Hello, friends and enemies. It’s a three-day weekend! I personally believe that all weekends should have at least three days but I shall savor the ones I get anyway. Something fun to start: I’ve started juggling a little bit again. I’ve been following a few jugglers on instagram and thinking about how fun it looks, even though the parts I used to enjoy most were juggling with other people. I got some balls out of the garage and have been trying out a few tricks. I’ve forgotten so many but fortunately jugglers are on the internet and maintaining old websites (in internet terms) for us to learn from. I never forgot how to juggle but I am not as smooth as I once was and I don’t have very many tricks in my repertoire. However, I’m finding it much easier to juggle and learn tricks than I used to, I think because I got my binocular vision dysfunction addressed. Wow, those disabilities will really disable you if left untreated, huh? I’ve been putting on music and practicing a little when I’m bored in the afternoon or feeling a little stressed. People say you should go on a walk to chill out. I don’t want to go on a walk. It’s hot outside. So, for now, juggling.
Current Events
Merchandising the Genocide
It’s apparently not enough for the government to defund basically everything and start building concentration camps. The concentration camp has a stupid name and they’re selling merchandise about it. I think it’s fairly clear that the whole point of the prison, which they are glibly calling “Alligator Alcatraz,” is a place for people to die. I know this because right-wing assholes are out here on the internet chuckling about how the alligators are going to be eating well. They are not keeping their racist fantasies to themselves. They are sharing them because they don’t think we can do anything about it.
Speaking of dying, the “Big Beautiful Bill” is cutting nearly a trillion dollars from Medicaid. First, let me sincerely say: fuck everyone who voted for this. Millions of people are going to lose coverage and there will be many preventable deaths. Many hospitals will close. I am not trying to victim-blame, but this makes me return to the idea of literacy in this country. A study last year that a lot of people have negative associations with “Medicaid” but like their state version of Medicaid that probably goes by a different name. For example, in California it’s called MediCal and other states have goofy names like SoonerCare (Oklahoma) or Apple Health (Washington). Too many people are operating on vibes and emotions (curated by propaganda) instead of reading how something will actually affect them. Probably because more than half of American adults are reading below a sixth-grade level. Imagine your average 11-year-old and their level of information literacy. That’s what we’re working with. This is why people hate “Medicare” but love “Medical,” or why people hate “Obamacare” but love the Affordable Care Act. Again, I don’t think it’s the public’s fault that we are now facing huge cuts to Medicare (good luck to anyone trying to pay for a nursing home now, by the way). I think we are being taken advantage of by corrupt politicians who do things like sell off stocks related to legislation they’re about to vote on (this should be illegal). I’m mad that we are removing funds for essential services that keep people alive so we can do stupid things like increase ICE’s budget from $8 billion to $100 billion for the next four years. We could cancel one-tenth of student debt instead and I guarantee it would improve people’s lives way more than this. I’m so fucking mad about all of this and upset that I’m living and paying taxes in a country that only wants to spend money on the worst possible shit.
Our Data Ourselves
I’ve recently been mulling over the concept of data and, specifically, how much our data seems to be worth versus how little we as individuals are getting in return and some of the things that led us here. I was thinking about early Facebook and how, when the social network was young, it was mostly a place where users filled in information about themselves to let everyone know who they were and what they were about. Here’s an example of an early Facebook page. It has the user’s name, school, birthday, and a whole lists of interests. This isn’t unique to Facebook either; it’s just what we did on the internet then. We put information about ourselves online and hoped like-minded people would find us to talk. Ten years later, Cambridge Analytica used data scraped from 50 million users to target voters, which “played a decisive role in U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory.” Users gave that information to Facebook freely, or maybe more accurately, put that information online as a bid for companionship without thinking about “giving” it to Facebook, and in return Mark Zuckerberg is a billionaire from selling that very same information to causes that interfere in elections.
I’m far from the first to make this point about users not getting anything out of the apparent wealth that their data generates. I’m sure my thoughts here have also been influenced by Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, which I read in 2020 (I thought it was just a few years ago but I checked my records and nope. Five whole years ago). Now we have an additional layer to corporations profiting off of what Zuboff refers to as “behavior surplus”—in which companies “[claim] private experience as ‘raw material’ for data factories”—with the arrival of large language models (LLMs. Note I am being pedantic here because the “AI” products we have are just glorified auto-complete machines. They are not intelligent. They recognize patterns). OpenAI, for example, is valued at $300 billion, which is insane. But all the data they used to create the model is stolen. It’s stolen from us and everything we’ve ever put online and it’s stolen from authors who had their works fed into databases without their permission. We all made that, but the people at OpenAI are billionaires are the only ones reaping the profits. But, you know, asking “for artist consent would ‘basically kill’ the AI industry.” Now OpenAI has been “awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools.” It’s not enough that AI firms have stolen our data, they are now also getting our tax money to find better ways to murder people (I assume).
