Afternoon Tea 12.13.21 - Debris at 30k

Modern Slavery, Federal Raises, Excel Esports.

December 13, 2021

Tech companies refuse to name countries who they give data to, a bunch of workers on federal land are about to get a raise, mushrooms could reverse booze related brain damage, Excel E-Sports are a thing, and tornadoes put a non-trivial amount of a small town in Kentucky 30,000 feet in the air. (How to Donate) It’s Monday, December 13th 2021, and this is your Tea. Your Got-Through-Monday vibe is the electric guitar, electro-violin plus breakbeat tune you need when fighting fallen angels.

24 charged in modern day slavery operation in South Georgia (The Georgia Sun) There really are no words, but at least a bunch of agencies worked together to get these collars. For some people on this planet, the future is lethally similar to the past.

Tech Giants Won’t Name Foreign Companies They Give US ‘Bidstream’ Data To (Motherboard) Shocked face dot gif, but also we wonder how long they will be able to hold out from pesky contempt orders.

More than 80 feared dead after tornadoes hit central and southern US (CNN) & Thousands without heat, water after tornadoes kill dozens (AP) & Amazon driver died in bathroom sheltering from tornado with colleagues (Reuters) If you force your workers to stay in an unsheltered, poorly shielded warehouse, with a wild twister ripping towards you, you are the worst boss in existence. Give where you can, they need the help.

Hate speech in Myanmar continues to thrive on Facebook (AP) & What The ‘Facebook Papers’ Reveal About The Social Network’s Advertising Business (Forbes) The Forbes article is dense and boring, thereby very important for people to not pay attention to. The former is just…expected at this point.

The Inflation-Fighting Bill You Don’t Know About (American Prospect) & Raft guides, ski lift operators and thousands of other workers on federal land are set to have a $15 minimum wage starting next year (Salt Lake Tribune) Both of these are amazing, unqualified goods for the country. And neither are getting any press at all.

Recent Data Show Dominant Meat Processing Companies Are Taking Advantage of Market Power to Raise Wages and Grow Profit Margins (The White House) We generally don’t repost government messaging of any kind, but this rather pointed critique of the general fuckery the meat processing industry has been up to was too good to pass up.

Magic Mushroom Study Suggests Psilocybin May Reverse Alcohol-Induced Brain Damage (Inverse - Fully Study) Ahhh, so you take the mushrooms after college & years in consulting. Got it. But seriously, the study is no joke, and here is to hoping we can do something for people who need help.

‘Patriotic’ Singer Forgets the Words to National Anthem at QAnon Conference (Hill Reporter) Shocked dot gif for the third time in one email. Were having a case of the Mondays.

52 things I learned in 2021 (Tom Whitwell) Fantastic round-up that Tom does annually that we should totally copy.

Poem of the Tea: Vincent by Ashe Wilson is too long to reproduce here, but we encourage you strongly to take it all in here. One of the best bits:

Rest comes soon, have you built a place to hibernate? Can you allow yourself to slow down?

Yours,