February 14, 2023

The rise of the "anti-influencers"

"Will deinfluencing be the trend to kill influencer marketing?"

"Deinfluencing is a new trend in which creators discourage users from indulging in a consumerist lifestyle, and from buying everything that is marketed to them on social media.

The idea behind the concept is that while it is acceptable to buy things we really need or want, we should not feel compelled towards a life of overconsumption simply because of influencer marketing.

The idea rose to popularity in recent times when beauty influencer Mikayla Noguiera posted a review of a L’Oreal mascara on TikTok. In the video, Noguiera praised the mascara for making her lashes look like she had on false lashes. Netizens however were convinced that she had on actual false lashes and many came out to say that they felt cheated despite the fact that Noguiera made it clear that the video was sponsored and that she was not wearing false lashes.

The video sparked many content creators to come out in her defense, openly admitting the need to use grandiose language and tactics to sell a product online. This caused many creators to also begin speaking out against a culture of consumerism and to push 'deinfluencing'."

https://marketing-interactive.com/will-deinfluencing-be-the-trend-to-kill-influencer-marketing

Uh-huh. And if they don't push these products who is going to sponsor them, hmm?

I give the trend maybe another week or two - long enough to hit the mainstream - before people realize they've been had. Again. By marketers and influencers.

(also; watch for de-influencers who set you up, then tell you not to buy product x...because they're sponsored by product z )

February 12, 2023

Twitter / Elon vignette from a few days back...

For weeks now, Elon Musk has been preoccupied with worries about how many people are seeing his tweets. Last week, the Twitter CEO took his Twitter account private for a day to test whether that might boost the size of his audience. The move came after several prominent right-wing accounts that Musk interacts with complained that recent changes to Twitter had reduced their reach. On Tuesday, Musk gathered a group of engineers and advisors into a room at Twitter’s headquarters looking for answers. Why are his engagement numbers tanking?

One of the company’s two remaining principal engineers offered a possible explanation for Musk’s declining reach: just under a year after the Tesla CEO made his surprise offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion, public interest in his antics is waning.

Employees showed Musk internal data regarding engagement with his account, along with a Google Trends chart. Last April, they told him, Musk was at “peak” popularity in search rankings, indicated by a score of “100.” Today, he’s at a score of nine. Engineers had previously investigated whether Musk’s reach had somehow been artificially restricted, but found no evidence that the algorithm was biased against him. Musk did not take the news well.

“You’re fired, you’re fired,” Musk told the engineer.

https://www.platformer.news/p/elon-musk-fires-a-top-twitter-engineer (Feb 6, 2023)

I have three thoughts:
- Elon is finally finding out...maybe?
- Twitter is now running on one (1) principal engineer.
- My gods, what a fragile ego

February 11, 2023

Missouri Atty. Gen. calls for halt to drug care for transgender youth

Source: Washington Post

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey on Friday called for a halt to drug treatments for transgender youth at a pediatric care center in St. Louis after a whistleblower complaint alleged misconduct by those treating children for gender dysphoria and other issues.

On Thursday, the Republican attorney general said his office was investigating Washington University’s Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after a former case manager alleged that medical professionals had used experimental drugs on children and distributed puberty blockers and hormones without proper assessment and parental consent.

The whistleblower also provided documentation that the center had been at times “unlawfully billing state taxpayers,” to fund this activity, Bailey said.

On Friday, Bailey called on the institution to halt prescribing puberty blockers or hormones to new patients pending the resolution of the investigation. He asked the center to respond by Tuesday on whether they will comply. Both the Missouri Department of Social Services and Division of Professional Registration are assisting the investigation, authorities said.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/02/10/missouri-transgender-attorney-general/

---

Why pass bills that make your political party look like bigots when you can simply pressure your state's only or few clinics to stop providing services?

Other reporting on the effort to effectively ban health care deemed medically appropriate by doctors, because it's for trans kids:

Missouri Agencies to Investigate Health Center for Transgender Youth
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/missouri-agencies-to-investigate-health-center-for-transgender-youth-39450261

And by the way, the "whistleblower", a former employee of the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital who, "raised questions Thursday about the standard of care" produced a list of Republican / right wing anti-trans talking points as their "concerns". For instance, Reed says the center “gave children puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones after just two one-hour visits.”

What she's neglecting to mention is that those two one hour visits - if accurate - bracket a number of therapist visits, baseline blood, bone density and other labs, and so on. Oh, and dealing with insurance, as blockers are *expensive*. Once blockers are prescribed, the teen's puberty is a medically managed one. It requires ongoing therapist visits, regular blood labs, regular bone density tests, and so on. That's all part of the standard treatment protocols and to not follow them would open doctors and hospitals up to liability. None of that is mentioned in her chosen shock-wording of, "after just two one-hour visits".

