Roundup #11: "How I Evaded Sanctions and How You Can To"

12/01/2019

Sasha Baron Cohen’s Op-ed

I don’t necessarily agree with Sasha’s politics, but he does make one good point in his op-ed related to costs. The social media companies could do a much better job of content compliance, but this would increase their expenses. Heretofore, they’ve been able to avoid this increased cost due to the regulation Cohen mentions in the op-ed, which is part of the reason these social media businesses have been so profitable.

Virgil Griffith Arrested for Presenting in North Korea

I’m staying out of the politics of this. Mostly because I’m not in a position to do anything about it, so my opinion largely doesn’t matter. 

Anyway, Virgil Griffith was arrested for teaching North Koreans how to avoid sanctions using cryptocurrency.

For reference, here is the Department of Justice post about it.

It also looks like there might be a petition started to “Free Virgil” soon.

Lebanese Bitcoiners

The only thing I’m seeing the public use Bitcoin for right now is as an alternative to traditional financial institutions when they begin to fail. While this provides an obvious benefit to society, does this niche use case justify the current Bitcoin price? Probably not.

California DMV Makes $50 Million a Year Selling Personal Data

In case you needed another reason to hate the DMV.

Trump Signs S. 1838

Last week Congress passed the bill, this week Trump signed it.

Viral Manga

This manga went viral with 2.5 million views. I’m not interested in discussing the manga itself, but rather something else.

When discussing how the Uighurs are being treated I’ve sometimes heard the argument that we in the U.S. are getting an American centric view of the situation. However, the fact that this manga went viral in Japan might discredit this argument.

Uber Denied London License

Things are not looking good for Uber right now.

LVMH Seeks to Acquire Tiffany for $16 Billion

Bernard Arnault continues to kill it. Pretty soon he’s going to have a monopoly on luxury.

This week’s newsletter not your cup of tea? Check out some of the more popular weeks below!

The $1 Billion Bitcoin Whale, A $243,000 Deepfake, Pre-Mature Optimization, and The Yandhi Leak

GitHub Acquires Semmle, Vitalik’s Time Machine, and Condolences to the Facebook Engineer

Shapeshift’s FOX Token, H.R.3289, and Of Course…The Cybertruck

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