The Recurring Raccoon ii
Weekly Ramble
Rocky had been a teacher for several years, which was not quite long enough that he felt any compulsion to do it deep in the marrow of his bones, like his colleague Pan talked about, but for quite enough time that if he were to suddenly stop, it might cause a mild upset in his mood, particularly because he didn’t like interruptions in the way he goes about his day. After all, the profession is nothing like it would have been prior to the Great Reorientation. He should feel lucky that he’d been able to keep his job, and should take whatever they were willing to offer him, and should do whatever work they deemed fashionable, and should do it all with great big dumb smile. But that wouldn’t be an option, not with the way he saw things.
In fact, Rocky had ‘off-ramp’ planned, but to pull the trigger was another matter.
At any rate, wearing his orange tinted glasses, blinds drawn in his dim-lighted office, he wrote.
‘There came a point in everyone’s lives, consider it well, where they no longer had to reckon with the comforting dread that shackles the individual to a routine and sedates them with a dose of Protestant work ethic. The carrot is poisoned, and the stick swapped out for bombs. Life suspended mid air like a silk worm swaying in the breeze, yet, everything still seemed to get done. It is hard, devastatingly so, that a warrior should be asked to lay down his sword, even when he is promised a life of luxury. Even harder is it for the average bloke, whose life will not include the luxury of a battle-hardened hero, but the dread and weight of a life he never planned nor imagined.’
Weekly Reads
Ai models might be drawn to spiritual bliss then again they might just talk like hippies
Mildly fascinating. Read about a recent Claude model that will, strangely, begin spiritually pontificating when put in conversation with itself. The author, predictably, is quite skeptical of the notion that machines might gain consciousness, a stance supported with a few historical precedents.
Liberals' Major Projects Bill Reaches Finish Line After Mad Political Dash
Somewhat concerning. This piece of news coming from the great north of Canada, where the leaders are either terribly weak or frustratingly disingenuous so as to give legs to the Trump-as-bully narrative. A new set of legislation being rushed through parliament include a bill being dubbed the Strong Borders Act (not to be confused with the Canada Strong Pass) that puts a ban of any cash transactions above $10 000, and amendments to the Canada Elections Act exempting political parties form Canada Privacy laws.
- Bill c-4 exempts political parties from privacy-protecting guidelines for how businesses collect and retain personal information and backtracks that exemption to the year 2000.
- the Strong Border’s Act will ban cash transactions exceeding $10 000 and give police “lawful access” to client information records.
Not a bit vindicating (for those Simplex and Signal users out there). As you can see from the headline, White House Bans WhatsApp because of a lack of transparency in how user data is being protected. Do you value your data any less than the White House? Maybe you shouldn’t.
One Register to Rule Them All: What Stats NZ is Planning Behind Closed Doors
Patently terrifying. Another story highlighting the importance of data-protection. This is part one of a four-part investigation by a New Zealand reporter about advancements of the Integrated Data Infrastructure.
In sector jargon, this Statistical Register would be the realisation of an ‘Integrated Statistical Data System’. What I have euphemistically called the ‘everything database’, because it is not far short of that. And as we will see, there is the potential to add all kinds of other data streams to this register, such as social media, supermarket spending or telecoms data for example.
“The amount that could be controlled when you know someone’s political views and address and workplace and family history might be too much power for one organisation,” the insider says.
Weekly Review
Narr (Not Another Rss Reader) is a tool that integrates nostr npubs into an rss readable feed.
The instructions for deployment are simple and it is very easy to use.
It is a fantastic way to turn your favourite Stacker on SN into an rss feed (if they are cross-posting to nostr).
Weekly Recording
A fascinating conversation about some of the less-discussed aspects of bitcoiners’ politics. Personally, I wish Ellingham pushed back a little harder at times, but overall he does an excellent job at letting his guests paint a full picture of their worldview.
