Zeros

Dear Somebody: Luigi Mangione and the Art of the Prison Letter The accused UnitedHealthcare shooter is penning witty, riddle-filled correspondence from his Brooklyn cell — and that puts him in very specific company. There is a particular kind of prisoner who cannot resist the urge to reach out. Not the kind who scrawls desperate notes to a public defender , but the kind who composes — crafts, even — letters to famous strangers , as though the bars are merely a stylistic inconvenience. Luigi Mangione , the 27-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024, appears to be precisely that kind of prisoner. This past week, conservative podcaster Patrick Bet-David revealed that he has been exchanging letters with Mangione from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where the defendant is currently awaiting trial, scheduled for September 2026. Bet-David seemed genuinely surprised to find the le...

A Door Finally Opens:  You Can Now Reach Me After a year of broadcasting into the void, Zeros acquires an address — and the platform behind it is worth knowing. For nearly three hundred and sixty-five consecutive days, this blog has operated as a one-way transmission. No comments . No reply button. No inbox. Posts on digital asset faucets, pop music feuds, and the strange economics of the online gig economy went out into the ether and disappeared, as far as any reader interaction was concerned . That changes today. You can now reach me at zesticain@atomic.io — and the platform I chose to host that address is, in itself, a story worth telling. ✦  The Platform: What Atomic Mail Actually Is Atomic Mail is a privacy-first encrypted email service built on the premise that your communications are yours alone — not a data point to be harvested, analyzed, or sold . The architecture is deliberately zero-access: end-to-end encryption means that even Atomic's own engineers...

The lights go out. Not fade—snap. Arena dark. The kind of dark that makes you lean forward in your seat like something big is about to happen. And if you’ve been following the story of Blackpink , you already know: something always does. A single spotlight hits the center stage. It’s not all four. Not this time. Because the rumor—no, the announcement—has already rippled through the crowd like a bass drop: they’re breaking up . Not with drama, not with slammed doors, but with that polished, PR-perfect phrasing: “ pursuing solo projects .” The kind of sentence that sounds calm but lands like a steel chair to the back. Cue the montage. First up: Jennie . She steps into her solo era like a headliner who’s been waiting for the main event. The fan videos eat it up —edits of her walking through airports like runways, clips stitched together with that quiet confidence that says she’s not chasing the spotlight anymore. It’s chasing her. Then Lisa —high-energy, no brakes. Her solo c...

Digital Assets & Policy:  Three Words on a Doorstep When an Indianapolis councilman was targeted at home after backing a data center project, the note left behind said everything the national movement has been saying for years — just louder. Early Monday morning in Indianapolis, someone fired thirteen rounds into the front door of City-County Councilman Ron Gibson's home , then left a handwritten note on the doorstep. It read: NO DATA CENTERS . Gibson and his young son were not physically harmed. The FBI and Indiana's Department of Homeland Security are now assisting local investigators, who have characterized the attack as an isolated, targeted incident. There is no ambiguity about what this was: domestic terrorism, full stop . Violence against elected officials — or anyone — is indefensible, and the community groups opposing the Martindale-Brightwood data center were quick to say so themselves. But the note raises a question that cannot be dismissed alo...

There’s a certain kind of song you don’t want to like right away. You press play with mild skepticism, maybe even a little resistance, especially when it comes from artists you mentally filed under another era . And yet, here we are. Ever Since You Left Me by French Montana and Max B is exactly that kind of track— the one that sneaks past your defenses and sets up camp in your head before you can object. Let’s be honest: French Montana has always thrived in that melodic gray area between rapping and singing , a style that traces back to groups like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and carries through the radio-friendly instincts of artists like DJ Khaled and Pitbull . It’s rhythmic, it’s catchy, and if you’re not careful, it’s incredibly effective . On this track , he leans all the way in—floating across the beat with that familiar sing-song delivery that feels engineered for repetition. But the real curveball here is Max B. If you’re not familiar, you’re not alone. Yet somehow, h...

Digital Currency & Mining Policy:  Hawkins County Tried to Stop a Bitcoin Mine. Now They're Being Sued. Last week, we covered Washington County's five-year fight to shut down a noisy Bitcoin operation — a fight they eventually won through a 2023 lawsuit settlement that finally took effect. This week, we find out what happens when the county next door tries to head that problem off before it starts. The answer, predictably, is a federal lawsuit. Hawkins County commissioners voted 10-2 in September 2025 to ban cryptocurrency mining and data center operations outright, citing noise, power consumption, infrastructure burden, and what the resolution called an incompatibility with the county's rural character. Residents near the proposed site — within 1,000 feet of homes and a church — showed up in force. Dairy farmers raised specific concerns about noise affecting milk production in their herds. The vote was decisive. The room erupted in cheers. The cheering di...

If your YouTube feed has suddenly been overtaken by Dorian Electra , you’re not alone— and you’re probably a little confused . That’s okay. Confusion might actually be the point . Let’s start with the basics. Dorian Electra ( they/them pronouns are correct ) is an American pop artist born in 1992, which makes them in their early 30s— hardly a Gen Z newcomer, despite how futuristic everything sounds . They’re originally from Houston , and their career spans back further than you might expect, with early viral videos dating back to 2010.  But what you’re likely seeing now is the current version of Dorian Electra: theatrical, hyper-stylized , and unapologetically strange in a way that feels… deliberate . Their discography isn’t massive, but it’s focused. Three main studio albums define their evolution: Flamboyant (2019), My Agenda (2020), and Fanfare (2023). Each one leans further into a kind of maximalist pop— layers of synths, distorted vocals , and themes that swing...