By connecting the term ‘metaverse’ with futuristic science fiction, venture capitalists and founders can take something that isn’t really that impressive and claim that it’s part of a new movement that, if it even exists, probably sucks. Web3 is the natural counterpart to this vacuous conversation because it is a direct way in which the capital going into these meaningless terms can seek liquidity under the auspices of giving people ‘value’, and letting them ‘own their data’. … It’s that simple: you are either being sold a dream so that someone else can profit before it comes true, or you’re being sold something that already exists as if it’s brand new. In any case, someone else is going to get rich as long as you conflate avaricious obsession with something also being valid.

(Via Ed Zitron via Dense Discovery)

Web3 is marketing bs. Cryptocurrencies (crypto = cryptography, on which cryptocurrencies rely for their very existence, as ephemeral as that existence is) are an agreed to delusion, and NFTs are pure snake oil. The metaverse is a solution looking for a problem. Facebook (a.k.a. “Meta”) might crack it as all they do now a-days is create problems. Yet they will fail.

Enjoy web3.

Police were called to the 7/11 at 3504 Hixson Pike on a call of an intoxicated woman. The clerk said a white drunk woman came into the store acting erratically. The clerk said the woman caused a disorder by yelling and bothering several of his patrons while damaging one bag of Doritos (unknown what flavor). He said the woman left prior to police arrival. The clerk said he would like to report the damaged Doritos (unknown flavor) caused by the unknown drunken woman.

(Via Chattanoogan.com)

The Secret Lives of Flight Numbers.:

WHERE DO flight numbers come from? Do they hold some hidden meaning?

Yes and no. Ordinarily, flights going eastbound are assigned even numbers; those headed westbound get odd numbers. Another habit is giving lower, one- or two-digit numbers to more prestigious, long-distance routes. If there’s a flight 1 in an airline’s timetable, it’s the stuff of London–New York.

Numbers might also be grouped geographically. At United, transpacific flights use three-digit numbers beginning with 8, which is considered a lucky number in some Asian cultures. Four-digit sequences starting with a 3 or higher are, most of the time, indications of a code-share flight.

Along the lines of US highways and Interstates have a numbering scheme to help drivers (except when Congress get’s involved), this is some useful information.

On the face of it, this is kind of amazing: flat-out admitting the problem but not wanting to do anything about it! As Francis says, it’s opposition to opposition.

More generally, there are people in academia who take an anti-anti-junk science stand. They’re not exactly in favor of junk science—if you pressed them on it they would accept that open data is better than not, that non-replication tells us something, that accurate measurement is a good idea, etc.—but what really bugs them is when people are anti-junk science.

… I’m reminded of Clarke’s Law: Any sufficiently crappy research is indistinguishable from fraud. I don’t know if the numbers in the article in question were made up, or rounded and unrounded too many times, or mistyped, or maybe Francis messed up in his calculations—I’m guessing the most likely possibility is that the authors messed up in some small way in their analysis, including certain data in some comparisons but not others—but it really doesn’t matter, except for historical reasons, to help understand how things went so wrong for so long in that field.

(Via Andrew)

Also, literally, Hanlon’s Razor: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. And note my addendum: … or laziness or hubris.

This horizontal format, black and white photograph documents an unpolished dressing room interior. One girl primps in front of a large mirror, while another watches from behind her. The lines of the electrical wire that draw-up the composition are delicate and architectural, carving out a space for the viewer to see more than the superficial simulation that is reflected. One girl is heavily dressed in dark colors, with only her face shining through. The other wears sari wrapped lightly around her middle, her choli baring her stomach and neck. The spontaneous and improvisational approach is palpable, and is coupled with the artist’s acute sense of focus. The print quality is grainy further evidence of Ketaki Sheth’s documentary style. As we continue to build our holdings, particularly the relationship between the works by Singh and Sheth help to form a substantial and significant foundation for the collection of documentary images of South Asia.

Budget Culture and the Dave Ramseyfication of Money:

Budget culture is the damaging set of beliefs around money that — like so-called diet culture does for food and bodies — rewards restriction and deprivation, and promotes an unhealthy and fantastical ideal of financial success. …

The broader problem with budget culture is its emphasis on individual responsibility and insistence on ignoring the varying levels of access and privilege in our world. It vilifies and oppresses anyone who doesn’t live up to the ideal, regardless of their circumstances. And that ideal is, unsurprisingly, rooted in maleness and whiteness in the way many of our cultural ideals are. … 

But all we’re really doing is peddling the same worn promises wrapped in a veneer of language around “wellness” instead of “being rich.” The brass tacks of advice for financial wellness still emphasize restriction and individual responsibility, and “getting our act together” is still predicated on the fantasy of being rich. Because actually countering budget culture is a tall order, for individuals and society.

It requires: 

• Getting comfortable not knowing the “right” answers.
• Changing not just how you talk about money to others, but how you use money in your life.
• Pay transparency — with your friends, communities and colleagues, and in job descriptions.
• Seeing and acknowledging your privilege.
• Rethinking how we compensate for every kind of labor.
• Framing taxes as sharing privilege, not impeding personal wealth.
• Admitting net worth is an imaginary number.
• Creatively supporting people with financial need and protecting them from the tyranny of credit reports.
• Reckoning with the fact that the American Dream of homeownership relies on hoarding stolen wealth.

It’s… a lot. 

It sure is.