Afternoon Tea 10.27.21 - Hoverbikes

The FBI believes a major Point-of-Sale system was used for hacking at scale, NYC goes back to the polls next week, we might not need to rely on Xinjiang to build solar panels, NYC might get a drag laureate, a Japanese startup is selling hoverbikes, and a Taiwanese math teacher is rocking PornHub with SFW math lessons. It’s Wednesday, October 27th 2021, and this is your Tea. Today’s vibe from amazingly named Celestial Void, is one of the most powerful imaginings of the flux of emotional states a person with deep depression can feel. Who knew Big Room Psy-Step could even be a thing?

FBI Raids Chinese Point-of-Sale Giant PAX Technology (Krebs Security) & Iran says cyberattack causes widespread disruption at gas stations (Reuters) Hacking home computers might be increasingly out of vogue, given the recent spate of B2B and commercial infrastructure hacks. Don’t hack the person, hack the Chevron station they go to once a week.

Xinjiang and Polysilicon (Syncretica) While the numbers look semi-intimidating, migrating the entire solar panel supply chain away from Xinjiang isn’t as impossible as some might have thought.

Amazon’s “Delivery Premier League” gamifies gig work in India (RestOfWorld) Gamification of the gig economy will lead to workplace injury, exhaustion, and strap a warp core to the burn out rate of these Amazon “employees.”

‘Lawfare’ and the CIA’s drone war worries (AJZ) It’s one thing to joke that the CIA is monitoring you. It’s quite another to see your name on internal documentation.

The War Crimes Trials that Never Happened (Forever Wars) Would we have made the same mistakes in Iraq & Afghanistan, if we had war crimes tribunals after Vietnam?

Ownership Inequality in the Stock Market (Wealth of Common Sense) When your parents ask why you’ve not bought a house yet, remind them the top 10% of America owns 45% of the housing market. That’s right, the rest of us are battling over essentially half of the national housing stock.

NYC lawmakers push for Big Apple ‘drag laureate’ (NY Post) & What the Five Ballot Proposal Questions Mean for New Yorkers this November (TheCity) Voting again? Didn’t we just do that? Oh right, local stuff. Also, it’s like a poet laureate, but for vamping and intense eye make-up.

The Determined Math Tutor Teaching Math on PornHub (Mel Magazine) This guy for Education Secretary. You have to give the man some credit for this gumption.

Italian flight attendants strip off to protest working conditions (CNN Travel) Italian protests are nothing like protests anywhere else in the world.

Japanese startup unveils $680,000 hoverbike (Reuters Video) We have them now, real actual hoverbikes! Spend as much as a five bedroom McMansion in Houston, and you’ve got a bike that will kill you even faster than the Ducati your wife never lets you buy.

Poem of the Tea: Linda Gregg reminds us to go deeper into our choices.

Catch the last drops of sun as the chill takes us.

Yours,