Weekly output: social-media cleanup, Verizon’s phone-unlock waiting period, NASA’s Starliner report

This will be a travel-abbreviated workweek: Friday afternoon, I head to Dulles to start my journey to Spain for MWC Barcelona, still one of my favorite reasons to get on a plane for business. I’ll be there until March 5, so the next few days would be an excellent time to hit me up with any questions you have about the future of the wireless industry.

Meanwhile, Patreon readers got a bonus post from me this week about my continued struggles with my home WiFi, in which trying to pick out a good mesh-network option has required wrestling with unexpected national-security concerns.

2/17/2026: Social-media cleanses, Al Jazeera

The Arabic-language news channel had me in studio to offer some perspective about people implicated in the Epstein files trying to cleanse their social-media history. I said that if you’re sufficiently prominent, the Internet doesn’t forget things.

2/18/2026: Paid Off Your Phone Early? Verizon to Ease 35-Day Hold to Unlock It, PCMag

Four days after Ars Technica’s Jon Brodkin reported that Verizon had begun requiring a 35-day waiting period to complete unlocking a phone paid off early (unless you made that payment in one of Verizon’s own stores with cash or a credit card’s chip or tap-to-pay options), I asked Verizon for comment. Hours later, I got a statement that the company was working to allow online payments to qualify for an immediate unlock–and then Verizon didn’t give Brodkin the same statement.

2/20/2026: Unpacking Starliner Failures, NASA Chief Delivers Scathing Assessment, PCMag

While I was at a space-industry conference in Tysons Thursday, NASA announced the findings of an investigation into everything that went wrong with Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule after its first and still only launch with astronauts aboard. So instead of writing up one of the panels at this event, I started reading the agency’s 311-page report, hit up Boeing PR for a comment and got in a call with a longtime observer and critic of NASA. Then I spent more of Friday than I’d planned on writing this post.

Nigerian mum celebrates marital intimacy with playful Christmas morning post

Story highlights

On December 25, 2025, Nigerian content creator Kate Chinagorom Eze shared a playful Christmas morning post from her family home, celebrating marital intimacy, calm, and intentional living in marriage. The mother of three framed the day around affection, chores, and cooking, urging couples to forgive, glow, and make marriage simple through intention.

Christmas posts often carry warmth; Kate’s carried intimacy and candour. The mother of three chose humour and honesty, and her words lit up timelines with a message that felt both cheeky and sincere: intentional love strengthens homes and keeps festive mornings light.

Her collage of two Facebook updates painted a full picture of her day. One side showed her husband face-down on the bed with a smiling caption, “Satisfied Man,” while the other mapped a tidy morning routine late start, shower, pyjamas, kids on chores, and rice simmering threaded with one recurring theme: make marriage simple with intention.

Event details and direct quotes from the posts

Kate posted the updates on Christmas Day, December 25, 2025, and anchored them in a relatable timeline: “I woke up at 7.30am… Entered kitchen… Made breakfast for the house and started Christmas Rice cooking still on my pyjamas.” The tone felt playful rather than explicit, and the routine stayed anchored in everyday family life, kids sweeping and mopping while she recorded short videos in festive pyjamas.

She teased, “Facebook biko block him from seeing this post,” then signed off with her broader thesis on marriage: “Life is simple. Marriage is a beautiful thing. Don’t make it complicated.” The refrain “YOUR MARRIAGE CAN BE BEAUTIFUL AGAIN IF YOU BECOME INTENTIONAL” framed the posts as advice, not just gist.

Intimacy, intention, and why the posts resonated

Nigerian audiences often debate intimacy and public affection, yet Kate’s tone disarmed critics. She used humour to reduce friction, and she grounded the intimacy in service, breakfast, rice, chores, and content creation rather than shock value. The post celebrated partnership as both romance and routine.

Interestingly, recent ValidUpdates coverage has tracked visible lifestyle signals and relationship conversations across Lagos, including luxury culture in Lekki that often blends family life with status displays. That bridge helps explain why posts like Kate’s travel fast online and spark broad reactions beyond close friends. See our report on “UK lady calls G-Wagons the new uniform for Lagos men.”

Crucially, soft domestic narratives sit alongside ongoing entertainment and culture stories about values, titles, and respect, such as Ini Edo’s decision to publicly weigh feedback from faith groups over a film name. That wider conversation shows why tone and language matter when creators share intimate or value-laden moments. Read “Ini Edo considers changing film title after church complaints.”

