Afternoon Tea 1.22.25 - Kiss the Volcanic Ring

So many stupid things this week, a few were replaced with interesting viewpoints and clever reporting. It might help the slog. Keep moving, keep warm, keep grooving, keep it swarm. They can’t stop us all right? Get to the end for a Mr. Tout Le Monde remix.

California vs Texas Minimum Wage, 2013-2024 (Big Picture - Invictus) Invictus dug in, with help from some data visualization guys. There’s a really important story here, given CA & TX maintained similar employment numbers, while Cali tripled its wage. Anyone who says minimum wage spikes hurt employment now have a direct case they can read when shutting the hell up.

A Practical Program for Resisting a Trump Second Term (Liberal Currents) Presented without comment.

Trump Admin Accused of Using AI to Draft Executive Orders (Futurism) It’s not a history final, it’s the law of the land. Can someone at least copy edit the Executive Orders before they are entered into the Federal Register? Just once? Anyone? Bueller?

Mayor Adams agrees to not publicly criticize Trump as Day One executive orders rock NYC, nation (Daily News) Is anyone surprised? He legit went to kiss the ring and agreed not to talk shit. Who else is Mayor Adams going to suck up this year? Diddy? Drake?

What to know about Rednote/Little Red Book (Rest of World) & Information Manipulation on TikTok and its Relation to American Users’ Beliefs about China (PDF - Rutgers Dept. of Psychology) Driving millions of Americans from a China-adjacent to China-direct social network is incredible. So many people went to Rednote that China had to rush thousands of English-speaking moderators into the system to clamp down on Americans talking about restricted topics. Also, in case you weren’t sure, we have done research on pro/anti China views & media saturation on TikTok and…it’s not great y’all. You’re as likely to find China-dissenting content on Tiktok as you are to find Israel-dissenting content on Instagram. It’s there…but it’s 20-1 and all of that.

TikTok’s Billion Dollar Secret That Wasn’t (Mobile Dev Memo) People outside of digital marketing had no idea where TikTok came from. Everyone in my sector saw TikTok spend a literal Billion dollars on paid ads across every social network you’ve ever heard of. The kings ransom that was spent on marketing TikTok, Shein, and now Temu, is the unspoken secret of “Going Viral.”

Walgreens Replaced Fridge Doors With Smart Screens. It’s Now a $200 Million Fiasco (Bloomberg) A lovely story about tech no one wanted, blowing up in a way that only hurts the parties that deserved it more than anyone. A fun story if you evade the paywall.

What killed the dinosaurs? It may not have been a meteorite that delivered the deadly blow, say scientists (Discover Wildlife) I was insufferable as a child when news of the meteor killing the dinosaurs broke. Turns out I might have been one of the first victims of fake news of my generation.

In line to be over (and other shells I put in an orange) A lovely deconstruction of a stupid tech billboard in San Francisco. What does in mean to be over? What does it mean to be back? What do those phrases mean in the context of $1 trillion in AI investing? What does all of that mean to the Bay Area? Fascinating.

Quote of the week

Within every back is an over; within every over is a back.
~Max Read

Poem of the week

Vibe of the week

I am absolutely still doing this bit. Apashe’s used the classical music from The Matrix soundtrack, and it’s been remixed by ::checks notes:: how-you-say Mr. All The World in French? It’s a sweet, symphonic, spectacle. Sip it and savor.

Keep shivering, it’ll keep you warm,
tnh