It's the final Sizzle for 2021! I love writing this thing but 2 weeks of doing absolutely sweet fuck all awaits me and I am frothing for it. I hope all you lovely subscribers also get to spend the holidays doing whatever it is you enjoy most. The Sizzle will return on the 6th of Jan 2022.
Oh and don't forget to check out the 2021 Sizzle Review. Pay what you like and 50% is donated to CAFS. we've raised $400 so far!
The British Medical Journal has absolutely cracked the shits with "the incompetence of Meta's fact checking regime". They've published an open letter explaining how their very legitimate research has been censored on Facebook and Instagram because it was circulated by a few anti-vaxxers, which resulted in Lead Stories (the company Facebook gets to fact check stuff) banning the article from being shared without doing any due diligence, the BMJ added to a list of hoax blogs and incorrectly referred to as a blog when it's actually one of the world's oldest medical journals. Pathetic.
I know a few of you are busting for that free FTTN to FTTP upgrade NBN has been talking about for months, so it pains me to say this but you're probably gonna be waiting a while yet. Even though NBN has said which areas will be receiving the upgrades (list here), NBN said that "the specific number of premises within that area who are eligible is not known until the completion of the detailed design and physical construction of the local fibre network in that area" - i.e: if your house is too hard to get to, stiff shit. The article reckons the list of first suburbs to get an opportunity to upgrade "isn't likely before March".
CNBC reckons Elon Musk's payment of US$11b in taxes this year is "the single largest tax bill ever". Normally rich people that don't get paid a salary end up taking loans out against the shares they own, meaning no tax as they haven't technically earned an income - but Elon sold a shitload of shares recently, which resulted in an enormous capital gain he is on the hook for. Why did he sell a bunch of stock? He's getting in now before tax rules potentially change where he would have to pay even more tax. $12b might sound huge, but Musky's net worth is currently around $243b - $12b is loose change at the back of his couch. This is the bare minimum of tax for the world's richest man.
Andrew Stuart got a 1970s rotary telephone, put a "little computer" (a Raspberry Pi I assume) inside it that responds to picking up and putting down of the receiver and to numbers entered via the rotary dialer. He then made a voicemail inbox and told his mum's mates to leave birthday messages. All the messages were converted to MP3s and placed on the computer stuffed inside the phone. He gave the phone to his mum for her 80th birthday. Mum can enter a number with that chunky rotary dial and hear a message (1 to 60, each with a unique phone number) whenever she likes. What a beautiful gift.
📻 Christmas Celebration - Weezer
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The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.