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Last minute holiday shopping used to mean racing to the store after your kids went to bed the night before gifts were due. These days, it's more likely you'll order the gift for next day delivery. But things could get even faster. The long promised (and hyped) speed of drone delivery is finally being tested in some markets. There are questions. Will it really work? Do we really need our purchases that quickly? Is it so terrible to just go to the store once in a while? And, perhaps most pressing these days, how will your neighbors react to a squadron of drones dropping some toothpaste and a few rolls of toilet paper from the skies? (I'm assuming washing machine delivery is out of the question.) The New Jersey sightings have people so worried about unidentified flying objects that I'm not even sure Rudolph will be working this Christmas. NYT (Gift Article): Are Amazon’s Drones Finally Ready for Prime Time? Have an opinion you'd like to share on this topic? Please send a raven.
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Will the Shut Hit the Fan?
As I'm writing this, the US is within hours of a government shutdown. Speaker Johnson has said, "We will not have a government shutdown," but he hasn't detailed the specifics of a plan. (Maybe he has a concept of a plan?) Whether we hit the deadline or not, the chaos of the process is a glimpse of the shitshow we can expect over the next four years. And this time, there's not just one social media addict threatening and agitating everyone involved. There are two. Trump and Musk. Here's the latest from CNN.
+ Charles Sykes in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The GOP Is Treating Musk Like He’s in Charge. "Musk, of course, is not actually the president-elect. He received approximately zero percent of the votes in last month’s election. But for a few hours this week, Musk didn’t just act as if he, and not Donald Trump, will soon hold the reins of government power; the GOP also responded as if he will."
+ Meanwhile, in the middle of the night, Musk Expressed Support for Far-Right Party in Germany’s Election. Musk "endorsed Germany’s far-right party, a group with ties to neo-Nazis whose youth wing has been classified as 'confirmed extremist' by German domestic intelligence."
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FIFA Fo Fum
Netflix has just signed a deal to broadcast the 2027 and 2031 Women's World Cup. The deal hits on several major trends. First, there's the importance of live sports in the new app-driven TV landscape. Second, there's the movement of many sports (including the NFL that has deals with Prime and Netflix) away from free broadcasts that anyone can watch to paid streaming services. And third, there's the remarkable rise in viewership and economic prowess when it comes women's sports. Netflix signs groundbreaking deal for live Women's World Cup broadcast rights.
+ "World Cups are typically broadcast on free-to-air public networks to reach the biggest audiences. Netflix’s foray into live sports programming is part of its long-term strategy to build appointment viewing on the platform, which not only furthers its push to replace traditional TV networks as the main household entertainment but also offers lucrative advertising potential." WSJ (Gift Article): Netflix Scores Next Two FIFA Women’s World Cups.
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Weekend Whats
What to Watch: Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw star in story about a spy who is also the wife of a high ranking British official. Check out Black Doves on Netflix.
+ What to Movie: Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin star in A Real Pain, a movie about two cousins who join a tour group in Poland to honor their Holocaust surviving grandmother. Their trip is quite similar to one I took through Poland (and to my dad's home town) with my sister and parents shortly after the fall Berlin Wall. This indie movie is still in theaters and should be streaming in the next couple weeks.
+ What to Hear: Father John Misty's latest album Mahashmashana is solid. I especially like the song, I Guess Time Makes Fools of Us All.
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Extra, Extra
Pouch Potatoes: "The program being tested at Wakefield requires students to store phones in magnetically locking pouches during the school day. Peter Balas, principal of the 2,200-student school, said teachers have reported less phone use in the classroom and higher engagement since the pilot launched in September. He’s seen fewer fights and less drama from social media." WaPo (Gift Article): How a cellphone ban changed the way one high school scrolled. The reactions of students and teachers to these bans are always interesting. But the real headline is that we can't get young people to avoid their phones without placing them into special locking pouches. Phones are like drugs. Maybe that's why teens don't have as much time for actual drugs these days. Unprecedented decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts.
+ Brute Course: "Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian foreign minister, who is now a vice-president at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Amman, told me. 'Syria should teach the Arab world two things. First, the Arab Spring is not over and won’t be over until the problems of the region—economic prosperity and political inclusion—are properly addressed. Second, those who live by the sword die by the sword. Stability cannot be maintained by brute force.'" The New Yorker: The Remarkable Collapse of Iran’s Powerful Alliances.
+ Burger Chain Gang: An AP special report: Alabama profits off prisoners who work at McDonald’s but deems them too dangerous for parole. "Best Western, Bama Budweiser and Burger King are among the more than 500 businesses to lease incarcerated workers from one of the most violent, overcrowded and unruly prison systems in the U.S. in the past five years alone, The Associated Press found as part of a two-year investigation into prison labor. The cheap, reliable labor force has generated more than $250 million for the state since 2000 through money garnished from prisoners’ paychecks. Most jobs are inside facilities, where the state’s inmates — who are disproportionately Black — can be sentenced to hard labor and forced to work for free doing everything from mopping floors to laundry. But more than 10,000 inmates have logged a combined 17 million work hours outside Alabama’s prison walls since 2018."
+ Don't Buy the Party Uline: "Uline – a giant Wisconsin-based office and shipping supply company controlled by billionaires Liz and Dick Uihlein – shuttles in its own workers from Mexico, who are using tourist visas and visas meant for employees who are entering the US temporarily to receive professional training, known as B1 visas. But instead of being part of a dedicated training program, the Mexican employees stay for one to six months and – sources with direct knowledge of the matter allege – perform normal work in Uline’s US warehouses." Major Trump donors who complained of immigrant ‘invasion’ used Mexican workers illegally, sources allege. (Shocker.) And here's a stat that might surprise you (especially if you've been on a strict diet of Fox News). US deportations under Biden surpass Trump's record.
+ The Dill of Victory: "Many states across the country host senior games, which include all types of sports like archery, basketball and mountain biking. But here in Florida, pickleball is the crown jewel."
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Feel Good Friday
Need a little extra feel good this Friday? BBC has compiled 100 heartwarming, inspiring and cheerful stories. (Warning: This much positivity could be habit forming.)
+ No, we're not done yet. Check out these 86 Stories of Progress from 2024.
+ But wait, there's more: ‘Murder Hornet’ Has Been Eradicated From the U.S., Officials Say.
+ Deforestation in the Amazon has halved in the last few years.
+ Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott reveals another $2 billion in donations in 2024.
+ At one of Rio de Janeiro’s hardest trails, one paraplegic athlete climbed into the clouds. (One of nice things about living and hiking in the SF Bay Area is that the clouds usually come down and meet you halfway.)