TGIF! [DOT 08/12/23]

8/12/23 MegMegMcGee 28

This week seems to have flown by for me.

No WaPo articles today b/c they were on a 24 hour strike yesterday…

Eleven Years!

Former police chief turned yoga teacher sentenced to 11 years over Jan. 6 riot
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/07/1217719303/former-police-chief-turned-yoga-teacher-sentenced-to-11-years-over-jan-6-riot

Do’h

Hunter Biden is indicted on federal tax charges
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/07/1218054174/hunter-biden-is-indicted-on-federal-tax-charges

Well that is quite the headline:

Sprots! (Posting this one because it sounds like a headline from Letterkenny)

‘Absolutely freaking embarrassing’: Just how bad are the San Jose Sharks?
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/dec/07/san-jose-sharks-worst-nhl-team-column

Stonks!

Spotify’s CFO is out days after mass layoffs
https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/7/23992712/spotify-cfo-paul-vogel-leaving-layoffs

Today in turtle content:

Have a great day!

avataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravatar

28 Comments

  1. To be fair, the San Jose Sharks—I’ll stop there. I have no idea what the San Jose Sharks are.

    But speaking of sharks, did you know that Ann Coulter was in one of the Sharknado movies? Yes. She plays the Vice President, I think, and at one point surfs down a shark-infested staircase.  Good for you Ann. Anyone who doesn’t take themselves too seriously wins points with me, no matter how retrograde some of their thinking might be.

      • A friend of mine who is a modeler and (published) historian/script writer/writer attracted a number of right wing trolls who attacked him after his protest against the 2003 Iraq Conquering. All of them were originally online friends (despite being hardcore wingnuts) and turned out to be failed authors who were pissed this guy was being published and used his Iraqi protest against him as an excuse to attack him.

        • John Scalzi had the same thing happen on a broader scale. A gaggle of untalented science fiction hacks decided that he was only getting awards because of his liberal viewpoint. They tried to engineer a takeover of the Hugo Awards and failed dismally. Scalzi is still producing bestsellers.

  2. The clown getting 11 years is why you never defend yourself in court (unless you are a lawyer.)

    Also, never name your group after a notorious/controversial Vietnam War CIA/Special Forces program used to assassinate/torture/kidnap suspected Viet Cong officials.

  3. What is a chocolate mogul and how do I get that job? Seems like there’s going to be an opening. Is there a training program, or some sort of graduate school curriculum? Pretty sure I can ace the tests. I’ve also managed to avoid murdering anyone for my entire life, so I should probably put that on my resume.

     

    • You could commune with the ghost of Milton Snavely Hershey, the founder of the Hershey chocolate empire. I just read recently (so much time on my hands) that he and his wife were due to board the Titanic, what he was doing abroad is unknown (to me), but they caught an earlier ship. This might be apocryphal but I love stories like this.

      I’m still haunted by the thought of the dozen dogs aboard and the three who survived, smuggled in the coats of their female owners, including a Vanderbilt. The kennels. The dog walkers who cared for those dogs. All gone. But they would be anyway. They’d be like 150 if they were still alive, which is not yet possible.

      • Speaking of the Titanic, here’s an earworm that’s going to haunt your weekend:

        I love this movie but not in the way most people do. I consider it slapstick comedy, not a tragic love story. I think mine is a minority opinion. I’ve screened this twice in my apartment for a receptive audience and provided commentary. “I can see your point, Mattie. I saw this in a theater when it came out, and I was crying when I left, but now I’m crying because I’m laughing so hard. That is your gift.”

        Well, some people think so anyway.

  5. Spotify’s struggles are interesting.

    This article largely parrots the company line. It’s not my fault! It’s the economy! It’s lazy workers!

    https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-cfo-leaving-after-laying-off-staff-2023-12

    This article digs deeper — Spotify bet big on podcasts and tried to make a bunch of them only available through Spotify, which tanked their audience.

    https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/07/spotify-layoffs-podcast-industry-fallout/

    The thing about podcasts is they are always going to be relatively labor intensive compared to Spotify’s core business — offering “free” music without paying royalties, then larding up those broadcasts with so much annoying ads that people switch to subscriptions.

    VCs hate anything with even modest labor costs, and that’s part of it. I think another piece of it is that it’s harder to con advertisers about audiences. You can manipulate app downloads and pretend people are listening to the ad supported music streams for 16 hours a day. I think it’s harder to pull off with podcasts, especially if they’re sponsored.

    The online advertising world is smoke and mirrors. And I think the ultimate problem for VCs is that the more they turn it into a swamp, the harder it is for advertisers to rationalize spending money there.

Leave a Reply