I just noticed that Twitter's crap algorithms note you blocking people (or maybe browsing over to the account to block) as "engagement", so after you block, it offers those exact accounts in the "Who to Follow" panel, even showing that you blocked them.

Oh twitter, you're so bad

— Jason Scott (@textfiles) February 3, 2022

Everything in the computing/tech world has gotten so, so much worse in the last decade. We’re “inventing” stuff that had already existed forever, except now it’s far inferior, all the while gaslighting people into believing (and to propagandize to others) that they shouldn’t have control of anything. And we’re attempting to make dating into some horror show of algorithmic choice only.

We really fucked up; let’s go back.

Anything that doesn’t violate the laws of physics is not impossible; it’s just logistics.

I betcha more than half of those manly men spouting anti-vax talking points are just terrified of needles.

That’s responsible for more anti-vax sentiment than any other single factor I’d guess.

Omicron meet Portugal, one of the world’s most vaccinated nations. Portugal has vaccinated ~90% of its total population. 🇵🇹
Don’t tell me vaccines don’t work. pic.twitter.com/2SIuC68P0y

— Chise 🧬🧫🦠💉 (@sailorrooscout) January 30, 2022

Don’t make the lockown lifers/liberals cry now. It’s rude. Ok, it’s fun. But it’s rude. And fun.

Covid coverage by the U.S. national media is an outlier, a study finds.

When Covid cases were rising in the U.S., the news coverage emphasized the increase. When cases were falling, the coverage instead focused on those places where cases were rising. And when vaccine research began showing positive results, the coverage downplayed it, as far as Sacerdote could tell.

I wonder if this relentless media negativity is what at least partly led to so many people being terrified to so much as go outdoors even after vaccines were widely available. The US media spent a whole lot of time to make it seem like the vaccines don’t work, or barely work, and that there was basically no real benefit to them. And the liberals were perfectly onboard with this. That, by the way, probably cost dozens of thousands of lives by reducing the vaccination uptake. Good work, libs.

Some of the negativity I believe was in reaction to the anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, and anti-any-restriction people out there. The press figured if it went the most negative possible people might be more supportive of restrictions. Of course, this backfired and also completely traumatized people like Alice Goldfuss and many others. Those folks are going to need years of therapy to deal with that.

Fear-mongering is both profitable and it makes audiences happy. Well, “happy.” It does appear people like living in fear in a way, though. Perhaps it’s comforting? I can’t really say.

The cool thing about smaller companies is that you will become a generalist faster and that’s a good thing. You’ll be able to get your hands on to so many things and won’t be as siloed. You’ll likely do infra, networking, security, service desk, etc.

Awesome breadth of learning.

— Frank McGovern (@FrankMcG) February 1, 2022

The drawback, though, of working for a small company is that when you interview at a big company many of them will insist you have “no experience.” This despite the fact that in a small company you get wayyyyy more real-world experience because you have to become good at everything. In a small company, it’s you do it or no one does. In a large company there’s a specialty department for everything.

An analysis of 17,000 songs shows that 1991 was the most revolutionary year in popular music in America. So, that’s settled. https://t.co/QZtnyEbxlA

— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) February 1, 2022

That was before Clear Channel had taken over radio stations and before all the record labels had consolidated. That said, there is a lot of great music out there now, but it’s harder to find in a lot of ways. (Which is strange, because the internet should make it easier.)

Also in 1991, prudishness was near a low and openness near a high, so that too explains part of it. I don’t think ’91 was actually the greatest era of music ever or anything. I tend to like the music now better. But it was the year Nirvana’s Nevermind and the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik was released, while Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos came out only six days into 1992 — all on major labels.

Nothing like that will ever happen again.

I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: Vaccine refusal is seen like enlisting in a war. They know they might die, but will take the risk for the cause. But they also know their leaders aren’t going to risk their own hides, but are like generals who stay in the back line.

— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) February 1, 2022

Yes, for most. I was not in a unit where the leaders stayed in the rear. Quite the opposite. Lead from the front or get the fuck out of the way.

The first ten on today’s playlist: