seen some folks suggest it's a 'good trick' to weed out fakers and fluffers.
Twilio developer educator Joe Nash, who made the comment that started the joke, is that most developers will only ever hear of the technology from posts they see online:
I am convinced that a small and dedicated group of twitter devs could tweet hot takes about a completely made up AWS product, idk AWS Infinidash or something, and it would appear as a requirement on job specs within a week
Canva’s video play: Canva launched free tools for video creation and editing.
Finance
Energy
If you think shipping is going to ruin Christmas, get ready for higher energy bills pinching consumers’ pockets...if you are lucky enough to get it..
Even random commodities are skyrocketing.
Politics
Good analysis of Broward County by MCI Maps that drills down block by block on demographics and party affiliation shifts in Broward's most populous Democratic County. This will no doubt be read all the way to the White House.
'Nonprofit newsroom'
The Trace is pushing scary stories about the so-called gun crisis to 'improve public understanding, increase accountability and identify solutions.' It's just another left wing trick to fool people into thinking the press is being neutral. This comes on the heels of a story that Facebook spent $419m on GOTV nonprofits to get out the Democratic vote. Is it time for nonprofit reform?
Shorts
Nancy Pelosi Portfolio Tracker - Exposing corruption and making money. I love it.
Polling found 37% of parents are naming kids with website domains in mind. In 2018, “Fortnite”-related names surged, including Ramirez (+57%), Leviathan (+46%), and Bunny (+30%). (Source: The Hustle)
The Power of the Tower: How Facebook Became Our New Tower of Babel
The Vaccine Mandate is about to collapse after the Southwest non-protest.
RIP Cabos Tacos. Bradley's Sausages you're the pretty much the last man standing on the 'I will stop in Tallahassee' list. Don't let me down.