Apple Announces AirTag Updates to Address Unwanted Tracking - MacRumors

The warning will make it clear that the AirTag is linked to an Apple ID, that using it to track people is a crime, and that law enforcement can request identifying information about the owner of the AirTag.

Auto-theft rings hate pop-up disclaimers.

U.S. Inflation Accelerates to 40-Year High - WSJ

U.S. inflation accelerated to a 7.5% annual rate in January, rising to a new four-decade high, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Very, very, very bad.

In addition to being an at-home dad, I have several side projects that I work on in the evenings and during my spare time. Like any parent, I have energy for kids and energy for work, and the pools are mostly exclusive of one another. I can be exhausted from kid and house care when evening rolls around, but fully charged for knocking out work. The reverse is true for working parents.

Last week, Alison came home early on her admin day and I went over to a new coffeeshop in town. Before opening last month, they pre-sold cold brew coffee out of the owner’s house. I got to know him and his wife, and we’ve continued to build on that relationship. He’s a cool guy, about my age and place in life, so it’s good to see him when he’s working.

I grabbed my coffee, sat down at a table and got to work. For just over 90 minutes, I drank my coffee, and cranked away on my projects. I was editing that day, my least favorite part of the writing process. The soundtrack from _Monument Valley_, a popular iOS game, moved me from grammatical error to grammatical error.

Normally, when Alison is home alone with the kids, I feel a tinge of guilt. This only happens because I know how hard she works, and yet, there she is, working more caring for the kids. In those moments, I need to remember the separate reservoirs of energy. While I spent almost every moment of the day alone with the kids, it’s a treat for her. She gets to have that quality time hanging out with them and I get a break.

Afternoons off, and vacations, are a nice treat. It’s never a bad thing to enjoy a change of scenery and make progress.

EV Charging Network Will Target Interstate Highways - WSJ

stations will have to have at least 600 kilowatts of total capacity, with ports for at least four cars

How many two pump gas stations have you seen along the interstate?

That pot of money will fund two other discretionary grant programs that can go to any state to further fill in gaps and cover high-demand areas in the nationwide system, and to support disadvantaged communities, especially rural areas, that are underserved or overburdened.

Rural, disadvantaged, underserved communities are a key Tesla demo.

Program to Cut Student Debt for Healthcare Providers Sticks Some With Even More - WSJ

The penalties are written into the law, meaning the authority to change them rests with Congress. Dr. Padilla said it is unfortunate some people don’t appear to understand the penalties when they sign up. “I don’t know why they don’t read every word,” he said. “But did I read every word of my mortgage agreement? Probably not.”

This dude is out of control. The article is a huge PR nightmare and his quotes aren’t helping.

Don’t Expect Rising Interest Rates to Boost Your Savings Account - WSJ

Many high-yield savings accounts, which offered 1.5% or more before rates headed toward zero in early 2020, now offer rates around 0.5%.

But these fine institutions will be happy to issue you a credit card at 16.99%.

Nvidia, SoftBank call off blockbuster Arm deal - Fox Business

SoftBank stands to pocket a $1.25 billion breakup fee from the failed transaction with Nvidia

My dream job is to run a company that engineers failed mergers and collects breakup fees.

Movie Nobody Watched Nominated To Receive Award At Ceremony Nobody Watches - The Babylon Bee

In a recently published press release nobody read, a movie nobody watched raised nobody’s eyebrows by being nominated to receive multiple awards at a ceremony nobody watches.

So it’s not just me.

Trudeau Demands Protesters Stop Shutting Down City So That He Can Shut Down City - The Babylon Bee

“Shutting down roads, limiting people’s movement, restricting people’s freedom, and shutting down the city is unacceptable. It’s the government’s job to do that. We must break the back of this fascist blockade so that I may freely shut down roads, limit people’s movement, restrict people’s freedom, and shut down the city.”

Number of Oscar-nominated films I watched last year: 0.

Number of Oscar-nominated films I’ve ever heard of: 1.

The trend holds, these awards are meaningless.

Winter blues.

Biden’s Top Science Adviser Resigns - WSJ

People with knowledge of his behavior accused him of bullying, embarrassing and insulting staff.

Sounds like standard operating procedure over at EEOB.

IRS Retreats From Facial Recognition to Verify Taxpayers’ Identities - WSJ

The Internal Revenue Service is scrapping its use of a private facial-recognition system to authenticate taxpayers’ identities for online accounts, the agency said Monday after criticism from lawmakers in both parties over privacy concerns.

Too late for parents who wanted to avoid a massive tax bill and had to use facial recognition to opt out of Congressionally mandated advanced child tax credit payments.

And last year, federal authorities said they would investigate after the news organization ProPublica released the tax information of several wealthy Americans. The potential breach raised questions about whether there were gaps in IRS data systems. The agency hasn’t provided any detail on what happened and investigations have yet to yield prosecutions or any publicly available reports.

That announcement was in June 2021. What’s taking so long?

Tyson Foods Says Higher Meat Prices Haven’t Cooled Demand - WSJ

Escalating meat prices haven’t slowed restaurant and retailer demand for meat, Tyson Foods Inc. executives said, as rising prices helped to more than double the company’s quarterly profit.

What are people supposed to eat instead of meat?

I’d rather have a president who says mean things on Twitter than one who’s policies result in 25% price increases on the milk my kids drink.

Frontier Group, Spirit Airlines Merge in $6.6 Billion Deal - WSJ

“This transaction is centered around creating an aggressive ultra-low fare competitor to serve our guests even better, expand career opportunities for our team members and increase competitive pressure, resulting in more consumer-friendly fares for the flying public,” Spirit President and Chief Executive Ted Christie said.

This makes no sense to me. Spirit isn’t just a damaged brand, but an irredeemable one.

I watch videos like this and think, “Wow, nature is so amazing.”

Then I think about the amazing human person, the quintessential expression of nature.

Seasonal shift.

Too Risky to Wed in Your 20s? Not if You Avoid Cohabiting First - WSJ

As we recently discovered, however, there is an interesting exception to the idea that waiting until 30 is best. In analyzing reports of marriage and divorce from more than 50,000 women in the U.S. government’s National Survey of Family Growth (NFSG), we found that there is a group of women for whom marriage before 30 is not risky: women who married directly, without ever cohabiting prior to marriage. In fact, women who married between 22 and 30, without first living together, had some of the lowest rates of divorce in the NSFG.

App-Store Bill Targeting Apple, Google Is Approved by Senate Panel - WSJ

Apple has privately warned the committee that the bill would enable so-called sideloading, where consumers could add apps to their device without going through the Apple App Store. This would allow app developers “to evade Apple’s privacy and security protections by distributing apps without critical privacy and security checks,” said Timothy Powderly, an Apple senior director of government affairs

A standard, decades-old feature on Apple’s Mac lineup which has led to every Mac being absolutely trashed with junk, unsafe software, and spyware.

Oh… wait…

I hate sweating while walking in winter.

Done with the final draft of the first issue of Applied Bioethics Magazine.

This is the most satisfying step of the writing process.

Just fixed the plastic wind-up gears on my son’s plane using nothing but a flashlight and a Swiss Army Knife.