Godzilla Stuff
Yes, it has been a while since I last graced your inboxes - but given that we are just days away from the biggest holiday of the kaiju year, I felt it was time to send out another newsletter. The OG Godzilla film had its premiere on November 3, 1954 and, let’s be honest, the world hasn’t been the same since. There have been tons of sequels and derivative works, including my absolute favorite one.
Want to do something nice for Godzilla day? Support your local food pantry - there are a lot of people who are being made food insecure by the Trump regime’s government shutdown - SNAP recipients, federal workers and the military, immigrants (and people who ICE thinks look like immigrants) afraid to leave their homes due to fear of being disappeared by ICE goons. You can find places near you that are helping to feed folks at FoodFinder or Feeding America. I’m sure Godzilla would approve.
InfoSec/Scam Stuff
A word about AI Browsers - The word is NO. Over the past couple of weeks, there have been a number of shiny new, “AI enabled browsers” released to “enhance your Internet browsing experience.” If you are thinking of installing one of these, DON’T. They are a privacy and security nightmare - in addition to sending tons of your personal information to yet another large evil corporation, they open you and your data up to something called “prompt injection.” While prompt injection may sound like getting your vaccinations quickly at CVS, it is actually a really serious security flaw caused by how these AI browsers work. AI browsers don’t always separate the data on a web page you are viewing from the instructions that they use to “help you be more productive.” This can allow hackers to embed commands like “send the contents of the email inbox on this computer to me” invisibly on web pages. The Economist has a great article which explains this issue in a non technical way. If you want to get a bit more technical and into the weeds on how this stuff works, check out this example of an attack on Perplexity’s Comet browser or this more recent one which targets OpenAI’s Atlas browser. To sum this up - I will not install these things onto any computer that has access to my data and neither should you. Releasing them into the world in their current state is yet another example of the irresponsible behavior of the AI firms.
Stay out of the dark - “Dark patterns” are the design tropes that web site designers use to get you to spend more money, give up more of your personal information, or do other things that are not in your best interests. Examples of sites using dark patterns include sites that make it really hard to cancel a subscription you no longer want, or which add worthless upsells to your shopping cart, or which use bait and switch tactics. Here is a great site which shows real life examples of dark patterns to help you recognize and avoid them in your online life. Oh - and before the US government was hijacked by evil, greedy criminals, the Federal Trade Commission had been trying to address the issue of corporations making it hard to cancel subscriptions - but, of course, the Trump administration put a stop to that. Another (small) reason to hate and shun Trump supporters. But there are just so many…
And this story TOTALLY SHOCKS ME… aside from wishing that I believed in an afterlife so that people like Charlie Kirk and his supporters would spend eternity therein, I also wish there was an exception to laws against scamming people like the ones who lost their money to this scam. They are too stupid to be trusted with money. Or sharp objects - like the vote.
Tech Stuff
It seems like some jobs might be safe from offshoring and AI encroachment, like restocking the shelves at convenience stores and other retail outlets. But maybe not… Yes, these robots are supervised by humans (in lower wage markets of course) but it is claimed that the human operators only need to intervene in the robots’ tasks 4% of the time. If this is an indication of things to come, contraction of the job market is gonna be the norm. I wonder who is going to be shopping in all of these stores when unemployment is rising. This “new and improved” customer service experience is being experimented with in NYC by a few restaurants who also employ Philipines based workers. Maybe this kind of rising inequality (and the potential for civil unrest when people have nothing to lose) is why the people at the top of the US kakistocracy are increasingly making their homes on military bases. Maybe its not just greed.
On the good side of tech… this seems like something I would want to buy if I lived in a tropical clime - a coating for roofs that can lower temperatures and reduce cooling costs. As a bonus, the roof would also collect water for household use. Maybe lets have more of this and less AI crapola, scientists.
And yet more important research… I think the real headline here is that 29% of Americans feel that birds have “targeted their car” with poop. I would assume that these particular birds are assumed by the 29% to be “leftist, Marxist, Islamic, illegal immigrants paid by George Soros” as you would have to be particularly conspiracy minded to think that Percy the Pigeon has it in for YOU. OK, not really “Tech Stuff” but it is vaguely sciency with statistics and all. My newsletter, my rules.
Fun Stuff
I guess mosaics were the self help books and inspirational Instagram posts of the ancient world. Good advice, if somewhat hard to follow these days.
Is your cat particularly auspicious? Well, this 19th century Thai treatise can help you find out. You’re welcome. But if your feline makes the grade, don’t tell them. Cats are already too full of themselves.
Get out and vote this week if you have not done so already! Unless you are planning to vote for a dirtbag (Citarelli, Sliwa) or washed up loser sex offenders (Cuomo). Dirtbag voting is on Nov 11. Or so I have heard. AI told me so - it must be true.
Always a great read! So much good stuff in here.