This is a repeat of the attacks on Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee by the Republican governor and lawmakers in late 2022. They successfully shut down trans teen health care there, as well. Tennessee is now formally banning trans health care via the Legislature as well; bills are easily advancing in both houses as of late this week.

As the Washington Blade put it, "Trans people are in the midst of a second Lavender Scare. Legislative attacks becoming more numerous and draconian"
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2023/01/26/opinion-trans-people-lavender-scare/

This is my personal addition: Please, if you have the opportunity to speak out against bigotry in your everyday life, do so. When no one speaks up, bigots have every reason to assume society in general is on their side.

February 8, 2023

Thank you, to whoever gave me a heart.

As an autistic trans woman who sometimes says things that are unpopular and makes mistakes, thank you to whoever gave me a heart!

To be honest, the whole displaying of hearts feels like growing up as the weird kid. Last picked for teams, first picked for "smear the queer", never quite fitting in with the boys or girls growing up. Like a very visible high school or middle school popularity contest that I am guaranteed to lose, except we're all adults now and so many decades past all that. Still, I was seriously considering avoiding DU until the event was over. Most years it's okay & I can deal with it, but my communities are the targets of too much hate this year. None of us have come through unscathed. So I don't know if it should bother me that the heart you gave me makes me smile and feel appreciated. But, it all is what it is, and I thank you!

February 4, 2023

Elon Musk shutting off free access to the Twitter API on Feb 9th

An API can be thought of as the computer-to-computer interface to Twitter. It's what allows an app or web page to communicate with Twitter's servers and query for information (like new tweets or run searches) and send new tweets. The official app and web client will, one must assume, still be available but nearly all 3rd party connections will be severed.

"Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API, both v2 and v1.1. A paid basic tier will be available instead"

They've already cut off access to 3rd party tools that were helping people migrate to other platforms like Mastodon. But shutting off the API means academic esearchers can no longer use the data on Twitter, nor can simple devices that tweet things like, "The temperature in the freezer is -5 degrees C", 3rd party utilities such as Threadreader (rolls up entire tweet threads into a single readable web page), and countless benign bots that autopost pictures of cute kittens will cease to work.

"Twitter’s API access changes could mark ‘end of an era’ in academic research on the platform"
https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/02/02/twitters-api-access-changes-academic-research/

"Twitter has not revealed details on how much the basic tier will cost, but the company does offer a premium tier for developers that offers higher levels of API services for a price. Currently, developers can access the platform using that tier for between $149 and $2,499 a month and it provides a number of benefits over the current free “Sandbox” tier.

This news follows a recent move by Twitter to block third-party clients from its API, such as those that mimic Twitter’s already existing apps such as Tweetbot, which could automatically retweet posts, and Twitterrific, a full client for Twitter. The apparent reason for this action was to block third-party apps that do not display Twitter ads to users, the platform’s primary source of revenue."
https://siliconangle.com/2023/02/02/twitter-closing-free-access-api-starting-february-9/

February 4, 2023

FAA orders ground stop at 3 U.S. airports to support "national security effort" where suspected spy

Source: CBS News

Arrivals to and departures from three U.S. airports has been paused while the Federal Aviation Administration issues a ground stop to "support the Department of Defense in a national security effort."

The FAA confirmed to CBS News that flights to and from Wilmington International Airport, Myrtle Beach International Airport and Charleston International Airport have been paused until at least 2:45 p.m. on Saturday. The agency has also "closed additional airspace."

Two U.S. officials told the Associated Press that the Biden administration is moving forward with a plan to bring down the ballon once it is above the Atlantic Ocean, where remnants could be recovered.

CBS News has confirmed that the USS Carter Hall, a naval ship with a 30-ton crane, is traveling into the balloon's vicinity.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/faa-orders-ground-three-airports-support-national-security-effort-where-suspected-chinese-spy-balloon-last-seen/

---

Full title (since news titles can be longer than DU allows):

"FAA orders ground stop at 3 U.S. airports to support "national security effort" where suspected spy balloon last seen"'



Update: As of 11:41 AM PST (about ten minutes after this was posted?) the balloon was brought down. Video shows a plane flying nearby and the balloon envelope popping, followed by the electronics box beginning to fall, trailing the deflated balloon.



"The high-altitude balloon, which is estimated to be the size of three school busses, was floating over U.S. territorial waters when it was taken down. TV footage shows the balloon bursting in a small explosion before falling into the water. Officials will attempt to recover the debris, according to NBC News."

