The Independent Variable (Page 21)

🔫 FBI boss Kash Patel gave New Zealand officials 3D-printed guns illegal to possess under local laws

All travelers to New Zealand are required to declare any guns or gun parts when entering the country, New Zealand’s border security agency confirmed Wednesday. The agency, Customs, wouldn’t disclose what declarations Patel made on arrival.

Visitors must seek a license to possess a pistol on New Zealand soil. It wasn’t immediately clear if Patel had sought one.

Hey, New Zealand! Please arrest this man! He broke your country’s laws and seeing as he is an officer of the law and is supposed to uphold the law he should be forced to follow the local

🤖 OpenAI launches a social network

ai

Platformer

On Tuesday, OpenAI introduced Sora, an iOS app that lets you create and share 10-second, AI-generated video clips in a feed. It was designed to look familiar, OpenAI employees said in a live broadcast on Tuesday morning, and indeed Sora closely resembles TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

Honestly, bring on the AI slop to all of these apps. Maybe I can finally beat my scrolling addiction. The idea of “perfectly personalized entertainment” made just for me by some LLM is repulsive. It goes against the definition of “art,” which is about human expression, provoking feelings, and communicating with others.

🥤 Mountain Dew gets dirty with a new cream soda and fans are freaking out

food

Delish

Late last week, Mountain Dew confirmed a “distinctive and indulgent” new flavor arriving in 2026: Dirty Mountain Dew Cream Soda, a creamy spin on the already popular citrus-flavored soft drink.

As a Mountain Dew and cream soda lover, I’m all for this. But why are we giving all the credit to the mormons. They just reinvented Italian cream soda—which has been around for a century—by throwing more shit in it…

🏎️ Tesla makes it hard to get $50,000 Roadster deposit refunded after 8 years

tech

Electek

Tesla charged between $50,000 and $250,000 in deposits for the Roadster, depending on whether customers opted for the “Founders Series” or not. Some people had placed that money in Tesla’s hands for eight years without the automaker delivering anything.

Wild that they can just hold on to your money for so long without delivering anything or refunding people without them having to waste a bunch of time going through the hassle of dealing with customer service. I’m sure they are putting all of that money to good use.

📰 The Nerve

media

The Nerve

We are a group of former Guardian and Observer journalists who think our turbulent times call for a different kind of media title: courageous, independent, diverse and built around a community of readers and journalists.

New independent, female-founded news site alert! They’ll be covering politics, culture, and tech. I’ll be curious to see how things split between UK/US coverage given they are based in the UK, but have covered things like Cambridge Analytica and Silicon Valley.

🧪 Ready for vibe VLOOKUP?

ai

I can't help but laugh a little at the timing given that the term 'workslop' was coined last week. Beyond the giggle, the writeup is worth it to learn about SpreadsheetBench and how Microsoft thinks about evaluating accuracy when it comes to 'vibe work'.

🔫 FBI boss Kash Patel gave New Zealand officials 3D-printed guns illegal to possess under local laws

🤖 OpenAI launches a social network

🥤 Mountain Dew gets dirty with a new cream soda and fans are freaking out

🏎️ Tesla makes it hard to get $50,000 Roadster deposit refunded after 8 years

📰 The Nerve

🧪 Ready for vibe VLOOKUP?

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