Nothing to see here, folks!
So, this week, it came to the point that the government had to tell people not to fill plastic bags with gas, not to hoard the liquid gold, and accept the high prices & such shortages as the new reality. Hm, baby steps toward Venezuela-fication of America? Also, the clowns in the cabinet positions are busy gaslighting people that inflation isn’t real, the southern border is secure, and Critical Race Theory isn’t divisive or racist. In the middle of all of these crises comes the perfect distraction - look over there folks, the vaccinated require no masks! Like, yeah, we didn’t know that already and states like Florida and Texas haven’t already moved on from this pandemic BS, like months ago!
The big stories
Colonial Pipeline pays the ransom in Bitcoin: According to reports, the private company paid ransomware hackers, DarkSide, between $4-5M in cryptocurrency which is untraceable. Bloomberg reported once the payment was made, the hackers gave Colonial encrypted software to unlock their systems. Colonial restarted operations late Wednesday clarifying “it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal.”
Then, just yesterday, came the news that DarkSide has told associates it has lost access to the infrastructure it uses to run its operation and would be closing, citing disruption from a law-enforcement agency and pressure from the U.S., according to security firms FireEye and Intel 471. Not very uncommon for such groups to disband, only to later resurface under a different name. Key is to secure our infrastructure and have backups, not going around shutting down pipelines like the Keystone XL.
Ditch those masks! Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, announced the new guidance on Thursday afternoon at a White House briefing - “Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physically distancing. If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.” But, yeah, there are still gonna be those fools who insist on wearing these face-diapers.
Fighting between Israel and Hamas intensifies: Tensions between Israel and Hamas have escalated to levels not seen since the 2014 Gaza War. Since early last week, Hamas and Israel have exchanged rocket-fire, and air strikes, reigniting unrest in the Middle East.
Photo of the year -
Business news
App tracking has only 5% opt-in rate since iOS 14.5 update - bad news for the likes of Zuck. Details
EBay taps into NFT frenzy, allows sale on platform. Details
Vinted raises $303M, in a funding led by EQT Growth, valuing the resale platform at $4.3B. Details
Hertz selects $6B bid from Knighthead, Certares and Apollo to fund Chapter 11 Exit. Details
Legendary design house F. Schumacher & Co has acquired Backdrop, the fast-growing, digitally native paint and design brand founded in 2018. Details
Former Carlyle Group exec Glenn Youngkin claims GOP nomination for Virginia governor. Details
Bustle rebrands as BDG ahead of planned IPO. Details
Walmart acquires virtual fitting room company Zeekit as it makes push into fashion. Details
SoftBank reports highest-ever annual profit for a Japanese Company, to the tune of $46B. Details
Authentic Brands and Simon to buy outdoor merchant Eddie Bauer. Details
PayPal has agreed to buy Happy Returns, a Santa Monica-based start-up that lets shoppers return items they bought online, in person. Details
Electric scooter company Bird has agreed to go public via a SPAC, at an implied value of around $2.3B. Details
This week in woke and cancel-culture lunacy
3 UMass honor students were suspended and barred from finals because a social media pic showed them unmasked, outside, off campus, on a Saturday. Watch their parents’ interview
Penn State is axing class terms like “freshman” and “junior” because they are “sexist” and fall into “western male father-son naming conventions.” Details
The Left begins eating its own. Golden Globes get canceled coz they aren’t diverse enough. Details
Apple caves to the mob and fires Antonio Garcia-Martinez. Details
Science & Technology
Fashion, food, and entertainment
TikTok is launching jobs service for Gen Z. Details
Ralph Lauren sells Club Monaco to PE investor Regent. Details
L Brands to spin-off Victoria’s Secret brand. Details
YouTube is launching a $100M fund to pay its most popular users on its Shorts product, which aims to compete with TikTok. Details
Chick-fil-A is facing supply chain shortages and is limiting sauces per customer. Details
Goldman Sachs London MD said to quit after making a fortune on Dogecoin. Details
Even a person who has never lived in the States can tell you that the median house price in Brooklyn is way higher than $100K, but these NYC mayoral candidates are painfully out of touch - Watch
What’s gaining popularity
Google Search topics with big percentage jumps in search interest last week. Courtesy: Exploding Topics
“Bladderwrack” - a form of seaweed rich in iodine, magnesium and vitamin C. Although the science is far from clear, proponents claim that supplemental bladderwrack can help treat thyroid disorders, inflammation, heartburn, anxiety and more.
“Cloudlifter” - a line of microphone boosters.
“Plausible Analytics” - a privacy-first website analytics tool. It offers many of the same basic features as Google Analytics, but without personal data collection or cookies.
Chart of the week
Courtesy: Axios
Next week calendar
Sunday, May 16 - Int’l Day of Light
Monday, May 17 - US Tax Day. World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. Global Road Safety Week.
Tuesday, May 18 - Eurovision Song Contest begins. Museum Day. Walmart Q1 earnings.
Thursday, May 20 - World Bee Day. Rescue Dog Day. PGA Championship starts.
Friday, May 21 - Endangered Species Day. Int’l Tea Day (eew, Coffee FTW!)
Saturday, May 22 - World Goth Day. National Maritime Day.
Let’s foment a controversy
Hooboy, you peeps are livid with Hannity for his interview with Caitlyn Jenner. Just a couple of supportive messages for Jenner’s governor run, but, a majority are against “a celebrity tuned politician” and “need a commoner who understands what the last year has been like for small businesses in California.” Point taken.
This week’s topic - Energy consumption of BTC mining. This week Tesla stopped taking Bitcoin as payment for its cars, owing to insane amounts of energy consumed, mainly using coal, for Bitcoin mining. Good move? Should BTC community do more to transition to sustainable energy sources? Let me know your thoughts!
Lastly, I got myself some SpaceX merch! :) Go show some love to the companies (mostly, in this Elon-fan community, these would be Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Co., Neuralink) you support by buying their swag!