Afternoon Tea 11.10.21 - Manufactured Virality

Google got hit by the EU, how corporate power raises prices, a Chinese-run mill in Serbia is spewing toxic red dust, South African kids are selling school wifi passwords, and while Meta is rushing to become less problematic, “Manufactured Virality” is a term we wish we’d never encountered. It's Wednesday, November 10th 2021, and this is your Tea. Today’s vibe is a bit of a twist, as the recent passing of Dean Stockwell put this monologue from Battlestar Galactica on our radar, and as the kids say, issa vibe.

Facebook Allows Stolen Content to Flourish, Its Researchers Warned (WSJ) & Meta plans to remove thousands of sensitive ad categories (NYT) Anyone using FB can tell you about how much of the most popular content you see on its feed, being either from other, hipper platforms, or straight up recycled from other pages/posts. And to the second item, we can’t wait for the first person to get a nazi ad in VR.

Google loses challenge against EU antitrust ruling, $2.8B fine (Reuters) Google notched a win and loss so far, as the EU looks to blow a gigantic hole in the Google/FB ad duopoly that the FB Papers unearthed.

U.S. consumer prices rise at fastest pace in 31 years as labor market tightens (Reuters) & US food banks struggle to feed hungry amid surging prices (AP) Just FYI, if your annual raise is less than 5.4%, inflation makes your raise an actual pay cut.

How concentrated corporate power makes inflation worse (Popular Info) Lots of morons will point to the problems in the supply chain or a lack of cheap labor as reasons for inflation. But as this article shows, it’s really just the leaders of companies not cutting margins, doing stock buy-backs, and pretending they deserve raises more than the workers they exposed to COVID.

Russia comes in from the cold, launches forest plan (AP) If the reverence Putin has for the deep Russian forests actually brings Russia to the table on climate change, we’ll take it.

Chinese-owned steel mill coats Serbian town in red dust; cancer spreads (Reuters) This mill should be destroyed violently, and everyone associated with this miasma of industrial run-off should be charged with murder. Does the EU have a sub-division of OSHA in the Hague?

Sudan court orders restoration of internet, but no sign of services returning (Reuters) & South African students are selling school Wi-Fi passwords for lunch money (RestOfWorld) The internet has been cut off in Sudan for a non-zero amount of time, even after a high court in Sudan ordered the coup leaders to turn it back on. Also, if you’re reading this on a device that isn’t paper, you might forget just how hard regular internet access is to come by. South Africans don’t need reminders.

Tuvalu looking at legal ways to be a state if it is submerged (Reuters) A haunting, gallows question for one of the first nations expected to disappear under the rising tides.

The iPhone 13 Screen is a Repair Nightmare That Could Destroy Repair Shops Forever (Motherboard) Replacing a screen on the latest iPhone requires micro-soldering and specialized skills so rare that the days of a $150 screen replacement might be gone forever.

Why Can’t People Teleport? (Wired) In case you were wondering, Wired explains why those transporters from Star Trek are a bit farther out than people think.

Poem of the Tea: This is just the first paragraph of the Mari Evans poem. Definitely worth the click to read the full thing.

We’ll be off for Armistice-turned-Veterans Day, catch y’all on the flip side of November.

Yours,