It just sucks that the internet has the potential to be so cool and we’re wasting it on something as stupid as LLMs. Reddit, which has been acknowledged as one of the last holdouts where you can find opinions from real people online, is launching a new ad feature that “‘dynamically integrates positive content from Reddit users directly below an advertiser’s [content].'” I guarantee those Reddit users did not make those comments to provide free ad copy but here we are. Even if that is buried somewhere in Reddit’s terms and conditions, I would argue that no one would say yest to this specific thing on purpose. Advertising is such big business yet they want to co-opt things people say online? For free? What a trash heap. Even the way we search for information online is getting sucked up by AI garbage. Actual website traffic has tanked because people don’t navigate past the google search page anymore. Google lifts information from other people’s websites and reposts it in the search results. The game is definitely rigged because Google spent years rewriting the rules of the web so people could get revenue from google ads. Now Google has pulled the rug out from under people and is keeping all that delicious ad revenue for itself.
I’m not certain I’m adding anything new to this discourse but I thank you all for coming along for the ride as I sort it out for myself. I think we all have to get a lot more careful about what we share online and how we share it (I say as I write on my public website on the internet), especially as this fascist police state heats up. We all crave human connection and it’s fun to share online! You never know who is going to find you and what weird things you might have in common. I love sharing stuff on my blog because my friends talk to me about it and I learn new things from you in response. I’m probably going to revisit this topic again in the near future. I think there’s a lot more to say here about our data and how it intersects with this strain of evil technology with shit like Palantir and it’s database for tracking immigrants, especially related to the giant budget that congress just awarded to ICE.
Books and Other Words
This week’s book that will depress you and make you mad was There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone. In this book, Goldstone follows four women with precarious living situations in Atlanta as they struggle to hold their lives together over the course of several years. The story sheds light on the many people in limbo between what the government officially considers “homeless,” that is, living on the street without a car or any kind of shelter, and people who are effectively homeless but are making do living in their cars, crashing on friends and families’ living room couches, or living out of extended-stay hotels. The book is tough to read at times because these families keep trying to make choices to get out of exploitative living situations, but the system is so clearly stacked against them, that they keep failing. Gladstone notes times when some of these women wondered if it was their fault or they were doing something wrong. But what are people supposed to do when they finally get approved for a Section 8 housing voucher and no landlord will accept it? When it costs $50 just to apply to rent an apartment (savvy readers may note there is no actual incentive for a landlord to rent an apartment when they can just keep charging applicants $50 and then denying the applications)? When you finally find an affordable apartment but the owner sells the whole complex six months later and it gets razed to make room for luxury condos? How is someone making $11 per hour supposed to send one or more kids to daycare so they can work and then have any money left over for rent or food? These families aren’t lazy, they’re trying to work and use the support available, but there is very little on offer for people who aren’t sleeping in a tent outside, which is of course something people are doing everything they can to avoid. To go full socialist about it: housing should be a public good. If people can make a profit from owning a place to live, they are going to keep profiting and kicking out residence who don’t pay much in rent to make room for those who will. It’s awful that there are so many rich people in this country while we have so many people—including millions of children—who can’t afford to live. To take it a step further, the reason we have so many obscenely rich people is exactly because of this type of exploitation. As Gladstone shows in the book, the people who own the extended stay hotels know exactly how disgusting they are and they know who’s living there. In one scene, the hotel manager says they’re going to paint over mold in a room. Would it really cost that much more to just clean it? Landlords are taking so much money from people struggling to get by and giving them next to nothing in return. This country is sick.
Meanwhile, on the internet:
- The Art of the Shakedown via The Present Age. Trump is filing frivolous lawsuits that everyone knows he would lose against media outlets. However, media outlets are paying him millions to settle rather than get tied up in litigation for years. Importantly, the firms are also trying to maintain their attorneys’ security clearances. From the article, “Starting in March, Trump went after Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison with an executive order threatening to yank security clearances from any lawyer who’d worked against him. Without security clearances, these firms would struggle to represent corporate clients. It would, as Paul Weiss noted, ‘destroy the firm.'” It also notes that “These firms also had to promise to gut their DEI programs and pledge allegiance to ‘merit-based hiring.” Trump has collected almost a billion dollars using this method so far! Very normal democracy stuff happening here (sarcasm!).
- Scientists once hoarded pre-nuclear steel; now we’re hoarding pre-AI content via Ars Technica. AI slop has proliferated so quickly that the people making AI models are desperate for pre-AI content. Welcome to the post-reality information apocalypse! For the record, I have never used AI to write this blog and I never will. Put this page in the vault.
- ‘A Black Hole of Energy Use’: Meta’s Massive AI Data Center Is Stressing Out a Louisiana Community via 404 Media. Meta is building a data center in Louisiana and it will use as much power as an entire city. The area’s residents will be subsidizing Meta through rate increases. Seems backwards to me! Why doesn’t the billion-dollar company pay the full rate? Hell, why not wipe out everyone’s overdue utility payments as a good-will gesture. Or if you really want to get galaxy-brained about it: don’t build it and stop using AI.
