Afternoon Tea 8.9.21 - Injunction Junction

Tokyo hid a Lambda case before the Olympics, Norwegian won the fight against Florida for the right to mandate vaccines, Colombia has a mercenary industry, no one remembers the seat belt debate, and Dixie Fire is not the new hip dance for the Roaring Neo-20’s. It’s Monday, August 9th 2021, and this is your Tea. (Today’s Vibe is brought to you by Edinburgh Council, who deliver some moody/lovely lo-fi hip hop, garage, and broken downtempo.) 

Tokyo Covered Up Arrival of Deadly New COVID Variant Just Before the Olympics (Daily Beast) This is just shameful. The IOC is one of the most corrupt organizations in the world, and we’ve still not been told why the Olympics needs to be in different cities every time they have it. Is there a reason the IOC doesn’t have permanent Olympic infrastructure for the Winter & Summer games? Is that reason Harkonnen-level grift?

Norwegian Cruise Wins Order Protecting Vaccines Requirement (Bloomberg) The fact that a private company had to go to court and demand the right to mandate vaccines, against a state government, is equal parts bleak and hilarious.

Fire Threatens Second California Town as Heat Stokes Flames (Bloomberg) At what point will some part of the West’s forested areas just always be on fire? Like the Tire Fire in Springfield (or for those few weeks years back in Baltimore.) The .gif below illustrates how fast it’s spread & where it’s been contained so far.

Behind the Haiti Assassination, Colombia’s Growing Mercenary Industry (New York Times) Oh great, nations we fucked up now breed both terrorism and mercenaries for hire. Great job everyone!

McChrystal: ‘Impossible to Argue’ War on Terror Was Worth It (Daily Beast) Semi-related. Our war on a feeling cost so much and did so little good. The mind reels when the numbers are put into perspective. Spencer Ackerman’s new book is going to make people livid.

A group of doctors, medical students seeks to prohibit Boston’s hospital chiefs from working on corporate boards (Boston Globe) While we have no faith this will actually get put on the books, it’s a fantastic idea. At some point you really do need to choose who you’re working for.

A Black realtor was showing a home to a Black father and son. They were handcuffed by Michigan police (CNN) & ‘That isn’t how fentanyl works’: Police criticized for ‘copaganda’ video of officer’s accidental overdose (Daily Dot) Abuse of authority, exhibits 43,986 & 43,987 your honor.

Creators can now monetize their expertise on Quora (TechCrunch) & 2021 Influencer Compensation Report (Intellifluence) & Influencer Marketing: The Value Investing Approach (BG) This isn’t exactly news, but feels valuable and illuminating. Ever wonder how much that sponsored post on IG or mini-commercial on YT costs? The Report from Intellifluence has you. Do you buy this stuff? The Value Investing Approach idea (invest in the market, not the stock) is actually pretty forward thinking.

How TikTok’s algorithm works (9to5Mac) This isn’t a comprehensive evaluation or the true secret sauce of TikTok, but this also isn’t the first time WSJ people have been overconfident in their research. The focus isn’t just on watch time, but also hearts, comments, repeat views, and most interestingly, messaging & off-platform shares. TikTok is the only platform that creates a shareable URL with the person who shared it attached. This allows those who share a lot, to get notifications when those they shared it with watch the tiktok. Even if they shared it on a different platform, which no other platform does at all.

Before face masks, Americans went to war against seat belts (Insider) While Gen Z and younger millennials won’t remember this, the whole mask debate mirrors the seatbelt “you won’t take away my freedom to cruise” shit that went out a generation ago. Time is a flat circle.

Poem of the Tea: Looking to Ada Limón, who reminds us what it is like to look back.

You rarely notice you’re living through the times you’ll always remember.

Yours,