Afternoon Tea 10.26.21 - Lucy In the Sky

Someone tried to blow away an Idaho mall, meditations on police corruption, the loudest voices calling for FB to change came from its employees, its effects were felt worst in the Global South, fictional influencers are a thing, and NASA launched a probe and named Lucy. It’s Tuesday, October 26th 2021, and this is your Tea. Today’s vibe combines triumphant power metal chords and a wildly enthusiastic Japanese frontman belting out rock lyrics and mispronouncing Dragon over and over. Soar above the clouds with a track that will make anyone who owned a PS3 weep.

‘We’ve got to run’ — Idaho mall shooting leaves 2 dead (AP) So, are we not even pretending to report on mass shootings anymore? Do a handful of deaths not stack up to the gigantic pyramid of American COVID bodies built up over the last two years?

In Louisiana, a father, a son and a culture of police abuse (AP) & How Do Bad Cops Stay in Power? Just Look at Miami. (Politico) & NYC Cops Log Millions of Overtime Hours. New Yorkers Don’t Feel Safer. (Bloomberg CityLab) If anyone has a theory on how to make PDs across the country actually obey the Mayor/Governor offices they serve, we’re all ears.

‘History Will Not Judge Us Kindly’ (The Atlantic) & Five points for anger, one for a ‘like’: How Facebook’s formula fostered rage and misinformation (Washington Post) & 5 things you should know about Facebook (Popular Info) & Bad News: Selling the Story of Disinformation (Harper’s Mag) The PopInfo piece is a good round up of the ~5 dozen distinct pieces of journalism out covering the Facebook Papers so far. The others here are reminders that: the calls of corruption were coming from inside the FB offices, all those people telling you different reactions and engagement styles mattered were absolutely right while FB lied through its teeth, and that mainstream media can’t wait for any opportunity to shit all over alternative media.

How to Deradicalize Extremists: Parents for Peace (BusinessWeek) Deradicalization, rehabilitation, even reintegration is possible, if we can get over our Puritanical obsession with sin, guilt, and punishment.

Apple once threatened Facebook ban Mideast maid abuse (AP) & How social media became a deadly trap for a minority group in Pakistan (RestOfWorld) & How Facebook Fails 90% of its Users (The Atlantic) FB failed hardest outside of the USA, with the US version of “Blue” actually being the least bad version. In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where FB grew boundlessly without having a support/moderation team that spoke the language, it was and still is, way worse.

An Empire of Dying Wells (Bloomberg Green) & Is Nuclear Power Our Best Bet Against Climate Change? (Boston Review) Two annoyingly accurate & thought provoking pieces on our sloth-paced energy system migration.

TikTok drives new nostalgia economy (Axios) & What’s the deal with fictional influencers? (Vox) Actual influencers weren’t jarring enough, so we now have fictional influencers. Fake people driving nostalgia for a time that never existed, for people who are only signaling interest. Philip K. Dick would be both impressed and weepy.

‘Taxi King’ Gene Friedman dead at 50 (NY Daily News) One of the people most responsible for the astronomical jumps in Medallion prices for decades pre-Uber, was found dead at 50. Given the similarly astronomical financial obligations he had and list of enemies he’d made, we’re going to watch this story closely.

Pro-Trump candidate has real shot at winning Brooklyn council seat: political sources (NY Post) Illustrating just how deeply weird the politics of this district are, both candidates have switched parties recently:

This NASA spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter’s mysterious asteroid swarms (MIT Tech Review) Lucy in the sky with diamond cutting tools for Jupiter’s asteroids!

Poem of the Tea: Given FB continuing to be in the news, and WeWork going public, shortening its name to “We”, this impression of Zuckerberg and Facebook by Michael James Levy is inspired. If there’s ever a video that deserved a click, it’s this.

That…wasn’t a joke.

Yours,