- Ennigaldi-Nanna’s museum via Wikipedia. I found this on Tumblr and it brought my joy so I’m sharing it. In 530 BCE, Ennigaldi created what we would now understand as a museum in Ur (what is now Iraq). There are artifacts there dating back to the 20th century BCE. Two-thousand-year-old stuff from 2,000 years ago! Earth is full of cool stuff, despite the horrors.
Media
My new favorite TV show is King of Drag! It’s the drag kings’ answer to RuPaul’s Drag Race and I hope you all watch it because I need it to be renewed for season two. It’s free to watch on Revry, either on their website or their TV app. There have only been two episodes so far, but I already love this show. It’s clear that the creators really carefully considered what elements of drag-themed reality TV they wanted to keep after nearly 20 years of Drag Race and what they wanted to do better. One of my favorite parts is actually how they’ve chosen to end each episode. On Drag Race, the eliminated queen from each episode walks to the back of the stage, tries to say something pithy, then starts a walk back to the werk room, offscreen, while the remaining cast dances on the runway. In contrast, King of Drag‘s eliminated king gets knighted on stage by host Murray Hill while the whole cast and the judges stand behind him in support. It’s such a nice contrast to the sad walk of shame and something I didn’t even realize I was missing. I know it’s “just” TV but I think the drag kings are doing something that communicates their views on community in a way that Drag Race has simply never considered. The sappy stuff aside, this show is hilarious and all the kings are so good at what they do. Last week’s celebrity impersonation challenge was so funny. Have you ever wanted to see Ira Glass do pushups? Steve Irwin romance a crocodile with a French horn? Well, now you can. Go watch it! It’s free!
Rampant Consumerism
I bought a bunch of knee-high compression socks since my doctor recommended that for me (I have varicose veins and all my blood likes to flee to my extremities, so the socks will help that from getting worse). I’m not really thrilled about wearing even more clothes in this warm weather but, alas, the things we do for our health. One of my friends recommended Wellow because they have socks for wide calves. They are actually quite cute and comfortable. They’re doing their job just fine but I wish I didn’t need so many things. Wearing the tall socks makes me want to wear shorter shorts. Something has to give! I do feel fairly ridiculous now though because I’ve got the compression socks, braces, and I’m often now wearing my carpal tunnel brace during the day because my carpal tunnels are all fucked up. When will I be released from this mortal form and get to exist as a being of pure light and energy? (note: this is a joke and not a death wish, please don’t get it twisted).
Moving It
I’m proud of myself for actually working out in the garage a few times over the last two weeks. Having a fan out there helps a lot. We also have overhead lighting in there now so I did an evening workout, which was nice and cool. The only bummer right now is that my knee has been bothering me (the so-called “good” knee, in fact). I’ve been trying to find ways to work around that and still use my equipment. I tried doing some Romanian deadlifts, which are a straight-legged lift, instead of original-flavor deadlifts and that worked well. I’m hoping the heat won’t get me down too much this summer and I’ll be able to keep at it. Please send cooling thoughts.
Kitchen Witchery
I’ve been trying to eat more vegetables and, since I can’t eat anything without cooking it (thanks to my difficult body), this requires some planning. I made a couple of new vegetable dishes over the last two weeks. I’ve picked things that are a little more involved than just roasting vegetables because I’m trying to keep myself interested. To that end, I made roasted carrots with whipped tahini. I liked these quite well. The carrots are topped with a mixture of tahini, yogurt, and seasoning, along with some pistachios and dill. I also made this herbed summer squash and potato torte, which was easier than I thought it would be, probably because I used the mandoline for slicing everything. I liked it but I think it needed a little more seasoning, or maybe I just didn’t use enough herbs. I think I would also make it a little smaller next time because I did get sick of it after a few days.
For regular dinner meals, I returned to one of our standbys, spicy peanut soba noodles and green beans. I’ve shared this before but I want to note that this time I paired it with some baked tofu, which turned out to be a very good choice. It made the meal more filling (I usually make pot stickers to round it out, just the frozen ones you can buy at the store). In new-to-me recipes, I made Tunisian chickpea soup from the Cool Beans cookbook (although I am sure there are many versions of it out in the world). We liked it a lot. Kirk really enjoyed it but I think he just likes anything with harissa in it. Because I’m always cooking beans, I tried the NYT’s pesto beans recipe and served that over some noodles. I also made a red onion, broccoli, and blue cheese tart to accompany it to make sure there were some more vegetables involved. Finally for the fourth, I just grilled some hamburgers and vegetables. I’m eating corn off the cob since my teeth are kind of sensitive thanks to these braces.
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves. This poor baby was very scared of all the loud explosions on Friday (and Saturday because our neighborhood is nuts) night. I was surprised because, in years past, the firework hullabaloo has not seemed to bother him. He spent the evening dashing around between under the table and under the bed, plus spent a little time tucked under the blankets in bed (though once the noise got too aggressive he did flee for safety).
