The Daily Dad — Feb 11, 2024

Things you might want to know:

• Is There Lead in Your Reusable Water Bottle?
  💭 I feel like “drank hourly from a lead-tainted tumbler” is going to be the origin story for the world’s worst super-villain. UltraKaren or some shit. She’ll have the power to sigh loudly in line at the coffee shop and then shamelessly take five minutes to negotiate the preparation of her own venti latte.
• WhatsApp Chats Will Soon Work With Other Encrypted Messaging Apps
  ❝ New EU rules mean WhatsApp and Messenger must be interoperable with other chat apps. Here’s how that will work.
• Should you flush with toilet lid up or down? Study says it doesn’t matter
  💭 A parallel study concludes that pointless clickbait is a waste of everyone’s time.
• Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Says She Won’t ‘Enshittify the Network With Ads’
  ❝ WIRED spoke with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber about the X competitor opening signups to all, how to crowdsource deepfake porn moderation, Jack Dorsey, and more.

• Wil Wheaton Rages at Larry David for Elmo Attack: “Appalling, Unforgivable, Despicable”
  💭 Oh for fuck’s sake, Mr. Wheaton. I loved Stand By Me. I skipped the first couple seasons of TNG so I have no anti-Wesley bias, and bear you no ill-Wil. But c’mon, dude… it’s a fucking muppet. My dad hated and screamed at me, too… but we’re adults now. Intentionally triggering yourself with stupid, entirely optional shit and then publicly freaking out about it is infantile. And as for the sanctity of beloved Elmo…? Have you considered how many dicks Elmo has jerked off after-hours in a locked bathroom on the set? Elmo has probably done The Artistocrats for private audiences. Elmo goes to work every day with a man’s hand up his ass. Settle down, bud.
• Merlin is a brilliant pig who communicates through “speech buttons,” and loves to dance and eat ice cubes
  ❝ Pigs are so very smart, and this one named Merlin is no exception. In this terrific video, Merlin, who lives in West Sacramento with his human, Mina Alali, demonstrates how he communicates through pushing…
• Ars Technica used in malware campaign with never-before-seen obfuscation
  ❝ Vimeo also used by legitimate user who posted booby-trapped content.
• Polyamory Has Entered the Chat
  ❝ Mainstream awareness of polyamorous relationships is becoming more widespread. On dating apps, making connections is about more than sex.

• TikTok is full of tryhard slang
  💭 When people with sex blogs do it, they’re called “neolojisms”.
• Bluesky Social Network Ditches Invite Codes, Opens Registrations to All
  ❝ Bluesky, the decentralized social media platform conceptualized by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has now opened registration for everyone. On…
• Plex Launches Movie Rental Store
  ❝ Media platform Plex today announced the launch of a dedicated movie rental store, allowing U.S. Plex users to purchase content directly from Plex…
• feeeed: Embracing Feed Diversity and Personal News Curation
  💭 I don’t think it’s for me, but feeeed is interesting… it’s essentially a news and social media bucket for your life, collecting everything from dozens of sources and presenting them via an algorithm tuned for the end-user and not advertisers.
• Apple Updates Its Collection of Windows Apps
  ❝ Today, Apple introduced a redesigned version of its iCloud for Windows app. The updated app, which allows users to access photos, files, passwords, and other content on a Windows PC, has clarified how it works and where synced content can be found. The app also adds physical password keys and other refinements. I don’t spend

• Why Everyone Can’t Stop Talking About Palworld
  ❝ Palworld is the first video game blockbuster of 2024—but it’s not what it seems.
• Landline Phone Owners Are Protesting AT&T’s Plans to Drop Service
  ❝ In California, AT&T is designated as the Carrier of Last Resort. The fight is on to keep it that way.
• Disney invests $1.5 billion in Epic to create ‘persistent universe’ tied to Fortnite
  💭 When Epic rebooted a flailing Fortnite —ripping off PUBG in the process— I decided to give it a try… it’s such a mishmash of mechanics, I figured there had to be something in there for me to enjoy. I was wrong. Bleh.
• The Best Vibrators to Get Your Groove on
  ❝ Gender? I don’t even know her! No matter what you’ve got, these tools promise good vibes for all.

• Apple Vision Pro Users Are Mad They Can’t Watch 3D Porn
  ❝ Sorry, horny weirdos. You’ll have to find another way to get off.
• A Designer Dog-Maker Regrets His Creation
  ❝ The inventor of the Labradoodle believes he created a Frankenstein.
• Deepfake scammer walks off with $25 million in first-of-its-kind AI heist
  ❝ Hong Kong firm reportedly tricked by simulation of multiple people in video chat.

• Carl Weathers, Rocky, Predator and The Mandalorian star, dies aged 76
  ❝ Actor played Apollo Creed in the Rocky film franchise
• Microsoft may bring Bethesda’s Starfield and Indiana Jones games to the PS5 after all
  💭 After the massive, long-term strategy leak last year, it’s entirely possible that Microsoft is ready to just throw up its collective hands, pull a Sega, and exit the hardware business entirely.
• Apple made an AI image tool that lets you make edits by describing them
  ❝ The model, called MGIE, lets users type out their edits to photos. MGIE is open source and available for download on GitHub.