Weekend Edition: The Great TikTok Shutdown

Welcome back, savvy crowd!

I hope you’re ready to refuel! This time around, I’m offering fresh weekend picks to spark your curiosity, tickle your brain, and remind you that downtime is a precious resource. Let's dive in!

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What’s worth knowing today:

Folks, it's finally happening: TikTok might disappear from U.S. app stores as early as Sunday due to a law requiring it to find an American owner. With 170 million users stuck in limbo, the White House says it's leaving the ban up to Trump on his first day back, while TikTok itself threatens to pull the plug if the government doesn't provide clarity.

Meanwhile, China won't let ByteDance sell off that magical algorithm, so even if a buyer like Frank McCourt or Elon Musk steps up, the "For You" feed might have to be completely redesigned. The bottom line is that the clock's ticking and your next scroll might be your last (legally, anyway).

Polar Vortex 2.0

Remember when we warned you about the polar vortex? It's back, thanks to Siberian air blanketing 300 million Americans with subzero temperatures. We're talking snow as far south as the Gulf Coast (yes, you read that right) and dangerous cold in places that never see flurries or ice.

The grand finale? This will be the coldest Inauguration Day in 40 years—Donald Trump's second swearing-in was moved indoors. There'll be wind chills below zero, hardware store stampedes, and people side-eyeing the forecast until next week. It seems the vortex likes to stick around here once it gets here.

Requiem for a Refrigerator

This is a cautionary tale about a pharmacy giant squandering millions on flashy digital fridge doors. Walgreens is thinking big with "smart" cooler doors from CoolerX (ex-Cooler Screens), which show ads and products and might even glow. But tech glitches caused customers to see the "digitized" doors flicker or go blank, and profits dried up.

Walgreens complained that the screens made them look incompetent (when they weren't on fire). So, both sides went to court over $200 million, employees scrawled Post-its, and Walgreens finally yanked every last digital door by August 2024. This is a good lesson: sometimes, a simple solution (like, you know, glass) is the best.

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🎪 Weekend Leisure Core

Fuel Your Screen: Netflix's American Primeval plunges you into an 1850s frontier showdown where four desperate factions fight to survive.

Fuel Your Curiosity: Music by John Williams on Disney+ goes beyond nostalgic hits to reveal how iconic film scores are matched to their on-screen magic.

Fuel Your Mind: Agnes Callard argues in Open Socrates that becoming good isn't about willpower but about clarifying what "the good" really is in the first place.

💡 Core Wisdom

📸 Lens to Life

Winners of the 2025 World Sports Photography Awards.

🧮 Core Count: 4,800,000,000,000

Global music streaming number in 2024.

🗓️ Flashback:

532 - Constantinople Nika uprising fails; 30,000 killed by Emperor Justinian I's troops.

1591 - The First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony carrying 736. convicts from England.

1817 - Argentine general José de San Martín leads a revolution in Chile over the Andes.

1871 - Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck proclaim the Second German Empire.

1943 - Opening a narrow land corridor by the Soviets ended the long siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany.

I'm glad we could get together here. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Fatih Taskiran