Afternoon Tea 4.15.2021 - Trick Shots

Yang Gang is led by Tusk lobbyists who rep cops, Rick Perry repping mushrooms for veterans, Falun Gong repping Steve Bannon, Sega repping bad design choices, and the USA should give a visa to every single Afghan (and spouse/children) who helped us during our 20 year War Against A Human Emotion. It’s Thursday, April 15th 2021, and this is the Tea.

The US Must Help Afghans Who Helped It (The Diplomat) I don’t understand why this is even being discussed. If Afghans helped Americans during the massive boondoggle that is the War in Afghanistan, they should be allowed to follow us home and have that American Dream we went on about while we were there. With almost 20,000 Special Immigrant Visa candidates waiting, make with the “Land of the Free, Home of those Specific Brave.”

Rick Perry returns to the Texas Capitol to pitch study of psychedelic drugs for PTSD in veterans (Texas Tribune) I’m glad that psilocybin for PTSD is gaining traction even in strongholds like Texas, can’t say I expected to hear Rick Perry championing it. Between him & Boehner, 2021 drug pushers are definitely fitting a description.

NFTs Weren’t Supposed to End Like This (The Atlantic) I had no idea Anil Dash was associated with NFTs. This is a great read in one of my favorite flavors of tech writing “oh my God, you people fucked it all up.”

Falun Gong, Steve Bannon And The Trump-Era Battle Over Internet Freedom (NPR) The relationship between the Falun Gong, Epoch Times, Steve Bannon, and human rights watch persecution is something I don’t quite understand, but will eagerly watch the Netflix documentary on. (Source for below comic - SMBC)

William Carlos Williams Tries To Reach His Word Count (McSweeney’s) & The Only Possible Poems (McSweeney’s) Because you can always use McSweeney’s in your day.

Sega, You Might Want To Choose A Different Font (Kotaku) I don’t usually like to call out bad font or design because I have just utterly terrible senses of how to use visual space. But, even I can maybe make a suggestion or two on this:

Andrew Yang’s mayoral campaign is being run by a lobbying firm (City & State NY) The people behind Yang4Mayor are Tusk Strategies employees. This lobbying firm represents the NYC Police Benevolent Association, among others. I wonder if cops will get preferential treatment and access to a mayor whose campaign managers are employees of the firm that lobbies on their behalf.

Google Is Poisoning Its Reputation With AI Researchers (The Verge) & Black women, AI, and overcoming historical patterns of abuse (VentureBeat) It’s not just the firing of Timnit Gebru, PhD. but that was a particularly egregious example. This Venture Beat review of The Abuse and Misogynoir Playbook is deeply important for technical leaders who care about understanding what working as a minority can be like.

Discord, a Platform Rife With Violent Extremist Content, Cracks Down on [Checks Notes] Erotic Furry Art (Rolling Stone) Chief Wiggum Voice: “Great work boys!” Also I love that ::checks notes:: is now just a convention we’re all vaguely aware of.

Golf is facing an existential crisis (Wired UK) Course designers vs. better gear, improved form, and stronger players! Who expected golf course arms races in 2021? Also, bring back the Trick Shot reality show on European Tour Originals:

Song of the Tea: Rounding out the week of re-imaginings, one of my all time favorites from Prince Fox. The Middle really is quite a positive motivating song if you take a minute to listen to it.

If the muddy water gets a chance to stop sloshing around, eventually the dirt settles at the bottom, and the light gets through.

Yours,