As we were saying last week, with the year drawing to a close, here are our final dozen picks for the people and peccadillos in a very odd year.

While not everything mentioned in these points might not necessarily have started this year, it was a year when they’ve certainly been ramped up and time to take a closer look. In no particular order:

Climate change. Fact: the climate has been changing since long before mankind came along and started exploiting fossil fuels, but never underestimate hubris. Or (dare we say it?) possible manipulation.

12. Chemtrails are meant to block out the sun to prevent global warming. Bill Gates et al have been crisscrossing the skies globally with these chemtrails (A Bill Gates Venture Aims To Spray Dust Into The Atmosphere To Block The Sun. What Could Go Wrong?) – without oversight or regulation. Considering that massive volcanic eruptions spew billowing clouds of chemicals (similar to those found in the chemtrails) into the atmosphere and block out the sun, as these ‘scientists’ are attempting to do – which tends to lead to failing crops and starvation, indeed, what could go wrong?
13. Incandescent lightbulbs were outlawed this year in favor of the longer lasting and supposedly more ‘climate friendly’ LED bulbs, but according to greenmatters, LED Bulbs May Not Be as Great as We Thought — Studies Show Health and Environmental Risks, reporting that “Per a recent study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers from the University of Exeter have noted various health and environmental risks that come with LED lights. According to The Guardian, LED bulbs are becoming increasingly more common, and even though they are more energy efficient, they emit more blue light radiation”…which is harmful to human health and the environment.
14. While solar panels are being hailed as a replacement for natural gas to reduce the carbon footprint, Holy smoke and mirrors: Solar panels THREE TIMES more carbon intensive than natgas? “People say solar panels don’t produce carbon emissions, but they do. And now, a major new investigation by Environmental Progress, drawing on the research of @enricomariutti, finds that solar panels made in China produce at least 3x more carbon emissions than IPCC claims, Michael Shellenberger tweeted. And most solar panels are being purchased from China as they’re cheaper.
15. While forests are often destroyed to make way for solar farm, Biden administration to invest $1.2 billion in projects to suck carbon out of the air, but as The Verge reported, “The Department of Energy is spending billions on ‘hubs’ for climate technologies that take CO2 out of the air, and fossil fuel companies are getting some of the money.” And speaking of sucking carbon out of the air, that’s what trees are for, which bring us to…
16. Bill Gates’s plan to control forest fires: cut down millions of acres of trees and bury them. Never mind that trees convert CO2 to oxygen. Let’s cut down all of the trees! Every last one of them! No more forest fires! Anywhere! Ever! We will again remind you that when Gates was at the helm of Microsoft, the company was known as the Evil Empire and notorious for putting out shovelware (unusable tech) and buggy operating systems. With Gates front and center of the climate ‘crisis,’ note to self: if something doesn’t work or does more harm than good, globally, and irrevocably, there is no releasing a patch to fix it.
17. The check is not in the mail. The climate has certainly changed for founders seeking funding. Now it’s investors who are saying “Show me the money,” meaning they want to see revenue. We’re definitely in an investor winter and gone are the carefree days when the money flowed freely. Don’t just build a company: build a business.
18. The Maroonicorns, those masters of a temporary universe who fell from grace. That one-time jewel in the tech crown, WeWork, filed for bankruptcy this year, although we will remind you that it was never truly a tech company. The company’s meteoric rise certainly made for great headlines, but fools and their money…Then there are the once vaunted online-first and only publishers who were absolutely unstoppable. Both BuzzFeed and Vicefailed. This was the year that Vice and Motherboard owner files for bankruptcy. Not that that once venerated/now Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post is faring well these days, so a warning to you would-be/wanna be unicorn founders who’d like to be publishing magnates: you’re not subject matter experts in that vertical, so stay in your lane.
19. ChatGPT hit the zeitgeist this year and really brought AI to the forefront. Will it be the end of humanity, as the doomsayers claim? Pshaw! As we know, tech is always so careful with how they deploy new technologies, especially with AI, considering the concern it quickly caused. Here’s something for the dystopians to consider: We’ve long heard tales of the disaffected programmer who hates his/her life or who wants the world to conform to his/her viewpoints, and who do you think is programming the damn things? In fact, if you’ve noticed that your ChatGPT has slowed down of late, the “winter break hypothesis,” proposes that ChatGPT-4 might be mimicking human seasonal behavior: slowing down in December, reflective of the training data it has processed. By humans, who tend to kick back this time of year, too. We rest our case.
20. The automobile Kill Switch. Congress wants the ability to stop the car, cold, for whatever reason, real or perceived and not that that could potentially cause a problem. So, what if The Kill Switch is real and as MSN reported, Once again, drivers get screwed by politicians in DC… Remember, thanks to the Twitter Files, we know about government tracking and censorship on social media. So, no worries here, right? Especially if they stop you cold on a subzero night with not a house in sight. Remember when  Amazon Shuts Down Smart Home for a Week Over Racist Slur Claim? Alexa is not a subscription service, said the person who was shut out, so who actually owns the device? Wonder if our cars will go the same route, pun intended.
21. Pharm to Table. We reported on lab-grown meats just recently, so let’s just bottom line it here. They’re lab-grown and possibly even carcinogenic, said The Center for Food Safety. Consider: the animal cells are manipulated to reproduce at an accelerated rate. What else behaves that way? Cancer cells. And would you like fries with that?
22. The demise of Silicon Valley Bank. SVB was pretty much the bank for startups, and as to what happened, it’s complicated and not. The Verge said it best and to put it succinctly: “Founded in 1983 after a poker game, Silicon Valley Bank was an important engine for the tech industry’s success and the 16th largest bank in the US before its collapse. It’s easy to forget, based on the tech industry’s lionization of nerds, but the actual fuel for startups is money, not brains.”
23. ‘23’s big exits. The year is exiting. All founders want an exit, too, at least eventually. ’23 was a banner year for them, but not in a good way. As Tech Crunch reported, “The tech industry has seen more than 240,000 jobs lost in 2023, a total that’s already 50% higher than last year and growing. Earlier this year, mass workforce reductions were driven by the biggest names in tech like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo, Meta and Zoom. And while tech layoffs slowed down in the summer and fall, it appears that cuts are ramping up yet again. So much for exits.

It’s always a good idea to look back and see where we’ve been, and how far we’ve come or fallen, for some insights into where we might be heading or how we might want to change course as the new year dawns. Centuries tend not to be defined until we’re some two decades into it, and reflecting back, this was certainly a year filled with things that make you go hmmmm. But what else would you expect from a year that ends on 12.31.23, or 123123, for those of you who might have otherwise missed.

Between pharm-grown meats and environmental experiments that can affect the world globally, without knowing the long-term effects, software might be eating the world, but not yet convinced that tech is ready for a seat at the table as we go onward and forward.