Afternoon Tea 5.26.21 - Third Thumb Learning

Influencer mobs for hire proliferate across the planet, Bond is becoming an Amazon Princess, that idiot you know complaining about unemployment is ignoring 5 decades of wage data, there’s a mouse plague in Australia, airships might be coming back, and humans are shockingly good at learning how to use a third thumb. It's Wednesday, May 26th 2021, here are some pictures of the Hyper Flower Blood Moon Combo Finish and this is your Tea. We will be off tomorrow, and back on Tuesday, June 1st. In observance of the general sense of continuing exhaustion.

Influencers say Russia-linked PR agency asked them to disparage Pfizer vaccine (Guardian) & Why Do A Bunch Of Nigerian Twitter Influencers Want This Alleged Money Launderer To Go Free? They’re Being Paid. (BuzzFeed.News) & This is how they manipulate the networks in Colombia: Investigation (LaFM.Colombia) After getting more details on the story yesterday, I saw some chatter about how this is becoming a standard tactic. It looks like the “use astroturfed legion of morons to distort public sentiment” isn’t just for electioneering anymore. With stories out Colombia & Nigeria just this week, it looks like for-hire internet mobs are not going away. As the Oldfags (Editor’s Note: Please don’t cancel our writer as a pre-Pride sacrifice. Not only is it a real term, it’s one homophobic people used to describe themselves) on 4chan used to say “It’s an army, it’s just not your personal army.”

Campus Cancel Culture Freakouts Obscure the Power of University Boards (Teen Vogue) & It’s Never About Fairness (Defector) The people who are hurt, truly hurt by “cancel culture” usually don’t have the resources to fight bad faith campaigns against them, while those with power break buckets of rules with impunity.

Complaints about a labor shortage ignore 5 decades of declining wages (Business Insider) If you think that wages have been growing too quickly over the last six months, then you’re probably ignoring the last five decades of the % of America’s Gross Domestic Product that’s driven by wage/salary spend.

Australia mouse plagued MAPPED: Horrific plague sees mice ‘rain from sky’ (Express) Yesterday, the coal plant explosion, today, mice rain down from infested machinery and are engaged in Biblical levels of crop destruction. I feel like UBI should start in Australia, because you really do deserve daily compensation for coping with this insanity.

Airships for city hops could cut flying’s CO2 emissions by 90% (Guardian) Hindenburg not withstanding, if the a company in the EU can find a way to get people into the air without using Ryannair, the European equivalent of Spirit, they’ll make billions. I’d take a zeppelin to Chicago, Philly, Baltimore, or DC, if they made the trip leisurely and interesting enough. And not just because I’d video chat everyone I know while wearing a top hat and a monocle.

Mergers & Acquisitions (Hollywood Forever) This is the best commentary I’ve seen on the MGM sale to Amazon. Chicken Little reactions aside, Max Fischer makes a startlingly good point I’ve not seen anywhere else:

Given that Star Wars was purchased for $4 billion by Disney, who then turned it into $1.8 billion in movie sales alone, the calculus seems to support the franchises being low-balled.

Robotic ‘Third Thumb’ use can alter brain representation of the hand (UCL) If you get an extra digit, if you’re able to control it, over time, humans get pretty good at using it. This study is a powerful example of how the brain both sees tools as an extension of our bodies, but is also surprisingly elastic when it comes to adding new features. We care capable of such leaps in capabilities and thinking.

These Are the Places Ranked Best for Expats in 2021 (Bloomberg Wealth) It’s telling that the USA isn’t even the Top 10 of places people with skills and mobility want to work from. Like how people who say America is the greatest place in the world hasn’t traveled at all.

Salts Could Be Important Piece of Martian Organic Puzzle, NASA Scientists Find (NASA) Martian Bath Salts might be the key to detecting evidence of life. Don’t snort them.

Facebook Said It Would Stop Recommending Anti-Vaccine Groups. It Didn’t (The Markup) I’ve refilled my stores of “Shocked” reactions for the new year! Now customized for all my shitposting needs.

Song of the Tea: To send us off on a high note, Starjunk95 is a fictional radio spaceship broadcasting in Starjunk City, and this is their new hit “City Girl.” So turn this on and rollerskate into the surprisingly potent Chibi Electrobass.

Make sure to get some rest this weekend, hug your vaccinated friends, and try to move to your own beat for five minutes. Catch you on the flip side.

Yours,