It's a Vibe

Narcissism is all Greek to Me

In the still timely Greek myth, Narcissus looks into the pond and falls in love with his own reflection. But in the modernized version of this story, Narcissus' reflection would be accompanied by his follower count. And the only reason Narcissus would even go outside in the first place would be to post a travel vlog: Hey guys, today we're visiting the top ten ponds in Thespiae. In today's tech-addled world, even those who have little interest in others are vying for their attention. The trouble is that each of us only has so much to give. That's why, with all due respect to meme coins, attention is is the currency of the modern world. Chris Hayes in The Atlantic (Gift Article): You’re Being Alienated From Your Own Attention. "The battle to control what we pay attention to at any given instant structures our inner life—who and what we listen to, how and when we are present to those we love—and our collective public lives: which pressing matters of social concern are debated and legislated, which are neglected; which deaths are loudly mourned, which are quietly forgotten. Every single aspect of human life across the broadest categories of human organization is being reoriented around the pursuit of attention. It is now the defining resource of our age."

+ I used to be so addicted to a notification bell that rang every time one of my tweets was liked or reposted that if my family didn't hear the bell for a few minutes, one of of my kids would hold a finger under my nose to make sure I was still breathing. Obviously my kids learned from my internet addiction and spend their time outdoors, beyond the reach of even a cellular connection. Well, not quite. My son described last weekend's TikTok outage as the longest night of his life. He wasn't alone. WaPo (Gift Article): ‘The vibes were off’: How half a day without TikTok changed everything. Of course, the nature of the vibes is beside the point. The point is where you are scrolling those vibes.

2

I Binge, Therefore I Am

Netflix is one of the big winners of the attention economy, accounting for about 15% of the megabytes consumed on the internet in 2023. That number could go up. Live events, including a couple NFL games and a terrible boxing match, and other tweaks helped Netflix pull in 19 million new subscribers last quarter, which sent its stock price to new heights. It turns out the attention economy and the regular old money economy are often related. So along with the increased popularity comes a price increase. Netflix is raising prices again, as the standard plan goes up to $17.99. Given how much people I know want to find distractions from the news these days, they could probably charge $1799.00 and still maintain their subscriber base. I wouldn't quit even if they went back to mailing out DVDs. Give me, I need, I need.

+ A lot of people must have decided to binge a show on Monday. The inauguration TV viewership numbers were way down. I'm reminded of the scene in Remains of the Day when Mr. Stevens played by Anthony Hopkins explains, "You know what I'm doing? I'm placing my thoughts elsewhere while you chatter away." (Spoiler alert: Sadly for us, he wasn't actually able to place his thoughts elsewhere...)

3

Howdy Pardoner

The news out of the White House is coming fast (and furious), but let's pause the scrolling long enough to really consider the seriousness of pardoning hundreds of (even violent) Jan 6 insurrectionists. Even the WSJ editorial board greeted the news with this headline: Trump Pardons the Jan. 6 Cop Beaters. At least one rioter turned the pardon down. "Pamela Hemphill, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in prison, told the BBC that there should be no pardons for the riot on 6 January 2021 ... Accepting a pardon would only insult the Capitol police officers, rule of law and, of course, our nation ... I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, and accepting a pardon also would serve to contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative."

+ In addition to the Jan 6 rioters, Trump also just pardoned Silk Road dark web market creator Ross Ulbricht. "Ulbricht was found guilty of charges including conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking ... Prosecutors said he also solicited six murders-for-hire, including one against a former Silk Road employee, though they said no evidence existed that any killings were actually carried out." Trump described the officials who worked to convict Ulbricht as, "scum." (Even the Joker and the Penguin think Trump is a little too pro crime.)

+ From the Josh Bearman in the Wired archives: The Rise and Fall of the Silk Road. (Uh, Josh, we're gonna need a new afterward...)

+ In the latest moves, the new administration has moved to end DEI in the federal government (and beyond), ordered more troops to the border, warned city and state officials not to resist the immigration crackdown, and canceled flights for refugees who were already slated to travel to US.

+ The combination of the pardons and the anti-immigrant rhetoric is being received warmly in some quarters. WaPo (Gift Article): Ku Klux Klan fliers in Kentucky order immigrants to ‘leave now,’ police say.

+ Not everyone is falling in line. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivered a counter message to the president as he sat in the front row during an inauguration week service. "I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President. We were all once strangers in this land." And then he said... meh, you know what he says by now. Just focus on what she said.

4

Everybody Must Get Stones

"In the dead of night at a slaughterhouse in Brazil’s southeastern farming belt, a group of men splattered in blood gathered around the entrails of a cow to see if they had hit gold. 'Just look at the size of that,' one worker said as he pressed the animal’s flesh through a sieve to reveal a hardened dark orange lump almost as big as a golf ball, glistening under the fluorescent light. There it was: a gallstone." WSJ (Gift Article): Cattle Gallstones, Worth Twice as Much as Gold, Drive a Global Smuggling Frenzy. "A prized ingredient in China’s $60 billion traditional medicine industry, gallstones have become the must-have item among underground traders and armed robbers in Brazil."

5

Extra, Extra

Let Go: "The decision ... came so abruptly that it impeded the ability of some career officials to physically leave the White House complex because their badges no longer worked, said a U.S. official. The awkward impasse required the Secret Service to manually drop the gates for those with deactivated badges." National security adviser Mike Waltz sends home dozens of NSC officials.

+ Trill Seekers: "Five people are expected to amass at least $1 trillion in wealth within the next decade, if current trends continue, according to Oxfam’s annual inequality report, released Sunday." Get ready for the world’s first trillionaires. It's worth noting (again) that those at the top amassed unprecedented fortunes during the Biden era that they decried for being unfair to them.

+ Snow Job: Maga: Climate change is not real. God: Once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm hits Gulf Coast, with record-breaking snowfall in Florida.

+ Relatively Speaking: "A significant majority of Indian American adults—76 percent—believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to an AAPI Data/AP-NORC poll. Furthermore, 74 percent of us want Congress to pass a law guaranteeing nationwide access. These numbers reveal widespread support, yet our advocacy has been minimal. Why?" Jaime Patel on the anniversary of Roe: The Hidden Majority: Indian Americans Support Abortion Rights—So Why Aren’t We Speaking Out?

+ Junk in the Trunk: "The legal question here boils down to whether an elephant is a person. And because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim." Elephants can’t pursue their release from a Colorado zoo because they’re not human, court says.

+ Not Over So Easy: And about those egg prices... they're soaring.

6

Bottom of the News

"While watching a group of captive chimpanzees for her graduate research, Ena Onishi noticed something odd about the primates. 'They seemed to have a tendency to urinate around the same time,' said Onishi, a wildlife researcher at Kyoto University. 'It reminded me of some human behaviors of going to the bathroom together, and got me thinking 'could this be one of those contagious behaviors?'" (I used to think the same thing about the behavior of males my age until I realized that all of us just have to pee all the time...) Peeing is contagious in chimpanzees, study suggests.

+ At long last, Velveeta made nacho cheese you can stick in your pocket. (If the packaging leaks, you're gonna have a lot of explaining to do...)