🧃 Why AriZona Iced Tea CEO won’t raise 99-cent price: ‘It’s my little way of giving back’ — CNBC

“I don’t know about never, [but] not in the foreseeable future,” he told Today. “We’re going to fight as hard as we can for consumers, because consumers are my friend.”

Arizona and Costco are two companies who just do it right. We are in this endless cycle of capitalism gaming markets and always having to make more, but why? The CEO of Costco isn’t one of these outrageously paid CEO’s (still super wealthy though) and they’ve kept the hot dog price low. I don’t know what the Arizona guy makes (he’s got quite the high net worth), but the fact they’ve managed to make a profit while offering the drink at $0.99 is a testament to good business, good operations, and goodwill.

🍤 Yoppaman

This is an incredible little animated short. Very much feels like The Boondocks meets Gundam and I’m here for it. As I understand it, it’s too cool artists and Donald Glover has joined to help produce so they can make independently. I really hope we get more episodes of this wildness.

🍄 Making the Kinopio Source Code Public — pketh

Delivering software is more like delivering a gooey crying baby. It’s alive. Squirming, growing, and changing because the technologies it relies on do too. Physical materials rarely change, but web browsers, operating systems, and servers sure do.

It’s incredibly cool to see this out in the wild. Code is gibberish to me, but I think it’s quite obvious how much work Pirijan puts into Kinopio and getting it ready for this open source* release.

🦕 The First 2024 Presidential Debate By The Numbers — The Onion

• 135,000,000: American adults who were apparently worse choices for president.
• 73: Undecided votes at stake.

Well, they nailed it. Good luck to everyone planning to watch (I think I might; I’m not sure why though). I hope your blood doesn’t boil too much and you find a way to stay sane.

🧑‍⚖️ Julian Assange’s plea deal — Tangle

Assange also rarely interacts with state governments to figure out what information he has that might put innocents at risk. In the most notorious example, the Taliban once used documents released by WikiLeaks to identify Afghans who were aiding the U.S. and then sought them out for retribution.

I personally think time-served is probably the right move here. Considering not only the five years he spent in jail but the years holed away in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. The people saying he’s done nothing different than a journalist are way off base though. Journalists use judgement (and common sense) when they decide what to publish to avoid putting people in harms way and (hopefully) not to advance their own agenda in corrupt means. Assange failed both of those measures handedly.

🏀 Knicks’ OG Anunoby to return on five-year, $212.5 million deal — Yahoo Sports

There it is! I’m not sure how they can afford Hartenstein now though and it’s important the Knicks have another C given Robinson’s injury history. I’m sure they’ll pick up Precious $5mil option, but that’s not enough.

But the starting lineup of Brunson, Bridges, Anunoby, Randle, and Robinson is super formidable. Plus Hart and DiVincenzo off the bench.

🔦 Trump’s ‘Very Fine People’ Remark: Snopes Misses the Mark on Dangerous Doublespeak — The Present Age

Snopes’ conclusion that it is “false” to claim Trump called neo-Nazis and white nationalists “very fine people” overlooks the then-president’s use of doublespeak. Trump’s remarks on August 15, 2017, deliberately blurred the lines between condemning and excusing hate groups. By stating that there were “very fine people on both sides,” he equivocated, offering a shield of respectability to an event organized by avowed white supremacists and neo-Nazis. The rally’s context — marked by swastikas, torches, and chants of “Jews will not replace us” — renders any defense of participants as “fine people” indefensible.

I try to avoid posting about the same thing twice in one day, but Parker obviously does a much better job of going through everything Trump actually said and why Snopes completed missed the mark. Given that this is getting picked up so widely by right-wing publications, I think it’s important that we look at the what he said, the context he said it in, and who exactly was there on either “side”.

🤖 I Paid $365.63 to Replace 404 Media With AI — 404

Just further evidence this stuff needs to be regulated. Without substantial regulation, companies, let alone small teams and individuals, will never be able to keep up with what amounts to theft. We’ve already seen instances of Amazon filling up with fake bullshit. As it becomes easier and easier, there needs to be some sort of disincentive in place to at least slow it down.

