Leaks Suggest Trump’s Own Team Is Alarmed By His Conduct:

Unsurprisingly, Trump’s volatile behavior has created an environment ripe for leaks from his executive agencies and even within his White House. And while leaks typically involve staffers sabotaging each other to improve their own standing or trying to scuttle policy ideas they find genuinely problematic, Trump’s 2-week-old administration has a third category: leaks from White House and agency officials alarmed by the president’s conduct.

“I’ve been in this town for 26 years. I have never seen anything like this,” said Eliot Cohen, a senior State Department official under President George W. Bush and a member of his National Security Council. “I genuinely do not think this is a mentally healthy president.”

America: a country where truly anyone — even someone mentally unstable — can become president.

via Twitter

Francisco G Delgadillo, Executive Creative Director of Brand at Oracle, on the people who do work for Apple, but can’t share it:

“How dare I suggest he remove from his pitch one of the most valued brands in the world, one of the most beloved brands by the creative community?”, I thought to myself. But I went on to tell the creative director that without any meaningful details, his “we do work for Apple, but we can’t show you”—and customary companion Apple-logo slide—was an irrelevant reference and could potentially have a negative impact on my assessment of his presentation.

I’ve talked to designers over the years who’ve done work for Apple, so I’m very familiar with their strict confidentiality agreements. Hell, what doesn’t Apple try maintain secrecy about?

I think it sucks people can’t share the work they did for Apple, but I guarantee every one of them knew exactly what they were getting into before they agreed to work with Apple.

If you or your agency was great enough for Apple to pick, then your portfolio is already rock-solid. Stop crying you can’t add the the Apple logo to your client logo page on your website. You come across like the kid in school who brags about having a girlfriend he met over the summer, but she lives far away, but trust him, she exists.

Great Question

Lamborghini Silhouette

Vizio settles FTC lawsuit and agrees to get viewer consent before tracking TV habits:

Vizio will pay $2.2 million to settle a lawsuit alleging it collected customers’ TV-watching habits without their permission.

The lawsuit was filed by the Federal Trade Commission and the state of New Jersey. It alleged that, in 2014, Vizio began using software built into over 11 million smart TVs to capture “highly-specific, second-by-second information about television viewing.” Vizio was then said to have worked with another company to associate demographic information with each household, so that viewing habits could be paired with information like a viewer’s “sex, age, income, marital status,” and more.

I’m happy I’ve never purchased a Vizio product.

I like this detail:

In addition to the $2.2 million in payments, Vizio will now have to obtain clear consent from viewers before collecting and sharing data on their viewing habits. It’ll also have to delete all data gathered by these methods before March 1st, 2016.

Imagine that! Getting consent before collecting and selling peoples’ information.

What a novel idea.

This Youtube track of 10 hours of ambient noise from an icebreaker in the frozen arctic is a perfect soundtrack for me to work to during the day (or to sleep to).

It’s right up there with 12 hours of Deckard’s apartment sound.

Interesting I find this clip on the same day The New York Times posts a story about a crack in an Antarctic ice shelf that grew 17 Miles in the last two months.

The rise of the printed tweet in American politics

Boycotting Uber is boosting the fortunes of billionaire Trump advisor Carl Icahn:

But the #DeleteUber crew seems to have missed Lyft’s own ties to the Trump administration.

In 2015, financier Carl Icahn made a $100 million investment into Lyft. His interests are represented on its board of directors through John Christodoro of Icahn Capital.

Icahn did a lot more than Kalanick to help get Trump elected. He was an early and vocal supporter of Trump during the campaign, claiming that the businessman would be much better for the economy than Hillary Clinton, and Trump appointed Icahn as a special advisor on regulation in December.

I was just as disappointed in Uber’s actions last week but it seems we’re damned either way.

Pick your poison.

Orange Pinto

Uber C.E.O. to Leave Trump Advisory Council After Criticism:

“What would it take for you to quit the economic council?” at least two employees asked at the Tuesday meeting.

On Thursday, Mr. Kalanick gave his answer, stepping down from Mr. Trump’s economic advisory council. “There are many ways we will continue to advocate for just change on immigration, but staying on the council was going to get in the way of that,” Mr. Kalanick wrote in an email to employees obtained by The New York Times.

Mr. Kalanick’s exit from the advisory council underscores the tricky calculus facing many Silicon Valley corporate chieftains who try to work with the new administration. On one hand, many tech executives have openly tried to engage with the president, a path that is typically good for business. Yet Mr. Trump’s immigration order has been so unpopular with so many tech workers — many of whom are immigrants themselves and who advocate globalization — that they are now exerting pressure on their chief executives to push back forcefully against the administration.

I feel like trying to negotiate with Donald Trump is like trying to negotiate with a terrorist: you don’t do it.

Trump cares about himself. He is not a man of the people, looking out for our best interests. This is becoming clearer and clearer as each day that passes with him as president.

Groundhog Day

Obama

Tech companies criticize travel ban but not their investor Peter Thiel:

The ride-hailing service earned praise from customers for condemning President Trump’s travel ban and pledging to donate $1 million to the ACLU over the next four years. Many on social media urged followers to #DeleteUber for appearing to break up a driver strike about the ban. On Monday, Lyft cracked the top 10 free apps on Apple’s App Store.

Less noted, however, is the fact that Peter Thiel is one of Lyft’s investors. Thiel, the billionaire investor and PayPal (PYPL, Tech30) cofounder, is Trump’s top tech advocate and an adviser on his transition team. He also recently appeared to defend the travel ban, despite the many concerns about it in Silicon Valley.

I hate to make it all about business, but sometimes things don’t change unless it affects businesses and Trump’s decisions are clearly hitting a nerve not just with individuals around the country but will companies too.