America's Meta-morphosis continues as Zuck and Co announces that fact checking on its platforms is a thing of the past. Maybe it's enough to know that Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new chief global affairs officer, "credited Elon Musk’s influence during an interview this morning on Fox & Friends." NYT (Gift Article): Meta to End Fact-Checking Program in Shift Ahead of Trump Term. "The reversal of the years-old policy is a stark sign of how the company is repositioning itself for the Trump presidency in the weeks before it begins. Meta described the changes with the language of a mea culpa: Joel Kaplan, Meta’s newly installed global policy chief, said in a statement that the company wanted to 'undo the mission creep that has made our rules too restrictive and too prone to over-enforcement.'" (I'm not sure content moderation at Facebook's scale is even possible, but when someone tells you that the problem is that social media discourse has been overly restrictive, you know you're being trolled.) Meta also announced that Trump ally and UFC CEO Dana White will join its board.

+ This move follows a trend of generally letting more bad stuff happen online. For example: "The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have scaled back efforts over the past two years to disrupt violent extremists’ online activities, according to current and former US officials and internet radicalization specialists who fear the trend will accelerate under the incoming Trump administration." Violent Extremism Lingers Online With US Flagging Less Content. Lies, violence, extremism ... social media has finally reached a singularity with real life.

+ This Bloomberg headline does a pretty decent job of defining an era. Zuckerberg Wears $900,000 Watch to Announce End of Meta Fact Checks.

2

Chem Dash

We like forever chemicals so much, we're consuming them twice. And that's just for starters. NYT (Gift Article): ‘Forever Chemicals’ Reach Tap Water via Treated Sewage, Study Finds. "As the world grapples with climate change, population growth and dwindling supplies of fresh water, more people are set to rely on treated wastewater to sustain their daily lives. But wastewater, even after treatment, contains high levels of harmful 'forever chemicals' that are already contaminating the drinking water of millions of Americans." (This makes my decision to exclusively drink Gatorade Zero look even more prescient.)

3

Moo-ving the Needle

"Cow burps are one of the largest sources of agricultural emissions—and one of the trickiest ones to solve. A food supplement that significantly reduces the amount of methane that cattle belch is now available in dozens of countries. Other products, which might prove even more effective, are likely on the way." Less damaging cow burps are just one of the items on MIT Tech Review's list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies.

4

Daily Doubletake

"Whether he was snarkily dismissing a contestant’s anecdote in the show’s interview segment, overpronouncing the word 'genre' or dryly replying 'Oh, no!' when a player made a wildly wrong guess, it often felt like Alex Trebek was the series. By the time of his death, he was something of a national monument." And he was awesome. But Jeopardy has endured under Ken Jennings. And the brand is even growing into some new areas (like Pop Culture Jeopardy hosted by Colin Jost on Prime). What's the secret? Rolling Stone (Gift Article): What Is … the Greatest Game Show of All Time? (I'm not sure, can I buy a vowel?)

5

Extra, Extra

Breaking the Silence: "It was systematic and well-organized, growing to more than 100 detention facilities where torture, brutality, sexual violence and mass executions were rampant, according to activists, rights group and former prisoners. Security agents spared no one, not even Assad’s own soldiers. Young men and women were detained for simply living in districts where protests were held. As tens of thousands disappeared over more than a decade, a blanket of fear kept the Syrian population silent. People rarely told anyone that a loved one had vanished for fear they too could be reported to security agencies." AP: Inside Bashar Assad’s detention centers, where ‘death was the least bad thing.'

+ Snakeoil Rig: "Rather than conservatism as conventionally understood, this crowd and its international counterparts represent the fusion of several trends that have been coalescing for some time. The hawkers of vitamin supplements and unproven COVID cures now mingle—not by accident—with open admirers of Putin’s Russia." Anne Applebaum The Atlantic(Gift Article): The New Rasputins. "In a world where conspiracy theories and nonsense cures are widely accepted, the evidence-based concepts of guilt and criminality vanish quickly too."

+ A Bee in Your Bonnet: "An estimated trillion insects are farmed per year; quadrillions are killed by pesticides, and many species have gone extinct as humans have cleared habitats for farms, factories, and cities. Most of us do not think much about their inner lives, and our laws do not usually consider their welfare. Insects are small, they don’t scream or bleed red, and many are considered pests; we tend to kill or mutilate them without pause." The New Yorker: Do Insects Feel Pain? Just what we need. Something else to bug out about.

+ Load Trip: Here's a little warmup for the next four years. Trump suggests he could use military force to acquire Panama Canal and Greenland and 'economic force' to annex Canada. Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. arrives in Greenland with a message from his dad: ‘We’re going to treat you well’.

+ Bird Watching: First bird flu death reported in the U.S., according to the CDC. There's still no evidence of person to person spread.

+ Monkey See, Monkey Do Anyway: "Krishna knows what that monkey really wants. He swiftly flings a box of mango juice. The monkey catches the box with one hand but goes back to toying with the glasses. Krishna flings up another juice. Satisfied, the monkey flings the stolen glasses back — straight into an open sewer." How do you keep monkeys from making mischief?

6

Bottom of the News

"The annual teddy bear toss has been held by the Hershey Bears hockey club since 2001, with this year's event beating the previous record." Watch as a world record 102,343 stuffed toys hit the ice rink in a moment of 'sweet, cuddly mayhem.'" (Too bad Al Michaels already used the line Do you believe in miracles, because it would work here...)

+ "Two School Rock costars just celebrated their nuptials by getting the band back together. Caitlin Hale and Angelo Massagli, who starred as Marta (nickname: Blondie) and Frankie in Richard Linklater's 2003 comedy, have officially tied the knot."