The bigger message: simple rhythms, shared effort

Kate’s routine worked because everyone played a role. The kids handled cleaning. She handled breakfast and Christmas rice. The husband rested. The household ran on shared effort and lightness. The post did not glamorise intimacy; it normalised care and partnership as the heartbeat of festive mornings.

Kate’s voice, half banter, half counsel landed cleanly: forgive, glow, and keep things simple. The day’s rhythm matched the advice. She never over-explained, never moralised; she showed what intention looks like at home, from the bed to the bathroom to the kitchen, with a camera and a smile.

Notre Dame: Social media sentiment can predict when people move during crises, improving humanitarian response. “A new study co-authored by University of Notre Dame researcher Helge-Johannes Marahrens shows that analyzing social media posts can help experts predict when people will move during crises, supporting faster and more effective aid delivery.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/18/notre-dame-social-media-sentiment-can-predict-when-people-move-during-crises-improving-humanitarian-response/

Ars Technica: Musk’s X posts on ketamine, Putin spur release of his security clearances. “Elon Musk’s social media posts helped The New York Times win its fight to secure a list detailing the billionaire’s top-secret security clearances after a US agency tried to block the disclosures by claiming that Musk had a right to privacy.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/10/10/ars-technica-musks-x-posts-on-ketamine-putin-spur-release-of-his-security-clearances/

Call for participation: *ClimateCheck* Shared Task ( https://sdproc.org/2025/climatecheck.html)

@NFDI4DS members Raia Abu Ahmad, Aida Usmanova and Georg Rehm are organizing a shared task “Scientific Fact-Checking of Social Media Claims on Climate Change (ClimateCheck)” on July 31 or August 1st, 2025 in Vienna, Austria, hosted as part of the SDP 2025 Workshop.

Deadline for system submissions: May 16, 2025

#NLP
#LLM
#climatecheck
#socialmediaposts
#climatechange
#misinformation
#SDP2025
#ACL2025
#Vienna
#NFDI4DS

All-in-all, our historical murder mystery case Murder at Evercroft Manor was a labour of love that expanded and flourished with a huge storyline and amazing characters.
https://lttr.ai/Aab3N

#Surrey #MurderMystery #EscapeRoom #SocialMediaPosts

#Israel helps former soldier leave #Brazil over investigation into alleged #WarCrimes in #Gaza

By SAM MEDNICK and WAFAA SHURAFA, January 5, 2025

JERUSALEM (AP) — "Israel has helped a former soldier leave Brazil after legal action was initiated against him by a group accusing Israelis of war crimes in the Gaza Strip based in part on soldiers’ #SocialMediaPosts.

"Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday said it had helped the former soldier safely leave Brazil on a commercial flight after what it described as 'anti-Israel elements' sought an investigation last week. It warned Israelis against posting on social media about their military service.

"The #HindRajabFoundation, named for a 5-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza, said Brazilian authorities had launched an investigation into the soldier after it filed a complaint based on video footage, geolocation data and photographs showing him taking part in the demolition of civilian homes.

"The foundation described the move as a 'pivotal step toward accountability for crimes committed in Gaza' during nearly 15 months of war.

"There was no immediate comment from Brazilian authorities. Brazilian media reported Saturday that the investigation was ordered by an on-call federal judge in Brazil’s Federal District. The decision was issued on Dec. 30 but first reported over the weekend."

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-01-05-2024-43f582190c0fac0896d3e1c547747047
#FreePalestine #GazaGenocide #Genocide #BibiIsAWarCriminal #IsraeliWarCrimes #KamalAdwanHospital #HumanRightsAreNeverWrong #StopArmingIsrael #IDF #GenevaConvention #HumanRightsViolations #NoWar #WorldWarBibi

Historical 19th Century Murder Mystery Case File: There are lots of murder mystery dinner games that take place in a haunted manor, but not many murder mystery case files that do the same.
▸ https://lttr.ai/AZ4r8

#Surrey #MurderMystery #EscapeRoom #SocialMediaPosts

Historical 19th Century Murder Mystery Case File:
There are lots of murder mystery dinner games that take place in a haunted manor, but not many murder mystery case files

> https://lttr.ai/AZvWM

#Surrey #MurderMystery #EscapeRoom #SocialMediaPosts