Afternoon Tea 7.27.21 - Antilibrary

A Texan set a home on fire because people inside didn’t believe in the Bible, the first Hong Kong citizen accused of secessionism was found guilty, burner phones are coming back into vogue, a shark bite was reported on Jones Beach, why you should build an antilibrary, and a Parkland shooting survivor told it didn’t happen, by his father. It’s Tuesday, July 27th 2021, and this is your Tea.

I’m a Parkland Shooting Survivor. QAnon Convinced My Dad It Was All a Hoax. Vice When we talk about the aggregate damage of digital ops and the fog of info war smoke, it’s not just anti-vaxx. The incremental effect of birther, jade helm, HAARP, Pizzagate, anti-Semitic lizard nonsense and the rest of the bilge, is exactly this. A father telling his own son he’s making up the mass shooting he was IN.

AFFIDAVIT: Suspect set house on fire because family didn’t follow Bible KTSM El Paso Freedom of religion is also Freedom FROM religion.

First person tried under Hong Kong security law found guilty Associated Press Great, the first person to be tried for secessionism was found guilty. Lovely.

Toyota is quietly pushing Congress to slow the shift to electric vehicles The Verge Hey Toyota, we know innovation is hard, but gird your loins (sack up in Aramaic) and play ball. Or close up shop. Don’t try to lean on Biden and Congress to change the rules. That’s not very cash money of you.

How Zello keeps people connected during South Africa’s unrest MIT Technology Review & Revealed: walkie-talkie app Zello hosted far-right groups who stormed Capitol The Guardian (Jan 2021) Zello & other short-comm walkie-talkie apps always felt like a thing urban Americans never used. If you have friends who drive around or work outside, they’re amazing and the comms are very not indexed by Google.

Pink offers to pay fine issued to Norway's beach handball players for not wearing bikini bottoms ABC AU & Tokyo 2020: Germany gymnasts protest with full-body leotards DW Demanding women take clothes off is exactly as puritanical as demanding women put clothes on. Shut your whole ass up and let humans compete in whatever outfits they want that don’t give them an unfair advantage. If some handball player decides to wear a fur coat and then gets the Gold, give them two medals.

German lawyers wrangle over pensioner's WW2 tank in basement BBC News Europe variety stories get so odd at times. We can’t get enough of this stuff.

Burner phones, fake sources and ‘evil twin’ attacks: journalism in the surveillance age The Guardian Seems as if those old school, analog tricks are coming back into play. The digital panopticon is very good, but it can’t quite read non-grid sources yet.

Jones Beach lifeguard reports being bitten by shark Newsday Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water… (Editor’s Note: Writer was beaten with a carp for that.) 

Building an antilibrary: the power of unread books Ness Labs I can already hear the spouses of dozens of readers sighing at the arguments this article will empower. But the point is excellent:

If Umberto Eco, Nassim Taleb, and every book person I know agree on something, it can’t be 100% false, can it?

Song of the Tea: The cultural shift from phones in rooms to mobiles to smart phones, to SMS, DM, and FaceTime, is still catching up with the way people date. Those loving & losing in this era are using language and motifs very different than the music of even 2005 or 1995. Remember when the internet was a place you spent a little bit of a day?

When you say “leaving me on read,” is read spoken/pronounced like bread or lead?

Yours,