This gets convoluted. Verizon bought a bunch of shit a couple of years ago from Yahoo, including Tumblr, the hosted microblogging platform. They paid $1.1 billion for it. They owned it for a couple of years, did nothing to it other than to ban porn, and are now selling it to Automattic, the company behind WordPress, for somewhere north of $3 million and south of $20 million. For some reason this reminds me of the last years of 6 Apart, when they (for some reason) bought LiveJournal and then sold it to a Russian company before imploding and moving to Japan.
The internet is a strange place, my friends.
Interesting...
- May 19
The Biden administration’s efforts to provide $4 billion in debt relief to minority farmers is encountering stiff resistance from banks, which are complaining that the government initiative to pay off the loans of borrowers who have faced decades of financial discrimination will cut into their profits and hurt investors.
Yup, you read that right. these are the same banks that have made millions on the backs of Black and minority farmers with predatory loans for decades. Don't tell me racism doesn't exist, and don't tell me the free market is fair to everyone.
I voted for this administration to do things just like this. I hope they write some big fat checks and let the banks suck on it.
May 19
I loved reading The Martian, Andy Weir's science-tastic thriller about an astronaut trapped on Mars, and the movie adaptation was equally excellent. So I'm definitely looking forward to his new book, Project Hail Mary, which is written in much the same format but sounds like it's got a lot more going on.
May 12
My views on gun control are pretty well documented here, and I've linked to stories about how the NRA is clearly run by crooks who have wrapped themselves in the Second Amendment to enrich themselves and their friends. Turns out a judge in Texas has decided they're crooks too, and won't allow them to declare bankruptcy to avoid federal prosecution.
May 12
Gen. Webb didn’t realize that the president was going to be there, so he stood to give up his chair, and President Obama just motioned him, no, you sit right where you are. Gen. Webb had this little laptop, messaging somebody. And so the president pulled up this hardback portable chair right next to him.
Politico does a great oral history of the leadup to and the day of the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden from the POV of the government officials who planned and executed it. It's a fascinating look at how global decisions like that are made, and underlines the fact that they weren't sure he was even there—they took a giant calculated risk, and it paid off.
May 4
Reports are out that the FDA is going to approve the Pfizer vaccine for 12-15 year olds sometime next week. Which means we'll be pulling Finn from school as soon as possible to get her first shot. Best news of the week.
