Emily Singer, writing for The Daily Kos, has the lead on the only story anyone should be talking about.

Donald Trump is officially an adjudicated convicted felon, after a judge in New York on Friday sentenced him Friday morning for the 34 felony counts of falsifying business records Trump was found guilty of in May. While Trump has already been convicted, his sentencing formalizes his criminal conviction.

Trump, however, will face no jail time or any fines for his crimes of trying to cover up hush money payments he made to a Playboy model and a porn actress during the 2016 campaign, with Judge Juan Merchan sentencing him to “unconditional discharge.”

Merchan said it was the “only lawful sentence” he could impose after Trump won the election in November.

So very tired of him already.

Nicholas Bate –

There is a point at which the gains of a beneficial process disappear. And fall away rapidly.

• Exercise is good for you. But too much clearly isn’t.
• E-mail is efficient (gets stuff done), but over-reliance and an addiction curtails effectiveness (getting the right things done).
• Hot-desking is a total pain on a Monday when you simply end up sitting in a corridor with a lap-top balanced on your knees slowly developing a pain in the neck.
• Zoom calls are easy to book but nobody is ‘mentally’ there.
• Chasing an ever high standard of living can reduce the quality of your life.
• Lists of values look good in the annual report but cause cynicism in some of your best and most hard-working teams.
• Throwing all marketing communication at social media disguises the lack of an actual strategy.

Stay alert to the traps set deep in the woods. Stay awake. Stay Hunter-Gatherer 21 Century.

This made me laugh so, so hard.

Seeing Chip Carter's beautiful eulogy is reminding me of a fancy-people thing that I never learned until well into adulthood.

Chip is a nickname for a guy named after his dad. Skip is a nickname for a guy named after his grandfather. Trip is a nickname for a guy named after his dad AND grandfather.

— Angus Johnston (@angus.bsky.social) 2025-01-09T17:33:45.759Z

An escape room but it’s just your nice warm car with your favorite songs on shuffle and the actual world is outside

— Jonathan Edward Durham ([@thisone0verhere.bsky.social](http://thisone0verhere.bsky.social)) January 8, 2025 at 12:25 PM

Warren Ellis –

There are plans, I have read, to send humans to the south pole of the moon. That’s where the water is, and it presents a more stable communication position with Earth. The new issue it presents to human exoplanetary habitation is to do with light.

At the South Pole, the sun never rises more than seven degrees off the horizon. That means the shadows are long and deep black, and the sun will always be in people’s eyes. Moving around on the moon will mean moving from pitch black to bright white in a single step, and human eyes can’t adapt to that.

Everyone’s going to be blind on the moon.

Charlie Warzel, writing for The Atlantic, has the story on Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s right-ward shift regarding “free expression.”

The social-media hall monitors have been so restrictive on “topics of immigration and gender that they’re out of touch with mainstream discourse,” Zuckerberg said with the zeal of an activist. He spoke about “a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech” following “nonstop” concerns about misinformation from the “legacy media” and four years of the United States government “pushing for censorship.” It is clear from Zuckerberg’s announcement that he views establishment powers as having tried and failed to solve political problems by suppressing his users. That message is sure to delight Donald Trump and the incoming administration. But there’s one tiny hitch. Zuckerberg is talking about himself and his own policies. The establishment? That’s him.

The changes to Meta’s properties, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, are being framed by the CEO as a return “to our roots around free expression.” This bit of framing is key, painting him as having been right all along. It also conveniently elides nearly a decade of decisions made by Zuckerberg, who not only is Meta’s founder but also holds a majority of voting power in the company, meaning the board cannot vote him out. He is Meta’s unimpeachable king. […]

Zuckerberg’s personal politics have always been inextricably linked to his company’s political and financial interests. Above all else, the Facebook founder seems compelled by any ideology that allows the company to grow rapidly and make money without having to take too much responsibility for what happens on its platforms. Zuckerberg knows which way the political wind is blowing and appears to be trying to ride it while, simultaneously, being at least a little bit afraid of it.

Sigh. Slower than I should, I’ll be using Facebook, Instagram, and Threads even less than I already do now.

Justin Trudeau, prime minister of Canada and leader of the Liberal Party there, today announced his resignation after nearly a decade in the job.

This feels like the passing of a torch, but I’m afraid the torch is going to set a bunch of things on fire.

Seth Godin –

An artifact is an object that holds or signifies an idea.

A book on paper is an artifact: it’s the object plus the words. Now that you can get the words in many other ways, the value of the book is changed.

A wedding ring is an artifact. If lost, it has sentimental value far greater than what you could buy a similar replacement for.

