Daring Fireball: Sheryl Sandberg Pressured Daily Mail to Drop Unflattering Story About Bobby Kotick While She Was Dating Him:

It’s a well-worn adage but never more true: it’s the cover-up that does you in. Sandberg’s efforts to bury this story are now far more damaging to her reputation than the actual story would have been. She wasn’t even involved — only Kotick was.

jwz: Excess deaths:

Although the official number of deaths caused by covid-19 is now 6.2m, our single best estimate is that the actual toll is 20.7m people. We find that there is a 95% chance that the true value lies between 14.4m and 24.3m additional deaths.

I’d link the The Economist article, but it’s paywalled so make the best of the summary.

Man’s Tesla froze while speeding down highway at 83 mph | Boing Boing:

Maybe instead of trying to take over the Twitterverse, Elon Musk should first focus on churning out fully-functioning Teslas.

A Developer’s Second Brain on Plaintext | by Junji Zhi | Gusto Engineering | Apr, 2022 | Medium:

As a developer, I have to juggle the information among different levels of products, systems, processes, and people. Each obligation, even if it seems small, requires my brain to retain some information, in order to make quality decisions about what’s next. When I switch contexts, my brain is not willing to let go of all the information. It seems that my subconsciousness figures out that I would need it later, and if I let go, I may lose it forever, so it decides to hang on to it.

Elon Musk saved $143 million by delaying disclosing Twitter stake, lawsuit claim : NPR:

Musk, according to the suit, "made materially false and misleading statements and omissions by failing to disclose to investors that he had acquired a 5% ownership stake in Twitter as required."

Wannabe-bond-villian manipulates stock at expense of others? Say it ain’t so.

Mythforce looks like a first-person 80s cartoon | Rock Paper Shotgun:

Beamdog, the Canadian studio behind the 'Enhanced Edition' remasters of Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate, have announced their first original game: Mythforce. It's a roguelikelike first-person stabber with a striking visual style inspired by 80s children's cartoons.

I was excited about this until I saw it was an Epic store exclusive. Let’s see if I still care in a year.

Analyzing the classism of sci-fi protagonists | Boing Boing:

After a particularly obnoxious convention conversation where someone lamented the lack of stories about kindly rich men dealing with hardship, she decided to crunch some numbers, and see if she could figure out who's actually the more under-represented group.

New York officers who shoved protester to be reinstated - BBC News:

Arbitration - Where justice goes to die.

I’m pretty certain, intentional or not, if I nearly kill someone like that I’m going to at least lose a job, if not see a felony conviction.

Q-Nuts: “Don’t Say Gay” | Boing Boing:

Hundreds of flights canceled due to Covid illness immediately after airlines cancelled mask policy | Boing Boing:

For instance, Swiss-based EasyJet lifted mask requirements on March 27 and, lo and behold, cancelled 202 of its 3,517 flights between March 28–April 3 due to Covid illness, according to CBS. During the same time in 2019, the number of cancellations was zero. As in 0.

Daring Fireball: The Washington Post: ‘Facebook Paid Republican Strategy Firm to Malign TikTok’:

Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok.

in which i receive an unexpected gift – WIL WHEATON dot NET:

In the pre-mask times, I would have seen his smile. Today, I saw hie eyes crinkle up. “I. Love. Wesley Crusher.” He declared.

“Thank you!” I waved my phone over the thing to pay. Living in the future can be cool from time to time. “I love him too!” The thing made a noise indicating that payment had been accepted.

“I mean, he is my very favorite,” he said. I could tell this was important to him.

“That means so much to me,” I said. “Thank you. He’s my favorite, too.” I leaned in like he’d leaned in toward me. “Don’t tell Picard,” I stage whispered.

Free COVID tests and treatments no longer free for uninsured, as funding runs out | MPR News:

This is why we should have universal health care… Free, fast, easy testing is part of how we get to the after-times.

Daring Fireball: The New Yorker: ‘Legal Scholars Are Shocked by Ginni Thomas’s “Stop the Steal” Texts’:

Several of the country’s most respected legal scholars say that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas must immediately recuse himself from any cases relating to the 2020 election and its aftermath, now that it has been revealed that his wife, Virginia (Ginni) Thomas, colluded extensively with a top White House adviser about overturning Joe Biden’s victory over then President Donald Trump.

Linking to the DF summary rather than the original article because of the paywall… That excerpt is damning enough.

Texas' Attorney General has decided that Pride Week is ‘illegal’ and threatened a school | Boing Boing:

Arizona legislators approve ban on filming police | Boing Boing:

Our Fundamental Right To Shame And Shun The New York Times:

I’m going to offer a working definition for the purposes of this essay: “cancel culture” is when speech is met with a response that, in my opinion, is very disproportionate. Perhaps that sounds cynical, and I could certainly give you a Justice-Breyer-seven-factor balancing test, but that’s what this discussion boils down to: just as we constantly debate norms of what speech is socially acceptable, we debate norms about what responses to speech are socially acceptable.

Missing from most definitions of “cancel culture” is the relationship to the target… A traditionally minority or under-served group using social-media amplification to “Punch Up” against someone who’s “Punching Down” from a position of authority based on celebrity, status, wealth or other source of power, to try for some degree of accountability, should be encouraged. Privileged people using their legions of followers to beat down those with less power, often already disenfranchised, not so much.

