Chill Links

Oligarchia, Here We Come.

Permanent contraception surged after Roe v Wade overturned, study finds.

‘It didn’t use to be like this’: woeful US healthcare system exposed by CEO killing.

PSA: Tech companies are not building out a trillion dollars of Al infrastructure because they are hoping you’ll pay $20/month to use Al tools to make you more productive. They’re doing it because they know your employer will pay hundreds or thousands a month for an Al system to replace you. Exactly right.

Bluesky Proves Stagnant Monopolies Are Strangling the Internet.

TikTok Brainwashed America’s Youth. Having an active propaganda arm of the CCP allowed to be ubiquitous in America is absolutely fucking insane.

How the AMA Undermines Primary Care.

Meta is ending its fact-checking program in favor of a ‘community notes’ system similar to X.

US corporate bankruptcies hit 14-year high as interest rates take toll.

New jets help passengers avoid congestion at hub airports.

Politics is not about intellect but about power. And this is disproportionately possessed by the mega-rich.

The national park that draws mushroom hunters from around the world.

Russia uses less armor on frontlines as Ukraine reports destruction of some 13,000 armored units over year.

Meta’s Fact-Checking Reversal Lets Zuckerberg Drop the Charade.

Wrong Ville

Chill Annoying, Clowns

I really dislike the social pressure to join a political tribe.

“Are you a racist, anti-science troglodyte? Or are you an economically-illiterate, political correctness Karen? Those are your only choices. It’s one or the other. PICK ONE.”

How about neither? How about you go fuck yourselves?

[image or embed]

— Kevin Gaughen 🇺🇸 (@gaughen.bsky.social) January 7, 2025 at 6:17 PM

I’m the same. It’s already hard enough not being an utter dumbass. Joining a tribe is a certain way to toss yourself right into Tardville. No thank you.

Eff Ic

Chill Clowns, Political Economy

This comment is exactly right.

I am old enough to remember when companies had large training departments, there was an actual training period, and most departments were adequately staffed. That started disappearing (along with pensions) during the 2001 recession and then all of that was completely eliminated in the name of “efficiency” during and after the Great Recession. People younger than 42 or so cannot remember how it used to be. But it was better.

Now, 10-20 job roles are collapsed into one or eliminated altogether. For instance, Microsoft doesn’t even have QA anymore. And it shows. The developers and to a larger extent the users are expected to handle this.

This same process happened across industries as MBAs took over, corporations concentrated on stock buybacks and enriching execs and shareholders short-term rather than any longer term sustainability. And we see how that played out.

Insalubrious

Chill Evil, Lying Liars

A lot of people here in the US like to pretend that there is anything at all normal about the US healthcare system. But I’ve lived in other countries and I also have friends in various places around the world. And I can assure you that we have the dishonor of having the worst in the developed world.

It’s two things that allow them to believe this absolute delusion of how amazing and flawless the US healthcare system is. The first is status quo bias and the second is that they identify with the wealthy, who mostly support the current system. Perversely, this is true even if they themselves are not wealthy and would get the usual subpar health care and denial after denial if anything happened to them.It’s true that some countries (usually ones in decline, like the UK and Canada) have long wait times for some exams and procedures. I’ve yet to see anyone explain to me how that was better than denial of coverage, ruinous medical bills and general thievin’ at every layer of the US healthcare system.

When I was in the UK some years ago (before they had started to go downhill so severely), I mentioned to a friend of mine while we were at a pub that my stomach hurt pretty badly. She said if it kept hurting that we could “Pop over to a clinic down the avenue.” And I, being an American, balked — because in the US, there’d be a 2-10 hour wait, it’d cost $5,000 and it’d be just a general nightmare where I’d probably be misdiagnosed anyway.

She laughed and said the wait would be like 10 minutes, it’d cost at most £30, and they were very competent. I told her more about how the US healthcare system worked and she was appalled, as are people in most normal countries are when they hear how it is here. She said it sounded like we “lived like savages.” Which, you know, we do.

I think nearly everyone who is not rich has known someone murdered by the US healthcare system. I know of at least three, and as I’ve said before I don’t know many people.

We have the worst health care system in the world by far of any rich country, yet people still defend it to the death. Which they’ll probably receive if they go to any US hospital and then get denied coverage.

Phane

Chill Movies

Inventory: 10 January movies better than they have any right to be.

I’ve seen every film on this list (not surprisingly). That is a good one. I’d add these great January dumping ground releases to the list:

1) Fish Tank

2) M3gan

3) Infinity Pool

4) Blackhat

5) Snatch

6) Veronika Decides to Die

7) Impostor

8) Teeth

9) Gleaming the Cube

10) Outrageous Fortune

All of those above I listed are very good films.

About the 1994 Body Snatchers, though. That’s such a dread-filled, slimy film. It feels like a nightmare that you just cannot wake from. Both Meg Tilly and Gabrielle Anwar are perfect in it. (And the bathtub scene…blech.)

Chill Links

Unemployed Office Workers Are Having a Harder Time Finding New Jobs.

Ukraine launches new offensive in Russia’s Kursk region.

Pandemic learning loss hit girls particularly hard in ways that haven’t been addressed by schools.

Intel’s Problems Are Even Worse Than You’ve Heard.

Private equity to lobby Trump for access to savers’ retirement funds.

I Was Nearly Killed on Jan. 6th. Four Years Later, I Feel Betrayed All Over Again.

Putin plus Trump spell trouble for European security.

Great Resignation Revenge? Oh, definitely.

China and Russia are the true imperialists. The West must stop flagellating itself: we are not the ‘neocolonialists.’

Zelenskyy says Russia and North Korea lost ‘up to a battalion’ of soldiers in Kursk battles.

Chinese Vessel Cuts Taiwan Internet Cable in Apparent Sabotage. Practicing for blockade/invasion and testing things.

The Problem Is Not Cost

Chill Political Economy, Prediction

Yup. And it’d only cost around $100 billion to fill the desert1 with enough solar panels and batteries to power the entire United States year-round forever.

The problem is not cost. Nor even what is possible. The problem is will. We could do so much more than we have done. And we should. The future does not belong to faint-hearted, anemic degrowthers cowering before the god of lost causes and reveling in their prostrate servility. The degrowthers claim that tech will not allow us to survive what is coming. But that is completely wrong. In fact, it is the only thing that will.

We undertake insanely ambitious projects or we die. It’s as simple as that.

As I’ve said before, we must become the gods that we pretend to be.

  1. Or somewhere, if the desert is gone.

Lose 11

Chill Tech, Trynabe Funny

Upgrading clients to Windows 11 is like trying to sell sand at a beach!

How to sell the Win 11 clowngrade to end users (who in reality have no choice anyway):

“With Windows 11, China, the NSA, Microsoft, random advertisers as well as Russian hackers have a complete backup of your system, adding resiliency and redundancy. Nothing will ever get lost.

And with the new built-in AI features, you too can spout fictional and outlandishly wrong information all over the internet and to your company’s management with merely a few clicks. With the added lack of configurability and customizability, you’ll never have to worry about having anything work as you like it or correctly. It’s a net Win (get it) for everyone who matters.”