Sometimes, the value of an idea fades away, which is why many old books are worthless. Garage sales are filled with previously valuable items that hold ideas that people aren’t attracted to.

And sometimes, the value of the object fades away, but the idea remains important. That’s what happens when you upgrade your laptop.

When the world shifts, the artifacts around us change in value

On his blog, Spyglass, M.G. Siegler has thoughts on all these tech bros, especially Tim Cook, dropping a cool million to Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Oh, I’m sorry, did I say “fealty”? I meant “unity”, which is the rationale Cook is apparently giving for the donation, “sources” told Axios' Mike Allen. That’s speaking to the unity of the country, which, fair enough, I guess. But really, the most interesting element is the unity amongst these CEOs in all somehow deciding to give the exact same amount of money. Clearly, there was either direct coordination here – a sort of, “how much money do you think we should all give so this isn’t some sort of bidding war?“2 – or indirect by way of the first such donation from Mark Zuckerberg at Meta.

But token amount of money aside – and, to be clear, this is essentially couch cushion money for both the companies and CEOs involved here – this donation is not some sort of “great American tradition” as Cook is said to be trying to frame it. Certainly not for Apple itself. And while other tech companies have given money to other inaugurations in the past, notably to President Biden’s day four years ago, these $1M checks are above and beyond anything done historically from these companies.4

Look, there are many reasons why I’m not the CEO of a trillion-dollar company. But certainly on that list would be that I don’t think I could make such a donation. Easy for me to say not being anywhere close to that position and decision, of course. But still, if you take a step back and take into account all we know, or at least think we know about these individuals and companies, do we really believe any of them are truly comfortable with these donations? Perhaps a couple of them are, but I would not put Tim Cook on that list.5 Come on, obviously most of these companies and individuals as proxies are writing these checks because they feel like they have to. In the name of unity, yes. Unity in that they’re all in the same bad predicament.

Trump has been soliciting bribes in the most mob-like, obvious way. He’s saying, “Yo Tim Apple, that’s a nice company you got there. It would be a shame if anything untoward would come upon it.” And Tim Cook decided to play the game.

It’s also important to note that $1M is literally peanuts to all of these tech bro billionaires, but it’s likely enough to keep Trump from looking their way during the next excruciating four years.

Charlie Sykes in his newsletter, To the Contrary, outlines the continued uselessness of the Washington Post.

To fully absorb the profound stupidity of the Wapo’s decision, consider the alternative timeline in which the paper published Telnaes’s sketch. If the Wapo had published it, both the paper and Bezos would have looked… better. The paper would have reasserted a modicum of independence and integrity; and even Bezos would have benefited.

Instead of looking like a thin-skinned, craven autocrat, he would have looked like someone big enough to tolerate criticism.

The Streisand Effect is in full effect here. Just weak management, poor decisions, and complete all around stupidity. Of course, the cartoon can be seen everywhere.

The annual Death List has been posted for 2025. What famous people will probably drop in the coming year?

I’d wager a buck or two that Dick Van Dyke and Eve Maria Saint likely won’t make it through the year. I hope Mel Brooks and Clint Eastwood last a while longer. I would love it if Rupert Murdoch would slither off this mortal coil and put Fox News in jeopardy. One can only hope.

Global Data created a rather thorough 3D animation that compares the size of common items, land animals, sea creatures, flying creatures, historical monuments, skyscrapers, air and land vehicles, universe objects, planets and constellations within our entire universe.

Spend 20 minutes and go from infinitesimally small to infinitely large.

The New York Times asked Colson Whitehead what he hoped to see in 2025, and he replied with this bleak statement:

“I have no hopes for 2025. Humanity is disappointing. We killed the Earth. Villains triumph and the innocents suffer. I imagine these trends will continue.”

Feels that way, doesn’t it?

I must say it is interesting that the fall of the SEC’s dominance, the fall of Alabama, and Georgia coming back to normal all happened as soon as every team could start legally paying players.

— Brandon Walker (@BFW) January 2, 2025

In just the past three days:

Illinois football beat an SEC football team for the first time in history.

Illinois basketball posted the largest road win over a Top 10 basketball team in the history of the game.

That's quite a week.

— Dave Wischnowsky (@wischlist) January 3, 2025

Wayne Osmond, the fourth oldest child of the Osmond family and second oldest Osmond Brother, died at the age of 73. The New York Times reports that his daughter Amy Cook confirmed he died at the University of Utah Hospital from complications from a recent stroke.

He wrote one of the all-time best rock riffs and solo with “Crazy Horses.”