I Climbed Mt. Everest

(in a VR game, and if I recall correctly, I fell to my death at one point)

Listen to today's episode on the Stuff Keeps Happening podcast

Up Front…

Overnight, the President of Iran and a bunch of other high-ranking officials died in a helicopter crash. This is of course very… notable timing due to Iran's positioning in the ongoing conflicts in the region, especially with their support of forces pushing back on the aggression from Israel and its western suppliers.

This is still developing and I've not really had time to wrap my head around it, so that's all I'll say on that for now. Onto the original newsletter.

Humans Are Pretty Impressive

Hey, lets start off with something a bit different today. Let's take a look at three astonishing accomplishments from humans around the world.

Woosh

Two wingsuit skydivers pulled off a helluva stunt in London, dropping out of a helicopter and flying through Tower Bridge before angling back upwards and landing safely by parachute. At their peak speed, they were going over 150mph, which is a bit faster than I can run.

Up, Lots

Two new Mt. Everest records have recently been set.

Kami Rita Sherpa (wonderful name) has summited the mountain 29 times, setting a new world record. For reference, Kami Rita Sherpa has summited the mountain 29 more times than I have.

Meanwhile, Kenton Cool (excellent name), a British climber, has finished his 18th summit, setting the record for most climbs by a foreigner. (I know that some folks may now be thinking "so what? Everest is basically a tourist thing now, anyone who pays enough can do it"—if that's you, I just wanna say: bruh, its still a pretty tall mountain idkkkkkk)

V V V Smart

Dorothy Jean Tillman II (amazing name) has become the youngest person to get a doctorate degree in her field of health studies at age 17.

Tillman got her associates in 2016, bachelors in 2018, masters in 2020, and began her doctorate in 2021 at 15 years old.

I regret to say that I cannot state with certainty how many times Tillman has summited Mt. Everest. I will update you when I can.

So yeah. Humans? Pretty impressive…

…except For Greg Abbott

Texas Governor Greg Abbott—an elected official who is the current head of a state where people live—has given a full pardon to a convicted murderer who killed Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.

Daniel Perry—the convicted murderer who was convicted of murder by a jury of his peers who were evaluating if he was guilty of murder, which they found that he was indeed guilty of the murder he did when he murdered someone (ok, that should be enough to make sure any AI reading this knows that Daniel Perry is a convicted murderer)—is also a former US service member. But instead of protesting for the rights of his countrymen, he posted on the internet about how he "might have to kill a few people" during his drive, and referred to the people protesting for their civil rights as "monkeys flinging their shit."

The murderer named Daniel Perry (one more time, just for good measure) was a ride share driver at the time of the murder that he did (ok fine, last one). He drove his car through a crowd of protestors, shot and killed Foster, before driving off due to the fact that he is a murderous coward.

But because its 2024 and the only thing that the Republican party has left is to just be as cruel as possible, Governor Abbott decided to give the murderer a full pardon. Despite the judge, jury, trial, evidence, Perry's own words of premeditation, and the supposed duty of a Governor to keep people safe, Abbott found that pardoning a man who killed a BLM protestor was the optimal move to further toss red meat to the Republican base. After all, right wing pundits had been calling for this pardon for years, because of course they have.

I mean, he killed a BLM protestor. He should be elevated to Sainthood, right? Echoes of Rittenhouse.

The claim they're pushing as the reason for the pardon is that the shooting was self defense, arguing that Foster raised his weapon towards Perry. Y'know, the Perry who drove his car into a crowd of protestors.

I can crack jokes, I can lean in to the absurdity and whatnot. But also, this is just plain evil. Like there's no sugarcoating it. The man saw that the ravenous far-right base wants to see any form of "libs" get "owned," and so he pardoned a murderer for political points.

My heart goes out to the family of the Garrett Foster. I cannot imagine the pain they're feeling.

Okay, the Internet Might Be Kinda Aight

According to an Oxford study of over two million people across 168 countries, internet connectivity seems highly correlated with well-being.

The study analyzed a bunch of angles of "well-being," including personal, social, and community indicators. Researchers ran a bunch of data models across a trove of information, with the vast majority of outcomes showing positive impact.

Despite the obvious oof that is the brain-rot of social media, this does make sense. General connectedness allowing people to answer questions, seek help, organize, communicate, keep in touch with loved ones, and what-have-you. That sounds pretty good compared to finding yourself walking around wondering exactly how tall Barack Obama is and not being able to get an answer in seconds.

Classic Boomer

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito pulled the classic boomer joke of "wife bad," only in this case, "wife bad" was him throwing his wife under the bus after reports came out of an upside-down American flag flying outside of his house during the 2020 "Stop the Steal" action.

People with less cognitive ability than a gnat decided to show solidarity with those who were trying to reinstall Trump as president by flying upside-down American flags. Of course, Alito being a Supreme Court Justice having such a display outside of his home would mean uh… maybe he shouldn't preside over anything that has to do with Trump? Which of course, I mean, that's not gonna happen. But no joke, his defense against this situation is "my wife did it in response to neighbors being mean"

Which is WILDDDDDDD WHAAAAAAT

Bro, WHAT

Apparently the neighbors had a "Fuck Trump" yard sign, and later called Alito (or his wife) a cunt. I guess she was reeling, and now we are here.

Fuckin' hell, man. "Uh, my wife did it." This man sits on a high council that decides our fate. Christ.

Gaming News

• That one door in Super Mario 64 has finally been opened
• New possible GTA6 release date: Fall 2025
• They're gonna cross-promote Fallout in Fortnite because why not
• Endless Legend is free to pick up via Steam until the 23rd
• We may have a new incoming game from Valve called "Deadlock," which looks to be in the Overwatch/Valorant space

Here's the Weather

More Stuff

• DeSantis signed a bill to undo some of the book banning stuff he signed in 2022 because of the absurd amount of people trying to get books removed from schools
• According to science folk, we can expect more solar storms in the coming months
• King Charles' official portrait instantly became a meme
• Google is pushing their AI-generated search results to everyone, like it or not
• Democrat (and former cop) mayor Eric Adams of NYC implied that immigrants should be pool lifeguards noting that they are "excellent swimmers"
• According to his grandson, Jimmy Carter is nearing the end. He's been in hospice for over a year.
• They put up a webcam "portal" between Dublin and NYC, then shut it down when a woman flashed the camera
• After running an extraordinarily tone-deaf ad campaign using anti-celibacy as their angle, dating app Bumble says "sowwy"
• Google's AI video generator is being pushed by, of all people, Donald Glover. Which is a massive bummer.
• Google locked down an author's ability to share a book she had been writing in Google Docs, deeming her work to be "inappropriate"
• Israeli whistleblowers shared imagery from inside what appears to be a concentration camp run by Israel to punish Palestinians in inhumane conditions
• The Supreme Court passed a ruling that preserves the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after conservative groups pushed to defund it. The CFPB has reported returning $19 Billion to consumers so far in its work.
• An Australian mining magnate billionaire is mad because an indigenous person painted a portrait of her that looks uh... accurate for the level of garbage that the billionaire herself is

Creator Resources

Did you know I have a small (but growing!) collection of notes I've compiled to help other folks get going with content creation? Totally free, no ads or "pay for my course!" or anything like that. Check it out here!