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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out today

I sincerely hope you did not need anything from me for the next several business months because that is all I will be doing.

YouTube is really testing us

YouTube is running an experiment on their platform which flat out blocks you from watching videos if you are using an ad blocker.

"Experiment" in this context means that YouTube has chosen a tiny chunk of their user base who will be opted-in to this ad block blocker, where the site will show them a popup saying that "Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube"

Somehow, I have a feeling that the people using ad blockers are not particularly concerned about their blockers not being allowed.

FDA may allow non-RX birth control

An advisory board for the US FDA has unanimously supported the idea of selling oral birth control contraception in stores without a prescription. While this does not mean that its a done deal, it is a pretty decent sign of what may come, assuming weird chuds don't try to intervene further with basic personal medical care.

This is not a particularly progressive thing to do, as other countries already have non-prescription birth control. But this is America we're talking about, so allowing women to control their own body is a hot topic. We should know in a few months if this will be happening, at which time you could expect to be able to purchase the drug as you would basically any other over-the-counter medicine.

Microsoft has decided that employees don't deserve raises

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent an email to full-time employees informing them that the company will not be doing raises this year, because at the end of the day, who really needs money?

Despite job cuts and the availability of funds for major investments this year, it just ain't happening. Workers can rest well, however, because the CEO has also informed them that executive bonuses will be "down considerably" this year.

Notably, "down considerably" is significantly more than "not happening."

Turns out, humans are kinda different from each other

You're probably aware about scientists being super into sequencing the human genome. We took those twirly strands of acids that comprise our genetic code and we indexed them real good. Well, kinda. We indexed like, a dude, mostly, and based lots of research off of that dude.

Literally, he is referred to as "the guy from Buffalo."

Now, if you know anything about medical science, you probably know that it is historically absolute fucking garbage for women and people of color. SHOCKING.

Well, scientists are trying to get a better overall understanding about the differences between humans with starkly different traits and heritage. The result of this work is a a project called The Human Pangenome Project. The goal is to have a better reference for all things human genetics, which in the long run should help our understanding of genetic conditions among patients as we explore the variation between genomes.

Yay, science!

Here's the weather

More Stuff

• Peloton has immediately recalled 2.2 million of their bikes
• Some cops were out looking for someone who was screaming for help. Turns out it was a goat.
• Twitter is launching encrypted DMs but with a toooon of caveats
• Google announced a billion AI things, most of which are powered by their new PaLM 2 model
• A Texas student was killed in his sleep when his neighbor accidentally fired a gun while "modifying it"