Love was made up by Hallmark to sell cards

Listen to today's SKH at the Stuff Keeps Happening podcast.

It's Valentine's day

If you are subscribed to this newsletter and are reading this email, you are now contractually obligated to be my valentine.

Big ol' storms coming

A couple of nasty weather systems are fixing to dump a bunch of rain, wind, snow and ice starting in the pacific northwest and making its way down through Colorado and into Texas and beyond. So get your toilet paper now. OR INSTALL A BIDET

It's not aliens

Or at least, they claim it's not aliens. The White House has stated in no uncertain terms that the aircraft they've shot down recently are not extraterrestrial in nature. That's still basically all they've said, so we've not yet ruled out mole people.

Biden hates architecture

Oh sorry I misread. Biden has fired the Architect of the Capitol for abusing his position, misusing his government issued car and impersonating law enforcement, among other things.

According to reports, he allowed his wife and adult daughter to use his government car, racking up 30,000 miles on it. The guy was a Trump-era appointee, but still "both sides" were calling for his removal.

Teen girls are dealing with too much

Teens in general, but teen girls most specifically. According to new research released by the CDC, teen mental health is dropping dramatically.

Quoting the findings:

Nearly 60% of female students and nearly 70% of LGBQ+ students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.

The report tracks metrics for a decade between 2011 and 2021. There are several other concerning metrics in the results, but largely just a reminder: be good to people.

"Epstein Docs" released

Documents related to the Epstein/Maxwell case have been released, documenting interactions with a bunch of high profile people. You can browse them for yourself here.

Some quick notes: I've not seen many reputable journalists pick through this yet; its primarily right wing rags pushing this story. The document references a lot of people we already knew did Epstein things (Musk, Gates, Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew, etc) but is more comprehensive than previous public knowledge.

Still, I wouldn't expect much to come from this aside from pot-stirring.

A note about recent events

There was a shooting at Michigan State University last night. 3 confirmed dead, 5 critically wounded. The active shooter warning was in effect for several hours and the shooter was eventually found dead with a self inflicted wound.

It's horrible and there's a lot of rightful anger and sadness this morning, which unfortunately leads to a mess with reporting and rumors. I wanted to talk more about the details here, but I would prefer to just note that this has happened and is developing, and we'll learn more over time. Not much more to say at this point that hasn't been said a thousand times before.

Tell your loved ones you love them, and demand more from leaders.

More stuff

• Google is behind Amazon in cloud efficiency
• Twilio is laying off 1,500 people
• Not to be outdone, Facebook is prepping for LAYOFFS ROUND TWO
• TikTok may be testing paywalled videos
• Electric cars are getting more affordable and closer in price to their gas-powered counterparts
• Judge to release docs related to Trump's Georgia phone call later this week

OH! A programming note!

I am going to be on vacation starting this Friday, February 17th through next Friday, February 24th. While I hope to post a few updates as-needed throughout that time, I will not be publishing the normal daily updates.

The normal schedule will payse on the 17th and resume in full on Monday, February 27th.