Mercurial Permafrost

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A Black Lotus has sold for $540,000

A Black Lotus—the most valuable printed card in Magic: The Gathering—has sold for a record $540,000. Despite the huge price tag, this is actually a bit of a stabilization for the market, as this card was valued at just a bit more than the previous record of $510,000.

To give a sense of how rare and valuable this card is: it is not infrequently found in museum displays. Its iconic.

So anyway, that piece of card stock was sold for more than most people's mortgages

Literal toxic methylmercury being generated from melting permafrost

Okay so uh in addition to the massive amount of carbon that is being released from melting permafrost, we apparently need to also be concerned with toxic methylmercury formation. Specifically, Indigenous peoples of northern Ontario, because why should Indigenous peoples ever catch a break, huh?

Basically what seems to be happening is the permafrost is melting, releasing mercury (originally produced by volcanoes and coal plants) which then finds its way into the surrounding ecosystem, does a bit of biochemical madness, and becomes methylmercury. And again, that ain't good.

There is not a super strong handle yet on how much of a threat this poses, but people far smarter than I am are looking into it, which should serve as a reminder that there are some extremely cool people in this world still. Shoutout to scientist Andrea Bravo from the Institute of Marine Sciences in Spain.

Trump said a thing, who gives a shit

Trump posted on his social media site a standard-issue lunatics rant about being indicted this Tuesday and requesting that his acolytes "take back our country" because of it. I truly have no real opinion on this, but Republicans are losing their shit.

I already regret including this in today's newsletter, because I truly do not care about anything this man has to say. Unfortunately, YouTube does care about what he has to say, as his account was recently reinstated.

If he is indicted, that's cool I guess. I mean he did a lot of overt crimes so that seems like a thing that should happen. But a lot of rich people do a lot of overt crime all the time so I'm not gonna call it a done deal just yet.

Wyoming state government bans the use of abortion pills because they would prefer women to be silent, obedient birthing vessels instead of human beings with rights

The governor of Wyoming—a state that still exists despite evidence to the contrary—has signed a bill that bans specifically the use of abortion pills. Wyoming already had an abortion ban given their state government's ass-backwards views on rights for women in their state, but now they've taken the next step in ensuring that they show their whole selves by also explicitly banning the use of medication abortion.

This is a literal, unaltered quote from the absolute sack of rotting bird shit that is their governor:

“I have acted without bias and after extensive prayer, to allow these bills to become law,”

I would suggest that his constituents act without bias and after extensive prayer to ensure he does not get to sleep until he resigns in disgrace.

Bodily autonomy is an inherent human right and any move to the contrary should be considered violence.

Oh uh… I forgot to add jokes. Sorry.

Oh, here's a good joke: Arkansas is planning to erect a monument in honor of "the unborn" because that's what a healthy republic looks like.

Google adopts new "Be explicitly evil" motto

While laying off double-digit thousands of people, Google has decided to just not uphold pre-approved medical leave.

Imagine you are a Google employee. You got corporate approval for medical or parental leave, which you are entitled to by law. You are on day 1 of your approved medical leave. Then you are told "uh, actually, nevermind, we don't wanna uphold this anymore and you're fired." That is what's happening here.

One now-former employee said she was laid off the day after she gave birth. Literally laid off while she was still in her hospital bed. She had been an employee at Google for nine years of her life.

More Stuff

• France's government is facing a vote of no confidence, but it is very unlikely to go anywhere
• TikTok claims to have 150,000,000 active users in the US
• Putin ventured into Mariupol in occupied Ukraine
• Security personnel at Heathrow Airport are going on strike
• Some Missouri cops, including a sheriff, were arrested for participating in a plot to help a man kidnap his daughter
• After 21,000 laid off employees, Meta's staff are not happy with Z U C C
• Bandcamp's employees have formed a union
• Florida's gender affirming care ban for minors is going into effect
• California is making its own insulin and selling it for $30