WWonderings 1.17.24 - COBOL & Comoros

Might abbreviate to WWonderings in the future, but if the Afternoon Tea name was great, let us know in the comments and we’ll switch back! And now, on with the show!

China’s population drops for the second straight year (AP) Seems the One Child Policy worked beyond even the wildest nightmares of the CPP, with the population dropping by 2 million in the last year. With metrics like this, a few estimates put China’s 2100 population at 800 million, a drop of almost 600 million people.

Mississippi slaughterhouse is directly responsible for death of migrant teen who was sucked into machinery, OSHA says (NBC News) & Child Labor Violations Up 50% in 2023 Amid Federal Crackdown (Bloomberg Law) These child labor laws aren’t being pushed because white libertarians want Brayden to get a job at Hot Topic when he’s only 15. It’s so the teenaged children of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugee families can be pressed into meatpacking plants, farming work, and fast food franchises that recently had to award a higher minimum wage to their US citizen employees.

Inmate's organs, including brain, missing from decomposing body; second case revealed (ABC 33/40) & Families in disbelief after hundreds of bodies found buried behind Mississippi jail (PBS News Hour) If you told me that my child was killed by the police, and they took all of his organs before I was notified, there would be nowhere safe on earth for those responsible. Both of these stories should be frontpage, multi-day exposes by every news source you’ve ever heard of. Congress needs to drag Alabama and Mississippi law enforcement leaders into a hearing and grill them for 3x as long as the Ivy university professors were grilled by GOP virtue signalers.

A former gang leader charged in the killing of Tupac Shakur is granted $750,000 bail and house arrest (AP) Wait, for real? Did they just pin this on someone who was willing to cop to it to go home? Or is there some dedicated cop who has been working this case since the shiny suit era of hip hop?

It's Time to Nationalize and Then Break Up Boeing (Matt Stoller) & How Boeing's managerial revolution created the 737 MAX disaster (New Republic - 2019) Given Boeing’s proximity to the defense industry, I really don’t think there’s an argument for the firm getting to continue to exist. It’s fighting regulators in multiple countries that have grounded two planes, and its management structure makes the company a remora on the underbelly of the Pentagon. Given how many we already have, might as well use the fuck ups of Boeing to grind it off of our soft tissue.

Comoros holds presidential election, opposition say vote had irregularities (Reuters) & Ex-coup leader Azali Assoumani wins re-election in disputed Comoros presidential vote (France24) Had anyone out there heard of Comoros before? Anyone? Cause I certainly hadn’t.

The great Medicare Advantage marketing scam (Healthcare UnCovered) Medicare Advantage is never a thing your family or older friends should trust. Ever. If you want to understand why it is the worst thing to happen to healthcare since HMOs, this newsletter is terribly sobering.

Researchers Ask Why Regret is So Rare for Trans Patients, What Can Be Learned (Assigned Media - JAMA Article) Post-surgical remorse is one of those medical research metrics that most people don’t think about, while a handful of clinical administrators and researchers agonize over. Trans surgery recipients regret their procedures so rarely, those researchers want to see if they can make the entire informed consent process better, by learning from that.

The World Depends on 60-Year-Old Code No One Knows Anymore (PC Mag) The plot of Fight Club shouldn’t have had Ed Norton & Brad Pitt try to blow up a credit card company. If Project Mayhem went after the couple of hundred actually good/experienced COBOL developers out there, they could have brought the global banking system to its knees. Come to think of it, you probably still could, as Watson is 100% not going to be able to replace these guys, or even be able to fix all the bugs it finds.

In/Out Lists Are So In Right Now (PassionFruit) If you squint, you can see those old Up/Down image meme lists from proto-VICE and Sartorialist-era blogs. Can’t wait for the next class of research firms that aggregate this stuff back into market intel reports.

Quote of the week

“Again we have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifices. Capitalism was built on the exploitation of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, both black and white, both here and abroad.” ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, The Three Evils (1967)

Poem of the week

Vibe of the week

Missy Elliott and Dad-form Skrillex teamed up with Mr. Oizo (yes, the puppet video guy) to put out something good, and KREAM pushed it into the realm of great. This post-step sub-bass track that manages to bully and surprise. I really didn’t want to like this, but it certifiably slaps.

Be a more supportive friend, and a more threatening, menacing enemy in 2024.

Keep your head up,tn