America’s Racial Contract

The implied terms of the racial contract are visible everywhere for those willing to see them. A 12-year-old with a toy gun is a dangerous threat who must be met with lethal force; armed militias drawing beads on federal agents are heroes of liberty. Struggling white farmers in Iowa taking billions in federal assistance are hardworking Americans down on their luck; struggling single parents in cities using food stamps are welfare queens. Black Americans struggling in the cocaine epidemic are a “bio-underclass” created by a pathological culture; white Americans struggling with opioid addiction are a national tragedy. Poor European immigrants who flocked to an America with virtually no immigration restrictions came “the right way”; poor Central American immigrants evading a baroque and unforgiving system are gang members and terrorists.

Vibe

I tried out Risk of Rain 2 tonight and was really into it. I played the first one a few weeks ago because it was in my Steam library (probably through Humble Bundle or something) and I’ve been thinking about the second one.

There are a lot of things I like about the game, but one of coolest part of the series to me is that the first is 2D and the second is 3D, but they’re still both basically the same game. It’s a dope example of literally adding a new dimension to a thing.

From an article about masks and why everyone is encouraged to wear one:

Masks can be worn to protect the wearer from getting infected or masks can be worn to protect others from being infected by the wearer. Protecting the wearer is difficult: It requires medical-grade respirator masks, a proper fit, and careful putting on and taking off. But masks can also be worn to prevent transmission to others, and this is their most important use for society. If we lower the likelihood of one person’s infecting another, the impact is exponential, so even a small reduction in those odds results in a huge decrease in deaths. Luckily, blocking transmission outward at the source is much easier. It can be accomplished with something as simple as a cloth mask.

I just watched the season 3 finale for Westworld. I really didn’t like it or the entire season. I’ve been disappointed from the start of the show, but this was definitely the worst one.

I just read an article about the next phase of the pandemic, written based on what’s been happening in the UK. It talks about this being the moment of maximum risk now that some countries are nearing the end of the first wave.

According to the article, they were able to “flatten the curve” by staying indoors, but because they did, they don’t have herd immunity (and therefore most of them are still susceptible). So they’re gonna relax because they did a good job, open everything up, and then game over.

I agree with most of the analysis, but it leaves out the fact that way more people had it than we first thought. If people can’t get reinfected and the virus doesn’t mutate much (those are both big ifs) then it’s possible this isn’t as dangerous a moment as the article is suggesting.

Either way, there are way too many unknowns right now (when we’ll have adequate testing, if we can get reinfected, how long the virus lasts, when we’ll get vaccines/treatments, etc) to feel comfortable opening things back up.

Disinfecting a surface requires two steps. Cleaning first, then disinfecting. I didn’t know that.

Also from the article, here’s a look at how long the virus lasts on different surfaces (you can see why there was hesitation around recommending mask use):

I’m glad Zoom is continuing to improve things:

Zoom is clearly responding quickly to the issues that have been raised, just as it has seen an influx of millions of new users using its service during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Zoom reported a maximum of 10 million daily users back in December, but this skyrocketed to more than 200 million daily meeting participants in March. There are still more issues to address and improvements required, but 20 days after Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan promised changes, we’re now starting to see exactly how Zoom is responding.

From an article on America’s inability to build:

The question, then, is why don’t we build? What’s stopping us? Here’s my answer: The institutions through which Americans build have become biased against action rather than toward it. They’ve become, in political scientist Francis Fukuyama’s term, “vetocracies,” in which too many actors have veto rights over what gets built. That’s true in the federal government. It’s true in state and local governments. It’s even true in the private sector.

Happy 420 everybody!!

This is weird to me. I wonder how Apple is going to explain that U1 related features won’t work on the new phone while claiming it’s “Everything Apple has to Offer”.

I haven’t been writing anywhere near as much as I wanted to when I started this. I have a few drafts waiting but I have no idea when I’ll be in the mood to finish and post them.

What a surprise.

https://www.inputmag.com/tech/where-are-elon-musks-promised-ventilators

I can maybe see this happening:

These new numbers represent a seismic shift in work culture. Prior to the pandemic, the number of people regularly working from home remained in the single digits, with only about 4 percent of the US workforce working from home at least half the time. However, the trend of working from home had been gaining momentum incrementally for years, as technology and company cultures increasingly accommodated it. So it’s also likely that many Americans who are now working from home for the first time will continue to do so after the pandemic.

I can definitely see this happening:

There’s a lot more at play than what employers and workers want, of course. The economic impact of the pandemic will likely force many employers to cut costs. For companies to reduce their rent obligations by letting workers work from home is an easy solution, one that’s less painful than layoffs. In Lister’s words, “The investor community is going to insist on it.”

Lots of interesting predictions in this article.

Progress!

https://time.com/5819887/coronavirus-vaccines-development-who/

Interesting and concerning. I feel more trusting of Apple getting this right than Google of course.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/04/apple-and-google-partner-on-covid-19-contact-tracing-technology/

Every single map of NYC that shows some kind of negative effect (violence, poverty, sickness, food availability, etc) on New Yorkers always looks exactly the same. The same “poor” and “wealthy” regions are always highlighted in exactly the same way. Inequality is how the city operates. It’s how the country operates. This is America.

https://theintercept.com/2020/04/09/nyc-coronavirus-deaths-race-economic-divide/

An antibody test could show whether a person was recently exposed to the coronavirus. Fauci says the test would say “that you were infected and if you’re feeling well you very likely recovered.”

Yes!

https://time.com/5819068/fauci-coronavirus-antibody-test-us/

If you can find cloth masks (there is still a shortage of medical grade masks) please get some and wear them whenever you leave your home.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/opinion/trump-coronavirus-masks.html

Does anybody actually feel good about the fact that they’re just now concentrating on privacy and security? They have made way too many security “mistakes” for this to matter now.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/2/21204018/zoom-security-privacy-feature-freeze-200-million-daily-users