Activity

Finished reading:
Cover image of The Palace Job
Rogues of the Republic series, book 1.
The Palace Job
by Patrick Weekes.
Published . 438 pages.
fantasy, heist, humor
Started ; completed August 16, 2026.
Posted:

Spotted in Coinbase’s most recent 10-Q: Coinbase has stopped using trading volume as a key metric, which is I’m sure completely unrelated to the 38%/48% decrease in spot trading volume they reported over the past three/six months

Beginning in the second quarter of 2026, we no longer include Trading Volume as a key metric. As our business has evolved to support multiple asset classes, we believe the prior Trading Volume metric which focused on spot crypto volume no longer reflects the breadth of our business. Additionally, we do not believe that a total trading volume metric would fully represent the business given the differences in economics across our diversified trading products. We believe that net income (loss) and Adjusted EBITDA best reflect the financial health of our business, and we believe that metrics focused on users and assets are better operational indicators as they measure the trust customers place in Coinbase and our ability to attract and retain users. See the section titled Non-GAAP and Other Measures for definitions of Adjusted EBITDA, AOP, and MTUs, as well as a reconciliation of net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA.
Posted:

well that sucks. apparently the ALA/Freedom To Read Foundation have trademarks on the phrase "free people read freely", which i use in a lino print i made into stickers a few years ago.

Why we're reaching outFreedom To Read Foundation recently let us know that they believe some of your listings infringe their intellectual property (IP). In line with our Intellectual Property Policy, we've carefully reviewed their report and have removed these listings from our marketplace.
Review the full report from Freedom To Read Foundation Freedom To Read Foundation Representative's Information [redacted] Freedom To Read Foundation Intellectual Property FREE PEOPLE READ FREELY trademark Trademark registration number: 7446426  
A sticker made from a linocut print, which has the text “Free people read freely” in block capitals above a person in a dress reaching to take a book from a large bookshelf. The sticker is resting on a pile of old books.

i got the phrase from a 2023 speech by librarian and former ALA leader Tracie D. Hall. i didn't think to check if it was trademarked because, lol, what a wild thing to trademark. turns out the trademark had been granted two months before i made the print.

it's no big deal from a business perspective — i don't sell these stickers for much more than they cost, because i mostly just think it's an important message that i want to help people share. i've probably given away at least as many as i've sold, which i guess is now what i'll have to do with the rest.

anyway if you were wondering what happened to the stickers, now you know.

Posted:

when you send me vaguely lawyerly-sounding emails in hopes of threatening me to take down my reporting, and demand i "preserve all potentially relevant records, including ... search-engine submissions"

Browser history entry: how to explain to an asshole wasting my time with his chatbot that i don't have to send him my address just because he might file a bogus lawsuit against me - Google Search
Posted:

This article is a great deep dive into some of the shady characters behind World Liberty Financial — Justin Sun among them, despite his recent efforts to distance himself from the project. (He likely hoped this interview would help, and it is a little friendly, but rightly points out his shadiness.)

“Justin Sun Is Blowing the Whistle on Trump's World Liberty”.
Jen Wieczner in Intelligencer.
World Liberty Financial has put $800 million in the president's pocket. Justin Sun made a huge investment — and was shocked by what he saw, reports Jen Wieczner.
Posted:

Mapping Trump’s crypto empire on Last Week Tonight

My newest Citation Needed project made an appearance on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver! It’s a work in progress, but you can see the new interactive version of my map of the Trump family’s crypto ventures at map.citationneeded.news.

John Oliver speaking on Last Week Tonight, gesturing to an overlay of my web of the Trump family’s crypto businesses. The subtitles say “keeping track of them have wound up making diagrams like this”.

The map contains hundreds of business entities and links to the Trump family (with more being added!), augmented with data from the president’s most recent financial filings to estimate how much money is flowing in. It will be queryable by other researchers and journalists.

Click any node or connection in the Trump crypto empire map to open its panel and view explanatory annotations and citations. Toggle the income overlay to see financial-disclosure figures from the most recent filings. Search for entities, or filter by category.

A screenshot of the map, with a side panel open showing Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. Side panel contents: Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust Intermediary Entity When Walter Shaub, then Director of the Office of Government Ethics, called on President Trump to divest from the Trump Organization during his first term, Trump instead transferred his operating businesses to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. Many had urged him to use a blind trust. Critics argued the DJT Revocable Trust fell far short of that standard: Trump remained the sole beneficiary, his son controlled the assets, and Trump could revoke the arrangement at any time. Shaub later commented that the arrangement was “meaningless from a conflict of interest perspective” and that “setting up a trust to hold his operating businesses adds nothing to the equation. This is not a blind trust—it’s not even close.” Established 2014 Sources ↗ Stenglein, Christine, "OGE Director warns Trump’s business plan insufficient", The Brookings Institution, January 11, 2017 ↗ Craig, Susanne, and Eric Lipton, "Trust Records Show Trump Is Still Closely Tied to His Empire", The New York Times, February 3, 2017 ↗ Kravitz, Derek, and Al Shaw, "Trump Lawyer Confirms President Can Pull Money From His Businesses Whenever He Wants", ProPublica, April 4, 2017 ←controlled by Donald Trump Jr. According to a 2024 regulatory filing, Donald Trump Jr. "is the sole trustee and has sole voting and

Subscriber support is what makes data projects like the Trump empire map and Tech Influence Watch possible — work that goes beyond the newsletter itself. You can join them!