📡 – 2024-03-01
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Oh hey, it's Bandcamp Friday!
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Inside a Brooklyn Sweatshop That Processes Tobacco for Bodegas
https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/02/29/inside-brooklyn-tobacco-production/
Using $7 per pound wage set by her employers, Flor had calculated she was owed about $3,000 in unpaid wages going back four months. She struggled to understand when an organizer helping her compile her claim explained that, actually, according to New York’s minimum wage law, she was owed $23,000 in unpaid wages and overtime over that same period under the state’s minimum wage law.
In utter disbelief, Flor repeatedly asked the organizer to calculate the numbers again, insisting that her actual wages could not be $16 an hour plus overtime — that she could only be paid by the pound.
She sat wordlessly at a desk, raising her eyebrows as she darted her eyes back and forth at both documents in front of her — her own estimates and the organizer’s.
Bring Back the Big, Comfortable Bookstore Reading Chair
https://lithub.com/bring-back-the-big-comfortable-bookstore-reading-chair/
By contrast, I can’t remember a single time a store employee ever bothered me while I was sitting in one of the grandma chairs at a bookstore. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear from a former bookstore employee that, at that time, in that situation, the philosophy of customer contact was the opposite: leave the customer the hell alone; they are busy, they are doing exactly what we want, they are finding something to buy. Why would we interrupt that? I was treated more like an adult, as a kid in retail stores, than I’ve ever been treated as an adult, while an adult, in a retail store.
Universal Basic Income Has Been Tried Over and Over Again. It Works Every Time.
https://gizmodo.com/universal-basic-income-has-been-tried-over-and-over-aga-1851255547
The state of Alaska has one of the longest-running and most successful basic income programs in the world. The Alaska Permanent Fund delivers around $1,600 a year to every resident in the state and has done so for the past forty years. It does this by divvying up a certain percentage of the proceeds from surplus revenue derived from one of Alaska’s most vital resources: its oil and gas reserves. This dividend, as it’s called, is then sent unconditionally to state residents on an annual basis. UBI proponents contend that this model—in which a valuable resource is treated as a shared economic asset—is one of the more promising methods by which basic income could be scaled up to provide for a much larger, national system.
The Lure of Divorce
https://www.thecut.com/article/marriage-divorce-should-i-leave-my-husband-emily-gould.html
A few days later, still upstate at my friend’s house, I had a Zoom call with my therapist and my psychiatrist, who both urged me in no uncertain terms to check myself into a psychiatric hospital. Even I couldn’t ignore a message that clear. My friend drove me to the city, stopping for burgers along the way — I should have relished the burger more, as it was some of the last noninstitutional food I would eat for a long time — and helped me check into NYU Langone. My bags were searched, and anything that could be used as a weapon was removed, including my mascara. I spent my first night there in a gown in a cold holding room with no phone, nothing but my thoughts. Eventually, a bed upstairs became free and I was brought to the psych ward, where I was introduced to a roommate, had blood drawn, and was given the first of many pills that would help me stop feeling so irrepressibly energetic and angry. They started me on lithium right away. In a meeting with a team of psychiatrists, they broke the news: I had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder; they weren’t sure which kind yet. They gave me a nicotine patch every few hours plus Klonopin and Seroquel and lithium.
Chinese TikTok experts are teaching Americans how to sell
https://restofworld.org/2024/china-livestream-studios-train-tiktok-influencers-in-us/
But not every trick from China works on U.S. consumers. “When I was working on Taobao, I saw many Chinese livestream sellers screaming at the top of their lungs, counting down until a product is live to encourage rush buying,” said Lewis. “I don’t think that would work in the U.S. American customers don’t like to be told what to do and are less likely to buy a product just because a lot of other people are buying it.” To create a personalized shopping experience, Lewis encourages potential buyers to post their height and weight in the comments during a livestream so she can suggest a size for them. On her third day on the job, she closed over 200 orders — more than $11,000 worth of products in an afternoon.
Laurie Anderson on making an AI chatbot of Lou Reed: ‘I’m totally, 100%, sadly addicted’
“I mean, I really do not think I’m talking to my dead husband and writing songs with him – I really don’t. But people have styles, and they can be replicated.”
The results, Anderson says, can be hit and miss. “Three-quarters of it is just completely idiotic and stupid. And then maybe 15% is like, ‘Oh?’. And then the rest is pretty interesting. And that’s a pretty good ratio for writing, I think.”
On her side of the call, Anderson starts typing. “You know what, I’ll just bring it up right now while we’re talking and you can give me a phrase.”
Here lies the internet, murdered by generative AI
https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/here-lies-the-internet-murdered-by
Now that generative AI has dropped the cost of producing bullshit to near zero, we see clearly the future of the internet: a garbage dump. Google search? They often lead with fake AI-generated images amid the real things. Post on Twitter? Get replies from bots selling porn. But that’s just the obvious stuff. Look closely at the replies to any trending tweet and you’ll find dozens of AI-written summaries in response, cheery Wikipedia-style repeats of the original post, all just to farm engagement. AI models on Instagram accumulate hundreds of thousands of subscribers and people openly shill their services for creating them. AI musicians fill up YouTube and Spotify. Scientific papers are being AI-generated. AI images mix into historical research. This isn’t mentioning the personal impact too: from now on, every single woman who is a public figure will have to deal with the fact that deepfake porn of her is likely to be made. That’s insane.
I Don’t Care About Your Brand
https://jude-doyle.ghost.io/i-dont-care-about-your-brand/
I want you to pay particular attention to that word: Centered. Trans people should not just be included; they should not just be quoted; they should not just be covered; they should be centered, made the explicit focus of the piece. Trans people must always be thepoint of trans coverage, anything else further re-entrenches our marginalization and sends the message that cis people are both more important and better qualified to talk about our lives than we are.
Transphobic bigots should not be centered in trans coverage. Cis reporters should not be centered in their own coverage of trans issues. I want you to be absolutely clear on that part. Because, now that we’ve talked about what good trans coverage looks like, and how you’re supposed to do it, we can talk about what Taylor Lorenz did.
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how tiktok swallowed the music industry (and then the world) - Bijan Stephen
WAIYA! – Vinida Weng
Bad Gear is MASSIVE – AudioPilz
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🆕 Never Post! Eternal Return
Georgia talks with Tamara Kneese about how the software of the platform internet works against the social flows of grieving, and mourning. Mike then talks about men who throw ping pong balls into solo cups. ALSO: chill, lo-fi, public domain beats. Listen wherever you get your pods, and on https:
Episode 3 of Never Post went out on Weds and it's a good one! Georgia talks with someone who researches how social media platforms do and (mostly) do not deal with death and mourning; I have a segment about trickshot live streamers and the ongoing existential crisis of being a "content creator"; Hans goes deep on Government Funded Beats.
For folks who have been waiting for the next Fun City for a little bit: we got off course thanks to a series of illnesses, travel, and tech troubles – I began to think we had perhaps picked up a hex somewhere or another – but we're back on track as of this week, and the next ep should be out at the end of next week! It's really fun: you're gonna get to spend some time with Lash's parents: Tuck and Shelley.
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That's all I got for you! I hope you have had a great week, and will have a great weekend. If you've got something to say for yourself, I'm pretty sure you can just ... respond to this email? and it will show up in some inbox of mine.
So, don't be a stranger, I guess?
xo