Weekly Reading: Volume 1

January 04, 2021

How do you make a libertarian? Just do something stupid, like the FDA did.

When There Wasn’t Enough Hand Sanitizer, Distilleries Stepped Up. Now They’re Facing $14,060 FDA Fees. – Reason.com

At issue is a provision of the CARES Act that reformed regulation of non-prescription drugs. Under the revised law, distilleries that produced sanitizer have been classified as "over-the-counter drug monograph facilities." The CARES Act also enacted user fees on these facilities to fund the FDA's regulatory activities. For small distillers, that means ending the year with a surprise bill for $14,060 due on February 11.

“People are incredibly anxious,” Harris says. “We have been dealing with tons of phone calls talking to individual members and state guilds to tell them what we know and what we don’t know.”

Good grief.


Happy trails, FarmVille

FarmVille Once Took Over Facebook. Now Everything Is FarmVille. - The New York Times

In early 2009, when Facebook was still nascent in its efforts to swallow as much of the internet as possible, online games were not yet the behemoth they would become.

Then, that June, came FarmVille.


Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews | Ars Technica

This kind of review bait-and-switch is not a new problem. More than two years ago, Buzzfeed's Nicole Nguyen wrote about other online sellers using the same scam. For example, she found that many of the five-star reviews for a highly-rated iPhone charging dock were actually reviews for a culinary torch.

Is it just me or has Amazon just let anything go on their site?


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Written by Shawn Borton
Drupal and PHP expert, Christian, rabid Dallas Stars fan, devoted Texas Longhorns alum, lover of libraries, coffee shops, and quiet places.
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