Monthly Archives: September 2023

Managing Youth Social Media

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For those of us who started in social media 40-some years ago, this WaPo article is fascinating:

Qureshi’s longtime concerns were thrust into the national spotlight when Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen released documents linking Instagram to teen mental health problems. But as the revelations triggered a wave of bills to expand guardrails for children online, he grew frustrated at who appeared missing from the debate: young people, like himself, who’d experienced the technology from an early age.

“There was little to no conversation about young people and … what they thought should be done,” said Qureshi, 21, a rising senior at American University.

So last year, Qureshi and a coalition of students formed Design It For Us, an advocacy group intended to bring the perspectives of young people to the forefront of the debate about online safety.

Not only for the explicit issues mentioned here, such as the tension inherent in age-based access controls, but also for the undercurrents that I’m not convinced the youngsters will be aware of. Consider this:

Hiner and other youth advocates said they have worked closely with prominent children’s online safety groups, including Fairplay. Revanur said her group Encode Justice receives funding from the Omidyar Network, an organization established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar that is a major force in fueling Big Tech antagonists in Washington. Qureshi declined to disclose any funding sources for Design It For Us, beyond its recent grant from the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund.

Some young activists argue against such tough protections for kids online. The digital activist group Fight for the Future said it has been working with hundreds of young grass-roots activists who are rallying support against the bills, arguing that they would expand surveillance and hurt marginalized groups.

It’s not hard to imagine industry groups and national adversaries boosting groups they believe would lead to outcomes favorable to them – with little regard to the emotional and intellectual safety and development of the kids.

This is an ocean full of sharks.

Word Of The Day

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Fish storm:

Meteorologists sometimes use the term “fish storm” to refer to a storm that generally poses no risk to land. But these storms may still pose a threat to fishing boats or shipping routes, and the National Weather Service continues to issue reports on such weather systems in its High Seas Forecasts.

Occasionally, “fish storms” may also produce possible dangerous currents along the coasts. In 2021, for instance, Tropical Storm Odette actually moved away from the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region but meteorologists (including those at Nexstar’s WSAV) warned of possible rip currents nonetheless. [WFLA]

Ryan Hall uses “fish storm” in this video, I believe, but I have not pinpointed the position.

Belated Movie Reviews

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Finally, Nick feels the Cockroach of Doom in his underpants. Why he let his wife adopt such a creature has puzzled film historians for generations. It also produced a film of film historians searching for a Cockroach of Doom to add to their collections, and the terrible Fate they each met – and often dated – but that’s another story for another time.

And I’m not going to tell it.

The Thin Man (1934) is a member of the private detective genre, a category in which success often depends on the strength of characterization. Think of Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade: at least half of the charm of the stories of which they are a part is the detectives themselves, their toughness, their reaction to temptations, their outlook on life.

The attraction of The Thin Man and its sequels is, in part, the chemistry of the characters. This is true not only of Nick and Nora Charles, the former a retired private detective, the latter Nick’s rich wife and the reason he’s retired, but also of Nick and Nora’s relationship with Nick’s nabs. The affection the nabs have for Nick and Nora is both unexpected and brings a bit of charm and comic relief to the story.

And the story? A former client of Nick’s, successful inventor and curmudgeon Clyde Wynant, has disappeared. His daughter, beau in her wake, can’t find him to walk her down the aisle at her wedding, and attempts to enlist Nick to find Clyde. But Nick is retired, more interested in wife and dog, Asta, than his former client, and refuses. Several times.

But Nora is intrigued. She’s never seen her husband in action, and pushes him to investigate. Nick reluctantly does so, trading barbed pleasantries with … Asta. But the dog is more than a conversational foil, as we discover when he finds a body.

But it’s not Wynant’s, even if it’s buried in his basement. Was Wynant a killer of the worst sort, as he’s a genius? In a classic big windup, all the suspects at the dinner table, waited upon by Nick’s nabs, Nick announces the name of the victim and of the killer … by letting the killer name themselves.

Add in a jealous ex-wife and a nerdy, self-important son, and don’t forget the ex-wife’s paramour, and there are suspects simply pouring out of the windows of the hotel. Which one will Nick and Nora pick while trading puns, cocktails, and kid toys with each other?

Tune in and find out. If you like old-fashioned murder mystery movies in which characters aren’t too deeply explored, and silly head-splitting crap doesn’t occur, The Thin Man may be for you.

Headline Of The Day

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This one, from NewScientist, is a bit distressing, as it implies so much:

Crocodiles can sense how distressed human babies are from their cries

The tagline is of no help in quieting one’s nerves:

Predatory reptiles move quickly and aggressively towards the sound of babies crying and can tell if they are in genuine distress and so potentially vulnerable

The implication that primate babies have been a frequent snack is a bit frightening, especially if you are one who believes we’ve badly damaged nature in our efforts to achieve and maintain safety.

Entire Countries Quarantined?

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This AL-Monitor report on microbial resistance to drugs developing in Iraq is unsettling:

[Microbial resistance] has reached alarming highs around the world in recent years as simple infections become harder and harder to treat. Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections killed 1.27 million people in 2019, according to a study by The Lancet medical journal — more than HIV-AIDS or malaria. Experts say antimicrobial resistance (which refers not only to resistant bacteria but also to viruses, fungi and parasites) could kill up to 10 million people a year by 2050.

Iraq already stands out as one of the places hardest hit by this developing crisis, particularly the city of Mosul where worrisome rates of antibiotic resistance were recorded by international medical nongovernmental organizations that intervened there in the wake of the war against the Islamic State (IS). In 2019, a staggering 40% of patients admitted to a post-operative care facility run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Mosul carried multidrug-resistant infections, according to MSF.

Five years later, this silent health crisis is still sweeping unchecked through the city’s private and public hospitals. “There’s a real danger,” Ahmad told Al-Monitor. “But when you look at the official response, it doesn’t feel like we are in a crisis. Iraq is behind on tackling this issue.” …

[Prescribing antibiotics for any disease is] a habit that remains deeply rooted in the [Iraqi] health care system, several doctors and medical nurses in Mosul acknowledged. “Here, most doctors prescribe antibiotics for any simple disease. They don’t follow a scientific protocol or a gradual approach with syrups and pills; they don’t send samples to the lab to see which antibiotics are needed. Many prescribe injectable antibiotics right away,” Omar Mudhafar, the head of an awareness-raising unit at the Mosul General Hospital, told Al-Monitor.

Are the monsters coming to get us?

So, in the metaphorical forest we can see that mishandling powerful drugs has similar consequences to mishandling powerful weapons.

But out of the forest, I was struck by the parallels between this and the American political situation. Just as American political groups have come to resist compromise, so does humanity refuse, quite understandably, to give up friends and family to the attack of microbes, such as those which causes smallpox, TB, and many other illnesses that we have learned to mitigate, cure, and even expunge.

The cost may be ever greater plagues.

I realize this parallel is all a bit horrific, but I think it’s worthwhile for those of a political bent to meditate on their enmity to compromise, and to consider how important their arrogance – because that’s the poison at the root of the tree of comity – is to their ego, and to perhaps consider tamping that down a bit.