Let’s discuss some examples, because when I criticize sloppy use of “cancel culture” I’m accused of denying that there are ever any unfair, disproportionate, or evil responses to speech. I don’t deny that. What happened to Justine Sacco was, in my opinion, very disproportionate. What happened to David Shor was disproportionate and maddeningly stupid. What’s happening in the community of Young Adult Fiction seems like a complete shitshow that makes me want to avoid everyone there. What happened to Professor Greg Patton was disproportionate and anti-Asian bigotry to boot. Shouting invited speakers down so they can’t speak and attendees can’t listen is fascist and contemptible. I could go on, but you get the point.

• Director of Communications discovers racist tweets don't fly while flying.
• Political Analyst talks about how POC should tone down their anger to benefit the party they often carry to victory
• Professor fails to prepare for lecture by reading aloud prepared materials.

The “YA Twitter” thing is harder, because YA lit very often is written for people of some vulnerable group, at an age where they really don’t have the emotional training to deal with intersectionality… But is also a part of the larger publishing social media wasteland where plenty of people are more interested in getting the “hot take” viewer numbers than any real conversation about the works themselves.

The Laboratorium (2d ser.) (I Do Not Think That NFT Means What You Think It…):

I thought it would be useful to clean up and collect my thoughts in one place. I am a law professor who thinks a lot about digital property and about decentralized systems, and I think the idea that NFTs are about to revolutionize property law misunderstands how property law actually works.

Once again, America is in denial about signs of a fresh Covid wave | Eric Topol | The Guardian:

When it comes to Covid, the United States specializes in denialism. Deny the human-to-human transmission of the virus when China’s first cases were publicized in late 2019. Deny that the virus is airborne. Deny the need for boosters across all adult age groups. There are many more examples, but now one stands out – learning from other countries.

How concerning is it that Covid infections are rising in the UK? Read more In early 2020, with the major outbreak in the Lombardy region of Italy that rapidly and profoundly outstripped hospital resources and medical staffing, Americans expressed confidence that it won’t happen here. That it couldn’t happen here. And then it did.

Fast forward two years of the pandemic: the United Kingdom and Europe have provided five unmistakable warnings to America that a new surge was occurring. Within weeks, each time, the United States experienced a new wave, some not as severe (such as with the Alpha variant), some worse (Delta and Omicron variants). From this Covid track record over two years, it is palpable: what happens in the UK and Europe doesn’t stay in the UK and Europe.

Indie game stars exposed as workplace nightmares | Boing Boing:

Two incredible moments among many:

• When Ken Wong’s colleagues put everything on the line in an all-hands meeting with Annapurna Interactive to try and get him dealt with, Annapurna allegedly contacted Wong to suggest he start a new studio in another city with graduates fresh out of college. (Wong denies this)

• Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi allegedly built a barricade out of office furniture to prevent Robin Hunicke from bothering him and his team.

For some kids, long COVID-19 is harder than having the virus | MPR News:

with some estimates suggesting that around 20 percent of the population will have lingering symptoms after they're over the worst of the virus

Man who lost eye to Mpls. police projectile wins $2.4M from city, describes ordeal | MPR News:

A Minneapolis police spokesperson has not yet provided comment for this story. A city spokesperson acknowledged the settlement, but did not answer questions about whether the officers faced any sort of discipline, or if they’re still on the force.

Bennett said it was difficult to determine who shot her client. She initially named John Doe officers in the lawsuit. Through the discovery process, she obtained body camera video that eventually yielded answers.

“Really it came down to way too much time spent watching the bodycam, trying to figure out first who was even really in that vicinity, who had their body cameras on,” Bennett said.

A judge has barred the attorney from releasing the body camera footage.

A culture of protecting bad apples is pervasive in Minneapolis city hall and MPD. The video(s) showing officers actively hunting people to play cowboy, the award coins the union was giving for injured protestors, the fact that the department won’t release names… It’s all bad.

The officers involved in this should be fired and named, loudly, and other cities can know who they are before hiring them. Behavior like this should make someone a pariah.

Spectacular image of a distant star captured by new Webb telescope during alignment milestone | Boing Boing:

"While the purpose of this image was to focus on the bright star at the center for alignment evaluation, Webb's optics and NIRCam are so sensitive that the galaxies and stars seen in the background show up," NASA reports. "At this stage of Webb's mirror alignment, known as "fine phasing," each of the primary mirror segments have been adjusted to produce one unified image of the same star using only the NIRCam instrument. This image of the star, which is called 2MASS J17554042+6551277, uses a red filter to optimize visual contrast."

That broken tech/content culture cycle:

Double down on funding the worst voices on your platform. Call it “free speech”, and make sure that nobody internally points out that truly defending free speech would have entailed protecting those early marginalized creators who made your platform credible in the first place. Definitely misuse “free speech” as a rhetorical bludgeon against people who are pointing out that you are both amplifying and sponsoring content, not merely making it available. Resolutely refuse to be intellectually honest about the difference between merely providing a platform to all, vs. making editorial decisions to promote and subsidize content that you have control over.

It’s the RePutincan Party | Boing Boing: