The ghost of Christmas past

 Yep, this is what happened to the 20" of snow we started the week with. 

What all the fuss is about

Section 230 is Good, Actually

White not so much

 Seems like only yesterday we had 20+ inches of snow on the ground and people all atwitter over a white Christmas. But it started raining here yesterday afternoon and we woke up this morning to find it still raining, hard, and the temp over 60º. The only snow left is in little mounds where plows had thrown up piles. Otherwise, puddles.

Jambalaya for dinner.

Wherever you are, take a break if you can.

Kids might be learning something from all of this…

NYC is Paying $2 Million For Anti-Plagiarism Software After Firing Teachers

Algorithmic exam proctoring software has drawn fierce criticism from students, educators, and privacy advocates. Meanwhile, tools like Zoom, which were lifelines to schools in the early days of lockdowns, were quickly weaponized and found to be sucking up data.

…probably not what NYC is hoping, but better.

"Yes, Virginia…

 …there is a Santa Claus."

Like Trump, 2020 will not leave willingly

Heavy Rain, Snowmelt Could Cause Flooding on Christmas

Very heavy rain will arrive overnight and into Christmas morning. One to three inches of rain is possible. Wind gusts may reach 60 to 70 mph in some cases. Thankfully there are no leaves on the trees, but we still are expecting scattered power outages.

Don't panic yet.

This forecast is just for New England. (OK, you can panic now.)

Not only will there be plenty of watery mess, given the snow we have piled up all around—there's the possibility of a power outage. We take these things seriously in New England, as we are still using the electric grid the Pilgrims built. 

If the power goes out, we'll wind up having peanut butter for Christmas dinner. Maybe I should lay in a supply of holiday sprinkles. 

A note from the blog, "Lawyers, Guns, and Money"

THE OUTFLANKENING OF THE OUTFLANKENING

Trump is threatening to veto the $900 billion deal unless the checks get bumped to $2,000 (and the three-Martini deduction gets extended indefinitely, which is a particularly weird fetish for a man who doesn't drink, but our Donnie is nothing if not a bottomless well of weird fetishes).

Questions for another day

**Can employers make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory?**

Yes, with some exceptions.

The story (see link) is from the Associated Press.

If you're planning a trip to China, pack a lunch

McDonald's sells 'Spam burger' with cookie crumbs in China

BEIJING (AP) — McDonald’s is selling a sandwich made of Spam topped with crushed Oreo cookies Monday in China in an attention-grabbing move that has raised eyebrows. …

The sandwich is made of two slices of Spam, a product of Hormel Foods LLC, and Mondelez International’s Oreo cookies, topped with mayonnaise.

Sounds like a waste of perfectly good Spam to me. 

Always a market for new bad ideas

"With more services than ever collecting your data, it’s easy to start asking why anyone should care about most of it. This is why. Because people start having ideas like this."

Your Credit Score Should Be Based on Your Web History, IMF Says

Trump Derangement Syndrome

Trump's response being wrong does not necessarily mean the polar opposite response is right.

Biden’s team vows action against hack as US threats persist

Upping the privacy stakes

Facebook’s Laughable Campaign Against Apple Is Really Against Users and Small Businesses

Facebook claims that this change from Apple will hurt small businesses who benefit from access to targeted advertising services, but Facebook is not telling you the whole story. This is really about who benefits from the normalization of surveillance-powered advertising (hint: it’s not users or small businesses), and what Facebook stands to lose if its users learn more about exactly what it and other data brokers are up to behind the scenes.