The Statehouse Always Wins

Pocket Slots, Australia's Lowkey Cringe Flex

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Except the main thing that happens in Vegas. That stays with you. You can bring it on the plane when you leave. It stays with you at home, at work, on the subway, on vacations, and even during trips to the restroom. In many states, your phone has become a legalized mobile casino. Sports betting is the main activity we often associate with phone-based gambling. But betting on sporting events is a drop in the quarter-filled bucket when it comes to casino economics. So predictably, in many states, slot machines are now on your phone, too. And people like the slot machines that fit into your pocket as much as they like the ones that serenade Las Vegas casinos on a non-stop basis. The slot machines aren’t the only Vegas highlight that travels well. So do the problems associated with gambling. “Traditional slot machines were once the most common reason people called the problem gambling hotline run by the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania. But in the years since the state legalized online gambling, online casino games have become the No. 1 reason for calls, ahead of physical casinos and sports betting.” With the risks associated with such behaviors, you’d assume states would be hesitant to legalize mobile slot machines. But here’s the rub. The state is in on the action. NYT Upshot: States Are Raking In Billions From Slot Machines on Your Phone. When it comes to sports betting, you have to wait for the game. With slots, the game is always waiting for you.

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This Flex is Lowkey Cringe

It’s hard to imagine that there’s anything that could make social media more addictive to teens. But outlawing it might do the trick. Australia launches youth social media ban it says will be the world’s first domino. “More than 1 million social media accounts held by users under 16 are set to be deactivated in Australia on Wednesday in a divisive world-first ban that has inflamed a culture war and is being closely watched in the United States and elsewhere.” There’s no doubt that there’s something attractive about ungluing kids from their phones. But when I think back to my teen years, something not being allowed only tended to make it more attractive. Being 21 took a lot of the thrill out of scoring a six-pack of beer and legal dispensaries took some of the fun out of buying a joint. And one can safely assume that teens getting around a technological age barrier will be a lot easier than breaking other rules. BBC: Can you ban kids from social media? Australia is about to, but some teens are a step ahead. “It took 13-year-old Isobel less than five minutes to outsmart Australia’s ‘world-leading’ social media ban for children. A notification from Snapchat, one of the ten platforms affected, had lit up her screen, warning she’d be booted off when the law kicked in this week – if she couldn’t prove she was over 16. ‘I got a photo of my mum, and I stuck it in front of the camera and it just let me through. It said thanks for verifying your age,’ Isobel claims. ‘I’ve heard someone used Beyoncé’s face,’ she adds.” (There is some irony at play here. When Facebook first launched, it was only available to college students and then high school students. So in the early days of social media, you had to pretend you were younger than you were if you wanted to check out the newest social tech.)

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Breaking News

“A video on TikTok in October appeared to show a woman being interviewed by a television reporter about food stamps ... [the guest discussed] selling food stamps for cash, which would have been a crime ... Despite subtle red flags, hundreds vilified the woman as a criminal — some with explicit racism — while others attacked government assistance programs, just as a national debate was raging over President Trump’s planned cuts to the program.” Here’s the thing: The whole interview was AI generated. The same could very well be true about something that enraged you online. NYT (Gift Article): Even though the consumer apps to create them are only a few months old, A.I. Videos Have Flooded Social Media. No One Was Ready. (Who would have thought that in an era filled with real news that seems like it must be fake, we’d feel the need to create fake news that appears real.)

+ Yesterday, I covered the way campaigns are using AI to convince voters of certain ideas, even in remote areas. Don’t think you can be swayed? You’ll Come Around.

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Your Prices May Differ

“More than 40 strangers logged in to Instacart, the grocery-shopping app, to buy eggs and test a hypothesis. Connected by videoconference, they simultaneously selected the same store — a Safeway in Washington, D.C. — and the same brand of eggs. They all chose pickup rather than delivery. The only difference was the price they were offered: $3.99 for a couple of lucky shoppers. $4.59 or $4.69 for others. And a few saw a price of $4.79 — 20 percent more than some others, for the exact same product.” NYT (Gift Article): Same Product, Same Store, but on Instacart, Prices Might Differ. “The Groundwork study found no evidence that Instacart was basing different prices on customers’ individual characteristics like income, ZIP code or shopping history. But there is little doubt that Instacart and other online sellers have the ability to do so.” (Oh, as sure as eggs is eggs, they will.)

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Extra, Extra

Lies, Lies, and Allies: WSJ (Gift Article): “In a rambling and sometimes incoherent interview ... the US president struggled to name any other Ukrainian cities except for Kyiv, misrepresented elements of the trajectory of the conflict, and recycled far-right tropes about European immigration that echoed the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory.” Trump lambasts ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’ Europe and hints at walking away from Ukraine. What’s weak and decaying are American values. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Why Russia Loves the New US National Security Strategy. “It calls, after all, for a rupture in the Transatlantic Alliance that every Kremlin leader — with brief exceptions for Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin — has sought since 1945.”

+ Not the War of Yore: “To counter the growing threat, America must simultaneously win the race to build autonomous weapons and lead the world in controlling them.” NYT (Gift Article) on the state of weaponry, battles, and what America needs to do to avoid falling behind. This Is the Future of War.

+ Patriarch of History: “Networked misogyny is now firmly established as a key tactic in the 21st-century authoritarian’s playbook. This is not a new trend – but it is now being supercharged by generative AI tools that make it easier, quicker and cheaper than ever to perpetrate online violence against women in public life – from journalists to human rights defenders, politicians and activists..” We see examples on the daily from the very top. Michelle Goldberg: Republican Women Suddenly Realize They’re Surrounded by Misogynists. “Last week, The Times reported on Republican women in Congress who say that Johnson ‘failed to listen to them or engage in direct conversations on major political and policy issues,’ which they seemed to attribute to his highly patriarchal evangelical Christianity. (He recently said that women, unlike men, are unable to ‘compartmentalize’ their thoughts.)” Some men are even able to compartmentalize their ethics.

+ Chips on the Table: “By letting Nvidia sell its H200 artificial-intelligence chips to China, he gave the U.S. company the giant market it demanded. But he also handed China’s AI industry what it couldn’t build itself: the high-end semiconductors needed to rival America.” WSJ (Gift Article): How Trump’s U-Turn on Nvidia Chips Changes the Game for China’s AI.

+ The Reel Deal: “New problems are plaguing old reels, putting decades of history at risk. One man, armed with hair dryers and a love of tinkering, is leading the charge to rescue them.” NYT(Gift Article): The ‘Race Against Time’ to Save Music Legends’ Decaying Tapes.

+ You Seriously Need to Chill: “Your first thought on hearing this is probably ‘Why?’ Why is leftover pizza healthier for me? And the answer has to do with what happens when you cool the delicious crust. When you cool a pizza to below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, some of the starches in the dough will start to mingle together to form these long chains called resistant starches.” Why Leftover Pizza Might Actually Be Healthier. (And it’s not just pizza...)

+ Gift Sift: Jason Kottke, the gift that keeps on giving, is back with his unique and always fun annual gift guide. (It’s slightly shorter than the list my daughter texted to me earlier this week.)

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Bottom of the News

“Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.” A symphony of woofs: This is what happens when 2,397 golden retrievers gather in an Argentina park. (The noise was the equivalent of two beagles noticing a squirrel.)