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/04/us-military-prepares-to-take-down-suspected-chinese-surveillance-balloon.html

February 3, 2023

White Rhino Shot to Death in Florida One Day After Arriving at Safari Park

"The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission completed a report on its investigation into the killing of a white rhino at Wild Florida, a drive-through safari park in Kenansville, Florida. Investigators found that the animal was shot to death after it escaped its enclosure, just a day after its arrival at the park last September.

According to CBS Orlando station WKMG, a park worker told FWC investigators that “we used the biggest guns that we had” after the rhino became aggressive and escaped the habitat where it had been placed only the night before.

The park’s owner, Jordan Munns, told investigators that the 3-year-old white rhino was placed into a small quarantine area upon arrival at the park on September 18, WKMG reported, citing the FWC documents. But the rhino broke out of that area into a larger enclosure, prompting the park to close to visitors for the next day over safety concerns. The next morning, the rhino continued to test the limits of its enclosure, pushing against the cable fencing, CBS News reported.

Eventually, the rhino managed to escape, and Munns gave the order to shoot. According to CBS News, the FWC report describes how the staff fired an estimated 15 rounds at the rhino, which managed to run about one-third of a mile before it fell and died. Staff members then buried the body “out of fear that a helicopter might spot the rhino” but left “a portion of the head exposed for us to observe upon our arrival,” investigators wrote in the report, according to WKMG."

Because, Florida; that's why. That's why a wild animal animal was captured and then a day after it was delivered, killed trying to escape.

Wild Florida advertises itself as the “World’s Only Airboat, Gator & Drive-Thru Safari Park Adventure.”

https://gizmodo.com/white-rhino-killed-wild-florida-park-1850066079

February 2, 2023

Florida May Force High School Athletes To Disclose Their Menstrual History

From: https://globeecho.com/news/north-america/united-states/florida-may-force-high-school-athletes-to-disclose-their-menstrual-history/

(which scraped the story from Time, which is behind a paywall/registrationwall)

But also note the mention of Roe v Wade; this same policy, where mandatory, also attacks student athletes ability to have an abortion if needed.

Not to mention it's as creepy now as when Trump's very anti-abortion Scott Lloyd (Office of Refugee Resettlement) forced the policy on migrants held in camps.

"Critics have noted that this policy would be a major challenge for transgender athletes who may have to out themselves with their responses to the questions. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis approved a bill last year—which is currently under legal fire—that bans transgender female students from playing on women and girls’ sports teams.

In Palm Beach County, the school administration began re-examining the questions last year after parents expressed backlash that the questionnaire would be available to complete online and that the responses would be stored digitally via a third-party-software. The software company, Aktivate, is vulnerable to court subpoenas, which many parents worry could be a problem in post-Roe Florida, where abortion is severely restricted now and such medical records need stronger protection than ever.

"Texas school districts also ask female-athletes very similar questions about their menstrual history. In several school districts—including in Austin, Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth—the questions are mandatory to complete, according to The Dallas Morning News. Many other states require student athletes to undergo a physical examination from a healthcare provider, but they generally only ask the provider to share a signature affirming that the athlete is in good health, rather than turn personal health history over to the school."[

"The FHSAA Board of Directors is set to decide whether the menstrual history questions should remain optional or become mandatory at the upcoming board meeting this month from February 26 – 27 in Gainesville."
/blockquote]

January 31, 2023

Startup Aurora Innovation will launch its self-driving semi truck business next year.

Does this make anyone else nervous?

I can't help but wonder if a decade from now people will talk of this era as a time when tech companies striving to "disrupt" existing industries were wildly irresponsible, and everyone - even regulators - just let them do it, over and over again.

January 31, 2023

Utah is trying to very quietly roll back the state's 2020 conversion therapy ban

They've introduced a bill called, 'H.B. 228 Unprofessional Conduct Amendments'.

It doesn't repeal the ban outright; instead it modifies the existing code to redefine conversion therapy.

Here's what they're adding:

(line number)

231 (a) (i) "Conversion therapy" means a practice or treatment intended to influence or
232 change sexual orientation or gender identity that:
233 (A) subjects a patient or client to physical discomfort through aversive treatment that
234 causes nausea, vomiting, or other unpleasant physical sensation;
235 (B) provides electric shock or other electrical therapy, including electroconvulsive
236 therapy or transcranial magnet stimulation;
237 (C) subjects a patient to touching themself or another individual as part of the therapy;
238 or
239 (D) causes the patient to engage in physical self-harm or physical self-inflicted pain.

And to clarify that talk therapy is allowed:

240 (ii) "Conversion therapy" does not include verbal or written communication by itself.

So, as long as they don't directly cause physical discomfort or pain - or force the client to touch themselves or someone else - it's no longer going to be "conversion therapy".

Talk therapy alone, using emotional manipulation, inducing self doubt or guilt &/or causing trauma using spoken words or written material? No problem!

https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bills/static/HB0228.html