On Sunday, White House adviser Elon Musk claimed his “Department of Government Efficiency” found that more than 20 million Americans over the age of 100 have been receiving checks from the Social Security Administration. He alleged the figure included people who were born in 1875. The billionaire shared a screenshot of a spreadsheet he said was from the SSA’s database.

Speaking at a conference of investors in Miami on Wednesday, the president reiterated Musk’s baseless claims about Social Security and appeared to add some embellishments of his own.

“But listen to this – 3.6 million people are on Social Security rolls from the age of 110 years old to 119,” he said. “Do you think there are really that many? Those people are seriously old. But it gets worse – 3.4 7 million people are on Social Security from the age of 120 years old to 129 years old, 3.9 million people are on Social Security from 130 years old to 139 years old.”

Trump later added that there are “3.5 million people from the age 140 to 149 years old” on Social Security, and that “1.3 million people are on Social Security from age 150-159. And over 130,000 people are on Social Security over the age of 160 years old, ok? Including 1,039 people. Think of it. Over 1000 people, between the ages of 220-229. And one person of 240 years old and 249. And the record topper, there is one person on Social Security who is 360 years old, which is approximately 110 years older than our country.”

Also, the 1337 hackers at DOGE don't know anything about COBOL, apparently.

The challenge with COBOL is that it doesn’t have a standardized way to store and work with dates — unlike most modern programming languages. Instead, many dates in COBOL must be coded to a reference number, often using an international standard, Rege explained.

The most common reference date number is May 20, 1875, under an international standard known as ISO 8601. That means if someone applies for Social Security without a birth date, they may be recorded as 150 years old in the database depending on how a programmer troubleshoots the issue.

Programmers can overcome these limitations in COBOL’s functionality, but they may also opt to use 1875 as a placeholder for unknown dates if it aligns with the database’s purpose… For example, when the federal government began issuing regular monthly Social Security payments in January 1940, recipients needed to be at least 65 to qualify, meaning they needed to be born in 1875 or before.

Those who crafted the Social Security database may have, therefore, set 1875 as the default birth year for anyone who lacked that information at the time.

You'd think at least Big Balls would know some COBOL.

Summary

Jair Bolsonaro faces the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence after being indicted for allegedly plotting a coup and conspiring to assassinate political opponents.

Experts believe his conviction is likely, accelerating a succession struggle within Brazil’s right wing.

Bolsonaro, already banned from running until 2030, could face over 40 years in jail if found guilty.

Some speculate he may seek asylum abroad, while Trump’s allies could pressure Brazil’s judiciary.

Summary

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol became the country’s first sitting leader to stand trial on criminal charges after his impeachment and arrest for allegedly attempting to impose martial law.

Prosecutors accuse him of insurrection, which could carry a life sentence or the death penalty. His lawyers argue the charges lack legitimacy, claiming martial law was within his presidential authority.

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court is deliberating whether to formally remove him from office, with a decision expected within weeks.

If removed, new presidential elections must be held within 60 days.

Summary

Donald Trump’s supporters celebrated his self-proclaimed “king” status after he ended New York City’s congestion pricing program.

Conservatives, including White House officials and influencers, shared AI-generated images of Trump as a monarch.

Critics, including New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, condemned his rhetoric, emphasizing that the U.S. is a democracy. Hochul announced legal action to challenge the decision.

The controversy highlights the growing embrace of authoritarian symbolism among his supporters.

Opening up a can of tuna yesterday I was wondering 'where has the rest of this tuna ended up? How long will it be before the whole fish is eaten, and how much will be wasted'?

Unfortunately, KM3NeT led to the discovery of the Pauli anglerfish, which emits Cherenkov radiation to prey on neutrino researchers.

https://explainxkcd.com/3053/

Personally I think we should lean into this. First question to that White House Press Secretary should be, "When is the coronation?". Then start referring to Trump as "His Highness" at every instance of speaking to a MAGAt or Republican and "Your Highness" directly to Trump. Force the issue and make them uncomfortable until they stop.

Like using Gen Alpha slang when you're obviously not, just to annoy them. Skibidi toilet forever!

But lets see the Positive side: Now the Nazis wont have to burn thousands of books, saving tons of co2 in their Plan to take over the world with propaganda. So, yay for the envoirment I guess

Please, put the pitchforks and torches down. Hear me out.

You (yes, you!) are a front-runner. You are a first-mover. You came to the fediverse while most people don't even know it's a thing.

In the last couple of weeks/months, there's been an increasing sentiment to boycott the established social media (Facebook, Xitter, Reddit, etc.), due to their rollback of fact-checking and hate speech protection. This has resulted in a lot of new users for a lot of instances lately.

Feddit.dk has gotten over 50 new users in the past few weeks, which is about a +50% increase of the monthly active users, a big deal for a small instance like ours.

This is a great opportunity to teach others about the fediverse and get more people to move to a more democratic, sustainable internet. But all these potential users are still on the corporate social media - we can't reach them unless we are there!

You, the first-mover, is exactly the kind of person we need to stay on Facebook, just for a while, to guide people over to the fediverse. Feddit.dk was actually posted in a Facebook group a few weeks back and we got a few users that way! We've also gotten a lot of users via Reddit recently, as people on /r/Denmark have been mentioning Feddit.dk. Guiding people from corporate social media to the fediverse has been the most successful way to get more users so far.

We can't get second-movers if the first-movers leave everyone behind. So maybe, consider not deleting your Facebook or Reddit account just yet, and if you don't, try to look out for people that are looking for alternatives. You can be their guide.

(and if you want to delete Facebook regardless, I totally respect that choice btw)

Artist: Iwauchi Tomoki | fediverse | pixiv | twitter | danbooru