Feature not a bug

I live in the Caribbean. The depths of the head in the sandedness is astounding. The locals and tourists alike prefer plastic bottles over cans and glass. The staple snack here is frito-lay brand chips, and the regional past time is dropping your trash in front of each other and pretending not to notice. Single-use plastic is illegal, as is Styrofoam, but order takeout and see what you get. Yesterday was Valentine’s day, so today the roads and the beach are littered with the plastic you wrap around roses.

I expected the locals to be keyed in and doing anything to save their fragile ecology, but dammit if a $14 bag of doritos and a bottle of coke aren’t somehow better than the locally made snacks in paper bags and coconut water from the coconut.

Sorry for the sad rant. As a reader of Ranger Rick in the 80’s, I thought we’d have this locked by now. I underestimated the drive of short term profit.

…decisions we can reverse and people whose names and pitchfork sizes we can learn.

Oh, Corey my man. There’s only one you.

For me, if data tiktok collects is “bad” but same collection is being done by the government, and if the data they deal in can be easily obtained from any of countless legal data brokers, then the problem isn’t a single app the rage machine has been incited to hate.

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/07/29/banning-tiktok-will-accomplish-nothing-fix-our-broader-security-privacy-problems-instead/

Full disclosure: I don’t use tiktok, ex-twitter, FB, IG, SC or other corpo social media. I just look past the popular outrage to the main problem: lack of meaningful privacy legislation.

Your argument about the downsides of tiktok (attention span and laziness) applies to anything you want it to since the invention of books or recorded music (right through TV, video games rock & roll, cell phones…), which were also considered attention span suckers and conduits for evil.

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/27/body-cam-report-shows-fewer-agencies-are-allowing-cops-to-view-footage-before-making-statements/

Police unions and other sympathizers are doing as much as possible to limit public access to bodycam footage, but at least in some cases they are no longer allowing cops to watch the footage before they make their report on what happened.

Edit: clarity

Trading crime for crime.

you might be the wrong colour
you might be too poor
justice isn’t something just anyone can afford
you might not pull the trigger
you might be out in the car
and you might get a lethal injection
'cause we take a metaphor that far

Did anyone catch the slip during a speaking event where his attorney was in frame while he said they told the court that Mar-a-lago is worth $18M but it’s really worth $1.5B? That was a day or two before the jury determined the amount of damages award. She looked a little shocked and upset that he said that.

How amazing is it that while he is being tried for crimes, he doesn’t even stop criming in ways that prove the prosecutors’ cases for them? Proves he doesn’t even believe his defense that he didn’t break laws, just that he’s immune because of accidentally getting elected.

And don’t forget: Rapist fathers in some states have a “legitimate” claim to parental rights regarding the children born of their rape.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/in-7-us-states-rape-victims-can-be-legally-forced-to-share-custody-of-their-children-with-their-rapist-fathers

Fathers hate this one trick to avoid paying 30 shekkels for their daughters…

I am very pleased and impressed by South Africa doing what needed to be done. Now, please, please, world democratic leaders: do more!

But… But… TikTok bad!!

I wonder at that use as well, given the following:

Anthropogenic materials used as artificial shells by hermit crabs (n = 386). Plastic shells are the most widely used artificial shells (n = 326, 84.5 %), followed by metal (n = 22, 5.4 %), glass (n = 22, 5.4 %) and metal and glass (n = 18, 4.7 %)

But it remains a mystery why Google has not similarly blocked more the 240+ other domains at this same host, or else removed them from its search index entirely. Especially considering there is nothing else but these domains hosted at that Netherlands IP address, and because they have all remained at that address for the past year.

They get paid to leave them up. Mystery: solved.

🎵This land is my land, this land is …my land. 🎶

Because I have a piece of paper that cost me lots of pieces of paper, so get off my land so I get to work destroying our world for more pieces of paper.

Used to watch a lot of sailing channels. One popped up in my feed and I liked that they were essentially noobs, so they detailed their learning experience.

Then one day, they mentioned how they had homeschooled their kids back in Texas because something something trans people are evil.

Unsubbed and marked the channel “do not recommend” in SmartTube.

With some creators, I actively avoid knowing about them. My partner loves celeb gossip, and I don’t. They used to ask me things about my favorite musicians’ personal lives, and I always reminded them that I enjoy the music and I don’t want to know them. That’s harder to commit to these days.

Joss Whedon? I still love Firefly and Buffy and Dollhouse, but I’m pretty crushed that a hero of mine in the “strong female leads” department is such a POS to his actors.

I just finished a months-long movie marathon of our favorites, and we were saddened by how many of those movies are Miramax (Weinstein) productions. Sigh…

Can I get the Cliff’s notes version of KG’s awfulness? I don’t want to research and bring myself down

Here I was talking just yesterday about how my phone and data brokers have to guess when I’m in the bathroom, and if only there was a way that I could pay to share that private bodily function with them. Thanks, Flush! Sign me UP!

I have a persistent 12,500Hz ringing in my ears. Doesn’t bother me (yet), but I know some older folks that have issues sleeping because of it. Hope the research is productive!

(I used this app to find the tone I hear constantly)

Edit: typo