Afternoon Tea 4.6.2021 - Robots Made Me Do It

The NYPD blatantly lied about partnering with facial-recognition startup Clearwater AI F-35 fighter jet managed to injure itself to the tune of $2.5 million in repair bills, robots are more persuasive than you think, McDonalds & Denny’s are down for $15, and my favorite new phrase is “Regulatory Piñata” It’s Tuesday, April 6th 2021, and this is the Tea.

One of America’s $135.8 Million Fighter Jets Shot Itself (VICE) The F-35 managed to inflict $2.5 million worth of damage on itself! An armor piercing explosive round in the chamber of an externally mounted gatling gun blew up and messed up the hull. It’s like stop hitting yourself, but it costs a little under the cost of a M1A2 Abrams tank.

The NYPD Has Misled The Public About Its Use Of Facial Recognition Tool Clearview AI (BuzzFeed.News) Remember that whole “If you ask a cop if they’re a cop they can’t lie to you” thing? And how that turned out to be wrong? Yea, that all the way up.

Goaded by a Robot, Students Took Greater Risk Than They Otherwise Would (Wall Street Journal) When studying psychology, there’s an entire raft of experiments on college kids to show that subtle-through-overt-to-hostile urging can get people to do stuff they “would never.” Now, we’re gonna do them all over with robots! Now back to everyone pretending that behavioral nudges & marketing doesn’t work on them.

McDonald's, Other CEOs Tell Investors $15 Minimum Wage Won't Hurt Business (Newsweek) When the CEO of McDonald’s, Denny’s, and Domino’s are down for it, let’s get out of the way and get these workers a non-feudal minimum wage.

Archegos Capital Blowup Could Crack Open a ‘Regulatory Piñata’ (Institutional Investor) & Purposeless Capital (The Big Picture) Much of the destruction Archegos Capital and related market hilarity caused last week could have been prevented Hwang was treated as the same radioactive element he was in 2018. What is the point of going out on this much leverage, just accumulating ludicrous amounts of capital? “Smaug” is not a career choice.

Worker-Owned Businesses Are Having a Moment (Bloomberg) Co-ops definitely deserve your attention, whether you’re a small business owner or working in big corporate.

The Hosts Battling to Be Fox News’ Next Tucker Carlson (Slate) While Bartiromo is the favorite, I wouldn’t sleep on Trey in this terrible Game of Fake News Thrones.

Governors Island’s Future Is Now (Gotham Gazette) This piece by the Executive Director of the Friends of Governor’s Island is quite exciting. There’s so much that can be done with that space besides throwing the Summer Raves or the odd Halloween party that gets shuttered by the FDNY.

Counter-Strike Match-Fixing Is So Bad The FBI Is Getting Involved (Kotaku) Match-fixing is so much easier to do online vs. in the NFL or something. And as betting moves online, so will regulation, compliance, and the uncovering of hilarious levels of grift.

Crowley police coax live AK-47 rifle away from distressed 10-year-old child (KLFY) Crystalline instance of American late stage tragedy out of Louisiana, involving an overdose in a Dairy Queen parking lot, four kids in the back seat, cops, two handguns, and an assault rifle with the safety off in the hands of a child.

Song of the Tea: Ce matin-là, on Air’s seminal 1998 album Moon Safari, is exactly the feeling of this week’s clear sky and mild defrost setting.

Enjoy the space trombones and relax your shoulders.

Yours,