✨ Lakers Icon Magic Johnson: Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese Remind Me of Larry Bird, Myself — Bleacher Report

I said this exact thing months ago on Mastodon. The timing from the NBA’s creation → Magic/Bird and profitability lines up pretty well with that of the WNBA → Clark/Reese too. It takes time for leagues to reach profitability and the viewership the W is currently bringing in will hopefully help propel the league into not only profitability, but paying the women higher salaries.

🏀 Nets trading Mikal Bridges to Knicks for Bojan Bogdanovic, draft picks — Yahoo Sports

It’s happening! All four Villanova teammates are back together! Bridges joins Brunson, Hart, and DiVincenzo on the NY Knicks. If they somehow keep OG, the Knicks are going to be scary.

🕍 What does it feel like to believe in God? — Search Engine

I fell off of Search Engine for awhile there, but the last few episodes have been exceptional. I’m agnostic leaning atheistic, but the way Zvika Krieger talks about Judaism and god makes me want to believe.

🍪 Oreo Kintsugi — Kottke

I mean, come on! How could you not love this???

😤 No, Trump Did Not Call Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists ‘Very Fine People’ — Snopes

This is such a weird fact-check from Snopes. He may have not said “neo-Nazis are very fine people,” but he did say “you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.” However, one side was completely neo-Nazis and white supremacists shouting “Jews will not replace us.” Trump can claim there were “many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists,” but that doesn’t make it true. Ipso-facto he said neo-Nazis are very fine people. End of story.

The Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers in game seven of the Stanley Cup to win their first championship and avoid a potential historic collapse after surrendering a 3-0 lead. Despite losing, Connor McDavid is awarded the Conn Smyth Playoff MVP award. The 2025 odds have the Panthers favored to repeat while Dallas shares the same odds with the Oilers right behind.

🎤 Only a Job (Single) — The Palmer Squares

Fun single from these guys (who went to the same high school as me) that brings a bit of a new sound for them reminiscent of old school r&b rap.

🧅 The Onion Knight Ft. Ben Collins — Better Offline

Really great interview with Ben about buying The Onion and what they are planning to do. I can’t wait until they launch a print product again. It’ll be an instant subscribe for me.

🏀 Cleveland Cavaliers hiring Kenny Atkinson as coach — AP News

An absolutely perfect hire for Cleveland. Both from a player development perspective and his prior experience with LeVert and Allen. And I expect him to immediately find ways to elevate Mitchell while keeping the ball moving and improving players 5-8. It was a shame Atkinson was let go and not immediately hired elsewhere.

🤖 OpenAI founder Sutskever sets up new AI company devoted to “safe superintelligence”— Ground News

Very cool and admirable, but I struggle to see how this can actually be a business that sticks around for the long haul. Move fast and break things is still the Silicon Valley motto and users (and more importantly businesses) will continue to flock to the new and shiny that results from MF+BT even if it’s time we move slow and take care.

🐂 Chicago Bulls trade Alex Caruso to Oklahoma City Thunder, receive Josh Giddey in return — Yahoo Sports

The Bulls do need a PG who can initiate the offense, but Caruso seems like an overpay for Giddey… Maybe it frees up some cap space too.

🛰️ SpaceX Starlink satellites could hurt the Earth’s ozone layer — Quartz

This is pretty worrying…

🐂 A closer look at Michael Jordan’s 1988 DPOY award raises questions about its validity — Yahoo Sports

This is a tough pill to swallow… on the one hand it seems clear those stats are greatly inflated. On the other, stats are inflated to this day, just look at assists. The awards also meant less back then and just because some stats were inflated doesn’t mean he didn’t deserve it; defense is more than stats. Look at Pat Riley’s comments about his defensive reputation and Bob Ryan’s about standing by his vote. While the stats may lie, the award is still valid.