Afternoon Tea 3.15.2021 - Shims, Splints, and Solutions

Data visualizations, an accounting of COVID-19 skepticism & misinformation, Roblox goes public, India’s nationalists head to Koo, London police acting like American cops after one of their own is arrested for murder, and “when are you giving me grandchildren” is a global bust. It's Monday, March 15th 2021, and this is the Tea.

The Data Visualizations Behind COVID-19 skepticism (MIT) Far-right news sources on Facebook more “engaging” (Cybersecurity for Democracy) & No, Trump Doesn’t Deserve Credit for Planning Vaccine Distribution (Talking Points Memo) As the light at the end of the tunnel starts to brighten, we’re about to understand who made the last year so much worse than it had to be. Lies get halfway around the world before truth can put its pants on, as the saying goes.

Global Baby Drought of COVID-19 Crisis Risks Population Crunch (Bloomberg) That whole baby boom joke from early quarantine not only didn’t happen, but the baby bust accelerated across the planet. It’s almost as if people are having second thoughts about raising a child in a century of climate change and “Because Fuck You, That’s Why” domestic & foreign policy.

Everyone Who Has Called For Gov. Cuomo to Resign (NYMag) A running list for you.

Reflections & Lessons Learned From Roblox, After More than a Decade of Partnership (First Round) New York’s hottest stock is Roblox. It has everything, video games, in-app purchases, that weird thing where the bouncer has Gucci & Supreme branded face tattoos.

Far-right supporters move to open source to evade censorship (The Guardian) & How Koo became India’s Hindu nationalist-approved Twitter alternative (RestOfWorld) & The World Must Regulate Tech Before It’s Too Late (Foreign Policy) As the world finally reckons with tech maybe needing a touch of regulation, getting those laws nailed down around the world will need to happen before authoritarians and far right groups burrow into the shadows away from any global framework. (And if you’re interested in distorting the data trail you leave on platforms, this MIT Tech Review primer by Karen Hao is great.)

Sarah Everard disappearance: Met officer arrested on suspicion of murder (BBC News) & Met police criticised for ‘deeply disturbing’ handling of Clapham Common vigil (The Guardian) & Sarah Everard: Met Police chief will not resign over vigil scenes (BBC News) A woman named Sarah Everard looks to have been kidnapped and murdered by a UK cop. A vigil for Sarah was held at Clapham Common, and the UK Met police treated those people about as well as American cops treated BLM protesters back in June. Which is just a spectacular look for everyone involved in policing London town.

Mehdi Hasan Thinks There’s One Thing Journalists Should Be Biased About (Esquire) Mehdi Hasan is one of a handful of journalists I actively try to consume whenever I can. I couldn’t agree more that journalists should be strongly biased towards democracy and free elections.

Opinion: America is becoming more imperial than many empires were. That’s a mistake (Washington Post) & America’s Forever Wars Have Come Back Home (Foreign Policy) Giving up liberty for security results in neither. Also, I’ll share the Adama quote again:

More than 4,000 Migrant Children Detained Under CBP Custody in Jail-like Cells (Talking Points Memo) & Kids detained in overcrowded border facility are terrified, crying, and worried (CNN) The migrant surge that started in October, continues, with the numbers of migrant children in gov’t run tent cities piling up over and over. We can fix this, so let’s cut the crap Biden, get on it.

The internet didn’t kill counterculture - you just won’t find it on Instagram (Document Journal) Semi-long form read about how platforms have rewired what it means to be cool, to be counterculture, or to have sold out, in the era of Big Tech.

The Infinite Dial 2021 (Edison Research) 28% of the country’s population over the age of 12 now listen to podcasts weekly, with 62% of the US population over the age of 12 consume some form of audio online, weekly. And people wonder why they’ll need to take my headphone jack from my cold dead hands.

Song of the Tea: Caravan Palace mashed up with Eminem, specifically super early Slim Shady. Honestly, it’s so lovely and when we’re able to dance again, crazy stuff like this is going to be so wonderful.

Those cracks, that’s how the light comes in.

Yours,